Chapter 2: I’m Alive

So, as you might have guessed, by the fact that I’m still telling this story, I’m not dead, though I suppose I could also be a ghost, trying to take my vengeance from beyond the grave. That actually sounds like a pretty cool story that I’d love to read, but I guess I’m getting a bit off track. Basically, I didn’t stay dead. After getting hit by the prince’s magic, I found myself back in my own bed, completely unharmed and absolutely freaked out. My heart was racing a mile a minute, and I was drenched in a cold sweat.

I hadn’t felt a thing, but I was certain I had just died, though part of me wondered if I hadn’t. Maybe it had all just been a bad dream, maybe the prince wasn’t cheating on me, and maybe I had a bright future ahead of me as saint and queen. That wonderful delusion lasted all of five seconds before it was shattered by my attendant, Sally.

“Good morning, Milady! Are you excited for the party tonight?”

Those were the exact same words she had greeted me with the day before, or I suppose I should say, those were the exact same words she had greeted me with today. I couldn’t help but groan. I had gone back in time. It was a common trope, and one I had been quite fond of in the past, but living through it would be a different thing entirely.

If I were lucky, this was a simple time leap. It was a do-over to try things again and make them right. Things would be pretty tense for the next couple of hours, but after that, it’d be over, and I’d be guaranteed my happily ever after. However, if this were a time loop, I’d be repeating this day dozens or hundreds of times as I tried to find the exact right path to follow or lesson to learn. In one particular time loop story named after a rodent, the main character seemingly spent decades repeating the same day. That sounded like pure hell to me, but for now, I still had hope that there was a simple solution to avoiding my condemnation and execution.

However, my path forward was severely limited by the fact that I had no idea why I had been condemned in the first place. The prince had ranted for quite a while about his reasons and my crimes, but alas, I had been too busy freaking out to actually hear most of what he said. All I really remembered him saying was that I had somehow interfered with his “true love.” I had, of course, done no such thing. However, if this were a typical ‘reincarnated as a villainess’ storyline, then Holly had most likely seduced the prince by claiming that I was bullying her, driving him to protect her.

If so, that had actually been a pretty smart strategy, as I should have been bullying Holly. Any noblewoman worth her salt would be aghast at another woman acting friendly with her betrothed. While I had somewhat understood that concept in my past life, my tutors in this world had repeatedly emphasized how even the appearance of impropriety could destroy one’s engagement and reputation. As such, Holly was negatively impacting her own reputation, as well as that of the prince and my own, by spending so much time with him.

For all our sakes, I should’ve chastised Holly over this. Even the few students I actually spoke to and Sally had told me to put her in her place, but it had all seemed way too awkward. How exactly do you tell a girl not to talk to your fiancé without looking crazy? I had no idea and figured that the situation would resolve itself once we graduated and the prince no longer had a chance to spend time with her.

If I was right, then I was sure Holly had been seething as I continued to ignore her for an entire year. There was no confrontation that she could exaggerate into a sob story, so she must have just made the bullying up, and that was her mistake. That fool Holly had utterly underestimated how much of a shut-in I was! I only left my room to go to class, meet with the prince, or attend one of the few tea parties I was obligated to attend. This meant I had the rock-solid alibi of being in my room most of the time, and it wasn’t just my word either. The academy kept careful track of when each student left the dorms and returned to them. Unless I was particularly unlucky or Holly had been keeping excellent track of my location, I could use those records to prove I was safely in my room whenever I had supposedly bullied her. However, before I could do that, I first needed to figure out exactly what I was being accused of, which meant I needed to go have a chat with my fiancé/killer.

Oh, this was gonna be awkward.