Ch.2: Encounter with the Future Male Villain

After hearing her big brother speak of Diamond Academy, the next day Maria laid on her bed depressed, confirming with herself that she had somehow transmigrated into the reverse harem light-novel, A Fairytale Romance. Once that was out of the way, it only took connecting the dots to figure out which character her soul transmigrated into, which was that of the comic-relief female villain, Maria Rosendrey.

'At least my first name is still the same, but usually, when stuff like this happens, the soul is transmigrated into the main villainous boss, not a sub-villain, who no one in the series took seriously!'

A pair of emerald eyes dejectedly stared up at the ceiling of her pink four-poster bed as she reflected back on the story. In the light-novel, there was a character named Maria Rosendrey, a spoiled and bratty noble girl, who was so deeply obsessed with the male lead, a.k.a the crown prince, that despite how many cruel words he threw at her, she still chased after him. It was at this point that most readers labeled her with a masochist fetish.

Throughout the story, Maria constantly chased after the male lead, only to fail time after time, and when she tried to attack the female lead, she failed at that too. None of the other villainous love rivals saw her as a worthy rival and competitor when it came to trying to steal the male lead. Who, in Maria's honest opinion, wasn't worth that many girls fighting over him.

Heck, she didn't even like the male lead! So what if the guy was handsome, wielded great powers, and was a prince?! He wasn't her type, seeing how the guy was rude, arrogant, and expected everyone to fawn over him. Yet the fans ignored these flaws and sung praises for him!

Maria lost count of the number of times he had fallen for one of the evil plots set up by one of the love rivals, except Maria's, that always led to him breaking up with the heroine. And despite the female lead risking her life for him, explaining things to him with added proof, not once did he ever listen to her. Which would then result in a long arc of them trying to reconcile their romance with the help of the other male leads who were in love with the heroine.

It happened so much in the novel that Maria remembered her original self stating that the heroine deserved a better male lead than the one given to her. "Wait, usually in this type of situation, shouldn't I be worried about my bad ending?" Left alone in her room, Maria pondered over these things aloud.

"Then again, now that I think about it, I never finished the story so I don't know if Maria gets a bad ending. Crap, this is bad! I don't even know my own bad ending!" Maria paninked and sat up on the bed. "If I'm not careful, I'm gonna die! At a time like this, I need to come up with a plan!" Closing her eyes, in the subconsciousness of her mind a chibi Maria stood in front of two miniature versions of herself.

The one in the white dress with angel wings was Light Maria, the reasonable and positive part of her inner conscious while floating across from Light Maria, dressed in a black leotard and had devil wings, was Dark Maria, the negative and evil part of her inner conscious. "At a time like this, you must remain calm and not do anything too rash," calmly said Light Maria, only to have Dark Maria scoff at her words.

"Bull crap! I say we go find that little punk of a prince and show him that we are not someone to be messed with. Revenge! Revenge!" chanted Dark Maria, wearing a psychotic smile on her face.

"I'm not a genius doctor with peerless abilities or a badass assassin who can kill people in a matter of seconds. Sadly, I'm too much of a coward to go chasing after revenge. I want a peaceful and lazy life while I'm stuck here." A blank faced Maria raised up her hand and stared in the direction of Dark Maria who instantly denied her suggestion.

"You're also not that smart and more of a dumbass than anything," mockingly added Dark Maria.

"I resent that!" angrily yelled Maria.

"Violence is not the answer!" interjected Light Maria.

"I haven't even thrown the first punch yet. But she is a dumbass! Remember that time she tried to cheat on a test, only to still fail it in the end." Hearing Dark Maria mention a dark aspect of her past made Maria cringe from embarrassment.

"Such a thing never happened!"

Suddenly a knock on the door brought Maria out of her thoughts and back into the real world. Walking through the door was her beautiful mother, who was escorted in by her two loyal maids. "Maria, how about we go and sit under the gazebo in the garden and have some tea," suggested her mother. Wanting to get out of bed and stretch her legs, Maria agreed.

Maria allowed her two maids, Shirone and Kuroka, to pick out her clothes and style her hair before going out. Half an hour later, Maria was presented in front of a full-body mirror and saw herself wearing a cute bowknot lace dress with a tutu style skirt. The hairstyle the maids had given her consisted of bun pigtails with the rest of her hair left hanging down behind her.

In all, Maria found that her appearance was cute, yet not overly cute. She had somewhat of an average appeal, which was a deep contrast compared to most of the heroine's love rivals who were all described as enchanting and drop-dead beauties. 'Poor Maria, you just can't win.' The soul trapped within couldn't help but pity the poor character. Once dressed, her two maids escorted her to the livily garden, which bloomed with a varied range of vibrant and lovely flowers.

In the middle of the garden, sitting under the gazebo was her mother, enjoying some cake before she noticed her cute daughter making her way over. "Maria! Come and join mommy and her guest!" announced her mother; it was only when she got closer did Maria notice the figure of a woman sitting across from her mother.

The woman was gorgeous as silky strands of crimson colored hair extended down her shoulders blades and her lower back. A pair of glittering sapphire eyes stared amusedly in their direction as soft ruby lips lifted into a gentle smile that took Maria’s breath away. 'S-She’s freaking gorgeous and her hair is so pretty~! I wonder if she would let me touch it?' Maria could never help herself when it came to long, pretty, shiny hair, resisting the urge of running over there and playing with the woman's hair.

She was so busy staring at the woman's hair that she wasn't paying attention to her footing and almost fell face-first on the ground until someone raced over and saved her. "Are you alright?" asked a concerned voice. Looking up, Maria was met with a pair of sparkling sapphire blue eyes staring down at her. It was only then that she noticed holding her was a very handsome boy, who seemed at least two years older than herself.

The boy's face had a slight feminine touch as soft crimson hair barely came to his shoulders. 'Hair the color of crimson and eyes that glitter like sapphire jewels... Wait a minute! This is the male lead's villainous cousin!' Maria remembered that in the book the male lead had a villainous older cousin, who was determined to avenge his family, who was tragically murdered via one of the empress’s evil schemes.

At first, Maria recalled wondering why would the empress murder his family, only to find out later that the empress's first love was actually the emperor's brother, who instead had fallen in love with a mysterious crimson-haired woman. It seemed that even after she married the emperor, the empress was still upset that she couldn't be with the man she loved, so she plotted a scheme that would get the man she loved, along with his wife and child, killed.

It was only thanks to the family's loyal butler that the son survived the tragic event, but afterward, he was never the same again. Since then he wanted nothing more than revenge and honestly, Maria couldn't blame him. She was quite sad to find out from spoiler forums that he died in the middle of the story, unable to fulfill his wish and was killed by the male lead.

Maria was so deep in her thoughts, that she was unaware when her large emerald eyes began expressing deep sadness that caught the boy by surprise. Maria was brought out of her thoughts when she realized how everyone's attention was directed towards her. Even back in her own world, Maria was never fond of the spotlight. Looking towards the crimson-haired woman, Maria blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"I-I really like your hair!"

No one was expecting this to be her response; the crimson-haired woman herself couldn't help but laugh at such an honest response. "Maa, why thank you. I like your hair as well," she complimented the blushing little girl, who was drowning in her own embarrassment, unaware that her actions caused her savior to think she was quite cute.

"My clumsy, little Maria. This is Archduchess Raina Scarlet and her son, Richard," her mother introduced the two people, who would soon have tragic fates.

"Maria is quite adorable. I can't believe Alan would actually do something so harsh." It was evident that the archduchess did not approve of the crown prince's actions, but Maria really didn't want her to do something that would most likely make her a target for his anger.

"Please do not worry about it. I'm also at fault. Starting from now, I promise to stay away from the crown prince as he wishes," said Maria while mentally telling herself, ‘In other words please, do not make things worse for me, archduchess. Yes, the crown prince is a jerk, but he is a jerk with a lot of power.’

"I really don't get why the crown prince would be cruel to such a cute girl." The archduchess shook her head, though Maria didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The 'real' Maria, the one in the book, was very spoiled and bratty, always pushing her affection onto the prince. So it made sense that he would detest her strongly.

'Step number one to staying alive, stay far away from the crown prince. He will only make my life worse,' Maria told herself.

"I know right! My Maria is the cutest girl in the empire yet he dares treat her so cruelly. Hmph, that crown prince definitely doesn't deserve my cute Maria affection." Maria could only sweatdrop at her overly-affectionate mother who was grumbling and pouting her lips like a child.

"How about Maria escorts me around the garden? I would like to spend more time with her," politely asked Richard, who really took after his mother in terms of appearance, inheriting both her crimson hair and sapphire blue eyes, wearing a sweet gentle smile on his face.

'It's such a shame that he ended up with such a cruel fate,' depressingly thought Maria. After making their way towards the rose garden, Maria exclaimed when she saw a beautiful large pink rose.

"So pretty~! This would make a lovely hairpin for mother!" exclaimed Maria, who excitedly began thinking of ideas of turning the rose into a hairpin to give to her mother. Back in her own world, Maria remembered how she was fond of crafting DIY jewelry as a hobby to pass time. Now that she thought about it, if she was going to make a hairpin for her mother, she should probably make one for the archduchess.

Shyly looking at the boy beside her, Maria asked, "Does your mother have a favorite type of flower?" The two maids standing close by couldn't help but wonder what their young mistress was planning.

"A favorite type of flower? That would be the Royal Passion." After hearing that, Maria told Kuroka, the neko-maid with black hair, to find the flower and bring it back to her. After instructing Kuroka, she turned to Shirone, the neko-maid with long white hair, and requested a short list of items she needed. Once Shirone had left, Richard turned to her and asked,

"Just what are you planning to do with those items?" he curiously asked the young girl, who shot him a secretive smile.

"You'll see."

Once all the items she asked for were brought to her, she set them all out on the small white table and began getting to work. Using old spare jewelry parts, she began crafting a hairpin for her mother first. Those standing behind her watched with awe in their eyes at the young girl's craftsmanship.

Gluing the large pink rose onto a plain gold hairpin, she added three gold chains onto the bottom of it. Dangling from each chain was a small pearl heart that she crafted together. Picking up a bright lavender camellia flower, she repeated the same steps as she did for making the one for her mother, yet dangling from the bottom were amethyst gems in the shape of diamonds. Once she thought of the tragic fate which awaited the archduchess, she wanted to add a little something more.

On either side of the flower, she included lilac and dark purple feathers to one side and adorned it with several tiny sky-blue and indigo gems. Seeing the finished product for the archduchess's present, those standing behind her couldn't help but gasp.

"Ojou-sama, it's beautiful," complimented Shirone.

"Mother would definitely love it," smiled Richard.

"Thank you, though now that I think about it, I should probably add some more detail to mother’s as well." Maria didn't want her mother feeling left out, so she also included a pink feather that faded into white and adorned it with several tiny pink gems. Once each hairpin was finished, she made her way towards the archduchess and her mother and presented both of their gifts.

"Maa, what a gorgeous hairpin~!" gasped Archduchess Scarlet, marveling at the young girl's craftsmanship.

Meanwhile, Maria was suffocating from her mother's overbearing hug. "My darling Maria actually made Mommy such a beautiful present! Don't worry my little darling, Mommy will wear it to show off your amazing craftsman skills!"

'Mother, I can't breathe!' wailed Maria, who was being suffocated by her mother's large bosom. Making her way in front of the little girl, Archduchess Scarlet patted Maria softly on the head. "Thank you, Maria, for making such a lovely gift for me. Seeing you in person, I can tell that you are a pure-hearted and sweet girl. I will definitely repay you for giving me such a lovely present."

Staring up at the archduchess, whose smile was more beautiful than a fairytale princess’s, Maria thought that this world was unfair for the tragedy that awaited her. 'This nice woman does not deserve to die.'