The day before…

  There was a knock at the door. "Lady, are you awake?"

  [Hmph. It seems one's servant is eager to serve her lady.]

  Shut up, bird. Divine beast or not — if you slander my Jane, you will regret it.

  [Argh! Stop it!]

  I rubbed their head violently as punishment.

  She'll come in the moment I respond, so be good, okay?

  [This human...]

  "Come in."

  Jane opened the door carrying a tray. "Here's your breakfast, my lady," she said, placing it on my lap exactly the way I liked it. "Today we have pancakes, hot coffee, and — as per your suggestion — bacon."

  My eyes lit up. Across the room, Trynda was staring at the tray with the intensity of someone trying to move it with their mind.

  [Shut up, human! We are STARVING over here!]

  If you say 'please,' I'll give you some. The whole pancake, even.

  [...]

  I picked up my fork. The pancake was fluffy — genuinely fluffy, it bounced when I pressed it. I took a bite and it melted.

  I may have made a noise.

  [...Alright. P-please. Give me some.]

  I smiled. Victorious.

  "I'm fine, Jane. Could you serve me an extra portion?"

  Jane beamed. "Of course, my lady! I had a feeling, so I prepared one already!" She lifted the dish cover to reveal a second plate.

  I winked at Trynda.

  "Could you also bring me some maple syrup?"

  Jane paused. "...What's maple syrup, my lady?"

  I paused too.

  Maple syrup doesn't exist here?

  "It's a sweet condiment. You drizzle it over pancakes."

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  Jane tilted her head further. "I'm sorry, my lady. I don't know what that is."

  "It's fine. If you don't know, then—"

  "No!" Jane fired up immediately. "I will find this maple syrup no matter what!" Steam was practically blowing out of her nose as she marched out the door.

  [Aren't you a little cruel?]

  Jane is Jane. I never doubted her for a second — though I did feel slightly bad about sending her on an impossible errand. Only slightly.

  [You're a devil.]

  I was called a villainess for years. Devil is practically a step up.

  I set the extra plate of pancakes on the windowsill.

  "This one's on the house."

  [Hmph! It's not like I'm eating this because I want to!]

  Trynda puffed up their chest and immediately started pecking at the pancakes.

  Sure you're not.

  [...]

  We ate in silence. It was oddly peaceful, for some reason.

  After a while, Jane returned. She bowed deeply at the door.

  "I'm sorry, my lady. I could not find this maple syrup." Her head dropped lower. "I have failed you. Please — punish me for my incompetence."

  I crossed my arms. Pretended to look stern. "You couldn't find a single condiment, Jane?"

  She lowered her head further, and I saw tears forming at the corners of her eyes.

  "Hey — stop that. It was a joke, Jane."

  "Lady...!" She looked devastated anyway.

  I crouched down and hugged her. "I will personally destroy anyone who makes my Jane cry."

  "Lady!" She hugged back immediately — hard enough to pin me to the floor. "I will follow you for the rest of my life!"

  "Ahaha, Jane, stop—!" I laughed as she rubbed her face against my chest with complete shamelessness. "My Lady!" she chirped back, delighted.

  I eventually got up, straightened my robe, and only then remembered I was still in the lingerie I'd fallen asleep in.

  I glanced at the hallway.

  Peter was standing in the doorway.

  "Pervert," I said flatly.

  His face went completely red and he disappeared.

  Hmph. Not that I cared.

  I walked to my desk and picked up the schedule.

  It was blank.

  Right. Because she's hated.

  Josephine was the unpopular type. Plenty of charm, zero interest in using it publicly. Her reputation made ordinary social interaction nearly impossible — and unfortunately, the next phase of any plan I had required actual interaction with people.

  Jane braided my hair quietly while I thought.

  From the beginning, I hadn't planned for Josephine's character to visibly change. Convincing anyone otherwise — especially this far into a narrative where her villainy was already firmly established — was close to impossible. It didn't matter what I did or how hard I tried to act differently. The ending was the ending. One way or another, her head was going to end up on a block.

  I wasn't one of those "ah, I was reincarnated as the villainess" types who somehow turn their fate around, become the protagonist, and marry the male lead. That wasn't how this worked.

  I pressed my fingers to my forehead.

  Brute-forcing it wouldn't work either. The reason?

  [Curse: Familial Bond]

  Basically a curse that binds you to the noble family you're born into. Originally used to signify noble birth — nowadays it served to prevent kidnapping and stop children from running off. Wicked, really. A way for the monarchy to track their children's exact location at any given moment, tied to the soul itself.

  And the only person who can remove it is the King.

  That was the wall.

  Not something you could purify or dispel through conventional means — it went deeper than magic. I had already tried. It didn't work. Tampering with it was closer to tampering with your own essence than casting a spell.

  I cannot escape because of that damn curse.

  After a lot of deliberation, I arrived at the only viable path forward.

  Schemes. Josephine's actual specialty.

  The ultimate goal: convince the Emperor to remove the Familial Bond so I could walk away from this death sentence before it came due.

  I looked up at Jane.

  "Jane — I know what we're doing today."