Don’t Ask For Mercy From The Villainess

Chapter 13. Realization

Her emotions suddenly surged up. Jessica quickened her pace as she blamed herself for showing tears in front of Alter. She closed the door when she walked into the room, so that Alter couldn’t follow her.

‘I made a mistake.’

She couldn’t stop the tears running down her cheek because she recalled Alter from her past life.

“You can order me to do anything, Madam. I will gladly take your order.”

She cried so much when her loyal knight said so. The order she gave to Alter was to ask him to dispose of the body of the First Prince, Salipe. Alter smiled gracefully and left Jessica, who was unable to say anything, right after he uttered those words. Then he came back to her side with a laugh.

He said he was glad to fulfill the order of his lady, and he would tarnish the pride of his honorable rank if he were to refuse it.

‘Alter.’

Jessica couldn’t go out of the door for a while. She got overwhelmed by the feeling of regret, making it difficult for her to make a rational decision. She sat automatically in front of the mirror inside the room and stared blankly right into it.

Blue eyes along with the blonde hair that adorned her face that anyone would call it beautiful, and red lips glistened as if they were soaked in the rose’s flower water, and the slight blush on her cheek made her appearance stand out even more.

“You’re good at acting like this. Being favored by people because of your face. It’s for me though, Jessica.”

She heard things. She heard the words, which were like daggers, said by Darten to her in the past.

“No.”

“Seduce that duke with your face and bring his power to me. Do it for me.”

Darten demanded different things to Jessica after the said duke died and she successfully took the position of duchess in his dukedom.

“No!”

Jessica swept away all the things in front of the mirror with her hand when she kept hearing things in her head. Things fell on the floor along with the crushing sound that followed suit. Alter, who was startled, shouted from the outside when a loud noise was heard inside Jessica’s room.

“Are you okay, my lady?”

“Don’t come in!”

Jessica shouted with a crumpled face in front of the mirror. Alter didn’t press any further when the room became silent again after that.

Although he was worried since Jessica bursted in tears a moment ago, he couldn’t enter her room as she was an unmarried lady. The only time he was allowed to enter the young lady’s room was when the assassin infiltrated into the room.

“I won’t come in after you answer me once again.”

“I’m fine, Sir Alter.”

She was fine indeed. It’s just that she couldn’t control her emotions well at the moment. Jessica took a slow and deep breath. She thought it was easy. She has returned to the past, but her life hasn’t changed completely yet.

It wasn’t the time to relax even though nothing had not happened yet. Darten already moved to put her under his control, but this time she knew his plan.

‘I must’ve looked like a fool.’

The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. She couldn’t believe that she had been fooled almost for her entire lifetime without noticing such obvious facts. She was deceived and he used her to put himself to the Emperor’s seat and she got betrayed in return. What, hidden lover? Such an unbelievable treatment. It was the worst treatment she ever got from him after all her efforts she made to help him acquire the throne.

Jessica even smiled, as if she felt good after reminiscing such thoughts. But then, she lost her own life in his hands.

Her hands were shaking. Her right hand. Her white and slender hands previously had calluses and cuts all over it due to filling out thousands of documents, but now the thing that Jessica used to be proud of in her past life, vanished completely from her hand.

‘But he didn’t let me die.’

When her hand bled after she cut it, he called for a physician to stop her bleeding. His reason was because she shouldn’t have died now. He still considered her useful for him. Because he only allowed her to die in front of many people.

Her hands were unscathed now.

But her hand was shaking like a leaf. Jessica gripped her right hand slightly with her left hand. Her mind became relaxed when her shaking hands finally began to calm down. The tremble has now transmitted onto her left hand, but she changed her mind.

“I’ll get you.”

Jessica decided once again. There was a surge of hatred and spite when she looked at Darten’s face after she returned to the past. The flames turned into intense flames that could not be extinguished by anyone.

Who said so? The most powerful flame is when it’s tinged with blue. Jessica’s blue eyes bursted into a blaze. Unlike her crumpled face, there was a cold spark in her blue eyes.

Jessica straightened her back and raised her hands to fix her disheveled hair. Her gaze averted to the front with her chin lifted up. She put on a thin smile across her mouth and curved her eyes upward.

“Jessica Viterne, get a grip.”

This would be the last time. That she would be carried away so recklessly by her own emotion.

***

A dark room. The room with colorful tapestries hung on the wall seemed extremely luxurious. This place, which was as extravagant as the Emperor’s room from the first glance, was owned by the Third Prince of the Ert Empire, Darten Ert.

Darten’s mother, the First Empress, was supported by the richest merchant in the Empire. When she, who has blood relation with the duke, obtained the position of First Empress, and caused objection from all of the duke’s people, but then she stepped forward.

“I wasn’t able to get the highest position, but it would be different if it was my son.”

Darten was born with a beautiful face as if he were made carefully by God after her mother encountered many kinds of hardships. It was no wonder that he was given the best among the best. Inside his room, there was also a bedding made of luxurious silk which was brought from the far east, and a gitpen made of feathers’ tip of Tefron, one of the birds that came in second to the honored phoenix.

All of those were brought here to show off their wealth. Actually, Darten was not interested in all of those things. His only concern was whether the throne was in his hand or not.

“Did the words said here leak out somewhere?”

The tapping of his fingers on the table grew more constant than before. His aide, kneeling in front of him, moved his eyes from side to side while sensing the impatient gestures. When Darten was in a bad mood, he had to be careful because things could have flown all over the place at any time.

“It can’t be that, Your Highness. The woman’s mood changes constantly from day to day. And tomorrow will be different again.”

“There’s something weird.”

His aide, Viscount Vanaton Aaron, continued to speak again to Darten, who had a gloomy expression on his face.

“Shall we increase security?”

“Let’s watch the situation and decide afterwards.”

Darten was playing chess now. A game where he became a king, and killed Salipe by himself before finally ascending the throne. He didn’t want any mistakes to occur in this game.

Jessica had to take the important role, the ‘Queen’ on his side. The ‘Queen’ who would devour his enemies while fighting for him to the end, but also the ‘Queen’ who would be killed heroically when he was done using her.

‘I can’t let you occupy the Empress’ seat.’

Marquis Viterne had the position of Margrave, but it was just that. He didn’t have a lot of money, nor was he more powerful than the nobles in the capital.

He didn’t like the fact that the First Prince, Salipe and the Marquis of Viterne were close with each other, so Jessica was more than enough to be used in his chessboard game. The plan was already set and it was perfect.

If he could keep this plan going, he would be able to obtain the throne with his hands and put the Ert Empire beneath his feet.

“How about the people we implanted in the marquisate?”

“We haven’t heard from them yet.”

Darten nodded and told his aide to get in touch only when something strange occurred. When the implanted person in the Marquis of Viterne got back to him, whether it was when the Marquis was out of the marquisate or the First Prince came to visit.

“Tell her to look for a maid named Daisy.”

“A maid?”

Vanaton was surprised that Darten was concerned about a maid. The Darten he knew was not the type to pay attention to low-ranking people.

“Find her, she dares to insult me, therefore I shouldn’t let her go.”

“I understand, Your Highness.”

Upon hearing Darten’s command, Vanaton immediately pitied a maid who was named Daisy. He shouldn’t have put her in her place nicely since Darten even bothered to remember her name.

Vanaton carefully asked Darten, who issued an order but hadn’t allowed him to leave yet.

“Would you like me to do anything else for you?”

“…….”

Darten continued to dwell on the part of the problem which he found to be strange. Regardless of the fact that he came out of the body of a mere Queen, thanks to his wary personality, he was able to be included among the Emperor’s sons who would ascend the throne.

He continued to remain in this position by executing everything that stuck on his mind. And now, it was Jessica Viterne who lingered on his mind.

‘She isn’t worth it to be killed just yet.’

He wasn’t able to find a ‘horse’ to replace Jessica. The efforts he made to pull her into his side were also beyond words. Knowing exactly what Jessica had and what she lacked, he had done every effort to get through her.

He even sneaked out of the Imperial Palace without her knowledge so that he could approach her, as well as to hide from Marquis. It was impossible for Darten to do so, as he considered his own reputation to be more important than anything else.

Darten’s efforts on putting her to his side was so huge that the Queen once called him to bring Jessica as his concubine.

“I even tried to seduce her by pulling a kind act toward her even though I never did so in my whole life, so I can’t let go of her just like that.”

Darten’s voice resonated around the cold room. Vanaton shuddered when he sensed the cold atmosphere. After making up his mind, Darten gave order to Vanaton.

“I need to change my plan a little bit. Go and find out the things Jessica Viterne likes.”

“Pardon me? But you don’t have to do that………”

“This is what I will do, suiting myself to her preferences. We’ll see if she can reject me after this.”

He had been preparing Jessica Viterne as the ‘Queen’ for his plan. Darten refused to admit that the girl was trying to get away from him.