Mistaken for a Wicked Woman!

Betrayed by the one person she loved, the Young Lady Bright was completely broken.

It was the downfall of a girl who had once been the star of the society.

The story ended with the divorced woman chipping away at the Marquis’s mansion…

But that was when a letter suddenly arrived for Vasil.

It was from Young Lady Bright.

A single short sentence was written on the tear-stained stationery.

  please help me

Vasil could not refuse the Young Lady’s request for help.

So after much deliberation, he invited her to his secret place— Café Loisir.

‘It’s been a long time… Your Highness.’

The Young Lady Bright, whom he hadn’t seen in a month, was visibly emaciated.

She entered the café with a pale complexion, and she could barely make eye contact with Vasil.

‘Drink.’

‘T—Thank you.’

Vasil wordlessly served Young Lady Bright hot tea as he watched her body tremble.

She couldn’t even hold the teacup properly as she continued to tremble like someone catching a cold.

‘I’m sorry, my hands are not strong enough—-.’

‘That’s okay.’

He said, as he watched her face turning white, looking like a patient with a dying disease.

Vasil didn’t rush for her to speak, but waited until she felt comfortable enough to.

‘With all due respect your highness— I know it’s shameless, but I’d like to ask for your help.’

She said in a croaking voice after a while.

She seemed to struggle to keep her words together.

‘I know I have been unkind to you, Your Highness, but you are the only one I can turn to for help…’

Her voice gradually turned into something like a sob.

She tried to choke off the sob that was trying to escape from between her pale lips again, but clear tears couldn’t help fall from her puffy eyes.

‘Please, huhuhu… Please help me, Your Highness…’

The Young Lady Bright bowed her head towards Vasil.

Drip. Drip.

Hot tears fell onto the table.

‘…Why me?’

Vasil said cautiously, after watching her slender shoulders shake intermittently.

‘B–Because I can trust no one… Else..’

She replied, while swallowing back her sobs.

She was pushed to the limit, to the point where she could no longer lean at ease even with the family with whom she had shared blood with.

‘Then you mean that I can be trusted?’

‘At least..’

She replied, ‘You bear me no ill-will. On the contrary, you pity me, and, though I do not know why, you have… I.. Hic… Even a little pity… Huhu..’

Vasil’s eyes narrowed at her unexpected answer.

After a moment’s consideration, he moved his lips again—

‘Do you think I can help you, Young Lady? As you know, I have already enough on my plate just by being the crown prince.’

‘I— Your Highness, hic— I know that you are hiding your real power, the power to—’

‘W—What?’

He paused at her words.

When he looked at her as if to ask her to say more, she swallowed dryly, her voice trembled slightly as she spoke the truth she knew.

‘The things that hover around your highness…’

‘You can see spirits?’

Vasil narrowed his eyes at the Young Lady Bright’s words.

Spirits, being nature itself, had no particular form, but they could take shape into anything they wished— Animals, insects, light, droplets, fairies, monsters…

This is why the testimonies of those who saw them varied.

The same was true for the many spirits that followed Vasil— They changed their appearance from time to time.

‘I’ve seen spirits sometimes… E—ever since I was a kid, and at first I didn’t even know what they were, but…. but even if I told others, they thought I was sick and simply seeing things so I–.’

‘I didn’t know that you had the qualities of an elementalist.’

‘No, I can’t be a elementalist. If I had any real talent, Your Highness would have recognized it long ago.’

Young Lady Bright muttered in a bitter tone.

She still couldn’t make eye contact with Vasil.

As if she were a herbivore with a predator staring intently in front of her.

‘I can only see the spirits, but I can’t communicate with them— No, I can’t even control what I see.’

Vasil suddenly realized why she was so uncomfortable and scared of him.

When he thought about it, it wasn’t surprising.

Both Young Lady Bright and Iris had gypsy blood, so their natural affinity was bound to be high.

‘That’s why I’ve been avoiding you for so long. I’ve never seen anyone with as many spirits as you have, and you can handle them so freely…’

Just as mages had different levels of grade, depending on how many magic circles they can form, elementalists were also divided into grades based on how many spirits they could control, and Vasil was at the top of that list.

‘It was scarier to have that much power and not do anything with it.’

She said, ‘It was like you had the luxury of being able to turn everything over at any time.’

It’s human nature to succumb to overwhelming power.

Young Lady Bright, who had no talent as an elementalist, but whose natural affinity with nature allowed her to see spirits, made Vasil, a fearsome presence in front of her eyes.

Especially since he possessed countless spirits.

‘What can I do for you? What do you want?’

He asked, after changing his demeanor.

‘I’m thinking of leaving the capital for a while.’

‘Hmm?’

‘It would only make things worse if I stayed.’

‘That’s a good idea, but you’d be better off telling the Duke or Marquis about this, not me.’

‘No, my grandfather or father wouldn’t agree.’

‘You mean to say, that you plan to run away?’

‘Yes. I can’t afford to cause any more trouble than I already have.’

Young Lady Bright’s face fell.

She seemed to be thinking of the time when the Duke, who was so furious of the breakup of her engagement, that he even stormed into the imperial palace, grabbed the Second Prince by the scruff of the neck, and slamming him to the ground.

He was even chastised by the emperor because of it.

The Duke of Bright was not the only one to suffer from the breakup with the imperial family.

The Marquis was also criticized, and people even said that he should abdicate his position as the chancellor.

The prestige of the Bright family had suffered greatly.

‘I’m leaving the capital for two reasons— first, for my own safety, because the Empress and Count Olette will try to shut me up somehow…’

‘Of course.’

‘As long as I’m in the capital, I won’t be able to turn things around, because to the people, I’m an outright villainess.’

He thought she was an oblivious young woman who knew nothing, but she’s much smarter than he thought.

Vasil looked at her approvingly.

‘And the second reason?’

‘The second reason is personal, I just want to… I want to go somewhere where no one else knows me, where I’m not the Young Lady Bright, where I’m not a Villainess, where I can just be… Me.’

She said in a low voice.

She looked terribly exhausted and worn out.

‘Do you think there is such a place?’

‘In a big city, maybe not, but I don’t think word about me would have spread to the smaller provinces. Once I leave, it will be noisy for a while, but then it will die down, and people will find other things to do.’

‘That’s a shame.’

‘What?’

‘If you had such a perceptive mind, why did you let yourself be made a fool of?’

Vasil asked with genuine curiosity.

The more they talked, the more Young Lady Bright’s intelligence shone through.

She was the daughter of the Marquis Bright, who had the best minds in the empire, and that made it all the more incomprehensible.

If she was so perceptive, if she could read the minds of others, if she was so good at reading people, how could she be so foolish as to allow herself to be taken advantage of?

‘Just because you’re smart doesn’t mean you’re good at everything.’

Young Lady Bright said with a bitter scowl.

Her long lashes fluttered.

‘I’ve been sheltered in my mansion for so long. I was like a plant in a greenhouse, I’ve been inexperienced, my vision was as narrow as a frog at the bottom of a well, and in many ways, I’m not good at dealing with people.’

Vasil clenched his fists involuntarily.

It was not pleasant to see someone who looked so much like someone you cared about crying.

‘I’ve been sick for more days in my life than I’ve been well, and I’ve spent almost every day in bed. I don’t know about you, Your Highness, but people who are sick are sensitive to everything, easily irritated by the slightest difficulty, and quick to give up.’

‘So you’re saying you gave up instead of fighting to the end?’

‘Not without that part, but because no matter what I did, people always saw my actions through tinted glasses.’

‘…….’

‘… Being misunderstood, being called names, even explaining that it wasn’t true, but no one was listening, and the fact that… I had to face the same situation dozens of times, I eventually got tired of it and didn’t want to do anything.’

The Young Lady Bright laughed bitterly.

It was a lifeless laugh.

‘But instead of that, I… I just wanted to believe in people… But I was foolish.’

She bit her lower lip as if to hold back a tear.

‘I was so hungry for affection, that I even clung to an insignificant relationship, not realizing that it was a sand castle that would crumble at any moment.’

After growing up alone and lonely, she wanted to believe in people.

But her faith had been shattered numerous times.

People turned their backs on her as soon as she had a problem, as if they all had agreed to do so beforehand.

Even her family hadn’t been very supportive.

To make matters worse, Pavel, the man who had promised her a future, was having an affair with her one-time best friend.

It was a situation that would have driven anyone other than the Young Lady Bright to the brink of insanity.

‘Okay, I’ll help you.’

‘…..! Really?’

‘What else can I do for you besides help you sneak out of the capital without anyone noticing?’

Young Lady Bright’s face brightened a little at Vasil’s offer for help.

As if she had been waiting for him to say that, she spoke an additional request.

‘Please make sure no one can find me. I don’t want the Empress or Count Olette to know my whereabouts, and I don’t want my grandfather and father to know either.’