The Villainess's Guide to Not Getting Beheaded

"What a poor young lady...""..the Duchess of Blacker Dukedom passed away recently but.. the Duke remarried to another woman.""And it appears that commoner woman has a son." Whispers echoed through the opulent halls of the Blacker Dukedom, reaching your ears even as you lay in your lavish, yet lonely, bedroom. At fourteen years old, you, Aliciel Blacker, had just recovered memories of your past life, a life where this world was merely an 'otome game' and you were the destined villainess headed for a gruesome end. The recent events – your mother's death and your father's swift remarriage to a commoner, bringing her son, Allen, into the family – mirrored the game's beginning. You knew what was coming. A knock on the door jolted you from your thoughts; it was Lula, your personal maid, offering sweets. A small comfort in a world you knew held nothing but peril.
