Secrets of the Villainous Empress

"A sin as grave as that of matricide and patri*ide has been committed in the lands, casting aside not one but multiple lively hoods", A soft but angry voice spoke, filling every inch of the sacred space that Saint Mikael had created. "You were brought here from your time with the duty of saving not one but millions of lives with a sacrifice. Yet what have you done instead?" "You have broken the laws of causality, interfered with the wheels of destiny, and you dare ask for mercy?" "I HAVE PAID MY DUES! I HAVE DONE MY TIME!" I yelled as though to compete with the words sounding from a voice whose source I could not even trace. "You have done no such thing. You discarded the lives of millions for but one soul. You took the love meant for another and relished its taste whilst stroking the seeds of anger in the forgotten." "You have made all those who were made to stand beside you revel in an illusion, and when they needed you most, you vanished. You tore apart the very foundations of this world, and you dare claim that your work is done? That your dues are paid all because you feel a little sombre?" "I did not vanish willingly. You imprisoned me!" I yelled, “A little sombre? Is that how the noble and loving gods of this land describe my ravenous emotions…?” “She is mocking us.” A different voice from the initial spoke. “Indeed she is…” another sweeter masculine voice spoke, then followed his confirmation with a giggle. “AT LEAST PERMIT ME TO DIE!!” I yelled, hoping that the words would go through, but all that followed was boisterous laughter. “Please!” “This is my twenty-third existence…!” My voice trembled. I could feel the prick in my eyes give in to tears as I stumbled over my next words, “I-I-I am s-so tired!!” "Young sinner, until your very sanity is on the verge of collapse. Until your very lies turn true, and the blood you shed in ignorance turns to earth. Until your heart turns to stone and your mind develops the sharpness of a blade, until the love you so willingly offer turns into a burden that you can never again bear, you are cursed. Cursed, to only feed the world until you give back what you so easily took from it. Cursed until the wheel of fortune finally spins in your favour, and you are no longer needed, for even if you seek rest, you shall never find it until all dues owed are paid fully. That, Georgette Lawrence Basilica, is your curse." The voice called my birth name and not the name of the body that I was currently inhabiting, showing that they actually knew me. Then, just as suddenly as the session had begun, the sound of a page-turning echoed the hollow space, sending me back into the fantasy world that I had broken with my very existence.   *     *      *  I jolted awake in a room that was not at all familiar to me. The first thing in sight was red lace scarves hanging decoratively on the bedpost and numerous bowls on the bedside table. “So…I died once again.” I sighed. Every time I die, I am always thrown into that pitiful dream before I inhabit my next body. It is such a shame that I am now used to the trend. I no longer startle at unfamiliar surroundings or the concept of waking up as another; this is my one hundred and twenty-sixth existence. I am practically an ancient dragon with over two thousand, eight hundred and forty-six years spent in this world. Only…only dragons live to one thousand two hundred years, so what exactly does that make me? I tried to sit upright, but my entire body protested in pain at the simple act, so I performed it slowly, as an invalid would. "System, commence background analysis on the written destiny of the body I am inhabiting." I requested as I unconsciously began searching for a mirror.   {Background check initializing…} My initial name was Georgette Lawrence Basilica. I am not sure if I died in my previous life, but I was involved in an office fire, and the smoke caused me to pass out. When I opened my eyes, I was in this world. I did not inhabit a body; maybe I did. All I know is that when I opened my eyes, I was a baby, rather the Marquis’s eldest daughter, Diane Brec Rosetta. Later, after my sister Sienna’s birth, I realized that I was in a novel, and all in the Rosetta household but my sister Sienna, the destined villainess, were to die at the hands of the male lead as extras meant to showcase his cruelty. The book's title was: 'Watching the Dawning Dusk’, a cliché romantic fantasy, its premise being, the tyrant male lead would kill the entire world for the female lead. ‘How romantic…’ were my first thoughts as I had read the book from cover to cover. Still, once I was actually in the book, I realized how terrifying it is to live trying to tiptoe around a tyrant and, worse, there were laws that kept a firm and unreasonable grip on the plot, one of them being, once extras died, they were forgotten. Meaning that almost everyone in the entire world, but certain species, have lost and forgotten their passed loved ones, all in the name of maintaining their roles. I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing. If the male lead were to kill us, it would trigger the transformation of my sister to the path of being the main villain. So I tried everything to save her, including becoming a Knight to help the male lead conquer the four neighbouring countries that caused the transformation of Cursix Kingdom to Cursix Empire with ease, unlike the difficulties that he was supposed to experience in the novel due to lack of noble support. In the novel, he attempted the task twice, and the first had led to his crushing defeat, but in his exile, he met the female lead. Since, however, I  interfered, and he ended up winning the war during his first try, he did not meet the female lead, and I unknowingly caught his eye. The plan had been to keep him indebted to our family. That way, he would not harm us. Tyrants are not my type, so after the war was over, I wanted to make a quick getaway because now he had no valid excuse to purge noble families left, right and centre, but when I asked to leave his side, he forced me into a political marriage. ‘A strong knight such as yourself could be a threat to the Empire if you so desired,’ I was in love with a knight at the time, the second male lead, but his safety was not assured if I denied the Emperor, so I went with his whims, knowing that the plot would eventually correct itself, that the female lead would take his breath away and he would cast me aside. Instead, regardless, my sister turned into the villainess…Why? Because since we were young, she had been prepped to be the next ‘queen’, like most aristocrat daughters, and I, ‘who liked playing with swords’, ‘destroyed her years of effort.’ In the novel, she was technically never prepped to be ‘queen’ or Empress because the most obvious choice would be the daughter of a duke. However, because of my frequent training sessions in the palace, the probability of her being chosen increased. I grew up in an abusive home in my original life, with a father who ran away before I could even crawl and a mother who had multiple personality disorder. Each of her five different personas was more dependant than the last. So the fact that I was born into a loving home was… ‘it’ for me. It was more than enough that no one forgot my name or stole my jewellery while I was away. Regardless of what my sister did, I understood deep down that the laws that bound the plot were amplifying her feelings. In that way, I could overlook everything she tried to do as a means of harassment. I mean, it was only temporary till the female lead showed up. However, one of my maids told the Emperor the happenings around the castle, and he took her away from me during one stormy night. She was not evil. She was not horrendous or a schemer. She was a skilful painter who loved to watch the clouds and stuff cake inside her mouth until her little cheeks threaten to burst, but…because a villainess is also an extra. No one but me could remember her existence, even the man who had so easily stolen her last breath. I thought that if I were the Empress, I could save all those important to me, but…I was powerless to the plot, and when the female lead arrived, I turned into the next villainess. Yes, the majority of my use would be to push the plot forward, but how dare the man who had taken everything from me get a happily ever after? But…it was futile. The Emperor was in love with me, and no matter how much I showed that I loathed him, to him, as long as my mind was on him, he was satisfied. ‘I am sorry,’ he would say, ‘Not for the sin you say I committed, but because it has deeply affected you this much.” Even a child could offer a more meaningful apology, but what did that matter, unless he could bring back the dead, his words were weightless.