The Rise of the Exiled Villainess

Coffee check, pictures of my favorite characters check, favorite t-shirt and game CD’s check, check, check, check! My after-lunch fiasco has never been this livelier due to a book that I currently have in my hands. Yesterday, I spent a good amount of time just to wait in line for five and a half hours, competing with a s**t ton of ladies also trying to get their scrubby paws on the final volume of “The Perpetual Sins of a Villainess”. Remembering how victorious I was, I hugged the book close to my cheek like Smeagol in Lord of the Rings, smelling the freshly printed aroma of each page. As I sat down on my office chair, I calmly opened the book and was blinded by the autograph that was elegantly written on the first page. I almost fainted like a little girl in love… Calypso, the author of the book conducted a book fair yesterday and I was one of the chosen few to get her autograph and limited edition character artworks for free! “Well… I have to read this now!”  I said to myself in determination as I was carried by the adrenaline rush of my body. Oooooh, before anything else, my name is Mary or Mary Ann Lee and I’m twenty-two years old. Right now I’m in a precinct working as a police officer during dayshifts. Since there are no active cases even around two pm, I’m literally taking my sweet time savoring this moment to read my “precious”. The captain isn’t throwing away any unnecessary orders to us in the back office, granting me a lot of time to read and check if somebody already bypassed my record in the official rankings of the book’s game. This girl right here is on the top spot for finishing the official “Perpetual sins of a Villainess” game, and my record remains unchallenged for two weeks straight! Carefully glancing through the pages, I began with the first chapter while wearing my game face on. The Perpetual Sins of a Villainess is a pretty basic story that may have a few similarities from its predecessors under the villainess genre. However, what made this stand out is the writer’s approach to the predicaments that the main characters face under the schemes of Ekaterina the villainess. La’Laine Pemberton is the heroine of the story and is the duke’s one and only daughter. She is the main attraction of the series and is being adored by three rich, powerful, good-looking men. In this particular volume, La’laine was kidnapped by a few of Ekaterina’s assassins in order to force the duke to surrender his power to her household. However, Ekaterina did a lot of vile and malicious acts in the previous books. It was only at this volume that they managed to narrow down the culprit and force her to use her family’s remaining forces to stage a revolt against the empire. Of course, Ekaterina lost the war, and her tribe was wiped out, some were even forced into s*****y including her best friend Geneva. Sadly, Geneva died under the hands of a count who treated her like a toy. Her body was thrown out in the open and even allowed the birds to eat her carcass without a proper burial. Ekaterina’ family was summoned in the empire and was stoned to death by the citizens, while the villainess was beheaded by the crown prince. The prince offered Ekaterina’s head in front of La’laine as a declaration of his love and loyalty to the empire. On the latter chapters, it was revealed that there were several survivors from the onslaught, and they watched everything till the end. They swore on their being that the truth must be brought to light no matter what it takes. The end… “That was sad… and weird…”   I never expected the end to be this vague. I know that the heroine got the ending that she wanted amidst the bullying and harsh treatment that she suffered under the villainess. But what was the author’s purpose for leaving some sort of a clue on the last chapter? Opening my laptop, I checked the official game of the book and began to read some of the files that I got for completing the different routes and collecting various information from the story. The author is a die-hard fan of dating simulation and light novel games, so she made the world of the game as close to the book as possible, while leaving breadcrumbs related to the lore of the story. It is a very simple multiple-choice type of game but you get to have mementos with certain backstories to it. As I indulged myself more and more with the lore of each memento, I realized that the last line of the chapter was a hidden message for the readers. It’s as if she wanted us… “To figure out the truth.” What if the villainess wasn’t really a villainess? It breaks the narrative of being a heroine and a damsel in distress if La’laine was the bad guy. In the first place, why would you even have a group of good-looking men ogling at you if you are not the main character? My gosh, I was literally taken aback as I finished reading all of the lore contained in the game. The author was trying to establish something and I didn’t expect it to have such a rather disturbing approach. Before I knew it, it was already six pm and my shift is finally over. My other co-workers just finished packing up their stuff to leave, and they are patiently waiting for me to hastily wrap things up. Storing most of my items inside the drawers, I stashed all of my important Stan paraphernalia inside my bag including the limited edition pictures and my prized autographed book. Going outside of the police station, I jogged my way through the streets until I arrived at a shortcut that would lead me towards the main highways. Before I could reach my destination, a man wearing a hood pulled my arm. He removed his hood and there I saw my little brother with his eyes, swelling and his skin tone is quite pale. “You shouldn’t be here Isaac!” I shouted as I began resisting this fucker’s grip. What dumb luck do I have to see him in a groggy state? “I-I…” He’s trying to speak but his throat seems to be dry. “I need some money…” Of course, you would… Isaac has been into gambling for the past two years after our parents died. Slowly, he sold everything that we had without my knowledge including the only piece of land that my parents managed to buy for us… Then after some time, his wife left him since he wasn’t able to provide money for their child. At such a young age of eighteen, he and his girlfriend went off to a nearby city to start a new life. But because of the pressure from her side of the family, their relationship didn’t go so well until we arrive at this current state of his. I pulled a half-full bottle of water from the side of my bag and gave it to him. “What you need is water. Drink this since your throat is dry. Also, get some shower since you smell like s**t!” He drank all of the water and threw the bottle on the ground, “Why aren’t you giving me money?!” This ungrateful punk is getting on my pearly white skin… I crossed my arms and looked at him with a piercing gaze. “Why should I? Rather than ask for money you should already start working on your own! There’s a limit to how much I can support you and you should know that!” Isaac grit his teeth with his fists clenched as if he is holding back his anger. “If I’m miserable you should be miserable also… that’s family right…” he muttered in a low yet disgusting tone. “You’re miserable because you went into gambling, and now you’re taking f*****g drugs! You should be grateful I haven’t called the cops on you yet even though I’m an officer.” I pulled my wallet and gave him two thousand pesos. “Take it and don’t show your face around me ever again!” Isaac grabbed the money and he seems unsatisfied. “I want more!!!” He held my wrist tight enough that I could feel my bones getting strangled. This piece of s**t needs to learn a thing or two. As soon as I regained my posture I gave his shin a swift kick using my heels, forcing him to kneel in front of me. Then I gave him a knee straight to his nose, knocking him back to the stinky walls of a nearby trashcan. “Get your ass out of here before I beat you to a pulp and call the police!” Upon hearing those words, the kid finally realized that I’m not joking as he scrammed off like a scared puppy. I brushed the debris from my hands and sprayed alcohol sanitizer on my knees since there’s a little bit of icky blood on it. I continued walking until I arrived at the jeepney terminals and rode my way home. After several minutes, I finally arrived safely at my apartment. I quickly removed my clothes and boiled some water for a warm bath. Placing most of my items on my desk, I opened my laptop and started checking some of the files that I’ve missed in the game. There’s one piece of the problem that I haven’t been able to grasp since the day I’ve started playing. The last line from the book makes sense if their choice was to reveal the truth. The mementos in the game seem to exist for only the main characters and there’s very little information about the villainess except for a jeweled snake.    (End of CHapter)