Starting in a Dungeon
I decided to get my thoughts in order. I had become Milene. That was an unchangeable reality now. In front of me, a typical handsome blond guy and a sly-looking brown-haired girl were clinging to each other. The prince was Schwald, the First Prince of the Glacia Kingdom. The brown-haired girl who looked physically frail compared to Milene was Sophia.
Sophia was an illegitimate child. Duke Holpert had only learned of her existence late and adopted her, making her Milene’s younger sister. This whole scene was absolutely nauseating. Anyway, I’d been properly stabbed in the back by that damn author bitch with her trashy concepts. And of all things, I’d possessed this pitiful young lady’s body right at the end of the first punishment arc. That was the biggest problem.
Fuck. My life is being controlled by some hack writer who churns out parkour-level plot twists! I needed to get back quickly! Wait… did I actually need to go back?
When I thought about it, my old life had just been spinning in a hamster wheel every single day, nothing but work. In my rare free time, I only scrolled through web novels. That was it. So… there wasn’t really any reason to return, was there?
Still, that didn’t mean this situation was exactly paradise. If this had been the early parts of the story, or at least the middle, I could have run away to another country. But right now? This was clearly the punishment season. That writer—whether it was a guy or a girl—definitely wanted to screw me over.
The way to go back was probably something only that author knew. And they had no intention of sending me back. The moment they did, the community would be flooded with posts about it. Come to think of it, something had felt off from the beginning. It was suspicious that a writer with that level of skill had taken first place. Maybe the author had some kind of strange ability? Sending me into their own work like this was proof enough.
We hadn’t even exchanged private messages—one-on-one. We’d just fought in the comments section of the novel. Surely some readers of that top-ranked story had seen it in real time. Yet there was no reaction at all? It was as if only the two of us had been there. Definitely suspicious.
So, was I supposed to just accept this punishment and end up like this? No. I had to use my head. I needed to find a way to survive. How had the original Milene acted?
“I’m innocent, Your Highness! Please believe me!”
“Silence! What a vulgar woman with no remorse!”
Milene had begged and begged, claiming she was wronged, but the prince—who had already fallen for her sister—refused to listen. The king had been away visiting another country at the time, so there was no mediation or legal procedures. Milene had simply been finished. The Holpert family had already been completely taken over by her sister as well.
Following the original plot would clearly get me fucked. But charging forward recklessly here could also turn into the worst possible move. If I begged like Milene or tried to argue logically, that prince could use his authority to do whatever he wanted to me. Especially if Sophia started crying right next to him. Unlike the kind-hearted Milene who had been taken advantage of, Sophia had already completely seized control of her surroundings.
In that case, I needed to find a way to stay alive right now. At least they hadn’t mentioned the actual crime yet. From my position, I had to gamble a little.
“Excuse me, but may I ask the reason for this?”
“Well said! I am sick and tired of your obsession with perfection in everything! The one who appeared before me is my true love—Sophia!”
“I see.”
“That is the first reason. The second is that you tormented Sophia out of jealousy! We already have all the evidence and witnesses! I cannot possibly marry a petty woman like you! Sophia is also from your family, so she is more than qualified to be my woman! Therefore, I declare our engagement broken, and I demand an apology from you!”
He was pointing his finger right at me. How rude. Was this really how a prince of a nation behaved? Ah, right. This was a story written by that hopeless author.
“I understand.”
“Milene! Do you think this is a joke? Shall I call the witnesses?”
Since Sophia had already rigged everything, denying it would be pointless. In that case, it was better to just admit it. With the prince completely blinded by infatuation and only surrounded by her brainwashed followers, any denial would just look fake.
“You caught me.”
“Good, call the witnesses—wait, what?”
“I did it all. I tore up Sophia’s notebooks while she was studying at the academy. I dumped a bucket of water—something no proper lady should have to carry—out the academy window onto Sophia as she walked near the flowerbed. I even used wind magic that I barely know how to cast to injure her. Everything was done according to my plan.”
In short, it was all nonsense, but now it was officially something I had done. Still, judging by how the author had written this prince, he didn’t seem to notice the thorns hidden in my words at all.
“Hah. So you’ve confessed to everything?”
“Yes. I was jealous of your relationship without even realizing it and committed these ridiculous acts. I regret it all so deeply.”
“Huh?”
Sophia, who had been sobbing in the prince’s arms just moments ago while secretly smirking at me with amusement in her eyes, now had her face colored with confusion. She seemed to realize something had gone wrong.
In the original story, if I had begged and the prince—claiming Milene showed no remorse—punished me with his overreach, then explained the wind magic and revealed dark magic, he would have found it even more suspicious and gone all the way. Not only breaking the engagement, but exiling me from the country entirely. After all, dark magic wasn’t exactly well-regarded in this era.
But I had admitted to using wind magic and hadn’t shown any dark magic.
“I-I see. Still, since you’ve finally shown remorse at the very end, I shall spare you the worst punishment.”
“Wait… this isn’t how it’s supposed to go?”
You weren’t supposed to do that. I was giving you an easy way out by stepping back quietly—why are you hesitating?
“Yes. I will take full responsibility. I am prepared not only for the broken engagement, but even for exile from both my family and the kingdom.”
“E-exile from the kingdom is… ahem. That might be going too far. Very well! Since you insist, I shall grant you this final courtesy!”
Since I had confessed to all the crimes myself and was even prepared for exile, the prince’s face had grown quite urgent. Of course it had. No matter how much of an idiot he was, he still had a brain. If his father returned and asked why the fiancée had suddenly changed and where the previous one had gone, it would be a disaster. Besides, Sophia couldn’t have manipulated the entire royal family. Managing the crown prince’s fiancée was the queen’s role. How could anyone reasonably accept that a daughter-in-law candidate had been exiled from the kingdom without their knowledge?
The prince himself probably considered going that far quite risky. On top of that, since Milene had admitted her wrongdoing, he couldn’t punish her further. If Sophia threw a tantrum here, insisting that I still hadn’t truly reflected and demanding he proceed anyway, it would only make me look pitiful—as if my little sister was trying to devour her own older sister no matter how much she tormented me. So she wouldn’t push it.
The problem was that this left me in a difficult position. Obviously. If I had some grace period, that would be one thing, but Sophia wasn’t some stranger. Everything had already been arranged in advance. I had no way to siphon off any money. In a world like this, what happened to a woman thrown out onto the streets was painfully obvious.
If things continued like this, I wouldn’t end up imprisoned like in the original story. But being locked in prison was actually beneficial for me right now.
“Since it has come to this, there is something I must tell you that I could not say before, Your Highness.”
“What is it?”
This was where the real gamble began.
“My magical attribute is darkness.”
“Darkness? Isn’t that the same as shadow? How ominous!”
“As expected of a gloomy villainess and her deeds!”
Everyone was pointing fingers at me. Sophia looked delighted at first, then shifted to a subtle, unreadable expression. At least by being honest, it would be difficult for them to immediately throw me out just for using dark magic.
Honestly, that damn author had written this without any regard for plausibility, so I had no idea how or why the original Milene had been imprisoned and then exiled. But at least I had done a decent job of advertising my position. Besides, Sophia’s goal was to win the prince and eventually become queen. There was no reason for her to get blood on her hands right now, so she would probably back off.
“Y-Your Highness… dark magic? That’s so scary!”
Sophia clung to the prince as if this were her moment.
“T-to confess everything on your own! It seems you still have a conscience after all!”
After that, things moved quickly. The engagement was dissolved before the king even returned, and just like in the original story, I was thrown into prison. The prince was happy that the breakup had gone smoothly. Sophia showed no particular reaction. The family was probably discussing what to do with me.
“How can you be so calm about this?”
Before I was locked away, I saw the servant who had once been assigned to Milene back at the Holpert estate. At first I didn’t recognize him, but after recalling the novel’s description, I realized who he was. It was the boy named Rion, who had originally been a slave. Milene had saved him and made him her attendant, but he had betrayed his master after falling for Sophia’s schemes and manipulation.
“No, I didn’t do it! Please believe me, Rion!”
“You disgust me! I never want to see your face again!”
Yes. That was how it had gone. Thinking back, the author’s novel itself hadn’t actually been that bad. If I hadn’t seen the overseas reviews, I might have thought, “Oh, this is pretty interesting. Quite fresh.”
Anyway, I simply gave a bitter smile to the traitor standing before me. He seemed flustered because my reaction was different from the original Milene’s.
“What do you mean?”
“The whole world is pointing fingers at you. How can you be so relaxed?”
Relaxed, huh? Well, yes. Since I had confessed, the broken engagement was unavoidable. But once the king returned, this little game these brats were playing would end. The Holpert family already hated Milene entirely, so there was nothing to be done there. This was still a gamble. I would eventually get out of prison, but until then I needed to think. About what I would do from now on. I had to screw that author over somehow.
In the original story, Milene wandered the streets after being exiled from the kingdom and eventually died. Even if I avoided exile, given the current development, it was clear I would end up alone and abandoned.
“Then should I say I’m not guilty?”
“Pardon?”
“Even if I said I was wronged, would anyone listen? No. The moment Sophia took control of everything, I was already finished.”
As I was led to the dungeon, I shrugged. But this idiot Rion—who had been completely fooled by Sophia—scowled at me with pure disgust.
“I see. You truly are a villainess. As long as you’re comfortable, nothing else matters.”
“Even if I hadn’t confessed, you would have called me a villainess anyway, wouldn’t you?”
“……”
He shut his mouth, apparently at a loss for words. Exactly. No matter what I said, I would be seen as the villainess. Once people put on colored glasses, it was over.
I patted Rion on the shoulder.
“Admitting it makes things easier for everyone. I have no interest in rolling around in the mud fighting over an obvious outcome.”
Yes. If I had to put it bluntly, the fact that you all let a childish prank like this escalate so far only makes you look like a group of idiots. That’s honestly what I want to say.
“If that’s how you feel, then why did you struggle so much before?”
“Who knows? Maybe I was too much of a frog in a well. Though the same could be said for all of you.”
With those final words, I left Rion behind and stepped into the prison.