Don't Break Off the Engagement!
“So, um...”
Cheeks flushed a rosy peach, looking as though they might burst at the slightest poke. Tiny lips mumbling hesitantly as she searched for the right words.
Her brown hair fell in neat twin braids, adorned with delicate ornaments crafted from jewel-encrusted petals. Her dress was an utterly adorable piece, boasting an abundance of frills and ribbons that commanded attention. And finally, those lovely blue eyes—sparkling like freshly cut sapphires—gazed at me with a fierce, solemn resolve.
This was Bibi Lutein el Castrein, the heroine of The Baby Lady is the Little Treasure of the Villain Duke's Family.
She was the apple of the eye of the notoriously ruthless Castrein Duchy—a darling young lady whom they wouldn't trade for an entire mountain of magic crystals. The youngest daughter over whom three older stepbrothers and the cold-blooded villain Duke fawned endlessly, she was renowned far and wide for being spunky, charming, and clever far beyond her tender years. Though not the Duke’s biological child, she carried the Castrein bloodline nonetheless—a spirited girl harboring numerous secrets beyond the truth of her birth.
“Um, well... you see...”
That very girl was sitting across from me right now, blushing crimson as she wracked her brain for what to say. Having not the faintest clue what had brought this on, I glanced down at the table between us.
Croquembouche, fruit tarts, chocolate éclairs, pastel macarons... An exquisite assortment of desserts and steaming black tea sat in dazzling display. Yet she hadn't touched a single bite of the sweets she usually adored. Instead, she fidgeted endlessly, curling and uncurling her fingers and pressing her lips tight, darting anxious glances in my direction. Her nervous agitation made my own heart itch with unease.
I cautiously broke the silence.
“Um, Bibi? Is something—”
“P-Please don’t break off your engagement with my brother!”
“...What?”
My hand twitched, my fingers slipping against the fine porcelain of my teacup and spilling a drop of amber liquid onto the saucer. It was a radiant spring afternoon, and at her persistent pleading, we had set up our tea table outside in the palace's most scenic garden.
“I-I know my eldest brother is terribly blunt! And he always cuts people off! And he never writes letters when he’s away! And whenever he opens his mouth, he acts like he doesn't care about anything in the entire world except me!”
“...”
I froze solid, as though struck dead-on by high-tier ice magic. Before my stunned eyes, this adorable child—looking for all the world like a living, breathing doll—rattled off what sounded suspiciously like a rehearsed speech without pausing for breath.
“Even so... I don’t want anyone else to be my sister-in-law except you, Lady Tia!”
“...”
Utterly dumbfounded, I could only stare at the pint-sized girl whose sapphire eyes blazed with desperate passion.
...Don't break off the engagement? Now? When we've already stamped the official annulment papers and all that's left is the public proclamation? When this separation is absolutely essential for the survival of both the Castrein Duchy and myself?
Hoping for a shred of common sense, I darted a glance toward the escort knight and the personal maid who hovered nearby. Those two followed Bibi everywhere like devoted shadows. The knight was a fallen royal whom Bibi had personally rescued from a slave auction, while the maid was indebted to her forever for saving her youngest sibling's life. If I remembered correctly, the knight was one of the prime male lead candidates, and the maid was a retired top-tier assassin.
Surely, with loyalty as fierce as theirs, they would step up and tactfully correct their young lady's reckless outburst, imperial princess or not.
Clinging to that desperate hope, I met their eyes, only to deflate instantly.
...Why aren't either of you stopping her? Why are you just nodding along?!
The raven-haired youth who seemed indifferent to the world yet never missed a single breath Bibi took, and the gentle-looking maid beside him—both completely betrayed my expectations. Far from intervening, their expressions practically radiated their usual blind devotion: Whatever our young lady says is absolute gospel.
They were hopeless.
“Um, Bibi...”
“M-My eldest brother is very handsome!”
“Well... yes, that's undeniably true.”
Before my brain could filter it, my mouth blurted out the objective fact. At my immediate concession, Bibi’s eyes lit up like polished gems.
“And the ducal family is super rich!”
“Mm, yes, that's also true...” I conceded in a lukewarm murmur.
In the world of The Baby Lady is the Little Treasure of the Villain Duke's Family, the imperial house was little more than a hollow husk. It was the Castrein Duchy that maintained the Northern Barrier defending the empire and commanded the front lines against the demonic beasts. It was the Castrein Duchy that possessed a lineage and practical authority that put the throne to shame. And it was the Castrein Duchy that commanded limitless wealth by monopolizing the trade of magic crystals—the power-dense cores harvested from slaughtered monsters.
The imperial family was merely a narrative backdrop, existing solely to highlight the supreme standing of the Castreins as the true rulers of the empire—titans whom even the emperor dared not cross. At most, the royals served as a source of petty antagonists: arrogant fools relying on their empty titles, warped by deep-seated inferiority complexes, providing minor friction for the ducal family to crush underfoot.
And one of those petty villains had been me.
The reigning emperor had three children in total: the eldest son, born to the First Imperial Consort from the ambitious Marquisate of Landt; the second son, born to the Empress; and myself, the only daughter, born to the Second Imperial Consort hailing from a modest count's household.
Desperate to leash the Castrein Duchy to the throne and keep their power in check, the emperor had arranged an engagement between me and the young heir of Castrein the very moment I drew my first breath. Naturally, the Castreins had ground their teeth in silent fury ever since, biding their time for any pretext to shatter that one-sided political shackle.
"The sole princess of the empire." It sounded splendid on paper, but in truth, it was nothing more than painted fruit—gleaming on the outside, utterly devoid of sustenance.
My birth mother, Elaine Austin von Bradley, the second daughter of Count Bradley, had been famed across high society for her peerless beauty long before her marriage. Her breathtaking looks had inevitably caught the eye of the lecherous emperor. To curry favor, the Bradley family blackmailed my mother—who already had a beloved fiancé—and offered her up to the imperial palace. To protect the life of the man she loved, she submitted meekly, obeyed the emperor's every whim, and eventually conceived me.
Yet behind her back, her ruthless family had already disposed of her lover in secret.
When she finally discovered the truth, the overwhelming grief triggered premature labor. Because of that, my childhood was plagued by such fragile health that court physicians repeatedly whispered it wouldn't be strange if I died before sunrise. Though my constitution stabilized somewhat after turning ten, my mother never showed a shred of affection toward me. The emperor, too, soon grew weary of her secluded, melancholy state and turned his fickle desires entirely toward the First Consort.
Trapped in that vacuum of neglect—the girl I had been before nearly dying and regaining the memories of my past life...
Swallowing the heavy sigh threatening to escape my throat, I gave a quiet shake of my head.
...I was pathetic, pitiable, childish, and terribly selfish.
Even now, recalling those days brought a bitter pang to my chest.
An ignored young princess, left to grow up without parental warmth. Her sole saving grace was her striking appearance inherited from her mother—radiant platinum-blonde hair and vivid, brilliant green eyes. As long as she kept her mouth shut, she looked the part of a fairytale princess raised in ethereal royal splendor.
Starved of affection and lacking any proper guidance, the foolish child had fallen head over heels at first sight for her fiancé—a handsome, exceptionally gifted young lord from a house so mighty even the crown bowed before it. Blinded by an inflated ego bred within palace walls and completely detached from reality, the arrogant princess began throwing tantrums of every sort.
She trailed after him obsessively, made pathetic threats forbidding him from speaking to any other noble lady, and lashed out with petty spite. When even that failed to earn his attention, her wounded pride made her snarl insults at the Castrein name at every turn. After all, childish malice wasn't enough on its own to dissolve an official alliance between the imperial throne and the Castreins.
Now, how did the tragedy unfold in the original novel?
Once Bibi began to display her remarkable brilliance, the greedy emperor set his sights on her. To make matters worse, the First Consort, bloodshot-eyed with ambition to seat her own son on the throne, spun countless schemes to secure Bibi as the First Prince's bride. One of those schemes was maneuvering to break the engagement between Princess Titania and the Young Duke of Castrein.
The princess had no political faction to shield her. Around that time, her mother, the Second Consort, succumbed to lingering illness and passed away. Had her relationship with her fiancé, Raymon, been even remotely civil, things might have turned out differently. But thanks to years of venomous antics, their rapport was practically nonexistent, ruined by mutual resentment.
For a princess trembling on the brink of panic, planting a simple whisper had been more than enough: a rumor that the imperial court was going to annul her engagement and betroth Bibi to the prince instead.
...And so, she idiotically attempted to poison Bibi.
Without even the wit to disguise her plot, she crudely invited the girl to tea and shoved a cup laced with lethal venom under her nose. Naturally, the attempt crumbled into pathetic failure. Faced with the fury of the Castrein Duchy, the emperor tossed the useless princess to them like a scrap of meat, telling them to do with her as they pleased.
"I only did it because I loved you!"
"I—I loved you! I loved you so much...! But you... you looked at me like I was nothing more than vermin!"
She had clung to Raymon's boots, stripping away every ounce of royal dignity, but what waited for her was inevitable.
"Why I have looked upon you with such contempt all this time..."
Only freezing, merciless disgust had answered her desperate pleas.
"I am merely glad you seem to have finally realized it."
Looking into those frigid, deadened eyes, Titania had plummeted into absolute despair.
Knowing that bloodcurdling fate waited down that path, I looked at the heroine counting off points on her adorable little fingers with a thoroughly conflicted heart.
“And except for Father, my eldest brother is the strongest person in the entire world!”
My sweet, precious heroine... This happens to be the imperial palace. Please don't state so proudly that the Castreins are the strongest in the world right in the heart of an emperor drowning in jealousy and spite...
Though, granted, I completely agree that Duke Castrein could flatten the emperor with his pinky finger.
“So no matter what happens, he can definitely protect you, Lady Tia!”
I’d be lucky if he doesn't personally throw me to the wolves...
A wry, bitter smile crept onto my lips. Still, it seemed the present me had managed her life reasonably well. After all, hearing such fervent defense straight from the original heroine was no small miracle.
“Bibi.”
“Yes, Lady Tia!”
“First of all... thank you so much for thinking so fondly of me.”
“Ehehe.”
“But I'm afraid it's impossible.”
“Wh-Why? Why not...?”
In a split second, her large sapphire eyes welled with shimmering tears, threatening to spill over. Ugh. My hand almost flew to my chest to soothe the sudden ache from sheer cuteness overload. Even so, forcing an outward facade of calm, I met Bibi’s gaze and spoke with gentle warmth.
“Bibi, the Castrein Duchy is precious to you, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Of course it is.”
“...Nothing good can come from entangling the current imperial family with your house.”
“B-But...”
“Sweet, kind Bibi.”
This time, it wasn't a rehearsed smile, but a genuine one. Reaching across the table, I softly stroked her braided brown hair.
“You’re worried about what will happen to me once the engagement is broken, aren't you?”
“...”
Bibi fell silent.