The Face of Obsession
Henverton acted as if he had no idea what was being pointed at him, carrying himself with an air of casual indifference.
“So, are you planning to shoot me with that gun? Even for a member of the imperial family, summarily executing a noble would be quite the burden, wouldn’t it?”
Henverton spread his arms wide.
“Enough with the pointless bravado. Since you’ve gone to the trouble of seeking me out, why don’t we leave together?”
Just then, the sound of many footsteps approached. They were the men who had come to extract Henverton.
“Hey, noble sir, why are you taking so long—”
They fell silent the moment they spotted Cayena. What was this? There was an angel holding a gun in the dungeon.
“Isn’t that… the princess…?”
Henverton looked at Cayena with feigned pity.
“Are there enough bullets in that gun? And your marksmanship must be good enough to take them all down before these men dare lay a hand on Your Highness, yes?”
That was impossible. This was the first time Cayena had ever held a gun in her life. She wasn’t the kind of person desensitized to murder, capable of killing someone without a second thought. She could not shoot a person. So she readily admitted it.
“You’re right.”
Instead of the hand holding the gun, Cayena reached into the opposite side of her robe with her free hand and pulled out a small stick. She bit the cap with her teeth and yanked it off, revealing a small, gleaming blade. She pressed the blade against her own face, as if she would slash it at any moment.
“How about this, then?”
The relaxed expression on Henverton’s face twisted into something demonic.
“Stop—!”
Cayena knew exactly what Henverton loved about her.
Her face. Nothing but her beautiful face.
He was a collector of beautiful things. His love for beauty encompassed a great many objects. Among them, the most secretive of his collections was people. Even during the time he had abused Cayena so brutally, he had never once touched her face.
“Why did I ever fear a pathetic creature like you? You’re nothing but this.”
Why had she been afraid of a man who trembled like this at the mere threat of a single scratch across her face? If she had known earlier, wouldn’t she have ruined her face in her first life?
No. The me back then didn’t have the courage to destroy my own appearance.
It had been the very reason for her existence. Even in the moment it became utterly useless, she couldn’t let it go. Cayena realized that it was precisely because of her own powerlessness that a worthless man like this could ever seem so threatening.
A laugh escaped her. It felt like waking from a nightmare and regaining her senses. At the same time, her own helplessness felt like a curse.
There wouldn’t be only one Henverton Gillian. A second Henverton, a third Henverton—they could appear at any time. No matter how much she defended herself, she might one day meet the same end again.
Her eyes grew chillingly cold.
The thugs let out awkward laughs and began inching closer to subdue Cayena.
“If they come any closer, I’ll carve my cheek, Gillian.”
“Stop!”
Henverton screamed like a madman at Cayena’s threat.
“What? Have you lost your mind?”
They were dumbfounded. Their opponent was nothing but a powerless woman. While the gun was somewhat threatening, there were six men here. And to think she was threatening them by holding a blade to her own face—it was so absurd it left them speechless.
Yet Henverton drew the dagger one of the thugs carried at his waist. His eyes were already half rolled back.
“If even a single scratch appears on that face, none of you will leave with your limbs intact. Remember that!”
“This crazy…”
Incredibly, because the princess had taken her own face hostage, everyone’s feet were frozen in place. Henverton ground his teeth as he glared at Cayena.
“I’ll do whatever you want, so please put the blade away, Your Highness.”
It was a truly desperate voice. Would she ever see him beg like this again? Cayena looked at Henverton—who was still obsessed with her face without even grasping the situation—with utter disgust.
“If I had known you hated it this much, I would have mutilated my face long ago. You’d probably faint if I even got a burn.”
“Princess Cayena!”
“How impertinent.”
She commanded him with cold, stern eyes.
“Kneel.”
Henverton slowly dropped to his knees on the floor, his gaze fixed entirely on the blade in her hand. Cayena turned the gun’s muzzle toward the thugs.
“Shouldn’t all of you be kneeling as well?”
They twisted their faces into ugly scowls, thinking the princess looked like an angel but was clearly a completely insane woman. In response, Cayena pressed the blade even closer to her cheek. Henverton convulsed and shouted.
“Kneel, you idiots!”
“This crazy bastard…”
They considered knocking Henverton out with a blow to the back of his head and subduing Cayena. But the gun was now pointed at them, not at Henverton.
“Shouldn’t you return the dungeon key?”
Cayena pointed at the dungeon door that had been left wide open when Henverton emerged. One of the thugs spat out a curse and tossed the key from his pocket.
Cayena had taken all six men hostage with her own body and forced them to their knees. However, as time passed, they held the advantage. The warden here had been bribed by them. If they discovered the princess, they would clearly try to silence her somehow.
Cayena had no intention of dragging out this standoff. She raised the gun toward the ceiling and pulled the trigger.
Bang—!
The roar slammed through the dungeon. It was a terrifying sound. The thugs’ faces twisted hideously. The knights would come running after hearing this noise. They had to escape immediately.
“Take the princess hostage!”
Since they had to survive—Henverton or not—the thugs tried to rush her. But Henverton shoved them aside.
“Are you insane? If even the slightest mark appears on that face, I’ll throw every last one of you into boiling oil!”
Cayena stepped into the dungeon Henverton had escaped from, closed the door, and locked it herself. Then she threw both the gun and the key out of the cell.
“Over here! The sound came from here!”
The sound of knights rushing in from outside could be heard. Cayena had already known the patrol schedule for this area. While she had intended to shake off Vera, she had also ordered an increase in patrol personnel specifically for this moment.
Just as Cayena had calculated, the Central Army knights came running toward the dungeon.
“It’s a jailbreak! Seize them!”
The knights arrested the thugs and Henverton in an instant.
“Save me!”
Cayena let out a scream. The Central Army knights were utterly bewildered to find the princess inside the prison.
“Y-Your Highness? Princess Cayena is here!”
With trembling hands, she pointed at the gun.
“They tried to shoot me!”
“W-What?”
The thugs watched in a daze as Cayena shouted. She made things even more chaotic for the knights.
“Get rid of that horrible thing at once! Remove it from the palace so I never have to see it again!”
“Y-Yes, ma’am!”
The knights quickly put the gun away and opened the cell to protect Cayena.
“It was so frightening…”
She covered her face with a pitiful, delicate gesture.
“That crazy woman…!”
The knights prodded the thugs—who had spoken disrespectfully—with the tips of their spears and forced them all to the ground. Supported by the knights, Cayena emerged from the dungeon.
She slightly lowered the hands covering her face and met their eyes. A faint, sneering smile flickered across her lips and vanished. The thugs stared at her in stunned disbelief. They had been completely played.
Cayena walked out of the dungeon with weak steps.
“Sister!”
Rezef had gone to the princess’s palace after learning the gun was missing, only to discover Cayena had vanished. His instincts had screamed that something was wrong. He had immediately rushed outside to search for her and had run here the moment he heard the gunshot.
“Rezef!”
Cayena hurried over and threw herself into his arms. He naturally embraced her as if to protect her and demanded an explanation from the knights. They reported that they had heard a gunshot while on patrol, rushed to the dungeon, and caught Henverton Gillian attempting to escape. They also stated that the thugs had fired a gun at Princess Cayena and that she had been found locked inside the cell.
What kind of chaotic nonsense was this? Rezef looked at the gun one of the knights held out.
“……”
It was his gun.
Cayena tightened her grip on his arm. Then she whispered in a small voice.
“…That gun isn’t yours, Rezef.”
Cayena knew it was an unregistered illegal firearm. She could not give their father any pretext that would put Rezef at a disadvantage. She had already taken that into account before carrying out her plan.
“Didn’t I tell you to get rid of it quickly! It’s too terrifying.”
The knight flinched and hastily hid the gun.
“There is no need to report how it will be handled. No—report it to Prince Rezef. I have no desire to know.”
“As you command, Your Highness.”
Rezef felt a sense of disbelief watching her act without so much as a change in her expression. It would indeed be troublesome if a report reached their father that the gun was his. Especially after he had disobeyed an order just yesterday. He played along with his sister’s performance.
“I will escort my sister back. Clean this up properly. Henverton Gillian, who dared attempt a jailbreak, will be interrogated immediately tomorrow.”
They had gained the perfect excuse to move against Henverton. At this point, even if they accused him of treason, no one would dare object.
He gently brushed Cayena’s hair back.
“Let’s return to your room, Sister.”
As expected, Cayena was extraordinary. And she remained utterly devoted to him. She behaved exactly as a one-and-only sister should—exactly as siblings who had no one to rely on but each other. That was what he liked most.
He never wanted to break this bond. For that to happen, Cayena had to remain by his side.
Indeed, it had been wise to order the distribution of her portraits. Should he erect statues of the princess in every village? Rezef supported Cayena as a smile played on his lips.
The Villainess Is a Marionette