My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Volume 1 (Light Novel) (eBook)

Satoru Yamaguchi (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2018
300 Seiten
J-Novel Heart (Verlag)
9781718332003 (ISBN)

Infos

After hitting her head particularly hard one day, Duke Claes' daughter, Katarina, suddenly recalls all the memories of her past life: that of a teenage Japanese girl. Just before her untimely death, this girl recalls playing an otome game... that is exactly like the world she's living in now!
She is now Katarina Claes, the antagonist of the otome game, who nastily hounded the protagonist until the end. Knowing all the possible outcomes of the game, she realizes that every single possible route ends with Katarina being murdered or exiled! In order to avoid these Catastrophic Bad Ends, she has to use her knowledge of the game and her own wiles, starting with breaking off this engagement with the prince...
Will Katarina survive while making her way through this world, where bad flags trip at every turn? Find out in this reverse-harem rom-com, led by everybody's favorite villainess!

Textauszug

Chapter 1: Memories of My Past Life

One evening, I got carried away and ended up playing games late into the night. Of course, I overslept the next morning.

I changed into my uniform and washed my face half-heartedly, not even bothering to fix my frumpled hair before heading for the door. My mom complained that, as a high-schooler, I should at least try to be presentable. But I ignored her.

I rushed out the front door and jumped onto my trusty bicycle, which I’d used since middle school. With a strong kick to the pedals, I was off. I continued pumping with all my might, down the slope that merged into the main road.

Again and again I pedaled — Maybe a little faster is better. I kept going. As you might expect, I eventually reached a point where I could no longer control my speed.

My bicycle then decided it was a good idea to fly straight into the intersection of the busy main road.

As I slowly started blacking out from the inevitable impact, the distant and familiar voices of my family echoed through my mind: “You idiot!”

...At least, that was what I remembered of my previous life, having remembered it suddenly after a solid blow to the head.

Katarina Claes; eight years of age. As the only daughter of Duke Claes, I was spoiled and doted upon lovingly since I was born. Arrogant and selfish, I was the very image of a wealthy little lady.

Today, I was accompanying my father on a visit to a castle. The third prince of the kingdom, who was the same age as me, was to guide me through the castle gardens.

The very first time I met this prince, I was captivated by his blue eyes and golden hair. He had the face of an angel, too. His calm and composed demeanor was really something else — it was hard to believe he was only eight years old.

As you might expect, this self-indulging young lady immediately fell head over heels for the prince and stuck to him like glue. Said young lady was raised under the loving care of her parents, and was far too spoiled to care whether she was causing trouble for others.

I was following a little too closely after the prince, not looking where I was going, and I ended up bumping into him and falling over. I wasn’t running when I tripped, but I couldn’t have chosen a worse place to land. I fell head-first into a decorative rock in the garden and cracked my forehead open. There was enough blood gushing from the wound that it made the prince and the servants around us start to panic.

But personally, the bleeding was the last thing on my mind. The impact had made me regain the memories of a previous life, one where I was a seventeen-year-old high-school girl. In other words, seventeen years’ worth of memories flooded my young mind in a flash — I felt like my brain would overload and shut down.

I was carried to the castle’s infirmary while still completely dazed. After some preliminary treatment, I was transported back to Claes Manor. After that, my poor head was assaulted by a high-temperature fever for the next five days.

As the fever eventually subsided, I was able to organize the memories in my mind, and could finally sit up in bed. It was at that time that I received an unexpected visit from the prince himself. Due to the fact that I was still basically bedridden, the prince visited me in my chambers.

“Hello, Lady Katarina. I hope you are doing a little better.” The angelic voice of the third prince, Jeord, only served to compliment his impossibly beautiful features. What a charming face!

While Katarina herself did have feelings for Prince Jeord prior to regaining her memories, I didn’t exactly feel the same way, especially since I was mentally seventeen. But though I didn’t have romantic feelings for the prince, looking upon his angel-like visage was enough to bring some peace to my mind.

I was so caught up in enjoying the sight of that pretty face that I forgot to answer him. The prince, who couldn’t possibly imagine that this was the reason for my silence, gave me an even more preoccupied look.

“...Truly, I do apologize. To think that I was careless enough to have scarred your face...” the prince said, lowering his head.

This had all been my fault to begin with, since I was the one who was so self-absorbed that I’d followed behind him without watching where I was going. In fact, I even got my blood all over that gorgeous garden! I was the one who should have been apologizing.

Panicking, I responded quickly. “Please raise your head, Prince Jeord. I am fully responsible for my actions in this matter — in fact, I should apologize for inconveniencing you and the kind people at the castle...” I lowered my head apologetically, much to the surprise of Prince Jeord.

Come to think of it, the prince’s only impression of me was that of a selfish eight-year-old. In the next five days, the prince’s surprised expression was reflected on the faces of my family’s servants too.

To be fair, Katarina was treated like a princess, and raised with an abundance of care. It would only be natural for her to put on airs and act in a manner befitting her station. But now with approximately seventeen years’ worth of commoner memories in my head, I couldn’t act all haughty like Katarina used to. Due to this, rumors of the young lady’s personality abruptly changing due to the fever started spreading throughout the household.

Even Prince Jeord, who had only met me once, seemed surprised by this stark contrast in personality. Being the princely boy he was, however, he soon recovered from his initial shock.

“Not at all, my lady. If I had been more careful and observant of my surroundings, I would not have bumped into you, and perhaps you would not have ended up with a scar on your beautiful face. Please accept my humble apologies,” he said, bowing his head deeply.

Ah, such a charming prince... Unlike the selfish Lady Katarina of the Claes household.

Indeed, my accident and the resulting injury did require a small stitch to treat, and a small scar — only a centimeter or so long — was left on my forehead. I didn’t mind, though. I’m not trying to brag or anything, but I was a rowdy kid in my past life. When I was in elementary school, I’d run around the hills behind my house with my two big brothers. I injured myself multiple times, and sometimes I’d needed way more stitches than this. My mom protested at first, but she eventually gave up and stopped commenting altogether.

So anyway, it would have been silly to care about a small scar on my forehead. “No, not at all. Please don’t worry about this, Your Highness. It is a small wound, one that can be easily hidden with my bangs! There is no problem at all,” I said with a wide smile on my face. I didn’t want to inconvenience the prince any more than I already had.

Prince Jeord’s expression, however, once again froze into a mask of shock and disbelief. I looked around. The prince wasn’t alone — all the servants in the room had similar looks plastered across their faces. An awkward atmosphere permeated the room.

The first to break the silence was the prince himself. Ah, such maturity for an eight year old! The 8+17 year old girl in the room would do well to learn from His Highness.

“...My lady, even if you do not see your injury as much of a concern, society would not view it so. In fact, this very injury may negatively impact any future engagements, or deter potential suitors.”

“...Oh...” I replied, unsure of what else to say. In my previous world, there would never be such harsh penalties for such a tiny scar! Apparently, this wasn’t the case in this medieval Europe-like world with its noble ladies and whatnot. In a world full of political marriages, even a small disadvantage could have a great impact. Noble society is really harsh.

As the reality of the situation dawned on me, I felt a deep melancholy wash over me as images of social debuts and other annoying responsibilities surfaced in my mind. For eight-year-old Katarina, debuting in society was a natural part of growing up. Now that I had my old memories, though, I couldn’t see it as anything but a terrible drag.

After all, most of my time in grade school was spent climbing trees and trekking through the woods like a wild monkey. In middle school I became a full-fledged otaku, deeply immersing myself in manga, games, and anime. It wasn’t exactly a fulfilling or purposeful lifestyle. How would someone like me debut in noble society?

Aah, I want to go back to my previous life... I wanna eat chips! And read manga! And watch anime! And play games!

“...rina. Lady Katarina...”

“...Oh. Yes?”

Lost in my memories of my past life, I had completely forgotten that Prince Jeord was standing before me. It would seem that he had quite a lot to say — unfortunately, I wasn’t really listening. Sorry, Prince Jeord...

“Well then. Is that acceptable to you?”

“...Ah. Y-Yes. Of course.”

The endearing prince was standing in front of me, looking straight into my eyes. Although I had hardly listened to anything he had to say, I nodded my head, beaming in response.

“Well then. I will visit you again once you are in better spirits. Do take care.” He bowed, the very image of a sincere and charming eight-year old prince. He left...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 17.11.2018
• Reihe/Serie: My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
• Reihe/Serie: My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
• Illustrationen: Nami Hidaka
• Übersetzer: Shirley Yeung
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Fantasy
• Schlagworte: Airhead • Fantasy • Game • Humor • Light Novel • otome • reverse Harem • Romantic Comedy
• ISBN-13: 9781718332003 / 9781718332003