Disqualified as a Villainess - Chapter 16

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#16.

In the past, Prince Dominic had promised to become engaged to Octavia on the condition that he receive the Ludovisi Family’s support.
Thanks to their unwavering backing thereafter, he rose to third in the line of succession and solidified his position within the Royal Family.
The result was a broken promise. Since the engagement never materialized, it couldn’t even be called a broken engagement.
People were convinced that Octavia had been rejected by the Prince because of her fierce temperament and arrogance.
It was a conclusion born from disdain toward a commoner who dared aspire to join the Royal Family.
From the original story’s perspective, the focus fell on the “poor male lead forced to become engaged to an insincere villainess,” but from my position, I was nothing more than a cherry-picker who extracted the sweetness and moved on.
And the fact that Dominic used the excuse of “needing to protect against the threat of the vicious Octavia and the Ludovisi Family” while concealing his romantic involvement with Chloe was nothing short of contemptible.
Merely a matter of saving face.
“…You’ll regret this.”
Dominic withdrew with a frown, as if making a vow like “I won’t speak to you again!”
“What could a prince from a lower civilization possibly do?”
If he wanted to torment me, he’d need to at least bring a commercialization plan for Bluetooth showerheads.
I murmured with a slight smile.
After all, I intended to reclaim everything the previous fool had given him, piece by piece.
Suddenly sensing a gaze upon me, I turned my head and locked eyes with Admiral Kelcedni in his dress uniform.
A man who seemed like he would never attend someone else’s birthday party….
‘I really didn’t expect him to come.’
Admiral Kelcedni was likely thinking the same thing.
He always appeared at places he supposedly couldn’t reach—he was practically obsessive.
I had been about to head straight to his quarters if he hadn’t shown up, but this worked out perfectly.
I approached the Admiral with a radiant smile blooming across my face.
“Admiral, it’s been eight hours. Have you been well?”
Knowing I would be troublesome again, he downed the drink in his hand in one shot and promptly vanished from sight.
So this is what an obsessive man and a fleeing male lead look like….

***

The orchestra’s melody shifted to an elegant and lively rhythm.
Men and women who had been chatting paired off and began dancing in the Dance Hall.
Octavia, who had been sipping champagne alone, turned her head at the murmur of voices around her.
Prince Dominic was brazenly asking Chloe to dance.
‘What? That’s all his regret amounts to? I thought he’d do something more impressive.’
So the original Octavia fell victim to such a childish man.
‘Love is truly a mental illness that makes one choose only the worst possible options.’
Since my interest lay solely with the Admiral, I scanned my surroundings to find him, who had disappeared.

Meanwhile, others alternated their gazes between Octavia and the Prince.
Something felt distinctly off about the situation.
Several nobles began raising their voices in the Prince’s defense.
“Well, the Prince isn’t the sort to exploit others. It’s practically as though he achieved his own growth.”
“I heard that Octavia threatened the Prince, saying she’d die if he didn’t become engaged to her. Perhaps he had no choice but to comply?”
Chloe, hesitantly grasping Prince Dominic’s hand, asked with an awkward expression.
“Your Highness, is this alright? You said we shouldn’t reveal our relationship.”
“You’re the only one I wish to dance with here.”
Dominic delivered the line with considerable charm and smiled.
Having succeeded in both humiliating her and shifting public opinion, he gazed toward Octavia with inner satisfaction.
He imagined she must be grinding her teeth with jealousy and fury, yet Octavia’s expression remained unmoved as she looked toward the entrance.
Since Admiral Kelsedny hadn’t come as her partner, and she stood alone abandoned, their relationship appeared to be false.
Given that the Ludovisi Family possessed so much due to their knowledge-based abilities, there may have been some transaction between her and the Admiral.
‘In any case, no one will ask a disagreeable commoner to dance.’
She would surely stand like a decoration throughout the banquet and leave.
It was then that Prince Dominic’s crimson eyes suddenly widened dramatically.
“Lady Octavia, you are as beautiful as ever.”
“Would you grant me the honor of dancing with you?”
Noble men were flocking to her, requesting dances.
The reason was obvious, wasn’t it?
“I’ve heard the Ludovisi Family is currently seeking new investment opportunities. Might you spare a moment to discuss this further?”
‘How pathetic—abandoning their noble pride before money.’
Prince Dominic clicked his tongue openly. Most were either businessmen chasing profit or those in poor financial circumstances.
“I prefer cute men, you see.”
Rejecting the flood of dance requests, Octavia turned toward the Masked Boy—a young child wearing a cat mask, gloved hands and a scarf wrapped around his neck, leaving no skin exposed.
Octavia had been paying attention to how the child remained alone the entire time.
“If you don’t have a partner, would you like to dance with me?”
The masked child stared at Octavia for a moment, then shook his head.
“No, I’m just here to offer my congratulations and leave.”
The casual way he spoke suggested his status was quite high.
“Still, thank you for asking me to dance.”
The child waved his hand and disappeared among the crowd.
As Octavia turned to leave the Banquet Hall, gazing quietly after where the child had vanished—
“Quite expensive taste, I see.”
A drunk noble man blocked her path. It was the Drunken Baron in his forties who had once courted her and been rejected.
“Only the Prince or the Imperial Prince will do for you, it seems? Women are all the same—no sense of their station, only eyes set too high.”
Octavia tilted her head slightly, regarding the man.
“It appears you cannot fathom, even unto death, that you yourself lack any sense of station and covet only women above your reach.”
“What are you but a lowborn commoner with money? Rather than a conventional marriage to a wealthy man, wouldn’t it be far more honorable to support a promising man with all your means and help him succeed?”
Octavia’s expression remained utterly unmoved.
In truth, it resembled the sentimentality of someone lecturing about social status to a higher-order being who had unfortunately fallen into a primitive age.
The barbarian was drunk and speaking openly, but among the men who courted Octavia, quite a few operated their happiness circuits in precisely this manner.
They believed there was a chance because the other party was a commoner while they were nobility.
The Drunken Baron, noticing Octavia lost in thought, became animated and began rambling.
“Princes and imperial heirs—those magnificent men—will look at your pretty face, toy with you a few times, and discard you. Haven’t you already experienced this with the Prince?”
He chuckled and his eyes gleamed with crude amusement.
“You must have been quite disappointing that night. The imperial heir won’t even bother with you.”
This penniless wretch had no business to destroy, no loved ones to threaten, no wealth to seize.
Having reached her conclusion, Octavia smiled faintly and picked up the wine bottle resting on the table.
“Then die.”
She couldn’t be bothered expending the energy for a tedious, pedantic resolution.
Crash—!
Lothear, the crisis management specialist, would handle the cleanup anyway.

***

Octavia emerged from the Banquet Hall and discovered the Admiral standing at the base of the Central Staircase.
Her violet eyes slowly lifted toward the stairs above.
The Masked Boy she had seen earlier stood on the upper landing, looking down at the Admiral with one hand extended as if playing rock-paper-scissors.
“What are you doing?”
At Octavia’s question, the Admiral looked up at the child with an expressionless face.
The child answered instead.
“A game where you climb the stairs by playing rock-paper-scissors. The Admiral taught me.”
He abandoned the Banquet to play with a child?
She regarded the Admiral with an expression of utter disbelief.
He stood only one step above where he had started. It meant he had lost only once during the child’s ascent.
“That was fun! Let’s play again next time!”
The child laughed with delight and departed.
Octavia approached the Admiral as he descended the stairs with dignified composure.
“Is it possible… you can’t play rock-paper-scissors?”
She had discovered a method to defeat the lethal weapon, the strongest warrior.
At this, Kelsedny Admiral shook his head.
“I let him win.”
“Really? Want to try with me?”
“No.”
“Come on, you really can’t play rock-paper-scissors.”
Whether his pride was wounded by her provocation, he extended his hand to accept the challenge.
And…
“You really can’t.”
Octavia, who had not won even once, looked up at the Admiral with a bewildered expression.
‘I actually lost to a real child?’
I felt oddly flustered seeing this unexpectedly tender side of him.
Octavia walked toward the Admiral with elegant grace, gathering her skirts in her hand.
“Will you come to the Banquet Hall with me? I’ll show you something amusing.”
As the Admiral watched her approach step by step, he moved to distance himself as usual, but instead seized her wrist.
There were cuts on her fingers and traces of blood.
“What are you planning now.”
The Admiral asked in his usual indifferent tone. Octavia gently gripped his arm with her injured hand, her eyes widening delicately.
“You’ll see when we get there. Besides, the men have been troublesome. Please stay by my side.”
“What does that have to do with me.”
In that instant, Octavia’s eyes widened in surprise.
“It seems to matter quite a bit.”
Her bleeding finger, cut by a glass shard, had slipped into his mouth.
The Admiral, as if entranced, had been sucking on her finger, but now he hastily withdrew it.
The bitter taste of blood spreading across his tongue somehow felt sweet.
With a grave expression, he traced his lips with his tongue, then roughly swept back his black hair with one hand.
“I’m losing my mind.”
Or perhaps I truly have lost it.
He withdrew a handkerchief and cleaned Octavia’s hand, then looked up to meet her gaze.
Beneath his lowered golden lashes, her pale violet eyes held something mysteriously captivating.
It wasn’t as though she had used enchantment through drugs or devices—the Royal Family’s bodies were immune to such trivial things.
“You’ll come to the Banquet Hall with me, won’t you?”
Her distinctively sweet voice shook my resolve, but I would absolutely not yield to it.
“I absolutely will not go.”
Yet Kelsedny Admiral found himself already heading toward the Banquet Hall alongside Octavia, gazing upward with eyes full of contempt for himself.
I had become someone who could not even push away the small woman who had linked her arm through mine.
‘What is this.’
I could not understand why I was following this woman’s words as if I were under her dominion.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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