My whole world was turned upside down. After the beating I recieved, they had given me another dose of poison. I was out for a couple of days, weak and restless. But in that time of being in and out of consciousness, it made me realize that I truly had a conscious here. I had to come to terms with that. The first day I was conscious I was just a mess of tears and screams. The maid-- Emma-- thought that it was pain from the beating and ignored my cries. In reality I felt hopeless and angry. Like I was being mocked but some invisible force. I get brutally murdered in an alleyway after a shit day, only to be reincarnated into villianess destined to die? How on earth is that fair? The next day, I had started to do some research and theory work with what has happened. Today, I had come to terms with some information I have found. I was definitely dropped into the story 'The Red Vow' only everything I know about Mercy as a character has been completely wrong. In the book she was seen as a confident, cruel and manipulative girl. I was able to come to the conclusion that Mercy's character in the novel was nothing to the life I am currently residing in. She wasn't confident, she was sequestered away in a tiny corner of the mansions. Forced to wear beat down dresses two sizes too big and be tended to by a abusive maid. She didn't have enough cruelty in her to squish a bug. Everything up to this point she has done at the command of the Count, told that she would help her family by doing so. She wasn't lazy, she had hard to read books and magical grimoires that she painstakingly read and practice. She had piles of hand written books, journals and notes on how to improve. It was in one of those journals that I found information that turned my life upside down. In the book, Agatha had what was called the Hands of Isis and the Blessing of Psyche. There were ten blessings and seven curses in this world, as well as tweleve special abilities that appeared in only people who hail from the Empire. After digging around in the journals, I discovered a huge scam. It wasn't Agatha who held these special abilites but Mercy the whole time. They used her abilites but pretended like it was Agatha who was doing those feats, then silenced her by cutting out her tongue so she couldn't use them. The only thing that confused me was how fragile she was and her low mana. I remembered in the novel that the people who had any other these abilites were powerhouses for mana and battle prowess whereas my mana flickered like a candle in my chest. Her mana may have been low, but my body had memorized effective healing spells, invisibility, shields and vegetation enhancement. She studied until her fingers bled, and only wanted praise from her family. The worst part of it was so bad it made me want to vomit when I discovered the truth.
"Miss Mercy, Milday Agatha is here." I dropped my book on my bed to see her standing there. She was everything I imagined she would be. Tall, slender like a supermodel, with dainty pale skin and cute rosy cheeks. Soft pure white hair pulled into an intricate and beautiful bun adorned with pearls hairclips. She wore a beautiful navy blue gown, with silver trim and embroidery of butterflies.The dress fell off her shoulders to show her slender neck adorned with silver and more pearls. She smiled sweetly with her cherry blossom lips and sparkling blue eyes but I wasn't buying it. I focused my eyes for a secondary, until I saw a halo around her. If I focused, I could see auras. Her aura around her was a sickly green colour like poison. Angry, envious, filled with venomous hate.
"Good evening sister." I nodded my head to her but feeling sick inside.
"Good evening ringworm." Her voice was so sickly sweet you would have never guessed she just insulted me. My beautiful heroine of light Agatha, was the mastermind villianess behind it all. She used her sisters Emapth abilities to get people to love her, and pretend to head them from brainwashing by faking the Hands of Isis. The Count and Countess had been planning on using Mercy and her ability to make Agatha the Empress from their childhood. It was why they even showed Mercy to the public, to brainwash and seduce people like the Crown Prince and the Grand Duke into liking Agatha. Then she was guaranteed the Empress spot since the Grand Duke is the nephew of the current Emperor and the only other possible heir. It made me sick when I was told of their plan so blatantly by Agatha herself the second time I had seen her, right before that bitch Emma poured the sickly sweet poison down my throat. She stormed in here and blurted it like she had ordered tea, not planning on treason while I was bedridden. When she told me, my image of the beautiful Saintess split in two, making me absolutely horrified. She stood before me now, smiling sweetly but having evil run through her like her own blood. I supposed tbe victors truly do write the stories.
"How can I help you, dear sister?" I had to keep my act up, just a little bit longer. Her eyes looked at me mockingly but full of joy as well as of she enjoyed watching me squirm. Her gaze faltered when I met her gaze head on. My eyes were unflinching snd she seemed taken aback.
"I wanted to make sure that you are ready for Ophelia Spigen's ball in two weeks at the imperial palace. I heard you've been awfully ill." She drew out the words awfully in a condescending tone. I sneered at her. The poisoning of Agatha at Marquess Spigen's daughters birthday debutante ball at the imperial palace was one of the first events in the novel but it was the first events and also the first time Agatha, Mercy, the Crown Prince and the Grand Duke meet.The latter half falls for Agatha after pitying her for the poisoning and the Marquess's daughter is hung for attempted murder in the imperial palace. The Marquess was a cousin of the current Empress, and was trying to get his daughter on the throne as the next Empress but she supposedly hated Agatha. Unfortunately since Agatha was poisoned in the imperial palace, the poisoning had to be judged under imperial law. I smiled at Agatha at her bitter words, but I was looking forward to my sweet revenge. Agatha looked down at me like a eagle eyeing it's prey, but managed to soften the look.
"You better be practicing on your empathy Mercy," She turned around and gave me a cold side eye,
"Do as you're told, or else you know the consequences." Agatha looked at me with her cold and steely eyes. They shot waves of fear down my back, like a icy hand was stroking me. Even so I stood firm, only standing quietly as her and her taunting maids left my barren room. She may have been frightening, but I wasn't the same Mercy she knew. I refused to be timid, and I refused to bend to her will and scheme. I wasn't even supposed to be here.
"I'm always counting in my little sister." She slid out the door like the snake she was and Emma locked the door tightly behind them.
"Fucking bitch." I cussed, rolling my eyes and immersing myself back in the grimoire. I was practicing my mana and magic. Mana felt like something so foreign and so natural at the same time. It was almost like a burning in my chest I noticed that Emma found my skin warmer than hers. She would complain about it constantly when she had to help me change. My mana was like my warmth. I could channel it into my lips and hands. Using words as my medium, I discovered how to use my emapth ability. Using my own body during healing was its own thing. When I would heal, the patients pain was transferred to me. The more I used my mana, the more my warmth became unbearable in my chest. When it was gone, I would feel ill. I tried to push myself to force as much as possible to know my limit. The grimoire I was reading outlined more important things I needed to know. It was almost like a grimoire for dummies. It explained the seven elements-- earth, fire, water, wind, light, dark and soul. Every mage held a little bit of soul magic with our life force. Empath and necromancy were soul based abilities. Some mages controlled two other elements while most only had one. If we run out of mana, we can draw from our life source directly. If you do it too much you risk permanent damage or even death. I needed to absorb as much knowledge as possible that the book maybe didn't cover. I needed to prep myself as quickly as possible to leave this hellhole and get revenge for Mercy. Once I realized the truth of what was happening, I vowed to the old Mercy that I would do what she couldn't and get revenge. I would ruin their plans and abandon ship, running off to a monastery villages away up north where they couldn't find me. I would like a peaceful quiet life as a healer, and make sure that Agatha would not the throne or kill the Crown Prince. It was much more ambitious that it sounds, but was something I felt like I had to do. I refused to let this evil house poison the rest of the world, and I wanted to bring their hideous faces to light. That was really best revenge the original Mercy would have wanted. A sweet girl used to bring a monster to the throne and then is tossed away like trash. I pitied a girl like her. Not only that I didn't like liars, and I had plenty of unfiltered rage and revenge and I needed a place to filter it. If I couldn't punish the bastards on my past life, I refused to let Mercy have and unjust end like I did. I used to think I was a nice person, now I only exist for one reason.
I wanted to take everything for Agatha and watch her burn.