As the duke and duchess entered, Estella was once more in awe. Although they had drop dead gorgeous children, they were extraordinarily normal looking people. No wonder people say their child is their pride and joy, the difference in beauty can be drastic.
The duke was a taller male with crimson red eyes and the same royal blue hair as her, but his forehead already had plenty of wrinkles.
The duchess had jet black hair like her sons, but she had golden eyes. Putting the two together, it was really annoying. "Is this really what the developers thought an evil looking couple looks like? Yellow red eyes and dark hair colours? While being as pale as literal vampires?" she complained to herself.
As the couple sat, they smiled at their children and started to talk about how proud they were of their sons who were graduating, and how it was now Estella's turn.
"It's so great that you two can start the knighthood program there. You can still watch over your little sister." The duchess said, making Estella recall exactly how there was an Astrophel route. How basic.
"About that…" Estella interrupted, deciding to just break the news to her new family. The sooner she gets away, the better. New life, here she comes!
With all eyes on her, Estella continued. "I've been thinking that I wish to annul my engagement with the crown prince." She began, deadly serious.
The aura in the room seemed to drop, as even now Astrophel was staring at her wide-eyed. "You don't mean it, right? If it's that stupid girl harassing you again I'll get rid of her!" Aesterix hissed out, causing Astrophel to glare at him.
"What girl?" The duke asked before the two could fight. His tone was strict and borderline scary, Estella took back all the ordinary insults she threw at him a few moments prior.
"It's nothing. It has nothing to do with someone insignificant as her, I just don't want to marry him." Estella said, regaining her calm mind.
Hearing this, Astrophel growled a little, worsening the situation. "Aesterix who is she?" The duchess asked, her curiosity piqued from her children's reactions.
Happy to stick up for his sister, he began to rant. "Some illegitimate child of Duke Von Heliousen. She apparently inherited the light magic from him so he took her back since his wife is infertile. Because of this she keeps acting like she's better than Estel! She also constantly flirts with the crown prince." As much as she wanted to tell him to shut up, he was completely right.
The heroine was also one dimensional, clinging to people who had fiancé's, along with continuously being informal to the others around her despite receiving formal education. She hated playing the heroine. It felt like she was so far beyond idiotic just to make the dumb male leads look like genius.
If was clear Estella was in the right, and the fiancé's of the other male leads would agree with her too, since she actually spoke up about it.
"Rosemary isn't like that. You're both exaggerating." At this point, Astrophel was seething which annoyed almost everyone at the table. This was one of the later scenes, wasn't it?
After swearing his love to Rosemary, he becomes the Duke of Von Blackwood by killing off his family who all disapproved of their relationship. What a psycho, she thought.
"That's not all. I do not wish to take my anger out on her for my cheating fiancé, but rather him. I would prefer to annul my engagement with him, and to take back all support from the Von Blackwood duchy directed towards the imperial family." Estella began, focusing back on what she originally wished to achieve.
It all seemed to make sense, and even the twins were surprised for a second. She strongly opposed and bullied Rosemary, but now she chose to ignore her and punish the prince instead? What is this sudden change in attitude?
The Duke raised a brow as he studied their expressions. "It seems like you're completely serious. If you want, I could do something about Duke Heliousen as well." He commented.
Now she was understanding the spoiled part, perhaps Estella actually was doted on a little bit. "No, just the crown prince. The imperial family requested the engagement to keep the duchy in check out of fear, yet the crown prince has been caught cheating in broad daylight, I think this should be sufficient."
Although game Estella had probably grown to love the crown prince, and crave for her brother's love, she didn't.
The people of this world meant nothing to her, as she wished to live happily as a runaway villainess. It would of been great to be a reverse harem protagonist in a better novel or game, but this will do. She only hoped handsome men were around ready to be dated.
Laughing, the duchess agreed it was a good plan, she didn't want her daughter to be unhappy, and if that is what she wished for, so be it.
"I wish to say it to his face, too. At the party a week before the academy starts again, but this isn't all." Aesterix was smiling, this was the sister he knew. Someone confident and bold, he admired that, even if she were acting in the past.
Stroking his chin, the Duke raised a brow, waiting for her to continue. "I wish to cancel studying at the academy and to live in the neighbouring country, it should be easy to buy territory from a fallen or poor noble from how vast our neighbours are, and I wish to set up a villa there. This country will soon fall to ruin if the current crown prince takes over, especially without our support." Estella began, pausing to take a sip of her drink.
"There are no other princes to take the throne, so unless one of the king's nephews or nieces can, the Von Blackwood duchy can seize control of the throne with its vast influence." It felt like a thick layer of pressure was suffocating her, but this was just the hardest part to get through. Even if the duke said no, she was still going to run away.
"If I leave the country out of grief, being so heartbroken by my fiancé's infidelity, it would be enough to pull back our full support of the imperial family, putting full blame on them. They cannot make demands of our family or get close to me to change my mind, and they will soon crumble." She finished, pleased with how professional she sounded.
Everyone was shocked, even the maids and butlers standing by idly. Everyone knew Estella had taken lessons since young to be queen, but to come up with such a thing out of the blue? This was treason in the long run!
"Not to mention, this kills two birds with one stone. There are two successors for the duchy. Then why not have both sons be the head of the duchy and imperial family?" Estella commented as Aesterix nodded, unlike Astrophel, he had always been one to acknowledge how hard Estella worked, and noticed how one dimensional the other characters were, too.
Before Astrophel could pipe up, the Duke spoke, slow clapping. "My my, I never knew you were so smart, Estella." He began, a glint in his eyes.
"That does sound nice, if you chose to live in Aeziran, you could start a duchy there, so long as we can convince the imperial family there nicely. You understand, right?" He smiled, the duchess catching on and taking over.
"It's a good thing all our servants are loyal, darlings. Aeziran isn't on best terms with Uriean, if we promise to help them in the war with Vraxus, they could allow Aesterix to start his own duchy, with a new last name as a gift, while agreeing to a peace treaty when the throne is usurped." Although she sounded nice, the first part was a warning to the servants, if word got out, their families would find themselves dead.
"Just who was the true villainess? Compared to her parents, Estella was a saint!" She thought to herself as she took another sip of her drink.
It didn't matter to her if the crown prince's title was stripped away since his whole personality was "good looking prince" but why send Aesterix away too? She wanted to live alone in peace!
Also, what's with all these stupid names?! Too many As and they're too confusing to say! It feels like the writers played scrabble when drunk and insisted these words actually existed.
After letting his mother finish, Aesterix spoke. "I'll go with Estel to Aeziran, but I'm not going to start the duchy. I'll be willing to fight as a knight using my darkness magic for them, so long as Estel is the matriarch." A mischievous glint in his eyes.
Wait what?! Estella nearly choked. She didn't want to be the matriarch! "I take it back, please become the duke! I don't want to do any work!" She thought
Aesterix was another one of her favourite characters, but she was about to revoke that status. He was one of the few people who thought Estella would be the perfect queen, that one day he would serve as a knight or as the duke with pride. As a big brother, he genuinely was supportive, but isn't this too supportive?
As the family began to banter back and forth with the idea, they finally agreed. As long as Astrophel could protect Rosemary, and Estella became matriarch, all way agreed upon.
"Why is this entire family more villainous than me!" She thought, as she watched her parents pay off the servants to keep quiet. Well, this was all partially her fault.
So what if her life wasn't as carefree as she hoped? She'd only be stuck with Aesterix at worst! It's time to show the imperial family what a true villainess is like.