The Villainess’ Beloved Plan: The Struggles to Avoid a Doomed End

‘I feel uncomfortable, as if I’ve forgotten something important but then, I don’t know what it is.

When I try to think about what it is, my thoughts are blacked out and I can’t understand anything’.

“Sophia”

‘I thought I heard someone call my name, but the voice was noisy and I couldn’t make out who it was.

I don’t know why, but… I felt as if I wanted to cry terribly’.

☆

Randall was stunned to hear that Sophia had pretended to be Cyril’s lover and that she had feigned amnesia from Cyril, who had decided that he could not remain silent now that Sophia had been poisoned.

Cyril has already gone to report this to the King, and Carnelia has been deported to Saladora for drugging a princess from another country with dubious drugs.

Cyril and the king have both apologised, but Randall didn’t not know whether he should be angry or not.

Sophia, who has been poisoned with a love potion, clings to D’Artagno and refuses to leave, as if a cat had been given catnip.

‘This is driving me crazy. ……’

According to Orion, who somehow knew about the love potion Sophia was made to drink, the love potion Sophia drank is effective until death and requires an antidote made by a witch to detoxify it.

The witch Orion had in mind was said to live at the foot of the Magellan Mountains, near the border between Verhund and Saladora.

There seems to be no other way to deal with the situation than to find the witch and ask her to make an antidote to the love potion. Both the king and Cyril said they will take responsibility for searching for the witch Marble, but will it really be that easy to find her?

“Master, wouldn’t it be better to report to His Majesty, Lord Kyle and the others that your wife has been found?”

“Right. ……. Don’t mention Sophia’s condition, just inform them that she has been found. I can’t tell them that she’s been drugged with love potion and that she’s gone mad”.

“Okay, sir”.

Johannes nodded and left the room to write a letter.

Randall ruffled his hair and got up from the sofa.

“I’m going for a walk”.

He told Isolte and Orion in the room, left the room and went down to the garden.

‘I don’t know whether to be happy that Sofia is safe or angry that she has been drugged with some strange love potion and is indulging in a man other than her husband.

Strangely, however, rather than the urge to shout at her, I feel more relief that she was actually my ‘Sophia’ and a sense of loneliness at seeing her love for D’Artagno’.

Randall has the right to take his own wife back, but what would happen if he forced Sophia back to the country now?

Randall, who was walking aimlessly through the garden, stopped when he suddenly saw Sophia out of the corner of his eye.

Sophia’s cheeks were flushed and she was cutting roses with a pair of scissors in her hands.

She looked up as Randall approached and smiled, looking flustered.

“Hello, Randall”.

When she called Randall ‘Randall’, it seemed that ‘Randall’ had not become a stranger to her. But the original Sophia would never smile so vulnerably at Randall. It wasn’t clear what position ‘Randall’ occupies in her mind at the moment, but he wondered if she perceived him as just an acquaintance.

“…… What are you doing picking so many roses?”

Randall looked down at the basket in Sophia’s hand and asked, and Sophia seemed embarrassed.

“You know, I’m giving them to D’Artagno”.

“For D’Artano?”

He felt a prick, and a needle-like pain ran through Randall’s heart.

With a smile, Sophia held out a white double-flowered rose to Randall who instinctively held his chest.

“I’ll give you one too, Randall. You gave me a pink rose the other day, right? Well, the rose belongs to the castle, so it’s strange to say I’m going to give it to you.”

“Thank you, …….”

Randall begrudgingly accepted a white rose with the thorns carefully removed.

Staring at the rose, Randall wanted to ask, and opened his mouth.

“Sophia. What kind of person am I to you?”

Sophia looked at him with a puzzled look, and bowed her head, as if thinking deeply.

“That’s right, I never thanked you properly”.

“Thank you?”

“Yes. Thank you for marrying me even though you hate me. Thanks to you, I was happy to live away from the castle. The castle was uncomfortable and …… suffocating. But you know what? You don’t have to stay married to me anymore. I have D’Artagno now so….let’s get a divorce.”

“……….”

Randall stiffened, clutching the rose.

Apparently, the ‘Randall’ in Sofia’s mind was her husband. The memory of their marriage is certainly still with her. Yes, all of Randall’s attitude towards her so far also remains in her.

‘I know that this is what the love potion made her say, and that she didn’t really mean it, but…..’.

‘Divorce ……’

Randall was unspeakably shocked by these words.

Even Randall had thought at the beginning of the marriage that he would divorce Sophia if he could prove that she isn’t the king’s daughter, so why does it make his heart hurt so much to hear it from her mouth?

Why didn’t he consider the possibility that Sophia would eventually fall in love with someone else and disappear from his side?

‘Calm down. It’s the drugs. It’s not Sophia’s true feelings. ……’

Sofia smiled with a lightheaded, intoxicated look on her face.

Her will is now controlled by a love potion, a drug unknown to Randall.

So this is not her will. It is not her true intention. Randall found himself trying to convince himself of this, which he found pathetic and comical.

And yet…

“Sophia, thank you for the rose”.

Even though he knew that this was not Sophia’s true intention, Randall could not help but smile.

He could only thank Sophia for the rose and leave her side, still smiling as if intoxicated.