The Childhood Friend of the Villainess in a Romance Fantasy

In stories focused on the villainess, the villainess tends to not really be the villain.

Here, the term “villainess” merely refers to the “young lady who should have been the villain,” for ease of understanding.

Regardless of whether the original medium is a novel, a comic, an animation, or a game, the protagonist would simply inhabit the body of the “villainess” within that story. In reality, rarely does the protagonist actually act out the true villainess’s role.

Of course, the world is vast, and there are many games, and even more web novels out there. With so many stories about villainess young ladies, there bound to be a work where the protagonist genuinely fulfills the role of a villain. Though, I haven’t encountered one in any of the novels I’ve read.

And the world I am in now is no different.

Here, the female protagonist realizes that she’s reincarnated into the body of a villainess and so puts tremendous effort into avoiding the tragic fate awaiting her.

Her efforts were so excessive, in fact, that the “original” heroine of the story ends up falling in love with Amelia, the protagonist.

Yes, that’s right. The novel I read was a yuri story.

Not only that, it was a rare yuri story tagged with “Female Protagonist” on Novelpia. And it wasn’t even a TS story.

Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have read it if it hadn’t been tagged as yuri. Romance fantasy itself isn’t exactly my preferred genre.

The novel wasn’t quite a masterpiece, but it was decent enough that I enjoyed it from beginning to end.

There were the typical male leads of a romance fantasy setting, each more flawed than the last. There was the crown prince with a personality so villainous it made you wonder how he was the “male lead.” There was the baron’s son, a stoic type who had nothing going for him beyond his silence, which made him painful to read. And there was the supposedly important Archmage of the tower, who, though technically a male lead, was so annoyingly insufferable that it was hard to feel anything but distaste.

All of them were the kinds of characters that would normally be disqualified as male leads in any typically romance fantasy. But then again, in a villainess story, that original romance fantasy novel is just part of the setting. This is true for other “transmigration” stories, not just villainess ones.

Since the “original novel” isn’t a completed work, we can overlook a few lapses in logic here and there. What matters more is how the protagonist overcomes the disadvantageous situations they find themselves in and achieves victory. That’s what makes it entertaining for the reader.

And in that sense, this novel delivered exactly what it was supposed to.

I enjoyed it well enough from start to finish, and I even felt grateful to the author for seeing it through to the end, despite it being a free serialization with no monetary gain.

Yes, I felt grateful.

Grateful, and yet…

“…”

In the mirror, a little girl with white hair and red eyes stared back at me.

When I raised my right hand to touch my hair, the girl in the mirror did the same. When I blinked, she blinked as well. I even tried winking one eye and alternating between them, and she mimicked me each time.

This felt too vivid to be a dream.

In fact, even if it were a dream, it would be strange. Dreams don’t usually continue on for days.

And recently, I remembered something else: I used to be a man.

It wasn’t until after my father had hoisted me onto his shoulders, pranced around joyfully, and then accidentally dropped me, leaving me unconscious for three days, that I finally recalled my past 27 years.

…Apparently, my mother gave my father quite a beating after that. Even with our family’s unique trait of healing unusually fast, he still had a blue bruise that wouldn’t go away, so it must’ve been more than a few gentle taps.

When I gingerly touched the bump on my head, I flinched.

Ouch. It hurts. A real, stinging pain.

Well of course it hurts, because it was a real injury.

“…”

Hmm.

How should I put it? I felt utterly drained.

I was the young lady of a baron’s family located at the very northern edge of Alwen Kingdom, which itself was in the far north.

And even then, I hadn’t actually appeared in the novel. The only reason I even remembered the name of “Baron Delkis” was because the third son of the Delkis family was one of the protagonists in the story.

Yes, that stoic male lead with no redeeming features aside from his silence.

I couldn’t understand why, if I had to be reincarnated, I hadn’t been given an important role, instead ending up as the younger sister of a minor character who faded into the background after a brief appearance in the early part of the story.

Wouldn’t it have made more sense to put me into the body of one of the main male leads?

The more I stared into the mirror, the more resentment brewed within me.

It’s not like I hated the novel, or cursed at it.

At least I hadn’t been reincarnated into a character doomed to a catastrophic future. But still… becoming a character who never even appeared in the main story? One I hadn’t even known existed? I didn’t know what to make of it.

“…”

And why, of all methods, did it have to be a head injury that triggered my memories?

I looked at the bump on my head again and cautiously lifted my hand to touch it—

Bam!

I jumped in place at the sound of the door slamming open.

“Elsie!”

The person who came in was oppa.

No, why should I even call him “oppa”? Maybe before the head injury it made sense, but now, he was simply my “hyung”. Five years of life couldn’t outweigh the 27 years I’d lived before.

At least from now on, I wouldn’t be using the embarrassing word “oppa.”

“What happened!?”

True to his reputation as a swordsmanship prodigy, my brother immediately noticed the bump on my head.

He ran up to me and slipped his hands under my arms, lifting me up in one swift motion. It was like that famous scene from that D*sney animated movie about the lion. Of course, the setting here wasn’t the savanna, but rather a gloomy stone castle surrounded by falling snow.

…And all the men in this household were giants.

Actually, the women were, too. I’d probably grow tall over time as well.

For reference, my brother, who had just lifted me up, stood well over two meters.

And by well over, I didn’t mean just a couple centimeters over.

In the story, he was supposedly 2 meters 30 centimeters tall…

It’s great to have tall male leads, but wasn’t that a bit much? Thanks to his height, he was a comical character every time he appeared. Like he was from a different genre entirely.

But for me, experiencing that height firsthand, the intimidation was overwhelming.

Think about it. A five-year-old child suddenly hoisted 2 meters 30 centimeters—or even higher—into the air.

It was enough to make anyone’s heart leap in fear.

If it were still the old me, I might not have been afraid. I was too young to understand danger then. In fact, I had vivid memories of laughing with delight while riding on my father’s shoulders.

But now, all 27 years of my memories had returned to me.

I could vaguely imagine what would happen if I fell from this nearly three-meter height and landed on my head.

Besides, this was a medieval-style castle. The floors weren’t padded with children’s mats. There was only a thin decorative rug on the rough, chiseled stone floor.

Maybe he took after our father. My brother seemed to lack caution even while holding a child.

“Harvey!!”

Sure enough, a fearsome voice came from beyond the door my brother had just barged through.

It was Mother.

Though small in stature by the standards of the people here, when she was angry, no one here was scarier than Mother.

I’d heard that her swordsmanship was almost on par with Father’s. And by the standards of the people here, that meant she was probably among the top in the entire kingdom.

Smack! A resounding slap echoed.

“You’re scaring the poor child even more!”

Uh, Mother.

Actually, your voice is more terrifying right now.

Of course, I didn’t cry.

If I were still the old me, I might have. But now, I was a robust young man of 27.

Well, my body didn’t feel very robust, though.

After prying me out of my brother’s hands, Mother gently set me down on the floor.

Father, Mother, and my brother—all of them had black hair and dark eyes.

I was the only one with white hair and red eyes.

Maybe I was an albino.

Hmm.

“See? The poor child is so frightened she can’t even say a word!”

I heard a series of dull thuds as my brother was hit again.

“Ow! Mother! Wait, please, just a second!”

As I blankly watched my brother yelp in pain, I wondered.

I, a character with a distinctive appearance in a prominent family, will eventually fade into the background as the story progresses.

Why hadn’t a character with such specific traits appeared in the main story?

…Surely it’s not because I’m destined to die young or something, right?