A knock at the door interrupted my internal villain monologue.
I'll make it worth your while.
I looked at my reflection and saw the future. Not the tragic, doomed villainess from the game, but something new. Something better. Something that would make every isekai protagonist look boring by comparison.
Someone who would go down in flames and take everyone with her.
Someone who would make them wish they'd just let her live quietly.
Someone who got hit by a truck and decided to make it legendary.
Let's see how iconic I can become in six months.
Let's see if I can out-villain every villainess who ever existed.
Let's see if I can make Truck-kun PROUD.
A knock at the door interrupted my internal villain monologue.
"Lady Isabel?" A timid voice called from the hallway. "Are you awake? Your mother requests your presence for breakfast."
I turned away from the mirror, my grin still firmly in place, my heart singing with chaotic glee.
Oh, this is it. My first test. My first chance to establish that I'm not the old Isabel anymore.
My first chance to make Truck-kun's sacrifice MEAN something.
The original Isabel—the game version—would have responded with cold politeness, maintaining her image as the perfect noble daughter even in private. She would have been obedient, proper, desperate for approval.
But I wasn't her anymore.
I was someone who got hit by a truck and thought it was hilarious.
I was someone who had nothing to lose.
"Enter!" I called, and was delighted to hear that my voice came out bright and cheerful in a way that somehow made it sound more threatening, like a knife wrapped in silk and dipped in the cosmic irony of vehicular manslaughter.
The door opened, and a young maid stepped inside. She was maybe fourteen or fifteen, with mousy brown hair and nervous eyes that darted around the room like she was expecting something to jump out at her. She kept her gaze lowered, her hands clasped in front of her.
"My lady, the Duchess specifically requested—"
"Oh, did she?" I interrupted, walking toward her with a bounce in my step that was probably deeply unsettling given the context and the manic energy radiating off me. "How lovely. Tell my dear mother that I'll join her when I'm good and ready. Not a moment before."
The maid's eyes widened. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish.
"But—but my lady, the Duchess said it was urgent—"
"Do I look like I care what my mother thinks is urgent?" I leaned in closer, still smiling that too-bright smile, the smile of someone who'd been isekai'd by Truck-kun and decided to make it everyone's problem. "Between you and me, I think breakfast can wait. Don't you?"
The maid looked like she was about to cry.
Excellent.
"Run along now," I said cheerfully, making a little shooing motion with my hands. "Tell Mother I'll be down eventually. Maybe. If I feel like it. Tell her I had a very enlightening morning contemplating the nature of existence and vehicular homicide."
The maid stammered something incomprehensible and practically fled, leaving the door wide open behind her.
I waited until her footsteps faded down the hallway, then turned back to the mirror and let out another delighted laugh.
Oh, this is going to be SO much fun.
Thank you, Truck-kun. Truly. From the bottom of my reincarnated heart.
I could already imagine the chaos. The confusion. The slowly dawning horror as everyone realized that Isabel Nyx Raven had changed. That she wasn't playing by the rules anymore. That she was something new and unpredictable and dangerous. That she'd been touched by the divine comedy of isekai tropes and emerged as chaos incarnate.
I walked back to the vanity and studied my reflection one more time. Isabel Nyx Raven, daughter of House Raven, one of the most powerful noble families in the Kingdom of Astervane. Engaged to Prince Aldric Solcrest, the cold and handsome first prince who treated her like an inconvenient accessory.
Destined to die horribly in approximately six months when the heroine arrived and the game's plot kicked into gear.
But until then?
Until then, I'm going to have the time of my life.
Until then, I'm going to make Truck-kun's sacrifice LEGENDARY.
I reached for the wardrobe, flinging it open with perhaps more enthusiasm than necessary. Inside was a sea of black dresses, because apparently Isabel's entire aesthetic was "gothic nightmare" and I was absolutely here for it.
I grabbed one at random—black silk with silver embroidery that looked like thorns climbing up the bodice, because subtlety was for people who weren't about to become legendary villains and hadn't been isekai'd by delivery vehicles.
As I dressed, I mentally reviewed what I knew about the game's timeline. The heroine, Seraphina Brightwell, wouldn't arrive at the Royal Academy for another six months. That gave me time. Time to prepare. Time to establish myself. Time to start gathering the crimes and infamy I'd need.
Time to become unforgettable.
Time to make every isekai protagonist look boring by comparison.
Time to prove that Truck-kun chose CORRECTLY.
But first, I needed to understand my position. My family. My resources. My enemies.
And I needed to make it very, very clear that the old Isabel was gone.
That the new Isabel had been forged in the fires of cosmic irony and vehicular manslaughter.
That the new Isabel was going to be legendary.
I finished dressing and examined myself in the mirror one last time. The black dress hugged my figure perfectly, the silver embroidery catching the light like spider webs. My purple eyes gleamed with something that was definitely madness and definitely ambition and definitely the glee of someone who'd been hit by a truck and decided it was the best thing that ever happened to them.
I looked like a villainess.
I looked like chaos incarnate.
I looked like someone who'd been isekai'd and was going to make it everyone's problem.
I looked perfect.
"Alright, Isabel," I said to my reflection, my grin widening until it was almost manic. "Let's go traumatize some nobles. Let's make Truck-kun proud. Let's show this world what happens when you give a cynical Tokyo office worker a second chance at life as a doomed villainess."
My mother wanted to see me? Fine. I'd give her a show she'd never forget.
After all, legends had to start somewhere.
And mine started today.
With breakfast.
And probably some light psychological warfare.
And a silent prayer of thanks to Truck-kun, the hardest-working entity in the isekai industry.
This is going to be AMAZING.
I swept out of the room, my skirts swishing dramatically, barely containing the urge to cackle like the villain I was destined to become, the villain that Truck-kun had chosen, the villain who would make this whole cosmic joke WORTH IT.
Six months until I died.
Six months to become the most infamous woman in the kingdom.
Six months to make them all regret the day Isabel Nyx Raven was born.
Six months to prove that getting hit by a truck was the BEST thing that ever happened to me.
Challenge accepted, Truck-kun.
Challenge ACCEPTED.