I Wasn't Supposed to Be Reborn as the Villainess!
Seraphina Hesperia De Gaspariz.
That was the name they used to whisper with disdain, the villainess in Akisha and Maverick's story.
The woman painted as cruel, arrogant, and heartless.
But behind that name.. there was me.. A girl who was never given the chance to simply be loved.
Growing up, my father forced me to become the perfect daughter he always wanted - graceful, disciplined, obedient. Every smile I gave him was a lie, forced through trembling lips.
He would make me kneel for hours if I failed to memorize a passage, strike my hands with a cane when I stumbled over words, tell me I was worthless when my embroidery wasn't perfect enough to show the other noble ladies.
There were days when I'd cry quietly in my room, clutching my swollen palms, whispering to myself that one day I'd be enough.
My stepmother was worse. She smiled in front of others, all sweetness and silk, but when the doors closed, her hands were sharp and her words sharper.
She called me cursed, unloved, unwanted and I believed her.
No one ever knew the bruises beneath my sleeves or the quiet sobs muffled by pillows at night.
She took everything that was soft in me and made it ache.
And then there was my sister, Novaria.
Beautiful, radiant and shimmers. But she has secrets too.
She hated me, I could see it in her eyes, in the way her smile vanished whenever I entered the room. She thinks father loves me more than her, but she is wrong.
Yet still.. I loved her. Because no matter how much pain she caused, she was still my sister. And love, even when broken, doesn't fade easily.
The man I loved, my fiancé, Maverick, the crown prince of Eldryn. Once, he looked at me as if I was his entire world.
He would smile faintly whenever our eyes met, his voice soft whenever he called my name.
But love… love doesn't always survive silence.
He drifted away, slowly, painfully, until one day, his gaze turned cold.
And I had no one to blame but myself.
I wasn't ready to open my heart, how could I, when all my life I was taught that love meant pain?
The trauma of my childhood clung to me like a shadow.
My inner child that frightened little girl still hiding in the corner of a cold room, never stopped crying.
And no matter how much I tried to be strong, she haunted every decision I made.
Akisha, my beloved friend, my companion and Maverick's beloved. She was everything I was not: Gentle, adored, angelic, a light that drew everyone near.
While I. Was the villainess in her story.
People looked at me and saw cruelty, arrogance, jealousy.
They saw only what they wanted to see.
Was it because she shines brighter than anyone else's? Because she was the angel, and I was the devil who stood beside her?
In the end, my story ended as all villainess tales do.
I was executed by the very hand of the man I loved.
Falsely accused of betraying my kingdom, of selling Eldryn's secrets and poisoning Lady Akisha.
How could I ever do that?
Why would I ever harm the only people I cared for?
But the world.. the world was cruel to me.
Even my beloved brother, my protector, my light, turned his back when I needed him most.
In that final moment, as the blade hovered above me, I wondered…
Was I truly the villain they made me to be?
Or just a broken girl who no one ever tried to understand?
