The Villainess Will Obey Her Destiny? HELL NO! (HIATUS)

Chapter 18 Engagement

"Yes, there is an important matter I have to tell you about."  He looked up at Selene and motioned to sit down in front of him.  

"What is it?" Selene asked as she sat on the comfortable sofa growing more confused about his intention to call her here.

"You...are to be engaged to the prince." The duke said straightforwardly, true to his nature.

"Engaged?" Selene repeated panicking inside, she had totally forgotten about this event with all the things she had been busy with. In the novel too, Selene was engaged to the first prince just before her 12th birthday, although their engagement was officially announced on her debut.

Seeing Selene go silent after uttering the word 'engaged', the duke assumed she was too surprised. He said-

"I know this is a surprise for you, but the promise for this engagement was made between me and emperor a long time ago. He and I had been friends for a long time. Besides I believe you had talked about you wanting to engage with the prince in the past."

Selene nodded slowly. It was true, the villainess was in love with the male lead way before he even got to know her formally. The reason for this was not mentioned in the novel but Selene found out about it from the villainess's memories. Their first meeting was not when she went to the palace for the engagement but when she was ten.

Facing her father's estrangement and the whispers about her bringing disaster to her mother everywhere, the villainess always stayed cooped up in her room. But if there was one event that everyone had to attend it was the royal annual ball. The villainess who had not reached the age of eleven, also had to attend.

But even with those bright lights and delightful arrangements of the ball, she felt alone. Because of her aloofness no one of her age approached her and even if someone mustered the courage to go near her they were scared away by the cold expression she had on her face. After attending to some superficial words from the people who wanted to get close with her father, she excused herself to the balcony.

But instead of going there she went to the garden to enjoy some solace in solitude. All the happiness in the ball fake or not, made her envious who seemed to be immersed in darkness and sadness forever after her mother's tragedy. 

She walked down the snowy stone pathway on the garden, silent tears falling down her cold cheeks. Suddenly she tripped on a stray stone and was about to fall headfirst because of the dress she was wearing, when someone caught her by the shoulder.

It was none other than Prince Augustus, who she had seen in the ball room. He noticed the tear streaks on her cheeks before pulling out and giving her his handkerchief without questioning why she was in the garden or why she was crying. He  smiled at her then went back to the ball. Not knowing that his small kind gesture had touched the heart of the amethyst-eyed girl he had helped.

"Alright, I will do that." Selene said, bringing herself back from the memories of the villainess.

"If you have any complaint, just say so." The Duke said looking at Selene who had been lost in her thoughts.

"I don't have any, I anyway had the desire to get engaged with the prince. And the engagement can always be dissolved when I reach adulthood." Although there was indeed a promise about her engagement between the duke and the emperor, the real reason behind it was the need to officially join the Clypeus and royal family. 

The duchy needed a reason other that being the founding family to clean the dirty nobles in the court, the engagement between her and the prince was the most easy and perfect solution. She knew about this because the main male lead always brought this up whenever Selene spoke about her rights as his fiancée. And even though she wanted to avoid the villainess's ending she had no interest in troubling her 'father'.