Villainess

2.1

Quick A/N before the chapter starts, rainbasket on instagram made fanart of Liliana and Aleric!! Since I can only attach one item, I'll be uploading the rest of the art with next week's update. Anywho, big shoutout to them, so definitely check them out!

That's pretty much it, so thanks for 18k reads and 1k votes and all your support!

The girl gasps up from a sitting position, her thin chest rising and falling as if she had just come back from death itself.

"Are you okay, Miss?" a serf asked, placing a dampened towel on the stranger's brow in an unusual, yet appreciated moment of kindness. The girl's dazed eyes remain forward, looking at her damp feet, toes slightly blue.

"I'm...quite fine," the strange girl responds as she lays a pale hand on her chest to steady herself. "Never better."

"Hmm...well, your color is returning to you," the serf responds, dusting bits of snow off of her own shoulders. The serf was still in her cloak, "When I found you outside, you were as pale as the snow you were buried in. What are you doing out in these parts during a winter's storm, anyhow?"

'Welcome to your second world.'

In came a flood of memories into the girl's brain. She was Li Xiao, a beautiful yet poor woman. After she was found nearly dead, a warlord's maid saved her. In return, Li Xiao served on the battlefield as a nurse for the warlord. However, one of the generals went slowly insane and made mistakes that deeply weakened the army. During a crucial battle in the war, Li Xiao noticed there was something weird occurring on the battlefield, yet no one listened to her since she was merely a woman. This failure to listen to her resulted in utter genocide on the field, and the original body vowed for vengeance the moment she was stabbed through the heart.

'What's my goal?'

Before 008 could respond, Li Xiao noticed the maidservant was waiting patiently for an inkling of an answer.

Ah! I nearly forgot!

"I...I was running from marriage from a cruel man. He's had 5 wives in the past and all died within a year," Li Xiao admits as she retrieves the memory. It didn't even seem like the original body was a cruel person, she just ended up wishing for vengeance in the end. Based on how Jara explained in the Hub, a villain system could be implemented for vengeance. "I...I was afraid I'd be next, so when my carriage was shaken down by robbers, I immediately escaped. Then, I got lost in the snow storm, and here I am."

"I'm so sorry to hear that, Miss," the maidservant frowns. "No one deserves that kind of fate."

There is a lull in their conversation for a moment before Li Xiao's brows furrow together.

"Where is your master?" Li Xiao asks and the maid straightens up at the mention of his name.

"Lord Wang Jianjun is away visiting family. He'll be back soon enough."

"Alright, I'd just like to thank my host as soon as I can," Li Xiao bows. "Thank you, Miss...?"

"Cheng Heng Han," the girl responds, a crescent smile on her rounded face.

"I am Li Xiao," the transmigrator says in return.

Cheng Heng Han nods. "I shall go fetch spare clothing from the former mistress' room."

"Former? If I can ask-"

"She passed half a decade ago from coughing blood and choking," the servant responds, a sad look on her face. "She gave birth to four beautiful girls. It just happened that life finally caught up on her."