Reincarnated as the Villainess... Yeah, I'm Doomed

Chapter Six: Birthday

Time passed quickly as I continued my work, and before I knew it, my thirteenth birthday was only days away.

"So, what do you want for your birthday?" Prince Philip asked as we walked through the castle gardens. I had been invited (more like forced) to visit the castle by the prince. Ever since I had"saved his life" the prince had grown attached to me, making my efforts to avoid him very difficult.

Whenever I came over to visit, the prince wanted to either spar, watch the knights train, or brag about how powerful his water magic was compared to mine. After two years of this, I felt like the prince saw me as his playmate rather than his fiancé. It had gotten to the point where I wore my training attire whenever the prince invited me to the palace.

While I didn't mind hanging out with Prince Philip, I couldn't help but worry about my future at the academy. I wanted to have a quiet and uneventful school life, but if the prince didn't leave me alone, my dreams of peace would turn to shit.

"Why should I tell you, it's not like you're going to get me anything for my birthday." I scoffed. For some reason, I had decided to get my hopes up when Prince Philip came to visit the castle after my twelfth birthday, thinking that he may have gotten me a new sword or something.

Twelve year old me was naive and stupid.

The little bastard had completely forgotten about my birthday and instead of wishing me happy birthday, he greeted me with a surprise attack during my sword practice.

"I wasn't asking what you wanted meee to get you, I was just curious in general." Prince Philip said, attempting to sound as annoying as possible. He succeeded.

"You little shit." I cursed, and moved to slap him upside the head, but before I could make contact, a hand caught my wrist.

"Please refrain from using violence towards the prince Lady Callista," an icy voice ordered. I turned around to glare at a boy my age with onyx eyes and raven black hair. Ryland Thorne, the son of High Knight Thorne starred back at me, his gaze unwavering. I huffed and pulled my hand away, wiping it on my pants to spite him.

Ryland Thorne did not like me and I had no idea why. He had been appointed as the prince's guard shortly after the incident in the forest, and without reason, he already hated me. At first, I thought he was jealous or something since I was friendly with the crown prince, but it wasn't that. When other people interacted with Prince Philip he never seemed to mind. Sometimes he even smiled.

So, after enduring his unwarranted hatred for a long time (more like two days) I finally had enough. That's when our passive aggressive war started to take place behind the crown prince's back.

Whenever possible, I tried my best to make his job a little bit harder. I would convince Prince Philip to play hide and seek with me while forcing Ryland to be the seeker. This would cause him to be separated from the prince and suffer the guilt of failing his duty as a guard... okay maybe that was a little too cruel, but he didn't hold back either!

Once, when the three of us had gone to watch the knight's training, he used the loudest voice possible to 'scold me for looking at the knight's butts.' I couldn't look any of them in the eyes after that, and every time the knights passed me they would tease me by saying "eyes up here milady."

Just to be clear, the knights weren't being perverted or anything. Once I started practicing swordsmanship with Prince Philip, I found out that he was already well acquainted with the knights who guarded the castle. He enjoyed watching their training and would never miss an opportunity to practice with them. So, when I started to tag along at practices, I naturally got to know the knights as well.