Villainess Syndrome

Colette was not an athletic girl, but she was not frail either. That was why their daughter’s lack of strength for the past couple of days shocked them. They called many well-known doctors and priests. All of them said the same thing—nothing was wrong with their daughter’s body.

They stood beside Colette’s queen-sized bed; her wavy brown hair was loosely tied with a ribbon. Suzanne held her hand as Colette slowly opened the eyes that she inherited from her father.

“Colette, my dear,” Suzanne held Colette’s hand tighter.

“Mother, Father,” Colette glanced at each of them, “I love you.”

“We love you, too, dear,” Dale covered his wife and daughter’s hands with his own.

That moment, their whole world seemed to turn silent. They had only read the last words from Colette’s mouth, “Goodbye.”

Colette never stopped breathing, but she did not wake up.

And now, it has been a month since their daughter was healed by Sophia Vitus, a wandering priestess they coincidentally found. That much time was enough for Suzanne and Dale to notice that their daughter was a bit off.

How should they put it? Colette seemed to have undergone a personality flip.

Colette became lazy. She used to wake up early and read books in passing. Now, her past time became admiring jewels and decorations inside their mansion. 

Her graceful upbringing evaporated. What remained was nothing but a crude person, lacking even the basics of etiquette. In the dining hall, she ate as if there's famine. They never knew their daughter could eat so much.

Sometimes, they would see Colette staring at nothingness. Then, she would suddenly laugh to herself, "This is power. This is how a noble should live."

The couple never knew how and when it started, but their daughter became fond of giving nonsense orders to the maidservants.

"Wear this witch costume I found, and use this broom to fly," to their daughter's dissatisfaction, the maid failed to fly.

"Chase after that dog and bark at it."

It became a daily ritual. The maidservant never recovered from the blow in her sanity and would often chase dogs while barking as a habit.

The maidservants were being forced to obey shameful orders. As two pretty maidservants ran towards each other, they shouted, "CHARGE!"

The intense blushes on the maidservants' faces were a sight to behold.

Suzanne couldn't help but cast a strange gaze to her husband, "The maidservants have it tough."

"They do," Dale nodded.

The husband and wife both found the orders entertaining. Whether they admit it or not was another matter.

Their daughter would look at them with taunting eyes after she ordered the maidservants. Her expression seemed to say, ‘What are you going to do with that, huh?’

It’s like she has this calling to wreak havoc in their home to prove something that they could not understand. It made them feel as though that person was not their daughter anymore, and maybe it was their fault.

'Ahh, our gentle daughter is no more.'

---

"HACHOO!"

Coco rubbed her nose. Some people must have been talking about her.

She was in the middle of giving out orders to the maidservants when Alfonse came with the orders from her parents. He brought her to the study.

When Coco left, the maids sighed in relief. They could be counted as casualties of Coco's boredom, which stemmed from this world's lack of modern entertainment, and of course, her silent rebellion against the parents who loved her.

Coco never wanted to practice favoritism, so every maidservant tasted some bitterness.

'To give favor to all means to give favor to none.'

Coco soon reached the door to the study. It’s the day that she'd been waiting for.

 “Hmp. So you finally saw that I’m a different person,” she knocked at the door, ready to be driven out from home like what happened to her back on earth.

For the past month, the couple spoiled her and gave her everything she asked for, no matter how unreasonable. She played a lot of pranks to irk them. But they tolerated her and merely gave her warning, again and again. Now, she’s finally able to get rid of the affection wasted on her.

However, what they talked about was so different from what she expected. 

“We don’t know why you are behaving this way, dear. Maybe we should hire a tutor to—”

“I don’t need one! Why don’t you get it?” Coco cut her mother from speaking and stormed out of the study.

The door closed with a loud bang. The couple stared at the closed door worriedly.

‘What should I do to make them give up on me?’

That’s when an idea came to her—a brewing storm.

---

“Nonsense!” Alfonse shushed the gossipy maids.

Coco smirked at what she overheard. It was exactly as she planned. 

Rumors had been spreading in the Corliss Mansion for the past few days. According to the rumors, a girl once drowned on the small pond of the mansion one hundred years ago. She returned to the world, Vestia, to remind it of her existence.

‘It’s about time for the fun part.’

The moon shined bright as it hung on the night sky.

Beside the rumored pond, an old lady passed by. It was her usual road to her quarters.

The old lady did not know why, but that night was particularly chilly. She rubbed her arms and walked faster.

An eerie song floated in the air, giving her a shock. She looked around to find the source, but there was no one other than her. Until she saw the blurry image of a girl with an abnormally white face. If her eyes were clearer, she would recognize that the girl was Colette.

She saw the barefooted girl soaked her feet in the small pond.

“G-ghost!”

The ghost turned around, “Boo.”

---

A loud scream, followed by a splash, woke up the people in the mansion. But it was not the scream of the old woman. It was Coco’s.

"Boo," when she turned around to look, she saw an old woman with long gray hair that covered her face. The old woman wore a white dress and was extremely pale from fright.

Coco moved backwards, then, heard the water splash. She was shocked by the wet sensation that enveloped her, and that was when she realized—her prank actually backfired. Who would’ve thought that a scary old woman works in their mansion?

When Coco fell on the pond, the old woman was scared out of her wits. She pressed her hand to her chest and collapsed.

That was the scene that the people saw when they arrived.

Coco pulled herself out of the pond. The cold night wind blew past her soaked body, but her heart was colder. She approached the old woman, ‘This is not supposed to happen…’

“Colette Corliss,” her father looked at her with a grave expression. It was the expression she wanted to see. But not this way.

She barely choked out, “I’m sorry.”

Her tears won’t stop flowing. It was the first time her tears fell after transmigrating. She just stared dumbfounded at the scene as people kept moving.

She saw the tired faces of her parents as they tried to solve the problem that she created. They were busy with their duties as duke and duchess, but she still bothered them during their rare resting period.

It was not petty bullying this time. She almost killed the old woman.

She stared at her shaky hands, ‘It was supposed to be a prank…’

Suzanne held her cold hands, “Don’t worry, dear. It’s going to be all right. Get changed, or you’ll have colds.”

---

Coco sat in front of the altar she made almost a month ago. There was a portrait of a girl with wavy brown hair and emerald-green eyes. It was surrounded by fresh, white flowers fitting to the girl in the portrait’s gentle aura. Unknown to others, there was a small drawing behind the picture of the girl. It was a drawing of a girl with black hair and eyebags—someone who hid behind the face of another. And that someone was her, trapped in another’s body.

She lit a candle in front of the portrait. She mourned for Colette and for herself. After all, she died, too. Recalling her poor relations in her past life, Eva might be the only one who mourned for her. Clearly, there was a deficit of mourners and she had to make up for it.

“Maybe, I really am the villainess of the game,” Coco associated her actions to the Colette of the game.

Colette Corliss was supposed to be a petty and shallow person, making big things out of nothing. She was the rival character who chased after one of the love interests, Danté Eldridge. He was the servant of Lilianne Celestial, a Marquis’s daughter. The heroine. Lilianne’s heroine halo also extended to Jade Corliss, her brother, to which she highly objected.

She bullied Lilianne in front of other students at Madison Academy, the plot’s stage. Her behavior was shameful, especially for a Duke’s daughter. Her notorious reputation spread in the noble circle. She faced the consequences of her actions, which included social isolation. To make things worse, it implicated the Corliss couple who could not bear to watch their daughter suffer humiliation, even if she deserved it.

Coco cannot be bothered about social isolation. That’s basically her life on earth; she didn’t even need to adapt.

But she remembered the eyes of Colette’s parents. It was full of love and worry with a hint of disappointment. It was the disappointment that she wanted, but it suffocated her heart at that moment. This time, she knew that it was not only because of Colette’s body. She also doesn’t want to see that look of disappointment again.

“What should I do?” she asked the girl in the portrait.

It’s not like she could change right away. She tried to, on earth. But her hands were always itching for trouble. And she had to admit it was fun.

‘Why did Eva write that her parents will always clean up after her?’

What a messed-up game. It was not realistic at all. Her foster parents never cleaned up for her. In fact, they could not sit still and would make stupider mistakes. Sometimes, she watched them as they entered the jail, for fun.

“Ahh, those were the days,” she recalled happy moments of her past life to make herself feel better, albeit temporary.

---

Suzanne watched at Colette’s mourning back in front of a portrait, her daughter’s portrait. She covered her mouth and stifled a cry. Looking at that lonely back made her inexplicably guilty. If she could not even realize anything, she would not be Colette’s mother.

She approached the portrait and lit a candle. Suzanne silently prayed. It was time to let go, ‘Goodbye…’

Suzanne sat beside Colette, looked up, and forced her tears back. She sighed and held Coco’s hand, “Everything will be alright.”

“I’m sorry,” Colette appeared extremely fragile at that moment, and it almost broke Suzanne.

She shook her head, “I know you didn’t mean it.”

She lifted Colette’s chin, “But you must take responsibility for your actions, okay?”

“Ok,” Colette looked from left to right, “About the tutor that you were telling me… I…”

“We’re not forcing you, dear.”

“No. I think I should get one,” she saw how Colette tried to make up for her actions; actions that she realized that she might have played a part on.

They stayed silent for a while. Then, Suzanne smiled gently at the girl in front of her, “What would you want me to call you from now on?”

The girl jolted and looked at her. She stayed silent for a while and then opened her mouth, “I… You can call me Coco.”

Suzanne enveloped Coco into a warm hug, “Coco, my dear.”

“Thank you.”

“Call me mom,” she let go from the hug and put her hands on Coco’s shoulders.

Coco hesitated for a while, “Thank you… mom.”

There were no questions asked. Just silent acknowledgement of something that only they themselves understood.