Chapter 3 - The Villainess

Aksia Euridice.

She is, for me, the greatest villainess in all of the otome games I've played. By 'greatest', I mean that out of all the antagonists I've seen, I consider her as the evilest. The name of the otome game is 'A Magical Romance'. The name didn't really catch my attention, but the art of the game did. I just saw an advertisement and I got interested in it.

The story is about the heroine, Anastasia Clovis. The first name was actually changeable because it was the player who's going to play as her. However, the creator did give her an original name.

Unlike other otome games I've played where the heroine is a commoner, Anastasia is the daughter of a Baron. The world of 'A Magical Romance' has magic. The story revolves around the Royal Academy, a magic school in the Kingdom of Lansera. At first, I was only interested in the art but when I started playing it, I immediately liked it.

Anastasia isn't the typical 'cute' heroine. She's more of a calm and cool beauty type. She hates showing her weakness, she also keeps on insisting that she isn't kind when in fact, she is. As a daughter of a Baron, she learned how to act and what to say to not attract the other nobles' attention. Because of her high magic attribute for light and because of her indifference sometimes, she can become a target of 'fun' for other higher-ranking nobles.

It even became worse when Anastasia caught the attention of the 4 capture targets. The Crown Prince of Lansera Kingdom, the Second Prince, the unbeatable 1st Placer of the Academy, and the Knight of the 2 Prince who's disguising himself as a student.

And in the middle of everything, there is Aksia Euridice.

The villainess.

In the game, Aksia hated Anastasia. She didn't like how Anastasia was getting all of the attention, specifically the 4 capture targets attention. She also didn't like how their magic was the total opposite of each other, they were constantly compared to each other because of that. If Anastia has light magic, Aksia has dark magic.

Aksia inherited her magic from her grandfather who died when she was still around 6 years old. However, her grandfather wasn't really welcome into the Euridice Family. Even the Duke, Aksia's father, Lancer Euridice hated his own father. In the Kingdom of Lansera, having dark magic is considered as a 'curse'.

But even if that is the case, they can't also deny that dark magic is on par with light magic. Even though it's considered as such, it's still powerful.

Originally, the Euridice family doesn't have someone with dark magic. It's only possible for Aksia to have it because her grandfather, Reynald Euridice, is born from a noble and a commoner. That commoner was a woman with dark magic, the duke married her without knowing about it. He only found out after the woman gave birth to Reynald.

The woman died of childbirth and the Duke ignored his own son his whole life.

If it can be inherited, then why Lancer, the son of Reynald, doesn't have it? That's because the inheritance possibility is as low as 10%. People with dark is magic is rare, after all.

Lancer hated dark magic too – it's also the reason why he hated his father. He thought that his father was also a 'cursed' man. At that time, Reynald doesn't have anything. He may be a noble but he isn't really accepted by the Euridice family. Because of their hard life, Lancer's mother died and he blamed everything on his father.

He then did everything to become the Duke of Euridice – he killed his grandfather, the current Duke.

But imagine his reaction when his firstborn daughter also bears the very same magic that he hates. He couldn't accept it, so like what his grandfather did to his father, Lancer also ignored his daughter. Aksia's mother, Duchess Oceana Euridice also can't accept Aksia. She thought she's the reason why the Duke's love for her disappeared. The truth is, the Duke never loved her. He married her for a political purpose only and power but of course, Aksia's mother didn't know that.

Oceana ignored Aksia too, but she started abusing her when she turned 7.

And Askia... she just wants to be loved by her parents – she desperately wants them to treat her like their daughter at least once. Because of this, she did everything she could. She studied hard and read a lot of books. She studied manners and etiquette. She learned about swordsmanship.

And despite being continuously abused by her mother, Aksia doesn't have the heart to hate her.

When Aksia started attending social gatherings, people would always talk bad about her – both in front of her and behind her back. Some high ranking nobles are aware that the Duke and Duchess of Euridice don't care about their daughter, but Aksia is still a noble and a daughter of a Duke, they're still afraid to offend her.

As a child, Aksia acted mȧturėd compared to other children her age. She refused to show any weakness and is always cold and stoic.

When Aksia turned 16, she got engaged to the Crown Prince of Lansera Kingdom, Deor Lansera. Aksia was given a choice at that time, and even though she hadn't met the Prince even once, she still accepted because she saw it as an opportunity to make her parents accept her.

Then at age 18, she started attending Royal Academy.

And that's when the actual plot of the game started.

The reason why I called her the 'evilest' is because unlike other antagonists, she's actually smart and cunning. She can manipulate people to their will and she's willing to do anything to get what she wants, even if it means blackmailing others or threatening them. It's even worse because people are afraid of her because of her dark magic. She's also good at acting and fooling others.

A perfect rival for the smart heroine.

But with the help of the four capture targets, Aksia meets her end.

And near the end, when Aksia was about to get executed, and when the heroine asked her why she did all of those horrible things – Aksia just smiled at her. It was a smile that changed the opinions of the players about her.

Because her smile isn't the smile of a defeated, it shows regret and resignation as if she had already expected this kind of ending.

And just like that, the game ended with Anastasia getting engaged to the capture target with the highest affection value.