When Blanche opened her eyes again, an unfamiliar scenery awaited her despite her just having fallen asleep in bed. She was standing on a wooden platform in front of a fancy building, which she didn't recognize.

People in black robes stood before the stage. Some of them exchanged a few words, but all of them stared at the platform. Their faces were blurred, but still, she could make out their eyes. The hateful gaze of every single person pierced through Blanche, and she felt like her whole body was immersed in ice water. Those weren't humans, she was sure of it.

She shivered and shrank a little in herself. Even though she couldn't remember who these people were, they had an alarming amount of resentment within their eyes. She attempted to slowly take a step backward away from the crowd, only to be stopped by two pairs of arms that held her shoulders in place.

Blanche began to protest immediately. “What are you-”

The words died in her throat when she lifted her eyes to the males restraining her. Their uniforms belonged to the palace guards. These knights were only authorized to make arrests if the matter was connected to the royal family.

Or if they had been ordered by the emperor.

Terror rose inside her, and Blanche tried to struggle against the men's tight grip. When she moved her arms, a clink sounded. She looked down, only to find her hands chained together.

“Lady Blanche.” A booming voice echoed through the air. Her gaze snapped to the noise's origin, where an old man in a dark green cloak stood. This was the judge uniform of Artias which indicated that this man was indeed a judge. He continued to speak without waiting for her reply. “Are you aware of the crimes that you have been accused of and will accept your guilt?”

Her mind was unable to form a single coherent thought. What was the judge talking about? Why was she on a trial and hadn't noticed coming here? She opened her mouth and closed it again without speaking up. While her body had previously felt cold, she was burning up now. She didn't know what to answer nor did she want to make a single noise.

Still, her lips parted. She heard her own voice respond loudly but with a tone full of fear.” I don't! I'm innocent! The only reason I'm standing here is because of a manipulated investigation. Theodore, I've been by your side for so long. I would never harm you or your child. If you just stop to think about this whole trial, it will become clear. Everything is a lie! This all is just an elaborate scheme by the empress to get rid of me! Theo, she is the one who really-”

“Silence.” A cold voice quietened her.

Blanche's eyes widened in recognition. Her gaze flew across her surroundings to locate the man who had spoken.

Next to the judge, two thrones stood which didn't make it hard to identify both of the people sitting on them. The emperor and the empress wore their formal attires and even the crowns. But more than their almost ceremonious appearance, their facial expressions were unsettling. They stared at the chained woman like she was nothing more than a rotting piece of flesh, their gazes full of disdain and disgust and even more resentment than the eyes of the people watching had.

Blanche's dread slowly began to take over her thoughts. She just wanted to run away or become smaller, to do something so that they couldn't see her anymore. Her body shivered uncontrollably now. Everyone present should be able to sense her fear, but no one intervened, not even her lover. She gave Theodore a pleading look and froze when she met his gaze. His face expressed more fury than Seraphina's, and that sight made Blanche sick to the stomach.

The emperor's hateful stare made her heart skip a beat and the floor beneath her feet seemed to give in. What had she done to receive this much anger from him? Why was Theodore speaking to her with such an unloving tone? “Do you still pretend to be the victim after all the things you have done? You know exactly what you did. Don't insist on telling me otherwise.” His penetrating voice sounded like he fought to keep himself calm, but his fury was still dripping through the cracks of his self-control.

Blanche didn't remember anything he could be referring to and opened her mouth to refuted him. But one glimpse at his expression let all words disappear from her brain. He wouldn't believe her.

The emperor's gaze darkened even more at her silence. “You have already lost, and still, you continue to lie to yourself in order to justify your malicious deeds. It's truly pathetic.”

A jolt ran down her spine as she tried to apologize for whatever she had done. She wanted to say anything necessary to calm him, but her voice refused to come out. Her mind told her one thing even though she tried to fight it. She shouldn't speak now. She had lost because the villains would always lose. And as soon as the villain died, the main characters would be happy. So, she should just get over with it quickly.

Was that what this scene was? The villainess' condemnation? A small idea in Blanche's mind hinted at why this whole situation seemed so familiar, but she didn't have time to think.

The emperor nodded towards the judge, who immediately started to speak. “The investigation of the royal palace has led to the discovery of solid evidence against Lady Blanche. There are numerous decisive clues that prove that she is responsible for a series of incidents that aimed to severely injure Her Majesty and later even to take her life away. These include but aren't limited to hiring assassins and attempting to poison Her Majesty which would have led to the death of the royal heir she is carrying as well. Thus, Lady Blanche is convicted of treason against the royal family and the nation of Artias. She shall be stripped of her title as a baroness. Since she is considered a threat to our country's well-being from now on, she is to be executed this instant.”

All color drained from Blanche's face as the crowd cheered with sounds that didn't sound human. Her widened eyes desperately met the emperor's gaze. She hadn't done any of those things. How could she be killed? This madness had to be a misunderstanding. She couldn't die now. She had to get Theodore to intervene and protect her. If he knew that she was innocent, he would never let this happen. After countless attempts, her voice finally followed her commands. It still trembled and threatened to crack, but she was able to talk. “No! That's not true!”

The emperor's eyes narrowed even more.

“Theo, please, I didn't do anything like that. You know that I would never... Please. I love you, so I'm begging you-” She fell silent when he lifted his hand wordlessly and waved.

The little hope Blanche had had was crushed when the guards grabbed her by her shoulders and moved her body forwards against her will. They brought her to a wooden block, and even though she struggled, the knights were stronger and forcefully pressed her head down onto the surface.

She attempted to make eye contact with Theodore, but a man in black entered her field of view. That person was holding an axe and directly approached the block. The realization that she would really die hit her, and she began to scream for help while fighting the men holding her down even more. Yet, she had no chance to win.

Her eyes finally met the emperor's, who calmly watched the situation play out. How could he heartlessly stand by while she was killed because of his order? Did he just wish to scare her? Surely, that had to be it. He would certainly intervene in the end.

But he didn't.

The executioner stepped closer, and Blanche's screams became louder. “Please stop! Theo, help me, please! I didn't do it, I swear. I'm sorry!”

Still, her lover showed no reaction. His expression had become an emotionless mask, and he showed no intention to listen to her begging. Their eyes met, and her voice died. He slowly turned to the man next to him. “Judge.”

The judge spoke up again, this time in a tone that was even colder while he glared at Blanche. “This is the judgment that the court of Artias decided on. But there is one chance for you to avoid death.”

Shouldn't those words fill Blanche with happiness? Why didn't they?

The judge continued without hesitation. “If you choose to confess to your crimes and testify in the trial against Marquess Sefare, you will be sent into exile instead. This way you could continue your life far away from your crimes. What is your final decision?”

She should have said that she wanted to live. Anything was better than dying, wasn't it?

It wasn't.

That realization came upon Blanche when her head turned towards Theodore against her will. Her mouth opened, and she replied in a calm voice that didn't match her previous yelling at all. “I will accept the original punishment that the court came up with. I already gave my reasoning often enough. Please make it quick.” Why was she saying that? She had no idea, but the aching in her chest gave her a hint as to why she had made this decision. There was no way that she could go on like this.

The judge seemed satisfied with that reaction. The empress didn't react at all. Theodore just brought his hand to his mouth and averted his eyes while he waved again.

That was the only signal the executioner needed. He reached the block and lifted his weapon. Time almost seemed to stop as the axe was held above the villainess' neck.

For an eternity, Blanche just stared at Theodore, who appeared blurred behind her tears. She would die while he watched his order being carried out. Then this nightmare would finally be over. It wouldn't hurt anymore, and the heroes would win. Her lover would finally be happy, wouldn't he? She shouldn't interfere any longer. That much was obvious. And still, she was sure about what she wanted to say before her demise. Her voice was hoarse, but she managed to press out the words she had in mind with a soft smile. Her last words could only be one thing.

“I love you, Theo.”

At least the emperor showed a reaction now. His eyes widened as his gaze snapped to her, and he opened his mouth. Did he attempt to say something? She didn't know and wouldn't be able to hear his response either way.

A sharp sting spread from her neck through her whole body like a thunderbolt, and she felt like she was falling. The dull pain at her side was accompanied by a loud thump, and all air was pushed from her lungs.

Her head didn't roll off though.

A moment later, she shot up to her feet. In a panic, her eyes darted around her surroundings. She wasn't outside on a wooden platform surrounded by shadowy people. Instead, she was still in her own room in the palace and stood next to her bed.

Blanche ignored the trembling of her knees and forced herself to run to the mirror. One look at her blurred reflection showed her that her neck was intact. There wasn't any trace of an injury. She wasn't bleeding. Her hand flew to her throat, and she stroked her fingers over her skin, but she couldn't feel anything resembling a wound either.

Still, her body fought against the nonexistent danger. Even though she was breathing too fast, the air didn't seem to help her at all. Her lungs felt like they were going to burst and made it impossible for her to get the much-needed oxygen. She pressed her palm against her chest in an attempt to calm her heart, which was beating so quickly that she feared that it might jump out of her body. She was sobbing at this point which only complicated her struggle to fill her lungs with air. Rivers of tears rushed down her face while she couldn't stop herself from sinking to the floor again.

The memories of that scene just now had been way too fresh, too painful for her fragile heart. She didn't want to see that. She didn't want to remember something horrible like this. The villainess had already been punished for her deeds, wasn't this enough?

The horrific scenario she had just experienced had been a nightmare. She knew that now. But that didn't lift any of the pressure lifted off her chest. What she had just seen was a scene from the novel. To be exact, it had been the one in which the villainess had finally been punished.

It was the ending that readers normally cheered on as they saw their hated character suffering.

But for the villainess herself, who had only tried to find her own happiness and made the mistake of having a goal that obstructed the heroine's, this scene was worse than a nightmare. It was the imagery of her doom.

Blanche took a long time to steady her breathing until she didn't feel like she was suffocating anymore, and still she panted. Before she could sort her thoughts fully, the door flew open and Stella bolted in.

The maid was still in her nightgown, and her hair was more tangled than it had ever been before. “My Lady! What's wrong? Are you hurt?”

Blanche shook her head, but her sniveling and her tear-stained face probably didn't make her answer seem convincing. Along with the fact that she was sitting on the floor this early, that probably made it obvious that something was very wrong.

Stella ran over to her and quickly searched her mistress for injuries. She was only calmed a little when she was unable to find the slightest scratch. Still, she held the other woman's hand and sat next to her on the floor.

The concubine felt more shame than she had ever before. She barely dared to lift her head and just pressed out a short phrase. “I'm sorry for waking you.” She spoke way quieter than she had wanted to, and her voice was very hoarse.

Thankfully, the maid wasn't angry. “My Lady, don't apologize. I'm here for you. Let's get you off the floor first, alright?” She tried to carefully lead her mistress back to the bed. Due to Blanche's trembling, she took a dozen attempts, but at some point, they finally managed to reach their destination. Then Stella guided the other woman onto the bed and sat beside her. She slowly stroked Blanche's head while telling her that everything was fine and that they weren't in danger.

It was oddly comforting and still, it took half an hour until Blanche had stopped crying. The servant reached her a cup of water to ease her throat and let her mistress drink multiple times, but that didn't keep Blanche from staring off into the distance while trying not to panic again.

Stella only spoke up after the cup was almost empty. “Are you feeling calmer now?”

The concubine nodded weakly and drank another sip before responding in a shaky voice. “I think so.” She was lying. Nothing was alright. This nightmare had made her feel like she was dying for real. She didn't want to see things like that. Why did her mind have to betray her in such a horrible way?

Stella refilled the empty cup without taking her eyes off her mistress' face. “Good.” She set the cup onto the nightstand before moving closer to the other woman. “What scared you this much, My Lady? Did you have a nightmare?”

Blanche nodded again while staring at her lap. How humiliating. Even toddlers got over a nightmare much quicker than she had just done it. Even after thirty minutes, she still wasn't over it.

The maid took her mistress' hands and carefully warmed them up between hers. “I know that nightmares can be very scary, but nothing from a dream can actually hurt you. This means that you can be calm now. You are safe here in the palace. No one will be able to hide from the royal guards.”

Indeed. No one could run away.

A chill ran down Blanche's spine as the image of the two knights holding her down crossed her mind.

But Stella continued to speak in a soft voice and gave her best to calm her mistress. “They will protect us, and I'm here with you too. You can tell me whatever you wish to speak about. But I won't push you. Let us go slowly.”

For the next minutes, Stella gave her best to distract her mistress and kept the conversation going, even though Blanche was just staring blankly onto the floor. After a while, a small pause followed, and the maid realized that a long time had passed. The day was already arriving.

Stella looked at the curtains and the sunlight leaking in at the sides before pointing out the obvious. “The sun is rising now. You don't want to try sleeping again, right?”

Blanche quickly shook her head while squeezing her eyes shut. She didn't want to ever sleep again if her dreams were this horrible.

“Then how about I get you a nice hot cup of apricot tea to wake up and get the day started?” Stella sounded so kind that her mistress just agreed. The maid promised to hurry and exited the room to leave the concubine alone with her thoughts.

Blanche had agreed without a second thought, but she didn't really need anything to wake up. Her veins were full of adrenaline, and her heart thumped in her chest as if it had made it its task to remind her that she was still alive. One look down at her shaking hands only proved how real the nightmare had felt. She had witnessed the whole execution with all of her senses as if it had actually happened.

How could a dream create such detailed and realistic scenarios? She had never experienced a nightmare like that. She also had never been present during an execution, and still, she had seen how it was carried out. Too many thoughts flew around in her head, and she could barely ban these horrible images from her mind. She only managed to focus a bit when the thoughts of the novel came back.

The novel had described Blanche's demise close to the finale. That scene's description matched the death from her dream too closely to be by accident.

This nightmare hadn't just been a creation of her own brain. It had been a vision of a possible future. The execution she had seen was the exact one from the novel. There was no mistaking it. The ending had been slightly different, but the rest had been the exact same. If she didn't want to die, she needed to evade this at all cost.

But if she was honest, there was something she wanted even less than a public execution.

That was Theodore's hatred. His resentful gaze had branded itself deep into her brain. The picture appeared in her head even if she desperately tried to avoid envisioning it, and seeing it pained her again every time. Just imagining Theodore despising her made her chest hurt, and she felt the need to cry once more. Under no circumstances could she allow a future like that.

This meant that she couldn't be associated with any antagonist or act like a villain herself. She couldn't go about this as lazily as she had done it before.

She couldn't harm Seraphina in any imaginable way. Once the emperor fell in love with that woman, he would vow to protect her and make sure to keep his promise. In the second half of the story, he had had arguments with countless people because he had defended his wife.

This hadn't included Blanche at the beginning since she had been Theodore's lover as well and because he had trusted her. But as she continued to plan out more elaborate schemes with more dangerous consequences, he lost his faith in her. Slowly, his feeling for the woman that had been by his side for longer than Seraphina faded, and he tried to distance himself from her. This had made the original Blanche mad with jealousy, and after just a few months, she had wished for the empress' death.

The villainess had acted on that desire and hired assassins, who attacked Seraphina but failed since the empress' personal guard had protected her. Still, the villainess hadn't given up and invited the pregnant heroine for a cup of tea. She had put poison into that tea. Naturally, the empress hadn't believed that the other woman would have good intentions and refused to drink anything which had saved her life in the end.

When an investigation had been pushed forward, Blanche had quickly been found guilty based on countless unambiguous evidence, which she apparently hadn't bothered to hide. At this point, Theodore had begun to see her malicious side and refused to shield her. After Blanche tried to harm the woman who was carrying his child, he considered his mistress a threat to his wife and their unborn child. Thus, he had held a normal trial without getting involved, and the punishment for trying to commit treason had been obvious.

This situation wouldn't unfold if Blanche avoided Seraphina and refrained from hindering any of the empress' goals. But was this enough, or would the novel force the characters to continue acting like in the intended timeline?

Blanche had no way of being certain about the answer to that question. Her only choice was behaving differently than her original counterpart and hoping for the best. But simply waiting for her rescue wouldn't secure her survival. If she noticed that the story was developing unfavorably for her, she needed to be able to leave immediately. Finding a secret and safe escape route was important in the case that an emergency ever arose. Right now her only chance was the hole in the palace walls. Should the exit be unobstructed, she could flee from the palace whenever it was necessary. She would have to search for it later today, even if she didn't wish to leave nor believed that she would be able to live alone.

Stella returned with a tray, a cup, and a pot, which she placed on the table. She poured tea into the cup before pulling back one of the chairs. Then she led her mistress there and made her sit down with the same patience she had shown before. She took a seat next to Blanche and then continued with the previous strategy. The servant began to talk about a big number of different lighthearted topics to distract the other woman.

Blanche was content with sipping her tea and listening to Stella's blabbering. At least, she was as content as she could be after witnessing such a nightmare. Still, the servant's presence calmed her and gave her an opportunity to free her mind from catastrophic visions of the future for a moment.

The both of them continued to do this until it was time for breakfast, and the maid shortly left to get the meal. After she had come back, the two of them stayed at the table and ate together.

Blanche began to chime into Stella's speech to add pieces of her own opinion more and more. Even after the maid went into the kitchen to pick up the dishes for lunch, they still talked until it was already way past noon. The concubine didn't want to leave her room at all, but she remembered her decision to locate the secret passageway. If she delayed this now, she might end up not going at all. So, she announced her decision to her maid. “I would like to go into the garden for a walk today.”

Obviously, Stella was uncertain whether it would be good to run around outside after her mistress' panic attack in the morning, but she had to give in after a short discussion. She helped the other woman dress before they left the room. They took the usual path into the garden through the entrance hall and the ballroom.

The whole time Blanche was feeling nauseous and viewed her surroundings carefully. She really didn't want to meet Theodore or Seraphina right now.

Interactions with the empress had always made her upset, and since she now knew that the heroine would also receive the emperor's love, she envied the other woman even more. How laughable it was. That manipulative witch had the position and recognition Blanche had wanted and would gain Theodore's utter devotion on top of that. And despite Blanche's true emotions, she would be forced to bow down to the empress if they met. After all, she had to be careful not to anger the heroine in any way, or she would be crushed like a bug. So, it would be good to avoid Seraphina completely.

And obviously seeing her lover would only remind Blanche of what she would lose. It would make her doubt that she could leave him even more which she didn't need now.

She couldn't afford to listen to her heart when it could lead to her execution. Even if it had been her own decision to die in the end, she would have to think about this once again. She wanted to survive more than anything else, right? So, she would need to consider leaving in case of an emergency. She shouldn't get used to being showered in Theodore's affection now, or she would suffer even more later.

But a small part of her also had another reason for not wanting to see him. The images from her nightmare had burned themselves into her brain. She wouldn't be able to forget Theodore looking at her with so much resentment any time soon. And while she didn't want to admit it, he had scared her in that dream. In reality, her lover had never lashed out at her, but the memories of him condemning her would still appear in her mind if he stepped in front of her now.

Blanche prayed to all the gods she knew while hoping that the emperor and the empress were somewhere far away from her.

She was lucky for once. She was alone with Stella for the rest of the way.