Chapter 4: Vritara. (3)

Tuesday never got to finish the show, he jumped before he got to see the final season. But while he may not have seen just what sort of end Alice De Vritara would face, guessing it wasn’t too hard if he looked at other pieces of fiction that followed a similar plot. A twisted and cruel monster that would meet a bloody end, that was her story.

At the very least, that was the story of her future. But the current Alice was just a small girl, barely older than Tuesday, too shy to raise her head in front of so many people. It was hard to imagine that those fiddling hands would be stained with the blood of thousands in the future. But then again, such was life, an unpredictable mess.

Bump

"Ah!"

One of the knights had gotten off his horse and bumped the end of his sheath against the young girl’s back, forcing her to stumble forward. He didn’t say anything, but the glint in the eyes tucked away beneath those thick eyebrows, even if he wasn’t actually looking at her, was unmistakable.

Get a move on.

She crumpled slightly when faced with that glare, the fiddling getting worse as she hurriedly turned away. She quickly drew in a few rushed breaths as she faced the children, she looked a bit relieved that they had their heads lowered and thus couldn’t see her. Well, Tuesday saw it, but she didn’t notice that so ignorance was bliss.

"Excuse me… Do you want to be my maid?"

When Tuesday saw Alice step up to one of the prostrating orphans, he understood. Ah, so this was what was going on, what this place was. She was an illegitimate child, but Alice was still a Vritara so they couldn’t have her do everything on her own, they needed to at least put on an act.

But clearly, they didn’t want to give her any of the actual maids or workers in their estate. After all, she was just a mixed blood, how could she deserve that? So they brought her to this orphanage so that she could pick up her own workers, childish and useless workers for an unwelcome child.

And this orphanage… Tuesday now understood why it was unmarked and so far away. There was a throw-away remark about Alice in the middle-part of the second season.

By the time she reached fifteen, she had already gone through three sets of servants.

It wasn’t exactly specified, but the dark tone of the speaker made it clear what the fate of those servants was. And where did those servants come from? Here, an unmarked orphanage placed far out of sight, none would question what happened to the children here. None would come looking for them, none would mourn them.

"…"

Perhaps it was to be expected, but the child that was questioned didn’t dare to utter a response. Hell, she didn’t even dare to raise her head to look at the one who spoke to her. The adults were so terrified that they were scraping their foreheads against the ground, and that fear was only magnified within the children.

"Excuse me… Do you want to be my maid?"

Had Alice already expected the outcome? She simply moved on to the next young girl and asked her the same question. It was formulated as a question, but the children didn’t really have a choice, their fates were set the moment Alice stopped in front of them.

"…"

"Excuse me, do you want to be my maid?"

"…"

"Excuse me, do you want to be my maid?"

"…"

The only sound that could be heard across this plot of land was the quiet treading and low voice of one girl. She kept asking, but there was never anyone to answer her question, never anyone to look at her as she spoke. She’d already picked out four people, and if he went by what he saw in the second season then she would usually pick out five servants, four maids and a knight, four girls and one boy.

"Excuse me…"

The voice came from directly in front of him, a pair of green loafers with slight marks of patching stopping at the edge of his vision. Ah, what are the odds. There were nine other boys in this orphanage but she ended up choosing him. With this, no matter what he did, it would be impossible to avoid getting tangled up in the downfall of the villainess.

For those who saw the things she did in the story, those who knew what would happen to those that followed her, there was probably no greater nightmare than this. But for Tuesday, well…

"Ah!"

The little girl instinctively took a step back, a shocked exclamation slipping from her lips. Tuesday had raised his head and was looking straight at her, the first person all day to even spare her a glance.

Curled violet hair and crimson eyes, the poisonous marks of the villainess, the curse of the Earhart empire. She was vicious and cruel, cold and deranged, merciless and evil. But this villain, who the fans oh-so loved seeing beaten back and humiliated, Tuesday had never been able to hate her.

Whenever he watched a new episode, he just found her pitiful. She loved, but wasn’t loved in return. She gave and gave, but was never gifted in return. Everything she did was mocked and spat on, everything she tried to get her hands on was stolen, and everything she tried to protect was crushed.

She was twisted, so she was the villainess. But to begin with, this world was twisted, her life was twisted, so she had no choice but to become twisted.

She was already fifteen by the time she was introduced in the second season, she was already starting to show signs of the twisting. The story never went into too much detail about her past, she was just a villainess after all, an obstacle for the main characters to overcome. But looking at how even a knight could treat her with such disregard, it was easy to see where the twisting started.

"Will you… Can you be my knight?"

A slight stutter marred her voice. The fiddling had gotten a bit worse, so could it be that she was a touch more nervous now that someone was actually looking at her? She looked fragile, scared almost if the look in her eyes was anything to go by.

She just wanted someone to look at her, someone to answer her. And so, Tuesday looked at this pitiful villainess. And so, he answered the little child that would dye the world red.

"It would be an honour, My Lady."