(Leticia’s perspective)

“Go away!”
“You’re creepy!”
“Gloomy girl!”

—I was a melancholic girl when I was little. No matter the insult thrown at me, I would just look at the ground unable to say anything back.  Even when the stones they threw grazed my cheek, I only endured in silence.  The reason I was bullied by the other kids wasn’t just because of my personality.

Undoubtably— it was because I had been born into a family of sorcerers.  Few people knew about it.  The children probably didn’t even understand what a curse was.  Regardless, I was certain one of the reasons my personality became twisted was that.

Regardless, I tried gathering my courage and telling my father.

“I’m getting bullied for being I’m a sorcerer.  I never wanted to be born into a family like this!”

—is what I said.

Yet what my father said in return was this.

“What are you saying?  You are the magnum opus of our clan.  If there’s someone you don’t like, just curse them to death.  Claiming you are being bullied… you really are pathetic.”

Father spat those words at me and then turned away.

A thought occurred to me at that time.

—That’s right.  If there’s someone I don’t like, I should just kill them.

Thus I— cursed father to death.

I thought everyone would get mad at me for it.  Instead, the moment father died—there was a smile on his face.

“Hahaha!  You really are amazing!  Use that power to rule the world as you please!”
Even until the end, father didn’t understand my feelings. 

And while father didn’t get angry, the rest of my family— they harshly criticized me.

They asked, “Why did you kill your father…?”

Eh, was I the one who was wrong?  But, wasn’t father happy? In the end, I was born a sorcerer.  This is the only way I can show my value, right?

I was terribly confused.

Say, I’m— not bad, right?

******

I became defiant after that.  My personality, which had always been melancholic, became cheerful.  It was as if my previous self had never existed.  As I got older, my breasts kept getting bigger and my plump thighs were so fascinating that men would drool over them.  I tried wearing revealing clothes, and I monopolized the gazes of all those stupid men.

I even tried stealing the boyfriend of a neighborhood girl.

Stupid men gave me lecherous stares.  Loser women resented me.  But I was fine with all that.  I believed I could just ignore whatever those stupid losers said.

Eventually— I met the prince-sama of the neighboring kingdom.

Apparently, his name was Nigel.  Looks, intelligence, popularity— he was a perfect superhuman who had it all.

I encountered Nigel at a certain dance party and approached him.
“Won’t you dance with me, Your Highness the Prince?”

However, he did not take my hand.

That was my first time experiencing anything like that.  A hatred unlike I had ever felt before was born inside me.

—No, that’s not right?

I feel like I carried this emotion in the past once. I thought it over for a while, but unfortunately, no answer came to me.

******

After being rejected by Nigel, I approached the prince of Bercaime— Claude.  Except apparently, Claude already had a fiancée.

I saw her and— she’s the type I absolutely hate.

She was the embodiment of purity, the kind of person who will always reach out a hand to someone in trouble.  Yet at the same time, she was also the type who absolutely wouldn’t forgive anything that was wrong.  And even with that, she would have her airheaded moments.  Seeing such a combination was irritating.

So, I had a though.

—I’m going to steal Claude away from this girl.

I must had been making quite the wicked face at that moment.

More importantly, Claude was this country’s first prince.  In other words, he was next in line for the throne. His looks were passable, and in terms of specs, he wasn’t inferior to Nigel, the one who rejected me.

He looks a bit foolish… but at this point, I’ll turn a blind eye to that. In fact, that might actually make manipulating him from the palm of my hand even easier.

Claude quickly became my captive.  He prioritized me over that Saint and whispered words of love to me at every opportunity.

“I’m going to break off my engagement to be with you. Leticia— will you take my hand?”

I hesitated just a little but…

I’ve come this far.  There’s no turning back now.  Also, if I marry Claude, I will automatically become the queen. 

There was no way I could let such a delicious position slip from my grasp.

—Honestly, what a foolish man. He’s no different from all the others I’ve dealt with.

While secretly mocking Claude in my heart like that, I took his hand.  Claude looked straight at my face and smiled with delight.

Ah, right, right.

Come to think of it, this man… there is something different about him compared to the others.

The other stupid men would openly stare at my chest or my butt, but Claude almost never did that.

Well, he is a man too.  I did sometimes feel his gaze drift to those places.

But he would immediately turn his eyes away and always looked like he was tormented by guilt afterwards.  I think those kinds of things about Claude made being with him feel comfortable.

Then, one day, an incident occurred.  I was strolling through the castle when I heard Claude shouting.

“You bastard!  You’re making light of Leticia, aren’t you!?”

He was quite angry.  I hid behind a pillar and watched the scene unfold.

“N-no, no, I don’t have such thoughts at all. However, His Highness has been slacking lately.  Isn’t it because of that woman?  More than a few people within the castle think this— that’s all I’m saying.”

The one arguing with Claude was one of the country’s ministers.  He was highly valued by the King of Bercaime, thus he could make bold statement even to Claude, the First Prince.

And not even Claude, I was pretty sure, could go against that person.

Still, Claude grabbed him by the front of his garments and…

“Don’t make me say it again!  If you ridicule Leticia, I’ll hit you.  It doesn’t matter who you are!  I’ll hit you a lot!  And I’ll go tell my father!”
“Please, by all means.”

Even when threatened like that, the minister snorted with laughter.  From what I could see… he really is speaking badly of me.

And Claude was furious.

Although… I couldn’t really blame the minister for thinking like that.  The First Prince was supposed to marry the Saint.  Despite that, he was getting enraged over a nobody of a woman like me.  It was no surprise that others would voice their criticism.

Claude ignored everything and tried to punch him.  Soldiers, however, had overheard the commotion and were gathering.

“Release me!  You insolent fools!  I have to hit this guy!”
“Please stop, Your Highness!  You’ve… never hit anyone before, have you!?  If you do something like that, you’ll just hurt your hand.”
“Shut up!”

Claude screamed and shouted for a while, but there was no way he could overpower burly soldiers.  Eventually, they restrained him by his arms and took him away.

“Funn… what a useless prince.”
The minister cast a look of contempt at Claude’s back while brushing off his clothes.

The minister’s words were reasonable. If anything, Claude was the one being foolish.  Not to mention, I was long used to being insulted.  If I were to step out, it would only bring risk, yet—

“Hey.”

Before I realized it, I had stepped out before the minister.

“Oh my, Leticia-sama.  Is something the matter?  Did you perhaps witness what just happened…?”
“You really do say whatever you please.”

I held my palm out toward the minister.  Darkness enveloped his body— a curse.

“Wh-What is this!?  Who the hell are…”
“I may be used to being mocked… but that doesn’t mean I’ll accept it.”

I slowly stepped closer to him.  Then I raised an index finger and pressed it firmly against his forehead.

“I don’t believe you’re stupid.  So, you already understand that I’m not just some cute little girl, right?”
“Th-This power, impossible…”
“Not another word.  My ears will rot.”

I then raised the index finger of my other hand as well.  I brought it close to his mouth.  He was completely overwhelmed, sweat poured like a waterfall from his forehead.  His face was as pale as a sheet.

“…Just this once, I’ll overlook it.  I’ll let you off.  But next time— if anything like this happens again… you do understand, don’t you?”

He nodded over and again at my warning, trembling all over.  He looked just like a broken doll.  The moment I lifted the curse, he bolted away at full speed.  Maybe his legs gave out, but he was scrambling in a terribly clumsy way.

“Haa… just what… am I even doing?”

He might have realized that I was a sorcerer— a practitioner of curses.  Even if I did something like that, it wouldn’t make me feel any better.  There was absolutely no benefit to it.

“…Let’s just forget about it. That was just a moment of weakness.”
Muttering such to myself, I too left.

Say, I’m— not bad, right?

---

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