The Villainess Reverses the Hourglass | 1

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Aria’s mother is a pr ostitute and marries a count, and Aria suddenly rises to fame as the daughter of the Roscent Family.

Aria lives a life of luxury, but was killed by a plot by her sister, Mielle.

She dies amidst the cold stares and jeers from those who watch her.

As soon as she sees an hourglass falling like a dream, Aria miraculously returns to the past!

“I want to be a very elegant person like my sister, Mielle.”

To deal with a wicked woman, she has to become more wicked than that wicked woman.

The story about the thorough revenge on those who drove her to death.

It is the new way of life that Aria chose.

A woman more wicked than imagined, that’s how the story starts…

A meticulous revenge play hidden within deadly beauty!

———————

“Lift her head.”

At Cain’s command, Aria, whose hair was strewn about the floor, was grabbed and held up.

Aria’s hair, which was soaked in blood, was raised to midair by a rough hand. Aria’s once beautiful, shiny blonde hair was in a condition worse than the shaggy fur of a pig that had just rolled around in the mud.

“Do you know what your sins are?”

“…”

Cain questioned her, but Aria did not have the energy to reply.

Even if she had some energy left, with her lacerated tongue, it was impossible for her to talk back.

That white, gray, salt-stained tongue was filled with unbearable pain, and it did not even give her the opportunity to repent.

Aria closed her eyes, which was difficult due to the bloating from the countless bruises that had been inflicted upon her. Those eyes had once stirred the hearts of many men, but now, they had become like those of a rotten fish.

Though she felt betrayed and bitter, there was nowhere to go, and Aria simply waited for the Grim Reaper to claim her life.

“Brother, I have one last thing I want to say to Aria.”

The saint, who had been victimized countless times by the evil woman, slowly led her to the execution table.

She smiled, implying that she had already forgiven Aria, and said that she had not been seriously hurt from being pushed down the stairs and that she was okay even after being fed poison. Everyone who had gathered in the parlor thought the same.

Cain shook his head and said, “No.”

“I have to say this. Please…”

How could she be so benevolent to the wicked girl who had tried to hurt and kill her? There was no one who could reject her tearful request.

Eventually, Cain gave his permission, and Mielle, like a poor wildflower, moved her fragile body closer to Aria. It felt as though her shoulders were being crushed by Cain’s sighs.

“These words, which I have contained within me for all this time, are reserved for our sister. Since this might be the last time… I feel like I must tell you… It could be that I’ve been waiting for this day to come.”

Mielle slowly wiped away the transparent tears stuck to her eyelids and knelt down on the floor.

Her sudden action frightened much of the audience, and they rushed forward as if they wanted to intervene. But, Mielle signaled to them that everything was okay and brought her lips to Aria’s ear as if to deliver a final, sacred message.

“You stupid bitch. Playing and fooling around like that with my ladies… Was it fun?”

Aria’s eyes widened as if they would burst out. She slowly turned her stiff, bloated head toward Mielle, who was smiling. Her smile was pure and beautiful, like a flower.

Aria blinked quicikly, unable to understand the nonsense she had just heard. Her mangled tongue prevented her from asking questions.

Mielle read her expression and explained it again, “The ladies who told you to do all those evil acts were all my maids. It was all to portray you as the evil bitch. It was all for this moment.”

“…!”

“I’m telling you this because these are your last moments. I’ve wanted to kill you from the moment you and your naive mother appeared, if possible, in a manner as painful as possible. The shame on our family is such that nobody has even come to see you. How dare you, a bug, crawl here not knowing where you stand? Hoohoo!”

Mielle barely contained the unendurable laughter that nearly erupted from her mouth.

At this moment, she smiled brightly, as if Aria’s tears made her want to sing and dance. Mielle’s joy, which no one else was able to notice, stabbed through Aria’s chest like a blade.

“I had thought of poisoning you like I did to your mother, but I refrained. It’s no fun that way, right? So, I gave my poison to a maid and made her ride in my car. Ah, of course, I didn’t drink it.”

“Ah…! Ahah…!”

Before Mielle could finish, Aria’s body spasmed, and she collapsed to the floor. Aria had used all of the strength she could muster to move, but it had only resulted in a feeble struggle. All the veins in her eyes burst, and blood tears slowly slid down her face.

Mielle finished her speech and stood up. Looking back at the execution table, she slowly returned to her spot with a sad, regretful expression, saying, “It was fun while it lasted… Thinking of how Aria won’t be here is already making me feel empty inside…”

The saint who had forgiven the evil woman buried her face in her holy hands as her shoulders shook. However, she had done that to cover her face filled with joy.

‘Please don’t let the death of the wicked woman cause the saint to suffer. Do not let her feel guilty.’

Everyone who had gathered there was worried about Mielle’s state of mind.

Since there was no one else who had anything to say to Aria, Cain raised his hand. Simultaneously, the knight raised his sword high in the air. The blade shone so brightly that it seemed it could cut through bone with one swing.

And that light grabbed Aria’s attention, and she began to see a strange remnant being created in her view. It was as if an hourglass was one with the light, causing Aria, who was bloodied, to stare at that phenomenon for a long time.

As if it was a rope that could save her life, she reached both of her hands out, spasming violently like a fish out of the water, but her shoulders were stomped upon by the knight.

Soon, Cain lowered his hand, the signal of the evil woman’s execution.

As such, the knight’s sword swung down, cutting through the wind and separating her head from her body in a split moment, her life ending pitifully just like that.

“Kyaak!” a person’s scream echoed as Aria’s head rolled across the ground, but her eyes once more fell upon the afterimage of the hourglass.

‘Why?’ Even though her head was severed, Aria could not feel pain, nor grief, nor sadness. All she could see was the image of the hourglass as the sand fell, whether it was forward or in reverse time and time again.

‘I want to go back. Again… To the old days. I want to turn everything back… like that hourglass.’

Before her brain accepted her death, Aria’s eyes were filled with the movement of the hourglass, and finally, her vision faded completely.

***

“… a! … Aria!”

Crash!

The cup that Aria had been holding fell onto the floor, shattering into many pieces. The maid, who was on standby behind her, hurriedly came over and began cleaning the mess.

Aria awakened from her absentminded state and cast her eyes toward the voice she had heard. There, beyond the long marble table, she saw Mielle’s worried face weeping. Even as her tears fell, she was as elegant and pure as ever.

‘How come she’s become such a small child?!’

From what Aria remembered, Mielle was twenty-three years old. However, the figure she was seeing in front of her was ten years old at the most. Beside her, was Cain, who stared at her with narrowed eyes. He looked as young as seventeen years old.

Unable to comprehend the situation or find a way to cope with that unbelievable circumstance, Aria continued to blink. Then, she heard a cold voice from the very seat next to her.

“Aria, are you alright? I called you several times, but you didn’t answer.”

“… Mother?”

-To be continued

The Villainess Reverses the Hourglass | 2

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It was the same mother who had been poisoned and died of a heart attack. She was a beautiful, elegant woman who captivated the hearts of many noblemen with her lips redder than roses and sensual body. Of course, she was very young and lively now as she scolded Aria to maintain her table manners. It was the same maternal instinct that resonated within her ever since she had a child.

Did Aria think that she was at a dining room? A mess of bloody meat was scattered all across her plate, whereas the salad bowl was empty, its contents all over the table.

‘I haven’t committed such an act since my sixteenth birthday, when I was greatly humiliated.’

Aria looked down at her hands. They were very small and smooth. There were no scars left from when she had thrown a glass bottle at Mielle either.

That had been the very first time that she had committed a violent act against Mielle, which had happened when she had been fifteen. At the time, the bottle full of water had been too heavy for such a fragile girl to throw with ease. In the end, the bottle headed not for Mielle, but to Aria’s feet.

As the glass bottle shattered, the sharp pieces wounded the top of her feet and her hands as well, causing Aria to leave the mansion crying. The main instigator of that incident had been Mielle. No, it had been Mielle’s maid that had caused her to hurt herself.

‘I had no inkling that all those people were Mielle’s informants.’

The maid that had helped her with the methods to harm Mielle had at last confessed that all of those incidents had been plotted by the evil woman, along with all of the sins she had committed. For confiding everything to the maid that had pleased her, the naïve, foolish daughter of a ********** met a miserable end.

‘It can’t be…’

Aria awakened to the unbelievable possibility that might have become reality and looked up and around. Just like how everyone was small and young, so was she.

‘I’m alive…!’

It wasn’t a dream or a hallucination. The pain from the injury that was left from the dropped glass cup had confirmed this. She lowered her hand and touched her leg and found that it was a bit wet. Checking it with her own eyes, she found red blood. The maid, who was cleaning the floor, noticed it, causing her face to darken as she hurriedly bowed.

“Aria?!”

It was her mother, who was sitting next to her, so Aria swallowed her breath and put on a shocked expression. Aria’s hands trembled. Her lips were parched, and her face devoid of life.

A room of frustrated glares was aimed at her, who stared down at her hands blankly. Soon, that vulgar little girl would raise her voice and scream. That was the future that no one doubted would happen. There was no touch of sympathy for Aria, in whom everyone had already lost faith.

Aria closed her eyes quietly. She pondered for a moment the options that were presented to her. She raised her eyes and straightened her face, having decided on what she would do.

“Jessie, give me your handkerchief. I think I may have hurt my leg, so I’ll ask that you treat me. I apologize, but I think I will have to finish my meal later.”

It was a calm response that betrayed everyone’s expectations of Aria’s normal choice of screaming. She took the handkerchief from her maid and wiped her hand, leaving a note of apology for causing a disturbance at mealtime. That totally unexpected reaction from Aria caused everyone sitting around the table to become speechless and frozen.

Aria, who was being assisted by Jessie in her room, could feel herself young. As she had grown older, she had changed all of the furniture and decorations in her room into high-quality, luxury items, hanging the jewelry she had bought all around as if to boast.

Although her room now did feel luxurious, it didn’t have any major luxury items since it had been decorated by an immature teenage noble. She looked down at her leg and saw Jessie bandaging the wound.

Though Jessie had been on Mielle’s side, she had still lightly discouraged her from the series of misdeeds that she had committed. Aria remembered how she had cut Jessie’s hair and tongue, and burned her right hand at the stable since she had not like being opposed. That same Jessie had appeared here totally fine as she was dressing her leg.

‘…It was just Jessie. She was the only maid who tried to prevent me from attempting my evil deeds… I shouldn’t have kicked her out.’

When she had first entered the county, all of the nobles and maids had compared her to Mielle, instilling jealousy into her.

‘I’m sure that Aria can do a lot better! It’s certain that Miss Mielle will use some underhanded methods, right?’

The stupid and naïve Aria had unknowingly attached herself to the maids who had spoken sweet words to her and had been assigned to her by Mielle, and had been unable to overcome that jealousy and eventually died a miserable death.

However, now was different. A person who knew there was a trap did not fall into it. Rather, the person would repay the cost of constructing that trap.

And the one who had set the trap was the devil among wicked women, the one who wore the mask of the saint.

It was precisely her step-sister, Mielle Roscent.

‘I will never forgive you.’

She had promised herself that she would never forgive that bitch even if her body was thrown into the flames.

Perhaps it was due to her returning to the past, but fatigue overwhelmed her. She wanted to lie down to rest immediately. Although she had lightly considered that all of those blessings might dissipate and be replaced by a nightmare, she couldn’t overcome the fatigue that befell her. She prayed not to wake up if that ended up being the last time she would be able to sleep. That was her last wish and hope, which came from someone who had lived her life filled with jealousy.

“Jessie, I want to lie down on the bed.”

“Yes, miss.”

Jessie changed her into her pajamas and helped her onto the bed to rest. Up till then, she had lightly reminisced on her actions at the table, but at that moment, it was as if she had lost all of her strength to something else.

‘… What is this?!’

With Jessie’s help, she had folded the blanket back and begann to get into the bed, but after feeling some rough, strange sensation, she hurriedly shook her leg and rose from her place. She had a dumbfounded expression on her face, unable to comprehend why that soft, silky blanket could arouse that strange feeling.

“Jessie! Hurry and quickly check under my blanket!”

Doubting that Mielle might have plotted something against her, Jessie followed Aria’s orders. Surprise washed over her face after she quickly threw the blanket out. Grains of sand scattered about the floor, and shards of glass among them. The largest piece, shaped like an X, clearly from an hourglass.

After confirming this, Jessie hurriedly bowed low to the ground and admitted to the crime.

“Before you started your meal, I… I cleaned the bed, but I wasn’t aware there were glass scattered around here! Miss, I’m truly sorry!”

Her body was shivering furiously as she lay face down on the floor. It was as if she was expecting an outburst of anger to come her way, all the more because she continued to admit to the crime at the top of her voice.

Aria’s trembling eyes turned to Jessie for a moment before returning to the hourglass. She picked up the broken hourglass gently with her hands. It was something that she had never seen before, but it felt very familiar, frightening, and yet precious.

‘Maybe!’ She had a hunch that it might not have been a coincidence. ‘Yes! All of this is surely a sign from God. God’s will to save a poor girl who repented her foolish past after being deceived like a fool!’

All of this was to free her from the clutches of evil that had driven her to the abyss! And it must have been with the help of God that she was able to keep all of her memories intact, so that revenge would be possible.

-To be continued

The Villainess Reverses the Hourglass | 3

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The jubilant Aria clasped the piece of the hourglass. Although the action caused numerous sharp pieces to dig into her small and fragile palm, it was not the pain, but the joyous relief that reminded her that she was living a second life.

Drops of scarlet blood fell onto the floor, dripping down and gradually condensing. It was both the remorse and the venom of the wicked woman wishing for revenge.

‘I will never forgive you.’

Slowly, Aria opened her hand and smiled.

The smile was so similar to that of a benevolent saint that even Jessie’s shivering stopped.

—

“It seems that Aria has been studying hard as of late.”

Several days had passed since Aria had returned to the past, and Aria’s clear and transparent recital of poetry had filled the dining hall. As a result, Count Roscent had praised Aria for the first time.

The countess, who smiled naturally, intelligently forged a pretense for Aria’s brilliance, “She enjoyed reading numerous books during our impoverished life, which is why she is elated by the opportunities to learn.”

A lie. Aria hadn’t even learned how to eat cleanly until she was sixteen years old. She had never touched the cover of a book before entering the county, which had similarly transitioned to her life after that as well.

She preferred playing over reading, and to dress up in luxury was her pleasure. This was also because that was all she knew how to do.

When she had been very young and ignorant, she had remembered how she had stumbled upon some of the poems that the count enjoyed and had memorized them in front of his weary state, but the receiver of any honor had always been Mielle.

It was natural that Mielle, who could recite the poems like songs, was praised over Aria, who had recited poems mechanically, like a book, just like now.

“It’s a famous poem handed down from generation to generation in Count Roscent’s county. It was written by the first count, and it was the first poem that I learned when I was four years old. The last verse, the woman’s reply to ‘The Woman I Love,’ is not well known, but only when the two become one is the poem complete.”

With her right hand on her chest, Mielle recited the poem quietly and clearly. There was a sense of satisfaction in the eyes of those who watched her. Aria’s mother, the countess, also looked toward her with a commendable expression. She seemed like the lead actress who succeeded the upbeat supporting actress.

“… and I will gather my admirable heart and scatter it all out into your future!”

When she finished her poetry recital, there was a round of applause in the dining hall. Unlike in the past, where she had gritted her teeth with envy and jealousy, Aria joined the audience this time. With blushing cheeks and a shy smile creeping from her mouth, Mielle had become the real protagonist of that day.

As always, it was an honor that was taken by her from Aria. An honor that would always return to the noble girl as opposed to staying with the girl of humble origins.

It could be that due to Aria’s presence that there was more praise being thrown at Mielle. It would be a compliment to say that all of that was a coordinated effort to trample on the petty pride of a stupid girl, so Aria decided to reclaim the glory that was stolen from her.

Since it wasn’t Mielle’s to begin with.

The applause died down, and Aria, the supporting actress asked without losing her smile and composure, “What a beautiful poem, Mielle. But do you know what it means?”

This sudden question caused Mielle’s eyes to widen.

Aria continued kindly, for it was obvious that Mielle did not know, “The fact is that this poem was created by the brother of the first count, who tried to assassinate him. This was the reason why it was not famous. Because the first count did not want the poem to spread.”

That was the reason why Aria had decided not to memorize it, because she had wanted to add that information… but she decided to test her luck all the same.

“I remember that not too long ago this poem was forbidden since there was an embedded metaphor in it wishing a curse on the family.”

Mielle’s fine face quickly hardened like ice because the poem she had so proudly recited could also be seen as her cursing the family. After achieving her first victory, Aria had to resist rolling on the floor with laughter.

It was the complete opposite of the past.

She had wanted to be recognized for something, so she had hired a tutor to prepare that poem. It had been then that her eyes had twinkled in anticipation, and she had recited the answer that she had long prepared in the presence of the count, who had returned after being away abroad on business for a long time. But her eyes had become instantly lifeless from the numerous sharp criticisms that followed.

It had not been long after the count entered the room that this incident had happened, and the person who had criticized her had been none other than her brother, Cain.

He was four years older than Aria, and had learned much from attending the academy, so he had used that knowledge to pick on everything that Aria had tried to do.

‘He must have known all of this.’

However, this time, he had kept his mouth shut the entire time, not wanting to insult his sister. No, it could be that, in the past, he had wanted to hurt Aria just like Mielle.

To confirm that, Aria just rolled her eyes and checked Cain’s face. He was staring at Aria with his mouth firmly fixed. Now that Mielle had been humiliated, it seems that he was unhappy about the situation.

Aria smiled awkwardly and decided to pretend to defend Mielle since she didn’t want to be openly hated.

“Mielle is only thirteen years old, so it is amazing that she was able to memorize the whole poem.”

However, the mood did not abate since it was clear that Mielle had memorized and recited that poem just now in quite the foolish manner.

‘How embarrassing would it be for her to berate the daughter of a shallow ********** who was born and raised in the lowest places of society without even knowing what Aria knew?’

The count, who had warned her daughter in vain for the first time, encouraged everyone to continue eating as he raised his fork. Aria, who smiled like a child at her new father, took the messy-cut meat and brought it to her mouth.

That day’s meal was very satisfying.

The first thing Aria had done after returning to the past had been to hire a tutor. She was of low origin and hadn’t learned proper manners until she was about to die. Because of the things she had heard and learned in the last decade of her life, she tried to use elegant gestures whenever she could, but she hadn’t then.

There had been no need for that because she had retained her mother’s good looks. Her mother had stolen the count’s heart with her beauty alone, which was why no matter how reckless and rash she had acted, Aria had always had countless suitors. A beauty that one could get drunk with just by staring, she was essential to entertain a great party.

Although she had heard the growing criticism and vulgarities thrown at her back as time passed, she hadn’t thought of learning anything because there were many that loved her appearance, so Aria hadn’t felt the need. She had been humiliated several times at parties, but each time, a bunch of men had defended Aria.

Thinking back, it hadn’t been much help. They had done so to have a night with her, not to love or care for her. Just like moths jumping toward a light, men had been captivated by her appearance, chasing after a fantasy that could burn in a flash at any moment.

However, as time passed, the men that followed Aria were soon bound to their elegant, aristocratic paths and began engaging with others in their circle, and finally, none remained by Aria’s side. Of course, a few men who had confessed they had truly loved her came to mind, but she didn’t know if those words had been true.

‘Yes, if the opportunity comes, we’ll see what happens if I test those idiots.’

-To be continued