My Name Is Parmes Aslet!
The morning sunlight streams through the windows.
I’ve been up since dawn, and today the weather is perfect for it. I glance out the window to confirm the good light, then grab the laundry and head outside.
Since I’m the only one left in the village, even if the laundry barely fills my arms I have to do it all myself.
One year ago flashes through my mind — the day the entire village suddenly vanished.
“Paniel Uncle! Armes Uncle! Wife!”
Even during the rainy season the silence was eerie. I wandered around calling for them, but no one answered.
Every house I tried was empty, and Uncle Zimmer’s place too.
“Uncle……! Where did you go? Zimmer Uncle!!!”
The rain grew heavier, and after searching everywhere without finding a single soul I had no choice but to head home.
On the way I discovered things I hadn’t seen in the rush to leave.
There was a bundle of dried meat that looked like it had been made from the venison Uncle Zimmer had hunted, sitting in the courtyard.
Along the walls stood traps that must have been set by Uncle Paniel to keep wild animals out.
And on the table lay a crocheted dress — definitely the work of Aunt Violet — along with the key to Uncle Armes’s study.
Was there some urgent business that called them away?
I stood there staring at the things they’d left behind for me, wondering how long I should wait before they came back.
After that it was one day, two days, a month… before I realized nearly a year had passed since everyone left and I was the only one left in the village.
At first I thought they’d be back any day, but as time dragged on, the loneliness started to sink in.
How could they leave a child alone like this for so long?
“If it weren’t for the ‘friend’ I’d only just made, I might have been sobbing every single day from the loneliness.”
Still, what could I do?
I’d been scrubbing laundry all morning, hanging it to dry, and now I was out in the fields pulling up a radish-sized red sugar beet and hugging it tight.
“It’s the only food I have stockpiled!”
Red sugar beets can be preserved for three years when pickled, and they’re packed with calories so even a little goes far.
The best part? When you dry them and turn them into pills, they last up to ten years.
“With famine starting in two years and lasting four, I just need to hold out until then and I’ll be fine.”
The reason I’m hoarding so much is for the coming “Four-Year Great Famine of Misery” during Parmes’s tyrannical reign.
The poor farmers suffered the most, and there were bodies everywhere from starvation.
Honestly, the famine wasn’t Parmes’s fault — the peasants blamed him anyway.
Of course Parmes, like the tyrant he was, executed nobles and commoners who rebelled as warnings… and it was a slaughter.
Everyone was in for a miserable time.
I was just a child with no power to stop the tragedy, and anyway the countryside would last longer than the city, so I planned to stay here until the famine ended.
Making red sugar beet pills as preparation.
It would be lonely, maybe even very lonely.
That’s how I spent today, making red sugar beet pills and doing housework all day.
Exhaustion from all the work had turned my small hands wrinkled and my eyelids heavy when I finally fell asleep.
Outside, something jolted me awake.
Knock.
“……Did I hear that wrong?”
Just as I was drifting back to sleep in the quiet, a knock came at the door.
Knock knock knock knock♪
Eh? That knock……!
Without a second to think, I flung the door open to the sound of my friend’s familiar and beloved voice.
And the moment I caught a glimpse of the huge hand stepping through the doorway, I blacked out.
***
“……Get up.”
I slowly regained consciousness.
“……Where am I…?”
Someone was holding my hand and pulling me along while a cloth covered my eyes so I couldn’t see.
The floor beneath me felt smooth and hard, like it had been polished to a shine.
I’d only opened the door after hearing that signal… so had I been kidnapped?
“Uncle, who are you?”
I almost pulled the cloth off my eyes, then hesitated. What if he really was a kidnapper?
Looking at his face might complicate things further.
“I meant to escort you politely, but circumstances didn’t allow it. This is a necessary step if you are to meet him. Please forgive me.”
The voice was crisp, clean, and properly respectful — the kind knights would use.
A knight, you say? The words and manner were gentle, but kidnappers and slave traders didn’t usually sound this refined.
Polite indeed!
“Cough, cough. I-I have… consumption… cough, cough… I’m going to die…”
I tried dragging it out by pretending to be weak, but the men paid no attention and kept pulling me along.
Just the sensations from the hard floor told me we weren’t in Galnem anymore. This was a city.
“Uncle, aren’t you sorry for me?! Please save me!”
No matter what I said, they stayed silent, as promised.
In my head I was already picturing myself being sold to the salt mines or forced into shrimp fishing — all the tragic fates.
A reincarnated villainess who gets sold into slavery at eleven and never even gets to enjoy a tea party — where was that in the world?! Waaah!
Stop.
After a long time on the hard floor, I came to a stop.
My eyes were covered, but I could tell it was daytime and the room was brightly lit.
The echoing footsteps showed this was an enormous space.
“My lady……”
The man behind me startled me.
Kidnapped me, brought me here, and called me “my lady”?
“……You will meet a great person. Prepare your heart.”
Great villain, great kidnapper, great slave trader… either way it sounded terrifying.
Not long after, I had to shrink my small shoulders even smaller.
The crushing pressure that should have come from the long walk was suddenly crushing me.
“W-what……?”
I heard the people around me slowly backing away.
Steady, regular footsteps.
Eventually someone approached from in front of me.
One man’s heavy tread.
“……”
I was too scared to lift the cloth myself, but suddenly another hand brushed the back of mine.
Then, from behind, came the sound of the cloth being slowly untied along with a heavy feeling.
I flinched and shrank my shoulders, and the moment the black thing blocking my vision fell away, my eyes could see.
“……”
Because my eyes had been covered for so long, everything was still blurry at first.
But even through the haze I knew this was a luxurious, grand space.
Like the study of a great duke or a royal family……
And standing in front of me was a tall man with dazzling silver hair.
He slowly lowered his arm.
His armor clinked with a metallic sound.
I tensed my eyebrows, trying to see his face.
The outline of the man I couldn’t see because of the light gradually came into focus.
Beautiful silver hair and eyes that seemed to burn like red flames.
“……!”
I slowly opened my mouth, but no sound came out.
Probably because I was too shocked.
A cool smile formed at the corners of his red lips.
After a long time I finally opened my eyes wide and shouted.
“Uncle Zimmer?!?!”
The hair color, the eye color, everything different… but the man in front of me was definitely Uncle Zimmer.
His nose was straight and high like a blade, his eyes cool, his jawline sharp.
That was Uncle Zimmer’s appearance.
But why was Uncle Zimmer…… wearing a crown?
I stared blankly up at his head.
“……”
He seemed to sense what I was thinking and spoke.
“You’re surprised, Arinell.”
Almost immediately he reached out and stroked my hair.
The gentle, warm touch that always comforted me no matter how worried I was.
This feeling was definitely Uncle Zimmer…… but the man in front of me didn’t feel like him.
His hair, his eyes, even the aura he gave off were different.
What was going on?
My heart was pounding.
The man slowly opened his lips.
“I hoped you’d be happy about it. The reason I brought the plan forward was because I couldn’t stand to watch you suffer anymore.”
I couldn’t understand what he was talking about.
“It’s late, but I’ll introduce you properly again. My real name is……”
He was a tyrant who rebelled and became the ruler of the Albreon Empire.
He was a cruel and beautiful sovereign, and the ministers who helped him rule during his tyrannical era became objects of fear to the people.
“……Parmes Aslet. I am the Emperor.”
Parmes-
Parmes Aslet-
Parmes Aslet- Emperor-
His name echoed through my black abyss, again and again.
“……!!!!”
That tyrant?!?!