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Chapter Text

Looking at the face of a magician, an elderly lady with her head covered by a dark blue veil made of pure silk, you were waiting for her advice, knowing perfectly well what she was going tell you in a couple of seconds. You hoped she wouldn’t notice how exhausted you looked - you had always hated these moments when you had to follow the plot despite your own wishes, blindly repeating the dialogue lines you knew by heart, a prisoner of someone else’s story. Bound to the fate that wasn’t yours, you had no choice but to act according to the role chosen for you - it was a never-ending limbo, a special kind of Hell you couldn’t escape regardless of what you did.

Now the woman would tell you of the dangers awaiting you if you continued to pursue the prince, a man you were supposed to love with all your heart despite his harsh treatment. You knew the prediction the magician would give you was correct, but you would still try to make the prince love you only to meet a horrifying end when he would publicly reject you and choose the other woman, a type of Cinderella character who was the main heroine of this fairytale. Betrayed and humiliated by the love of your life, you were to return to your mansion and burn it to the ground, also meeting your end in the flames.

You didn’t even like the prince, this boisterous, rude, and unpleasant young man who treated you like you were dirt under his shoe, only interested in strengthening his position as the next king and satisfying his own needs. A daughter of the duke, the man who was rich enough to lend money even to the royal family, you had to get down on your knees and seek the love of someone so undeserving of your affections, knowing he disdained you. It was a torture, meeting him when the plot required it. Your blood was boiling the moment you were staring into his handsome face, watching how he looked at you with contempt. Nevertheless, you couldn’t tell him to go to Hell, bound to repeat the dialogue lines like an echo. You tried to change it so many times, able to say what you wanted when it didn’t matter to the plot, but the second it was important for the story, your tongue was going numb unless you said the words chosen for you.

In the end, it was useless. You were nothing more but a soul imprisoned in the wrong body, a stranger who took someone else’s place, albeit unwillingly. You weren’t meant to live your life inside a story that wasn’t yours. All you could do was to follow the plot.

Well, it wasn’t always as bad as now. When the story didn’t focus on you, you could live your life like you wanted to - within the boundaries, of course. As someone born into wealth and privilege, you enjoyed a life of luxury, a daughter of the duke who could have anything she wished for, loved by her father greatly. Living in a literal castle with god knows how many servants, you had hundreds of expensive dresses and shoes made specially for you, jewelry, and expensive makeup delivered from across the sea. You ate only the finest food prepared by the duke’s personal cook, and you were always surrounded by maids and knights who were ready to do whatever you told them. Really, when you didn’t need to follow the plot, it was as if you lived in a fairytale of your own.

But it didn’t matter, anyway. In less than a year you would meet your end in the flames, regardless of how well you lived now.

“Honorable magician, what would be my fate should I pursue the path I chose?” You asked in a loud voice, trying your best to sound arrogant and proud as if you didn’t come to ask for an advice.

It was all so, so exhausting.

“And what it is the path you chose, dear child?”

Oh. Weren’t she supposed to say something else? You remembered well she was going to make you aware of the dangers you were to face very soon. Why on Earth was she asking about your path when your role was all about being an obstacle for the main heroine to be with the prince?

“Don’t tell me you’re going to keep staring at me like this forever,” she chuckled softly at your dumbfounded expression, and you felt your blood pressure was rising rapidly.

What was going on? She wasn’t supposed to say that. Besides, did she expect you to reply something that wasn’t in the original dialogue with your tongue completely frozen?

… but was it frozen now, really?

Unable to believe it was happening to you, you whispered, afraid, “What’s going on?”

She sent you warm smile, her eyes hidden beneath the silk veil she was wearing, “What do you think? I’m asking you what path you chose.”

You bit the tip of your tongue just to make sure you could still move it freely, unable to believe it was happening to you. Really? Was it some kind of trick? Magic? Something else? What could possibly make you speak your own thoughts?

“Shouldn’t I be pursuing His Royal Highness?” Too scared to raise your voice, you kept whispering, praying that your tongue wouldn’t give out.

“Do you want to?”

No. No, of course, you didn’t. That asshole didn’t deserve to be loved! Maybe the main heroine could put up with his awful behavior and all the hardships he brought up on her, but you couldn’t care less about his feelings towards you. Hell, an only heir to someone as influential as your father, you could have the best men from all over the country fighting for you the second you broke up your engagement to the prince! Besides, you, someone whose beauty was acknowledged by the Queen herself, wouldn’t have to worry about being married even if you were much more poor.

“No, I don’t. But I’m engaged to the prince…”

“Then ditch the prince!” She threw up her hands in such a funny manner you almost laughed out loud, barely holding yourself. “Who cares about this little brat? There are far too many fine gentlemen around you to be concerned with him.”

Well, it’s not like she was wrong, you thought, giggling and pressing a hand against your mouth to fake a cough, pretending you didn’t laugh. Of course, the magician wasn’t buying it, her smile only growing wider.

“But the story…”

“Isn’t even yours to be following it as much as you do, my dear. To Hell with it. You have nothing to do with the woman whose body you possess, haven’t you?” Extending her hand towards you, she brushed a strand of your shiny hair out of your face. “You aren’t bound to her fate. If you waited for a permission to live your life, consider it was given to you by me.”

You wanted to argue with her, tell her you couldn’t even open your lips when the story required you to stay silent, but when you realized you could actually voice your thoughts in a critical for the plot moment, you came to a conclusion she did something to you, this powerful woman who somehow knew who you truly were. Apparently, she undid your curse or whatever it was.

Were you really free?

“But what am I to do now?”

She huffed and puffed in a very funny way, making you finally burst out laughing, “You’re the richest girl in the country. Do what you want! Go to the balls, buy yourself all the pretty things you wanted to have, travel the world, do charity work, learn magic… Don’t tell me you have no idea what to do with all the money you have?”

Oh, you had. Of course, you had!

Everything changed after that fateful meeting - strangely, you no longer felt bound to follow the events of the fairytale, even spending your time elsewhere when you had to meet the main heroine or the prince. Before you didn’t have a luxury of even voicing your own thoughts, but now… now you were free. Completely, totally free to do what you want.

Of course, you had to take some precautions, nonetheless. Your family would find it suspicious if you changed so suddenly - your true character was quite different from the character of your heroine. You needed to plan everything right, make it all appear like you were changing naturally: thank goodness you knew everything about the plot, remembering perfectly what and when was about to happen.

Talking more and more to your father about prince’s wicked behavior, you were slowly making it look like you liked your fiancée less and less because of his infatuation with the main heroine and how he treated you. You were playing your role to perfection, making it all appear as if you were suffering so much from a broken heart, that your dear father grew concerned with you, sending you expensive gifts all of the time just to cheer you up. In fact, you felt ashamed of yourself as you kept looking at the fur-lined capes, dresses made from silk and brocade, jewels, porcelain figurines, and all other things most people couldn’t even dream of. But what could you do? You needed him to believe you.

Soon the ladies surrounding you - you couldn’t really call them your friends, but they were your companions, nonetheless - started believing you too as you deliberately appeared with them at places where the prince was seeing his Cinderella girl. What a scandal, they all repeated with disdain, how can His Royal Highness go against the union planned by the Grand Duke and the Queen themselves? While most royals had their favorites, to be seen so openly in the public while you were engaged to someone of your rank… It was too much even for the Crown Prince.

“He must be out of his mind,” Mina, the daughter of the count, said; she had a bold personality and often spoke her mind openly. “If I were the Queen, I’d forbid Prince Bakugo to appear in public until he learns some manners.”

“I can’t believe he made that woman his favorite,” Momo sighed, taking a sip of tea. “Someone of such low status…”

Mei, who still didn’t recover from the breach of her own engagement, chuckled grimly, “Men. As long as a girl has a pretty face, they wouldn’t care if she’s someone they picked up from the streets.”

“Dear God, Mei! We’re talking about His Highness!”

“Is she wrong, though?”

They all turned their faces to you the second you said it. Whatever, you thought as you put a pink porcelain cup on the plate with a soft clink. What did you have to be afraid of? Even if disrespecting the royal family had always been a taboo, you, the only daughter of the Grand Duke whose support allowed the Queen to rule in the first place, had nothing to worry about. In the end, it was you whose reputation was at stake, wasn’t? With his stupid affair, Prince was dragging you through the mud while you never even once caused a scene in public. You had never done anything to hurt his image.

“All His Highness was doing to this day is showing how little he thinks of me. Despite all my efforts, he never treated me with respect I deserve. Even when I confessed how much I loved him, His Highness said he would never have feelings for me and that he was only doing it for the sake of the crown. How much of this treatment he thinks I can take?”

They all kept silent, probably feeling guilty they weren’t supporting you as much as you hoped. You paid no mind to it: destined to be a villain, you acted like a snobby bitch most of the time, earning little empathy from the people who surrounded you. It was about to change now.

“What are you going to do, then?” Mina asked you, curiosity written all over her face.

You smirked to yourself. Now was the time to announce big news.

“Unless His Highness makes up his mind about the way he treats me, I will break the engagement.”

Chapter Text

They all stared at you in shock, clenching fragile porcelain cups in their hands. Breaking your engagement to a prince? They all thought you were going mad. Huh, they couldn’t even imagine how far you were ready to go, free from your obligation to live your life how the fairytale required you to.

Moreover, you knew how to make it play in your favor. They all just needed to wait for one more week until you would show up in a place where the prince confessed his love to the main heroine, thinking he was alone with her in a maze in the royal gardens.

Huh, it was all playing out nicely when you brought your ladies along - none of you were supposed to be there according to the plot, but you just couldn’t leave this opportunity to get rid of your unfaithful fiancée, showing his true colors to the public. You had been humiliated by him for far too long for you not to bear a grudge. It was time for Bakugo to have a taste of his own medicine!

“I cannot believe I loved a man like you,” you said coldly to him, showing up from behind the hedge where you hid once he finished talking about the depth of his feelings to his Cinderella. “You couldn’t even break our engagement first before you confessed your love to someone else.”

Bakugo, a man so daring, arrogant, and rude to the point he was a personal pain of the Queen, fell silent, unable to utter a word - it was the first time you saw him staring at you with such a miserable expression on his face. He was caught red-handed. He knew what he’d done to you, how wrong it was to confess his love to the other woman and promise her to marry before breaking his engagement first. Naturally, he did it because you and your entourage weren’t there, caring little for what the servants would say about him, but with you hearing his every word… oh, it would be a great scandal.

But you didn’t look at him for long, lowering your eyes to the girl he was shielding from you. Funny, but the main heroine looked like a rabbit in front of a snake, so scared of you she trembled lightly. Poor thing, she expected you to rip her hair or scream and slap her - it was something your heroine could easily do, but you no longer followed her fate. You weren’t going to make this girl’s life tougher than it was already was. It was Bakugo who deserved to be taught a lesson, not her.

“I will not remain by your side any longer. Tomorrow my father will announce the breach of the engagement.”

With this you left him behind, your ladies comforting you and assuring you that you did a right thing - all of them couldn’t believe the prince would do such a lowly thing to you even if he didn’t love you. Of course, you were right from the start: he treated you, the Grand Duke’s daugther, like dirt beneath his shoes. Hell, even a woman of a lower status didn’t deserve this!

Tomorrow it was in all the papers: you wanted to shame the prince as much as you could even it meant your name would be there too. Since you had convinced your father it was all prince’s fault you suffered so much, the Grand Duke used his influence and money to make the newspapers mention the name of the prince more than anyone else’s, whether it be the name of the Cinderella girl or your own. Actually, he was quite surprised you didn’t want to shame that girl instead of a prince, but you gave your father a simple explanation: Bakugo had been constantly seen with women just to hurt you. It had always been his fault.

Well, His Highness had it coming, hadn’t he? After so many years of ignorance and bringing you nothing but pain, he deserved what was coming for him, and this time even the Queen wouldn’t be able to help him.

It was only the beginning. After all you came through in your real life, this silly romance was nothing but a child’s play. How could the duke’s daugther, so powerful, rich, and pretty, cry over this trash prince, anyway? Did she know how happy she could be if only she stopped chasing after him, what amazing life was awaiting her with all the opportunities she was presented? Well, you were going to show it to her yourself.

First, you got rid of anything that was given to you by the prince, including the jewelry you sent back to the royal palace. The only gift you left was your horse, a beautiful and gentle creature given to you on your 18th birthday - you knew it was the Queen who sent it, not the prince.

Second, after an official announcement of breach of your engagement, you sent a letter to the Cinderella girl, saying you weren’t blaming her for prince’s behavior. You knew it must have been a stupid thing to do, considering the girl was supposed to love that bastard with all her heart, but the image of her shaking from fear was embedded in your memory, and you didn’t want her to think you were a monster. You brought her enough troubles already.

While the high society kept talking about the scandal, discussing undignified behavior of the prince and pitying you, poor young lady who had to go through this horrendous situation to the point where you could no longer be his fiancée, you spent your time doing things you wanted to do for ages: studying and spending your father’s money for the greater good. Although the world you lived in was a fairytale world, it didn’t mean most things could be simply done with magic. Not healing, at least, you thought when you were preparing a whole plan to convince your father to gather herbalists, doctors, and healers together for building a medical institute.

This world needed medicine. While there were some drugs sold to both the nobles and peasants, you treated them with great sarcasm because of their low effectiveness and high price. No, in a world where you had so much money to spend on dresses, jewels, and carriages, you couldn’t ignore this basic needs of people.

“Why are you interested in it all of a sudden?” The Grand Duke wondered, confused why his daugther who always cared about no one but herself suddenly decided to form an institution.

The longer and healthier people live, the longer and better they work, you told him, knowing he had a mindset of a businessman to the core. It did sound kind of cruel to you, but this explanation was enough for him to agree. Besides, while considering he could easily become a monopolist in this field, it would also improve his public image that wasn’t too good from the start.

He had no idea what your true motivation was, but you weren’t going to tell him. Of course, how could he understand when neither him nor his daughter were sick a day in their lives?

Oh, you envied both of them so, so much. But he wasn’t going to discover it, no. All he had to think of was how well his daughter was getting over her silly love to the prince, finally spending her time on something worthy instead of crying and sending countless letters to His Highness, pleading him to come back to her.

As for establishing the institution, getting approval from the Queen was quite easy: after all the troubles her son brought to the crown and the house of Grand Duke, she was ready to make allowances of any kind to make the relationships between the royal and duke’s families better. Gathering researchers was far more difficult task, and it took you several months to form a team of magicians and doctors to work together. However, you were satisfied with the outcome: all these people were professionals in their field, dedicating their life to the treatment of diseases. Supplying them with the ingredients and machinery as as well as providing for them and even their families resulted in creation of your first magic potion against the cold - a simple but very powerful brew that could cure even pneumonia. In a world where children were dying from a simple cold, it was a big discovery.

Nevertheless, despite being always busy with your work, you spent some time to reconcile with many people whom your heroine hurt, gradually improving your own reputation. You responded to countless invitations you had never even looked at before and visited an enormous number of people, slowly but surely proving you were no longer a mad noble lady who would kill anyone to get to her beloved prince. You acted like you had finally grown up and got rid of your unhealthy obsession over a rude, uncaring man who didn’t even love you. It wasn’t easy, but with time, people around you got used to you being no longer vile and poisonous.

Even Izuku, your adopted brother whom you had hurt so much, was at better terms with you now. Considering how much he suffered because of you and your cruelty, it was beyond your understanding how he could ever forgive you.

Nevertheless, he seemed to tolerate you, maybe even like you a little since you concentrated on that medical institution of yours, and decided to give you a hand, helping you with providing the researchers with new supplies they requested all the time.

It was becoming better and better until the night when Bakugo showed up behind the castle’s gate, demanding an audience as if his life depended on it.

Chapter Text

“I know you will hardly believe me, but His Highness is here!” Izuku didn’t even greet you properly, flying into your room like an excited child, but you paid no mind to it. “He’s standing behind our gate, dressed as a commoner!”

“Are you sure it’s him?” Sipping your tea, you asked, wondering why the hell Bakugo suddenly showed up at the duke’s castle so late at night, not even sending an official request before visiting.

“I’ve seen his face, it’s definitely His Highness!”

Watching Izuku getting more agitated, you sighed, getting up from your sofa made of dark blue velvet and adjusting your dress. Well, it was bound to happen one day, wasn’t it? You hadn’t seen Bakugo since that day in the royal gardens, but you knew he wouldn’t leave you alone after the scandal that completely ruined his reputation. Actually, it was peculiar it took him so many months until he decided to show his face to you.

“Hide beneath the curtains and listen to whatever he says, but don’t tell anything to father, please.”

“A-are you sure? In your room?”

Seeing your brother blushing made you chuckle. He certainly became much softer with you despite having horrible relationship with his evil older sister earlier. Izuku was a good boy, really. You were glad now he was on your side.

“I trust you, Izuku. Please, do as I say.”

With that he run to the gate, instructing the guards to let the prince dressed into commoner’s clothing in while making them swear to keep quiet. You were very lucky your father had been out in the city: he would better die than let Bakugo get close to you after all he’d done. Nevertheless, you were curious to know what he wanted from you. As far as you knew, you didn’t cause him any troubles except for breaking the engagement, but it allowed him to get married to the girl he loved instead. What else could he possibly want from you?

“Welcome to my ancestral home, Your Highness,” you said nonchalantly when he entered your room, his steps loud and heavy. “What brings you here at this hour? I was surprised to hear you decided to pay us a visit.”

You could tell he was furious just by the look at his madly red face, and, for some reason, it made you internally laugh. Why running to you like an angry bull? What else did you do wrong to hurt his pride? You wouldn’t be surprised if the Queen was against his marriage to the Cinderella girl, but you had no role in this, keeping quiet this entire time and spending your efforts elsewhere. Was he going to accuse you of siding up with the Queen against him?

“What did you do to her?”

Honestly speaking, you were amazed at how blunt and incredibly stupid the prince was. Of course, you knew of whom he was speaking. It must have been his little princess, Cinderella girl. Who else could he be talking about with such passionate expression on his face? You’d grown tired of watching it long before you announced the breach of your engagement.

What the Hell he wanted from you now? Didn’t you leave him alone for the past six months? Didn’t you avoid any place where he had been seen? You spent all your time at work, occasionally going out on the balls where Bakugo definitely wouldn’t appear. You didn’t send him even one letter or any other sign, asking him to meet you. What could he possibly want from you now?

Well, if it were a private visit, there was no need to be overly polite.

“Listen, Bakugo, I have no idea what you’re talking about. If you came to my house to harass me, please leave,” you cut him out quickly before he had time to accuse you of something else. “I’m busy with work.”

“Pfft, don’t make me laugh. You didn’t work a day in your life.”

The expression of pure disgust on his face was making you nauseated. Son of a bitch, did he really think you’d stay here listening to this crap?

“I don’t care what you think of my work. Do I need to repeat myself? Get out.”

“Not until you explain me what you did to my beloved.”

Ugh, he was being impossible. You wished you could push him out of your room, but the prince was much stronger than you physically. Besides, a noble lady like you would never dare to do such a thing, and acting out of her character could easily make Bakugo suspicious. And Izuku, who was hiding behind the curtain right now… it would be too much of a shock for him as well.

Exhausted, you sighed, rolling your eyes to the ceiling, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. What happened?”

Judging by the way he clenched his fists, it was something important.

“She ran out on me.”

His whisper was barely audible, but you still heard him, looking at him wide-eyed. She what? Left him? For real? The main heroine of a fairytale who was destined to end up being married to Bakugo and becoming a new queen? How was that even possible?

Finding the strength suddenly leaving your body, you sat back onto the sofa, gripping the armrest. It couldn’t be. Weren’t fairytale meant to end according to the plot? You remembered well there was no Cinderella running away from her prince in the original. After the prince broke his engagement to you, they were to get married and live in peace. How come she just left him?

“Was she kidnapped, perhaps?” You asked him, perplexed. “Forced to leave you?”

“No,” he barked out, “she even left me a letter where she asked me not to follow her. The servants said she didn’t look scared or upset when she left.”

Hiding your face in your hands as if you were distressed, you smirked. What a turn. Even an angelic Cinderella girl couldn’t keep up with this obnoxious bastard and left him for good. Although you had no idea how it was possible in a fairytale where everything was predetermined, you could easily imagine the girl getting fed up with prince’s antics.

“She couldn’t just leave me like that after everything that happened between us. You must have done something to her!”

Poor Bakugo. Living in a world where he was the precious crown prince, he had no idea how people despised him for his utterly ugly behavior.

“In this half a year since we last saw each other, I have persuaded my father to open a medical institution. I helped to find the best healers and doctors from all over the country. I learnt from them to be able to participate in the creation of drugs. I studied magic. I even reconciled with my family and my friends. And you come to me at this hour and ask me about your beloved?”

An absolute silence fell in the room when you looked at the prince ironically, a cunning grin on your face.

“I couldn’t care less about either you or her, Your Highness.”

Chapter Text

“It’s an obvious lie. I don’t understand why you even bother saying it to my face.”

If looks could kill, you were sure the prince would drop dead right in that moment. Dear God, it was impossible to get through his damn obstinacy, Bakugo was so headstrong he refused to listen to you regardless of how many times you repeated your reasons! Now you really pitied the Queen who had to deal with this idiot on a daily basis and try to raise him as a future king.

Well, it was no surprise his sweetheart ran out on him. You wondered how patient she was not to murder him in his sleep because it would definitely be your top priority if you were still engaged to him.

“You never even liked magic. Did you forget you called magicians filthy?” He asked you as you rolled your eyes again, tempted to call Izuku from behind the curtain and ask him to kick your ex-fiancée’s ass for your sake.

“So what? I was stupid. Magic is just means to reach your goal like power or money,” exhaling loudly from this endless torture, you folded your arms on your chest, “and guess what, people tend to change over time. There’s nothing surprising in me changing my opinion.”

He held his head high. “You? Changing? Please!”

Groaning in frustration and tugging on the roots of your hair, you stood up, walking over to one of the shelves where the secret passage to your personal study room was hidden. You weren’t too keen on showing it to the prince, but to hell with it, if it took this much to prove him you had been busy with your potions, so be it!

Touching one of the books with barely visible title - something about history of this kingdom - you stepped back, watching the wall move to open a passage, Bakugo glaring at it suspiciously behind your back. That idiot was probably thinking you were gonna take out a bow out of there and shoot him on the spot. Oh, to think of it, it sounded very alluring to you…

“Come,” you demanded him sharply, tired from this useless bravado that was taking too much of your time. “I’ll show you the proof what I was doing all this time.”

He moved reluctantly, unwilling to step somewhere where he certainly wasn’t welcomed, but you moved fast, forcing the long curtain hiding the entrance to the side and demonstrating Bakugo a small, neat room filled with books, elixirs, and enchanted machinery you used for creating your potions.

Strictly speaking, you weren’t much of an inventor yourself, only an apprentice to those researchers your father employed, but you still took a great pride in your little experiments, determined to keep working to test the potions made by other magicians and maybe even create your own.

Staring at countless bottles filled with emerald green and golden liquids, the prince grunted something under his breath that you didn’t quite hear. Was he now convinced you didn’t spend this half a year for nothing? With all going on in your life now you had no chance to be plotting against him. Hell, you wouldn’t care even if he suddenly admitted his fault and crawled back to you, asking for your forgiveness!

“The potion you’re staring at is meant to relieve pain. Unlike other drugs used for the same purpose, it has no narcotic ingredient and is safer to use. Unfortunately, it’s not very strong, so we’re looking for components to increase its force. As for now, we’re planning to sell it for relieving mild aches or giving to young kids who are in pain,” taking a little green bottle in your hand, you opened it and let Bakugo smell it a little, returning it to the shelf and taking a little pot instead. “This one is a salve to ease rheumatism. I know you can buy it from any decent doctor, but this one here is made from very common ingredients, and it’s incredibly cheap while still being effective. The next month we’re hoping to start selling it to commoners.”

Judging by the thoughtful expression on his face, Bakugo started to realize what you were doing here, finally. You really hoped he did because you had no other proof to show him you really cared about that medical institution of yours, spending day and night with the doctors and healers, writing down their vague explanations and long talks about theory of healing magic and potion brewing. In the end, all this was so much more important than love affairs of some guy even if he was the crown prince of this country.

“Caring about commoners… breaking the engagement with me… it’s so not like you,” he whispered suddenly, staring at you with contempt. “Not at all like you.”

“People change, Your Highness,” you turned your back to him to return the last book you showed him on its place. “Maybe it’s time for you to realize you can change too.”

“Or maybe it’s my chance to discover who has taken control of the body of my fiancée and tries to trick me with all this talk about her compassion for others.”

You heard him drawing his sword before you even looked back at him.

“Maybe if I force you out of her body, demon, we’ll see what you’ll say to my face then,” his wicked whisper made you tremble as you stared at his pale face, his sword nearly touching your bare neck.

“Stop it,” you demanded, breaking into cold sweat as you prepared to cast a protective barrier to defend yourself. “Do you even hear what you’re saying?”

But he didn’t listen to you, his stubborn stare growing dark as he brought his sword even closer, forcing you to retreat to the table.

Your figure started glowing with magic as you shouted to him, “Stop it, Bakugo!”

He moved so fast you didn’t have time to react, but your body acted on its own, and the next second the sound of a metal clashing against something solid broke the dead silence: you were staring at the prince through the golden shield of a spell surrounding you, its light so bright it was blinding the man who was determined to end you here and now, apparently. Quickly, you casted one more spell to move him to the opposite door so you could escape the study room and run to get help, but then you saw guards storming in the room one by one, all of them pointing their swords at the prince, Izuku standing somewhere behind them.

“Your ladyship!”

They dragged the madman out of your room in an instant before he uttered a single word, taking his weapon and constantly punching him, bruises already forming on Bakugo’s face and arms, but you couldn’t bring yourself to pity him, slowly crumpling to the floor as the strength finally left you. God, he was ready to kill you. He really wanted to pry you open, thinking he could take your soul out of his ex-fiancée’s body.

Bakugo almost succeeded.

For a couple of minutes you were nearly unconscious as Izuku held you in his embrace, bringing you to the sofa and constantly saying something you couldn’t understand in a state of shock. When you came down, you felt that your face was wet and your eyes hurt, but what surprised you the most was the feeling of fear you hadn’t felt since you came into this world.

He almost killed you. He almost stripped you of your precious life just because he was mad at his beloved running away from him.

Bakugo was on the verge of lunacy, no doubt.

“I’m so sorry,” you had finally felt Izuku’s desperation as he kept whispering something to you. “I should have stopped him before he even came to your room. I’m so sorry. I never thought the rumors about him treating you like this were true… It’s all my fault. I’m so, so sorry, sister.”

Chapter Text

“He could have killed you, and I just stood there and did nothing.”

Feeling numb, you saw your brother bringing his handkerchief to your face as he gently wiped your tears that seemed to still keep flowing down your cheeks. Then he enveloped you in a hug even tighter, making you lean onto his chest as you quietly sat in a complete silence, listening to his heartbeat.

Izuku was right: the prince could have easily killed you. The understanding made you shiver even harder, and you kept silent as you trembled in your brother’s arms, thinking how lucky you were to escape. Dear God, you could have been dead. The only reason you still breathed was because Izuku brought the guards to protect you in the moment you needed them most. If it wasn’t for him, you would no longer be breathing.

The thought horrified you to the core. Although you didn’t know why, but you never took Bakugo for a bloodthirsty type. Yes, he was impatient, stupid, and incredibly rude, but to see him so eager to murder you right on the spot… How could he do this to you? Why? Because he thought you convinced his beloved to run away from him? Was it enough to make him go completely crazy? Why did he raise his sword out of the blue like that?

Or was he mad after he finally realized you had no interest in him whatsoever? When you showed him your potions and elixirs, didn’t he understand you had no intention to be further involved with him? Come to think of it, he didn’t call you his ex-fiancée. He just called you a fiancée as if you two didn’t broke up a long time ago.

Did he feel so miserable he was ready to kill you just to make himself feel better? That why he came up with this ridiculous “demon inside her body” thing?

You couldn’t imagine it was the truth behind his reckless actions. When you read the fairytale, you had a very different opinion on him despite Bakugo being an insolent and unkind man…

Well, you were mistaken. He wasn’t just undignified, he was dangerous. Maybe it was time to protect herself against someone like him instead of simply ignoring his existence.

“Don’t blame yourself,” you muttered quietly to Izuku who seemed ready to condemn himself for not being able to prevent you being hurt. “It’s not your fault. Who could have thought His Highness would turn mad to attack me like that?”

“After treating you so lowly all this time, does it surprise you? He’s as vicious as people say. I should have listened to them, but I thought you were spreading those rumors on purpose to manipulate people around you,” he caressed your head so gently as if he were afraid you were going to break. “I’m sorry. It’s all my fault, sister. I’m so sorry.”

He kept saying it over and over again, pleading you to forgive him, that, in the end, you felt guilty - your heroine had been tormenting him for years for being a child of a lowly noble who was taken into her family out of pity. If you had to list all those things she did to him, you would have to talk for hours. Of course, you didn’t want to hurt him even if he already despised you when you came to possess his sister’s body. You were happy you could at least improve your relationship bit by bit after calling off your engagement, but you didn’t expect him to apologize to you over something he couldn’t control whatsoever.

In the end, it was him who saved you from the prince.

While he wept, this kind, softhearted child, you left a kiss on the top of his head, bringing him to your chest instead. He was so pure he had already forgiven you for all those horrible things his sister did to him.

“It’s alright,” you whispered, finally calming down as you pet his head like a mother would. “I’m safe thanks to you, aren’t you? So don’t worry too much. I just need to take care from now on to never meet His Highness again, and I’ll be alright then.”

“I’ll make so he will never step into our house again. If he thinks the Grand Duke’s family will take his actions lightly, he’ll be surprised.”

By the next morning every servant from butler to a scullery maid knew of what had happened, and the rumors started to spread so fast they reached your father faster than you expected. When he found out about prince’s behavior, he was more than furious - you had never seen him wearing such an expression that made you shiver, his eyes so dark you were afraid to look at him. He took Bakugo’s sword - that fool was stupid enough to take the royal sword with him - and immediately departed to the castle without even sending a request to see the Queen. You wondered if it would cause him troubles and separate him from the royal family even further, but what could else be done after the crown prince openly attacked the Grand Duke’s only daugther? Apparently, your father went to the royal castle to demand Her Majesty to never bring you up again and prohibit the prince to appear in your presence unless she wanted to lose whatever support she received from him, a man who put her on the throne when she murdered her husband, the late King. Although you were afraid for him if your father wanted to threaten the Queen herself, Izuku said someone as wise as the Grand Duke wouldn’t threaten Her Majesty if he didn’t hold enough power over her. Since you have never heard from the royal family ever since then, maybe your brother was right.

After that, there was lots of talk that the prince lost his mother’s favor despite her only ever wanting to make him the next king. People said he was locked in the palace without a chance to even leave his chambers, but you didn’t think it was true. In the end, someone like Bakugo would always find a way to do as he pleased even after falling out of favor. What surprised you more were the rumors that he was succumbing to his demons even more as he started to drow his sorrows in wine - so many nobles kept repeating it you wondered if it were true. Well, Bakugo still stayed a crown prince even after all he had done. He wouldn’t be chased away from the palace anyway, so you weren’t too worried about him. In the end, the Queen would take care of him - he was her only child, and she wouldn’t give up on him, so you had no reason to think of him any longer.

Nevertheless, it was funny how the situation turned out in your favor when even the servants started treating you much better than before. You stopped hearing any stories about you lacking a heart, and Izuku who started to follow your every step was quick to prevent any rumor berating you whether it came from a commoner or a noble. Soon you were receiving even more invitations to private soirees and balls where everyone treated you with utmost respect - since you went back to your studies and kept experimenting with new medicine, it was good you got a chance to spread the word to the people, slowly building better relationships with those who could be of use to your family.

Your life wasn’t going to end when you were no longer related to the prince. You had a bright future awaiting you, a future where your heroine would no longer suffer because of the prince, Cinderella girl, or cruel people wishing for you to fail. You were no longer a villainess who was destined to commit suicide after losing the favour of the man she loved. Now the duke’s daughter became the main character of her own story where she would become happy on your own.

Chapter Text

It had been several months after that unfortunate incident with the prince. True to her word, the Queen forbid Bakugo to ever come see you: she promised your father her disgraceful son would never again bring trouble to the house of Grand Duke. Thankfully, the prince really didn’t show up at your door despite your constant worries. The duke said Bakugo was doing nothing but drowning his sorrows in wine after he lost both his beloved and Queen’s favor.

“Serves him right,” Izuku stated, satisfied with your ex-fiancé leaving you alone.

Among all people, he was probably the closest to you now as he kept helping you with medical research and controlling the supply of ingredients necessary for potion brewing. The Grand Duke, fancying the idea of becoming the monopolist in pharmaceutical industry, was constantly taking care of the new business as well, managing overall production, opening the first stores and finding doctors who would agree to distribute his products to places that he couldn’t reach yet. He had always been a busy man, working day and night, but now you could see he was proud to be working on something his children came up with.

Of course, you weren’t the one to spend your time leisurely either. Sometimes you were literally sleeping in the doctors’ quarters where you were given your own room if you were too tired to return to the castle. Medical research weren’t to be taken lightly, so you spent countless hours perfecting your healing skills and learning about diseases and their treatment. Since nobody expected the Grand Duke’s daughter to be interested in something as complicated as creating new medicine, the rumors about you kept spreading again and again. For the next four months you had heard stories about you becoming both a saintess - because you wanted to help your people live long and happy - and a sinner - because after all ridiculous things you had done to innocent people it was now your atonement. There were so many rumors you lost count of them a long time ago. Whatever. What was important for you was the steady creation of potions.

Although most of them were still in the stage of testing, several were released, including something as grand as treatment against tuberculosis - you still didn’t believe doctor Aizawa succeeded, delivering a safe and relatively cheap potion you had already started distributing in the stores. Izuku was seriously expecting the royal family to award all of you for everything you did for the sake of the kingdom’s people - no one had done so much in this field as the Grand Duke and his research team.

However, when the Queen herself appeared in front of the castle doors one night, she wasn’t there to congratulate you on your phenomenal success.

“I need to speak to the duke’s daughter,” she said firmly, but your maid who saw her first said she was trembling like a leaf. “It is a matter of national importance.”

Although Her Majesty certainly wasn’t a lady confined to the royal palace, she had never visited someone out of the blue like this, simply coming out of the magical circle that transported her directly to your father’s castle. What could possibly make her come here on her own when she had countless nobles and servants to deliver her message? She only had one knight, sir Todoroki Enji, accompanying her.

Since your father was absent again, it was Izuku and you meeting the Queen herself as you hurriedly put on your clothes after getting up from bed - both of you had long retired and were actually sleeping by the time Her Majesty came. You felt a little self-conscious to meet the Queen when you looked so disheveled, but the moment you saw her you realized it wasn’t important: the most powerful woman of this kingdom was on the verge of hysterics, her eyes puffy and red as if she cried the whole day long.

The prince was sick. She struggled to speak, so it was hard to understand what had actually happened, and soon you realized you had to come to the palace immediately - the Queen, knowing of your success with the new medicines, somehow believed you were more knowledgeable than the royal doctor who couldn’t be of any help to her son. From her words you figured out Bakugo didn’t wake up after his afternoon nap, and soon the servants saw some peculiar marks appearing on his fingers, spreading further and further. Naturally, you had no idea what disease she was talking about - you were only an apprentice whose role was to learn, not to treat. Nevertheless, seeing the state the poor woman was in, you felt pity for her: even if Bakugo behaved like a complete bastard, his mother didn’t deserve to see her only son wither away. Maybe some doctor or healer who worked in your institution could detect the disease and find a potion to cure it?

There was no one better than doctor Aizawa, a grumpy man who was both a scientist and magician, the leader of the research group. He wasn’t an easy person to deal with, but for the sake of his patients he could do miracles.

“Are you sure you want to do it?” Izuku whispered to you tiredly, rubbing his eyes. “In the end, her son almost killed you.”

“I know, I know,” you huffed in return, knocking on the doctor’s door and praying he would agree to go with you. “But I don’t want his death to be my fault.”

Thankfully, suffering from insomnia doctor Aizawa wasn’t even asleep, quickly changing his clothing and departing with you through the magic portal leading straight to prince’s chamber full of servants and healers. With the Queen screaming at all of them to leave her child alone, they left almost immediately with an expression of pure horror on their faces. Damn, how bad was Bakugo’s condition?

It was, in fact, terrifying.

He looked so pale his skin was almost the same color as the pillow he laid on; the dark circles he never had looked huge, and, somehow, the prince looked emaciated despite the Queen ensuring you he ate well, as always. It’s true the prince was spending his time constantly drinking, and his mood was always sour, but everything else was as usual - no new encounters, no new food, no special events. How could the prince fall ill?

When sir Todoroki lifted the blanket and you saw many long, crooked black lines stretching from Bakugo’s fingertips to the elbows, you realized what was happening to the unfortunate, foolish prince.

Chapter Text

"What do you think it is?" Aizawa asked you from behind, nearly making you jump as you nervously bit down on your lower lip, feeling the Queen staring at you intensely.

"Isn't it one of the fae curses?" You muttered, gently touching Bakugo's arm and tracing pitch-black lines with your finger, almost afraid to voice your concerns. "High Fae's curse."

Despite you having no warm feelings for an asshole your ex-fiance was, you really hoped you were wrong because otherwise Bakugo was completely fucked. A High Fae's curse. Where on Earth did this wannabe murderer find a High Fae when he was ought to be kept in his chamber at the royal castle at all times?! How damn mad did he have to make this fae to curse him so bad? It was deadly magic, surely. You really, really hoped something could still be done because otherwise the Queen was going to be burying her son in a couple of days at the latest.

Naturally, like any doctor of his caliber, Aizawa had been researching fae's curses for quite some time, but you were unaware if he knew what exact curse it was and whether he succeeded in finding the correct formula to treat it, and the thought scared you to death. You really didn't want to watch Bakugo die.

"You are correct, my lady. It's Invictus in its early stage," the man behind you said and went back to his bag, full of bottles and jars that kept clinking against each other the second he lifted the bag from the floor. "It seems I didn't spend all this time teaching you for nothing."

"Wait, but I thought only the High Lord of the East can cast Invictus," Izuku barged in unceremoniously, scratching his head. "How did His Highness even met him?"

"Yes, you are right too, my lord. But we should leave this matter to Her Majesty because it doesn't concern us, and we will not benefit from discovering the truth."

His sarcastic tone made your adopted brother go red, and you sighed, rolling your eyes to the ceiling. It wasn't the time for this. What the Hell was doctor Aizawa going to do? You felt horrible not knowing how to help this stupid, miserable prince. Was he going to die just like that? God, were you going to just stand and watch it happen?

You murmured, unsure, "We should drain the poisoned blood first, I suppose."

"Correct. Izuku, ask servants for hot water and towels. My lady, while I'm preparing the serum, make cuts in places where the lines unite and drain the blood."

"You will do no such thing until you explain me everything."

Queen's voice sounded like a thunder in the silence of the room, and you immediately turned back to her only to see her turning shockingly pale as if she saw a ghost. Despite her trying to hide it, her shoulders were shaking, and you could see tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Listening to you talking about some incurable curse made already scared Queen terrified to the core - her only child could die, and she didn't have the slightest idea how to help him.

"If it's a curse... shouldn't we ask magicians to purify him?" Her voice quivered, and you felt sorry you couldn't reassure her about healing her son. You had no idea what was about to happen to him, and it was scary thinking about it.

Letting out a loud sigh, doctor Aizawa straightened, turning away from the bottles he had already taken from his bag. His bloodshot eyes looked tired - he had been suffering from insomnia for years, spending his nights solely on research for the sake of people like Bakugo. Maybe it was the stern tone of his voice or the way he looked at the Queen, but once he started talking, she grew silent immediately.

"This is not a curse casted upon a prince by some sorcerer. It is a curse the High Lord of the East casted on His Highness himself," the man said grimly, watching Izuku bringing in the bowls filled with hot water and a pile of towels and bandages. "It can be reversed within several hours if the Lord decided to go with it, but I can see it is far too late for that. Invictus is poisoning prince's body. Since his disease is still in the early development stage, we can drain the poisoned blood and inject His Highness with serum that can futher purge the poison. I cannot guarantee a success, but I have healed a few patients with Invictus like him before. Now, if we may, we need to start treating His Highness. When the black lines stretching from his arms reach his neck, I will no longer be able to help."

Aizawa started moving without waiting for the Queen to agree with him as if he wasn't scared of treason. Albeit you were scared as much as someone in your position could be, you did exactly like the doctor instructed you to, not watching the distressed mother of the boy who looked so horrible you really thought he wouldn't make it. God, his chances were slim.

"How many did you save?" she finally asked when you were already sitting by Bakugo's bed, your hands hidden beneath long gloves made from coarse cloth as you made careful cuts, black blood streaming into the crudely made surgical drainage system. The smell coming from the wound was so disgusting you felt nauseous, happy you had a mask covering most of your face.

Aizawa didn't even turn back to the Queen as he replied, "Two."

"Two?!"

She screamed something furiously, but by that moment you were under such pressure you could focuse only on the black blood dripping from the wounds on Bakugo's hands and nothing else. Who cared how many people doctor Aizawa saved when the boy was gonna die anyway if no one did anything? To get through a High Fae's curse was a miracle by itself. You were ready to follow the instructions of the doctor who helped at least anyone to come out alive from this Hell, and you needed to do a good job for him.

Sometimes you really hated this world for its lack of technological advancement: there were no rubber tubes, Jackson-Pratt or Penrose drain, and the bandages were horrible comparing to what you had back home... But you had magic and elixirs and all this stuff you still hard time believing. Maybe doctor Aizawa could save Bakugo. Maybe there was a chance if you did your job right.

So you kept draining the poision from the prince's veins until the doctor finally returned with a syringe.