Chapter 1

“Have you no shame, you devil…!”

It had been a very long time since my fiancé had hurled those words at me. Back in the days when I was still living as Alexandra Lexis.

As the daughter of the kingdom’s foremost ducal family, I had been promised a life without a single inconvenience. There was nothing I couldn’t have my way with. And if something did happen to stand in my way, I would either forcefully bend it to my will or take my frustrations out on those around me until I felt better.

I was beautiful, graceful in every gesture, and reasonably intelligent, even if I wasn’t exactly a genius. I could handle most things without much difficulty.

No one dared criticize me, no matter how arrogantly I behaved. Apparently, my marriage to royalty had been decided before I was even born. I was someone who deserved to be treated with the utmost respect.

I spent money as though it were water, never wore a dress more than once, and ordered the servants to throw away all the food left over after I had eaten a tiny portion of the extravagant meals that barely fit on the table.

My fiancé, the Crown Prince, was a spineless, indecisive man who looked utterly unimpressive next to me. No matter what I said, he would simply laugh it off with a silly grin, as though he had no backbone whatsoever. There was no way someone like me would ever be satisfied with such a useless fool. Naturally, I spent my days having affairs and making a name for myself through my numerous romances with handsome men.

Even so, I flew into a rage whenever my fiancé merely spoke to another woman. If I caught even a glimpse of them together, I would immediately punish them. Watching them cling to my feet with tear-streaked faces, miserably begging for forgiveness, always made me feel so much better.

And so, having used my status to do whatever I pleased, I was summarily executed one day. That chubby, utterly unimpressive Crown Prince had completely outmaneuvered me. There was evidence of my infidelity, which I hadn’t even bothered to conceal, as well as proof that I had ruined the futures of countless young ladies. To make matters worse, my plot to assassinate the Crown Prince was exposed, too. Well, the Second Prince was much more handsome, so if I was going to get married anyway, I figured I might as well marry him instead.

When I shouted that explanation at my own public sentencing, someone shouted the line from the beginning of this story in response. Those words had become the final farewell I received. Not a single person, not even a member of my own family, had come forward to defend the notorious villainess of the century.

“Oh, there you are! Come here, sweetheart.”

“Meow.”

“Your meow is so lovely, no matter how many times I hear it.”

—Alexandra, once the most magnificent woman in the kingdom, had somehow been reborn as a cat. I was a ginger cat with fluffy fur that looked golden under the right lighting. Even as a cat, I was beautiful. Naturally, I let out a soundless meow, congratulating myself on my own magnificence.

My owner’s name was Ophelia Desmond. When we first met, she had barely been more than a child, but several years had passed since then, and she had grown into a proper young lady.

Apparently, the Desmond Marquis family was an ancient house with a long and distinguished lineage. Ophelia, too, was being subjected to strict ladylike education so that she could one day become the wife of a royal. One rainy day, she had found me when I was still a kitten. She had even prostrated herself before her parents, begging them to let her keep me, and somehow managed to obtain their permission.

Despite her beautiful, delicate appearance and considerable abilities, she had low self-esteem, was self-deprecating, and could only stand up for herself within the safety of her own home. At first, I couldn’t stand her. But when someone showered you with such wholehearted affection every single day, every single hour, it was only natural that even a villainess like me would eventually grow attached.

Alexandra no longer existed in this world. The woman who had committed every imaginable evil had been executed, and now she spent her days as a cat, living for nothing more than basking in the sunlight. The whole thing was laughable, really.