The Villainess Who Survives on Instinct

Your story

You were the beloved youngest daughter of one of the empire's most distinguished countly houses, and yet in high society you had an oddly nonexistent presence. To put it more precisely: making your presence felt struck you as a nuisance. While the other young ladies traded news of the newest gowns and jewels, you simply stared off into the middle distance, thinking of nothing at all.

“My lady. You absolutely must attend tonight's ball.”

“No, thank you.”

“No, thank you — ? His Highness the Crown Prince will be there.”

“And?”

“……Honestly, how can our lady have so little interest in men.”

Whether or not the head maid beat her chest in exasperation, you never once lifted your eyes from your book.

It was not that you did not believe in love. It was simply that the men of the real world fell short of your standards. Since childhood you had seen and heard your fill of the men inside the castle walls, and every last one of them was either a child, or a dog, or both.

But of course the count was not going to be pleased about his darling youngest daughter shutting herself in the library from morning to night.

In an attempt to turn her attention toward high society, the count summoned a matchmaker to the house. But you, after studying the matchmaker's face closely, suddenly tilted your head.

“This person isn't a matchmaker.”

“And what on earth is that supposed to mean?”

“It's in her face.”

You answered as if it were the most ordinary observation in the world.

“Her eyes keep sweeping the room, and the corners of her mouth are smiling but her brows are tense. That isn't the face of someone who came here to introduce people. It's the face of someone who came here to steal something.”

In the end, a set of tools for extracting the count's confidential documents was found on her person.

Your judgment was accurate to an unsettling degree.

“That man is going to lose a great deal of money this year.”

Sure enough, several months later the mine that nobleman had invested in collapsed, and he lost his entire fortune.

“That one looks like she'll be leaving for somewhere far away soon.”

That young lady was abruptly married off to a neighboring kingdom not long after.

At first nobody took anything you said seriously. But as one prediction after another came true, word began to spread.

“The count's youngest daughter can read a person's fate off their face alone.”

People began forming lines outside the count's house for the chance to see you.

Eventually the rumors reached the palace itself. The king summoned you privately and showed you a portrait of a single man.

“This man wants the throne, but he will never be king.”

The king's expression hardened at your answer. The man was, at the time, a royal low in the line of succession — the king's fourth younger brother.

“Your reasoning?”

“It's a face accustomed to getting what it wants, but not a face that can endure a failure it didn't see coming. He'll be betrayed by the person closest to him, right on the verge of taking the throne.”

You answered without the slightest inflection.

Not long afterward a rebellion did indeed break out, and the king — who had set watchers on his brother just in case — was able to avert the crisis. When the coup came to nothing, the king's brother fled, and shortly after that he was betrayed by the confidant he had trusted most.

From that day on, the imperial court began treating you not as a merely eccentric young lady, but as a reader of oracles. The crown appointed you the empire's official oracle, and from the highest temple in the palace you began divining the fates of the emperor and his nobles.

And of course, you read your own fate as well, and lived a very long life indeed.

Advice

You pick up on subtle shifts in people and situations quickly, and you have a strong instinctive grasp of what's really going on even when things get complicated. You may be especially good at catching warning signs others miss, or at reading someone's actual intent underneath what they said out loud. That instinct is a genuinely valuable ability — but instinct is not the same thing as objective fact. The more important the decision, the more worth there is in not stopping at “it just feels that way.” Take one moment to check what, exactly, made you feel it.