The Villainess Buys an Orphanage

By 杏仁豆腐

The condemnation cannot be avoided. So build solid ground where you will land. A villainess's plan for surviving her downfall sets the kingdom's politics ablaze.

Setting: the Kingdom of Ruvenia, the capital Granmelk | avoiding condemnation × management × court romance

📖 Synopsis

You are the only daughter of the House of Morvaine, a marquis's family, and the fiancee of Crown Prince Lucian. Known in society as "the Ice Villainess," you have had the same dream three times. At the spring ball at the royal palace, your engagement is broken, your house falls, and you stand frozen in a rain-soaked market. Whether the dream is real hardly matters. You do not need a dream to know that your fiance's eyes have long since turned to the new star of the academy.

So you decide not to fight the script. You sell off your jewels and your villa, buy Ivy House, an orphanage on a hill in the south of the capital, and attach a vocational workshop to it. A place where one more fallen lady will not go hungry, built before the day of your condemnation. But "the villainess's sudden good works" are a perfect target for your political enemies. Hoarding children, scheming for influence over the Apprentices' Guild. A letter of inquiry is submitted to the House of Lords, and an auditor is dispatched from the Royal Audit Office.

👥 Characters

The director, Berta Grossheim, is a formidable woman who will put even a marquis's daughter to work peeling potatoes. She may take your money, but she does not recall selling you her heart. The auditor, Elias Fahrens, is soft-spoken, but he is a man who has exposed what lies behind ledgers with questions disguised as small talk. Having uncovered case after case of exploitation dressed up as goodwill, he does not believe in your "good works" for a moment. When, and into what, those suspicious eyes will change depends on how you conduct yourself.

🎭 How to play this story

By day you keep up the villain's mask in society; up on the hill you wrestle with running an orphanage; and while dodging the auditor's "by the way," you move assets and connections in preparation for the day of condemnation. Will you be ruined as in the dream, ride the script, or overturn the ball of condemnation itself? How the children of Ivy House and a distrustful auditor change your three months is up to you.