Villainess Reborn: How a Commoner stole my spotlight

My name is Aurea Stormfang, proud daughter of the archduke Wirbel Stormfang and archduchess Auralia Stormfang. Born into a family of skilled mages, it came to no surprise that I was already able to wield magic by the age of 5, and was able to beat children twice my age in magic duels by the age of 7.

All my life I've trained hard to make my parents proud and proof to them that I'm the best wind magic user in the Kingdom of Felswand.

"Winner of this duel is Laura Baker!"

Surprised gasps echoed all around me as I heard these words.

"Satisfied now?"

The voice of my opponent, Laura, rings through my ears. I... lost? But how could I, Aurea Stormfang, future wife of the Prince, lose to a commoner?!

Let's go back a few minutes before the duel.

Today is the day of my enrollment into the prestigious Lesonia Royal Magic Academy. A school of magic that only the most talented of magic users have a chance to even try to enroll in. Naturally as someone who has been working hard all my life, I was able to ace the entrance exams.

Reaching the Academy gates, I was excited to see my Fiancé Adam and my best friend Marin, however, someone new I didn't know was standing with them as well.

Her fiery red hair and confident demeanor immediately stood out amongst the other students, after all, not many would think to approach the Prince so directly.

Approaching them, I could hear them chatter.

"Laura? A simple yet beautiful name. I'm crown prince Adam, nice to make your acquaintance."

"The crown prince? I didn't expect to meet the crown prince so soon."

"Haha! I'm sure it must be quite the shock, everyone reacts like that."

"No, not really.."

"So, what brings you to me?"

"I'm not-"

"Good morning crown Prince Adam~" Finally reached them!

"Oh, good morning Aurea, how are you doing?"

The prince immediately turned his attention to me, while the red haired girl turned to look at me as well, but I can't quite make out that expression, is it relief?

"I'm doing wonderful thank you for asking, but, may I ask who this is?" I didn't quite care for the name of a random girl, but if it is someone who is interested in the crown prince, I should make it clear right away that he is taken.

"She's-"

"I'm Laura Baker, and who are you?"

I blinked in confusion when she suddenly cut off the Prince, did she even know how much disrespect she was showing him??

Looking at me with slight disinterest, it was clear this girl didn't really care for my name either.

"Why, I'm none other than Aurea Stormfang, the Fiancé of Prince Adam Ironfang." I give a mildly annoyed, yet courteous bow, lifting my skirt in a formal greeting as I was taught.

"Ah, if you may excuse me then." And before I knew it, the girl simply walked past me.

I was so dumbfounded by the disrespect that I just stared blankly at the air in front of me, the prince and my best friend both having a similar stare.

That was the moment where I made that crucial mistake.

Before I knew it, I had turned around, glaring at her.

"How dare you disrespect the Prince and me like that, who do you think you are?!" All my life my parents had told me to be respectful to others and show them courtesy, I knew that I shouldn't have allowed myself to be provoked like this, but in that moment, I felt nothing but shame and humiliation.

Watching her turn around, I could see in her eyes that she didn't think of herself in trouble, rather than dealing with some troublesome individuals.

"I'm Laura Baker, as I already stated, what more do you want?"

I at least was able to catch myself saying something uncouth, instead I glared at her audacity. "Why you! I've never heard of any Baker family, do you come from outside the country and that's why you don't know how to act towards Royalty?!"

Watching Laura let out a sigh only further infuriated me. "Why should I care about the status of anyone on the school grounds?"

Once again I was stunned. There's a rule that states that as students of the Academy, everyone is equal, no matter where in life they come from. But that doesn't allow anyone to disrespect others like this!

"Plus it's not like I wanted to chat up the prince anyways." Laura says while shrugging, baffling me even further.

"Anyways, I'm gonna go now." Once again, I could've just let it go, but, I didn't.

"Hold it right there!" I say, pointing my finger at her while my other hand was on my hip, everyone around us could see that something serious was brooding.

My best friend even walked next to me and spoke softly. "Aurea, it's not that serious, just let it go." But, just that look on her face, I don't know why, but it really made me angry. The look of someone that didn't know their place.

"If you want to disrespect others, you should be sure to back up your bark! I demand a duel!" The gasps and whispers around me were quite loud, but I didn't care about that, all I cared about was to punish the girl before me for her insults.

"A duel? heh, fine with me, right here or where?" The way she readily accepted should've rung some alarm bells, but I just saw a overconfident opponent, like the many I've beaten before.

"Let's go to the training ground, the special equipment there is meant to protect from serious harm. I wouldn't want to actually hurt you after all, even after all the disrespect."

Laura didn't say anything else and walked towards the training grounds.

"Oh Aurea... what have you gotten yourself into..."

"I'm sorry Marin, but you know how much I hate overconfident people."

"But Aurea... She's not-"

"What's done is done Marin." The prince suddenly chimes in. "Now we can just watch and see who really is stronger."

My anger had blinded me to the point I could only see my Opponent, oblivious to the smile the prince wore.

Standing on the training ground wearing the protective bracelet, I once again could see the confidence in Laura's eyes. I can do this, she's just like the many other people that thought they were better than me.

"Are you two ready?" The teacher watching over the duel asks, after all, a duel can only be done with a teacher present, and I'm not one to break the rules.

"As ready as can be." Laura speaks out, holding her rather cheap looking wand.

"I'm ready." I respond, holding my own magic wand made out of Fairy Wood, a light beige wood that got its soft coloring through magic infusion.

"Are you sure you are fine with me using my actual wand? I can use a training wand if you prefer." I tell Laura, after all with a magic infused wand, my magic is even more potent, and it's the first time I actually get to keep the wand for a duel.

"If I were you, I'd rather worry about myself." Once again the audacity just stunned me to silence.

"If you're ready, then I give the countdown." I take a deep breath while the teacher speaks, and as soon as the countdown reached 0, I start my casting.

"Spirits of the Wind, bring chaos to my foes, Whirlwind!" A strong spell right out of the bat, let's see you deal with tha-

"Inferno." Before I knew it, my whirlwind was engulfed in flames, turning its attention to me.

"Huh?! I-inferno?!" Don't panic Aurea! You've got this.

"Spirits of the Wind, pierce my enemies, Wind Arrows!" A flurry of arrows made of wind are created around me and rip the inferno to shreds, bursting the flames all around us.

"Firewall." Before my arrows could reach their target, a large wall of fire blocks their approach, consuming the air around them with ease.

"How the.." And just as fast as the wall appeared, it vanished again.

"Flaming Raven." Suddenly several birds made out of fire pop up over her and fly towards me.

My heart starts to race, I've not felt this pressured in ages.

"Spirits of the wind, slice my foes in half, Wind Blade!" Sending multiple sharp wind blades towards the birds, they're cut up and explode before they reach me, but all those flames make it hard to see my opponent!

"It's over. Fireball." Her voice called out right before me. The flames has fully concealed her approach, so that her wand was now directly in my face.

The sudden explosion right in my face stunned me and made me fall onto my butt, the protection bracelet had taken the full brunt of it, so I wasn't actually hurt, but it was clear that I lost.

"The winner is Laura Baker!"

"Satisfied now?" The way she looks at me, as if it was the expected outcome. But for some reason, she was holding her hand out?

I was just about to grab it when I heard the prince's voice. "Aurea?! Are you okay?!" It made me snap out of the trance I was in.

"Hmpf! Of course I'm fine, as if something like that could actually hurt me." I take the Prince's hand as he offered it to me and get up.

Laura seemed to not care at all that I didn't accept her help.

"You may have won today, but don't think I'll let this disrespect slide!" My anger was only fueled further by this loss, I simply wasn't prepared enough, next time will be different.

"Sure whatever, I'll be going now." Laura says shrugging, her careless attitude only made me dislike her more.

"Aurea! You big dummy, that's what I wanted to warn you about..." Suddenly Marin showed up, her big blue eyes almost tearing up with worry.

"That's Laura Baker, the commoner that got the first place in all the entrance exams."

"huh?" That was the moment I found out that I not only was bested by someone else, but it was a commoner of all people.

Mother, Father, I worry my Academy days are going to be far more tumultuous than I could've ever anticipated...

Hayho! Krazy here, thanks for reading the first chapter of my new series "Villainess Reborn: How a Commoner stole my spotlight". I've been wanting to start writing this series for close to a year now, but never really had the motivation to do so.

But from here on out I'll make sure to post chapters regularly! Readers of my previous story will also notice that this chapter is far shorter than any chapters of my other story. I believe that it was simply too long to really garner interest, and also because of how much I wrote, I had to do much more editing, and the uploads where fewer as a result... For this story I plan on releasing a chapter every week without stressing over the next chapter right away!

Of course I also plan on coming back to "The Chronicles of Amelia the Hero". I will probably do a reboot of it and make the chapters shorter and restructure some things, but that's for later! I hope you're looking forward to what sort of chaos Aurea and Laura await in the next chapter!