HOW TO…(now complete with a ‘Run Away From Your Death Flags’ version!)
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Step 1: Triggering your Past Memories (while being extremely, extremely sick)
It was a good thing that I was sick. My siblings were forbidden to visit me as whatever I was infected with seemed to be contagious for people who had not been afflicted with it before. Thus, only Edna and the doctor were allowed to stay in my room.
However, the doctor only came in the morning to give me my daily check-up. Edna was the one who nursed me twenty-four seven, though that was not as big of a setback as I had originally thought. After all, I could easily ask Edna to leave me alone if I had wished it.
With this arrangement, I had the time to slowly sort out my thoughts. And even with my headache, after five days, I had a…somewhat…clear understanding of what had happened.
One, I was either in a coma (unlikely since everything felt so real) or dead. Probably dead.
Two, apparently those fanfictions and light novels I used to read were not just fiction. Especially those ‘reincarnating into an otome game’ ones. Because, ah…
My new…current (?) name was Lettice de Lief, from the House of Lief. Even in my old world, I had known that name. After all, she was one of the most controversial and debated characters of 『Sutekina Nise No Genjitsu』or ‘Lovely Fake Reality’. A free-ware otome game that came out last year, it quickly topped the charts of the most downloaded game in various sites. Eh, why was it so famous? Well, that’s because it was quite different from the usual run-of-the-mill otome games!
After all, although the basic plot of ‘lowly noble girl A meets harem of hot ikeman guys in a magical school’ stayed the same, SNG stood out with its execution. The magic school in the game was one of those ‘elevator brand names’, where you begin attending at age eleven and graduate when you were eighteen. Quite alike to a certain famous wizard series, to be honest. Anyway, this meant that one’s journey to woo a capture target…started at age eleven.
Well, actually, no. I probably worded that wrong. The Heroine of the game does meet her harem members at eleven, but they start off as mere acquaintances. There were no easy or cliché ‘events’ where one of the capture targets just happened onto the Heroine or something like that. If the Heroine wanted to get close to a capture target, they had to do it the old-fashioned way: by becoming friends.
Maybe that was why the game was so popular? Much like its name, it was an otome game with scenes depicted close to reality. Even if you had wanted capture target A, who was your best friend since age eleven, it was possible for him to friendzone you. Bagging your first love as your boyfriend when you were fifteen didn’t mean that your relationship would last till the end of the game, and it was possible to become lovers with another capture target instead. In any case, this super long game was impossible to predict, especially since some of the ‘events’ happened randomly! Even walkthroughs didn’t help much, with the sheer length of the game…Truly a slow-burn!
Ah, let us get back to the main point. Anyway, Lettice de Lief was a hot topic for all the fans of the game, and no, she wasn’t the Heroine or even the kingdom’s Princess. Lettice was a stalking horse, or a love rival! And she wasn’t just any love rival, she was the only villainous one too!
Well, I said villainous, but she really doesn’t do things that were too crazy. Sure, she gave the Heroine glares throughout the game, and sure she had tried to thwart the Heroine’s steady attempts at becoming closer to the capture target, but Lettice had never tried hurting her. In the realm of otome games, Lettice was an extremely tame villainess.
However, Lettice’s ending wasn’t that tame. After all, in every single ending (every bad ending, every good ending, even in the friendship ending!) Lettice was killed by the capture target of the route.
Uwaaa…just thinking about it made my stomach hurt…
Anyway, the main reason Lettice was the main villainess was because of her close proximity to every capture target. Capture Target One, the one usually all the girls would go for first, was Lettice’s fiancé and the resident Prince Charming. No, really, he was the Crown Prince of the Kingdom. With golden hair and kind sky blue eyes, it was as if he had come directly out of a fairy-tale (cliché, right?). His pretty hair was dyed red when he killed Lettice though, and he forever severed the bonds between his best friends and his sister after the deed…
Capture Target Two was Lettice’s own older brother, Raimond. He was an extremely dotting older brother and an overprotective one too…I believe that in all of his endings, he killed Lettice by accident. It was still by his hand, though…
Capture Target Three was Lettice’s one year younger brother, Quinn. According to the friend I had who played his route, Quinn had a sister complex for Lettice and after he killed her, he went slightly insane…
Ah, this was all terrible. I really want to give the production team of the otome game a good slap.
But Lettice’s deaths had reasoning behind it. Apparently, this game had an emphasis on the grey world between the realms of black and white. Thus, even if it was a good ending, Lettice died and caused some complications and sadness. If it was a bad ending, however, the main Heroine was not the one who received the final judgment. This was why everyone began to feel sorry for poor Lettice, and why that petition ‘Save Lettice!’ was made. But then again, I hadn’t felt much for Lettice personally, although it may just be because I never got to an ending.
In my previous life, like always, I got caught up in the excitement. Hence, I had downloaded the otome game and tried it out, but, well, I only played it for a week and a half or so. I deleted the game after my winter break was over so I would focus on my studies. Anyway, any knowledge of the game I had came from that one week of playing (in which I didn’t even get through the first week of the first year) and from the wikis and my friends.
Ahh…I was kind of regretting it now…Why didn’t I go through at least one route? My in-depth school knowledge about chemistry or biology or calculus won’t really help me now…!
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