When I opened my eyes, what I saw was a familiar white ceiling; it's my bedroom's ceiling. Looks like it's already morning. 

When did I fall asleep?

As I sat on my bed, I tried to remember what happened last night after the Emperor's announcement, but my head started throbbing. Then memories, which were not about last night, began pouring. A few of these memories were mine, but not the current me, and most of them were memories of my predecessors. Undoubtedly, I inherited their memories because I awakened as the 6th generation's Mage. As soon as those memories flooded my head, a lot of things just clicked together perfectly. Yet, even though after 4 generations, the Mage finally appeared again in Bellux Family's line and I was having probably the most light-bulb moment in my life, my mood became the worst instead.

I knew it. Last night 'event' was a trigger. What now? Should I just go with it? Or should I go against it and change everything? ...No. I think of Ray as my older brother, and he also only sees me as a little sister. Even though we are engaged, there is no romantic feeling between us. ...As I thought, it is best if he ends up with Elena.

So, who's Elena? Nobody would know anything about her right now. But in the future, her name would be recorded in history as the "Saintess", the apostle of God who saves the world from the second calamity caused by monsters. She also would be the dream and role model of every young girl in the continent, thanks to her Cinderella-like life story; being a commoner who was lucky enough to pass the scholarship exam and enrolled in the prestigious Royal Academy, met and attracted many handsome noble sons including the Crown Prince, get bullied by jealous noble daughters led by the villainess, proved her worth to everyone and somehow established her place in the high society, get kidnapped by some thugs ordered by the villainess, rescued by the prince while discovering some corrupt nobles' coup plan, found to be the long lost Beloved Child of God and distant descendant of the Royal Family, and finally get engaged to the Crown Prince.

How's that? So Cinderella-like, right? But it's not 'happily ever after' yet as the second part would be more exciting and was full of action. As her graduation approached, the monsters suddenly rose and wrecked almost every country on the continent. After she discovered her ability to create "God's Sanctuary", she traveled around the continent to stop the monsters rampage and save people, just like her ancestor. She eventually reached the den of the king of monsters and fought it with her group to put an end to the calamity. Until this part, it's still okay, but the problem laid on "her group". The previous Hero's group consisted of him as the Beloved Child of God, the Mage, and the twin Knights, but in her group, one person was missing.

Here's a plot twist: that one person missing was the Mage who had betrayed the Empire and become the king of monsters! And what's more shocking was that Mage turned out to be the villainess who previously bullied and ordered thugs to kidnap her!

After the kidnapping incident, the villainess was expelled from the Royal Academy. Her engagement with the Crown Prince was annulled, she was disowned by her family which resulted in her status as a noble being revoked, and then she was sent to a temple at the outskirts of the Empire to make amends as a nun. These punishments were light considering her crimes of threatening the life of the Beloved Child of God and a Royal. In fact, the Crown Prince hated her enough to demand the death penalty for her. However, the Emperor still pitied his closest aide seeing as she was his only daughter, and greatly lightened the punishment. The villainess should have been grateful to the Emperor for forgiving her life, but she was not in the slightest.

As the only daughter of a high ranked noble family, she was spoiled rotten by her surroundings since birth and grew up to be an extremely selfish, conceited young girl who believes that the world revolves around her. So instead of being grateful and living the rest of her life quietly, she was enraged and vowed to destroy the Empire that betrayed her in revenge. She mastered the forbidden dark arts of magic, then ran away from the temple to search for the secrets of monsters. After she found it, she took control of all monsters, and became the king of monsters.

So, this villainess was actually the hidden final boss. By killing her, the monsters would also die down and Elena as the Saintess would be the savior of the continent. After she came back to the Empire's capital, she graduated from the Royal Academy brilliantly and entered the palace. A few years later, she married the Crown Prince shortly after he completed the coronation ceremony as the new Emperor, and they lived happily ever after... Not.

Well, maybe that's the best possible ending for them, but I won't accept it. Why? Here's another plot twist (sarcasm): that villainess-turned-hidden-final-boss was me!!! And how did I know about Elena and her life story? Because she is the protagonist of an otome game and her life story is the plot of that game!!! That's right!!! I was a human from "Earth" who died then got reincarnated into this game world as a villainess who was destined to die (again)!!!

Ugh! Even though I always enjoyed reading this kind of story before, it didn't mean I wanted to experience it myself. How did it turn out like this? ...How did I die? I couldn't remember. My head was throbbing, it hurt so much that I plopped back onto my bed.

"I see, so it's not clairvoyance, but memories of my past life…?"

I mumbled unconsciously. Before now, aside from the thought-hearing ability, I thought I had another ability to see the future. Though honestly, I wasn't sure whether to call it an ability or not, because of how random the time it activated and how vague the image it showed me. It often activated in my sleep and gave me strange dreams about this particular girl, who I knew now was Elena. It also acted up when I was awake like when Brother Ray approached me at the party last night or when the Emperor made his announcement… By the way, I still didn't remember anything after that announcement. It made me anxious...

*Knock knock*

The sudden knocking sound made me jump a little. Aah, that might be my maid, Amy, who came to wake me up. I was about to answer to allow her to enter but quickly shut my mouth after I heard the voice that was coming from the door.

"Eira? Are you awake?"

That's Brother Ray. What was the Crown Prince doing this early in the morning in front of my room? Should I pretend to be asleep? Yes, let's do that…

"Lady Eira?"

Wha-?! Amy was with him?! Oh, of course, she's with him. There's no way Grandfather would allow him to go to my room without an escort. *Sigh* Even though I wasn't in the mood to see him right now.

"Amy."

I called my maid, and after she uttered, "Please excuse me, Your Highness", she entered my room swiftly and discreetly so the Crown Prince wasn't shown my disgraceful appearance who had just woken up. Well, I guessed any boy wouldn't think it was disgraceful if it was a defenseless beautiful girl. Anyway, Amy was a lot more attentive to the situation lately, this cheerful yet a bit of an airhead girl. Although she flustered right now.

"Good morning, Lady Eira. That is… His Highness…"

Looks like this was indeed an unannounced visit, everyone in the mansion panicked. I could hear Amy's thought, so more or less I knew the situation.

"Help me tidy up a bit."

Amy nodded then quickly went to open the curtains and tidy up the bed, while I wore my housecoat and fixed my bed hair. After making sure that my appearance was graceful enough, I nodded to Amy, signaling her to open the door.

I greeted Brother Ray as soon as he stepped a foot into my room. His refreshing smile was as bright as the morning sun. But unfortunately, it wasn't enough to brighten my mood. I invited him to sit on the couch in the sitting area of the bedroom, instead of the chair beside the bed.

"My apologies for my shameful appearance. Therefore, I believe that it is best to advance notice for your next visit."

I tried to sound as polite as possible, but my awful mood made my words curter. Moreover, my head still hurt as hell, I didn't think I could keep my composure for long. In the first place, why did he visit so suddenly?

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disturb your rest. I'm just worried about you."

I glanced at Amy who's standing by the door. I wanted her to go to the kitchen for a cup of chamomile tea for my headache, black tea for Brother Ray, as well as some light breakfast. But from the hustle and bustle I vaguely heard from around the mansion, it looks like the cooks have already prepared it and another maid was currently bringing it here. I wonder if Mother was the one who ordered them? She's always sharp-minded in a situation like this.

Once I confirmed that my tea was on its way, I turned my attention back to the prince in front of me. I remembered hearing his thoughts last night. I guessed he's that worried about the engagement, huh? What he worried about was not about being engaged with me. Rather, he's concerned about how I feel about it. Well, no one told me anything before the party, so I was very shocked to the point of "awakening". It appeared both families already discussed this several times before coming into an agreement, looking at how calm my parents were before the announcement. Grandpa was probably the only one who's dissatisfied, that's why he was pouting.

"There is nothing to worry about, Your Highness."

"The Imperial Doctor also said so yesterday. But I'm still worried, that's why I decided to visit you first thing in the morning today."

Wait, Imperial Doctor? Why would the Imperial Doctor...? Oh, don't tell me…

"Everyone panicked when you suddenly fainted after His Majesty announced our engagement."

No way?!! But I don't remember passing out yesterday?! 

The impact of the awakening was actually hard enough to knock me down on the spot. Aside from the reason, I bet those nobles had already gossiped about this accident. Like how shameful of me to faint in the middle of the Emperor's sermon, or how the Royal Family was out of their minds to choose someone like me as the future Empress.

This time I actually agree with them. When I played the game before, I also thought the Royal Family was insane to choose that pig of a villainess. What was the game developer thinking? Did they want to raise the protagonist's favorability by making such an easily hated character as an opponent? Their character design was also really one-sided. They might think this way they could market their game more easily and make it more popular too. Those are my thoughts at that time. It's just a game anyway, no matter how strange it is, as long as it's interesting, it's okay. But when it became reality, that's a different story. Well, I was confident I was much better than the in-game Eira but still, it's unthinkable to choose me.

While I cringed over how I messed up last night, my tea finally arrived. Amy served the tea while glancing at me nervously. Across me, Brother Ray was anxious seeing me facepalmed so hard. But I quickly decided not to dwell on it too long and sipped my tea slowly, my head’s still killing me.

“Please don’t worry. I’ll make sure the accident last night won’t affect the Royal Family’s name.”

I stated after the tea’s fresh fragrance eased my nerves a bit. Brother Ray looked surprised, then he smiled wryly. “I’m not worried about that."

After that, we had light breakfast together while Brother Ray told me about the rest of the story last night. Once we finished, he immediately went back as he still had some matter to attend to. Sent out by the whole family, he boarded the waiting carriage with a rather awkward attitude. It's quite an unusual sight, but I understood how he felt. Grandfather was standing beside me, but even though he's smiling, he radiated an intense aura and his eyes had dangerous glints. 

"I'll ask the Imperial Doctor to come once again, just to make sure."

"Thank you, Your Highness."

Hang in there, Brother. I couldn't help but cheer on him as the carriage left the mansion premises. Anyone would cower being glared at by someone as imposing as Grandfather who was a former General. But I'd say he's doing good for someone so young.

How diligent. He's only fourteen but already aware of his position and performs his role dutifully. I can't imagine how tiring it is to carry out all those obligations as the crown prince while still attending school and managed to be among the top students every year. No wonder he's the main capture target.

This world is based on an otome game after all. A story-based video game that is targeted towards women in which the general goals, besides the main plot goal, is to develop a romantic relationship between the female player character and one of several male characters or known as capture targets. In the game, there were 4 capture targets, including Brother Ray. In this world, of course, they also existed, and I knew who those people were. Although I hadn't met with 2 of them yet, one of them will come to the mansion in more or less two months from now. I guessed tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, Father would call me to talk about this matter.

[***]

"Are you sure you want to train today? I think you should rest more."

"I'm fine, Grandpa. Rather, if I stay in bed more than this, my body will sore." And my mind will be full of nothing but disturbing things. 

Yesterday, just as the Imperial Doctor suggested, I rested for a whole day. But instead of sleeping, I ended up thinking about the game plot and didn't get a wink of sleep at all.

The setting of the game was the Royal Academy, when the protagonist heroine, Elena, started her school life as a scholarship student. I was in the same grade as her, so it would happen in 2 years. I wanted to do something, anything to divert the plot somehow. But I realized it's all too late once I got engaged to the Crown Prince. I would have to confront her whether I like it or not. With the things are right now, even if I try to avoid her at all cost, bad rumors will still spread and in the end I will fall victim no matter what. The more I thought about it, the more depressed I got.

“If you say so, then I’ll accompany you.” (I see, my Eira is bored and want to play with Grandpa~)

And then, there’s this old man here whose head is full of silly things.

A sigh escaped my mouth, even so I took my stance. I often worked my body up by training my swordsmanship like this, whenever stress accumulated in my mind. And Grandfather would accompany me whenever he had time.

“Hmph! Your technique improved again. I’m impressed.” (My Eira sure is a prodigy~)

“Haah!” Well, I’ve been training everyday at the dorm after all. But still, my body doesn’t show any change.

The sound of clashing swords continued to fill the backyard from morning till noon. If Mother didn't call us, I might train until sunset without lunch. My face drenched with sweat and my shirt stuck to my skin, but thanks to this, I calmed down a bit and I was able to make up my mind.

Let’s help Brother Ray and Elena fall in love with each other. If I support their relationship, the engagement can be annulled peacefully. The rest… I can just go with the flow and act according to the situation when something happens. About the monsters… hmmm… let's put that aside for now.

In the game, Eira used the secrets of monsters to multiply their number then controlled them to attack many nations. So that means if I don't touch the secrets, the rise of monsters won't happen, right? And then the second part, the war with those monsters won't happen too… I doubted that. It was an important part of the game and this world was based on that, so the war might still have broken albeit much later than the game timeline.

Besides, I don't know what those secrets are, because the game doesn't explain it. 

After I took a bath and had lunch, I spent the rest of the afternoon in my bedroom, reading books. In the evening, I was called to Father’s study. He smiled softly when I entered the room. As I sat on the sofa, he rose from his seat behind the huge desk and moved to another table to pour us tea. The tea was still piping hot thanks to the Magic Teapot.

"How are you feeling today?"

"I'm good. I've had enough rest."

He placed a cup on the table in front of me, then sat across the table, facing me. He began putting 2, no, 3 sugar cubes into his tea. No matter how many times I witnessed it, I was still amazed at how big of a sweet tooth Father is. Well, I guessed it made sense since he had to intake a lot of sugar with his line of work, which pressures him to constantly rack his brain.

"You'll go back to school 2 days from now, right? There's still time, you can take it easy. Want some?"

"Just 1 cube, please. Thank you, Father."

Father sipped his tea and sighed. Now that I looked at him, he seemed more tired than usual, his eyes had dark circles under it. Glancing at the desk, surely there were more documents than usual.

"Did something happen?"

"Hm? Oh, it's nothing special. Just some reports about monster's attacks. The number of cases increased a bit, but it's still under control."

Unlike some common pests, no one could predict when or where the number of monsters will increase. It wasn't restricted by seasons or conditions of the ecosystem. The rise of monsters could happen anywhere anytime. And the most distressing thing is; nobody really knows how these monsters are created. Did something give birth to it? Or is it created by some mysterious natural forces? Or maybe it is created from the remnants of other dead creatures? Many experts had been researching monsters and many theories had been devised. But until now, none of these theories was proven. At some point, people even began to think that monsters did not bear naturally in nature, but deliberately created by someone with evil intentions. But of course, no one could prove that either.

"Anyway, I'm calling you in regards to your adopted younger brother. He will arrive at the end of the seventh month."

There it is. The seventh month, huh. Exactly two months from now. Just as I expected. 

I'm an only child, so when I got engaged to the Crown Prince, the family lost its successor. Father must adopt an heir from our branch family. When the talk about our engagement first arose, Father had been searching for a suitable heir. Well, at that point, he already had some children in mind. He always kept track of capable people and talented children within our branch families too after all. So he only needed a few days to arrange everything.

“Alright. I’ll make sure to come home at that time.”

I answered calmly as I sipped my tea. Father glanced at me, somehow a little amazed at my composed reaction but then he smiled, looking pleased.

“Yes, please do that. Oh, but no need to rush. I plan to make it the first day of summer vacation.” (As expected of my daughter. I didn't need to explain everything for her to understand. She takes after her father well.) 

No, no. I'm sure anyone would be surprised if you told them something like that out of the blue. I'm not just because I knew this was going to happen.

With that, it was decided that I would have a younger brother. But I didn’t know if I should be happy about it. That's because this brother was one of the capture targets.