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She used to be an awkward girl. Live a life of a parasite to her family. Her parents love her and care greatly for such a failure like herself.

It wasn't her wish to be that way. She was born with disadvantages. She was… not very beautiful. It was like she was a cripple and she hated it.

Her childhood was painful as everyone kept making fun of her face, her disfigured body. It had been horrible since the teachers couldn't control the children all the time. There were always vulnerable moments for them to exploit and bully her.

Children were cruel creatures, she knew better than fully blaming them. But she was still a child at that time and the damage couldn't be undone. Hating everyone became a normal thing to her. She hid all the pain and frustrations with her mask on, even with her own parents. She didn't want them to know, she didn't want to be a burden.

Then her life fell further as she went to high school.

Years of playing by herself had made her social skills invalid. She had no friends. Due to escaping to manga and anime, her grade kept going down as she neglected to study.

Somehow she had graduated high school. But she had failed to get into college. Despite the encouragement of her parents she stopped trying and became a shut-in.

With the excuse of trying out jobs online, she had burdened her parents for many years while she let herself go on the internet. Indulging in games and anime till the day she woke up here.

What happened, she didn't know. She guessed she had died but she couldn't remember her last day, or which day was the last either. Hell, she couldn't even tell what her name was. It was like just a moment ago but also felt like an age had already passed.

What was it that she was doing last time? She remembered sitting at her computer and tinkering with an old game. She had been interested in making games and had picked this particular otome game to dissect for months because of its simple programming.

She had played it over and over again. She would unpack the code and resource each time to see how things worked, understanding it bit by bit. It was fulfilling. It made her happy. She had also discovered that the game was actually a modded version of an actual old-time RPG game. That was why there were so many unused resources like monsters and skills in the archives. She had tampered with everything she could touch, add and remove skills or items as she made many different versions of the game on her own. Although none of them was completed or optimized.

That was why she had also recognized where she was the moment she saw her new family.

"Finn! What happened to you?"

"Nothing. Leave me alone."

She called her brother in this life with some real concern.

She saw her brother had been weirdly obsessed with training since he came back from visiting his fiancee. He used to be lazy in both studying and exercising so this sight was strange no matter where she looked.

"Wait! Don't run!"

She couldn't get a hold of him. He ran away every time she inquired about his actions. Today as well, she tried to catch him and failed. Sitting alone in the garden each day was frustrating and she hated it. She still had her future to worry about and he was a big threat to her if it continued like the game. She didn't want his threat level to increase further with vigorous training!

Good look, fit body, now that she had everything that she had ever wished for she didn't want to lose it. She had to avoid all bad endings at all costs. There was no execution for her but she would be cast down to be a commoner. She hated to admit it, but she couldn’t live like a normal working person in this life or even the life before.

"Cecilia, you are here! Just in time! I have something for you."

"Ah, father! What is it?"

"Manner, lady! How many times do I have to tell you to act properly?"

"Shush it father. I am your daughter, no one is going to complain about me."

Duke Dovantine walked into the garden with a happy, half-giving-up voice. His sharp facial features and short grey beard made him more intimidating than friendly with that laugh. But something good must have happened, she could feel it.

"There will be a social gathering in the next three days. You should go with your mother. This is a good occasion."

"What!? We are having a party? The capital is still in ruin!"

"Oh, girl! You skipped your class again, didn't you?"

"Ah shi- I mean damn, I hate politics class!"

"Don't think I didn't catch that! Why are you like this!? You are the future queen!"

"Anyway, what is this party for? Mother alone is enough, isn't it?"

Cecilia couldn't get used to etiquette. Her past awkward social skill was like a curse, she thought she wouldn't be so crude because she was not her old self anymore. The nature of a person was hard to change and she got to experience it fully in real life this time around. She was afraid of ruining herself in a social gathering between nobles.

"Listen, there are many Houses that we are close to participating in. You are the future queen so obviously, you are invited. Just let your mother deal with business. You, focusing on making connections with the neutral group."

"Can you repeat that after looking at me? Impossible! I can't do it!"

She folded her arms and made a humph at him. There was a limit for everyone, and for her, it was making friends with new people.

"Damn girl! … oh no you infected me… anyway, you are already fifteen, learn how to do that this time and use it in the academy too. It is almost your second year and you are still surrounded only by your retainers."

"Tsk!"

"Humph! I heard your brother's fiancee would also participate. Talk to her for a start. It will be easy."

"Whose? Finn's? By the way, what is wrong with him?"

"That's right. And there's nothing wrong with him. It was his first time fighting on the battlefield after all. He must have a lot to think about."

The Duke thought about his son proudly. Satisfied that Finn hadn't run away and shamed the family.

"What? What battlefield? I didn't hear anything."

"Oh… wow… I forgot that you skipped your lessons, you probably avoided the teachers too, or else you would have heard the news from them."

She avoided his eyes too. He breathed out a long sigh, giving up.

"What am I going to do with you… your brother just accomplished an incredible feat. He partook in the defense against the undead army. His bravery will go down in history. Meanwhile, you will also go down in history, as a barbarian queen."

"Hey!"

He left the garden without looking back.

She couldn’t help it that she was the way she was. But fortunately, her family wasn't that close to her so they had no idea what was wrong with her. Being noble was quite a blessing to people like her. No one was free enough to see why she acted this way.

She felt like she was roleplaying in an online game. To escape oneself, to put on a desirable mask. So free, so liberating.

Deep down, she had already known and acknowledged her new life was reality. But she was not like her previous self anymore. She was different. She wanted to be different. A new start.

That was also why she tried to be friendly to her family, to be a good person that everyone liked. But of course, she needed to get rid of some flags first.

Cecilia returned to her room to plan out her action.

She was currently in a period of time before the game but it was near. A few more months and she would be a second-year student at the academy. The heroine would be enrolled by that time as a first-year.

But she was not so sure anymore. Because there were so many things that she wasn’t aware of in the game. Cecilia’s life before the game was a complete mystery so it was quite stressful. What worried her was how the capital had become a wreck by giant monsters.

Did I make a butterfly effect by accident some years ago? I just wanted to help with metallurgy a bit. Giving them some internet knowledge of alloy couldn’t be that bad, right?

She had been in a bit of an isekai-mood back then and had tried to advance things around her with modern knowledge. But she soon abandoned the idea because she only had some surface knowledge on the internet without any solid theory behind it. The only thing she could do was inspire some blacksmiths about alloy making. The others just treated her like a cute child with a wild imagination because she couldn’t explain very well the concept of electronics, or how a suspension system functioned. She was good at programming and software things but that was useless here.

With the capital looking like a bomb site, she wasn’t sure if the game would be the same anymore. Luckily the Academy was intact. It was situated in a rare part of the city that the monsters didn’t come near. She was among the students that had returned home during that time so she couldn’t fully feel the despair that day. What she knew was that some strong monsters had appeared in the capital and had destroyed a lot of things.

Her father didn’t allow her to go back to the Academy and had tutors teach her at home for the rest of the year. Her only source of information was through the servants. It was a saving grace that her house’s servants liked her casual and rude personality. But the news that a servant knew was limited and unreliable.

She took out the fake diary that she had written all she knew about the game some years ago. The thing was well used as she read it all the time.

The crown prince route is a likely thing to happen. He is so handsome and charming. His smile makes me weak in the knees. The other main casts aren’t so attractive to me so the heroine would mostly feel the same.

Although she was an adult in her previous life, her social experiences were so low that her ideal boyfriend was still the same as when she first picked up a manga. Her mental age didn’t grow up despite her wit and experience, but she knew what she would be called on the internet so she wasn’t so thrilled with the prince. She too hated pedo and becoming one herself was out of the question.

On that matter, I should have taken some distance with the prince. He unexpectedly likes to hang out with his fiancee, me. That won’t be good when he sucks up to the MC, my heart will break.

She didn’t want to end up on the street and she wasn’t confident about beating the Heroine in personality. So naturally, she decided to avoid the prince and keep away from the MC.

She reread again the main plot to engrave in her mind how it would turn out. She didn’t care how the future would change. The important thing was that she would live happily in that future.

In the game, Cecilia was a high and mighty noble lady that looked down on commoners, especially the Heroine. With the protection of the Duke and her status as the crown prince’s fiancee, she set many traps and hindrances in the Heroine’s way.

Things got more serious when the game advanced to the middle stage where the player could go in dungeons to earn money for their various favor quests. Favor quests were quests that increased the love bar of their target. No true otome player would leave the love bar unfilled.

The thing that she was sure wouldn’t happen was all the death traps in the dungeons she set for the MC to die. The game Cecilia may do it but she wouldn’t. That crime alone could doom her whole family if it was exposed.

Then at the final stage where the player got more contact with the rival villainess, there would be kidnapping and assassination attempts. Combat would be unavoidable in that stage so the difficulty depended on the gears the player had gathered in the dungeons.

I won’t be doing any of this so I can ignore this. But I should get some gears for myself. If it could help the Heroine that much, it should help me live too.

She could get permission to go to dungeons in the second year, which wouldn’t be far away. Her magic was good enough to be the ace of her class so she had some confidence there. Thanks to her knowledge of the core game, she built herself up with the skills from the hero era which no one in the otome game had. Furthermore, she knew how to gain more exp with many passive buffs and knew the best activity to practice. In other words, she was a true cheat using two games' resources in one game.

Skills were not altered in the game. It meant that she could get the skill if she fulfilled its requirements and actively trained for it. Having unpacked the game many times helped a lot.

All that was left were plot traps. Outside of the pretty-much-a-hundred-percent-doom actions, she could just avoid the MC easily. It was her specialty in her previous life after all.

The prince’s role in her scenarios didn’t matter. But this was real life and the handsome prince kept her company whenever he could. She didn’t know what to do. To indulge in his affection or to continue keeping the distance? She was a virgin without a first love, she was weak to love. Her mind had been fighting the temptation for years so she wouldn’t just abandon everything and jump in his arms. Furthermore, she remembered how Cecilia in the game gave her all to love and how the prince reacted to that.

The crown prince may have a fetish for girls that ignore him.

Her general plan for the future didn’t change as she closed the diary and hid it. She had written in Japanese to prevent accidents. She was glad she could still remember her old language as she grew up.

The new issue is the coming gathering. I don’t know if the game’s lore had it but I should be fine. It isn’t like anyone would pick a fight with my father, hah!

At this party, there were some big families coming. Some of the other villainesses would appear as well, she presumed.

Ah, there is the Count’s daughter, Elena. She is my brother’s fiancee so I should have a good relationship with her. We could help each other as bad girls on the line!

Cecilia had a new task to do as the Count family was lower rank than her. She would try to pull Elena to her little groupies at the Academy. Fellow villainesses should flock together to survive. She could lend out her status as a Duke’s daughter to Elena should the Heroine jump ship and aim for Finn.

The prince aside, Finn should be the second target that is likely to be hit. The Heroine came to the Academy by the Count’s recommendation after all.

Most of the news from other territories came through the merchants and officials. She didn’t go out to the city often and she didn’t want to get involve in officials’ business. The bad side of her action was that sensitive information wasn’t whispered by the mass or anyone for that matter. So she was clueless about the catastrophe event that had happened. The servants were excited about some monsters being slain but that was it for her. In her mind, monster-slaying was the knights’ usual business so she had dismissed it.

It looks like Finn joined in a big fight. His emo personality had better not jump to psycho level and stab me in the back.

In the game, her little brother outright plotted to banish her out of the house. Just because she dissed the commoner Heroine in his route. By the end of the route, her fate was the same even when the player got a bad end. Both she and his fiancee were banished to foreign lands with multiple unlisted sins that shamed the family and harmed the kingdom or whatever he wanted them to have.

She didn’t know what would happen afterward due to the game over only show that. But her bet would be a terrible end awaited them. They were just some noble girls without any way to live alone. The kingdom would also doom itself by provoking the Count but the game didn’t say it so she wouldn’t know either.

So now she planned to get close to Elena who would be her sister soon. If the Heroine didn’t look their way and went after another target, of course.

She wasn't great at talking to people obviously. Cecilia took out some papers and a magic pen, an exotic item from the dungeon.

"Let's see. 'How are you? I am Cecilia. Nice to meet you.'..."

She wrote down all the lines she could think of when talking to other people. Writing some lines that she thought the other would answer back. Then she answered it again. Her scripts looked like a kids' English homework but her dedication was real and the effort was there. She put her all into the imagined conversation like her life depended on it. Perhaps to her, it was really literal.

She looked out the window and saw that the sky had turned orange. Her reviewing of all the plans had taken a bunch of her time without her notice.

“Ah, no. I still need to interrogate Finn before he changed his dumb personality!”

She ran out of her room again today to search for her currently tsun-tsun brother. And get some dinner by the kitchen too.

---

Three days later.

It was a cloudy evening, Cecilia had arrived at the party early but she couldn't walk in yet. By some unspoken rules of the nobility, she had to go in the party hall last as the highest rank person.

So now she and her mother were waiting in a high-class room for nobles. Her mother had gone to the corner to redo her makeup so she was alone on the big couch.

This is so nerve-wracking! Oh shit, my stomach!

She was about to meet the other noblewomen. This wasn't her first time at parties but she couldn't help being nervous. Her hands unconsciously touched the pendant on her neck. It was a simple transparent gem that was cut into a round plate and held in place by gold rims. This necklace was a gift from the crown prince when they had met for the first time at the age of six.

She normally didn’t wear this. She kept it in a secured case in her room all the time. The necklace was a unique magic item, an artifact from the royal vault. Wearing something of such a high value made her heart explode in nervousness.

But this time she needed to wear it. Because of the danger in the kingdom lately, she couldn’t refuse her father’s order to bring this with her.

The gem of this necklace held the power to sense and measure danger levels. This was something so abstract that no wizards had understood it since the era of the hero. It showed the wearer the information that was different from one person to another. There was no same result from anyone but all who had worn it knew and understood the danger level of something without any instruction.

The conclusion from the many generations of court wizards agreed that this artifact let the bearer see the danger based on their own knowledge and understanding of the world.

Such a treasure was in her hand now was like a joke from the gods. But the prince somehow had convinced the king and other nobles that she should have it for safety. Well, she wouldn’t refuse anyway. This thing was originally a quest item. An Epic Artifact.

This thing showed its worth in her possession. With her otherworldly knowledge, this thing had become something akin to a scouter from a certain Galactic tyrant’s army but more detail.

So, what she could see was more like her old programming computer but only on the target of observation. No editing, no debugging, only analytics information. Of course, it had some compensation for such a deep read. She had to consume her mana to activate it while all the previous bearers didn’t need to mind about mana consumption. And the mana cost was huge. She had tried and it emptied her mana pool in one minute, more or less.

She didn’t need all the data since it was just a jungle of numbers and things that she couldn’t google to remember what they would do. So it was a huge waste of mana but wasn’t even that useful. And it couldn’t replace the status window and many functions in the game. Overall an inferior version that couldn’t even show skills or name.

Of course, she didn’t tell anyone about this. She wasn’t that dumb to seek attention to herself, this was not the internet.

"Cecilia, it's time."

"Yeah, right away."

"..."

She looked away from her mother's glare. She'd better get away from her to some corner as soon as she got to the hall. Always being nagged on manners was uncomfortable.

They walked to a big hall shortly after. It was big and had many tables with food.

This looks more like a buffet than a tea party. But this is great for me, I can meet fewer people!

Cecilia planned to avoid others by talking with Finn's fiancee, people wouldn't jump in when she was busy. Her mother could deal with all the political bullshit they had. She was fine with being just a cameo in tonight, no sweating the detail for the moment.

There were a lot of fancy ladies sitting all around the tables. But something seemed to be wrong. Everyone was a bit quiet and nervous. Not because of her entrance, of course.

The center of their attention was a small table in the back. Everyone seemed to avoid looking at it. Cecilia naturally looked at that place as her mind registering it.

There was a holy sight in her eyes.

Beautiful.

An otherworldly presence spread out from the table where three people stayed. That was just her feeling. But the person sitting in the middle with two maids behind her was so dignified and graceful that the royalties she had met stood no chance to compete.

That is Elena… How can Finn give up on such an incredible person?

The table was occupied by only three of them. The two maids were serving her tea and cake without so much a care for the other ladies. That was when she looked at the maids. Her hair stood up and she went rigid for a moment.

T-That is the Heroine! Those weirdly sparkling eyes and that mesmerizing face! No mistaking it! Wait, I need to be sure!

She activated the necklace and focus on the maid. Elena subtly gave her a glance but she couldn’t notice it.

--------

--------

Damn! It really is her. That number is so high and so round. I only have around 800 mana! What a hack!

While at it, she looked at the other next to the Heroine. She had already consumed a big chunk of mana to activate the pendant, may as well not wasting it.

 

 

 

“What the fuck?”

“Cecilia!” *whack*

A slap to the back of her head deactivated the artifact and brought her back to reality. Her mother was pinching her back while gritting her teeth. It really hurt.

“I-I’m sorry mom! Not doing it again!”

She whispered back pleadingly at her mother.

"Oh,... Everyone! I present to you Lady Anastasia. We are very lucky to have her attend this feeble gathering."

The hostess of the party, Marchioness Ophelia, saw them and made an announcement. She was thankful that her mother had to respond and left her alone for the moment.

“And next to her is our future queen, Lady Cecilia De Dovantine. A pleasure to have you here today.”

“Ah! Thank you for the invitation.”

It was clumsy but was acceptable. At least she didn’t shame herself in front of her mother again or else she would see hell when they returned.

She quickly did some by-the-book greeting and moved away from her mother. It looked like her action was a good choice as the old ladies started to talk some high-level nonsense that she was sure was the ten-intents-in-a-sentence martial art.

Now that she was out of that group, the other young girls of various families started to look at her. She didn’t want to mingle with them. Her original plan resurfaced in her mind and it was the best one she could come up with.

But the problem now was what the artifact had shown her. It meant she would be actively engaging with the Heroine and the two characters that she had no idea about. She was a bit scared. One thing she was sure and it calmed her slightly was that the three were not hostile.

Taking a deep breath, she decided to go to that table in the back.

We are not enemies. I will be okay. I will be okay.

Her steps picked up speed and her face started to cool down as the nervousness kicked in again. But some people stood in front of her halfway through.

“Lady Cecilia De Dovantine, it’s a pleasure meeting you here.”

They were the three retainers that followed her around in the academy more than the others. She didn’t remember their name though. She’d better talk a bit with them.

“Oh, it’s you three. What’s up?”

“Ah, Milady is talking funny again.”

“Anyway, I want to go talk to my brother’s fiancee.”

They were jumpy at the mention of Elena. She felt the nervousness in their behavior quite familiar, just like her.

“So… is something the matter?”

“Milady, are you not aware of how terrifying she is?”

She knew about it due to the artifact but how could these people know? It had to be something else because the things she saw couldn’t be sensed, according to all the skills in the game’s archives.

“Who are you talking about? The maids?”

“Well… one of them is certainly scary too but I am talking about the daughter of the Count.”

Elena was scary to Cecilia because she couldn’t read the information. In her opinion, the Heroine was the scariest because of the divine blessing. It was an overpowered ability that gave Holy magic at maximum level and increased experiences earned by ten times the amount an NPC could gain. She understood that the game needed that for the NPCs to be static and the player to grow like an actual RPG.

The other maid was a complete nutcase. The only thing that could be remotely as absurd as that was an Ancient Dragon which wasn’t in the otome version of the game but the original RPG game. Those things weren’t meant to be defeated even in their old version.

Reading the history book made her know that the old game had happened thousands of years ago or something. So everything in that game could potentially appear but it wouldn’t be too much of a problem as it looked like a happy ending had been reached. Then the maid had to be something ancient that hid in society and she shouldn't poke into it if possible.

“What’s about her?”

“I heard she killed people?”

“What!?”

“It’s true. Some merchants from Silver Pass said she burnt down the whole slum and executed the leader personally.”

That… are some incredible rumors right there. I know she is a villainess but that shouldn’t be true.

“And also, I heard she led the defense of the city to ruthlessly destroy an army.”

“Now, wait a minute. You started to sound absurd.”

“N-No no, it’s all true! You can ask Lord Finn De Dovantine about it. He was also in the defense of Silver Pass. Lady Elena De Heuser is already in the realm of great wizards!”

Cecilia remembered how her brother acted recently and it all made sense now. He felt inferior to his fiancee and his fragile pride couldn’t take it so he had been a pain to deal with.

But shouldn’t they admire Elena instead of being scared of her? Why is she a great wizard by leading the army anyway?

“It sounds like she is a great person, leading the army and all. Why are you so afraid of her? Because she killed some gangsters?”

They looked at her a bit agape but still answered immediately.

“Milady, it is widely known that political pressure doesn’t work on such powerful people. We couldn’t make her follow our faction and it is hard to approach her.”

“... You really make me want to avoid her.”

“Perhaps if it is you, Milady, it wouldn’t be a problem.”

“Didn’t you want me to stop going to that table?”

“It was because Milady hasn’t grasped the situation yet.”

They were talking about her status. In other words, they were scared of pissing off Elena and making an enemy instead of being all buddy-buddy. But because she was the daughter of the Duke and her brother would marry Elena in the future so she would be fine.

Why do these teenagers care so much about political businesses of factions despite being the same age as me! And why did they know I don’t know anything about her!

Then she remembered the game’s Elena wasn’t that powerful.

“Hey, how is she so strong? I remembered she wasn’t like that at all when I met her at my brother’s birthday party.”

“It was after that incident. The one where she was nearly killed that day.”

“Uh huh.”

“I heard she trained like mad and was growing stronger and stronger each day. The incident has made her pursue power, it seems.”

She had no word for it. If it was her, she would have locked herself in a room for months instead of training.

It sounds like a bald dude I once read in the manga.

It made her think. Cecilia was strong but she was still an NPC. The same was with Elena. Growing this strong was like a bug, a loophole in the code. However, this was reality. Physics was real and logic was applicable. If Elena could be this strong then she might have had the capacity all along. What had changed was perhaps the trigger that drove her to train, something she didn’t do at all in the game.

But this was not the time. She couldn't stay here and contemplate forever. The other girls started to approach her with noble-talk in mind, which she didn't appreciate.

The only way left was forward. She continued to walk but she was not sure anymore about her plan.

It's fine. I can do it. The game hasn't started yet.

Standing before the table like a student about to give a presentation to the teacher, she straightened her back and cited the chants that she had prepared.

"H-Hello, my name is Cecilia! I am the Duke's daughter and I am good with magic! Do you want to be my friend?"

"..."

"..."

Silence ruled the place as everyone in the vicinity froze up and looked at her. Elena looked at her with a small shake in her eyes. She too also froze up, but it looked like her soul was also about to leave her too.

Gyaaa! That sounded differently in my mind! Don't look! Someone please end me!

 

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End of chapter 11.

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