She was looking at me, and I was looking at her.

The little girl standing in front of me in the doorway was to become the main villain of the game in the future, which I downloaded shortly before my death.

«Trembling Hearts 2» was a romantic otome novella, and, as the name implies, was a continuation of the first part. It has become one of the most popular applications of this genre, and I managed to notice it due to the fact that it was constantly highlighted in the top on the main page.

The plot of the first and second parts unfolded in the same fantasy world of the Middle Ages, with the only difference being that they had different main characters.

The heroine of the part I played was a young aristocrat Angela Stone. She was the only daughter of the current emperor. However, she didn't know about it until she was eighteen, because the child was abducted by enemies of the empire in infancy.

As a result, Angela grew up as an ordinary commoner, who was found and sheltered by a kind village forester. She lived peacefully and was happy until, on the eve of her coming of age, the girl's foster father was killed by mercenaries.

Angela had to flee — after all, the hunt began for her as the sole heir to the throne. Fortunately, the heroine comes across a young and sympathetic aristocrat who recognizes her as his relative and brings her to the palace. This guy turns out to be the nephew of the emperor, who has been looking for her all these years.

Actually, starting from the moment the heroine got into the palace, the game itself began. Becoming the crown Princess, Angela decides to take revenge on those who committed the abduction many years ago and killed her adoptive father. In the investigation of this case, she is assisted by four love interests.

The good-natured nephew of the emperor and cousin of the heroine, who brought her to the palace.

The charming teacher of the heroine, for whom all the girls of the empire went crazy.

A courageous and noble captain of the guard, whose sympathy had to be won the longest.

And finally, perhaps the most exotic contender of all is a powerful archmage in the body of a thirteen-year-old boy.

These four included all those characters with whom it was possible to build relationships in the game. Although they seemed quite diverse, they surprisingly complemented each other on a common poster.

In general, the mechanics of this game did not differ from the usual otome novel. Depending on in whose favor the player made the choices, the main pair of the heroine was determined at the end.

The answer options in the dialog and the main actions were both paid and free. In the case of passing the game without any investments, many interesting scenes remained inaccessible, as well as exclusive endings with heroes.

I'm ashamed to admit, but I still couldn't resist, and invested a certain amount of personal funds in the game. All in order to see the ending with the captain of the guard, whom I chose as a couple.

In the secret episode there was an additional portion of pink snot and the wedding of the heroes itself. But more than that, the last plot twist caught my attention. Execution of the main villain Rubiella Weinstein.

If there was a heroine in the game, then there must be her opposite. Rubiella played the role of just such a character.

The main villain was the heiress of an authoritative family of villains, the daughter of the current Duchess Magrit Weinstein. Rubiella's father and the Duchess's first husband died shortly after the birth of his daughter, leaving his wife alone with a small child.

Becoming a widow at such a young age made it very difficult for a woman to get married again. As a result, she blamed Rubiella for all her problems, because of which her personal life did not work out.

The daughter became for her mother like an eyesore, the birth of which brought her only troubles.

Moreover, further problems only became more.

Soon, the Duchy of Weinstein suffered significant financial difficulties, and the Duchess urgently needed to find a profitable partner to improve the situation. And after a couple of years, Magrit managed to meet an aristocrat who was ready to tie the knot with her.

However, he set one condition — Rubiella had to leave this house, since the man wanted to have only his own children.

Actually, the Duchess did not hesitate for a long time. At the age of ten, she sent her to live with her younger sister, under the pretext that she would teach her. In fact, it was only the exile of an unwanted child until he came of age.

After Rubiella came to live with her Aunt Grace, her life turned into a real hell. This woman led an extremely debauched lifestyle and brought lovers home almost every day, forcing the little girl to look at all this.

She mocked and beat her in every possible way, depriving her of normal maintenance with a cavity. Grace was sorry to spend money on her niece, and as a result, the heiress of an influential family walked in rags for several years or wore her old dresses. The same applied to the place of residence — Grace allocated her the most miserable room in her estate so that she would not take up extra space for her guests who stayed overnight.

Eight years of living in such conditions finally broke Rubiella, so despised by her mother, and as a result she became the main villain.

On the day of the coming-of-age ceremony, she killed her aunt and remained the only member of the Weinstein family. Since the previous Duchess and her new husband died miserably six months before these events.

Rubiella became the next head of the family and wanted to take revenge on the whole world for her suffering.

After learning that it was her grandfather who was involved in the abduction of the crown princess as a child, she decided to continue his work. Rubiella hired assassins who were supposed to find Angela and deal with her. So that afterward, she could pretend to be her and deceptively destroy the imperial palace from the inside.

Rubiella wanted to bring about the collapse of the entire empire.

But in the end, the heroine and her love interests stop her, sentencing her to the most severe punishment.

If in the usual ending it remained unclear whether the villain was executed or sentenced to life imprisonment, then in the exclusive scene this moment was revealed very unambiguously.

Rubiella Weinstein was publicly executed for all her sins.

I bought a few more secret endings, but in all of them the villain's ending remained very transparent. One way or another, she always died.

Quite a sad end for a girl who, in fact, did nothing wrong.

Unlike the positive main character, who got everything easily and simply, Rubiella was impressed with me much more. To some extent, I even compared her with myself — our childhood did not work out the same way, and in adulthood we were forced to achieve everything with hard work.

And we even ended up in a similar way, because I died relatively young.

This was due to cardiac arrest, which was a consequence of my old illness. Heart disease was an innate feature of my body, and another attack happened just at the moment when I finished playing this game and fell asleep.

Opening my eyes, I found myself in the body of a young woman living in a large but impoverished estate. She had brown hair and generally pleasant features. A pretty standard set of external data, but I didn't complain, considering that I was reborn in the body of a background character.

You could say I was even lucky that I didn't become some kind of ugly hag, which could have been quite possible. After all, usually, it was the secondary relatives of the main characters who made their childhood so tragic.

I didn't have to spend a lot of time researching to realize that I was in a historical fantasy game.

I became Grace Weinstein-the aunt of the main villain who bullied her as a child and eventually led her to such a terrible future. Needless to say, Grace herself suffered at the hands of Rubiella when she stabbed her at her coming-of-age ceremony.

Being here now, I didn't know what to do.

In the mirror in front of me stood an indecently dressed woman who looked more like a brothel worker than a noble member of the ducal family.

I sighed. It looks like I really have to try to fix my reputation in this place.

The first thing I did was put my hair in a bun and put on a more modest dress. Then, I kicked out of my bedroom all the gentlemen who settled on my bed as if on their own.

From that moment on, Grace Weinstein's depraved lifestyle came to an end.

I decided to put this house in order before the main villain appears in it.

I thought I would have enough time to prepare everything and meet her with dignity.

But as it turned out, Ruby Weinstein was brought to me a month after I first woke up here.

On the threshold of the estate there was a little girl who looked at me with big blue eyes.

So, this is the child that I will have to turn into a villain…?