🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 2
An otome dating simulation game, Heart-Pounding Love in Akane♡.
The heroine was Lucy Atelstein, the imperial princess of the Akane Empire.
Originally bright and kindhearted, she gradually became timid and insecure after being hated by her father, the Emperor.
Unlike Lucy, her half-sister—who enjoyed the Emperor’s affection—considered her a thorn in her side and constantly bullied her.
Eventually, after ascending to the throne, that half-sister even schemed to send Lucy away as the second wife of an elderly foreign noble in order to keep her under control.
The player’s goal was to build affection with one of four male leads and successfully marry him, allowing Lucy to escape her miserable fate.
An utterly unremarkable story, low-quality artwork, and not even a single line of voice acting.
After release, the game vanished without a trace.
Yet there was someone who played that terrible game all the way to the ending.
That person was Lucy in her previous life.
She had even written a review on an online forum.
With sincere dedication, she typed it out one letter at a time so no one else would suffer the same fate as her:
It was awful playing with you, and let’s never meet again.
“And yet…”
She had transmigrated into that trash game?!
“Haah.”
Whether Lucy was bewildered or not, Cecil let out a sigh when she failed to respond.
Ding!
[Affection Change Detected!]
[Cecil’s affection has decreased.]
[Affection: ?? → ???]
[Tip: Affection values can only be viewed after escaping the ‘Charm Status Ailment.’]
“Wait.”
Setting aside the fact that Cecil’s affection had dropped, something felt strange.
Why did it go from two digits to three digits after decreasing?
No way.
Did it go from minus 99 to minus 100?
When she’d played in her previous life, affection had definitely started at zero.
This difficulty level is completely insane!
Did the system hate her or something?
Was it because she’d left a brutally negative review?
As Lucy entertained this perfectly reasonable suspicion, Cecil spoke.
“Since you’re awake now, I’ll be taking my leave.”
Cecil turned away without hesitation, and once again—
Ding!
[Cecil Auden is about to leave.]
[It is impossible to know how long it will take before you can meet Cecil again, as he resides in the temple.]
[If you let him leave now, courting Cecil may become significantly more difficult.]
[Will you stop him?]
[- Yes]
[- No]
It offered her a choice, but the answer was practically predetermined.
And as if the system had no intention of giving her time to think, a ticking clock icon appeared.
[Time Limit: 5]
Five minutes?
[4… 3…]
Lucy hastily selected “Yes,” deciding to try something first.
The moment she did, her body moved against her will.
As if someone had shoved her forward, Lucy stumbled out of bed and tried to steady herself with her legs.
Or rather, she tried to.
Beep—!
[Warning! Event cannot proceed!]
[Movement restricted due to ‘Poor Health’ status ailment.]
Are you kidding me?
Then why even give me a choice?!
Lucy flailed belatedly, but she couldn’t stop herself from crashing toward the floor.
Crash!
Riiip!
As she fell face-first, she heard something tear.
What was that?
A terrible feeling crept over her.
Lucy looked down at her hand.
Clutched in it was a strip of white fabric.
It was clearly something she’d grabbed instinctively before falling.
And that something was…
Slowly raising her head, Lucy’s lips parted.
The elegant, dignified cloak draped over one of Cecil’s shoulders had been reduced to rags.
Gasp.
The moment Lucy inhaled sharply, Cecil slowly turned toward her.
“…What exactly are you doing?”
Cold gray eyes stared down at her.
His face appeared just as expressionless as before, but Lucy could tell he was furious.
And understandably so.
The thin white cloak Cecil wore was no ordinary garment.
It was a symbol of honor worn only by high-ranking healers.
Having played the game before, Lucy knew very well how secretly proud Cecil was of that cloak.
This is bad.
She couldn’t apologize.
She couldn’t even clasp her hands together and beg forgiveness.
So all Lucy could do was look up at him with as much remorse as she could pour into her eyes.
Her gaze resembled that of a drenched puppy, but Cecil remained utterly unmoved.
“Princess Lucy. I have no idea what you’re scheming.”
Cecil bent one knee and crouched in front of her.
“I healed you myself, so you should be perfectly fine. I fail to understand why you’re pretending you can’t speak or move.”
“……”
“I have no interest in the rumors surrounding you.”
“……”
“But at the very least, try not to inconvenience others.”
Even though Lucy already couldn’t move, it felt as though her body froze solid.
The unmistakable contempt in Cecil’s eyes pierced her like needles.
Even when she’d played the game in her previous life, she had never seen Cecil hate Lucy this openly.
Only now did she truly understand the destructive power of negative affection.
Cecil roughly yanked the torn cloak from her hand and stood.
As he left the bedroom, another system window appeared.
[Affection Change Detected!]
[Cecil’s affection has decreased.]
[Affection: ??? → ???]
I know! I already know!
[Please don’t be too discouraged. Affection can always be raised through your efforts.]
[However, you should remain aware of the danger. If you fail to reach the True Ending, you will lose your opportunity to exit the game.]
“…What?”
[In that case, you will continue living as ‘Lucy,’ controlled by the actions of whichever new player enters the game.]
Lucy’s mouth fell open.
Not only had she transmigrated into this terrible game—
but she might end up living forever as a puppet?
* * *
The next morning, after collapsing into sleep from sheer exhaustion and terrible stamina, Lucy reopened her status window the moment she woke up.
[Intelligence: -50 (Insight Status Ailment)]
[Stamina: -50 (Health Status Ailment)]
[Reputation: -100 (Charm Status Ailment)]
The utterly unbelievable total of negative 200 stats remained unchanged.
“Haah…”
A sigh escaped her naturally.
How was she supposed to achieve the True Ending with stats like this?
According to the system, the True Ending meant marrying one of the male leads.
An ending I couldn’t even reach in my previous life.
For reference, the ending she had achieved back then was the execution ending.
The male leads had been too difficult to capture, so she’d wandered off onto a side path and ended up dying.
If the difficulty hadn’t been so absurd…
She never would’ve written that scathing review.
And maybe she wouldn’t have transmigrated into the game on hard mode either.
But regretting it now was pointless.
Lucy absolutely had to achieve the True Ending.
Being trapped forever inside the game, forced to obey someone else’s commands—
that was something she wanted to avoid at all costs.
I need to find a way to survive.
Lucy clenched her fists.
Who was she, after all?
The person stubborn enough to create her own walkthrough guide while trying to clear a game that had no攻略 guide whatsoever.
Looking back on it now, I really was ridiculously persistent.
The reason was simple.
Among the countless flaws scattered throughout the game like landmines, there had been exactly one feature that completely captivated her.
Sometimes, instead of selecting from choices, the game required players to type their own answers.
The first time was when a knight blocked my way somewhere inside the palace, right?
The unexpected freedom of a free-response system had shocked her.
Excited, she jokingly typed complete nonsense.
Even so, deep down she assumed the game would only proceed if she entered the “correct” response.
But then—
[Very well. Since it appears your need for the restroom is truly urgent, I’ll allow you through this once.]
She’d expected the game to say it didn’t understand and ask her to try again.
Instead, she’d been overwhelmed with excitement.
A game where even ordinary NPCs could interact with you like artificial intelligence?
And it was even a Korean game!
Filled with patriotic pride, she’d become completely blinded by affection for what she believed was a masterpiece and played it all the way to the end.
But eventually she realized something.
Such immense freedom came with equally immense consequences and responsibility.
From the moment she fell in love with the free-response system, the game spiraled wildly out of control.
And eventually I reached the execution ending.
Lucy shook her head hard.
In her current situation, though, if used properly, that feature would definitely become an advantage.
Having strengthened her resolve, Lucy began considering what she should do first.
As expected…
Drawing on the experience and tricks she’d learned in her previous life, Lucy came to a conclusion.
I should spread rumors that I’m stupid.
