Chapter 1:
The Selfish Princess Awakens
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WHEN MY LIFE flashed before my eyes, I found it remarkably…normal. That isn’t to say it was all smooth sailing, but compared to most, it was pretty darn ordinary.
After getting accepted to a junior college in my senior year of high school, my only real dilemma was how I’d enjoy my break to the fullest. I skipped right along through life, daydreaming about replaying my favorite otome series from the beginning. I was humming to myself, fantasizing about all the routes and romances, when I stepped out onto the crosswalk just as a car barreled through the intersection.
That was how life as I knew it ended.
“Your Highness! Can you hear me?!”
“Princess Pride!”
Servants frantically called my name. I cradled my head and sank to the floor as the world faded to darkness around me.
“Someone call the doctor! We must tell the queen and prince consort what’s happened!”
“The princess is hurt!”
My name was Pride Royal Ivy. I was the eight-year-old daughter of the queen—the firstborn princess of my country. At least, that’s who I was here in the world of Our Ray of Light, the otome game I’d planned on replaying. But why did I have to end up as Pride, of all people? She wasn’t just evil and devious. She was the final boss!
I awoke in a plush bed. I forced my eyes open, staring at the ceiling as maids flitted by, rushing in and out of the lavish room, arguing over details that my reeling mind couldn’t quite grasp.
I only have ten years left… I can’t believe I’m going to die at the same age in two different lives.
My head spun, trying to sort the memories of my past life from the reality before me. Incredible as it sounded, I’d really woken up in a video game world. I knew the protagonists, the background characters, even the setting itself. I recognized every detail.
And I knew I wouldn’t live long.
As Pride, I would destroy the kingdom in ten years’ time and terrorize this world as its final boss. Destiny decreed that I scar the hearts of the love interests—and pay for my crimes with my life.
Indeed, this was the world of Our Ray of Light. It was a longer series than most, and from what I could tell, I was in the very first game. People of all ages enjoyed “ORL,” as we called it. I got hooked on the anime version of the third game, and that infatuation grew until I played through every single installment, from oldest to newest. Whenever they released a new one, I jumped right on it. I was obsessed.
“Pride!”
My father flung the door open with a bang, charging right past the flustered guards.
“Father…”
The prince consort scowled—or, at least, he seemed to. Everyone else mistook his wrinkled forehead and serious expression for sternness, but I knew just how kind he was beneath the surface. Sure, he could be strict, but he loved his daughter with all his heart. He shooed the maids and guards out of the room to speak with me privately.
“Are you all right?” he asked me.
“Yes. My head started to hurt all of a sudden…”
“The doctor says your life isn’t in any danger, but Rosa was worried about you too.”
As queen, Rosa Royal Ivy, my mother, was the highest authority in the kingdom. Needless to say, she outranked Father in that regard. It was no surprise she was too busy to come see me herself even under these circumstances. While Father always told me she would visit me if she could, I now knew the true reason for her absence.
“Father.”
“What is it?” he said, watching me anxiously.
“I have a little sister who will soon turn six, don’t I?”
He blinked, taken aback, which only confirmed what I already knew. If this really was the world of my otome game, then I had a younger sister—Tiara Royal Ivy, the protagonist of this whole story.
“How do you know that?” Father said.
It was the first time I’d ever seen such shock on my father’s face. Something about my question threw him off, but I’d only just regained my memories, so I wasn’t sure what.
Wait, this all seems familiar somehow…
“Could it be?” he said. “Do you share the same precognition as your mother? Is that what made you collapse?”
Father stared down at me, his gaze never wavering, and gently brushed my hair off my brow. I’d inherited my father’s crimson locks, but my mother’s soft waves.
“Yes,” he mused. “My congratulations, Pride. This proves you are the true heir to the throne.”
Father beamed at me, tears forming in his eyes. I, meanwhile, tried not to cry for a wholly different reason. With a few simple words, I’d royally messed up. Now, all I could do was try not to scream as the gravity of the whole situation sank in.
That’s right! I was thinking of Pride’s childhood in the game!
You see, with that one simple line about my sister, I’d just marched beat for beat toward my own doom.
Our Ray of Light was set in the sprawling kingdom of “Freesia,” a mysterious land and the only place in the world where humans were born with special powers. Naturally, that included my precognition. While one out of every couple hundred people would inherit some kind of power, precognition was the rarest. It belonged solely to those in line for the Freesian throne and existed only among members of the royal family, especially women, manifesting once every few decades. Many viewed precognition as a divine message anointing our next ruler. In the game, Pride fainted when she was eight years old. When she awoke, she mentioned a younger sister who had been kept secret from her. She said all this to her father on the very day he planned to reveal the secret himself. It was the moment her precognition awakened and she earned the title of the future queen of Freesia.
But that’s exactly what just happened to me!
When the love interests talked about this scene, they called it “The moment that would lead to unimaginable tragedy for our kingdom.”
Even as dread sank cold into my gut, my father’s face lit up with joy. But I knew things were playing out exactly the same way as they had in the game. Guilty as it made me feel, I needed a way to make this seem like anything but precognition. However, when I opened my mouth, no words escaped.
Father noticed my confused expression, but he apparently took it for exhaustion. “Get some rest for now, Pride,” he said. “I know you’re still confused, so we’ll talk about your sister Tiara some other time.”
He offered a smile before he rose and left, surely on his way to tell Mother of this momentous development. The instant he exited, the guards and maids swept back in.
“My sister…” I muttered. I turned to the window, staring out at the gardens below as though I could escape that way. “But…I already know everything about her.”
For example, I knew my younger sister, Tiara Royal Ivy, inherited our parents’ compassion and grace. My mother carried herself with poise and wisdom, while my kindhearted father served as her assistant. Frail, delicate little Tiara was the protagonist of this game, a sweet princess who had to be kept a secret to protect her from kidnapping and assassination attempts.