Chapter 4 | The Decisions We Make
[Claire]
I was two years old when memories of my previous life flooded back.
Being just a baby, I barely had any memories of my own. I remember the confusion I felt, finding myself in the body of a toddler. Still having yet to develop a sense of identity, perhaps it’s no great loss that I don’t remember much from those first two years of life. For all intents and purposes, I was simply a normal two-year-old who’d just begun learning how to speak.
Something happened at the time that sparked those memories. Due to some overzealous frolicking during the harvest festival, I took a tumble and smacked my head on the ground. The earliest memory I have is of the world spinning around me. I remember laying there, face up on the ground, watching the clouds float by through a blue sky and the colorful, fluttering pieces of fabric strung up all around. Our usually bleak village was festooned with color thanks to the festival. I remember seeing the colorful fabric and thinking how much they reminded me of Sports Day flags.
What the heck was a Sports Day flag, to begin with? The rest of my memories quickly followed in one big flood of information, the force of which made me feel as if my head might explode. I passed out, and when I still hadn’t awoken the next morning, my parents began to worry.
When I did finally come to, I was far from what I remembered as home. Why was I a toddler? Why did I have fox ears? Everything was a befuddled mess. My parents assumed my confused babbling was due to me falling and bumping my head. Thinking back, I consider it a blessing in disguise that no one thought I was crazy, considering the outrageous things coming from my mouth.
While a part of me was glad my memories had returned, my mind was still that of a two-year-old. It’d still be some time before I could begin to understand anything. I told my parents and Miku about my fragmented memories, and I tried reenacting the various things I remembered enjoying once upon a time. We had fun taking baths together, and we tried making pudding because I wanted to eat some.
My parents would always say what a strange child I was, but they never scolded me or made me feel bad about any of it. They simply watched over me. Thanks to their almost saintly patience and parental love, I had a comfortable upbringing where I looked forward to every single day.
The next year, I turned three, and my brain had developed enough that I finally remembered everything. Or rather, I had a life-altering revelation.
Not only was this world the same one from the otome game I used to play in my previous life, but my twin sister, Miku, and I were actually rival characters in that game!
I was shocked, but also a little bit sad. I didn’t care about my own fate that much. But the heroine gets together with the love of Miku’s life, causing her to sink into a deep depression from a broken heart… And thus, leading her to live out the rest of her life alone.
I really don’t like that ending, but I know I can change it depending on my actions. To begin with, I don’t have to fall in love with that guy. Now that I see the world as a game, I don’t even view him as a potential love interest. I know that sounds cold, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Besides, he’s a pretty two-dimensional character. And I was always the kind of gamer who could separate her game love interests from real men!
At any rate!
I’m not important. It’s Miku I’m worried about. If Miku doesn’t get together with her beloved Ektor…all that awaits her is death. Pretty unbelievable, right? Why is love the requisite for avoiding certain death? I remember screaming in frustration when I first read about it.
The cause of her death is a curse. You see, unlike most people, Miku can only use one type of magic: light. Most people in this world can control multiple elements, but those, like Miku, who can wield only one, are cursed at birth. To be fair, some consider it more of a blessing than a curse.
Because the Goddess of Light loved her a little too much, her power is far stronger than normal. The downside is that she can’t learn any other type of magic, and she’s cursed with a negative character trait. You know how jealous gods can be. They want solitary devotion more than anything. Loving parents should want what is best for their children, but that’s not how the gods and goddesses think. This jealousy between gods is the reason why some unlucky few are born with the ability to only use one type of magic.
Miku was born with an extra blessing from the Goddess of Light, and as such, she’s cursed with the tendency to get single-mindedly fixated on things. In this case, to love only one person for her entire life. It sounds pretty romantic at first, right? Or at least that’s how I saw it in my previous life. Living out your life beside your soulmate sounds great! But what if things don’t work out? That’s when the curse begins to take effect.
The gods say it’s better to die in peace than live in suffering, but that doesn’t sit right with me! Especially since it results in Miku potentially losing her love and dying in agony. At the end of the Ektor route, even if the heroine gets the happy ending, Miku still dies of a broken heart. Ektor’s route is the only route where Miku’s death is absolutely guaranteed! How tragic. Since Ektor’s route is the easiest one, most people end up taking it, but there was always an uproar among fans concerning Miku’s death.