What is going on? the girl wondered in a daze, fascinated by the scene unfolding before her.
✦ ✦ ✦
I stared blankly at the firewood being heaped at my feet. Though I was relieved my hands were no longer bound tightly behind my back, my new position was hardly any better: I was suspended above the ground on a thick wooden cross, my legs fastened to the upright post and my arms spread wide, secured to the crossbeam.
“Liliana Alexandra Clarke, you have been convicted of treason through the use of dark magic and condemned to burn.”
Those were my charges.
Executing a powerful mage who had turned to dark magic wasn’t as simple as beheading them; their body might still be put to malicious use. They had to be reduced to ash.
On a related note, how did things come to this?
The answer eluded me. It had all been fate—an unavoidable destiny. It must’ve been. Trying to fight it had only tightened the grip of the dark ivy coiled around me.
I saw familiar faces in the gathered mob. One belonged to my former fiancé, Riley Williams Slivegrad, crown prince of the Kingdom of Slivegrandia. Beside him, intimately close, stood the lovely Emilia Navy. Austin Ealdred, a knight of the royal guard, was right behind them.
Two soldiers approached me, torches in hand. I closed my eyes. The darkness I’d grown so accustomed to was nowhere to be found as heat began to rise from beneath my feet.
I’d never meant to do what I’d done. These past three years had felt like one long nightmare, my days fraught with overwhelming suffering. I was supposed to marry the crown prince and find happiness, yet my jealousy toward Emilia Navy had proven too much to bear. My actions had brought me scorn, the end of my engagement—and now, my execution.
I didn’t know why things had turned out this way, only that I would never again be able to protect this kingdom, its people, or even my loved ones.
Somehow, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this future wouldn’t come to pass.
✦ ✦ ✦
Dread roused Liliana from her slumber. Her head was burning up. She scanned her surroundings, hot air leaving her mouth with each exhale, as she tried to assess the situation. The canopy and lace curtains looked familiar.
“Are you awake, my lady?”
Liliana turned toward the voice, a wave of nostalgia washing over her. Amid the blur of her distorted vision, a face she recognized came into view. The woman’s simple black dress was issued to maids of the ducal House Clarke.
“Could you sit up a little, my lady? I shall give you some water.”
Liliana sat upright, though not by her own strength—the woman had to prop her up. Her head spun, though tolerably, and she managed a sip from the glass brought to her lips. It was no easy feat, but the water soothed the raw ache in her throat.
Evidently satisfied, the woman eased her charge back down onto the bed. Liliana stared vacantly up at her—at the face she knew she recognized. The woman met her gaze with a look of concern before quietly leaving the room to fetch the doctor.
Now alone, Liliana hovered on the edge of sleep. She was barely clinging to consciousness when the woman returned with the doctor, who began asking questions. Liliana opened her mouth to respond...but no sound came out.
After a contemplative pause, the doctor said, “I’ll see how your voice is faring once you’ve recovered,” and departed. Liliana heard the woman in black—her handmaiden, Marianne—leave as well.
As the room fell silent, Liliana closed her eyes, and fatigue pulled her down into the dark depths of unconsciousness.
The next time Liliana awoke, she found herself alone in her room. Her fever had broken, leaving her steadier than before, though her throat was still notably parched. She tried to call for Marianne, but no sound escaped her lips. All she could do was stare at the ceiling as fragments of the dream she had awoken from returned to her.
In her dream, Liliana had lived in “Japan,” a world with its own language and culture. She remembered having friends, though most of those connections had fallen away as she entered adulthood and work took over her life. Whatever free time she managed to carve out, she spent not with others but with her nose buried in a book. The subject hardly mattered, so long as it held her interest.
Then, one day, an otaku friend she had kept in close contact with recommended a certain otome game. Liliana wasn’t much of a gamer, but the story and art drew her in. The game even boasted a trove of supplementary content for fans, such as guides and setting notes. She went through them more thoroughly than the game itself.
The setting of the game had struck Liliana as peculiar. It resembled medieval Europe, yet it wove together elements of Asian, Arabic, and Northern European cultures. Combat was plentiful, with battles fought using swords and magic, which set it apart from ordinary romance simulation games. The protagonist was one Emilia Navy, from a baronial family, and chief among the romance options was Crown Prince Riley Williams Slivegrad. Liliana, too, had played a major role in the story—as the crown prince’s fiancée and the villainess who turned to dark magic.
Pushing thoughts of her dream aside, Liliana climbed out of bed. She still felt a little woozy, but nowhere near as much as before. She approached the full-length mirror by the wall and stared idly at her reflection—a slender girl with silver hair and pale green eyes. Her recent illness had made her already snow-white skin even paler.
I’m definitely Liliana Alexandra Clarke, she told herself, recalling the villainess from the game. The girl in her memories would no doubt have matched the one in the mirror if she were aged down.
Liliana sighed deeply. Her recent illness wasn’t the only thing weighing on her; she was also burdened by the knowledge that, at least in the game, her future was set in stone. Her fate was grim, no matter whom the main character chose to romance. Even in what were considered Emilia’s “bad endings,” the villainess never found happiness.
So far, almost none of the romanceable characters in the game had appeared in Liliana’s life. The crown prince, Riley, was the only exception; he had met with her regularly since she was two, as she was the primary candidate to become his fiancée.
Liliana tried to voice her dissatisfaction, but only a hoarse breath came out. She furrowed her brow. Further attempts produced the same frustrating result, and not just because her throat was so terribly dry.
So it didn’t heal, she concluded, as if completely detached from the situation. The doctor who had examined her when she first regained consciousness had noticed she couldn’t speak but had decided it would be best to check on her again once her fever subsided. I was told my high fever was to blame—the result of an epidemic. I can still understand what others say, so maybe the fact I can’t speak means some cells in the language center of my brain were destroyed.
Medicine hadn’t advanced very far in Liliana’s world, so her knowledge of the brain came from the dream of her past life. Even so, people here knew that a high fever could cause a loss of voice.
A less scientific explanation might be that I lost my voice as punishment. In Buddhism, throat ailments are said to result from speaking ill of someone. By this world’s value system, I suppose people would sooner see my impairment as a hex than recognize it as divine in nature.
Either way, being unable to speak was fatal. Liliana cast her eyes down in dejection, stepped away from the full-length mirror, and sank onto the nearby couch.
High-ranking nobles couldn’t get by without magic—and to use magic, one had to be able to utter incantations. But that wasn’t Liliana’s only concern. Without the ability to speak, she wouldn’t be able to perform the public duties of a crown princess, meaning it was only a matter of time before her status as a candidate for the crown prince’s hand in marriage was revoked.
On the bright side, this should steer things in a different direction from the game and keep me from saying anything imprudent. Maybe losing my voice is for the best.
In the game, a jealous Liliana had made snide remarks to the main character before turning to dark magic. Now that her voice was gone, she wasn’t capable of either. If her engagement to the crown prince fell through, perhaps she could actually break free of the fate the game had laid out for her.
That isn’t the only issue, though. If my father and grandfather decide I’ve outlived my usefulness and abandon me, or if criminals come after me, I have no way of defending myself right now.
House Clarke was one of the three largest ducal families, and Liliana’s father and grandfather were as cold and calculating as one would expect high-ranking nobles to be. They would abandon anyone who was no longer useful to them, even their own flesh and blood. With the memories of her past life newly restored, Liliana couldn’t help but suspect that her father, in particular, might be a psychopath.