Chapter 1: The Queen of Hearts Starts a War
ON that day, I sat down for afternoon tea with a heavy heart.
Sunlight poured in through the conservatory windows and bathed the dining table in light. My favorite berry tarts and freshly baked pies were spread out before me, while the three-tiered trays were overflowing with scones. By all appearances, it should have made for a lovely teatime.
I was holding my favorite teacup, which was speckled in a pattern of little flowers.
The Assam tea—my drink of choice—was still steaming hot.
And yet, not one of these things was enough to lift my spirits.
Why isn’t anything happening?
Nearly a week had passed since I regained my memories of being reborn as the heroine of Evil Alice’s Lover. While I was truly happy to have a chance to live as a character I idolized, there was still one big problem.
No matter how long I waited, I wasn’t being presented with any choices.
The whole point of an otome game is to make certain choices that guide you through the story, form a closer relationship to the character you want to pursue, and try to reach the best ending possible.
Without choices, the heroine becomes completely powerless. Unfortunately for me, that was my current reality.
If you can’t make any progress with the other characters, you can’t move forward in the game. Without pursuing a specific character, a bad ending is the only outcome. The screen will suddenly turn to black, spell out the words The End, and send you back to the main menu.
As an evil heroine, “Alice” has no shortage of dangers and enemies to face.
To play carelessly is to meet with certain death. Choosing the wrong route results in Alice’s death, as do accidents, illnesses, abductions… There are countless circumstances that can get Alice killed.
In my past life, Evil Alice’s Lover was well-known for the number of dramatic death scenes it had. It even won the Deadliest Game of the Year award after its release, in recognition of all the toil it put its players through. For comparison, the runner-up was an MMO where the players are chased by a maniacal killer in a deadly game of tag. An otome game had to be pretty crazy to beat that.
“What should I do? It feels like my life could end at any moment…”
My shoulders slumped, and the boys sitting to my left and right both stared at me intently.
“What’s the matter, Alice? You look like a sullen frog waiting for the rain.”
“What’s the matter, Alice? You look like a frightened rabbit staring up at the sky.”
The two children stuffing their mouths with cake were the Tweedle brothers. They were identical twins, dressed in matching sailor tops and overalls, and both had the same adorable face and high-pitched voice.
The older brother, Dum, had a mole on the left side of his face, underneath his round blue eyes. Dee was the younger twin, with a mole of his own under his right eye.
It didn’t matter if you couldn’t tell them apart, because Dum was always the one who spoke first.
“Don’t mind me. I’m just a bit bothered about what choices I can make…”
“Bothered?”
“Choices?”
The twins looked at each other in confusion. Little did they know, they were one such choice themselves.
In the Tweedle brothers’ true ending, the three of us state, “Let’s stay together forever” as we pledge our innocent love to each other. It’s a cute, wholesome story, and after the ending cutscene, there’s even a CG of our future wedding where the twins have grown into handsome adult men. It was a very popular ending.
I enjoyed it too. In the fandom, it was known as the “Blissful Future Route.”
I would have liked to choose their route if I could. However, as an “Alice” who had no clear path to go down, I wasn’t even sure if I’d survive one more night. So disappointing!
“Why, yes, choices! I meant to say that I need to choose a dinner menu for tonight. What’s actually bothering me is this heap of letters.”
With a forced smile, I set my gold letter opener back down on the table. Stacked on top of a plate was a mountain of paper.
Each letter was an invitation to a ball being hosted by various well-known noblemen. No two events were scheduled for the same evening, as if they’d all been coordinating with one another, unbeknownst to the rest of us. While I would have been pleased to be invited to a single event on its own, it felt a lot more like harassment to be expected to attend balls day after day.
“I know the season is right for socializing, but I wonder why these people are hosting parties almost every single night.”
The twins, still with frosting on their faces, responded to my confusion.
“It must be because of all the delicious food. It’s a real treat.”
“It must be because of all the beautiful girls. It’s a real treat.”
“Perhaps I shouldn’t attend…”
It was a dilemma. The Liddell family held a rank of their own, a barony, which meant that as members of the upper class, it was important to maintain relationships with fellow nobles. Rejecting an invitation from anyone higher in rank, like an earl or a duke, was no easy task.
But still, it was I, the sixteen-year-old Alice, who was the head of our family.
In this game, I couldn’t inherit the family rank as a woman, and because there were no eligible male relatives to receive it either, the title was temporarily suspended. Many nobles were displeased by this, and their opposition only grew stronger if I didn’t attend their events.
“I must go. I promised Father while he was still alive…”
As I leaned back in my chair, the ghastly memories flooded my mind. My beloved parents, many of our servants, and even “Alice” herself were all killed in that tragedy, three years earlier…
“Oh my, good morning. You three are up bright and early.”
I snapped out of my thoughts as a young man entered the conservatory with a yawn.
He strode into the room on long, slender legs, and I couldn’t help but be reminded of a stray cat, the way he walked without a care in the world. His ashy-green hair, tied into a ponytail and draped to one side, bobbed with each step. The man was wearing a striped sweater, slim-fitting trousers, and a snake earring in one of his ears. It reminded me of fashion styles I was used to seeing in my past life.
What drew my eye in particular was the bright-pink shawl wrapped around his neck. It was such a strikingly different color from the rest of his outfit, it almost made him look like a severed head floating above a body.
He always gave people quite a shock when they first laid eyes on him. But he loved that about his style.