DAMSC | Chapter 1.1

Chapter 1

Grand and majestic music echoed through the cathedral ceiling. Sunlight pouring through the stained glass cast brilliant shadows on the floor.

Caliton gently took my hand in his. He looked at me with a tender gaze, then turned his eyes toward the pope.

At his ready look, the gray-haired pope opened his mouth.

“Is His Highness Prince Caliton Greyheart prepared to take Lady Aisha Amervier as his bride?”

“I am prepared.”

The pope looked toward me this time.

“Is Lady Aisha Amervier prepared to take His Highness Prince Caliton Greyheart as her groom?”

“Yes.”

I answered at once without needing to wait. It went without saying how long I had waited for this moment.

Soon after, the priests brought over wine glasses filled with alcohol. Caliton and I emptied ours with a love shot.

“With this, I formally declare that His Highness Caliton Greyheart and Lady Aisha Amervier have become the imperial prince couple of the Bellcadia Empire......”

“Cough!”

Caliton spat out blood.

“Ai...... sha.......”

The hand that had been clasped with mine fell limply into the air.

‘What...... is this?’

I stared blankly at Caliton as he crumbled like a sandcastle.

The moment he collapsed, I heard people screaming.

“Screaaam!”

“Guards! Where are the guards!”

“His Highness the Crown Prince has collapsed!”

“His Highness, are you all right?!”

“Your Highness Caliton!”

Everything around me became a complete mess. The guards began sealing off the temple entrance, and the panicked nobles shouted all around.

A palace physician ran up to Caliton, who had collapsed. The physician placed a finger under Caliton’s nose.

“H-He was poisoned!”

At the physician’s shout, a familiar system window appeared before my eyes.

[GAME OVER]

I stared blankly at the system window, then spat out a low curse.

“Damn it.......”

I angrily pressed the game’s power button, then threw the console I had been holding.

“What kind of game is this?”

This game, Starlight Chronicle, was a dating simulation game where the heroine, a trainee mage, was supposed to pursue five male characters.

But was it because I was doomed to be single by birth? Or because the game’s difficulty was absurdly cruel?

Every time I played, the male characters gave me no flirtation, let alone any interest.

‘Does it make sense that I couldn’t even clear one target in a month?’

At that point, it was clearly not a dating simulation game, but a patience test.

Driven mad, I eventually made a cheat key. I boosted the heroine’s charisma stat to the maximum.

Then the male leads, who would not fall no matter how hard I tried to seduce them, started falling for me one by one the moment I made a move.

It was frustrating that I had struggled like hell all this time when they could be swayed so easily, but it did not matter.

At least until I saw a bad ending.

When I seduced the holy knight, the temple burned him at the stake for violating its doctrine that forbade love with the opposite sex.

The fiancé from the imperial knight order suffered from severe delusional jealousy, killed any man who spoke to the heroine, and was executed.

Was that all?

The imperial mage said he would kill me and preserve me forever, turning me into a specimen.

I was marked by the evil woman who had fallen for the northern duke and was killed.

The game killed not only the male characters, but the player too.

Among the five target characters, only Crown Prince Caliton could lead to the true ending. In other words, he was the last hope of seeing the real ending.

He had just died, though.

“Aah! What the hell was that? Was it just trying to mess with people?”

I had spent a full three months on this game!

Honestly, fine. I admitted that I had used a cheat key.

But if I still could not clear even one of the five male leads, was that not basically the same as telling me not to play the game at all?

Driven mad, I sent an email to the game company.

Did you really make this and call it a game? I could make something better with my feet.

(The rest omitted)

It was not something I should have done as someone in the same industry, but if I did not at least do this, the months of effort and time I had poured into the game would feel meaningless.

Feeling much lighter, I lay down on my bed and tried to sleep.

Should I try targeting the northern duke Jerome again tomorrow?

If I could just avoid the evil woman, I would not die and could see the ending.......

I could.......

My fading consciousness was swallowed by blackness.

* * *

When I opened my eyes, I was standing in an unfamiliar space.

“Where am I......?”

It was not my room.

A high ceiling and white walls. Luxurious interior decoration in purple and gold. Neatly arranged magic tools and books.

Seeing a place like a fantasy set, I felt a familiar sense of déjà vu.

“I have seen this scene somewhere before. This is definitely.......”

When I picked up the nameplate sitting on the desk, I saw foreign letters engraved on it.

For some reason, I could read the unfamiliar characters.

“Lowell Ciprian?”

Lowell Ciprian was one of the target characters in Starlight Chronicle.

This place also looked exactly like Lowell’s study from the game.

No way.......

‘Was I kidnapped?’

The producer, furious after receiving an email full of curses, had built a set and imprisoned me.

But there was no way a company would do something so inefficient over one bad actor.

‘Most of all.......’

I could read the unfamiliar letters.

With all sorts of thoughts swirling in my head, I hesitated for a moment, then closed my eyes and shouted.

“Status window!”

Nothing happened.

“......”

Then that’s how it was, no, wait, then where the hell had I come to?

Half disappointed, half flustered, I hurriedly looked around again.

Ding!

Along with the familiar notification sound, a status window floated up before my eyes.

====================

Basic Info

Name : Aisha

Gender : Female

Age : 22

Race : Human

Occupation : None

Abilities

Strength : LV.1

Stamina : LV.1

Mana : LV.1

Charisma : LV.999

Affection

??? : 0

??? : 0

??? : 0

??? : 0

??? : 0

====================

My jaw dropped.

‘This...... is a real status window?’

For it to be a dream, everything felt too vivid.

Did I really get possessed? Did the producer curse me or something?

More importantly, how was I supposed to get back to reality? Did I need to see the true ending? Usually, reincarnation stories were like that, right?

Wait.

‘I have never seen this game’s true ending.’

When I played the game, all the target characters died, or the heroine died.

In other words, I had no idea what I had to do to reach the true ending.

‘What happens if I fail the route while possessed?’

Would I die?

At the chilling thought, I shook my head hard.

‘No. I will see the true ending!’

I forced my thoughts into the most positive possible direction and thought through the game’s target characters one by one.

I did not want to be turned into a specimen, so I skipped the mage who was obsessed with specimens.

I did not want to watch people burn alive, so I skipped the holy knight too.

I skipped the fiancé who killed people out of delusional jealousy and was executed.

That left only two people, the crown prince who was killed at the wedding, and the northern duke with the vicious woman obsessing over him.

The former meant dealing with political forces, while the latter meant dealing with an individual.

Dealing with some unknown force was too huge in scale. It seemed more feasible to deal with a single evil woman.

‘Right, I’ll go for the northern duke.’

Was his name Jerome Winston?

Anyway, while I was gathering my resolve, the study door opened.

Soon, a slender, beautiful elf stepped inside.

‘Lowell Ciprian.’

He was the first person the heroine met at the start of the game, and the character who would become her magic teacher.

Seeing his beautiful face, mysterious purple eyes, and elegantly lengthened eyelashes in person, I could not help but be impressed.

I stared at him as if bewitched...... then slapped myself in the face in my mind.

Lowell Ciprian was a dark bastard who turned people into specimens. I could not let myself be fooled by his beautiful face.

Just then, Lowell finished reading the letter and opened his mouth in a gentle voice.

“That is indeed the handwriting of my disciple, Brion.”

There was loneliness in his voice.

“Human lifespan is truly fleeting beyond words.”

Lowell took his eyes off the letter.

“The lady’s name is......”

The moment our eyes met, Lowell stopped speaking.

At the same time, a system window appeared.

[Lowell Ciprian’s affection increased by 15.]

[Lowell Ciprian’s affection : 15]

His affection went up the moment he saw me. Only Lowell could start off by raising affection like this.

‘Is this some kind of love at first sight setting?’

Whatever. I had no intention of targeting a specimen pervert, so I wished he would stop getting ahead of himself.

“The lady’s name is Aisha. According to the letter, Brion took in the lady, who was an orphan from the countryside. Is that right?”

“That’s right.”

“Brion asked me to take the lady as my disciple.”

No, thank you.

I wanted to say that so badly. I did not want to be involved with a specimen pervert in the slightest.

But if I wanted to quickly target my goal, the northern duke Jerome Winston, I had to go through Lowell.

Swallowing my feelings, I accepted my fate as Lowell laid the letter down.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

He placed a hand on my forehead. I felt his palm, soft and warm, against my skin.

To think he turned people into specimens with these hands. As I was thinking that he was a hypocrite, Lowell lifted his hand away.

“I cannot believe it, but your mana is completely exhausted. Your mana channel is there, though......”

He fell into thought, then continued.

“In the past, there were people with such rare constitutions. Some had sealed mana, some had constitutions that accumulated mana, some unconsciously suppressed mana, and some had mana that activated only under specific conditions.”

I stared at Lowell with my mouth open.

It was an explanation I heard every time, but I still had no idea what he was talking about.

“I do not know which type the lady belongs to, but it is certainly interesting.”

Lowell looked me over with eyes gleaming strangely.

“Good. I will make the lady into a usable mage.”

“Thank you. I will study hard!”

I greeted him in a compliant tone. This level of flattery was basic survival skill for a modern adult. Or maybe it was the accumulated instincts of a slave who had been ground down in South Korea.

“Follow me. I will show you the room where you will stay.”

I followed Lowell and struck up a conversation.

“This is the Moon Tower, right? The building the emperor gave as a gift to the master.”

“You know quite a lot?”

Lowell looked slightly surprised. It was as if he was asking how I knew that.

Those deeper circumstances were not the kind of information an outsider could easily know. I knew because I had played this game to death.

I said calmly, “I heard about Master Lowell’s reputation from Master Brion. I heard that His Majesty the emperor recognized Master Lowell’s outstanding skill and granted him the Moon Tower to bring him to the imperial palace.”

“That praise is a little embarrassing.”

Lowell wore a slightly shy expression.

His face was so beautiful that I almost stared blankly at him again.