Chapter 2 - Volume 1

Telling my father a suitable excuse (the contents of which I couldn’t remember), I withdrew to my room to clear my muddled thoughts.

If I believe the sudden memories that overflowed within me, then I have just obtained the memories of my past life.

Are these... really memories from my previous life, or are these just well-thought out fantasies? With these questions, a practical answer was brought out. That is, when the time comes, and I end up getting my foot stuck from going forward because I couldn’t see, then at that time, I’ll stop.

In the meantime, I decided to believe in myself. These were my memories from a previous life.

The “me” from my previous life was an office lady that was from Japan. In the administration division of a small company, I would stare at numbers and grappling with the photo-copying machine everyday. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a lover. But if I could have had 3 – no, 5 more years, I would have had an incredibly electrifying romance.

— is what I like to believe.

I died due to a traffic accident. If it was painful or if it was scary, I was fortunate enough not to remember. But I did remember feeling frightened when I saw myself about to get struck by a car. At that time, I felt like I received a huge shock, but now, it felt like the incident happened much too fast.

Dying earlier than my parents might make me a person who lacks respect to her own family. But I’m fortunate enough to have siblings that will take care of my parents in their later years, so I have nothing to worry about.

Although I might incline my head from doubt to most claims that something could be achieved in a person’s short span of life, I did believe that living life to the fullest would grant eternal peace.

On a different note, since a while ago, the thoughts that came flowing naturally before has started making my head hurt when I got more details. When I overworked the limited operations of my nerves, an unpleasant feeling overwhelmed me.

Thanks to that, I could only remember a few detail about each individual’s life. In spite of that, strangely enough, I could vividly remember the few details about them. For example, how I used to play a game... that had those characters.

Wiping my head with a handkerchief to cool down from a fever that broke out, I found myself standing. (1) In front of the full length mirror, an actor half its size looked to be also standing.

It feels uncomfortable finding myself reflected in the mirror, and it might be because I know the reason why. Oddly, and without hesitating, I had the urge to face my own reflection.

A girl in a crimson dress stared back at me. When I raised my hand, the girl in the mirror raised her own. And when I pulled at the corners of my lip, the girl in the mirror also made a firmly funny-looking face.

Black hair and white skin under a monotone color scheme and, whether it was painted on or not, red lips and cheeks that attracted attention. With that, the name “Snow White”, from my past life came to mind, but the projection in the mirror did not feel like the princess in the fairy tale story. What I mean is, not only did I have a pair of slightly intense-looking upturned eyes, I also had – although it’s small – a mole under one eye.

The crimson dress, which was far from the impression of cute and refreshing, might also be a contributing factor. It seems like it is the image color for the Lilia household. Almost all the dresses that come out of the wardrobe also appeared to be of this color.

Although I filled my smile with charm as much as I could, I felt extremely embarrassed, so I stopped.

（With this appearance, even in the game... laughing didn’t fit this image）

The game’s Lycoris Radiata. The『Me』- no, let us call her『That girl』- that girl was the heroine’s rival, or to be exact, the villain of the game.

Incidentally, when Wolfgang Eisenhut and the heroine became involved in a youthful love, she was the obstacle that had to be climbed over.

Appearing as Wolfgang Eisenhut’s fiancée, she was known to rampage aggressively. She, who had an unusual obsession over her family-chosen fiancé, injured the heroine with her relentless bullying, carried out many acts of intimidation, and even used self-injury to get her way. A truly frightening woman. She was, as some might call, a yandere.

But then, she wasn’t the only yandere in the game. The male character, Wolfgang, was also of the same sort. Furthermore, the heroine’s other love interests’ all had yandere tendencies as well.

（The game’s title was... huh?）

Somehow, I couldn’t remember it. And to think, I could remember the game’s content so well.

How weird. I had the feeling it certainly wasn’t Japanese, I wonder if my catastrophic English proficiency was to blame.

Despite agonizing over that fact for a while, I felt like my head was sluggish and heavy. For some reason, I couldn’t clear my head, so I decided to give up.

In any case, because there were all sorts of developments and violent actions in it, the game was given an adult rating.

Way before its release, there were a lot of discussion over it. The director and main scenario writer was a shotacon who loved yandere.（Even when he was a novelist, he was known to write those kinds of stories）Additionally, the person responsible for the sub scenario gave users a lot of psychological damage, showing that he was also the type to enjoy writing those stories. And among other things, the person who was previously in charge of the endings had a habit of adding in the cruelest of bad endings.

Considering these, the advertised text, which was released earlier than the game’s title, was 『More and more... you’ll want to be killed』

The actual『Lycoris Radiata』and the me now were two completely different people, so this sales message was unthinkable. Although the『you』referred in the message was definitely the game’s heroine, it could’ve referred to Lycoris, as she was subsequently and swiftly killed.

I could vividly remember a portion of that ending.

After Lycoris harmed the heroine, she ended up getting killed by Wolfgang; Then he and the heroine ran away and led a fugitive life. Burdened with a high social standing, he, who didn’t trust even his own family and bounded with obligations, threw everything away so that he could be together alone with his beloved person. A merry bad ending.

That is what I absolutely want to avoid.

Not only did I die, I also burned myself out in that hopeless sense of love. On top of that, I definitely don’t want to become a hurtful human that could only harm everyone around her.

Lycoris might have been just a supporting character in the game, but, right now, I am the brilliant and sparkling hero of my life. The one and only lead.

Adding to my determination, I glared at the mirror. I will definitely find happiness.

But – just as I was about to conclude things after organizing the information, Father’s words came back to me in a flashback.

「Tomorrow is your first meeting with him. I’m certain you’ll like him」

First meeting. With whom, you say?

Your fiancé.

The fellow that could possibly kill you in the future, that’s who.

Blood quickly drained from my entire body. All of a sudden, the situation went downhill.

(1)知恵熱 – teething fever; developmental fever, fever that brings with it an intellectual or psycho-developmental growth spurt