The nobles around Livia condemn her with twisted faces.
"I saw Lady Livia push Miss Amelia down the stairs!"
"She put needles in Miss Amelia's shoes!"
"She berated and mocked Miss Amelia in broad daylight!"
"Lady Livia once slapped Miss Amelia in the library! The poor girl cried while running away!"
"Miss Amelia has always been a nice girl."
"Lady Livia plotted to cut Miss Amelia clothes!"
"Lady Livia is so vile! How could a woman of her standing let jealousy cloud her judgment?"
"She did poison, Lady Amelia!"
"She is guilty!"
The weird visions come back, but this time the scenes flash by too fast to really register them all.
There was no need to, though.
They weren't bizarre illusions or some sort of trick. They were much too familiar to be. She knew that odd room and those odd devices. No, these weren't illusions at all.
They were memories. Her memories. As the voices around her continue to praise Amelia and throw dirt on Livia, she was swept up in a tide of memories she no longer wishes to escape from. The pain in her head recedes as the visions pour in.
Livia was back in that room. She remembers now. It had been her sanctuary, the one place in the world she could just be herself, where she could relax and enjoy her time alone. That stormy night, she had decided to replay all of her favorite games. As the rain pelted her window and the thunder rumbled outside, she had immersed herself in the latest installment of the Etheria franchise.
It had been a dating sim called Aster Academy: The Feuding Houses.
The game starts when the heroine, Amelia Margarete Reeve, is invited to the Academy by her father, who happens to be a Baron. The heroine enters the Academy just as the tension between nobles and the royal family start to rise.
Originally, there were only four targets, but the game, due to its popularity, has since largely expanded beyond them.
It was that game that she was currently in.
As the villainess Livia Katrina Valentia. The character in the game who always met a terrible fate for her cruel deeds against the heroine. Exile or Death was her only two options. Both at the hands of the Crown Prince Rodale.
As the fiancé of the Crown Prince, Livia was an obstacle that the heroine must overcome if she wished to be with him. And to make it so one does not feel bad about the homewrecker, Livia Katrina Valentia was made to be the most unlikable character.
She had no good traits.
Livia was as cruel and arrogant as they come. The moment the heroine appeared in her line of sight, Livia sought to make Amelia's life a living hell, fueled by jealousy and rage. She threatened Amelia, ruined her belongings, humiliated her in public, slapped her that one time and pushed her down the stairs that other time.
Livia was a true irredeemable menace to Amelia.
No.
It would be more correct to say that she was the menace. It was her who had bullied Amelia this time around.
Sure, one could definitely argue that she had the right to be upset.
The Crown Prince was her fiancé, after all. Anyone would have been upset if someone who was promised to them went around with another Lady in broad daylight. The gossip that went around the school didn't help matters either. It got so bad that her mother even confronted her.
Yes, it would be easy to paint a picture of her being the victim.
Oh.
But she wasn't...was she?
There was no misunderstanding. There was nothing false about it. She, like Livia, had bullied Amelia just like in the original story. No. Even worse.
Maybe it was the fact that she was reborn as the villainess, but just like Livia, she had also hated Amelia on sight. She was never fond of saint characters. The type that could literally do nothing wrong. Even if their actions were directly responsible for someone else's downfall. Everyone around them would still praise them.
She absolutely despised those types of characters. They were so alien and unrealistic. They chafed at her very being.
To witness first hand just how Amelia warped those around her was unnerving.
The power of the heroine was nothing to joke about.
It wouldn't be long before she would have all of the captured targets wrapped around her fingers and fighting over who gets to have her.
The one uptight and rigid Crown Prince who took his role much too seriously was willing to throw all of that away for a girl he barely met. From keeping everyone at a strict, professional distance, to letting a young woman he met only days ago call him by his first name.
It was bizarre.
Though not as bizarre as suddenly becoming aware of being a character she once thought was entirely fictional.
She was suddenly fully aware that this was not her first life.
That at some point, she died and came to be reborn in a world she thought was only imaginary. Not only that, she realizes quickly that for some unknown reason she had also been unconsciously trying to trigger the event of her own downfall since the moment she met the Crown Prince during her childhood.
And now she had completely succeeded.