What the demonic void monster didn't tell her was the excruciating pain she would be in as soon as she stepped into the abyss portal.
Her flesh and bones were separating, and she felt as if she was being crammed into a tight space, her body deforming to a mold she couldn't see.
It felt like hours when she woke up in a cold sweat, her hands sinking into the soft bedding underneath her as she jolted upwards.
She looked around the well-lit room, too spacious and extravagant for her to be comfortable with.
She moved the side drapes out of the way and was immediately met with several women in maid outfits.
"Lady Cordelia, you're awake!" Callisto scrunched her eyebrows slightly since it was apparent that these women were addressing her.
She eyed each person warily, wanting to quickly adapt to whatever she had woken up to.
Immediately, her eyes pinpointed things that seemed unusual to her.
Instead of lights, were open flames, trapped by wisps of light formed into an arcane rune.
Apparitions made with purple smoke seemed to perform a story above an open book.
After her encounter with what she presumed was a demon earlier, she shouldn't be too surprised.
The maids hurried her off the bed to stand in front of a full-length mirror, where they proceeded to fuss around her clothing.
She ignored the ruckus as she began to piece parts of the world together, to make a surprising conclusion. She knew where she was.
It was the setting of a dating simulator that [He] had bought for her because one of the characters 'looked like her'.
She would disagree, but she still ended up playing it with him regardless, enjoying the aftermath of picking the worst dialogue option together.
Why did a random visual novel have a real world that she could go to, and would the story be exactly the same as she remembered?
The dating simulator, 'Blooming! Enchanted Fate' was a bargain bin game about Ethyl Pandora, a low-ranking noble who is blessed by the god Lux and embarks on 'a heart-pounding journey with handsome love interests' as the new saint of the kingdom.
The first part navigates high society, integrated with a rebellious scheme by a group of cult mages, as she fully cements her position as saintess.
Then, the second part turns into an adventure across the continent with the cast to prevent an apocalypse. She forgets the smaller details, but what she did remember was the character He had said she looked like:
Cordelia Azel, the crown prince's fiancee and the main antagonist of the game. A bitter, self-absorbed, brat of a girl who didn't have an ounce of shame or self-respect at the same time.
Tunnel visioned on the idea of becoming queen and all its power, Azel ran towards her downfall, being the target of both nobility and commoners alike for her arrogance in a future that was still uncertain, dying at the end of the first half as a perfect segway to the second portion of the game.
On Earth, she had been a genetic mishap for having leucism as a human, the natural silver hair and heterochromia making her an animal in a cage.
Looking at herself now, the odd gray eye she had was gone, instead having fantastical scarlet irises that she couldn't look away from.
The silver tinge of her old hair was now a frosty white instead, slightly wavier than her old self.
And not a single person was doing a double take at her appearance. Maybe because they were her servants, but as she observed several girls with colorful assortments of hair, she had a feeling that she wasn't regarded as an oddity.
'First things first. I need to learn about this world and where I stand. Then I can go look for…'
What?
His name…
She doesn't remember it anymore.
Why can't she remember? Wasn't she saying his name the whole time? But when she opened her mouth to voice the syllables, her mind was blank, as if it was erased.
It might be a side-effect of coming into a world that she wasn't supposed to be in.
Whatever it was, it immediately made her panic. Losing her precious memories of [Him] was like erasing a part of herself.
Combined with the parcel of memories she had gotten from the previous inhabitant, the worry that she could lose herself was planted in her mind.
"Get out."
"Lady Cordelia? I'm sorry! I mean, Lady Azel-"
"Out. Now. " She threw the closest object at the group of maids, and with a scared shriek, they retreated.
Callisto stumbled her way to a table, setting her head in her hands as she tried to compose herself.
'Okay. Calm down. That thing said that he would be the same. As long as I still remember [Him] then I'll be fine.'
'I'll find him. If not, I just have to finish my mission and I'm sure the dark blob I talked to would point me to him.'
'All I need to do is what I was assigned. Let me think about the situation.'
She seemed to be in her late teens, which means the main character, Ethyl, would soon be introduced to a majority of the male leads at Cordeli- er, her debutante ball.
It wasn't unreasonable to say that [He], the love of her life, was also reincarnated as one of the people in the game, so she would have to actually pay attention to them.
What was important now was to figure out if the story was still the same.
She had already spotted discrepancies when receiving Cordelia's memories.
The original scenario was supposed to cement Cordelia's desperation for attention when she catches a high fever and realizes that none of her family were concerned about her health.
She becomes bitter and resentful, and even more determined to attain a higher position in society.
However, from what she saw, the entity had interfered and suffocated the original inhabitant, making her able to come into the world without notice from the world's god.
The young lady of the Azel dukedom was violent, her natural affinity with combat magic fanning the flames of her cruelty on any poor living creature that she happened to have her eye on.
Despite not having officially debuted in high society, rumors of her nature had long circulated and were essentially affirmed by her family's reluctance to bring her out of the manor.
In the game, her nature was toned down, but the reality was that Cordelia Azel was a monster.
A person who the Mage Tower, the Guild of Heroes, and the nobility did not want to ally with, and who was too arrogant to ever think outside the box.
Regardless, she was still open to a vast number of resources to kill Lux.
An infinite allowance of money that is rarely tracked, an innate talent for battle, and a general lack of care for the world and its people.
Her best plan is to shake off the notoriety, disappear after her fiancé breaks off the engagement, and then slowly kill off each of the protectors of Lux and its Holy Order.
She would have to kill them all before they grew to their full potential, which was around the time that they figured out the bringer of the apocalypse, Astaroth, was hidden away in a dimensional flux.
That was well into the second act, but she had a lot of work to do before that.
After the panic that seized her slowly disappeared, she walked out of the room.
A solitary maid trembled at the sight of her exit, and Callisto swore that the girl whimpered.
"Lady Cordel- I mean, Lady Azel. The master requires your presence at once." Callisto hummed, beelining for the head's office, where she assumed he would be working.
The layers of fabric dragged on the floor with every click of her heels and she wondered how on earth any girl was supposed to fight monsters in this world.
Maybe Cordelia was just really weak. She would have to fix that.
She arrived at what she assumed was Duke Azel's office, based on her memories, and knocked thrice.
"Duke Azel. It's me." A pregnant pause followed her announcement, and then a gruff 'Come in' permitted her entrance into the room.
Polished wooden flooring and furniture graced her eyes, lined with books on finances and forms and paper all neatly lined up on bookshelves on the huge mahogany desk in the middle of the room.
A stern and tired-looking man with salt-and-pepper hair looked up from his seat at the grand desk to make eye contact with Callisto, his red eyes reflecting the same color as hers.
"You are…"
"Callisto." She offered, thinking he forgot his daughter's name. He gave her a sour look.
"Awake," He finished dryly. "Cordelia, what game do you think you're playing?"
"There's no game. I'm just informing you that I go by Callisto. If you allow me this, I promise I won't make any trouble."
He sighed having heard that before, but out of all the exorbitant demands she made, this was hardly troublesome.
Most people only knew her as the young lady of the Azel dukedom; he can just say that it's her pet name or something, whatever makes her throw less of a fit.
"You said you wanted to see me?"
"I had hoped that after failing to gain your fiance's attention once again, you would recover some sort of dignity and move on from your childish acts to make him care for you. By the way you've been acting, I'm afraid much hasn't changed."
"The devil came to me in a dream and said that if I don't change my name, I would die," Callisto said gravely, and as seriously as she could possibly be.
She didn't have time for this. She was pretty sure she WILL die if she didn't start making changes at that moment, and she couldn't afford to have this meaningless argument.
"What's a devil?" Callisto fought the urge to cover her face and sigh.
"Nevermind. I will go reflect on my actions. I will try to live a quiet life from now on." Her father showed no signs of response, so she turned and left the room.
It seemed to her that the duke did not believe her. She didn't blame him; his daughter was a menace, but the lack of parenting and the family environment was definitely in play there.
That being said, Callisto didn't grow up with either of those too, and she thought she turned out pretty well.
----
Instead of hightailing it back into her room to 'reflect on her actions' like she said she would, Callisto found herself walking towards the training grounds instead, the sound of metal clashing overlapping with shouts and jeers of the knights-in-training.
They didn't seem to notice her until she walked over to the weapons rack, and a deafening silence fell upon the training grounds.
As she reached for a weapon, a hand came out of nowhere and grabbed her wrist.
Frowning, she looked to see who stopped her, and locked eyes with a handsome man garbed in a heavily decorated version of the knight's armor.
He had emerald green eyes that seemed hardened by battle, flickering between darker and lighter, before they settled on a deep green after recognizing who she was.
He sighed, shifting his weight so that light pink hair would shield the disdain in his eyes from her vision. It didn't.
"Lady Cordelia," He said slowly like he was talking to a child.
"This place is too dirty for an esteemed person such as yourself. If you need something, please send one of the knights in your steed."
'How dare he talk down to a lady of the family he was serving!'
She had long been used to snide comments and disdain from her old life, so the tone of voice didn't affect her outwardly, her composure steely in the face of such a small slight.
"And you are?" She flicked his hand off of her and took the weapon she was looking at, a polished, lightweight lance.
"Milady, now is no time for jests. The knights are in the middle of training."
"No, seriously. I don't know who you are. And it's Lady Callisto now, I've decided to change it."
The man was accustomed to the whims of Lady Azel, but this time it didn't make sense. Faking amnesia? Changing her name?
"It's… Captain Luka Drakven of the Azel Knights. Lady…Callisto, may I ask for what reason you've garnered interest in studying the spear?"
She bit back a retort saying that he may not ask, since the question reminded her of a fond memory:
-----
"What weapon do you think you would wield? And don't say mage, I doubt you'd be any good at it."
He laughed, a teasing, yet boyish sound that lit Callisto's heart up every time she heard it.
"Hey, I'm not the one who said they would be amazing with a sword. How much more basic can you get?"
He tackled Callisto with a flurry of tickling pokes on her abdomen, making her yelp before the two devolved into a tangled mess of limbs and giggles.
"Put me in a fantasy world, I'd be unmatched. You've seen what I can do with just my fists. Imagine that, but worse."
Humming, he pinched her cheeks and stretched her face into different dumb expressions.
"I think you would be best with a spear. Quick and regal." He smirks.
"Besides, you know your way around a long pol-"
She covered his mouth with a throw pillow, muffling his shouts of indignation as her face flushed red.
"Pervert."
She made him sleep in another room that night, but he still managed to worm his way back into their bed by the time she woke up, one arm around her waist and the other cradling her head to his chest.
-----
Callisto bit back a smile, but a small one formed on her lips regardless.
It was pure and wistful, and it even made Luka flinch with how sweet she looked.
If he didn't know her to be such an evil person, he would even go as far as to call her beautiful.
"Someone said it suited me."
Her smile faded, a serious expression replacing it.
"I'll be practicing from now on. Every morning. Find me an instructor. That's an order."
She twirled the lance around, twisting her wrist to get a feel of the weight, before placing it back down. It would do for now.
Captain Luka bowed as she walked away, but he was internally confused and on high alert.
Though Luca served the Azel dukedom, he was an honorable knight who despised the wickedness of the young lady.
As a close friend of His Royal Highness Nox, Luka knew the Crown Prince wouldn't have said such a thing. So who was Lady Azel talking about?