It had been a month since Hikari had transmigrated, and to be honest, she was bored. But being bored was better than being dead, so she dealt with it. Due to this strange turn of events, she got to relax on a king-sized bed with fluffy pillows. Being treated this well was strangely relaxing.
She felt like she had gone over to a friend's house for a sleepover, only it never ended.
Other than this, she was largely left alone. Which, when she thought about it, was extremely messed up way of raising children. Since she wasn't a child, she didn't mind much.
Ever since the incident with the dungeon, she had noticed that no maid or butler dared to look her in the face. She would often go outside her room, only to hear hushed voices and, when she got closer, silence.
A child of this age wouldn't understand, but Hikari did. They were probably afraid of angering her. Hikari had no idea how they felt towards the original Renetia, but she felt like their opinion of her dropped drastically. She knew she should have some kind of opinion on this, but she couldn't bother to. In the end, she had been victimized too. Those maids had been really rude...but that didn't mean she wanted them to cower in her presence.
It was a good thing that Duke Leopold was out of the house. Though Hikari didn't doubt he knew nothing about her, even though they lived in the same mansion, she didn't want his first thought of Renetia to be a hateful one. That would likely negatively affect her in the future.
In terms of the story, Hikari believed she had figured it out. There were two outcomes: either the plot would follow the rules of the world of video games, or the world of manga.
She had kind of assumed that, like video games, something would just happen to her. Once she stepped inside a noble's house, the plot would congregate towards her. If that was the case, then she didn't want to take a step outside. What would be the point, other than torturing herself? It was even worse when you considered the capture targets. If she was to pique their interest in anyway, she would start their route. It was a romance story, after all.
Which wasn't her goal at all. She wanted to avoid everyone!
Therefore, Hikari had realized that the number #1 thing to consider here was her own survival. Not Renetia's, but her own. And she had read enough villainess transmigration stories to know that there was always one mistake the manga protagonists make that end up being fatal.
They always assume they are too small of a character to be influential. Then, they interact too much with the core cast, and suddenly they become the main character instead.
Hikari didn't want to do either one. It sounded troublesome, and honestly, there was the added effect that most of these main characters were insane.
Who'd want to interact with those kinds of people willingly?
No, decided Hikari. Staying home was the best decision.
Renetia was a small child anyway, staying home was normal.
So when she was woken up one morning, surrounded by a small army of maids, she was genuinely confused. Saying nothing, they began washing her hair and body, while picking out extravagant clothes.
None of them would answer her. Just what was going on?!
The silence only made her more anxious, but she refused to show it. In the end, no matter how the maids felt about her, she was still "Renetia Carmichael". It wasn't like anything bad was going to happen to her, right? She was the daughter of a Duke, no matter how bad his reputation was, right?
So...
Where was she going? She was taken outside the Mansion, where hundreds of staff were standing in a straight line. She walked down the path they had created, scanning the lines for a familiar face. Where was the butler?
Aha! He was at the end of the line. He was also the only one who sort of knew the truth about her.
He opened the carriage door. "Miss Renetia, this way."
She wanted to stop and ask him there, but there was a sorrowful look in his eyes, and she felt that it was the wrong choice. So she anxiously entered the carriage. It started moving. And she was mortified.
Seriously, why wouldn't anybody tell her where she was going?!
The carriage picked up in speed. Later, Hikari noticed something. A white piece of paper was tucked inside the seat next to hers. Was it a note?
Picking it up, she soon understood the truth. The letters of the note spelled her doom. Hikari's eyes widened as she read:
"Mistress Renetia has been elected as one of the 4th Prince's Princess Candidates. The date is today. My deepest regrets for failing the Mistress.
Butler Schmidt"
Her stomach felt faint.
Hah? A Princess candidate?
Seriously?!
Hikari should have known that something troublesome would come. And she did, but not something like this! How could this big of a hurdle come so quickly?!
She had only been in this world for three days! It didn't make any sense! Hikari took deep breaths, but she couldn't calm down.
If she failed this, she could make her Father furious, and lower the reputation of her Duchy.
If she succeeded, it would mean a connection to the worst place of the entire manga, the Palace! A place where common sense and morals were thrown by the wayside. A place that the heroine was destined to stay.
If she somehow managed to become the prince's fiance, it was even worse! Yes, she would have a place beside a prince, which could protect her. Yet, that also meant that this prince would later fall in love with the heroine Denise, just like they all did in the source material.
And what then?! She would just enter a cliche villainess storyline and get killed by her cheating fiance so he could make room for Denise.
Thinking like this, the goal was simple.
Hikari steeled herself as she sat straighter. There was no way around it. She would have to fail this Princess Candidate election flawlessly, and escape that creepy place before it was too late!
At that time, Hikari didn't know. She couldn't have known - that there was a thread bound by her, a thread that ensured she would be the most unlucky human to ever exist inside that manga. No matter how much of a mob she was, her death inched closer to her, whether she could tell or not. And from an unlikely source as well.
And where did it begin? At the Princess Candidate Election.