DED 02

Chapter 2

The female-oriented romance simulation game, “Heartbeat Love in Akane♡”, featured the heroine as Lucy Adelstein, princess of the Akane Empire.

Originally cheerful and kind-hearted, Lucy gradually became timid and insecure after being constantly disliked by her father, the Emperor.

Unlike Lucy, her older half-sister—favored by the Emperor—considered her a thorn in her side and bullied her whenever possible.

In fact, the half-sister, destined to inherit the throne, even plotted to send Lucy as a concubine to an older noble in another country to neutralize her.

Players were tasked with raising Lucy’s affection with one of four male leads to help her avoid an unhappy marriage and successfully marry one of them.

The game had an unremarkable story, low-quality graphics, and not a single line of voice acting.

After its release, it faded into obscurity, barely remembered—but there was someone who played it to the very end.

That was Lucy in her previous life.

She had even left reviews on internet communities, carefully typing each word in hopes that no one else would become a victim like her.

‘That’s right.’

And now she had been reincarnated into that terrible game?!

“Hah.”

Whether Lucy sighed in despair or not, Cecil let out a sigh as well when she failed to respond.

Ding!

[Affection Change Detected!]
[Cecil’s affection has dropped.]
[Affection: ?? → ???]
[Tip: Affection can only be viewed once “Charm Impaired” is resolved.]

‘Wait a second.’

Even if Cecil’s affection dropped, something felt off.

‘It dropped, but why did it go from two digits to three digits?’

Could it be…

‘Did it go from -99 to -100?’

In her previous life, she had started from 0.

‘The difficulty is ridiculous!’

Had she earned the system’s dislike? Could it be because of the harsh reviews she had left?

As Lucy pondered, Cecil spoke.

“Now that you’re awake, I’ll be leaving.”

Cecil turned away without hesitation, and ding! another alarm sounded.

[Cecil Auden is about to leave.]
[It is unknown how long it will take to see Cecil again at the temple.]
[Letting him leave now may make pursuing Cecil extremely difficult.]
[Do you want to stop him?]

[- Yes]
[- No]

Although a choice was given, the answer seemed obvious.

Moreover, the system didn’t even give Lucy time to deliberate, displaying a ticking clock icon:

[Time limit: 5]

Five minutes?

[4… 3…]

Lucy, thinking she might as well try something, chose “Yes.”

Regardless of her will, her body moved.

It was as if someone had shoved her off the bed; she tried to brace herself with her legs.

No, she tried to.

Beep!

[Warning! Event cannot proceed!]
[Movement restricted due to impaired health.]

“Seriously? Then why even give me a choice?”

Lucy struggled to move her arms but could not stop herself from falling toward the floor.

Bang! Squeak!

She hit the floor and heard something tear.

‘What was that?’

A bad feeling surged as Lucy looked at her hands.

She had grabbed a piece of white cloth.

It must have been whatever she grabbed to prevent herself from falling.

And that…

Slowly raising her head, Lucy’s lips parted.

The elegant and dignified cloak draped over one of Cecil’s shoulders had been torn to shreds.

Gasping, Lucy watched as Cecil slowly turned to look at her.

“What… do you think you’re doing?”

His icy gray eyes looked down at her.

Though his expression was as neutral as before, Lucy could sense his immense anger.

Understandably so—the thin white cloak Cecil wore wasn’t ordinary.

It was a symbol of honor, worn only by high-ranking healers.

Having played the game, Lucy knew how secretly proud Cecil was of this cloak.

‘This is bad.’

She couldn’t apologize, couldn’t beg, and could only look up at him with eyes full of regret.

Her gaze resembled a soaked puppy’s, yet Cecil showed no reaction.

“Princess Lucy, I do not understand your intentions.”

Cecil knelt before her.

“Since I healed you, you should be perfectly fine, so why pretend you can’t speak or move?”

“…….”

“I care nothing for rumors, but…”

“…….”

“Do not cause trouble for others, at the very least.”

Lucy was already immobilized, yet it felt as if her body had frozen solid.

Cecil’s eyes bore a clear contempt that pierced her like a dagger.

Even in her previous playthrough, she had never seen Cecil so openly dislike her.

Lucy felt the full power of negative affection points.

Cecil roughly tore the cloak from her hands and rose.

As he left the room, the system window appeared:

[Affection Change Detected!]
[Cecil’s affection has dropped.]
[Affection: ??? → ???]

Yes, Lucy knew!

[Do not be too discouraged. Affection can increase depending on your efforts.]
[However, you should remain alert. Failing to reach the true ending will result in losing the chance to end the game.]

‘…What?’

[In that case, you will live as “Lucy,” controlled by a newly introduced player.]

Lucy’s jaw dropped.

Not only was she trapped in this terrible game, but she might have to live forever as a puppet…

The next day, after collapsing from exhaustion, Lucy woke and checked her status window:

[Intelligence: -50 (Insight impaired)]
[Health: -50 (Condition impaired)]
[Reputation: -100 (Charm impaired)]

Even worse than reality, her total stats were minus 200.

“Hah.”

She sighed. How could she possibly reach the true ending with these stats?

The true ending required marrying one of the male leads.

‘Even in my previous life, I couldn’t achieve that ending.’

Her ending had been the death sentence ending.

She had failed to pursue the male leads and ended up on a side path.

‘If only the absurd difficulty hadn’t been there…’

She wouldn’t have left a critical review or reincarnated in hard mode in this game.

But regret was pointless.

Lucy had to reach the true ending.

Being trapped in the game forever, under someone else’s control, was unacceptable.

‘I have to find a way to survive.’

She clenched her fists.

Who was she?

She was the one who had created her own strategy guides and played this unplayable game to clear it.

‘Even thinking back, I was obsessively meticulous.’

The reason was simple.

Among countless flaws in the game, she had been completely captivated by a single feature.

Sometimes the game required free-form responses instead of choices.

‘The first time was when I tried to go somewhere in the palace, and a guard blocked me.’

The unexpected freedom of free-response amazed her.

Excited, she typed anything on a whim.

Yet, she assumed the game would only progress with the correct input.

But then…

[It cannot be helped. Since you need to use the restroom so badly, I will assist you this time.]

She had expected the game to tell her it didn’t understand, yet it complied.

Even an NPC could respond like AI.

‘And this was a domestic game!’

Fueled by patriotism, she had no choice but to play the game to the very end.

Gradually, she realized that with great freedom came great consequences and responsibility.

From the moment she was fascinated by free responses, the game had spiraled out of control.

‘That led to the death sentence ending, though.’

Lucy shook her head.

Now, she knew it could be used to her advantage.

Having resolved her determination, she pondered what to do next.

‘As expected.’

Drawing on experience and knowledge from her previous life, Lucy concluded:

‘I need to make people think I’m stupid.’