Refuge in Audacity (Original/Isekai Chapter 12)

Maristella Brokkr POV

All my life, I felt a kind of filter sheet, a veil over my mind.

I was born a noble to a house ranked Marquis. My life was pretty good and I never had much of a reason to complain. I had a good parent, good siblings and good friends. The servants that dotted on me, and would get me treats or snacks I wanted.

Lessons though... Those felt stifling.

Noble etiquette lessons were grating on my nerves, but it was mandatory to learn, and I didn't want to reflect badly on my family. Others lessons like math, geography and general science felt like...not enough. Like somethings were missing, or that it was too easy. History felt...wrong. Maybe it's because magic exists.

And yeah, that was it. Magic exists.

It was exciting, it was interesting, it was...odd.

Why was magic odd to me? Everyone else saw it as natural.

The status system was there too. That was also magic. Maybe.

And everyone saw that as natural.

But why didn't I?

Why were all these things not clicking in my head? History, magic, status system. To me, it felt like a math equation were a number like, for example '7', meant something else had a different value, and everyone saw that but me.

When my tenth birthday came around, finally, it all clicked.

The veil was removed.

Memories started to fill in the gaps in my mind. Like waking up from a dream and in quick time remembering who you are, what day it is and what you were doing before sleep.

I remembered my past life. I remembered an overworked woman who found solace in what was originally an otome game, and died full of regrets, thinking of 'what ifs' and chances not taken.

For three days after awakening, there was merriment nested in my chest, that didn't want to leave. Even when I found out I was the Villainess of the game (the main one at least), it still didn't put a dampen on my mood.

After all, it's very easy to avoid the bad ends by just not being a complete retard. Or at least not interacting with the Heroine. It's that simple.

Maybe she could entering the noble academy in a different year than the Heroine. That'd basically solves all the problems by making it impossible to happen. Can't be accused of bullying her if I never met her and wasn't there to begin with (HA!).

I did have a bigger worry however, than some high school defamation event years down the line, whose consequences aren't really that big of a deal. The Bad Ends involving death were thankfully very little. Most of the time it's just dis-inheritance, or exile or the like. She had lived as a commoner in her last life, she can figure something out in this one, if she needed to.

No, the real problem was the plot of the otome game she was in, "Love Across the Regalia". The game started as a plain otome game with some RPG elements and war campaigns.

Thankfully the war campaign element was minimal, and can be easily beaten with P2W. Yes, I'm a filth casual, I didn't play the game for the strategy bits, okay. The RPG elements was fun enough to be challenging without being overbearing.

The important bits, the romance element, was what drew people (and me) to the game, as you could play as male or female and be able to romance almost any named character in the game. You could play the female character, the Maiden of the Holy Sword, or the male character, the Warrior of the Light Shield.

The Heroine was your typical, girl adopted into nobility, by her uncle who was fulfilling his late brother's last wish. The "Hero" was the Prince of the Kingdom of Ereon. I said hero in quotes, because the game tends to throw other fantasy elements in the mix. So while the Prince wasn't a "Hero" in the fantasy sense, there did exist a character who had the Job Class of Hero appearing later on in the game. Except there aren't any Job Classes, just Traits which the devs seemed to use as an umbrella, to throw anything they don't have to make into counting system.

Ability? Perk? Reward? All thrown under Trait. Anything 'unique' or 'special' is just given a different color. Kinda lazy there guys.

Not that I could blame them. The game had something like 50 romance options, with each character being given a full backstory and route with three endings. There are three Harem Endings, either 6 boys, 6 girls, or an equal mix of, you guessed it, six characters. The Harem End was the only thing people complained about last I heard, as it was only the six main male, or female characters with the mixed harem being the three most featured character on either gender.

All of this I know. I know the game well enough that I could almost write every single trivia about it down. However, between my job and chaotic family, I had to put it aside and focus on my life not collapsing into a hot piling mess. Five years passed and when I came back to it, I found there 3 sequels, 4 spin-offs, 2 prequels, an anime with 3 seasons, 2 anime movie, the 3D animated movie, and a live-action version that last I heard, might have started a cinematic universe that was all the rage in the 2020s.

Seriously, how was I suppose to keep up with any of that!?

And it turns out all the routes of the first game, eventually would lead to the Bad End scenario of the world plot line?

DON'T SCREW WITH ME!

Do you know how many hours I spent into that game, learning everything about it? Now, you're telling me some altered route with a different prologue that starts in the sequel is where the real story begins!?

FUCK YOU!

Okay, I'm calm. Breath in, breath out. I'm calm.

Still, this means that when the 1000 Years War restarts I'll need to take a lot of things into account. Prepare treatises, army supplies and routes, improve infrastructure and prepare the Light Races to be as technologically advanced and ready for war as possible. All the other plot related problems would be taken care of by the Heroine stumbling on them.

For three years I studied science and magic as much as I can. Learning of each Noble Family in Ereon, and the important ones in other countries that would be useful allies for when the current peace ends. The concept of a war between Light and Darkness, Good and Evil, Humans (with other races) and Demons seemed too difficult to vision and grasp, as even with it now being a reality, it was still years away. Yet, I still strived to be ready.

And then...

Then it was announced from the Royal Castle, that the Crowned Prince married the Demon Queen when she came to attack, and she's now his loyal subject.

What?

No, seriously what?

Prince Benedict, the aloof, stoic and taciturn--utterly insufferable capture target--prince who was detached from everyone around him, actually went out and married someone? And the Demon Queen no less!?

Speaking of that.

The fuck do you mean 'Demon Queen'?

The Final Boss of the game was the Demon King. Where did this 'Queen' come from?

Then I found out Benedict Chavagner wasn't even the Crowned Prince. My brain shut down for while after that, because clearly I didn't know anything about the world I found myself in.

After calming down and thinking carefully, I recalled how in one of the sequels, there was a storyline where Main Villain was instead a Demon Queen. I guess she was also a romance option in that game, probably as either gender. So I guess I'm in the version of the world where it followed the plot of the Demon Lord being female. Okay, different than what I know, but I can deal with it. Maybe.

The second shock however was crowned prince, Prince Aidan. I wracked my mind trying to remember all I can about him. The character was such a small footnote that I barely remembered he was mentioned in the prologue.

There was a prophecy related to the Prince and the Demon King. The Demon King killed Prince Aidan, thus Prince Benedict was found and crowned to be king. The Demon King returned to kill the second prince, except Prince Benedict materialized the Light Shield, heavily weakening and injuring the Demon King, causing him to run away, and not be a threat till the end of the game. This was why the war campaign section doesn't start until after the noble academy arc is completed, along with Benedict crowned king. At least that was the explanation in-story.

Odds are, I think, Aidan was a character that lived and was explored more in the later games. That's the only reasoning I can think of.

But then, not only did Aidan live, the Demon Queen is now conquered, and the war with the Demon Race now won't restart. A third of the game is just gone.

I...seriously, what did I even work hard for?

Maybe this is a sign. That I can just relax and live my life. Not worry about the future, prophecy, wars, fate of the world and all that crap.

I'm rich, the daughter of an important and powerful family, I can just lazy it out and marry a handsom--

Wait.

If Prince Benedict, the Warrior of the Light Shield, isn't around then the Holy Maiden won't be able to use the full extent of her powers. Meaning the academy arc canon events won't be an automatically solved cakewalk. Meaning there is now a possible war between the kingdoms that could happen!

SSHHHHIIIII--

No. Nope. Calm down. I can fix this.

I have future knowledge, even if it's not 100% accurate, I still know the people and places from the game. I can mitigate the problems before they ever become problems.

Okay, let's focus. The three main events that I need to worry about are:

The Lancasteria Famine Arc.

The Ocetoka Mecha Invasion.

And the Mass Otherworlders Summoning.

Okay, making a list and dividing the problems into smaller problems and deal with them. I can do this.

First, I need to building a company and establish a trade alliance with the Nut Families (I know the devs were being lazy when they named the three big trading families in Regalia, but damn if it ain't funny), and to do that I need to get an in from the Almond Family--

"So he actually went ahead and did it," one day, while having lunch with my family, father read a missive sent from the Royal Castle.

"What is it, Father?" my little brother, Maxwell asked.

"The Almonds were declared traitors by his Royal Highness, due to the crimes of sabotage of the crown, withholding the information of a prophecy, selling state secrets to other countries and many others listed here. Seems the Prince gave a capital punishment to all of them." Her father was nonchalant in delivering this grave news, his mind already on other subjects.

No. No way.

"T-traitors? But, but are our kingdom's most prominent house!" I cried out before quickly recomposing myself.

My luck can't possibly be that bad.

"Well, they could only blame themselves. Eventually their heavy-handedness would have met a force that broke them. This is why pride comes before the fall." Father chuckled and returned to his food.

What does that mean!?

The Almonds--No, everyone from the Nut Families is a loveable, eccentric goofball. It's like he's talking about completely different people. Is that another difference from the game and this world?

Not important, I at least need to save Joe Almond, his sister and--what was it? Third cousin? Doesn't matter, I'll know her when I see her--from this. The Negotiation Trio are extremely important for the plot events going forward.

"Father," I said with all the noble posture and focus I had. "Is it possible to at least ask for lenience on behalf of certain members of the Almonds. Certainly his Highness won't condemn innocent--"

"Mari my dear, please let go of it this time. I'm afraid that there is no chance to save any of the Almonds, for they are all already dead." Father said apologetically.

"...What?"

"Prince Aidan had his demon wife blow up the Almond Castle with all the family members in it. There isn't anyone to ask an appeal for."

I just stood there wide-eyed and frozen for a while.

One of the most crucial families in the game, that acted as a bridge to many of the important trades, alliances and relevant plot progression events is now gone.

So this new life of mine is now on Dark Souls Mode.

Fuck me.

Personal Info:

Name: Maristella Françoise Pamolai Brokkr

Titles: Lady of House Brokkr

Age: 13

Condition: Shocked

Stats:

Strength: 7

Durability: 8

Dexterity: 7

Speed: 5

Mental Calculation: 88

Memory Capacity: 57

Aether Control: 23

Mana Capacity: 15

Skills:

Aristocratic Decorum:

Diplomatic Discourse:

Environmental Magic:

-Fire Magic:

Traits:

None