Prologue 1: The Day It Began and the Heroine

Her nineteenth birthday. The morning she reached the age when people could begin to ask her, “Are you still not married?” Miyako, the youngest daughter of a family of regional nobles, was called to see her fiancé Klaus, the eldest son of the Reinhardt family of high nobility. He had only one thing to tell her.

“I’ve decided to call off our engagement.”

From the beginning, it was an engagement across social classes. Miyako had no right to refuse him.

“Understood. I accept your order to cancel the engagement. I wish you a good day, Klaus-sama.”

In response to the one-sided declaration, Miyako deeply bowed her head, her auburn hair beautifully tied up. She then left the Reinhardt household.

Miyako felt the pitying stares of the servants all around her. Somebody’s voice whispered, “And he even turned down the count’s daughter to get engaged to her.” Without so much as raising a single eyebrow at that voice, Miyako climbed into the carriage waiting outside the mansion.

The carriage drove away, and drove and drove. When the Reinhardt house had left her sight, Miyako’s shoulders began to shake, and she screamed out.

“Yesssss!!! I’m free now!!!”

I’ve done it. I’ve done it!!

I got the engagement called off!!

I’m free now!!!

She pumped her fists with all her might.

As it happens, Miyako was someone who’d just wound up reincarnated in this world. This was Drop Fantasia, the otome game she once played religiously. Miyako’s student days when she got absorbed playing it were long over. In those days, Miyako played through every route in Drop Fantasia, wasting no time on sleep.

Years passed, and Miyako became a wage slave with no time to sleep once again. One night, after wearing herself down day after day, she fell asleep with the thought “I can’t do this anymore.” Miyako felt a pain in her chest, and the next morning she let out a scream. A scream of joy.

She had woken up as the seventeen-year-old main heroine in the world of Drop Fantasia.

Yahoo, three cheers for deus ex machina!

“Heh heh, now I can make the wild dream I’ve held for so many years come true.”

Miyako’s trademark hazel eyes lit up.

There was a character whose route Miyako was never able to clear, despite being so engrossed in Drop Fantasia. That character was also the first love to steal Miyako’s heart. Up to her current point in the game’s world, Miyako had striven to win over that character, that woman.

That’s right.

Miyako had worked to have the main hero, Klaus Reinhardt, break off their engagement.

“Driver!”

“Yes, what’s the matter, my lady?”

Miyako leaned out of the carriage window and called out to the man steering the horses. The cool morning breeze felt pleasant as it struck her cheeks, as though foretelling the heart-racing days around the corner.

“Change of course. Hurry to Fuuka Hamilton, the count’s daughter!”

Fuuka Hamilton was the count’s beautiful daughter in Drop Fantasia, who’d firmly captured Miyako’s heart—

“Fuuka-sama. I’ll make you happy no matter what!”

—and the main scenario’s villainess.

Prologue 2: The Villainess and the Day It Began

Fuuka Hamilton drank her morning tea.

Black tea.

The color filling the cup reminded her of the woman with the same color of reddish-brown hair, the woman who’d stolen everything from her.

All was going well until three years ago. Fuuka had a privileged family. She had a fiancé who was both close to her in age and handsome, though their marriage’s only purpose was to further the family interests.

My life was all smooth sailing, if I do say so myself. I put in so much effort to live up to that.

What changed everything was her arrival. Miyako Florence. She possessed a healthy beauty that made her seem to shine from the inside out. She was outspoken and intelligent too. Fuuka could tell better than anyone that Miyako Florence was a catch.

“Fuuka, I want to make Miyako Florence my bride. Let’s break off our engagement.”

When her former fiancé Klaus Reinhardt said those words to her, Fuuka thought only one thing.

Ah, I knew it.

Fuuka hadn’t been idle before that. Her family under Count Hamilton absolutely did not want to lose marital ties to the higher-class marquis’s family. There were no sentimental feelings of love between her and Klaus. All that had lain before her was a sense of duty, a sense of how things ought to be. Fuuka had deployed every trick she could think of to keep Klaus Reinhardt by her side, even as Miyako slowly crept into his heart. Fuuka’d had to use some underhanded methods in order to live up to the expectations of the Hamilton family, who so badly wanted a connection to the Reinhardts.

But even so, or perhaps because of that, when Klaus told her of his selfish decision to end the engagement, she didn’t feel frustrated or dejected. Instead, Fuuka accepted it. Somehow she had always known that it would turn out this way.

Yes, it’s like my fate has already been decided.

“I need to stop thinking,” she said with a sigh.

Fuuka delicately placed her cup onto its saucer.

“Now then, there’s a lot that must be done! I need to make Father take notice of me again.”

Now that her engagement into the marquis’s family was canceled, Fuuka’s father, the head of the Hamilton family, was incredibly disappointed in her. Not making any effort to hide his displeasure, he had thrown a wine bottle at her when she received notice of the break-off of her engagement. Fuuka’s father began busying himself with looking for partners for her younger sisters. He had completely given up on her, and there was no place in the Hamilton house for those who failed.

Even so, Fuuka continued to work hard. She not only memorized the methods of etiquette and balance of power in high society, but she also studied economics, commercial sciences, foreign languages, and white magic. Fuuka continued voraciously learning the so-called bridal training she needed to move forward in life, as well as the education necessary for a member of the nobility.

Father won’t take notice of me for a little while. Still, disgraced as I am by the canceled engagement, he lets me live the same lifestyle I always have. I can live in the same privileged environment.

Trying to cheer up, Fuuka told herself this.

“Now then, I suppose today I’ll try reading a classic from a neighboring country in its own language.”

Faltering was not permitted. She had to suppress the feelings threatening to rise up in her heart. Fuuka had to swallow back the almost delusional cries trying to pass through her lips.

And so, thinking things like this...

“I want to run away...”

Yes, I want to.

“To somewhere else.”

Wanting to run away to somewhere else. Hoping that a prince will turn up to take me to some faraway land. I mustn’t think things like that.

Fuuka scolded herself for letting her tightly clenched fists tremble and her head hang down.

At that moment, the door burst open. The person who came running in was impossible.

“Fuuka-sama!”

“Uh, ah, wh-what?! What’s going on?!”

The opening door caused the still air in the room to move. Wind blew in through the window, shaking Fuuka’s lustrous hair and dress.

“Y-You’re—”

Fuuka gasped. The one who’d run into her room was none other than Miyako Florence.

“Please, come with me!”

The one Klaus Reinhardt had taken a liking to, the woman who’d stolen everything from her, was standing right there. Fuuka was dumbfounded.

Come with you? What in the world are you talking about?

Fuuka was at a complete loss for words. She heard the servants’ voices in the distance, flustered at the unexpected (and extremely discourteous) arrival of this guest. At this point, Fuuka knew she should act like a lady of the proud Hamilton family and issue a swift warning about such an entrance and this complete lack of etiquette.

The woman with gleaming eyes in front of her was supposed to be her hated rival in love.

So there’s no way I can take this hand, this outstretched hand...

This woman, with her brown hair swaying in the morning breeze, knelt down and took Fuuka’s hand, just like a prince on a white horse. The once-upon-a-time rival kneeling in front of her gazed up at Fuuka, paying no mind to her fine dress pooling on the floor.

“Fuuka-sama, I have always longed for you.”

Ah, there’s no way that I, Fuuka Hamilton of the proud Hamilton family, could take this hand. And yet...

***

Inside the carriage, Miyako could not help humming to herself.

What a wonderful birthday this is. The bright clear sky, the pleasant breeze, the gently rocking carriage. Most of all, the villainess whom I’ve been burning for all these years, Fuuka, is sitting next to me.

“Hey, Fuuka-sama.”

“I’d like you to drop the pretense and stop calling me ‘Fuuka-sama.’”

“Whoa, so forward!”

“What are you talking about? First you steal my fiancé, then you kidnap me. I think it’s a bit late to be addressing me with ‘sama.’”

“Eh, uhm. Well... Fuuka-chan?”

“You’re acting very familiar, now aren’t you?! Well, whatever. What is it?”

“Heh heh. I just felt like trying that out.”

“I will kick you, you know that, right?”

Eyes rimmed with perfect lashes glared at her, and Miyako calmed down.

Oh, so cute! Cutest of all is that she’s glaring at me, but I’m still holding her hand over her knee, and she’s not shaking it free.

Miyako clenched down on Fuuka’s cool hand.

“What is it?”

“Oh, it’s just, I’m so happy.”

“Do you have any brains at all between your ears?”

Ah, I love your sharp comebacks too!

Knowing she shouldn’t make Fuuka too angry, Miyako grew quiet again. They sat in silence for a while.

“...Miyako.”

“What’s up?!” responded Miyako, eyes sparkling at the mention of her name.

If Miyako had a tail, she would have been wagging it. She didn’t go as far as panting excitedly, but acting so happy at just having her name called took a certain kind of talent.

Incidentally, when Miyako took a “What animal are you?” quiz in the real world, the result was “dog.” Although, she herself had forgotten this.

“What was that before?”

“Hm? What was what?”

“Well, that, what was it?”

“I don’t know which ‘that’ you’re talking about.”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake! When you said you longed for me, or something like that!”

“Oh!” said Miyako. “That was me confessing to you.”

“There’s something fundamentally wrong with your head. Would you like me to introduce you to a doctor?”

“It’s just that, the more I learned about you, Fuuka-chan, the more I fell in love.”

“With me?”

“Yeah,” Miyako said with a nod.

In the main route in this otome game, Fuuka ended up leading a life of defeat as the villainess. But the moment Miyako laid eyes on Fuuka’s character information sheet, she fell in love.

“Like how you have a strong sense of responsibility, or how you always work so hard. And how even though you’re not a morning person, you wake up early to study. And you’re amazing at white magic!” said Miyako, counting off Fuuka’s good points on her fingers. “You act like you don’t know anything when you’re in front of Klaus, but in reality you’re super knowledgeable.”

In the world of Drop Fantasia, though, these traits were all used against the main heroine.

“And you put in effort to get your father to notice you.”

“H-Hold on! Hold on a second!!!”

“Hm?”

“How do you know that...?”

Miyako noticed Fuuka’s creeped-out expression. Specifically, she looked at Miyako as if she were looking at a stalker.

“I must have temporarily lost my mind, coming with you.”

“Fwah?! Wait a minute, it’s not like that!”

Oops. I said too much.

Miyako shut her mouth in a hurry.

That was information somebody living in this world shouldn’t know.

I messed up. Now that it’s come to this, I’ll have to tell Fuuka my secret.

“Um, the truth is... I can see the future.”

“What?” Fuuka widened her eyes.

As a player of this otome game, Miyako knew the future of this world. It was equivalent to having the power to predict the future. Well, at least as far as she’d gotten to see through the game’s scenarios.

“Maybe not ‘see the future,’ exactly, but like, clairvoyance? Something like that anyway. With that power, I ‘saw’ you.”

“...How much did you see?”

“Everything, I think.”

She saw Fuuka being cruelly scolded by her father Count Hamilton after the engagement was called off; her being cast away by him, the father she loved and respected; her persevering with hard work despite all that.

These are all things that Miyako learned from “Villainess Fuuka’s Secret Backstory,” posted on one of the game designers’ blogs.

But looking at all that only deepened my feelings for Fuuka.

“You can’t expect me to believe that; it’s like something out of a fairy tale. Besides, if you know that much about me, then why did you go and steal my fiancé from me?”

“Well...”

That was also something Miyako learned from the game’s scenarios. If Miyako doesn’t get engaged to Klaus—in other words, in the event that Fuuka’s engagement isn’t called off, and she manages to marry into the prestigious Reinhardt family—Fuuka dies gruesomely in a sudden accident halfway through their honeymoon.

On the other hand, if Miyako marries Klaus, deploring herself for failing to bring good news to the Hamilton family, Fuuka chooses to take her own life on their wedding night.

Horrible. No normal person could come up with those scenarios. They treat the villainess way too mercilessly.

Miyako wondered why it had to be that way, but whichever route she chose, the result was the same. With no other option to change that outcome, Miyako followed the otome game’s predetermined route and became engaged to Klaus—then induced him to break off the engagement.

Even while she was playing Drop Fantasia, she’d been infatuated with the courageous, hardworking, beautiful villainess. Once she met the real-life Fuuka as rivals contending for the role of bride to a noble house, she realized her charm was the real thing, and that she was far, far more charming than the in-game Fuuka. Miyako knew no one could stop her love for Fuuka. She swore to make Fuuka happy, no matter what.

When Miyako led Klaus into canceling their engagement, she had employed a plethora of tricks with her knowledge of the game, but that is a story for another time...

“No matter what reason they had, I could never forgive the man who threw you away so unfairly, or the family who treated you so poorly.”

“Don’t talk so ill of Klaus-sama and my father. All of it was due to my inadequacy.”

“There’s nothing inadequate about you! ...Sorry, but that’s what I really think.”

Miyako took Fuuka’s hand once again.

She pulled out a hidden bouquet of roses and presented them to her beloved Fuuka.

What she really wanted to give to Fuuka was a white lily to go with her lustrous black hair, but it seemed that the people of this world hadn’t managed to cultivate lilies.

Miyako fixed her shining hazel eyes in a gaze aimed at the dignified, beautiful girl.

“I, Miyako Florence, swear that I will do everything I can to make you happy!”

At that declaration, Fuuka’s violet eyes opened wide in surprise.

Her cheeks instantly began to redden. Steam was practically rising from her ears. After all, this was the very first time in Fuuka’s entire life that she’d had affection expressed to her like this. Moreover, that person was the same gender as her and the former rival who’d stolen everything from her.

Fuuka felt flustered.

Despite everything, why is my heart starting to beat so fast?

“...Happy.”

“Yeah, let’s be happy together!”

“But, somebody like me...” started Fuuka, her voice trembling.

I lost my engagement. I failed to contribute to the elevation of the great family of Count Hamilton. I don’t deserve to be happy.

Fuuka softly hugged the bouquet that had been foisted on her. The tender smell of the roses tickled her nostrils.

And then—

And then, Fuuka slowly shook her head.

“I can’t. I’m the eldest daughter of the venerable family of Count Hamilton. I can’t just throw away my family...”

“But, but is the Hamilton family going to make you happy?”

“What?!”

All the days of belittlement flashed before her eyes.

Miyako is right.

In that house, Fuuka was just a pawn for political marriage.

But even so—

“You have two weeks.”

“Huh?”

“I have no doubt that it won’t take more than two weeks for riders from the Hamilton family to find me,” Fuuka said deliberately. “Within those two weeks, try to make me say the words ‘I’m happy.’”

Miyako’s hazel eyes popped open. Two weeks. In other words, fourteen days. She had to make Fuuka happy within that time limit.

“...Absolutely!” shouted Miyako. Her voice was overflowing with joy.

After all. After all, that means that for two weeks, she won’t reject me. Oh my God, what?! I actually have a chance at this!!!

“Yahoooo!!!”

Miyako leapt up in jubilation.

On that pleasant morning, as the carriage drove along, Miyako’s shouts of joy echoed across the sky.

***

“By the way, where is this carriage heading?” asked Fuuka, her glossy black hair fluttering in the wind coming through the carriage window.

“Oh, sorry, Fuuka-chan. I should have said,” responded Miyako, watching the scenery flash past outside the window. “We’re headed for my homeland.”

“...What?”

“Which is, by the way, the Atika region.”

“What?!?!” Fuuka abruptly stood up.

The Atika region was located far away from the country’s capital city Ode, where Fuuka was born and raised. A border region, or rather, the boonies.

“I really must have lost my mind, after all!!!”

On that pleasant morning, as the carriage drove along, Fuuka’s screams echoed across the sky.

By the way, the Atika region was renowned for its rice production.