The day I met Asa was the day I woke up in the heroine's body. You could say this mess is all thanks to her, in a way, though I only learned that later.

It was the day Lady Raine Hydrangea was supposed to enter Garten Academy as a new student.

Initially, I thought I had swapped genders during the night. The reflection I saw in the bedside mirror of the unfamiliar room held a woman with indigo shoulder-length hair and silver eyes, almost the reverse of my own coloring. 

I talked to anyone I could find in the Hydrangea household- the maids, the butler, the gardeners, the chef, Lady Raine's personal guard Rixton, who had been adopted into the family after being rescued by the heroine's philanthropist father, and Earl Hydrangea himself. I gleaned all the information I could about my new circumstances on that first day.

I was Prince Vel no longer. I was an entirely new person.

When I entered the school, I was already accustomed to my surroundings, since I had attended the academy as Prince Vel for a year,  but I was filled with a sense of dread. I had no idea what had happened to my original body. 

That is, until I saw "myself" talking to a mirror, alone, in one of the dusty storerooms of the academy.

I had sought escape from my overexcited peers, who had immediately begun hammering the new student with questions I had no idea how to answer, when I stumbled upon the scene.

"Now this is what I'm talking about~~why would I want to be reborn as the heroine if I can be reborn as the hottie Prince Vel?? Now I can enjoy this beauty 24/7~" The imposter twisted this way and that, leering at his reflection. The expression was freakish on my own face.

I must have made some kind of sound, because he swung around and gaped at being discovered.

"You- you're the heroine?!! How are you here?"

"You know what's going on, don't you?" I stalked forward, drawing the sword I had recently picked up in Earl Hydrangea's armory and leveling it at my lookalike. "Who are you, and why are you in my body? Did you cast some kind of curse on me?"

"Prince Vel?" Asa had gaped even further. Then, without further warning, launched into a tirade about the "Otome game" we were apparently living in, titled Spring Rain in the Garden of Dreams, or Garden of Dreams for short. In her world, the game was playable on a handheld device and was eerily similar to my own world. This meant that we were either living in the game or a world based off of the game. Asa explained how some kind of deity had allowed her to possess my body instead of the heroine's.

I'm assuming my own soul must have been sent reeling into the nearest vessel available. I suppose it could have been worse, but it still felt like a cruel cosmic joke.

Thankfully, Asa was a fan of my "character" and was willing to cooperate and keep up appearances until we could switch places. She told me she had just wanted to try being a "bishonen" for a while, whatever that was, but that she wouldn't mind becoming the heroine instead if we could find a way.

Although I was ready to be irritated at her antics, she gave me a very important piece of information. She told me that although she had only managed to complete one playthrough of the game, she had read online that the second playthrough promised a lot more trouble than fluffy romance and rivalry. Apparently there was a route you could unlock in the first playthrough that led to a rebellion and a civil war in the second.

As prince of my country, this concerned me deeply. If we were on this "second playthrough" somehow by Asa's incarnation into this world and the route was already unlocked, I had to search for clues to prevent this war before it happened. Being in the heroine's body might actually be helpful in this case, since this form would draw less attention than my original self.

Which leads me back to our first scene, one of the many 'secret meetings' with Asa, who was still in my body.

Asa grinned at me from across the room. "So how's life as the heroine so far? Do you have a favorite among the love interests?"

I gave her my darkest scowl. "If you weren't in my body, I would have already cut you down."

"That doesn't exactly give me incentive to switch with you, does it?"

I took a seat on the red velvet sofa nearby, and I could practically hear my bones creak from exhaustion. The past few months felt like they had aged me by years. "It's completely unrealistic how many times I am running into these 'love interests.' And all of them seem a bit different from how you described them in the game."

Asa cocked her head to the side, a puzzled expression on her/my face. "What do you mean?"

I held up three fingers. "You described Rixton as a sweet protector, but he is very much a meddlesome stalker." I put down a finger. "You described Marion as a poet with a desire for true love, but he's an airhead and a player." I hesitated. "Although he is quite cute when he cries, you didn't mention that." 

Asa looked aghast. "You made him cry?"

"You described Roy as a wild and passionate bad boy, but he's just a whiny attention seeker with no manners and mommy issues." I put my third finger down. There was actually one more person who was acting out of character, but for some reason I didn't want to mention it to Asa. This is possibly because I had been wrong about her character in the first place.

Asa slumped down across from me in a blue armchair, contemplative. "What if they have changed…due to their interactions with you?"

I gave her my coldest look. "Are you saying I am at fault for the ineptitude of these fools?"

She shook her head, more in response to the look than what I was saying. "If you think about it, you're probably doing things differently than the heroine would. For instance, you act more mysteriously and seem to have more secrets, so Rixton is probably more curious about you than anything. Obviously you're handling Marion differently too, and you ended up saving Roy instead of him saving you, which is what was supposed to happen."

"Maybe it's not that they've changed…they're just treating you differently because you are different."

I inclined my head. "That makes sense. After all, I am not Lady Raine." I met the blue eyes that were once mine. "Maybe we're being too lax about finding a way to change back."

She pouted. "Hey, I'm trying, okay?! I've been in the library every day looking up books on transformation."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Sure you're not just checking out that lavender-haired librarian?"

She spluttered. "H-hey! He could be a hidden character who starts the rebellion route!!"

"Yes, yes." It wasn't fair to be too harsh on Asa, since I hadn't found any clues either. We already agreed she would look for a way to change back and I would look for signs of the rebellion.

I was a bit distracted. Not by the men pursuing me, ironically, but by the last person in the world I expected to be interested in.

The door burst open, and that very person strode into the room, looking furious and tiny at the same time. Her white mane puffed out around her like raised hackles on a cat's back, and her crimson eyes glared right at me. Although I had seen that look many times in the past, I never would have imagined it directed at me.

"What do you think you're doing with someone else's fiancé?! Prince Vel doesn't have time to waste on the likes of you!"

I stood to face my fiancée, Camellia Cultivar.