Amery

Everything is black. I guess I was more tired than I thought; I must have fallen asleep. And now, I’m dreaming. But what a dream. Vibrant, full of real sound and scent and even pain.

I’m on my hands and knees in a big noisy kitchen, with a pail in front of me and a scrub brush in my hands, dressed in a drab maid’s uniform. My knees and back are aching, my hands are chapped. I put the brush down and sit up, looking around me in confusion.

Suddenly, a large woman is before me, and she’s quick with a ladle to whack me upside the head.

“You there! Got time to daydream, have you?”

“N-no?”

“That’s no, Ma’am, or no, Mrs. Agate, when you address me.”

“No, Mrs. Agate!” I correct myself, warily eying the ladle she carries and the way it circles threateningly over my head.

The red faced woman scowls down at me frighteningly, then she speaks, “You’re the new girl, aren’t you? What did you say your name was?”

“Amery, Ma’am. Amery Lee.”

She nods once. “Then, get to work, Amery Lee. You’ll soon learn how little tolerance the general has for slacking off—that goes for the staff as well as the soldiers.”

“Y-yes, Mrs. Agate.”

I go back to scrubbing, baffled by my present situation, still certain this is all some kind of weird dream. But my chore-filled day wears on into evening, and at last I find myself shown to a small room at the end of the servant’s hall.

I lie awake in my straw bed, exhausted and frankly stunned, when suddenly these words flash across my mind.

Welcome to Artair Cain’s secret path, a fully immersive gameplay experience. Would you like to skip the tutorial?

Yes or No.

Is it time to face it? This isn’t a dream, right? This is that. My very own isekai experience that every comic reader dreams of having.

I can’t believe this is real. I can’t believe this is happening to me. And the world I’ve transmigrated to? None other than the world inside the game Court Captive, hands down the best, most beautifully designed, intricate and compelling otome game I’ve ever played.

And what did the game say just now, that I’ve just been set on Artair’s secret path? Then, does that mean I get to meet him for real? Face to face? I get butterflies just thinking of it!

Would you like to skip the tutorial?

Yes or No.

The question stares me in the face. If this is really happening, then I’d be a fool to try and tackle the isekai experience head-on without playing through the tutorial first.

Holding my breath, I move my mind over the second option, and press it firmly.

No.

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That was a year ago. And I must say, there were many times in the months that followed that I wished the game would have warned me what I was getting myself into.

I soon learned the tutorial I opted to play through was nothing more than a chance to adjust to my new life. It’s been a drudgery of hard labor mostly, during which time I have organically absorbed the customs of this world. I guess I’m grateful for the experience in a way, though there were many nights I cried and wished for a way to return to my easy life in the twenty-first century. But the game has yet to offer me a way out. Sometimes I wonder if there is a way out.

If I die, perhaps. Or if I beat the game. But this is an otome game, a love story, I remind myself. The only way to beat it is to get the happy ending with the male lead.

But I chose Artair Cain for my male lead, the most feared character in the game. In the beginning, I was excited by the prospect of meeting him face to face, but that anticipation quickly traded for trepidation.

I’m supposed to make that enormous, terrifying man fall in love with me? Me, who’s never had a real boyfriend even once in my life?

It’s true my social skills have improved a little since coming to this world. I’m still a bit stupid around strangers, and I’m especially uncomfortable with being the center of attention, but for the most part I’ve learned to adapt to a life without screens. Even so, there’s a major difference between feeling comfortable striking up a conversation with someone, and being able to make that someone fall in love with me. That requires a special skill which I absolutely do not have.

At some point in this tutorial, I decided I’d look for another way out. Another ending. One that doesn’t require me to be some kind of femme fatale, and one that doesn’t end in my death. The middle route, the friendship ending.

Every character in an otome game has a friendship ending. It should be far less difficult to attain, and that way I won’t risk my own mental health by falling in love with a game character I’m destined to be ripped from once the lights dim and the words Game Over flash across my mind.

Yes, a friendship ending with Artair Cain, that’s what I’ve settled on. Though to this day I’ve yet to meet him, or any of the male leads, for that matter. There is one, though, that I get to see sometimes from a distance…

This is where I find myself, spending my days not wholly unpleasantly as a maid in General Hodgson’s manor, a grand estate situated a little ways outside Moonguard, the capitol of Contrarian. Then, quite unexpectedly one morning on the third of June, exactly one year since I came to this world, I wake with these words printed clearly across my mind:

Tutorial is ending. Would you like to play through the tutorial again?

Yes or No.

At last!

I’ve had enough of this peaceful, everyday life. I’m ready to start enjoying my very own romance fantasy game experience. I’m planning on getting the friendship ending, of course, but I can still look forward to it, right?

After all, even if it’s just for a little bit, I want to know how it feels to fall in love for the very first time…

Tutorial is ending. Would you like to play through the tutorial again?

Yes or No.

I feel my mind is shaking as I hover over the second option. Resolutely, I select it.

No.

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