Thanks to that, it had been a simple matter to leave undetected. Even if it was late at night, when it came to slipping out of the mansion, the d’Autriche household’s outstanding servants were always formidable opponents. The words Just let her be had never proved so useful as they did that night.

In the first place, if it became known that she had gone to the demon king’s castle right on the heels of the current commotion, it would have ruined what reputation she had left.

My brothers are inclined to spoil me, but they show no mercy. And Father is, well…

Her name is Aileen Lauren d’Autriche.

That is who she currently is. The sole daughter of the house of d’Autriche, the greatest noble family in the Ellmeyer Empire, linked to the imperial family by blood. Her father is the prime minister, while her mother holds the title of duchess and is the highly regarded niece of the empress dowager, commanding respect in both high society and the military. Aileen’s three older brothers fill out the rest of her family.

As the youngest child and the only daughter, Aileen has been treasured her whole life. The way her brothers dote on her is particularly notorious. However, Aileen knows it’s because she is a girl and not as brilliant as her siblings. It’s clear they never considered her a rival, a real threat.

She has often felt left out, and no matter how hard she studied, all her brothers consistently outstripped her. It has always seemed impossible to catch up to them in any field. Whenever Aileen sulked, her mother would tell her the same thing, time and time again: “Women have their own ways of fighting.”

Aileen only realized what she’d meant the year she turned eight. That was when Cedric Jean Ellmeyer, a genuine prince, had knelt before her and asked for her hand in marriage.

Frankly, she’d been overjoyed. Cedric was simply wonderful, and the mere thought that he needed her seemed to give her a special sort of value.

Whoever married him would become empress, and her father impressed upon her what an achievement it would be to obtain that special title and position.

This was the first expectation that had ever been placed on Aileen, and it soon became her dream to meet it.

She quickly took to studying etiquette and dance while drilling everything from economics to statecraft into her mind, all so that she would be of use to her future husband. Going so far as to prepare for hypothetical situations in which she was, for example, attacked by bandits, she even honed her skill with the sword to keep herself from being a burden.

Aileen was confident that once she was capable in a wide array of fields, Cedric would surely come to rely on her. Everyone would praise her for her efforts. Just thinking about the day that would come true filled her with happiness, and so she redoubled her efforts.

As she dedicated herself to her mission, somewhere along the way, she’d become known as “the arrogant girl who lords over everyone because she’s the crown prince’s fiancée.”

Aileen has always been stubborn and competitive enough to vie with her older brothers. It isn’t in her to yield when she’s confident she is in the right, and she never hesitated to say what was on her mind. Naturally, her personality has often been the cause of misunderstandings. Her belief in Cedric’s shallow remark that he understood her, as well as her resulting neglect of everyone else around her, had been ill-advised.

In no time at all, she became the most hated person at the academy, and Cedric, the one person she was sure truly understood her, did the unthinkable and broke off their engagement.

If Aileen had adopted a slightly more amicable attitude and pretended to be a delicate, frail maiden, then perhaps things might have played out differently. At this point, she’s still capable of thinking about it objectively, if only just barely.

This is only because she knows, through the game, exactly how people see her and why.

I do think I neglected what others thought of me… That said, I’m not about to try to patch things up now. After all, even if my memories of my past life have returned, I am no one but myself.

In any case, she could only remember dreamlike fragments of that past life.

She once lived in a land known as Japan, where both science and civilization were far more advanced than they are here. However, she had also been sickly to the point where she often spent the better part of the year in bed. Because she died young, unable even to make the most of her adolescence, she doesn’t have a great many memories to begin with. That said, the thought she remembers most vividly is I wanted to enjoy being a teenager, and if possible, I’d like to experience the sort of romance that you see in otome games, so it’s clear she’d been a serious gamer.

The one she played particularly heavily was Regalia of Saints, Demons, and Maidens. The game was set in Imperial Ellmeyer, a Western European–style kingdom in which the legend of the Maid of the Sacred Sword was still told—the very world in which Aileen now lives.

In the game, Aileen was betrothed to Cedric, the orthodox hero who required incredibly high stats to conquer. Aileen herself had been a typical villainous young noblewoman who flaunted her privileged status as the daughter of a duke, often prancing about with an entourage of hangers-on and generally obstructing the romantic endeavors of the heroine, Lilia. She picked fights with Lilia, who came from a family of commoners, and blatantly harassed her for enrolling in a school that was attended almost exclusively by the children of the aristocracy. As the heroine’s conquest of Cedric progressed, he steadily became more and more disgusted by Aileen’s behavior until he finally announced he was breaking off their engagement.

As a story in a game, it was comical, but as Aileen’s reality, it’s no laughing matter.

Worst of all, no matter what happens from this point on, Aileen is fated to die.

Cedric’s route was the so-called main route, and it explored the national legend of the Maid of the Sacred Sword. As the story progressed, it became apparent that Lilia was the reincarnation of the Maid, and in the end, she became a saint who saved the very empire itself. However, before that, the demon king awakened as the final boss, the enemy the Maid of the Sacred Sword must destroy.

That demon king is the very person to whom Aileen has just proposed marriage.

Claude Jean Ellmeyer… If her knowledge of the game is still accurate, he should be twenty-five years old, eight years Aileen’s senior. He also happens to be Cedric’s elder half brother, and the former crown prince of Imperial Ellmeyer.

However, he was born with red eyes and magic that no other humans could wield. According to the tale of the Maid of the Sacred Sword, these are considered proof that he is the reincarnation of the demon king. From the stories Aileen has heard, whenever danger threatens him, a horde of demons appears out of nowhere. More than anything, the demons love him, and if he ordered them to, they would lay down their lives without hesitation. If that’s not a demon king, then who could be?

As a young child, Claude was the target of multiple assassination attempts, but every time without fail, demons saved him. At their wits’ end, his would-be killers compromised by stripping Claude of his right to inherit the throne and confining him to the abandoned castle, ignoring his very existence.

In most of the game’s routes, he awakened as the demon king, standing in the way of the heroine and her chosen love interest. In one ending, he destroyed the empire, while in another, he was slain by the sword that would materialize from Lilia’s body. In the ensuing chaos, Aileen died.

Sometimes, she was seared to the bone by the beams of light Claude emitted upon becoming the demon king, and other times, she was offered as a ritual sacrifice to resurrect him. She was also frequently killed off in the narration, like a minor NPC. She was usually treated as an insignificant character throughout most of the game. Aileen’s most important appearances happened during the events leading up to the broken engagement; from that point on, it became pretty clear that the staff hadn’t consider it worth the effort to revisit her character in detail.

Well, sure, the players aren’t likely to complain if she’s killed off, but come on—!

As the one who’s slated to be killed off, that’s just unacceptable. Aileen’s fate is so tragic. Admittedly, the way she behaved was problematic.

However, she hardly did anything that warrants death, and really, the idea that a single person is the root of all evil is only plausible in a game.

As she reaches that conclusion, Aileen’s consciousness ripples. She can hear voices.

“…So why are you personally caring for a human girl, my king?”

“No particular reason.”

“Well, I for one think it’s a good thing. Any prince worth his salt should be kind to ladies.”

There are three voices, all of them male.

If I recall, he had two attendants, one demon, the other human… Both were quite handsome in the game…

Half-awake, Aileen tries to draw on her game knowledge to work out what’s happening.

“It isn’t necessary for the demon king to save a mere human. What is this talk of a prince anyway? He has no need of a human rank.”

“This man is the eldest prince of Imperial Ellmeyer. I haven’t given up, you know. Someday, I’ll have him marry a proper girl and build a loving family!”

“—Keith. How many times must I tell you that I intend to do no such thing?”