Chapter 0

-Who am I? Where is this?

You might think this is some shitty joke, but right now this is real, in all honestly this is for real, seriously.

But, actually, who am I?

Because within me right now, there are two different versions of me.

My name is Yukimura Rina, a corporate slave.

What are standard Labor Laws, does it taste good? The company I worked at was dirty, I was faced with unrealistic standards day in day out, every day was tiring and hectic as if like a raging storm. I usually only averaged about 3 hours of sleep every night. Staying overnight at the company was considered normal, and if you could go home you were lucky. Those were the days I lived.

Whether this was fortunate or unfortunate, at least the work was very rewarding. My job of helping make deadlines that were thought to be impossible was very satisfying, although no one complimented me, I would like to believe that my work was appreciated.

Yes, if you think about it, I was being used and overworked, a stupid, gullible corporate slave.

I thought about changing jobs, but I was much too used to being a corporate slave. When I finally thought of doing a job change I was already sucked in way too deep my everyday work that just the idea of it was naive of me.

"Let's play an otome game to make myself feel better!"

No I should sleep. If I think about it, I should take this little free time I have to rest.

But then again, I've been working so hard these days that I was no longer thinking straight, so I picked whatever otome game I could find and downloaded it on my smartphone. On the train ride home I started to play it, and I got obsessed.

The idea of a magical fantasy world, and attending an academy with fellow students to capture a target, the prince, was very satisfying. Reaching the sweet ending of receiving a proposal was almost like torture for me. Then again, I've always preferred action and fighting over shoujo and romance, so I wonder why I suddenly decided to play an otome game?

But, I developed a favorite within this game.

The game was very common, it followed the basic requirements of having an evil villainess, being set in a magic, fantasy academy with a capture target prince. No, actually the setting was revolved around the Prince of an Empire. But there was one thing that was a bit different, it was that the brother of the evil villainess had a very strong attachment to the villainess.

His appearance was perfect. Compared to the Prince and the other capture targets his appearance was so much better.

Light blue hair, light blue eyes, ice magic, and an extremely handsome face that lacks emotions which gives off a cold feeling. He wears glasses and is the smartest within the academy, a character set up to be extremely cool.

And in this setting, he is a Duke, not a legitimate child but still a Duke, although he is just a student of the academy he succeeded his father after he passed away at the mere age of 17.

Looking at him now, he looks like he's 20, a very mature adult-like appearance.

This particular person spoils only his evil villainess sister, and says phrases that are only meant for her.

"You are more beautiful than anyone, my dear sister, only you're fit to be the Empress."

"I will put everything on the line, even my Dukedom to fulfill your wishes and desire, my dear jewel."

"I wouldn't even allow God to make you sad, much less the prince!"

His character doesn't appear that much so his voice actor isn't really that famous, but his voice is very low-toned and nice sounding. He spoils his sister and is an absolute siscon, where did the original setup of his cool and cold appearance go? That twist in the game made me laugh a lot.

But his sister, in all honestly was a stupid child, why does she think that by harassing the heroine for no apparent reason would get her the love of the Prince? You spend way too much money on clothes that are way too extravagant, to the point where I can't even see your originally beautiful appearance anymore.

Despite everything, her brother would keep giving her everything and anything possible, and when the villainess' plans of harassing the heroine fail he say to her,

"I'm sorry it was all my fault."

And take full responsibility.

No what the hell, this isn't your fault, it's your sister's fault.

And so I continued playing the game while laughing at the joke of the brother sister combination. Yes, as time went on I no longer cared about the prince capture target. But as I reached the final event of the sister losing control over herself and trying to kill the heroine, which resulted in the brother and sister being stripped of their titles and properties. It shocked me how

the brother hugged the crying sister all the while consoling her for something she caused.

Instead of feeling glad I got rid of the evil in the game, I felt sad. He tried his utmost to make his sister the Empress, but rather he was just a mere 17 year old who suffered the consequences of loving his idiotic sister.

Although I did play to the end after this event, the rest was just a painful experience.

Maybe it was due to the underpaid slave like work I did at the corporate I worked at, or the bland unappreciated life I lived, but whenever I saw the brother unconditionally loving his sister, some part of my worn out heart healed itself.

It would have been great if the brother was a capture target. But it seems that even through searching on the net the brother was not available as a capture target through some secret route. That's why after capturing the main target, I kept on replaying the same route, watching the scenes that only included the brother and sister.

"...I'll say this one more time, I really need to go to sleep."

But once I realized this, I couldn't sleep anymore, maybe it was the stress or depression that had set in from my lifestyle, I just wanted an escape. Any escape.

I laid down in bed at home, not being able to sleep holding my smartphone that was still running the game, as it was running, I blacked out without even noticing.

I probably died huh?

"I really am an idiot..."

My name is Ekaterina Yurinova, daughter of the distinguished Yurinova Dukedom.

(Ah, that's the name of the evil villainess of that otome game isn't it? Her brother is Alexei and the world is set in Imperial Russia.

When I turned 15, for the first time ever in my life I left the Dukedom for the capital in order to attend the academy. Half a year ago my mother and I were held in captivity, so the world is much too big and much too scary for me as I was seeing it for the first time.

(Huh? What's this about captivity? The settings of the game never had this written on it.)

The Yurinova Dukedom is one of the three major Dukedoms. The Duke, Sergei was the brother of the founding emperor, Pyotr, and his most loyal subject. Thus he was granted a vast and bountiful amount of properties and land. There were many well-fitting Empresses that were chosen in order to maintain the purity of the noble bloodline of the royal family, and on the off chance that the Emperor was not able to produce an heir, our family had the responsibility of carrying on the royal bloodline. Both my, and my brother's grandmothers were royalty.

(That's so amazing, holy shit. It's almost as if I just became a family member of Yoshimune, a Shogun of the Edo period. Your household is as prestigious and well-known as the Tokugawa household within Japanese history...)

My grandmother had a lot of pride and was a very strict woman, although she was a part of the Yurinova Dukedom, she was technically an imperial princess. Her existence was considered a special one. She loved her only son, my father, and greatly disliked my mother who came from a mere Marquis family.

I have never met my father before. Since my birth, not once has my father ever shown himself in front of me and my mother. As for my brother, I don't have much memory of him from early on, right after his birth he was taken to my grandmother. My mother was not permitted to see him even once.

My grandmother did not care about my existence since I was a girl, and as such I've been with my mother ever since. Even so, I was somewhat grateful for that despite my difficult childhood. I was not allowed to leave the Dukedom's villa, and lived in a cold mansion with little to no food or clothing, but I was with my mother.

(Is that so?! That's just abuse! What kind of imperial Princess are you? You're just a shitty old granny!)

My mother has always been saying this to me,

"You will definitely become the Empress... If you can become the Empress, not even your grandmother will be able to make me bow down to her. That's why, you must make the Prince fall in love with you, and become the empress. Once you do that, make sure you come here and rescue me."

Whenever she said this to me, her worn out, yet still beautiful face, was filled with tears, a face that was almost identical to mine.

(I see, so that's why you were so desperately chasing after the prince, I'm sorry for previously judging you.)

My originally frail mother who was ill was no longer able to get out of bed anymore by the time I turned the age of 10.

Oddly enough, whenever I went to visit my mother, I would always look out the window of her room. I could not see much, only a few servants and the trees changing colors along with the passing of the seasons.

But, every now and then, there would be a group of people that would pass by the mansion.

Seeing them was the one joy that I had. Whether they were going hunting or something else, amongst the group of bulking men there was a boy that was generally around my age. The mansion did not have any other children so this was the only time I ever saw others my age. He had beautiful light blue hair and a handsome face, whenever he walked by this area he would always be glancing in my direction.

(Her brother... He must have really wanted to meet his mother. The granny wouldn't let him so he tried to be as close as he could, but he couldn't really see her since he was merely passing by... Damn! I'll never forgive you, you shitty granny!)

That kind of lifestyle suddenly ended half a year ago.

A messenger arrived at our constantly silent mansion- The message was that my father had died in an accident and my grandmother shortly followed him due to her grief.

And so, under the new Duke's orders my mother and I were hurried into a carriage.

I forced my mother onto the carriage, throughout the entire journey I encouraged and comforted her to stay awake, but by the time we reached our destination she had already lost her sanity and had an extremely high fever.

When the butler who received us saw the condition my mother was in, he scolded the messenger, but the damage was already done. The butler immediately called for a doctor to look after my mother, as she laid in bed with a pale white face, she looked almost half dead.

This was when my brother rushed into the room.

Yet at the time I did not know that the person who had rushed into the room was my brother, to me he was just a very tall, strict looking adult who wore glasses.

Mother suddenly opened her eyes.

And started to cry why she saw my brother.

"You... Finally... Came to see me... Alexander..."

She had called out my father's name.

My brother froze, but then he kindly said to her,

"I'm sorry Anastasia."

Those were my mother's last moments in this world.

My brother has never, not once, heard our mother say his name.

(Uhgg! I want to cry, the two of you have suffered a lot!)

Yes, my brother should have been really bitter and heartbroken from this, I knew the feeling.

But brother completed his tasks as the Duke perfectly, arranged mother's funeral and managed the territory without any flaws. I could not believe that he acted like such an adult despite only being 2 years older than me.

My brother felt really bad for me, and thus treated me very well. He gave me a large room, beautiful clothes, and a lot of servants. Comparing this to my life at the villa, everything felt like a dream to me. Even when he leaves the academy he would write letters to me asking what I need and what troubles I have recently been met with.

...But I never answered my brother truthfully.

I told him I didn't need any of his gifts, and treated him with a horrible and extremely spoilt attitude. During the trip from the Dukedom to the Capital, even if my brother spoke to me I would only give him the silent treatment.

(She must be doing this to test him, I've heard a lot of abandoned and or abused kids do this, they want to see if a person is really on their side or if they're tricking them.)

I knew this wasn't something I should be doing, but whenever I see or answer my brother my mother's death would come to mind and for some reason that always makes me extremely angry.

(Because the last person she called out for was your brother? Even though she mistook him for your father?)

I'm sure, not even my mother wanted me. My mother, father, and grandmother only really wanted my brother. I wonder, why do I exist? For what reason am I alive for?

(Ah... You must be doubting yourself,

There aren't any parents in the world that would not want their own children, minus the very minute outliers.

Besides, you are from a noble house, nobility tends to favor male offspring, so this is something that is very common.

But you know that all these problems were caused by your abusive and shitty granny right?

I'm not sure about your father, but you, your mother and your brother are all victims of this sad and unfortunate situation. If you're angry then write that granny's name on a piece of paper and stomp on it with sharp stiletto heels. I'm sure, it also hurts you when you take your anger out on your brother, the two of you are originally very good children.)

Stiletto heels? Haha... Thank you for your concern.

But, who are you?

(Um, maybe, just maybe, but I think I'm a version of you.)

Note: This chapter was originally translated by Jesssational but because she only translated Prologue and I can't contact her, I have decided to upload it here for ease of readers.