Chương 2: A Dream Too Real

I used to think people secretly imagined impossible things all the time. Like winning the lottery. Becoming famous overnight. Waking up with superpowers or getting whisked away to another world. They were the kind of fantasies that filled boring classes or sleepless nights. Everyone entertained them for a while, but no one ever expected them to come true. Deep down, we all believed reality would still be there when we opened our eyes. I believed that too.

So when I opened mine and found reality had quietly packed its bags and left without me, I didn't scream or panic. I simply refused to believe it. My mind searched for easier answers, like a vivid dream, a coma or anything that made more sense than the truth. Because people don't actually get reincarnated. They just like to imagine they do. That's why it took me more than a week to truly come to terms with my new reality.

I was inside the very game I had been playing before I reincarnated, Luminarie of Love and Its Hidden Nightmare, and no matter how many times I repeated that fact in my head, it still sounded so utterly ridiculous that my brain refused to accept it as anything more than an elaborate joke the universe had decided to play on me.

A heavy sigh escaped my lips as I rolled across the king-sized bed, its mattress so soft that it felt like I was sinking into a cloud rather than lying on an actual bed, and I simply stared blankly at the beautifully decorated ceiling while wondering for what had to be the hundredth time.

"What exactly did I do to deserve this kind of punishment?" There was, unsurprisingly, no answer, only the deafening silence of the luxurious bedroom that mocked me with its elegance. After lying there for another minute, I reluctantly pushed myself off the bed and slowly looked around the room once again, yet despite having spent over a week here already, I still couldn't stop marveling at just how ridiculously extravagant everything was.

The polished marble floor reflected the warm sunlight pouring in through the massive windows, expensive paintings decorated the walls with enough artistic value to probably buy an apartment back on Earth, elegant furniture carved from precious wood stood neatly arranged in every corner, and even the curtains looked like they had been woven from silk so fine that touching them almost felt like a crime.

To be honest, if someone else had found themselves in my position, they would probably be celebrating instead of lying on their bed questioning the universe, because reincarnating into a fantasy world was practically every reader's dream. Becoming the protagonist of an incredible story, awakening unimaginable powers, meeting beautiful heroines, experiencing adventures that could never exist in reality, and ultimately saving the world while living a life that everyone else could only fantasize about...

who wouldn't want something like that? The only problem was that I hadn't reincarnated into just any fantasy world. I had reincarnated into Luminarie of Love and Its Hidden Nightmare. And despite its beautiful, almost fairy-tale-like title, there was very little love to be found once you looked beneath the surface, because the game was, for lack of a better word, completely and utterly fucked up.

It had originally been marketed as a fantasy romance RPG, and countless players had picked it up expecting an emotional love story with breathtaking scenery and memorable characters, only to discover that the romance was nothing more than bait hiding one of the darkest narratives ever written.

Every chapter peeled back another layer of despair, every route revealed another horrifying truth about the world, kingdoms collapsed one after another, entire civilizations vanished into history, ancient horrors awakened from their slumber, and every major victory came at a cost so devastating that it often felt less like winning and more like choosing which tragedy you were willing to accept.

Even after spending hundreds of hours completing every route, unlocking every hidden ending, and piecing together the countless fragments of lore scattered throughout the game, the absolute best ending I had ever managed to achieve still concluded with billions of people dead and more than eighty-eight percent of the world reduced to nothing but ruins, which somehow qualified as the happiest ending the developers were willing to give the players.

Just remembering everything that happened during the story was enough to make my blood run cold, because those events were no longer confined to the screen of a computer. They were now my future. And that was precisely the problem. I wasn't some chosen hero blessed by fate, nor was I a genius strategist capable of manipulating the world's events from the shadows, and I certainly wasn't one of those absurdly overpowered protagonists who could solve every crisis through sheer determination alone.

I was just an ordinary person who happened to know the story because I had played the game, and while that knowledge might sound like an overwhelming advantage, it also meant I knew exactly how horrifying the future really was. Which was why, every time I thought about everything that was destined to happen in this world, I could only arrive at a single conclusion. Yeah. There was absolutely no way I was surviving this.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. And as if my situation wasn't already terrible enough, the body I had reincarnated into wasn't exactly helping matters either, because out of all the characters I could have ended up possessing, fate had somehow decided that giving me this particular identity would be the funniest joke imaginable.

Before I could continue dwelling on that depressing thought, however, a series of gentle knocks echoed from the other side of the bedroom door, snapping me out of my spiraling thoughts, and before I even consciously registered what I was doing, my body had already moved on instinct as I walked across the room and pulled the door open.

Standing outside was a young woman with neatly tied black hair dressed in the stereotypical black-and-white maid uniform that looked as though it had been copied straight out of every fantasy novel and anime ever created, to the point where I almost wanted to laugh at how shamelessly cliché it was. The moment our eyes met, she immediately lowered her head.

"Sir Edwin, most of the tasks have already been taken care of as you instructed, but... My Lady is..." Her voice trailed off before she could finish, and the hesitant expression on her face made it obvious that whatever she wanted to say next wasn't exactly good news. Bella. She was one of the maids serving this estate and according to the memories of this body, an exceptionally capable one at that, as she handled nearly every affair within the mansion with remarkable efficiency despite her relatively young age.

"Why did you stop in the middle of your sentence?" I asked, only to be momentarily distracted by the sound of my own voice, because no matter how many times I heard it, I still couldn't get used to how smooth and refined it sounded, carrying an almost hypnotic elegance that made every word seem strangely enchanting.

Bella, meanwhile, visibly flinched before nervously tightening her grip on the hem of her skirt, her fingers trembling just enough for me to notice, and after taking a deep breath as though gathering the courage to deliver a death sentence, she finally spoke.

"M-My Lady... she has beaten up Baron Himon's son." Then, as though the universe had been patiently waiting for those exact words to leave her mouth— Ding! A translucent screen suddenly materialized before my eyes, its appearance so familiar that I almost instinctively reached out to touch it. Reputation -2"..." God damn it. I screamed internally while resisting the overwhelming urge to grab my head.

Without wasting another second, I immediately strode out of the room, my pace quickening with every step as Bella hurried after me, doing her best to keep up. Despite the urgency of the situation, I couldn't help letting my eyes wander across my surroundings once more, because the sheer scale of this place still managed to leave me speechless. Calling it a mansion would have been an insult.

The estate was practically a palace in everything but name, with hallways so wide that two carriages could probably travel through them side by side, ceilings supported by towering marble pillars engraved with intricate patterns, and enormous crystal chandeliers hanging overhead that bathed everything beneath them in a warm glow.

Every wall was decorated with priceless paintings, every corner housed carefully sculpted statues, and every piece of furniture looked as though it had been handcrafted by the finest artisans in the world. This wasn't merely wealth. It was the kind of overwhelming luxury that existed solely to remind everyone who entered exactly where they stood in the hierarchy of the world.

Servants moved through the corridors, and the moment they caught sight of me, each of them immediately stopped what they were doing before lowering their heads in respectful bows, waiting silently until I had passed before resuming their work, a scene that still felt strangely surreal considering that less than two weeks ago I had been just another ordinary guy worrying about his job.

As we continued deeper into the estate, however, that orderly atmosphere gradually began to disappear, replaced instead by hurried whispers and nervous expressions as more servants gathered near one of the open courtyards, none of them daring to step inside yet none of them willing to leave either, their faces carrying the unmistakable look of people witnessing a disaster unfold while praying someone else would deal with it. The crowd naturally parted the moment they noticed my arrival.

What greeted me beyond them was... exactly the kind of sight I had been hoping not to see. A young man dressed in expensive noble attire was sprawled across the stone courtyard with blood streaming from his nose and staining the front of his clothes, while several of his front teeth had been knocked clean out, leaving his swollen face almost painful to look at.

Judging by the expensive fabrics and the crest embroidered onto his coat, this had to be Baron Himon's son, and considering the way he groaned every time he tried to move, I doubted his injuries ended with a broken nose and a few missing teeth. Standing only a few meters away from him was another figure. A young girl, no older than seventeen, stood there with her hands casually tucked into the pockets of her coat.

There wasn't the slightest trace of panic or guilt on her face, instead, she wore an expression of complete boredom, almost as though she couldn't understand why everyone had suddenly decided to make such a fuss over something so insignificant. The servants of Baron Himon's son remained frozen in place. The guards exchanged uneasy glances but made no attempt to approach.

Even the injured noble didn't dare say anything, choosing instead to glare at her with a mixture of fear and humiliation, because everyone present knew exactly what kind of consequences would follow if any one of them dared to do anything. And unfortunately, I was going to be the one taking the blame for most of this in the end. After all, she was my responsibility.

As though noticing the arrival of someone new, she slowly turned her head in my direction, and the very moment our eyes met, an icy chill spread throughout my entire body, making every muscle instinctively tense as I found myself staring straight into those cold crimson eyes. I couldn't help but shudder. And why wouldn't I? After all, the girl standing before me wasn't just anyone.

She was one of the central characters of Luminarie of Love and Its Hidden Nightmare, one of the greatest obstacles standing in the protagonist's path, a girl whose name would one day become synonymous with bloodshed, chaos, and countless tragedies. She was Cecilia von Rosenkreuz. The main antagonist of the game. And I was her butler. Yeah. I was really not going to survive in this world.