NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1
That day, in a student dormitory room attached to the Saint Diel Academy, nestled within the capital city of the Kingdom of Ilirian, I stood before a mirror, dressed in the school’s uniform.
That was when an unexpected sense of unease struck me—unease at the sight of the girl reflected in the mirror.
She had pink hair that flowed down to her waist, large sky-blue eyes, cheeks so soft and round they seemed to invite a pinch, and lips elegantly shaped. A beautiful girl who looked far younger than her actual age—though her figure, particularly her chest, was quite developed.
She looked familiar somehow… As I traced the edges of that recognition through my memories, a sharp headache surged through my skull—and then, all at once—
I remembered.
I had lived a previous life as a high school girl who died in an unfortunate accident. And for some inexplicable reason, I had been reincarnated as the heroine of an otome game I had been completely obsessed with at the time of my death.
Of course, the girl in the mirror was me now, in this world. My name? Alice Mate—the same as the default name given to the heroine in the game.
The nation I now lived in and the academy I was about to attend were the exact settings featured in that game. Even the capture targets — the prince, the prime minister’s son, and the knight commander’s son — all supposedly attended the same academy.
Yes, this really was the world of the game.
But that didn’t mean I intended to frolic through it like some love-addled heroine. Because for me, this was the real world now.
Sure, the idea of falling in love with a handsome guy was tempting, but actually reaching a happy ending with any of them? That was no easy feat.
To begin with, just like in the game, I was a commoner admitted on a special scholarship. In exchange for having my tuition, dormitory fees, and meals fully covered, I had to stay within the top ten of my class in every single exam until graduation. The moment my grades dropped? Expulsion. It was game over.
And all the potential love interests? Nobles, through and through.
Even if I managed to clear the game’s romance routes, the heroine’s life would still go on beyond the ending.
There were four romance options in the game.
If I ended up with His Highness Prince Alexar, the first prince, I’d eventually become queen. If I chose anyone else, I’d become a noble’s wife—or if I went after Prince Alexar’s younger brother, I’d marry a globe-trotting merchant and spend my life sailing across the world.
Studying wasn’t a problem for me. But having to learn noble etiquette? Being forced to attend mandatory tea parties and evening banquets? That, honestly, was exhausting.
And don’t even get me started on the seafaring life. I suffered from terrible motion sickness. Just getting to the academy by sea—because it was the cheaper option—was a nightmare I regretted deeply. No medicine helped. I swore to myself then and there: never again would I set foot on a ship.
In other words, to reach a true happy ending as the game’s heroine, one would need to study relentlessly, master aristocratic etiquette to an exhausting degree, and possess a mind of steel capable of enduring the brutal tides of noble society for the rest of her life.
Alternatively, she could resign herself to a lifetime of seasickness.
Yeah—no. Absolutely not. I had no intention of tearing myself apart just to become the heroine of some otome game.
Which was why, despite realizing I’d been reincarnated as the protagonist, I made a firm decision — I would have nothing to do with the game.
Besides, if I managed to graduate from this academy with top marks, there was a chance—however slim—that even a common-born girl like me could land a position as a royal civil servant in the castle. It was a fiercely competitive path, but known for its prestige and generous pay. That was my dream—to dive headfirst into a professional career and work with pride and purpose. That’s why I’d studied for the academy entrance exam. Not to find a boyfriend.
And yet, after spending a week making my way to the royal capital, being the first to arrive at the student dorms, and trying on the uniform in high spirits, I’d been hit with this utterly absurd realization…
Still, maybe it was for the best that I remembered before the school year officially started.
And even if I had realized earlier that I’d been reborn as the heroine, I doubt I would’ve changed my mind about attending the academy. What mattered was that I had no intention of living the heroine’s life.
That said—if I didn’t plan to embrace the role of the protagonist, the very least I could do was do something about this absurdly conspicuous pink hair. This world was filled with a rainbow of hair colors—reds, blues, even gold—but pink was exceedingly rare.
Which made it far too noticeable.
So, to reduce the risk of being drawn into any trouble, I decided to dye it the most common color in this world — dark brown.
While I was at it, I figured I might as well change the hairstyle that matched the in-game protagonist. It was too much of a hassle to maintain anyway, so I grabbed the scissors and lopped it off to shoulder length in one go.
To complete the transformation, I equipped myself with a pair of round, non-prescription glasses to obscure my features and wore tinted contacts the color of deep brown — like the ones they had in Japan — to cover my sky-blue eyes.
There wasn’t much I could do about my height, but I could at least wrap a cloth binder tightly around my chest to reduce its prominence. It was a bit uncomfortable, but I considered it a necessary precaution.
And so, on the day before the entrance ceremony, when I stood once more before the mirror clad in my uniform, the girl looking back at me no longer bore even a hint of resemblance to the otome game’s heroine.
(To be continued......)