Chapter 1 – The Beginning of the End
“The execution of Rachel, former Lady of the Duke of Sheringham, will now take place!”
His Highness’s voice echoed across the square.
I heard it from my perch on the execution platform.
“This person possesses dark magic and uses necromancy to mislead the people’s minds! Not only that, but she has sided with the demons and plotted to kill the Saint, Miss Yuri Aizawa!!”
His Highness’ words caused a stir among the people.
No, I said, but no sound came out.
The repeated torture had me screaming so much that my voice became hoarse, lost in the air without sound.
Why, I wondered.
His Highness must have known from the beginning that I have the dark attribute…….
Even so, I was the only daughter of a duke’s family who matched his age, I had a lot of magic power, and I was a direct descendant of the first Saint.
Certainly, it may be shameful to be of the dark attribute despite being of the Saint bloodline, but if he did not want to marry me, there were other ways to do it, such as breaking off the engagement.
Moving my aching body and raising my head, I saw His Royal Highness and a dark-haired girl standing close to each other in the stands reserved for royalty and aristocrats in the distance.
Saintess Yuri Aizawa.
She is younger than I am, with a childish, exotic face, black hair and dark eyes that I have never seen before in this world.
A maiden with holy powers summoned from another world to fight against the demons.
When His Highness saw Saintess Yuri, he fell in love with her at first sight.
If it was a marriage between royalty and a saint, everyone would give their blessing.
If they had spoken to me properly, I too would have given them my blessings, even if it was painful.
The Saint possessed mysterious powers and could even make prophecies.
Her prophecies, which predicted when the demons would attack and what type of demons would attack, saved not only this country but the surrounding countries as well.
Up to that point, there were no problems.
However, it was painful to see His Highness’ love for Saintess Yuri deepen while he was engaged to me.
I hoped that the engagement would be annulled or dissolved as soon as possible.
That’s all I hoped for, but …….
“The Duke of Sheringham’s daughter, Rachel Sheringham, is dangerous! She possesses dark attribute magic and can use necromancy! If left unchecked, she will eventually be involved in the resurrection of the Demon Lord and become a threat to Lord Rufus and the royal family!!”
Saintess Yuuri said this in a public setting, at a ball.
Until now, I had endured harsh education in order to become the next Queen, and always worked hard, for the sake of the royal family and the country.
The royal family believed the words of Saintess Yuuri.
From the start, they probably didn’t think very highly of welcoming someone with the dark attribute into the royal family.
Since Yuuri, a saint with holy attribute, and His Royal Highness were nurturing their love, I was no longer needed.
…… But even so, this is still too much….
I was of the dark attribute and necromancy was my forte.
It was not uncommon for this power to be used to prolong the lives of those who were near death just a little longer, allowing them to say their final farewells to family and friends.
But the royal family and the church knew about it.
However, at the words of Saintess Yuuri, the Royal Family and the Church turned their backs on me and attacked my necromancy and dark attribute.
As if they never knew.
The Duke of Sheringham family… my father, my mother, nor my brother, no one protected me.
Even in the Duke’s household, I was a nuisance.
From an early age, my family had repeatedly criticized me for being from the Saint bloodline and yet possessing the dark attribute, but I never expected them to abandon me without a second thought.
The Duke’s family immediately disowned me, removed me from their family register, and handed me over to the Royal Family as if I were a criminal.
“If we allow this person to live, she will surely cause harm to this country in the future! She will attack us with the monsters he has created with her necromancy! In order to prevent this, we must eliminate her here and now!!”
The people yelled, “That’s right!” and “Kill the demon’s minion!”
There were no tears.
I’ve cried enough from the torture to last me a lifetime.
When we were young, we had sworn to support the country together, but now His Highness looked at me coldly, as if I were garbage.
“I, Rufus L. Ingrith, hereby annul my engagement to the former Duke’s daughter, Rachel Sheringham, and hereby sentence this traitor to beheading!!”
It was a terrible story.
How could the daughter of a duke, who is second only to the royal family, be publicly executed, even if she had been disowned?
Normally, they would give me a poisoned chalice and let me die quietly.
In order to assert their own legitimacy, even the dignity of my death is being used to prevent the people’s anxiety and fear from being directed at the royal family due to repeated battles with demons.
…… I wonder what my life has been up to now.
My tattered hair was grabbed and my neck was pressed against the hole in the decapitator.
I no longer had the strength to resist, but the executioner slammed the decapitator into my neck as if I were his sworn enemy.
I felt a jolt on my neck, but the pain I was in was so intense I couldn’t even tell if that hurt.
His Highness raised his hand.
The executioner gripped the cord that led to the blade of the decapitator.
“…… Necromancers are disgusting.”
His Highness’ cold voice sounded.
And then His Highness’ hand was waved down.
The executioner let go of the cord and the large, heavy blade fell.
The last thing I saw was His Highness’ expressionless face, and Saintess Yuri standing beside him with a happy smile on hers.
With intense pain, my vision spun and my consciousness darkened.
…… I’ll never, ever, forgive you…….
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The game was aimed at women.
The title is “Sacred Love: Your Fated One” and was called Sacred Fate by fans.
It was a typical “Otome Game”.
The main character is a high school girl who is summoned to another world as a saint, and she interacts with five men, falling in love with one of them.
The Saint is a kind-hearted girl. In the other world, humans and demons are in conflict, and the girl who is called a saint first uses her holy power to heal people and defeat demons for the sake of humans.
There are several events, and the story unfolds with the target you choose to conquer.
Therefore, it was necessary to choose which character to fall in love with at the beginning of the game.
The game will then start on the route of the selected character.
However, there are multiple choices in the main story.
Depending on your choice, the story will change to a happy ending, a bad ending, or a true ending.
In the happy ending, the couple eventually gets married.
In the bad ending, the couple eventually breaks up even if they manage to be together.
In the true ending, they remain friends with an ambiguous relationship.
Choose your options and reach the ending you want.
It was played on a home console rather than a mobile app, and it doesn’t require any special items or tasks.
It was all about enjoying the story.
In this game, the main hero among the five characters to be captured is named Rufus.
Rufus L. Inglith is the crown prince of the country where the game takes place. He is the first prince of the Kingdom of Inglith.
He has blond hair and blue eyes, and is a beautiful looking crown prince.
And then there was his fiancée.
The Duke’s daughter, the villainess of the Rufus Route.
She often approaches the girl, who is a saint, and sometimes speaks harsh words, but, depending on the choices made, she backs down.
Daughter of the Duke, Rachel Sheringham.
…… wait, what is this?
My thoughts are mixed up.
Words like “otome game” and “ending still” that I understand but don’t understand are flooding my mind one after the other.
My memories of twenty-odd years in a different world that was not my own became information all at once, and one of them was this game.
Perhaps this is a memory of a previous life.
In this memory, there was the word “reincarnation”, which means that humans, animals, and other living creatures die and are reborn in a new life.
I, too, was a different person in my previous life.
I was a woman, working, and quite normal there.
It seemed that I lived a completely different life from that of an Aristocratic Lady.
There was a lot of entertainment, and apparently, I liked to play Otome games in my previous life.
I looked forward to playing in the evenings and making a little progress.
Among them, my favorite was “Sacred Fate”.
There was no need to pour money into the game for items or to change character costumes, and once you first purchased the game disc, you could play it as many times as you wanted.
If you collected pictures, called stills, you could view them later.
In this way, by viewing the stories of all four capture targets once, the fifth and final character would be unlocked.
…… My favorite was the fifth.
Faust, the Demon Lord of the Beginning.
He was the very first demon to exist, the Demon Lord who has lived for an eternity, and was slain by the hand of the first Saint.
However, his body does not decay, and demons have worshiped him for hundreds and thousands of years.
After seeing the stories of the four capture targets, if you progress through the route of the main hero, Rufus, more options will appear and you will enter the Demon Lord Route halfway through.
While saving people as a saint, the protagonist wonders if there is a way to fundamentally change the fight against demons, and eventually, during a battle with demons, she learns of the existence of the Demon Lord.
The demons, inheriting the will of their origin, the Demon Lord, are hostile towards humans.
In other words, if this Demon Lord were to cease hostilities with humans, the war would end.
With this in mind, the girl fends off demons, sometimes defeating them, and finally makes it to the Demon Lord’s castle, where the Demon Lord rests.
There, she uses holy magic to revive the Demon Lord.
However, the Demon Lord, awakened by the Holy Magic, is unable to use even half of his original power, and realizing that he cannot win in that state, he ostensibly accepts the peace offered by the Saint.
In reality, it’s just a way to buy time until he regains his power.
However, as he interacts with the kind-hearted and positive girl, the Demon Lord gradually becomes attracted to her, and he struggles between his hostility toward humans and his love for her.
There are also changes depending on the choices you have made so far on the Rufus route.
The question is whether you can get Rachel on your side.
If you can’t get her on your side, the Demon Lord, who tempted her to abandon her relationship with Rufus, will absorb her dark attribute magic and regain his former strength.
If you can win her over, she won’t be tempted by the Demon Lord and he won’t be able to regain his power.
Then, if he chooses to love the girl, there will be a happy ending.
If he fully revives, and then kills the girl out of hostility, it will be a bad ending.
Only the fifth capture target, the Demon Lord, has no true ending.
The Demon Lord was such a special target.
…… Why am I remembering this now?
I’ve already been executed.
Surely this is just the brief moment before I die.
There is no waking up, only fading consciousness.
There’s nothing I can do even if I remember it.
…… But, but, I can’t forgive it……!!
There was no such development in the game.
In Rufus’ happy ending, I stepped back and supported their love.
In the bad ending and the true ending, Rufus and I were supposed to get married, and there was no route in which I was executed.
Sure, I might be important as the key to the Demon Lord regaining his power.
Without me, the Demon Lord would remain weak, and perhaps peace between humans and demons could be achieved.
Even if that’s the case, I still can’t believe that he killed me like that.
How could I, the daughter of a duke and a direct descendant of the First Saint, be publicly beheaded?
As I remembered, hatred welled up inside me.
The anger was stronger than the sadness or suffering.
…… No one believed in me.
They trusted the words of the Saint who had just appeared more than mine, who had been with them for years.
…… No one helped me.
If so, I don’t believe in anyone anymore.
I hate humans.
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Suddenly, I woke up.
I couldn’t comprehend it for a few seconds.
I blinked, and then, I was terribly shocked.
“Am I still alive……?”
It was a hoarse voice, but it was definitely mine.
I started coughing and choking.
I got up, clamping my mouth shut, and looked around, finding myself in the middle of a dense, lush forest.
It was pitch black, with moonlight filtering through the gaps in the trees.
Despite the darkness, I could strangely see everything clearly.
I was in a carriage for criminals.
The top of the carriage was a cage, and I could see all around me.
Several shadows were lying nearby, in the shapes of horses and people, not moving a muscle.
…… What happened?
I should have been executed, so why am I still alive?
I was surprised again by the tingling sensation I felt when my hands instinctively reached for my chest.
My body was cold, like a corpse.
…… Have my nails grown back…?
My nails, which I had supposedly lost during the torture, were now beautifully trimmed like when I was a duke’s daughter, and my hair, which I happened to catch a glimpse of, had regained its former luster.
As I was staring at them in amazement, a strong wind blew.
Then, several shadows appeared from the dark forest.
“What’s this? I thought I felt a great amount of mana, but it turned out to be a human lass. …No, this presence is…”
A girl, looking around twelve or thirteen years old, appeared under the moonlight.
A beautiful girl with translucent white skin, rich honey-colored golden hair, and red eyes approached the carriage with light steps.
Golden hair, red eyes, pure white skin, and a slight fang peeking out from her lips, the hallmarks of a vampire.
I was surprised, but I didn’t feel frightened.
The golden-haired girl stood beside the cage.
“I see, a Lich.”
Hearing that, I couldn’t help but ask.
“…… lich……?”
“Don’t you know? Ignorance is the lot of man. A lich is a type of undead, a spirit body born as a result of priests and others seeking immortality. But you don’t look like a priest.”
Undead are lifeless monsters and demons.
Examples of this include skeletons, which are nothing but bones, and zombies, which have lost their consciousness after death.
But I’ve never heard of a lich.
“But I can sense dark mana in you.”
The golden-haired girl laughed.
“Hey, you, how long are you going to stay in that cage for? Were you a human it would be a different story, but as you are right now, breaking a cage of this size would be like twisting a babe’s neck. Now, try and get hold of the cage and then tug it from side to side.”
I did as I was told, grabbed the cage with both hands, and pulled it left and right.
With a creaking sound, the cage easily spread out to the left and right.
“Why……?”
I looked at the hands, but there they were, the slender hands of the Duke’s daughter.
But upon closer inspection, my skin was pale.
“I told you, you’re a Lich, right? You may have been human once, but now you are a demon. Even so, quite a good find.”
“Demon,” I muttered.
I was very, very happy to know that I was no longer human.
I am not like the vile ones who betrayed me.
“What’s your name, lass?”
“…… My name is Rachel, Lich.”
I’m a lich, a demon.
Rachel of Lich.
“Well then, Rachel, come with me.”
It was the moment when a new Rachel was born.
Sads Translates 