As a bright light enveloped my sight, memories of another life -a previous life- flashed before my eyes. So much information poured into my little six-year-old brain that it sent me reeling, almost like a bolt of lightning through my head. I'm not sure how long it took me to process all of that, but judging by the slow and loud ticking sound, what felt like hours was most likely only a few seconds.

Blinking whilst trying to keep my footing, I fought off a wave of nausea.

I, Velloa Imitheos, child of Ahkua and Hakoda Imitheos, am in the world of Gaea. Therefore, if my so-called 'memories' are true, this is the setting of the otome game 'Hera: Captured Hearts' and I am the villainess of the game. However, judging by what I was just told by my Father, it looks like I will also be taking on the role of one of the love interests.

I was in the middle of my magic elemental test. The bright light earlier was the glow of the crystal ball in which my hand was currently resting upon. Within the crystal ball, I saw a glowing sapphire-coloured liquid mixed with what looked like glittering black sand inside the magical device. I tilted my head up to look into the deep cerulean eyes of the scholarly-like person standing before me. Huh, so this is my Father. I think I inherited those eyes...

He gave me a placid smile as he looked from the crystal ball to me, then knelt to my height, allowing me to see the crystal better. Fascinated, my eyes widened at the sight of the blue and black 'things' move about in the crystal ball.

He pointed to the glowing sapphire liquid. "This blue light means that you have an affinity to the element of water just like the rest of us in our family." Pausing, he then pointed to the glittering black sand. "And this means that you also have an affinity to the darkness attribute."

From behind, a beautiful figure, who had previously been waiting patiently, stepped forward. And this is Mother... Looking at a certain area of her upper body, I internally joked. By all means, please let that chest be hereditary! "Velloa, you have a great amount of mana." Pushing her azure-lilac hair behind an ear, she spoke further. "You also have an affinity with the rare darkness affinity, however, having an affinity to two elements is even rarer." She reached out to hug me. "My child... You have so much potential." Squishy.

However, it would seem that there was more to come. Currently, my parents and I were standing near the entrance of the room. The door, with its dark steely frame, was just the first of many things in which contributed to the place's enigmatic atmosphere. The rest of the room was covered by onyx blackout curtains which surrounded the door in a semi-circle. Our only source of light were these mystifying glowing rune-like things on the slate floor.

Father handed the crystal ball to Mother then took my hand and led me closer to the curtains. "Velloa, do you remember what I told you earlier about the mark you were born with?" I nodded. "Good, then follow me."

The 'mark' he was referring to was the one located in the midst of my chest. It's quite hard to describe, but this shape looks familiar. Did I perhaps see it in my past life?

...

...

In any case, this mark apparently meant that I inherited the Imitheos family's 'forbidden art'. The basic explanation for a forbidden art is that it is essentially an incredibly powerful enchantment spell that is passed down the bloodline of the spell's creator. Any family which has a forbidden art is recognized as a noble in the Kingdom of Ogygia, therefore, my family are that of nobles; although, my parents have done great merits deserving of a noble status other than simply inheriting their ancestor's enchantment spell.

At any rate, the Imitheos family's forbidden art is quite disturbing in a way. Whichever ancestor that decided to come up with this creepy kind of magic must be insane... The forbidden art passed down to only one person, of each new generation, is a magic ability which allows the inheritor to take over a dead person's body as long as they are 'compatible' with it.

As for the 'body' that I get to use this ability on, my Mother was oh-so-kind to provide one. Trying to keep a straight face, I looked at the body floating inside what looked similar to those futuristic tubes from my previous life's memories. Except, remembering how my Mother explained this magical creation that she created, that 'tube' is called 'Gaea's Embrace'. It's akin to an artificial womb which isn't limited to keeping infant bodies alive but also fully grown adult bodies like my Father's (who had, of course, inherited the Imitheos family's forbidden art). Essentially, my Mother's creation is a type of physical forbidden art (as compared to the usual one which was only usable through blood inheritance), which goes to show that she isn't a Royal Researcher for no reason. Father, on the other hand, is the Kingdom's Spymaster, and with an ability like this, of course the Imitheos family is constantly able to have a person bestowed the role of Spymaster.

But... Doesn't that body look familiar?

An even deeper feeling of dread filled my body as I took a proper look at the figure within Gaea's Embrace. I checked not once, but thrice. I hoped I was wrong, but I wasn't... I knew who that was. The lifeless body right before me was known as Vain, one of the 'love targets' in 'Hera: Captured Hearts'.

Mother's voice interrupted my anxiety-filled thoughts. "Velloa, go ahead and see if you can make a connection. It's similar to the crystal ball, so simply make contact with Gaea's Embrace."

I had let my thoughts wander. Breathe. Don't think about this too much...

Walking up to the artificial womb, that was admittedly shaped more like a capsule than a tube, I couldn't help but see how red the liquid was. However, even with his eyes closed and with his body looking to be around the same age as mine, I could still recognize that this person was undoubtedly Vain.

Why aren't you alive?

Gingerly, I placed my hand onto Gaea's Embrace - then, almost immediately, Vain's eyes opened. My body instinctively flinched, but I still made sure to keep contact with the capsule. Then, with slow movements, most likely due to the red liquid, I watched as he moved to align his hand with mine. Hesitantly, I looked into Vain's electric blue eyes... As expected, I felt no life in them.

Staring into the lifeless eyes of Vain, I felt a certain warmth on the hand that was aligned with his, then, it quickly spread to the rest of my body. Suddenly, my vision was once again filled with a blinding light.

The feeling of warmth on my body became even warmer. Trying to calm myself, I decided that I would count down from three and then I would open my eyes. Three... Two... One. My eyelids felt heavy, but I persisted, and once I opened them, albeit slowly, all I could see was red. I glanced down at my hands, my sight was blurry, but from what I could tell, my hands looked different from what I remembered. I tried breathing in, but it was as if there were weights inside my very lungs. Then, without much warning, I felt a pulling sensation and a rush of coldness. Before I knew it, I was caught by familiar hands. My vision was no longer dyed in crimson and I was gasping, it was as if this was the first time I've ever breathed in air.

"The connection was a success. Well done Velloa!" I blearily looked up to see my Father's smiling face.

I just... I just switched bodies, didn't I? Despite my blurry vision, I could make out Mother placing my unmoving body -Velloa's body- into Gaea's Embrace. Let's not think about this too much... Yeah... That'll be my motto for the day. Do not think, just accept...

And with those thoughts, I passed out.

...----------CHAPTER END----------...

"Velloa, from now on, whilst in that body, you shall be called Vain." Father proclaimed.

I nodded.

Mother knelt in front of me and placed a hand on each shoulder of mine. "In a week from now, you will be taught magic alongside your Brother. However..." Her face turned grave and the atmosphere suddenly felt heavy. "You will only be taught how to use the element water. Unless your Father and I permit it, you cannot -under no circumstance- use darkness magic. Do you understand, my child?"

I wanted to ask why, but I could feel the high amount of anxiousness from my parents practically choking me, so I simply nodded once again.

Father then broke the tense atmosphere with a languid smile. "Good child. You may go to bed now. It's late. We'll let you get used to your new body for a day."

Mother and Father led me to my room and even helped me with my clothes. Whilst tucking me in they wished me a Happy Birthday and patiently sat by my side until I fell asleep.

Oh right, today was my sixth birthday, wasn't it?

The world of Gaea is a fantastical world full of wonder and magic. It is the typical kind of setting you would expect from an otome game in a fantasy setting with castles, nobility, a magical school and what not. The magic which exists in this world is similar to that of a certain show about a certain person who was called 'Avatar', except there are six elements: air, earth, fire, water – with the two incredibly rare elements darkness and light. In 'Hera: Captured Hearts', the main setting of the game is the prestigious magical school 'Yohso Academy'.

There are four main capturable love targets, all of which correspond to the main elements, unsurprisingly, their appearances also match the colour of their element. Starting from the easiest route to the hardest we firstly have Dmitri Hammond, and he has the element of earth (green). In the game, he has the largest build out of all the love targets, however, he is the gentle giant kind of guy with forest green hair and eyes, along with glasses. Despite his somewhat roguish attitude, he's quite a cute one. Since he does come from a family of royal knights, he is obviously created with the knight-in-shining-armour trope in mind.

Next is Zephyr Reve, the genius shota love target, despite only being a year younger and being taller than the in-game MC (but only by an inch or two); he comes from the richest merchant family. Despite his family starting out as merchants, his parents were conferred a noble title as a reward for their assistance during the time when the country was going through an economic crisis. Zephyr has the element of wind (yellow) with the appearance of caramel hair and yellow topaz eyes. He is the soft, kind-hearted, and healing sort of character who looks frail, but can surprise you with his strong protectiveness.

Then there is my brother, Virgil Imitheos, the water (blue) Elementalist and is the oldest of the love targets. Similarly, with the in-game MC, he is five years older than me. Virgil is the scholarly type who normally displays a strict attitude, but when you read between the lines of his words it can make one's heart go "Awww." Just like Mother, he has azure-lilac hair which he has kept long (practically as long as mine, most likely due to him emulating father's appearance) and azure eyes. He takes after Mother who is a well-respected Royal Researcher, so it comes to no surprise that he was the teacher character in the game.

Finally, we have Kai Regieren, the one who has the element of fire (red) and the next ruler of the country of Ogygia. With his pale blonde hair and blood red eyes, he has the second largest build compared to the other love targets and truly has the making of a future ruler, for he had shown quite an amount of leadership and strategy skills. However, he becomes quite sweet in terms of the MC, so sweet that the player could practically taste gain diabetes whenever certain fluffy events came up.

As for the MC, she has the typical cutesy appearance of platinum blonde hair and pinkish eyes. In all honesty, practically every player summarizes the MC as 'typical'. She's cutesy, air-headed (or naïve – if you want to be nice), a 'nice' girl, and one hell of a lucky one too. Because she was a sickly commoner who lived in a far-off village she had missed her magic elemental test, but just before the start of a new school year she was found to have a large amount of mana and an affinity to light magic. She was found by Brother no less, who was tasked to test for any children who had the future to be magic users around rural areas. And so, she enters Yohso Academy as a second year at the age of sixteen, and this is where the otome game begins.

Then there's me, Velloa Imitheos, the stalking horse, A.K.A the Villainess, of the game. No matter who the MC chooses to be with, Velloa gets the same kind of bad end, albeit with a few minor differences. For Dmitri, Velloa is a childhood friend who is in love with him, however, her jealousy gets the better of her and she angers Dmitri when she nearly hits the MC in anger, therefore, causing Velloa to get humiliated in front of the student body due to Dmitri's excessive white-knight act. Her relationship with Zephyr was that of an older sister and younger brother type, well, an overprotective older sister and over-reliant little brother type more like. Through the MC's actions, Zephyr realizes his 'mistake' of a relationship with Velloa and so proceeds to humiliate her by denouncing Velloa's 'unacceptable overprotective' nature in front of the student body. In terms of Virgil's route, Velloa's involvement makes more sense for she was the younger sibling who did not approve of the MC and her brother's illicit relationship. Of course, she was then condemned in front of many people (there seems to be a pattern), including their parents. Finally, in Kai's route, Velloa is engaged to him and she continually disapproves of the MC's relations with the future ruler. However, 'surprisingly', in the end, Kai openly disapproves of Velloa and annuls their engagement during a ball in front of not only the student body, but his parents as well as Velloa's.

What the ****?! The MC's heroine halo is stupidly strong! It's no wonder I wasn't so fond of 'shoujo' in my previous life... Although, I may or may not have read and watched quite a lot of said genre.

I didn't necessarily play the otome game in my previous life, it was only after a close friend's strong recommendation that I had watched the 'Hera: Captured Hearts' anime. Almost immediately, I had liked Kai Regieren, for he had that type of domineering yet surprisingly gentle kind of personality that I had a thing for. Whilst watching the anime I thought: What the hell? Velloa actually has common sense, it was only because of her standoffish personality and blunt words –as well as the fact that she was put in situations where she essentially had to be against the MC– that she was considered a so-called 'Villainess'. In other words, I felt that the humiliation that Velloa had experienced was incredibly undeserved compared to the lack of wrong things that she had done against the MC. Hmmm, wasn't the MC's name in the anime Ariana? That's right, it was simply Ariana because she was a commoner...

However, in the anime, Velloa didn't get a humiliation ending. Under her father's instruction, she was told to assist him due to an oncoming demon attack, her last appearance was that of her alone with Ariana in a certain part of the Academy and her saying "You're a fool who only knows how to mess around. I pity those you've dragged down... Including myself." Her lines indicated that she had become aware of her Villainess-like actions, which caused me to feel a sort of strangeness that I could not explain well...

Velloa was surprisingly shown to be a competent water user in the anime. To my friend who had played the game, she thought that the demon attack plot was weird since there was no plot of that kind during her play-through. Towards the end of the anime, the main characters had to fight off a disastrous demon attack, and in the midst of this demon attack – Vain appears, claiming to be the mastermind of it. When the main characters confronted him, they fought valiantly, but they were being overpowered. The ending scene was that of the main characters combining their powers as a last all-out attack, however, the viewers don't actually see them defeat Vain. The anime cuts to Vain just as the combined attack launches with him smirking and saying, "How naïve."

Despite his short screen time, I fell in love with his character. I was a sucker for the dark, strong and mysterious type of characters. As for my friend, she agonized over the appearance of Vain for she had never encountered him in the game, so I had suggested that perhaps he was a hidden route. With a fiery glint in her eyes, she had dragged me (a person who did not play otome games) on a mission to unlock Vain's route. It didn't take that long to figure out, since the MC (Ariana) hadn't chosen anyone in the anime. We thought that perhaps there was a way to play the entirety of the game without specifically choosing a love interest – and there was. It was difficult though, for whatever reason, all four of the main love interests' affection levels had to be maxed out. During this kind of play-through, Velloa only appeared a few times and also didn't get a bad end, most likely due to the fact that the player hadn't chosen a specific love target. Once my friend had achieved the max level affection of each character, the game suddenly changed into a turn-based RPG game. We were stunned. The anime's demon attack plot arrived. With me being the one more familiar with that kind of game, my friend had handed me the controls. Using the MC and the four love interests, I fought off an assortment of mobs and bosses until finally, after at least two hours of gameplay, we reached Vain.

"Why the hell does an otome have this kind of gameplay?!" My friend and I exclaimed. The game's RPG element was actually pretty good too. Hiding this precious gem in a typical otome game?! What the **** were the game-makers thinking?!

Once we had finally gotten Vain to appear, the typical otome game format came back and I gave back the controls to my otome game master friend. With the fiery glint in her eyes reappearing she promised for both our sakes that she would conquer him. With those words, I had realized that I was completely swept into her flow. But alas, no matter what the conversation offered, Vain stayed elusive.

With the words "Why?" coming out of the MC's dialogue box, Vain gave his signature smirk from the anime and the famous words, "How naïve." Then the RPG game element kicked in again with Vain being the last boss.

I remember my friend making an ungodly sound of frustration before I was handed the controls once again, but there was something I had noticed, Vain's health bar could not be seen; it should have appeared just above his night blue hair like the characters I was controlling. After twenty or so minutes of trying to defeat Vain, the CG for the main characters' last all-out attack played, but instead of cutting just before the attack hits like the anime, Vain takes the hit and comes out unscathed! Not only were the main characters shocked, but the players too!

Vain's dialogue box came up. "Ridiculous. I was told that there would be a powerful light magic user here, but it turns out that this was a waste of time." Then, casually raising a hand, directed towards the main characters, he launched an incredibly powerful darkness attack which rendered the group immobile and kneeling in pain on the ground.

In utter shock, we watched as Vain lifted the MC up by the neck. Next, we were shown his condescending smile, and (might I add) the way his electric blue eyes shone at that moment made me fangirl internally. "Weak." Said his dialogue box. He gestured to the love interests who were still crouching in pain. "You are stupid to think that the obsession of these men is enough to faze me." Then the screen faded to black and the credits rolled.

Wha...? I thought to myself initially. But when my friend and I made eye contact, we immediately burst into laughter. HOLY SHIT DID THE GAME MAKERS JUST SHIT ON THEIR OWN GAME?!

Hence, that is why I had called Vain a 'love target' instead of simply calling him a love target. The players were made to think that he was a capturable target, but in the end, he was a non-capturable character made for very questionable reasons in terms of the game and anime's plot-line.

"...ell. Vell...? Vell!" With a start, I looked up to see who was shouting. It was Virgil, kneeling in front of me with a concerned look. "Are you alright? Is your body not feeling good?"

Oh, right. 'Vell' is my nickname. Currently, I was still in Vain's body and I had insisted on watching Virgil's magic training. I was told to relax while getting used to this body, and so I had decided to watch Virgil whilst being served apple juice on a seat under a tree on this fine spring day.

With a smile, I gave a reply, "I'm fine, Brother. I was only thinking. Sorry if I worried you." With these past life memories having mixed with the current ones, I was worried about whether or not I could act as normal. In any case, Virgil didn't look convinced, so I offered my juice as a distraction.

Glancing at the cool glass of juice, he gave a simple thank you, drank some, did some stretches and went back to his training. As nicely as I could, I asked the maid next to me, Ana, to pour more juice for me.

I properly observed Virgil this time. With me being six years old, he is currently eleven. At the moment, he had his azure-violet hair tied up in a ponytail and he had on a plain white loose fitting long sleeve top and form-fitting brown pants that were easy to move in. With his younger features and Tai Chi-like movements as he controlled around a bowling ball's worth of water around him, he had quite the eye-catching and pretty boy look about him that really assured me that this is the world of an otome game.

I hid a frown as I took a sip. For whatever reason, despite not knowing how, I just know that I died young in my previous life – most likely around the age of eighteen or nineteen. That's quite sad. Also, from what I knew previously, Velloa only had the affinity of water, was her dual affinity a result of her inheriting her family's forbidden art or her compatibility to Vain's body? Or perhaps she had it from the beginning? But then that brings into question why Vain is dead and how he ended up in the 'possession' of the Imitheos family? There are still so many things for me to contemplate. At least with me currently being six years old, I have should have a good chance of getting rid of the humiliation flag by knowing what would happen... I hope.

...----------CHAPTER END----------...

Once again lost in my thoughts, I made the following conclusions:

I am Velloa Imitheos, child of the Ogygia Kingdom's Spymaster and one of its best Royal Researchers. I also have an older brother of five years, Virgil Imitheos, who is one of the game's love targets. But so far there are already quite a few deviations from the game's original plot-line in my previous life's memories. One was the fact that Velloa (me) is a person of dual elemental affinity, second, that Vain (a 'love target') was dead and third - that I was in control of Vain's body.

...What the hell?! Why do I have to take on two major characters?! Now I have to be careful of not only avoiding my villainess bad end but also of the incoming harem and typical air-headed MC that this world of an otome game has!

With a sigh, I moved onto a different, but related, train of thought:

In the end, when both my friend and I had realized that Vain was not a capturable character, even though we were the players, we got played. Vain wasn't meant to be a love target... We were deceived by his bishounen looks and by the game-makers. What his motivations were for inciting a disastrous demon attack onto the Ogygia Kingdom's capital city, we never got much of a clear answer. While he did more or less say that he wanted to fight Ariana (the MC), such a motivation was too small a reason to launch a largescale attack on a Kingdom's capital with a demon army.

"How is your body feeling, Vain?" Father suddenly asked.

Snapping back to reality, I looked up and replied. "It's... not bad, I think."

Chuckling, he opened the large doors which lead into the room that held Gaea's Embrace. I had seen my Father as Mako (his second body) quite a number of times. Whilst Mako was of a larger build, older looking and had short platinum blonde hair (as opposed to his original long, raven black hair), there's that weird ability which children have that could just 'tell' or 'recognize' their parent, and when I had first seen Mako, I just... knew. In any case, he had told me that Mako was only known by the family and the most trustworthy of people, like the current ruler of Ogygia, Korumak Regieren. As a result, I had to keep both our bodies a secret.

That is quite a big secret that you're asking a six-year-old to keep...

Past the glowing runes and curtains, we were greeted by the sight of the capsules which held our bodies. The Gaea's Embrace capsules looked eerie as they glowed a bright orangey-red. Mother emerged from somewhere behind and greeted us. She had once told me that she kept her youthful look through cryogenic freezing. Apparently, she had gotten that idea when Father used to use that method to preserve his bodies. I know this explains why father looks so young, but for Mother to go to that extent for her beauty... I internally shuddered.

"Go ahead Vain, you can go back to being Velloa." Mother urged.

Letting go of Father's hand, I approached the capsule holding Velloa's body – only to stop right in front of it. Turning to look Mother in the eye, I took a gamble. "Mother, this body... and the darkness magic. I want to know more."

Almost immediately, I saw sadness cross her sky-blue eyes.

An uncomfortable silence ensued for a few seconds. However, just as I was about to dismiss my question, Father spoke. "Ahkua, we should at least explain the 'Encroachment'." Mother's expression turned even more despondent, but she nodded.

Bending down to my eye level, she places a hand on my cheek. "I can't tell you about this body, not yet anyway. But, my child, the darkness magic is quite a strong thing and sadly -out of all the elements- there is a consequence to the magic user's body. It is called the 'Encroachment', we don't know when exactly it will begin, except that not too soon after the first use of darkness magic, the user's heart will be gripped by death. It is possible to survive, but all darkness attribute users suffer greatly from it and many have not survived." She then brings me into a hug. "So please, unless your Father and I say so, do not use any darkness magic."

I don't know what I was expecting, but it was most definitely not that. There was no mention of such a thing in the game or anime...

"Yes, Mother." Came my quiet reply.

After having successfully switched back, I was sent to my room for the night. My maid, Ana, had finally left after lighting a single scented candle; it smelt sweet, perhaps it was vanilla. Velloa's room itself really showed the noble status that her family had. Its size was large enough to be a decent apartment based on my previous life's memories. The game and anime had a Victorian style setting, but not quite like the era. However, the architecture of the Imitheos family's palace (yes, palace) was Roman with the signature high columns and ceilings. Maybe because I've only ever seen the setting of the game, Yohso Academy, I may have been wrong in assuming that the entire world of Gaea was of the same aesthetic...

Whilst shifting myself into a comfy position, I couldn't help but let out a sigh. Sadly, I couldn't quite remember essential details about my previous life's identity. Anything specific about my identity such as my name was almost seemingly wiped out. I couldn't remember the names of people who were around me, but I could recall their faces. Weirdly, the names and faces of fictional people seem to have stayed within those memories.

Neither the 'Hera: Captured Hearts' game nor anime said much about the goings on in the world outside of the romance plot other than the simple facts like magic and demons existed. Luckily, I remember that precious friend of mine telling me about the noble system of the Kingdom of Ogygia. Unlike the traditional noble system in my past life world's history, the noble titles aren't hereditary, instead it is a meritocracy system. Other than the royal family who passes their title, the only thing related to their noble title that can be passed down by a noble is their last name, but only their children can inherit that – their grandchildren cannot unless the children themselves gain a noble title. While it is indeed true that a family which has a forbidden art is recognized as a noble, it is usually due to the fact that the noble -who has inherited the art- would work for the royal family and therefore the Kingdom. Basically, a noble's child is only known as 'the child of a noble' unless they do something for the Kingdom that is deserving of a title.

In the Kingdom of Ogygia there is one sole sovereign known as the 'Imperare' and currently, that person is Korumak Regieren – Kai Regieren's (the fire elementalist love target) Father. Children of the Imperare are called the 'Infante', but the game and anime seem to regard it as a more 'collective' title for all the children of the Imperare since people usually called Kai Regieren "Prince Kai". The title 'Vis-Imperare' is given to the Imperare's partner, however, they can only use that power in case something were to happen to the Imperare and that the Crown-Infante would not yet be capable enough to inherit the title of sole sovereign. That person is currently Dahlia Fermittler, Kai's mother, an earth user and the general of this country's army. Outside of the royal titles, the highest title -in which my father has- is 'Grande' (equivalent to Duke). The next ones are 'Landgrave' and then 'Graf'; the difference between the two is the amount of land that they govern, in which a Landgrave governs more of a city whilst a Graf governs more of a town. Finally, there is the title of 'Beorn' (equivalent to Baron) which is an honorary title given to people such as royal knights and researchers (like Mother), although they are mostly referred to by either 'Royal Knight' or 'Royal Researcher'. While Mother was offered a unique last name, she decided to take Father's instead.

As I was contemplating the world that I was 'born' in, my little six-year-old body insisted that I should give in to sleep... And so, I let my concerns drift away for now and allowed sleep to take over.

After all, there's no need to rush these things...

"AAAAAAAAAHHH!"

Startled, I opened my eyes to the sound of a woman screaming - only to be greeted with the sight of the said woman lying on a bed. I was confused at first, but once I had a better look at the woman screaming in pain, I recognized her. Isn't that Mother?! And after another second of realization... She's giving birth?!

I willed myself to move forward, but I found that I couldn't. In fact, after examining myself, I could see through myself! What?! What's happening?!

Another one of mother's screams interrupted my panic.

A person spoke above Mother's screams, encouraging her. "Madam, you are nearly there! One last push!" It was my maid Ana, she was assisting Mother.

Trying to keep calm, I looked around. At Mother's side, Father was sitting down and holding her hand with a supportive smile. Maids were bustling about, trying to make sure nothing on their end could go wrong. With her beautiful face scrunched up and sweaty, I watched as Mother gave a final push.

Not even a moment later, I heard a wail.

Holding the new-born child, she made an announcement. "It's a girl!" Ana glanced at the child's body once more. "And she bears the mark of the family!".

But before anyone of the other maids nor my parents could sigh in relief, Mother let out another scream. Quickly, Ana handed the new-born to one of the maids. After checking Mother, her face paled and she looked at her masters. "There's another child!" For a moment, everything in the room stilled.

"...A twin?" Father said in a tone filled with dread. Ana nods.

In between heavy breaths, Mother managed to speak out. "I don't care about a curse! Just please help me deliver this child!"

Hearing Mother's words, Ana's face turns resolute. "Everyone, quickly back to work! We must ensure that both the children and the madam are to be in good condition!"

I continued to observe silently; I had no other choice, really. Rather than saying that I was 'like' a ghost, I 'was' a ghost in this situation. No matter how hard or much I tried, I was glued to this spot with no ability to speak or move whatsoever. People even went right through me!

Eventually, the twin was born, but when Ana looked at and held the child, her face turned ashen. It only took one look for Mother to realize what had happened. Before Ana had even said anything, Mother had burst into tears.

"I am so sorry, but the child is dead."

Suddenly, the world around me faded away into blackness and I was falling. I flailed about helplessly; my stomach churned at the sensation of me free falling. Urgh... I died young in my previous life so please don't let me die even younger in this life. As if hearing my thoughts, a few moments later, my fall was abruptly interrupted as I seemingly landed in a body of water.

...After having seemingly shaken off the impact of hitting the water, I opened my eyes slowly. Before me, the liquid gave an unusual glow. I willed my heart to calm down. If I didn't, I was afraid that it would have burst in my chest due to sheer fright. Strangely, I didn't feel the need to breathe. As I was counting numbers to calm myself, my sight adjusted, and I recognised the figure of a person floating right in front of me.

 ...

...Vain?

It was the grown-up Vain that I had seen in the game and anime. His eyes were closed, but gradually, he opened them to reveal his glowing electric blue eyes. Noticing my presence, he floated towards me. Once we were at eye level, neither of us moved, instead, we simply observed each other. Our hair and clothes that were floating in the water were the only things in motion. As I stared deep into his eyes, I found that despite his emotionless expression, unlike the body that I was in control of, this Vain in front of me seemed... alive.

I watched as he reached out and placed a hand on my cheek. And then, he said one word which caused me to feel all sense of confusion...

"Sister."

...----------CHAPTER END----------...