Bab 2: Prolog - how it all began (part 2)

But...

What about the black-haired girl?

Well...

...as it should be obvious – in that sort of game there's a need for some obstacles - in Kampf um die Liebe it was just one person.

Yeah, guess who!

The cute girl with short black hair!

And no, surprisingly, she did not possess the darkness attribute!

She wielded wind just like Reo!

She was the daughter of a very powerful duke, and her name was Miriette Lisea Espine.

She was the villainess.

You can't even imagine how disappointed I was...!

And she wasn't just the obstacle messing with the player for one or two of the capture targets - oh, no!

She was the villainess in every single route!

Miriette was the fiancé of prince Horeo and loved him very much.

Why did the heroine decide to hit on an engaged man?

Beats me.

I can't understand it, but when Miriette was using various methods to discourage her it was even misunderstood as her bullying the heroine!

In the good ending, the heroine became the queen and Miriette was stripped of the title of the nobility and exiled.

In the bad end, Miriette stabbed the heroine and was sentenced to death.

In the route of the second prince, Miriette wasn't a love rival per se but as a daughter of the duke she was against the second prince of the kingdom marrying a commoner and was piling up obstacles for the heroine.

...again, it looked like bullying for the outsiders...

Good ending, heroine marries the second prince, Miriette's engagement with the prince Horeo is broken and she is sent to the monastery.

Bad ending, the second prince can't bear being the inferior one and attacks his older brother and Miriette takes the fatal blow for Horeo, the second prince is sentenced to life in prison while Miriette dies!

I'm not exactly sure but the other routes seem to be similar...

I tried to avoid the spoilers as much as I could but I just couldn't help myself to look at the fanart made by various talented fans.

And I accidentally saw a comment under the extremely good artwork of Miriette looking prideful.

/Why the hell Miriette end in miserable ways in every route!? The frick is wrong with the creators to not include her get happily married even once!?\

I felt my stomach squeezing in pain when I saw it. What's more, the comment had a lot of dislikes and angry responses like:

/Fuck that bitch she deserves that!\

/You just got a shit taste, Slutiette deserves everything for trying to slut away every boy!\

But it seemed that Miriette also had some fans who weren't going to let her be abused.

/Fuck the creators, they have some fetish or something, every final artwork includes a detailed depiction of punished Miriette!\

After reading that I started playing the game religiously hoping for finding some hidden ending or route that would save the black-haired girl that everyone else had missed.

But after finishing five routes in both good and bad ways I was only presented with the artwork the comment mentioned.

Broken-hearted Miriette in rags in another country.

A sword aiming at the neck of kneeling and crying Miriette.

Lonely Miriette in the cell-like room in the monastery.

Miriette's chest pierced by the water spear.

Miriette getting stabbed.

Miriette getting strangled.

Miriette getting sold off as a slave.

Kidnapped and married to an old ugly and fat duke of the neighboring kingdom.

Expelled from school and confined in the castle's prison...

|That random on the forum was right! Those fuckers just MUST have some weird fetish!|

My heart ached every time I saw the horrible ending that awaited the character I became unusually attached to.

I wouldn't say that I have an obsessive personality but...

...there was something different about this girl...

The things that happened to her were all so unfair!

In the route of the royal magician son, Arisu, it was so bad that they expelled her from school because her magic went haywire in the room next to the room the heroine was in and hurt her completely by accident.

And, and, AND!

Mind you!

That was in the magic tower MADE for experiments with magic!

Even so, I still had some hope.

There still was the route of the fire-wielding Grazio. Maybe, just maybe, the person who left the comment about Miriette's exclusive bad endings hadn't played his route yet or they did something wrong!

With the tiniest inkling of hope in my heart, I went to the convenience store to buy some energy drinks to pull me through one more sleepless night of gaming.

That game was taking over my life in a big way, but the only thing on my mind was saving Miriette.

|I will protect her! I will make her happy no matter what!|

There wasn't much traffic at all, and few guys on motorbikes were playing around doing wheelies and recording their stunts.

"Whoa, that's so cool!|

I thought to myself as I passed them before entering the store.

I grabbed and paid for an eight pack of energy drinks and some snacks and exited the store in a hurry.

...or at least I was supposed to...

As the automatic door opened before me I saw an unmanned motorbike flying right at me.

I had no time to react!

Zero, null, nada!

The front tire slammed into my neck and both me and the motorbike crashed into the shelves full of various pastries.

While feeling an unbelievable amount of pain I tried to move but my body didn't even budge.

My throat was feeling like it was crushed – probably because it was, duh - and I couldn't breathe at all!

The people in the shop were screaming in terror and I tried my damn hardest to breathe while laying between the crushed bread loaves and chocolate-filled buns.

|Oh god...! It hurts! It hurts so much..!|

Each time I tried to suck some air I could only feel some sort of warm liquid pouring into my lungs.

|Oh god, no..! Please no..!|

My eyes must have been bulging but I couldn't even see properly, everything was getting out of focus and my field of vision was gradually swallowed by the darkness.

|I need to save her! I can't fail again..! I must make her smile!|

And then...

The pain stopped.