Chapter 1: An unexpected encounter with the world’s darling, despite all efforts, proved unbeatable
“Why, why…”
“There’s no why, Miss Phyllis.”
Alya raised an eyebrow, gazing at the girl lying in a pool of blood, barely clinging to life.
Her soft pink hair, like freshly bloomed cherry blossoms, now lay limply on the cold ground, stained by the blood gushing from her neck.
“You…”
Judging by the amount of blood, she should be as good as dead, right?
Still uneasy, Alya reached out and plunged the dagger into the girl’s pale neck several more times, only stopping when the silver blade barely drew any more blood.
After all, ensuring the protagonist was thoroughly dead with a few extra stabs was the basic duty of a villain.
“The battle between good and evil has always been like this. If anything, the fact that you even had a chance to ask questions was my greatest mercy. And…”
Wiping the dagger gently with a handkerchief, Alya gave a bitter smile, tinged with helplessness.
Her gaze instinctively drifted to the two other bodies nearby, already cold.
Hypnotic control, psychological manipulation, betrayal—she’d done everything, no matter how vile, to ensure the protagonist’s party fell by her hand.
“If I could’ve beaten them fair and square, who’d want to be this kind of heartless scum? Sigh…”
Tucking the now-pristine dagger into her pocket, Alya crouched down to close Phyllis’s eyes, suppressing the joy in her heart as she looked up at the clear sky.
It’s done!
I’ve finally done it!
She, Alya, the villainous noblewoman who appeared in nearly every storyline of the game Blossoms of Love, tirelessly obstructing the protagonists and holding the record for the most defeat CGs, had finally sent the entire protagonist party packing and secured her own perfect ending!
“Jie jie jie… all those deaths weren’t in vain.”
In the corner of her vision, a line of blood-red text was clearly visible—
[Remaining Death Reversions: 1]
Yes, as the creator of this villainous noblewoman character, Alya hadn’t even seen her game go live before she died from overwork the day before Blossoms of Love launched and was reincarnated into this other world.
Since the game hadn’t officially released, and Alya, as an artist responsible only for illustrations, wasn’t involved in the story writing, she knew little about the game’s finer details beyond what she’d worked on and vague memories from project meetings.
But as a former otaku, she knew the nature of her company’s project all too well.
A yuri-heavy, risqué game with branching storylines where players chose different protagonists to embark on adventures, meeting unique companions with distinct personalities and abilities, defeating powerful enemies—and gradually uncovering the secrets of the “defeat CGs.”
Of course, the joy belonged to the protagonists and players. Alya’s role was to suffer defeat in every creative way possible.
When she first arrived in this world and recalled the exquisite defeat CGs she’d drawn herself, Alya nearly broke down.
Thankfully, the blasted game designers knew this role wasn’t meant for humans to endure. Alya soon discovered that if she died in one storyline, she’d retain all her memories and knowledge and restart at the beginning of another storyline to continue her conquest.
And in Blossoms of Love, there were exactly 100 such storylines.
So…
After countless cycles of death and rebirth, Alya finally found the path to the one perfect ending—
Hypnotize the kind-hearted saintess of the Papal Kingdom, cutting off the protagonist’s chance for reinforcements.
Steal the elven ranger the protagonist was meant to save and groom her into a loyal dog through intense manipulation.
Even offer her own body, becoming Phyllis’s inseparable bedmate and best friend, spending countless passionate nights together.
Then, when everything seemed over and everyone was celebrating…
A brutal betrayal!
Sure, it was a bit unscrupulous, but compared to the pain of her countless death cycles, guilt was nothing.
Hehe, I have to survive!
“The protagonists are all dead now. This has to be the perfect ending, right? You’ll keep your promise and send me home now, won’t you?”
A cool breeze carrying the scent of blood brushed past, and Alya felt an unparalleled sense of relief, shouting to the clear sky.
But after a long wait, the blood-red text that appeared again left her stunned—
[Perfect Ending Not Achieved]
Not achieved?!
“Come on, those girls are definitely dead!” Alya snapped, losing her composure.
[Perfect Ending Not Achieved]
“What the hell?! The heroes are wiped out, and I, the big bad villain, am still alive and kicking. If this isn’t a perfect ending, what is?!”
[Perfect Ending Not Achieved]
“You’re not seriously telling me those girls aren’t dead, are you? Her neck was stabbed to that extent, and she’s still alive? If Phyllis can so much as twitch a finger, I’ll take this dagger and—”
Alya’s voice cut off abruptly.
Feeling a chill at the back of her neck, she turned her head with difficulty. Before her vision faded to black, she saw the pink-haired girl, face covered in blood, grinning wickedly as she gripped Alya’s hands and drove the dagger straight into her throat.
A clean pierce-through.
“Why, why…”
“There’s no why, my dear Alya.”
Phyllis raised an eyebrow, looking at the white-haired girl lying in a pool of blood, barely alive.
Her smile was radiant.
[Phyllis, revived, stabbed you to death.]
[Remaining Death Reversions: 0]
As the blood-red text melted into the darkness like ink, Alya’s long-dissipated consciousness struggled to surface from the icy depths, pushing through viscous shadows and countless memory fragments—
Alya bolted upright in bed, frantically touching her neck.
“My neck! It’s still there… phew—”
The intense mental shock lingered, her mind still foggy. Alya clutched her heaving chest, shaken.
Before her consciousness fully collapsed, her ears had been filled with Phyllis’s near-maniacal laughter and words—something about “You failed because you didn’t cut off my head” and “In heaven and earth, I alone am supreme,” or some such nonsense.
“Damn it, how many cheats does Phyllis have?! Stabbed through the neck like that and still reviving to counter-kill?!”
As her emotions settled, Alya regained some calm, muttering complaints.
Dead again.
She was almost used to this cycle of dying and coming back.
But in her vision, the blood-red “zero” next to the remaining death reversions gleamed ominously, sending a chill down her spine.
One more death… and things probably wouldn’t end well.
Worse still, in her previous cycles, Alya had exhausted every backup plan she had.
Play nice?
That’s what she thought at first, but this character’s absurd setup made it impossible.
As the eldest princess of the Hall Empire, Alya held a status above thousands, but that honor came from her father colluding with cultists to orchestrate an “accident” that killed the emperor’s entire family, allowing their branch to usurp the throne.
Unfortunately, the massacre wasn’t thorough, leaving the youngest princess—none other than Phyllis, one of the game’s core protagonists—missing and unaccounted for.
By the time the game began, when the two met as classmates at Starfall Magic Academy, Alya had been sitting in the princess’s seat for fifteen years.
The blood debt was already piled high.
Even if she stopped bullying the former princess as in the original story and actively helped her reclaim her throne, once Phyllis learned her origins and the full story, she’d still tearfully slay Alya to avenge her parents…
What about fighting head-on?
After dying a few times early on and learning the plot, Alya tried that too.
The result? No matter how perfect her plans or timing, those damned protagonists always escaped death, while Alya, exposing her villainous nature too soon, died faster each time.
Even her near-perfect strategy in the last cycle only managed a two-for-one trade, and she was still cut down by a cheating protagonist.
To that, Alya could only say…
The world’s chosen ones were terrifyingly monstrous, unbeatable even with her all-out effort!
“Be a villain, die. Play nice, die… Screw being a villain! I’m done!”
Sitting on her bed, lost in thought, Alya had an epiphany.
From the moment she transmigrated, her goal was wrong.
As a villain, she was never important.
Without her, the protagonist party would still solve every problem, sooner or later, and reach the game’s perfect ending.
So why keep fighting them? Why not just live happily as a slacker?!
Life and death are fated, wealth and honor lie in the heavens—Alya was running away today!
Throwing off her thin blanket, Alya glanced at her messy room, unbothered by the idea of packing.
If she wasn’t mistaken, this point in time was roughly the game’s very beginning, before the protagonist party even enrolled at Starfall Academy.
She’d immediately apply to withdraw from the academy, ask her family for a huge sum of money, and flee to a place no detection magic could find, vowing never to cross paths with the protagonist party again!
With the magical expertise she’d accumulated over nearly a hundred cycles, Alya was confident that, with caution, hiding her tracks and avoiding the protagonists was entirely doable.
No time to waste!
Stretching, Alya made up her mind and pushed open the door to the living room.
“What a delicious smell!”
As soon as she opened the door, the aroma of food hit her, making Alya pause and linger by the dining table.
It seemed in this storyline, she’d lucked out with a pretty great roommate.
Too bad her academy life would end today, so she probably wouldn’t get to enjoy this mysterious roommate’s cooking.
Still, she was a bit curious about this roommate’s identity.
As the empire’s princess in name, Alya’s student apartment was naturally top-tier, complete with a kitchen, living room, courtyard, and even a small hot spring.
In previous cycles, no student of equal status had enrolled, so Alya always had the apartment to herself, with no roommate.
Could it be… a change in the worldline?
With this question in mind, Alya lightly tiptoed to the kitchen door, peering through the glass.
At the same moment, the girl inside, wearing an apron, turned around with a gentle, big-sisterly smile, her cherry-pink hair striking.
“Your Highness, you’re awake? Come eat!”
Meeting the girl’s emerald-green eyes, Alya’s own eyes widened, her smile freezing on her face.
Ph-Phyllis?!