Pain. So much pain.
It felt as if tens of thousands of needles were stabbing into her brain.
Lin Ye had no idea what was going on. Her last memory was lying in bed going to sleep as usual the night before.
A warm sensation oozed from her head. She reached up to touch it out of instinct, feeling a slimy texture that was somewhat sickening. She wanted to see what it was, but her vision failed to focus, showing only a blur of crimson.
Noisy sounds filled the air around her. She couldn't hear clearly, but it felt as though cries for help were mixed in, deepening her confusion.
A wave of drowsiness suddenly washed over her, and her vision went black as she passed out completely.
《Shocking! Saint Uriel Academy Attacked by Snake Cult!》
《Exclusive Interview! Capital Defense Chief Vows to Stake His Life to Bring Attackers to Justice!》
《The Inside Story of the Attack!》
The next afternoon, Lin Ye stared at these bold headlines in her room and pressed her hand against her temple. The blood vessels in her brain, which had just been healed by a healer's magic, felt as if they were about to burst again.
She had woken up this morning and spent all her time until now piecing information together.
To start with the conclusion: she had transmigrated. Transmigrated as in transported into another world.
She had transmigrated into a Japanese RPG she had just gotten into in her past life, titled 《Sword and Rose: Legend of Seraph》.
The plot was a classic: set in a fictional medieval background, a commoner-born heroine gets exceptional admission into the royal academy, forms bonds with a group of noble boys and girls, awakens as a saintess, travels the world to battle various enemies, and ultimately saves the world with the power of true love.
A standard cliché loved by the masses, and Lin Ye quite enjoyed it herself.
Combined with a grand, well-developed worldview, abundant character storylines, and excellent characterization, the game had been wildly popular in the gaming community for a time.
Lin Ye had bought the game at release and cleared the first two chapters not long ago, but unfortunately had no time to play further due to work.
The problem, however, was this.
Why had she turned into Roseliel von Rosenwal, the mob villain of chapter one?!
Her name sounded impressive enough—"rose-like maiden," the heiress of the renowned Imperial house of Rosenwal.
In private, though, everyone called her the "Blue-Blooded Heiress." It meant she was ruthless to the extreme, with cold blue blood flowing in her veins.
As the family's only girl, she had been spoiled rotten since childhood. Her mother had passed away early, and her father was too busy with politics to discipline her properly, naturally turning her into a lawless, spoiled young lady.
After enrolling, she naturally took up the banner of the essential bully archetype in school-themed works, finding trouble with the heroine every single day.
Her reasons were the classic triad: lineage, status, and jealousy.
With only mediocre talent herself, she could not stomach a commoner-born heroine excelling at everything. Later, she did not even hesitate to borrow power from an evil cult, ultimately bringing about the destruction of her own family and her own death.
In the game, players applauded with delight, calling it extremely satisfying.
But to the current Lin Ye, it wasn't! Satisfying! At all!
I don't want to die!
"Milady, rumors are already spreading outside that you planned this attack..."
A calm voice came from beside her. It was her personal maid, Luna.
Lin Ye whipped her head around to look at her, and Luna immediately lowered her head slightly. "...I am terribly sorry."
Lin Ye withdrew her gaze and did not refute it.
She knew that what was spreading outside was no rumor. Roseliel had indeed participated in this attack; one could even say she was a major contributor on the Snake Cult's side.
She was the one who secretly brought the Snake God's mark into the academy, sold out the inhabitants of her domain to kidnap them to the royal capital, and used their blood for a ritual that opened a spatial rift directly inside the academy, allowing Snake Cultists to launch a surprise attack from within.
If the heroine hadn't suddenly gone super power-up mode and worked with the guards to purify the evil magic brought by the cultists, the losses would have been unimaginable.
And her reason for doing all this was laughably simple: she wanted to get rid of the heroine.
She was rotten to the core; calling her a bad person felt like an insult to bad people.
Most ironically, in the original plot, Roseliel had planned to pretend to be attacked by the cultists and take a light injury to clear her suspicion. In the end, she actually ran into a rabid cultist and was killed outright.
She died like a stray dog kicked to death on the side of the road.
It was precisely at this moment that Lin Ye transmigrated into the body of Roseliel, who should have died, becoming her.
What terrible sin had she committed to deserve this?!
She didn't get to enjoy the lavish life of a noble, but now that Roseliel was ruined, she had to bear the fallout?!
In her heart, Lin Ye cursed every deity she knew.
According to the game's plot, Roseliel's involvement would soon be exposed.
To execute her plan back then, she had instructed quite a few henchmen, all of whom confessed everything once captured.
This directly became leverage for political enemies to attack the Rosenwal family, causing the entire house to suffer.
"Has the Holy See released any news?" Lin Ye asked Luna.
She couldn't control how rumors spread for the moment, though with her power she could always find a way to suppress them. What concerned her most right now was the attitude of the Holy See.
The Holy See in the game was even harsher than the Inquisitions of real-world medieval history; arresting someone didn't require evidence, only a list.
Although her family possessed immense political power, things likely wouldn't go well for them either.
"Over there... no news has come out so far," Luna answered softly.
Lin Ye stood up, a plan already forming in her mind.
"Prepare a carriage for me. I'll go to them myself."
"Huh?!"
Lin Ye's response was clearly beyond Luna's expectation. She raised her head, looking at her master in bewilderment.
"All sorts of rumors are flying around right now. Once the Holy See finds out, they won't let me off. Sitting here is just waiting for death." This was the only way to survive that Lin Ye had thought of after a whole day. "Rather than waiting for them to barge in and arrest me, it's better to go straight to the Holy See to clear my name. As long as they acknowledge me, the rumors outside won't matter."
"But..." Luna hesitated.
Lin Ye understood that as her personal maid, Luna was not entirely ignorant of Roseliel's actions. Whether her young mistress was the real culprit was something Luna already had an answer to in her heart.
"You don't need to accompany me. Just stay here." Lin Ye wanted to pat her shoulder, only to realize she was half a head shorter than Luna. Her outstretched hand shifted downward, taking Luna's hand instead. "I will prove my innocence."
Lin Ye gazed at her maid with a firm look in her eyes.
Luna came from a knight family loyal to the Rosenwal house, assigned to serve as Roseliel's personal maid as the second daughter.
She wore a neat light-blue homespun maid dress with a white ruffled apron, and a clean maid kerchief tied over her slightly wavy, chestnut short hair, looking crisp and dependable.
As a knight's daughter, she perfectly inherited her father's loyalty, remaining steadfastly devoted to her mistress.
Precisely because of this, this maid was utterly ruined.
After Roseliel's death, Luna, as the personal maid, was treated as an accomplice. Innocent as she was, she suffered inhumane interrogation until the heroine saved her from the hands of the Holy See.
On ordinary days, she had suffered no end of bossy abuse from Roseliel. One had to remember she was only a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old girl, yet she endured endless hardship and injustice.
Many players had appealed to the developers to release a DLC, adding a maid route to give her a better ending.
When Lin Ye was still a player, she sympathized deeply with this maid. She felt Luna was just like her former self in the company, taking the blame for her manager's mistakes.
Now that she had become Roseliel, she would never let such a thing happen again.
"I will definitely turn all of this around."
Lin Ye swore in her heart.
Rate on N.U.
