1 Book I - Chapter 1

"Do you think you can fucking steal my place, bitch?" In a crowded avenue, the sudden shout of a teenage girl made everyone gawk and stare. No elegance and to femininity, her mouth as rotten as a trash dump.

"What are you staring at, never saw a girl cursing?" She did not even take her eyes out of the screen as she mocked, her fingers tapping furiously at her phone.

From the side, one could barely see what seemed to be a First Person Shooter Mobile Game being played with absolute mastery from her part.

"Quadra-kill!" The synthetic voice shouted, announcing her exploits.

Seeing the 'WIN' flashing on the screen, Louise smirked.

"What did I say, what did I say?" People around shook their heads in a disapproving way, thinking how very childish she was.

However, if there was something she had long stopped caring about, then it was people's opinion of her.

Relishing in her latest exploit, Louise closed the game and then stared at the screen littered with icons.

'Okay, what should I best now?' Not that she needed to truly play to know she could destroy anyone, but it was really fun claiming the throne of number one.

In truth, she even dared to say she was born to do that.

Her eyes then lingered over a particular game – Crystal Hearts.

This one was downloaded by one of her buddies from school, however, it was not her cup of tea. After all, she did not like to play non-competitive games, even if they were acclaimed as insanely fun and had an involving storyline.

Just as she was going to continue scrolling…

'Ahhhh! This is absolutely impossible to complete!' Her friend's words echoed by her ears like a whisper. 'I really want to see the secret revealed when someone completes the entire game!'

Damn it! Why did she have to be such a softhearted person?

Huh? No, it was totally not because her friend was hella cute!

Clicking on the game icon, Louise smirked to herself and watched as it loaded at a fast speed.

She did not bother with tutorials and initial cut scenes, both because she was a gaming meister and because she had heard – a whole lot – about the initial playthrough.

That, and she had read everything in the game's official website before truly deciding to play. She had the entire lore at the tip of her tongue.

Suddenly…

[Welcome to Crystal Hearts, master~]

A fluffy and cute voice echoed from her phone at an extremely high volume, at the same time, Louise heard a loud buzzing sound in the background – and the two echoes immediately mixed into a mess of auditory pollution.

'Ah, what the hell is this truck doing right in front of me?' She thought before everything became pitch black.

What followed were screams and shouts as people watched a girl being run over by a truck.

Her body flew and crashed on the ground a dozen or so meters away, and everyone could see dark-red blood splattered all around in a gory mess.

What no one noticed, however, was the cute, lamb-girl smiling maliciously on her phone screen, or that the truck seemed to move by itself without a driver maneuvering it.

Yes, in the heat of the moment, many things went unnoticed, and this would soon become the tragic story of a girl so absorbed in her foolish games that she crossed the road during a red light and died… something that could not be farther away from the truth.

— - -

"Lady… my… lady… la… dy!" Louise awakened to an unknown voice calling her by a title she had never been granted. Yet.

However, with her mind afar and wandering in a dazzling sea of memories, she was unable to reply or grasp the situation right now.

Louise could feel as if her mind had been split in two as values and experiences clashed against each other, they each seemed so real, yet, at an instant later, so fake, that it was hard to understand what was going on.

'I am… Louise…' She grabbed her head, or at least felt like she did so. 'No… I am Aria…' Then, as if something exploded inside her head, she finally understood the situation she was in.

"My lady, are you alright?" Finally, the continuous call made her notice her surroundings.

She shuddered, feeling extremely cold and noticing she was completely wet right now. Her gaze then wandered toward the people around her.

The woman calling out to her seemed to be in the latter half of her twenties, with white hair tied in a bun behind her head, moreover, she wore maid clothes straight out of a novel.

There were also another two girls watching her from somewhere near, their glowing blue eyes filled with disdain and mockery.

She hated those eyes.

"My lady, let's get out of the water." The white-haired woman asked her in a soft tone. Louise did not know why she seemed so worried, and why her name came naturally to her mind – <Marian Cross>.

"Sure." Her reply came in an ever-colder tone than she intended, and for a moment, she could see a flash of surprise pass the eyes of those around. She didn't mind it, though.

Grabbing the hand offered to her by the maid, she got herself up from the pond she had been lying in. She was not sure why she was here, or what was going on, but she had never been one to stand paralyzed because of the unknown.

However, as she was getting up, she suddenly trembled and went stiff.

'Are you fucking…' The image reflected in the water was one she knew, '…kidding with me.' Because she was a character in that same Crystal Hearts she was going to play. Moreover, she was one of the lowest of the low, a complete extra fated to a calamitous end.

Louise's… no, Aria's eyes glowed with a sharp light. Her eyes wandered toward the two girls standing not too far away as she gave a bone-chilling smirk.

'As if people are not enough, now even the Gods are fucking with me.' Her smile widened as she cracked her knuckles. 'Then I shall teach them, too, that whoever messes with me… has to pay a price!'