Self-Made Lady

Chapter 2

* * *

I suffered from an incurable illness.

Not even the wonders of modern medicine could treat it, so all that was left for me was to die slowly. But the disease was so rare that my doctors only thought of me as a test subject. I would lie in the hospital all day as they forced mysterious medications onto me and studied my physiological reactions. I was losing my will to live. That is, until I found that game: The One Who Holds the Crown.

As you might guess from the title, the game was all about making someone into the emperor. In it, the player became an advisor to their chosen character and tried to make them emperor of the Arnold Empire. The concept was simple—do whatever it takes to seize the throne! As a result, the game had flattery, blackmail, and assassinations galore. The world was a brutal one where sons killed their fathers, and fathers sold their sons for their own gain.

It really was exciting.

There was such a thrill in coming up with all kinds of strategies that I could never even think of playing out in real life. In the real world I could only lie around sick in bed, but in the game I could do whatever I wanted. When I defeated all my rivals one by one and put my chosen character on the throne, I was so excited that I wanted to let out a whoop of joy.

There were three characters to choose from: Cassard the crown prince, Jadiel the second prince, and Cedric the archduke of Etchell.

Naturally, the easiest choice was Crown Prince Cassard. His difficulty rating was one star. Since he was the emperor’s heir and already had a claim to the throne, he was easy to crown so long as you didn’t make a major mistake.

The next easiest candidate was Archduke Etchell. His difficulty rating was three stars, slightly harder than the crown prince. His ancestor had helped the first emperor establish the Arnold Empire. Either one of them could have become emperor, but the archduke of Etchell at the time decided that the throne didn’t suit him, so he opted to become a vassal of the empire instead. Ever since then, House Etchell enjoyed similar privileges as the imperial family, so the archduke had a valid claim to the throne. It didn’t take much plotting to drag down the crown prince and position him there instead.

However, the second prince, Jadiel, was an entirely different story. His difficulty rating was five whole stars. As if to warn players away, the stars indicating this rating even flashed an ominous red. This was because Jadiel had the major disadvantage of being the emperor’s illegitimate son, born to a lowly dancer. His route was the hardest, since you had to come up with all sorts of strategies to make up for his lack of legitimacy.

Even so, I chose the second prince—the hardest to establish as emperor—without thinking too much about it. The harder it was, the more I burned with the desire to make this guy succeed. I knew it was all just a game, so how hard could it be?

However, upon starting the game, the difficulty only got worse. Legitimacy wasn’t the only thing he lacked. He had a pretty face, but he was incompetent at everything, and on top of that he even had a rotten personality. No person in their right mind would want him as emperor.

That’s why he was rated five red stars.

Still, there was nothing I could do. I’d already chosen to make him emperor. I could only call myself a true master if I got this guy crowned, so I poured myself into playing the game. But, I just failed time and time again.

As I played over and over, the second prince only moved further from the throne, and I kept getting bad endings as he was assassinated, banished, mutilated, and so on. Still, I didn’t give up. I researched all sorts of nasty tricks that I could try, and I eventually succeeded in making him emperor.

Here’s how I did it.

First, I had Jadiel seduce Vivian, the daughter of the military powerhouse Duke Vasell, and form an alliance. Next, I had him engineer some crises on the Etchell Estate in order to distract the archduke from national politics. I spread a vicious plague in his territory, blocked trade routes to cause a famine, started a war with a neighboring kingdom, and the list went on.

I then had Jadiel’s strongest competitor, the crown prince, marry Duke Vasell’s stepdaughter, Violet. My plan was to use her as a spy. Duke Vasell didn’t care much for his stepdaughter and immediately agreed. Since his own daughter Vivian would become empress when Jadiel took the throne, he had no real reason to refuse.

Once I’d planted Violet as a spy in the crown princess’s position, the second prince gained access to all sorts of important information, allowing him to start a smear campaign against the crown prince. In the end, the crown prince was helpless as he was betrayed by his internal enemies and toppled from his position.

In all of this, the duke’s innocent stepdaughter didn’t even realize she was being used as a spy, and once Jadiel took power, she was pathetically put to death. However, beating the game left a bitter taste in my mouth, because the ending revealed that the Arnold Empire would ultimately fall into ruin because of the emperor’s tyranny. It didn’t seem so great for a game to have such a bitter ending, but it was just a game after all.

I didn’t think too much about it.

But now I’m inside that game.

One day my body reacted poorly to a new medication I was given, and I passed out from the pain. When I opened my eyes, I was in an unfamiliar body in a new world. All of my vicious schemes were already in place, and I awoke as Duke Vasell’s stepdaughter—the very one I’d used as a pawn, Violet Hale.

I’m screwed.

***

“How am I supposed to believe you?”

While I thought over the past, Cedric seemed to have gotten his thoughts in order. His gaze was still confused as he stared at me, but his eyes didn’t waver.

Well, it was only natural for him to be suspicious. Violet was a typical noble lady who’d been raised by her social butterfly of a mother. There was no way someone like her would know a doctor who specialized in infectious diseases.

However, I was Jadiel’s advisor in the game, and I was the very person who’d spread that plague in Cedric’s territory. And because I had been worried about the illness spreading to the capital and infecting my allies, I went and found a doctor who could treat it.

If this world was exactly the same as in the game, then that would mean the doctor was here too, and sure enough, I was right. I was the only one who knew about this though, so it wouldn’t be easy to win the archduke’s trust. I could only show him the truth through my actions.

“What if I send the doctor to your estate first?” I asked. “That should be proof enough.”

“Send the doctor first?” Cedric repeated.

It looked as though he hadn’t expected me to make this offer.

“Have you considered what would happen if I took you up on your offer only to act as though our deal had never been made?” he asked.

“No,” I replied.

“Why not?”

“Because you don’t like being in debt to others. I know you’ll want to repay me.”

Finding my words odd, Cedric’s brow furrowed slightly.

“You speak as if you know me well,” he said. “But I do not believe we have ever met before.”

You have no idea how often we’ve met. I’m the very person who brought you to ruin.

Archduke Etchell lost his life fighting a war I had stirred up with another country. At the time of his premature death, he had neither a wife nor child. The archduke’s estate had been left without an heir, so Jadiel, as the emperor, was easily able to snatch it up.

Unable to say any of this, I swallowed my words and slightly bowed my head.

“You’re the person who will grant me freedom, so I learned everything I could about you,” I explained. “I couldn’t hang my future on someone I didn’t know very well.”

The Cedric Etchell that I had met in the game was cold and didn’t trust others easily. This made me sure of my assessment. He would never allow someone else to hold a debt over him. That made him the perfect business partner.

“I’ve already sent the doctor to your estate,” I said. “Perhaps he’s already started his research.”

“But I haven’t given you an answer yet,” he said.

“Well, even if you turn down my offer, you won’t be able to ignore me if the doctor produces good results. I had to put you in my debt somehow.”