Five Lifetimes Later

Reincarnated

"Wahhh!" I made a sound. I looked around and took a deep breathe of air. Years passed by from my birth, until eventually I met him.

The moment I first set my eyes on the second prince, I fell in love. He had curly gold hair, and dreamy blue eyes, and was the Prince Charming from my dreams. Especially with his kindness and angelic attitude, he was perfect. He is going to be my husband one day, I prmoised myself.

My dream finally became reality, when, on my 6th birthday, I got engaged to him and he became my fiance. He is finally mine, is what I thought at that time.

As I got older, my feelings for the prince only grew, until it became almost obsessive. I loved him with all my heart, and I would do anything for him, for him to be happy. I would follow him, hang onto him, talk to him, but he never seemed interested. He was always distant, always polite. It hurt me every time he treated me like that, but I believed that I had time, time to make him love me.

Then, that girl arrived. Cute and innocent, she had already captured the prince and several other powerful individuals all over the school with her charm. At first I was indignant and angry, what right did that girl have to steal my fiance?!

But then... I saw them. Talking. Laughing. He was making an expression with her different than he had ever made with me. He looked at her with a gentle gaze, full of love and affection. It was then that I realized, I had lost. I tearfully gave up my 10 year unrequited love and backed away. I only wished for him to be happy, and, unfortunately, the one to do that would not be me. I was not moving on, I was forfeiting, for my happiness was less important than his. I had planned on asking for a cancellation of the engagement in a few months time, at the Queen's Birthday Banquet, but something that I had never expected took place.

"You bitch! You hurt an innocent little girl!"

"I am greatly disappointed in you, Cecelia. I thought that you were better than this."

"You bullied a fellow student for absolutely no reason! How could you?!"

"You... disgust me."

The last comment by the second prince brought me to my knees. What... was going on?! I have never bullied anyone! I glanced around me, searching for help, but I only found gazes of derision and disgust. Then, I saw her, the heroine, pointing her finger at me trembling. She looked like the perfect, innocent victim, in her tattered clothes and scratched arms. But in her eyes, I saw something that I had never noticed before. Joy. Sadistic joy, and a cunningness that could not be hidden. I felt horror. I was framed. 

I protested, and I pleaded, but no one would hear me out, after all, the "evidence" was already presented. I was executed, while I am unsure of what happened to my family who were accused of charges that I know they had never committed. While the heroine lived happily ever after. 

Then... I died.

I opened my eyes, "Waahhh!" I made a sound. 

Wait, what's happening?! When I saw my reflection in a mirror, I went into shock. I... am a baby again?!

From then on, the scenes went exactly as it did in my past life. Falling in love, going to school, giving up on my love, and being killed. I was sure that I would be able to change my ending this time, but I was helpless, for things remained the same. I started to feel dread as I felt a premonition. 

My guess was proven correct, as I was reborn again. Everything played out the same as before, yet, when I tried to tell certain parts of my body to do different things, they didn't cooperate. My expressions, my actions, they... were not my own. Not anymore. I started to feel panic well up in my mind. I started to feel as though the scenes and the setting was familiar, but I dismissed it as knowledge of my previous two lives. I needed to figure out how to stop myself. I did not want to live this way forever, slowly going insane.

I was reincarnated again, a fourth time. I observed the people and the world around me. I felt something niggling at my subconsciousness, but I could not tell what. By the ending scene, I was struck by a realization, this was a game.

In my fifth reincarnation, I remembered. I remembered my previous life, my life before this one, my life before this world. I had been a normal high school girl, albeit a pretty lazy one. I had a best friend named Monica who was a huge otaku. She would go on and on about manga, anime, and otome games until my ears bled. I would humph and haw while munching on some snacks, not really listening. Monica had once gone through this faze where she was addicted to this otome game called My Stars Above. 

It was about a girl, the heroine, whose familiar was the legendary unicorn. Familiars were spirit creatures that chose their  partner based off of their amount of mana and their compatibility. More nobles than commoners had familiars because the amount of mana one had would often be passed on by blood. Familiars were spirit animals, a partner for their wielder. They were classified by earth, wind, water, fire, lightning, ice, poison, illusion, light, darkness, and space. The further right on the scale, the rarer and more powerful your familiar was. Familiars could transform into a weapon for their wielders while having the characteristics of their element. Wielders could also use the elemental ability of their familiars, just like how the familiars fed off the wielder's mana. 

I sifted through my few memories of the game while at my execution. When the axe came down on my head I came to the conclusion that, Oh, it seems like I'm the villainess of this game. Then, everything went black.

"Waahhh!" I cried. I was back to being a baby again. I rolled my eyes at how predictable this had become. Then I froze. Rolled my eyes? I tried to do it again. Then, I tried to move my arm around in circles. It worked.

Wait... so I've finally been reincarnated with a free will?!