Lady Donatella’s Wonderful Life.

An otome game so terrible that it bankrupted the company two weeks after its release.

It was supposed to be a whimsical game that centers around the life of its protagonist, Donatella Brigandine, the only daughter of a baron and his wife, and its several male leads that the titular character may romance.

Its infamy arose with its numerous bad endings such as Donatella eating a poisoned cookie, Donatella being pecked to death by a murder of crows after picking up a shiny hairpin, Donatella being accused of treason and being banished to some foreign country where she dies of cholera, or she dies as an unfortunate victim of a serial killer, and many more to note.

It would have been odd, if not just the developers blatantly encouraging every player to see every end. Still, the supposedly good endings were just as bad:

In the ‘Crown Princess’ ending, she becomes the wife of the crown prince, but not before the player is informed that Donatella is just the pawn of the noble house to control the crown prince. If she fails to raise his affection to the maximum, he sacrifices her to retain his power.

In the ‘Knight’s Lady’ ending, she lives the life of a lonely wife as her husband is often away on wars, border patrol, and all sorts of knightly ventures– and if she fails to raise the knight capture target’s affection levels to maximum, he takes home a pregnant second wife who torments her.

In the ‘Assassin’s Beloved’ ending, she ends up a stone-cold killer after having her life threatened multiple times, as she abandons her noble name and lives the life of a fugitive alongside the assassin capture target. If she fails to raise the affection levels to a maximum, he kills her.

There were many more endings with such miserable outcomes that players demanded refunds from the company and sued it for emotional damages among the playerbase.

As such, the company met a terrible end for themselves, ironic, as they have written good endings into bad endings.

Soon, the game itself faded into obscurity– a blatant mockery of the otome game genre that is but the epitome of what a developer should not ever write into existence, lest they get sued to death.

Belladonna, or at least her previous life had played the game to know some of its endings by heart. 

“Bel! Wake up!”

Belladonna’s eyes fluttered open. Above her were the stars, and below her the cold, cobblestone path that stretched across the wretched alleyway she had been sleeping in.

She had reincarnated into that game’s wretched world. While fictional tales recounted how a normal person would reincarnate into a world where their knowledge from their previous lives became useful to transform their boring monotony into one of glitz and glamour, they weren’t helpful to her in her state.

She is born as a prostitute’s daughter, with no roof above their head.

“Narcissus... What is it...?” the young girl struggled to sit up—the world was spinning as the cold began to seep into her bones.

“You’re burning up!” the young boy around her age echoed as he placed a pale hand on her forehead. His jewel-like lilac eyes twinkled with worry 

A fever.

No wonder it felt so difficult to stand.

“Stay away from me for a while. You might catch it.” Belladonna glumly replied. 

“No way!”

A visible frown made is way onto her face. Narcissus was a stubborn one to convince if not– perhaps it was because, to both of them, they only had the other to rely on.

“Mother might return soon, so…” Narcissus bit his lip, nervous.

Belladonna’s frown deepened as she relented to her brother’s stubbornness.

Their mother, Leah.

She worked as a prostitute in some run-down brothel by the corner, and while she was able to find shelter for as long as she worked there, Belladonna, and her brother, Narcissus, were left to seek shelter in some alleyway not far from where their mother was.

Wretched as it was, it might have been Leah’s way to keep them from the kind of world she lived in. Devoid of love for her children or not, Belladonna noted that she was somewhat responsible enough– to feed her spawn and keep them sheltered as best as she could.

On some days, Leah would teach them how to read, how to write– and how to fend for themselves: something that the run-of-the-mill street rat wouldn’t have access to.

“When you got sick last time, you were babbling about ‘aircraft’, ‘trucks’, and– and games!” Narcissus remarked worriedly. “I’ve thought you’ve gone mad!” He chided.

“Perhaps I’ve gone mad.” Belladonna bluntly replied.

“No! You can’t!” Teary amethyst eyes looked at her. The damn puppy of a brother she has definitely knows how to use tears as a weapon.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“You ought to use those tears when we beg in the day.”

“Bel!!”

A snicker erupted from Belladonna as she leaned towards the wall, head ringing from fever as she tried her best to look somewhat stronger to Narcissus.

During Leah’s lessons, Belladonna and Narcissus learned the country’s name for the first time– they were only but four years old when their mother had taught them its name– ‘Vernadine’, a country by the West. Upon learning those words, Belladonna fainted on the spot and sported a fever high enough for Leah to worry she wouldn’t survive the night. 

That was when she dreamt of another world, a world where she lived a life she would consider to be luxurious: a warm bed, a loving family, delicious meals every day, and money to spend on entertainment, it was a world of comfort where she learned of fictional novels, and games– most especially, the game called ‘Lady Donatella’s Wonderful Life’, situated in the country of Vernadine.

The dream was then cut short after a hunk of moving metal collided with her body upon crossing the street.

Upon waking up, her eyes met with the worried gazes of her mother and Narcissus as she struggled to maintain her clarity, recounting her dream to herself as she wondered if she had gone mad from illness. In fear, she recounted her dream to Leah, who paled and commanded her and Narcissus to never speak of it, lest Belladonna gets hanged.

From then on, it was treated as a child’s dream nothing more.

It wasn’t until a year later that Belladonna realized that the noble houses she had reiterated to her mother were real, and along with that came the fact that no child of her age, with no sort of noble education would come to know of such a thing. 

And, if word got out, she would be hanged for witchcraft.

“Did I not tell you to never speak of that again, Narcissus?” Leah’s cold voice echoed along the alleyway. 

“M-Mother!” Narcissus stammered as from the shadows, their mother appeared.

A pale, beautiful face painted with cosmetics, long, dull purple hair, upturned eyes with the same jewel-like lilac irises, and a demeanor that was akin to a noble instead of a common woman– that was Leah, the most beautiful among the red-light district girls. For today, she wore a simple green dress along with a shabby-looking shawl to protect herself from the cold.

A hum of dissatisfaction erupted from her throat as her thin hands gingerly touched Belladonna’s forehead, the coldness of her skin made the young girl shudder. “You’re sick, again,” she stated flatly as Belladonna shrugged. It wasn’t as if she wanted to be sick. 

“I-I’ll give Bel my share of food!”

“Don’t listen to him. If you do, you’ll have two sick children.” Belladonna flatly replied.

“Bel!”

“Shut it, the both of you–” Leah herself was already having a headache over her children. One was too soft, and the other, she felt was too much like herself already. To her, Narcissus was too fragile, and Belladonna was too unpredictable. “–just eat, the both of you. Belladonna, use this.” Leah tossed her shawl over the girl.

“Thanks, Mother. If I die today you can take it tomorrow.” the dark-haired girl grinned, causing Narcissus to cry again as Leah flicked her forehead. “One more word and I will wring your neck myself, foolish girl.” she annoyedly sighed whilst laying a bag of bread. “Quit bullying your brother and sleep.”

Belladonna could only laugh as Narcissus angrily curled up next to her and the bag of bread.

“Leah, there you are! A patron is looking for you!” a red-light district sister called as Leah’s gaze returned to them. “Coming, Olivia,” she replied as she stood up, not sparing a glance at the children.

“Go to sleep, and do not ever step foot in that place.” She commanded as she walked off, heels clicking into place.

“Bel, here, eat this.” Narcissus held out a piece of bread, warm to the touch which Belladonna took, stuffing her face with it greedily, and the boy copied her. Each of them quietly nibbled on their food under the dim street lights, away from the nightlife of the red-light district.

To Belladonna, this kind of life– begging for scraps and sleeping on the curb was unthinkable in her previous life. Not once in her dream did she sleep hungry, or cold. It was damning to know that she had once lived comfortably without ever wondering if they’ll die the next day.

At times she was envious of Narcissus, for not ever knowing a life of comfort, that he may be satisfied with a bag of bread, cold cobblestone for a bed, rags for garments, an icicle for a mother, and a gloomy sister.

At the very least, in this life of rags, she has him, and maybe her mother.

“Narcissus,” Belladonna called out, her dull eyes meeting Narcissus’ gaze– filled with enthusiasm that did not belong within the dirty alleyway. 

“Bel?”

“Grow up happy, okay?” Belladonna smiled for the first time in days as her words left Narcissus in a state of panic. “Don’t die!” He cried out as he shook his sister, sobbing as he did. “We have to grow up together!” Narcissus hiccuped, clinging onto her.

“I won’t die, idiot.” she clicked her tongue as she patted his head. “Just promise me, with or without me, you’ll grow up and make a ton of money so you can live happily.” Belladonna looked at him in the eyes, resolute.

Their lives were not guaranteed, and with her sickly body and poor environment, Belladonna worries that she might die before him. At the very least, if the unthinkable happens, Narcissus would have enough resolve to live for himself.

“..Fine, but you won’t die. Right?”

“I won’t.”

“Pinky swear?”

“Where on earth did you learn such a thing?” Belladonna frowned.

“I saw one of the patrons doing that with Miss Olivia, he said that it's a promise and that if one of them breaks a promise– they’ll eat a thousand needles!”

The young girl’s mouth was slightly agape. Why on earth does Olivia have such a patron? Everyone and their mother knows that no man would honor his word in this district. Nevertheless, Olivia’s business is of no consequence to her– whether the older woman believed such a thing or not.

“Pinky promise.” She grumbled, much to her brother’s happiness.

“Great! Now we gotta find a thousand needles to make sure you won’t break it!”

“Put that energy into begging for change tomorrow, idiot!”

Her new life might be one ridden with poverty, but at the very least she wasn’t alone. Narcissus and Leah may never understand her or her melancholy from the dreams of her past life, but they were precious to her.

“Bel, you gotta wake up tomorrow morning, okay?”

“Narcissus, do you think I’ll die that easily?”

“Well… no… but it doesn’t hurt to ask you…” The youth replied as he shared the shabby shawl their mother had left for them. 

“Just go to sleep, you fool. There’s a lot of things to do tomorrow–” Belladonna sighed 

“Yeah- yeah– begging, tidying up the alley, and whatever the baker down the street asks of us to do for a few pennies..” Narcissus pouted, turning away from his sister, sulking.

“Good. Good night, Narcissus,”

“Good night, Bel!”

The alley might be cold, and their future not as glamorous as whatever it could have been, but at the very least– she has family.

At least, that was what Belladonna thought as she drifted off to sleep.