Ebony didn’t want to die. She didn’t want to live either. Though, it seemed to be chosen for her since she was born.

An orphan since she was little, she didn’t know who her parents were. The only thing she had was her name. Nothing she ever had in life was her own. Lately, though, she had something. She had worked up enough money for a small apartment.

[System Message: Host’s death will occur in approximately 59 seconds.]

Laying on her stomach, with a knife embedded in it. A burning and sharp sensation plagued every second of her reality. She kept gasping and gasping for air. Ebony was hyperventilating. The cold and rough concrete floor of her new apartment was one of the only things keeping her mind sharp.

Ebony lifelessly looked down at the floor, and then towards her chest. A small locket was there. Ebony willed her body to move with all her might, to grab the locket, to even twitch, but nothing ever happened. Nothing ever happened how Ebony wanted it anyway. Her body wouldn’t listen to her, unsuccessful grunts came out instead of any movement.

Frustrated tears began to well up, and she tried to stop them, but they began to overflow and break past the tough wall she had put up. Years of suffering and pent-up frustration, and she couldn’t even get one little thing. She had nothing again. She was going to watch herself die, a permanent death.

[System Message: ******** has taken pity on you, a replacement body is being searched for.]

“Shut up…” A raspy and shaking voice sounded. Ebony realized the situation she was in. She wasn’t able to move; no one would ever see her again. No one could help her. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks, and she shakily watched her blood spread across the concrete floor. She didn’t want or need pity; She didn’t need that. Ebony only wanted something, anything. 

It didn’t matter in the end, though, what Ebony wanted or needed, it didn’t matter how much she would cry. Ebony was going to die.

[System Message: Suitable body has been found. Death will occur within 15 seconds.]

Was it all for nothing? Was everything for nothing? Ebony’s vision went blurry. She could no longer watch herself die. 

[System Message:  Death will occur within 10 seconds.]

“Stop…” That was the last word Ebony was able to say.

Stop her from dying. Stop her from crying. Stop taking everything away from her. Stop time, let her go back. For once, Ebony wanted to live. She wanted the little old apartment with concrete floors. She wanted something, anything would do. 

[System Message:  Death will occur within 5 seconds.]

Her mind was screaming now, for everything she had ever wanted. The unprocessed grief and greed was the only thing she had left. The intense sharpness of the knife seemed to be digging into her harder. Stop it. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop! Stop! I said stop it!

[System Message: Death has occurred. Consciousness has temporarily ended. Rebooting.]

[System Message: Soul has been woven into the new body. System initializing.]

[System Message: System has initialized. System loading…]

[System Message: System has loaded.]

[System Message: Welcome to Flaun, Ebony.]

***

Ebony’s eyes fluttered open. Warm sunlight filtered into the room and hit her eyes. She gently sat up, leaning her back against the bed’s headboard. She rubbed her eyes and realized she had just wiped away tears.

She paused, and wore a confused face. She was crying? Ebony never cried.

A giant room surrounded her. An all red-themed room, with an elegant feel. She was on a king-sized bed that was in the center of the room. A changing area was in the left corner from where she could see, a giant mirror next to it. To the right of her was a door. She glanced to her side and found a bell above the nightstand, hanging off a board. Though, it seemed too high for her to reach. There was also a washbasin with a damp cloth hanging off of it.

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“Where is this…?”

“I swore I was on the floor…” Wait, floor? “Why was I on the floor again..?" A sharp, burning pain materialized on her stomach, and at the same time gave her an intense headache. Letting out painful grunts, She clutched her stomach, and the pain soon faded into nothing.  The headache remained though, she tried to think of the floor again, but the headache got stronger. Her mind was preventing her from knowing something important.

A floating message appeared in front of her eyes, and soon a monotone voice resounded, reading the message out loud. Ebony jumped.

[System Message: Many of the host’s memories were deemed too strong. Forceful blocks have been added]

Host…? Forceful blocks?

Ebony attempted to poke the floating message in front of her, but when she touched it, it disappeared. Something was seriously wrong with her. A floating message? Seriously… her condition had been getting worse lately.

Pushing her auditory and visual hallucinations aside, Ebony slid out of the bed she was in. She needed to… do something. Her head hurt again. She knew she had to do something, but didn’t know what she had to do. That same wall was blocking her again.

“Where is this…”

Another message appeared in front of her, and Ebony jumped once again when the same monotone voice rang out once more.

[System Message: You are in the Blanchette Estate.]

“Blanchette Estate?”

Ebony suddenly realized something important. Whenever she would ask questions, that strange monotone, robot-like voice would answer her. If it wasn’t a hallucination, then maybe it could help her. Maybe it could help her remember…

Ebony hesitated “Excuse me...Why am I here? Did someone rescue me?” Ebony scratched the back of her head, what did she need rescuing from again? Ebony got no answer from the robot voice. 

“Ridiculous. Who thinks they can communicate with a hallucination…”

Ebony suddenly paused and ran her hand over the back of her head once more. Her previously rough hair was now soft, very soft. She sniffed some of it, and it smelled like flowers.

What? What is this…

She looked down, and her previous short black hair was gone. It had been replaced with dark scarlet hair with a few black streaks that fell down to her mid-back. It had a clean shine to it, which was also unlike what her hair usually looked like.

“This is…”

Ebony remembered the mirror in the corner by the dressing area. She ran to the other side of the bed, toward the mirror. Ebony took in her appearance. Her malnourished body was now healthy and had a fair amount of curve on it, which was slightly accentuated by the nightgown she wore. Her face was heart-shaped, and she had a sharp jawline. A healthy tan, with a slight brown tint to it. There were two things though; that were the most alarming; one was that her plain brown eyes were now a bright red, the color of rubies. The second thing was because of how beautiful she appeared to be. Ebony’s hand slid all over her face, pinched, and poked it. This was real.

Ebony’s old appearance could never compete with this one. To be honest, they were leagues apart.

“This girl… who is she? She looks familiar.” She examined her appearance closer, thinking.

[System Message: That is you.]

“I’m not an idiot…” Ebony paused, what if this was an almighty god? What if she just was disrespectful to an all-powerful god by accident? “I meant what’s her name…sorry” Cough. “I want to know her identity.”

[System Message: Evory Marina Blanchette.]

“Are you… kidding me?”

Ebony’s intense bookworming had now come back to bite her. It all made sense now. The expensive room, the new beautiful appearance, and the new name. Ebony was now Evory Marina Blanchette, the villainous character she read in a book once. ‘Book’ would be speaking too highly of it though; the ‘book’ was just for the author’s fantasies, as the plot was too cliche and bad to be good.

In Flaun, you either can use divine powers or can use magic, which makes up Sword Paladins or Magic Paladins. There are six magical elements, Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, Light, and Dark. Evory Marina Blanchette was a high-class villainess who could only use fire magic, one magical element. It’s common for people to be able to use 2-3 magical elements, but rarely people could use divinity. But for Evory’s family, most of them could use 4-5 of the magical elements. 

Evory only being able to use one was the biggest disappointment to her family, and to the nobility. Since Evory's mana core was much bigger than the average, she was wed off to the 1st prince at an early age. The marriage was brought into question later when her magical abilities were revealed.

This, of course, was a part of what made her villainous. The second thing that led to her villainous behavior was how Evory was infatuated with the 1st prince. Unfortunately, he fell in love with the female lead, Ariel. Evory was consumed by her jealousy and attempted to poison Ariel, but it didn’t work. Her plot was exposed, and she was killed by the crown prince.

To be fair, Ariel wasn’t even a great main character. She was too naive and dense to realize when any of the male leads were making a move on her. The only thing special about her, that made her the center of attention, was the fact she could use all magic, and divinity, which is only found out later through another stupid plotline. This made her a target from day one at the academy, especially since she was a commoner.

Ebony, now Evory had many questions. “What do I call you…” Evory suddenly recalled how it always said ‘System Message.’ “System… excuse me… what part of the novel have I entered in?”

[System Message: The Host has entered approximately a week before the main storyline begins.]

“A month before the academy gets attacked… or my first death flag” Evory rubbed her temples.

One month into the academy life, there was a tournament. In the simple author’s mind, it should have been meant to showcase combat ability and show the character’s growth. Unfortunately, like always, their fantasies went out of control. During the tournament, a demon attacked the academy slaughtering almost half of the student body. During this time Evory was hiding and used Ariel as a meat shield. Ariel out of distress figured out she could use divine powers and killed the demon. She was then praised as a hero. Evory’s bullying became ruthless after that.

To make it worse… It was only found out later that Evory was really trash at magic. The new death flag wouldn’t be her using Ariel as a meat shield since of course, the Ebony version of Evory isn’t that dumb. The new death flag that Evory would have to face would be that she can’t defend herself from a demon attack.

Evory sighed and sat back down on the bed.

[System Warning: The Host’s body is fragile.]

“What does that mean…” Without any warning, a fit of aggressive coughs seized her. Black blood spat out each cough, and her chest began to give out. Eventually, once the coughing was over, enough blood was on her hand to drip off of it.

“What the hell…” Another cough was let out, less blood this time. “... is this?”

[System Message: New death predicted, Countdown: 6:23:57:00]

Isn’t it too early for this?!