DOTD Chapter 1

At some point, I’ve often thought to myself.

 

‘How strange, and how did it happen?’ 

 

Staring at the dagger that pierced my heart, I continued to think to myself.

 

Seems like I tried pretty hard to avoid it. Why, you, with that hand, holding the dagger, at me?

 

I winced at the intense pain radiating from inside my body.

 

“Ugh…”

 

As I opened my mouth, blood gurgled and filled my throat.

 

Louis’s eyes as he stabbed me were heartless. His usually kind and gentle gaze was cold as ice.

 

The anti-tracking teleportation spell beneath my feet had been activated, with only the last formula left.

 

The air in the room was thick with an evil, almost sinister aura.

 

“Bella!”

 

Sion shouted in alarm, running toward us.

 

Shaking my head, I turned away.

 

He shouldn’t be here. Nothing could stop him now.

 

I felt my body being transported to a magic circle activated to the last spell, and I blacked out.

 

🦋

 

A simple student living an ordinary life with nothing special, I lost my life in a sudden accident.

 

And I was reborn in a world without dreams or hope, a world that smelled of blood and fantasy novels.

 

I was an extra, a trigger for a war.

 

‘Bella Zeppelin.’

 

An unfortunate character whose one-line description in the novel gave the villains their story and then left.

 

She was a friend of the three villains with the world’s most powerful abilities, but she was killed by her turned-friend.

 

Her death causes the three friends to split up and start a continental war.

 

Amid all the chaos, the hero, a hidden prince of a crumbling kingdom, comes along and stops the war and saves the world.

 

How heartwarming and edifying. Except for the part where I die.

 

My realization that this world was a work of fiction came after my parents, both merchants, died in an accident in another country, and I spent days in shock.

 

After waking up, I remembered everything from my previous life.

 

And I thought, ‘I’m screwed.’ 

 

The greatest knight on the continent, Sion Fidelio.

 

Emperor of the Usher Empire, Louis Usher.

 

Adrian, master of the Golden Tower.

 

These were the three main figures in the novel that would start the Continental War.

 

As much as I wanted to avoid them, sadly, they were already all around me.

 

Sion had lived with my family since he was a child. When his parents died, my parents, who had always been close to one another, took him in, and he stayed with us.

 

One day, he brought Louis and Adrian over and introduced them as friends from the Knights Order. After that, the four of us became close quickly.

 

Somehow, from the first meeting, they seemed special. They seemed like the center of attention in a crowd.

 

And they were. Even if they were villains.

 

“It’s a beautiful day, let’s have a picnic, Bella!”

 

A man with soft brown curls, feral red eyes, a mischievous smirk on his face, and a greatsword slung over his shoulder as wide as his torso.

 

Sion Fidelio, the man who would become Knight Commander of the Knights of Dante of the Kingdom of Bennett, an organization of the world’s greatest knights.

 

He and I had grown up together like brothers and sisters, but to me, he was just a big dog, like a bully.

 

“Did you sleep well?”

 

And then there’s Louis, the magic swordsman.

 

A man with cherry blossom-colored hair and clear sea-blue eyes, he had a dignified air.

 

Though he hid his identity and became a knight of the Bennett Kingdom, he was the lost prince of the Usher Empire, the largest on the continent.

 

The man with the sword was rumored to be the one who could not survive the horrors of the world, but to me, he was the most normal of the three.

 

I should have kept in mind that the one who looks the most normal might actually be the most insane.

 

And finally, Adrian.

 

“Hi!”

 

A handsome, expressionless man with long red hair.

 

A genius wizard of the century, said to have mastered all the magic in the world at a young age and to be the beloved of Mana.

 

He always had a world-weary look on his face, but when he came to sit next to me, he’d give me a contented, languid look, like a cat scratching at its chin.

 

He was the one who would become the master of the Golden Tower, the wizard’s tower.

 

“What the heck is this time of day, and why are you all here so early in the morning?”

 

Sion, Louis, and Adrian answered me in turn.

 

“We’re going to hang out with you!”

 

“I told them to come later, Bella.”

 

“I’m bored.”

 

…These are the three people who would kill me, my friends, and the dark side of this novel.

 

“Louis, you’ve been following me all along, so don’t pretend you don’t want to now?”

 

“I only followed you because I was afraid you were going to bother Bella again, Sion.”

 

“Forget it, will you both please leave?”

 

Louis always mediated between Sion and me. I watched as he grabbed Sion by the back of the head and dragged him out, then turned to the other.

 

“…Me too?”

 

“Of course.”

 

Adrian grunted, but there were no exceptions. I gave him a firm signal to leave. Adrian grimly cast a movement spell and disappeared in an instant.

 

“Ugh. Someone’s going to get a headache, these troublemakers…”

 

Not wanting to die, I devised a plan to survive.

 

‘Let’s run away.’

 

To make a long story short, the plan failed miserably. I was too complacent.

 

“I’m leaving.”

 

One day, I said it like a declaration.

 

The first thing I remember was the air in the room. I was the one who was most embarrassed because it came out of nowhere.

 

The three men’s eyes were deadly serious as they looked at my smiling face.

 

It was quite surprising to see Sion, who was about to laugh out loud, ask me what I was talking about with a straight face.

 

Adrian, who was always so serious, made light of it.

 

“No running away.”

 

…which was a rejection, anyway.

 

“Bella, I respect whatever you do, even if it means… leaving us. Uh, right, Sion?”

 

Louis stammered, nudging Sion, who continued to stiffen.

 

Sion remained silent, wearing the strangest expression I’d ever seen on his face, before storming out of the room.

 

It was probably after that day that Louis’ demeanor became strange.

 

After that, I made up my mind, ‘I’ll have to sneak away.’ 

 

But it was harder than I thought to get away from the three men who claimed to have the most powerful ability in the world.

 

I researched ways to combine anti-tracking and teleportation magic to get away from them.

 

Luckily, I was able to finish my research before they realized it.

 

But the day the spell was completed, Louis plunged his sword into my heart.

 

My last memory was of Sion drawing his sword with a grim expression and the blackened figure of Louis, his eyes never leaving mine.

 

🦋

 

“Are you awake?”

 

A soft voice rang in my ears before my blurry vision cleared. My mind whirled very slowly, as if I’d been asleep for a long time.

 

I blinked slowly to clear my vision.

 

A gentle-looking man with fine silver hair was staring at me with concern.

 

We were in the woods, surrounded by enormous trees of unknown size.

 

“You were down, so I helped you up. I’m glad you’re awake.”

 

The imposing man with an unusually bright aura spoke again.

 

I turned my distracted gaze back to him. He seemed to have a certain sparkle to him.

 

He emitted a scent similar to that of my friends.

 

“I’ve never seen anyone so defenseless in the Land of Gold.”

 

The Land of Gold?

 

It was home to the Tower of Gold, the Wizard’s Tower. It wasn’t called that because of the gold, but because of the color of the land, which was a vast desert.

 

In addition to the harsh terrain, the land has long since become uninhabitable due to the experiments of wizards in the past. 

 

It was a lawless area, making it difficult for anyone but mercenaries with a rough temper to settle down.

 

“It was bad before, but it’s even more dangerous nowadays, and outsiders are especially rare.”

 

As I listened to the man talk to himself without me asking, I tried to organize this confusing situation.

 

The disparity between my last memory and now was staggering.

 

I’d been attacked by a darkened Louis, knocked unconscious by a spell, and ended up somewhere unknown.

 

I shuddered at the vivid memories. My death came much sooner than I expected.

 

It was bad timing. If I had finished the spell a little sooner, it might not have happened.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

The silver-haired man asked me kindly if he had read my darkening expression.

 

None of it was good, but I answered back equally kindly to my supposed benefactor.

 

“It’s fine, tha— Thank you.”

 

My voice sounded like I hadn’t spoken in a very long time.

 

The man handed me a bottle of sparkling water. I drank the water, feeling a cool sensation run through my body.

 

And I suddenly realized: something was wrong.

 

My heart had been pierced?

 

How am I still alive?

 

After a moment, my hand went limp and stiff, and the man asked me questioningly.

 

“Is there something wrong with you?”

 

“Are you the one who treated me?”

 

He shook his head and said, “No, I didn’t. You didn’t have any injuries worth treating.”

 

I pulled the blanket over me and looked myself over.

 

Still no wounds. Besides, what’s this energy I felt earlier?

 

A huge amount of unfamiliar mana was swirling and flowing through my body.

 

“That’s strange…”

 

With this much mana, I’m almost as powerful as Adrian.

 

I formed a small blade from the compressed mana and swung it around to see if it would work.

 

Wedge—!

 

The solid blade created in an instant flew through the air with a sound that cut through the wind and stuck into a tree.

 

“Hmph.”

 

The man, who had been watching me curiously, gasped in surprise at something passing by his side.

 

“Hey, what the…”

 

“Oh, don’t freak out, it’s just an experiment…”

 

It was just a little magic experiment. I was going for the “Voilà!” vibe, but I didn’t finish my sentence.

 

“What the hell is this?”

 

Suddenly, a man rushed in and stood between me and the man.