Chapter 1: The Death of a Sovereign and the Birth of a Legend

The Crimson Monarch stood atop the school rooftop, wind billowing through his coat like the tattered banners of a once-glorious empire. His arms were crossed, his crimson gaze piercing through the veil of mundane reality. To the untrained eye, he was merely an eccentric high school boy—one who should have been in class rather than perched on the school's ledge, casting dramatic shadows over the courtyard below. But to those attuned to the cosmic forces of fate, he was the Carmine Archon, Emperor of the Rosé Cosmos, and today was the day he would proclaim his dominion.

"Foolish mortals," he intoned, voice laced with the weight of a thousand years of imagined battles. "You scurry about your lives, ignorant of the great forces that stir beyond your perception. But I, the harbinger of the Crimson Dawn, have foreseen the convergence! The Cycle of Ruination nears its zenith, and only I—yes, I alone—stand between this fragile world and oblivion."

Silence.

From below, a chorus of unimpressed groans and exasperated sighs rang out. His classmates had long since grown weary of his antics, yet he never ceased. If anything, their irritation only fueled his theatrics.

"Shut up and get down from there before a teacher sees you, you idiot!" someone shouted.

"The hell is he even talking about this time?" another grumbled.

And then, the dreaded voice of his homeroom teacher cut through the murmurs like a divine decree.

"Takumi, get down from there this instant, or so help me—"

"Silence, Warden of the Shackled Plane!" Takumi turned, his crimson-lined coat fluttering as he dramatically pointed toward the sky. "I bow to no authority of the Mundane Regime! You may attempt to chain me, but I am the Carmine Archon! No shackles can—"

A powerful shove.

The sensation of weightlessness.

The world twisted as gravity reclaimed its hold, and suddenly, he was plummeting. For a fleeting moment, his mind struggled to process it—had someone truly pushed him? Had his proclamations finally driven someone to violence? But there was no time to dwell. The concrete rushed toward him, a merciless arbiter indifferent to his delusions of grandeur.

He hit the ground.

Pain. A flash of light. The sensation of something cracking within him, of warmth spreading from his core outward, of something slipping away. A sharp inhale, then silence.

Darkness.

Was this... death?

No, impossible. He was Takumi, the Carmine Archon. Death was but a transition, another step in his grand design. But why did it feel so... final?

He drifted.

For how long, he did not know.

Then, a voice—a muffled, distant murmur, as if heard through layers of water. He tried to focus, to grasp onto something, anything. His body felt... small. Weak. He couldn't move properly. Panic began to claw at the edges of his mind. Was this the afterlife? Had he truly perished?

"Look, my darlings... my beautiful twins."

Twins?

A sudden shift in his surroundings. He could feel himself being held, cradled. The warmth of another against him. A voice, gentle yet unfamiliar, whispered something he could not quite comprehend.

Then, he heard it.

"Celestia."

His mind screeched to a halt. The name echoed within him, unfamiliar yet inescapable. He struggled, his tiny limbs flailing, but his body would not obey him.

"Celestia von Aurelia," the voice repeated, full of warmth and adoration.

That was not his name.

That was not his name.

She blinked at the game's completion screen, heart still hammering in her chest. It had taken weeks—no, months—to fully unravel every route, every secret ending, every hidden interaction. And now, it was done.

"Ethereal Crown: Blossoms of Destiny," read the elegant, gold-trimmed script at the top of the screen. Below it, an image of the Crown Princess, her favorite character, smiling in regal triumph.

She leaned back in her chair, stretching. "God, that was amazing."

Seraphina von Aurelia, the radiant and powerful heir to the throne, had been her favorite character from the start. While the game was ostensibly a yuri romance visual novel, Seraphina was so much more than just a love interest. She was the epitome of strength, intelligence, and elegance. Every moment spent playing her routes had been a joy. And now, she had finished every possible variation of her story.

She sighed wistfully. "If only I could be her…"

A stupid thought. But wasn't that part of the fun? To lose oneself in another world, another life, even if only for a little while?

The screen flickered. Her heart skipped a beat.

Then, darkness.

Pain.

A crushing pressure in her chest, a sudden gasp, her vision blurring. The room around her tilted, her breath caught in her throat. Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong.

The last thing she saw was the completed save file, the golden text shimmering faintly before her consciousness slipped away.

She awoke to light.

It took her a moment to process. The scent of flowers, the sound of fabric rustling, the warm touch of something soft beneath her. Everything felt... different. Lighter. Softer. More real than anything she had ever experienced.

She tried to move and found herself tiny.

Her heart pounded in her chest.

Then, she heard it.

"Seraphina von Aurelia."

Her breath hitched. That name. Her name.

A wild, frantic thought took hold of her. Slowly, hesitantly, she turned her head to the side.

And there—beside her—lay a tiny, squirming figure, with golden hair and the most brilliant pink eyes she had ever seen.

Her mind reeled, memories of the game flooding her thoughts, of the protagonist's twin sister—the mysterious Celestia von Aurelia, a character barely mentioned in the routes she played.

She gasped, realization crashing down on her like a tidal wave. She had become Seraphina.

And the baby beside her, confused and flailing?

Celestia.

Her twin.

A slow grin spread across her face.

"...Oh my God."

She had been given her dream.