The moment I woke up I was greeted by a familiar ceiling. It was that damned ceiling I always saw when the assassin killed me. However this time, it was clearly bright outside which was a strong contrast to how this usually worked.

Dazed, I looked out of the medieval looking window. This tranquility I hadn’t had in a long time seemed to calm my senses when suddenly...

Congratulations for avoiding the Death Flag: Assassin.

In accordance with your progress, three rewards have been allocated. Please choose from the following:

Save Point System (first save point is free and already used, after accomplishing a mission, a new Save Point will be available)

Aid and Information for the Game: Undercover Princess – Kingdom or Love?

Memories of Sophien Alma Rubien

Notice: The Beginner Bonus is still in effect. You can accept all three rewards.

Do you accept your rewards? Yes/No

Somehow confused I stared at the blue panel which appeared before my eyes for the second time.

Am I inside of a game?

Since I did not know what was happening I first accepted my rewards.

Your rewards will be allocated. The Save Point System has been incorporated in your status.

Do you want to continue with your second reward? Yes/No

Again I just clicked Yes. Maybe this ‘Aid and Information’ would be able to clear my confusion. At that moment I heard the voice of a man inside my head.

Test, test. Can you hear me?

I flinched. “Hello?”, I softly called out. Was I really going insane now?

Thankfully the transmission seems to work. I am the reward the Game System just gifted you. You can just call me system. From now on I will accompany you in the game: ‘Undercover Princess – Kingdom or Love?’.

First of all I will explain what happened to you or do you have any questions?

Again I flinched from being called inside my head. Then I shook my head. An explanation was exactly what I needed.

Great. For your understanding, you don’t have to talk to me. You can just voice your questions and concerns inside your head. They will be transmitted to me.

‘Like this?’, I tried.

Exactly. I should start explaining about your original body. As you may have already guessed, your original body is dead and your soul was sucked into this game because you held it in your hands when you were dying.

The Game System has blurred the memories of your previous world to make it easier for you to adapt and to move on. All of your abilities and memories concerning your skills have been transferred with you. Only memories about your death, family and friends have been affected.

The reason a simple game could suck your soul into it was because this game is about to advance to become an original world and in this process, the soul of the body you are inhibiting shattered.

“Stop, stop, stop for a moment. A soul shattered? That can happen?”, shocked as I was, I forgot the lesson the system just taught me and blurted that out aloud which prompted a voice to call out to me.

“Young Miss?”. It was the same voice which saved me from that assassin. The door slowly opened and a young woman poked her head inside the room. “Young Miss, you are awake.”

She opened the door and bowed to me. It took me a few seconds to understand that I had to give her permission to lift her head.

“You-You may rise.” It felt incredibly awkward.

She bowed her head a little deeper before she stood up. “Because of the commotion tonight the Duke has assigned more guards to guard your room and windows. You can rest assured that nothing like tonight will happen again. The Duke sent word for you to rest. If you want, I will call for the kitchen to make you a light meal. The doctors have already checked on you last night. Their advice was to rest for a few days to overcome the shock. Shall I call them again now that you are awake?”

The young woman wore traditional maid clothing but more functional than the one’s in my world. Since I presumed that she was a servant, I sent her away with the excuse to continue resting.

‘System? Are you still there?’, I was a little fearful that the voice would just disappear but thankfully, the system replied almost immediately.

Of course. Shall I continue with my explanation or do you want to first take a look at this body’s memories?

‘Please continue with the explanation. How can a soul shatter?’

The soul of the human being Sophien Alma Rubien could shatter because she gained self awareness before the game finished to advance. So in short, she had to follow the game scenario regardless of her own intentions every time a player restarted the game. Like you she was a captive in a Death Cycle however after Sophien’s anomaly was discovered, she had to live her whole life in auto-pilot. You can use this body as you please but she had to for example reread the same book every time the game mentioned it.

In this process the mental stress slowly caused her soul to crack and in the end shatter. Her remains are within this body which is also the reason you are able to view her memories.

Very slowly I closed my eyes.

I felt sympathy for Sophien since we were in a similar situation and also fear. Since I had to take up her body, would the same fate await me?

My task is to accompany you until this game destroys itself or advances to being an original world while my purpose is to help you retain your mental health and adapt to your new life.

Please notice that I am not an omniscient being. At times, I will be dragged into events as clueless as you are while at other times the Game System will allocate me some information.

I snorted. ‘If your purpose was to retain my mental health then you should have helped me through my repeated deaths. Why was I trapped in there anyway? Don't I have to play the role of Sophien?’

While I could not interfere directly, I did help you. As your soul is an outsider to this game, this game and its inhabitants will naturally be hostile towards you. However this game would collapse without you so as a result, the game only let you awaken at the moment of your death or shortly before.

I belong to a different kind of system. You could say I am an outsider as well. Every outsider – regardless of whether they transmigrated or reincarnated into a new world or game – gets an outside help to adapt but this help can’t interfere directly in their tasks life’s. That is normally, they can’t.

You properly haven’t noticed but your body is significantly stronger than when you first transmigrated here. This was my help. I cannot interfere directly so I helped your body to contain its experiences. Every time you ran away from that beast your muscles and stamina improved and every time you drank that poisoned tea, you gained a little bit of resistance.

Think about it. How could you have the awareness to avoid a knife if your senses were the same as the former Sophien? Consequently you managed to avoid a Death Flag with your own prowess which enabled me to actively help you.

Normally you would have to accumulate experience until you survive a Death Flag. In that case I would aid you out of the shadows like an outside help typically does but due to you avoiding the Death Flag alone, your reward increased. Do you understand?

‘Ehm, so… No, not entirely. What is the difference?’ I heard that voice clearing its throat before it continued the explanation.

Well, the difference between avoiding, overcoming and surviving a Death Flag are the following. Should you avoid a Death Flag, you are only safe for the moment. The same method of death can be used at a later time.

Overcoming a Death Flag is eliminating the possibility of this death entirely. Would you have killed that assassin, he would have been unable to be a threat to you thus overcoming his personal Death Flag. However, should he just be commissioned to kill you, the Death Flag: Assassin would not be overcome, but avoided since another assassin might take on that job.

Surviving a Death Flag is exactly what it sounds like. By for example accumulating poison resistance you would have been able to survive the Death Flag: Poisoning. Does this make it clear?

“Mhhm”, I mumbled. This was way too much information. ‘So you want to say that you can help me now because I surpassed the Game Systems expectations?’

You could say so.

‘So then, will I have to continue living in this body and this world? Can’t I reincarnate into my own world?’

The feeling of living inside a body that wasn’t mine was just too awkward. I did not long for my old world, probably because the memories which bounded me to that world were blurred. And I was rather thankful for that. How devastated would I have been in case I remembered them? I did think I had quite a few loved ones.

I sighed.

I definitely did not want to live in a world which tried to kill me several times.

Well, your soul was sucked into this game to replace Sophien so you can’t leave. At least not until this game finished advancing. And with time your souls should fuse making you a real inhabitant of this game. So no. I’m sorry but you probably won’t be able to leave this world.

‘Hold on a moment. Did I hear correctly? Fuse? What? Me and Sophien?’ I shuddered at the thought of a foreign soul influencing me.

To be exact the remains of Sophien in your body but don’t worry. It is neither painful nor will it influence you as long as you don’t want to. Should you accept Sophien’s life as yours at some point, then, you two will truly become one.

…

For the time being I chose to ignore that statement.

‘So I will continue living as Sophien? I won’t be trapped in a second Death Cycle, right?’

That was my most important question. I could not comprehend how I remained this calm right now and I probably could handle a second round but… I really, really did not want to. Wouldn’t that just be asking me to suffer throughout this new life? Could that even be called a life?

This is a little difficult to answer. While you won’t be alone this time, the Game System could still try to remove you or your peers could try too.

Your role in this game is a little peculiar. Sophien Alma Rubien is the villainess of this story and you will probably have to continue to harass the heroine.

“Hah!” ‘The hell!’, were they joking? Why would I bring myself into danger?

If you don’t follow your role and solve the missions or quests then this game will collapse and your soul will shatter alongside it.

“So you want to tell me that I have to work with that bastard Game System who wants to kill me?”