Prologue

You know what the worst part about dying was? Not finishing all the games I had backlogged. I think that probably says a lot about my life. But ah well. I’m not a psychiatrist. I mean... I WASN’T a psychiatrist. Ugh. Dying is weird. I’m Paul Veran. Well, I mean, I was. I was a general office guy. Didn’t make waves, didn’t really well, DO much of anything. I stayed to the back, minded my own business, and, on my days and time off, would play games. Lots and lots of games. But by far and large, the ones I enjoyed the most were visual novels. For some reason, the idea of having almost what equates to a storybook with branching narrative choices really struck home for me. And well, the fact that nearly every single one was a romance story was just kind of a casualty of this type of medium.

I even played otome games. Yeah, I know, a forty five year old dude playing otome games. I’ve heard them all. Honestly, I played them for the story rather than anything else, to see how their magic system in their world fared against other games, how deep the lore went, that sort of stuff. The fact that I played some chick who was picking to date one of five guys was irrelevant.

The most recent game I finished before I died itself wasn’t too bad. The five main guys were interesting, my favorite though was probably the duke’s son, Cedric Valatross. He was snarky at times, fun, and overall a breath of fresh air from the other stuffy protagonists. In actuality, the only REAL character I had a problem with was the protagonist I played as. She had a name entry screen, but apparently her canonical lore name was “Eloise.” And Oh my god... Was Eloise boring.

Now, you’d think a game where you could make dialogue choices wouldn’t have an issue with personality. But oh. How you were wrong. This character somehow managed to be the blandest thing that ever blanded. Every single time she offered a dialogue tree option, it would equivocate to something along the lines of “The trees are nice” or “Oh, this tea is very tart, but those who worked are on it put love into so, I don’t mind.” Literally every single dialogue option was the blandest, most placating thing you can say.

Even in the endings when you confess your love to the boy you like, she says things like “I cherish you” or “Being near you is enough.” Like, the absolute most generic, bland, sleep inducing dialogue ever. I honestly had to skip her lines pretty much every single time she came on. I ACTIVELY turned off the audio for her lines so I didn’t have to hear her.

Now, I bet you’re wondering why i’m talking so much about this specific game. Well, it all ties back to my death. You see, it was a good old fashioned brain aneurysm. Yep, forty five year old guy with a bad brain. Just, playing this stupid game alone in my apartment, then boom. Dead.

But, i’m writing this down, so that’s obviously not the end of it. Now, i’ve played a lot of these games as I said, and of course, i’ve heard the trope of ‘being isekai’ed’ and sure, it’s a very cute fictional device. But it’s not real. Right? Oh no. It’s real. It’s very very very real. And, I can tell you that. Because that’s what happened to me.

For a few years, I must have been someone else. Because for the first nine years of my life, I have no memory. But, then, one day, everything changed. Apparently I had been kicked by a pony when I was out for a ride, and went unconscious for a few days. I awoke, but when I did, I remembered everything i’m writing down now. And that’s when everything really began.