Literature / With One Day Left I'll Break All the Destruction Flags

Any % otome speedrun begins now!

With One Day Left I'll Break All the Destruction Flags: "Serves You Right!" RTA 24 Hour Record (Nokori Ichinichi de Hametsu Flag Zenbu Heshiorimasu: Zamaa RTA Kiroku 24Hr) is an otome light novel then later manga written by Fukutome Shun and illustrated by Amagi Nozomu. The series consists of a standalone novel^note Or three volumes with sixteen chapters for the manga which is considered quite short for its genre due to the plot's Extremely Short Timespan.

Alexandra is the daughter of the duke of the kingdom of Tarraconensis and soon-to-be crown princess due to her engagement to Prince Alfonso. Alas, the prince has been bewitched by a baron's daughter named Lucia. Out of jealousy, Alexandra relentlessly bullied her from the shadows. But one day, Alexandra found this predicament strangely familiar...

It was then that Alexandra realizes that she and Lucia were both reincarnated as the villainess and heroine respectively in their favorite otome game "Racing Feelings of Love in the Garden of Eden", where the former is condemned and exiled (or even killed) from the kingdom at the story's climax, while the latter gets to live a happily ever after. But Alexandra doesn't wish to go out like that, and decides to fight against her predestined doom!

Unfortunately, there are two problems: Alexandra recovered her past memories a mere 24 hours before the event, which doesn't leave her a lot of time to fix or change anything. The heroine has also opted for the Reverse Harem Ending, meaning not only the prince but all eight capture targets are more than ready to tear the villainess down for her wicked actions against their beloved. Now it's a Race Against the Clock as Alexandra must destroy all her red flags through this dire situation best described as a "Reborn as Villainess" Story speedrun on hardcore mode. But while she doesn't have time on her side, she does have the connections and wealth of a duke's daughter to help her out. Can Alexandra change her fate, or is she doomed to follow the story's progression to its fatal climax?

The story can be found in Comic Walker while the original novel can be read in Alphapolis. A sequel novel following the reincarnated protagonist of the sequel game was released soon after.

Contains the following tropes:

• Acquitted Too Late: Alexandra acquired the memories of her previous life too late to change everything that has occurred before; much of the plot has Alexandra going around doing damage control as fast as possible to create an outcome that is favorable towards her.
• Affably Evil: This is the case for Isidro, a wealthy merchant with criminal underworld connections who has done a lot of business in the past for Alexandra, particularly a lot of dirty stuff, in exchange for proper monetary compensation. Such past actions at her behest include hiring thugs to attack Lucia, spying, illegal trades, and even connecting with dangerous hitmen. Despite this, while he does admit his loyalty is mainly to whomever pays him best, he does seem genuinely loyal to Alexandra as she is one of his most prominent customers and he always makes sure to give his absolute best service for whatever she asks of him. Before she goes off to deal with Elia, the last of the non-Alfonso targets, Alexandra genuinely thanks him for all his help, which he seems rather touched by and accepts, asking that she continue to be a patron for his services.
• Almost Kiss: Prince Gerald attempts to kiss Alexandra but is interrupted both times. First, Alexandra tells him that this is a rather inappropriate time to do so, as that time they're on their way to the final confrontation with his brother and Lucia. Later, their child Alberto runs into the room. He finally gets to give Alexandra a Big Damn Kiss just as they are about to walk the aisle.
• And I Must Scream: The Real Lucia finally gets to leave her mind to freely live on her own terms while also simultaneously trapping the Reincarnated Lucia in their mindscape as payback for doing the same. The last we see of Reincarnated Lucia is her frantically banging on the door to the Gilded Cage, profusely crying and begging to be released since this shouldn’t happen to the heroine but the Real Lucia is too much in love with her and keeps her as a prisoner away from the outside world and in their mind forever and ever.
• Animal Motif: Lucia is called and likened to a "vixen" which not only refers to female foxes known for their lustful behavior but also a seductive woman with an unpalatable, ill-tempered personality. Alexandra further compares Lucia's Reverse Harem goals to Eastern folklore about a shapeshifting fox temptress:
  Alexandra: "The term has its roots in a certain event that took place in a country in the Far East. In that country which had reached the height of prosperity, a fox demon transformed into a beautiful woman then proceeded to deceive the Emperor and drown him in all manners of pleasure. Under an Emperor whose heart had been stolen, that country began to decline— and it finally collapsed."
• Arranged Marriage: Alexandra and Alfonso were in an arranged marriage since they were children. The former "tricked" herself into falling in love with Alfonso, since she knew she was stuck in it regardless of what she wanted, and worked hard to become the future Queen. The latter acted sincerely as well, but abandoned his duties once he fell in love with Lucia, revealing he secretly resented Alexandra all those years. The royal family calls off their engagement after Alexandra requests it, but is immediately put into a new engagement with Alfonso's younger brother Gerald, who always liked her since they were children. They end up happily married after the time skip.
• Babies Ever After: During the three-year Time Skip, Alexandra managed to birth to not one but two royal heirs, little Prince Alberto and his baby sister Dahila, whom she absolutely adores with the now King Gerald. Well, only Alberto was actually born between Alexandra and Gerald; Dahila is actually Lucia and Alfonso's child from their one-night stand, who the Real Lucia gave away to Alexandra both due to her circumstances (you can't be a mother in a monastery) and in preparation for the sequel game.
• Backhanded Apology: During the absolution event, Alexandra apologizes for some of the things she did against Lucia, which freaks the latter out since it was an unscripted moment. It also clears Alexandra from not being thrown out of the event by Alfonso, since she humbled herself in the eyes of nobility.
• Batman Gambit: This might as well be the true title of this story, as that's what Alexandra keeps pulling off in order for her long-term goal of avoiding the worse ending for her is. Every plan she pulls off is one of these, as by simply pulling on threads of information, using her preexisting knowledge of the game and it's lore, making good use of the available resources she has as the daughter of an impossibly rich and influential noble family, and also her own wit and cunning innate to her as a villainess, she is able to make major drastic changes to her benefit that also end up benefiting those she cares about while destroying her enemies and their chances.
• Big Damn Kiss: In the final chapter, Prince Gerald finally manages to kiss his beloved Alexandra just before walking down the aisle of their wedding after all the other times were interrupted by unforeseen or inappropriate circumstances.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: The capture targets are very easy on the eyes as expected for a female-orientated otome game. But most of them have been seduced by Lucia and oppose Alexandra, so we really only get to see their bad sides, if we see them at all.
• Death by Adaptation: Elia was arrested and executed for his crimes after Alexandra ambushed him, which is different from his fate in the In-Universe source material where he was never caught and is able to escape from the assassination business scot-free.
• Deconstruction: Of the "Reborn as Villainess" Story subgenre. The main character recovers their memories of their previous life only 24 hours before the condemnation event, while the heroine recovered hers years before, having a clear advantage against the former. Alexandra doesn't have time to do what other reincarnated villainesses do in their stories, that being changing the relationships between herself and the other characters or reversing any trouble she made before recovering her memories. All she can do is get her engagement annulled and prevent the other love interests from participating in the graduation ceremony so that she has a better chance of surviving.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Alexandra believes the Reverse Harem ending is worse than all the other endings, even though that's the only ending where she lives; Lucia is able to befriend Alexandra during this ending and reconcile with her. Alexandra herself finds that prospect more humiliating than being exiled or poisoned to death, especially because Lucia is far more manipulative than Alexandra, who despite her own flaws, at least acknowledges them, unlike Lucia who continues to believe herself the heroine who can do no wrong.
• Didn't Think This Through: Alfonso's erratic behavior and insistence on sticking with the publicly promiscuous Lucia was never going to work out for him in terms of his future of becoming King. On top of the fact that he would be trying to marry and make a Queen out of a woman who clearly has no regard for social status quo and continuously has blatant affairs with powerful men, two of whom are his friends and one of whom is his own UNCLE, his vocal and rather unhinged hatred for Alexandra and public crazed infatuation with Lucia makes him seem like he is an emotional wreck of a man who would willingly ruin the country all for the sake of having Lucia as his Queen, thus making him unsuited for the throne and instead forcing his parents to raise his youngest brother Gerald to the position of Crown Prince instead. Even in the original Reverse Harem ending, these very choices lead to the country's downfall. Alexandra even points out to him that, if he had just ended the engagement with her peacefully instead of going to such extreme lengths out of mere spite towards her, then his position as Crown Prince would never had been revoked in the first place. When she asks him why he didn't even think of that, he has no answer whatsoever, further proving his incompetence as a future ruler.
• Dwindling Party: To save herself from destruction, Alexandra uses her remaining 24 hours to prevent all eight capture targets from attending the graduation ceremony through illicit means, so that it's down only to Prince Alfonso there to defend Lucia when the absolution event occurs.
  • Alexandra's own butler Herald was discharged for conspiring against his lady by secretly stalking and gathering tons of damning evidence of her bullying Lucia. After receiving his severance pay and was dragged out of the manor, all of Herald's evidence was confiscated and burned so it could not be used at all.
  • Balthasar and Roberto come down with an unusually high fever and severe diarrhea respectively, thanks to hired rogues from Isidro inducing the sickness and planting laxatives in his tea.
  • Mario is blackmailed into not attending the ceremony with the threat of a ledger of his family's dirty dealings getting leaked out to their worst rival.
  • Filipe was dealt with by Alexandra handing his aide Letizia, who harbored feelings for him for years, with an aphrodisiac to induce Filipe into "having his way" with her, with the scandal forcing Filipe not to attend.
  • Theodore is tricked into not attending by Alexandra's classmate Carolina, with the idea that he'll be spared if he doesn't attend the absolution event and be able to monopolize Lucia all to himself with all the other capture targets out of the way.
  • Elia was lured by Alexandra and provoked him into attacking her by requesting that he kill Lucia. In a fit of blinded anger and judgement, he completely exposes himself in broad daylight and gets arrested by the awaiting guards and was eventually executed offscreen.
• Earn Your Happy Ending:
  • Alexandra suffered through many tribulations, pulled off complex schemes and had her heart broken and betrayed by the man she once loved but managed to obtain her happy ending that the villainess originally never had. In the new ending, Alexandra is still the crown princess by marrying her Second Love Prince Gerald who not only respects but cherishes her in every way unlike her former fiancee and had two children with him.
  Alexandra: [Closing Lines] "That day the [Absolution Event] was in the past. I'm moving into a future that isn't told in the game. The never seen before Crown Princess Route starts here!"
  • After spending years trapped inside her own mind with only a delusional "childhood friend" who had stolen her identity to periodically keep her company, the Real Lucia manages to finally escape and freely live her life again at the monastery while locking away the Reincarnated Lucia forever in turn.
  • Letizia as well. After years of yearning and the harsh rejection by her beloved, Letizia finally got her wish of happily marrying and having children with Prince Felipe, after he took responsibility for attacking her thanks to the aphrodisiac.
  • Zenaida was forced into being a maid to help her poor Viscount family. She ends up becoming the new duchess after marrying Alexandra's older brother, who she was in a secret relationship with the whole time.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Prince Gerald gets a more mature-looking haircut from his boyish one to symbolize his new resolve and how serious he is in his pursuit of both Alexandra's love and her hand in marriage as her "Prince Charming" once her engagement with Alfonso is called off.
• Extremely Short Timespan: As the title would suggest, Alexandra has only a mere 24 hours to turn this extremely dire and seemingly impossible situation in her favour with almost all of the manga focusing on the events from the afternoon before and the night of the absolution event. The last chapter subverts it by having Alexandra and Prince Gerald's Wedding Finale after a three-year Time Skip.
• The Faceless: Lucia's childhood friend has her face constantly obscured by shadow in every appearance which Lucia chalks up to her as being an "NPC". However, the actual reason is Lucia subconsciously suppressing her memories of the fact that her friend is the Real Lucia since they would both have the same face and therefore break the former's illusion of the fairytale ending she's trying to achieve. As such, the Real Lucia finally gets her face back in the final chapter when switching places with the Reincarnated Lucia.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • For Lucia, pride. She becomes overly confident that she's won once the Reverse Harem ending is secured, not realizing Alexandra could easily topple her plans if she got her memories of her previous life back using her family's wealth and connections, until it's too late. Her lust for the love interests also blinds her to the fact that her interactions with various high-ranking men has isolated her from the rest of the Academy, as well as high society at large, and that they consider her a serious threat to the foundation of the country because of said relationships.
  • For the original Alexandra, envy. She became jealous of Lucia's relationship with Alfonso, doing whatever it takes to get rid of the competition, which resulted in her losing her engagement (and in most other routes, her life). The reincarnated Alexandra therefore has a hard time trying to overcome said jealousy, since it comes from her unrequited love for Alfonso, though even she admits that love was just her deceiving herself. She also points out to Lucia and Alonso during the absolution event that she wouldn't have attacked Lucia out of jealousy if Alfonso had done the right thing and dissolved their engagement amicably.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Zenaida mentions while bathing with Alexandra that she is soon to be engaged to her lover, with Alexandra worried she's leaving her behind. Her lover turns out to be Alexandra's older brother, and she becomes the new duchess soon after marrying him.
  • There are major hints to Lucia's "NPC" childhood friend’s true nature before it's revealed that she is the Real Lucia trapped within her own body by the Reincarnated Lucia :
    • The incriminating letters over Lucia and Prince Alfonso's affair to the royal family for over the past year. There are only two reincarnators, Lucia and Alexandra, and it cannot be either of them as the former would not foil her own plan that had been in the making for nearly more than a decade and only told one confidant while the latter only woke up her past memories just the day before the absolution and the timings don’t match up. That is unless you considered Lucia's childhood friend aka said confidant with whom she had share her deepest darkest secrets with including her Reverse Harem plan. Being able to take control of their shared body at night, she snuck out and wrote the letters to warn the royal family what would happen.
    • Where would Lucia have the time to meet up and visit her childhood friend multiple times a day at a greenhouse in the middle of nowhere? The answer would be their own mindscape, which also explains why her childhood friend has a lot of free time on her hands and seemingly never leaves the place. Because she quite literally is trapped in there and therefore CAN’T leave.
• Friend in the Black Market: Isidro is one for Alexandra, though she wouldn't call him a "friend" to his face. It's through him that some of the more trickier aspects of her plan are accomplished, such as observing Lucia and Alfonso's one-night stand for evidence, getting Balthasar and Roberto sick overnight, and where to find the hidden love interest, Elia. She is genuinely grateful for his help however, thanking him for all he’s done, and he is reciprocal to her appreciation.
• Gilded Cage: The garden house where Lucia meets her childhood friend is in the middle of a scenic meadow and both have plenty of tea and snacks to go around. However, it is barren of furniture and decorations aside from the tables and chairs in the center of the one-room house and her friend doesn't seem to leave or appear with any other characters. That's because their meetings have all been in the Reincarnated Lucia's mind. The Real Lucia later returns the favor once she reveals herself to the Reincarnated Lucia, leaving the latter forever trapped in the secluded paradise.
• Happily Adopted: Alexandra and Gerald's second child, Dahlia, is actually Lucia and Alfonso's child from their one-night stand. But due to her biological parents' respective circumstances, she is instead adopted by Alexandra in anticipation for the sequel game. Dahlia eventually learned the truth of her birth on her own but has affirmed that Alexandra and Gerald are her true parents far more than her biological parents were. And the feeling is mutual on their end, as they and their son Alberto love her in spite of who her birth parents are.
• Head-Turning Beauty: Alexandra self-describes herself as this, and this is also apparently true in-universe, as the original game had Alexandra be the polar opposite in Lucia in terms of looks. While Lucia was made to be a simple yet adorable stock Otome game heroine, Alexandra is the archetypical Otome game villainess, gorgeous beyond words, able to charm men and women simply by walking by them, and blessed with other notable features like a, ahem, generous chest size.
• Hypocrite: Lucia previously insults Alexandra by claiming that to her, "Alfonso is just the crown prince", i.e. she only wants him for his fancy title and the position she can get from him, and doesn't see him for the person he is. But Lucia sees him as even less than a person since he's only a capture target to her, only wants him as part of her Reverse Harem, and immediately drops him when his position in the succession is revoked, showing her true colors by telling him to go by himself to the borderlands when they are both ordered by his parents to go and reclaim them from the barbarians if they want the Royal Family’s blessing for their marriage.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Lucia's motivation for opting for the Reverse Harem ending is that she wants to be loved by all the love interests. Alexandra and Lucia's childhood friend (the Real Lucia) both deconstruct this by making her realize that all she really wants is the "love" of her favorite fictional characters and the fame of being the crown princess, not recognizing their autonomy as real people in this world, nor realizing how heinous her actions look towards the people of this new reality.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Alexandra, after she gets her memories back. She may be smug, calculating, and haughty at times, but she still has a warm heart underneath all that, even after being heartbroken by Alfonso's betrayal.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After being locked up in her own mind for so long with a delusional self-centered reincarnated individual for company, the Real Lucia returns the favor by locking up the Reincarnated Lucia in their shared mindscape in the ending. Additionally, all the lives of the eight capture targets who choose Lucia over their responsibilities and the kingdom’s future becomes a lot worse when they are stripped of their various titles, jobs, status, wealth and in Elia’s case, his life. Only Filipe managed to escape due to taking responsibility for his aphrodisiac induced assault of Letizia, but even then, it's implied in the light novel that he may still be taking regular doses of the aphrodisiac Letizia used on him.
• Likes Older Men: The King's brother, Prince Filipe, willingly chose to remain a bachelor to support his brother as King and thus is a possible love interest in the original otome game. Indeed by the time Alexandra wakes up as a reincarnator, Lucia already has him deep in her clutches despite the fact that he is old enough to be her father, much to the chagrin of Letizia, the Prince's assistant who is a childhood friend of his and has long been sincerely infatuated with him.
• Love Hurts: Alexandra notes that despite knowing that Prince Alfonso betrayed her for Lucia as it happened in the game's story, she still finds a part of her hurt over it, since she "tricked" herself into falling for him. After Lucia and Alfonso are brought away, Alexandra falls to the ground and cries over it while her Second Love Prince Gerald comforts her. It's implied that she experienced a similar Unrequited Love in her past as well.
• Malicious Misnaming: Alexandra calls Lucia "Potato Girl" due to the latter's status as a commoner with a farming background and the former's resentment toward her even after her past memories awoke.
• My Skull Runneth Over: Alexandra describes the process of recovering her memories of her previous life as painful. With Lucia, recovering those memories had her stuck in a fever and would have nearly died for it due to how young she was when she recovered those memories. It was so bad that the Real Lucia became trapped within their mind as a semi-split personality, only being able to escape and do things in her own body at night, when the Reincarnated Lucia would be asleep and therefore unaware of the Real Lucia's slowburn plan to engineer her downfall and eventually get her body back.
• Never My Fault: Lucia is the main person who screams this every time something goes wrong, putting full blame on Alexandra for this. Now to be fair, she technically isn't wrong, since Alexandra IS undoing all of Lucia's efforts, but what she fails to realize is that the only reason Alexandra is even meddling is because of Lucia being so committed to railroading the game into the Reverse Harem ending that her seductions of so many powerful men, including two princes, are about to bring the country down, something that she is aware of fully and refuses to care about since to her, the world she inhabits isn't real and it's all a game.
  • All of the love interests, or at least the ones who get focused on, also fall into this trope, and none moreso than Alfonso, who's complete and utter hatred for Alexandra makes him constantly shift blame on her for anything that causes his precious Lucia harm, even when such things are not even her fault. The worst part is, this attitude of his really only got so bad BECAUSE of Lucia, who encouraged his secret resentment of Alexandra when seducing him by making it seem like Alexandra never actually cared for him, just his title as Crown Prince, which is extra ironic if you think about it.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: Alexandra does this after Lucia is taken away by the guards from the graduation ceremony, at Alfonso's expense. It infuriates Alfonso enough to throw a punch aimed at Alexandra. Gerald blocks it, though they both get knocked into a table as a result.
• Proper Lady: As expected of a duke's daughter, Alexandra is a natural in high society, having been trained to be so since she was a child in anticipation of her engagement to Prince Alfonso.
  • Her classmate Carolina is also considered one, even more so than Alexandra, and was one of the candidates to be Prince Alfonso's fiancé if Alexandra wasn't able to.
• Psycho Lesbian: Lucia's childhood friend wants her all to herself and conspires to do so, believing the suitors Lucia gushes over don’t deserve her love and attention. She exploits being Lucia’s closest confidant by leaking her Reverse Harem plans to the royal family behind her back, getting her confined to a monastery and tagging along so she would be the only person in Lucia’s life. This becomes justified considering the childhood friend is in fact the Real Lucia all along who the reincarnated heroine had trapped inside their mind and was taking back what’s rightfully hers, condemning the imposter to the same fate forever.
• Put on the Bus: Alexandra's master plan depends on ensuring all capture targets but Prince Alfonso were absent at the absolution event in one way or another through induced sickness, Blackmail, set-ups and the likes. As such, Lucia lost the Reverse Harem ending she always desired since there's nobody else to defend or back up her claims for her.
• Race Against the Clock: The whole story took place under the span of 24 hours.
• Really Gets Around: Lucia is known around the academy and the entire kingdom as "The Vixen" which to put it lightly is a nicer term for "eight-timing, all-around gold-digging slut". This is deconstructed in that she's considered a pariah that would bring the kingdom to the end by everybody, including her own parents, as she ensnared the hearts of many with royalty status, political influence, wealth and power and isn't the least bit sorry or subtle about it. Thus, nobody is willing to defend her blatantly wrong affair to the already-betrothed crown prince at the absolution event besides her capture targets and was immediately sent to a monastery for her actions.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Both the King and Queen are very understanding about Alexandra's issues with Alfonso and even agree outright to annul the engagement behind their son's back after they get the letters that prove his affair with Lucia and the signs of his own incompetence become too large to ignore. They also recognize Alexandra's talents as an influence in high society and how intelligent and valuable she is as an ally. Thus, they offer to let her still have her cake of being Queen by simply transferring her engagement over to Gerald, their far more responsible younger son, whose preexisting crush on Alexandra they seem to be aware of, but only do so as long as both of them agree to it.
• "Reason You Suck" Speech: After she is sent to a monastery for her failure to pass the Queen's Secret Testof Character, Lucia is confronted by her "NPC" childhood friend who then proceeds to break her longstanding Never My Fault worldview of her current situation by revealing the crucial fact that she herself delibrately forgot: the childhoodfriend was the Real Lucia the entire time, and Reincarnated Lucia had been chatting to her within the shared mindscape she had locked Real Lucia in after recovering her past life memories. Real Lucia points out to her that the very world she had tried to manipulate wasn't a fairytale made only for her or a game to be played, and her refusal to accept that made everything that happened to her entirely her own fault before Real Lucia locks her away within the mindscape and happily regains control over her body for the first time in years.
• Reincarnate in Another World:
  • Both Alexandra and Lucia awaken their past memories in their favorite otome video game as the villainess and heroine respectively, with the main difference being the former only remembering just a mere 24 hours before the fated absolution event, while the latter had been running amuck since she was a child and meticulously planning her Reverse Harem happily ever after.
  • Volume 2 of the series focuses on Angela who is also reincarnated into the sequel game's protagonist like Lucia was, but the Meta Twist is that she does NOT want the Reverse Harem ending happening, even though she had managed to secure the Reverse Harem ending before she recovered her memories. Thus the 2nd volume focuses on Angela breaking the romance flags she unwittingly set up with help of her butler Edgar.
• Satellite Love Interest: All the capture targets revolve around Lucia's apparent love for them since she followed the game's script perfectly. This makes all the love interests swallow, unlikeable and unreasonable as a result, which is especially problematic since one of them is the Crown Prince and a few are expected to lead the kingdom with him. Alexandra isn't the least bit sorry for irreversibly ruining their lives and tearing their soulmate away from them in one fell swoop. However, she was still hurt by prince Alfonso's betrayal since she had actually convinced herself she loved him so well, it ended up being real.
• Second Love: After her engagement with Alfonso is called off by the King, Alexandra is then immediately thrown into a new engagement with the third prince Gerald. He turns out to be the young boy Alexandra played with as a child, and who has been in love with Alexandra ever since, even though she is slightly older than him. Unlike Alfonso, however, Gerald truly respects and adores Alexandra despite her nastier tendencies, and does everything he can to become the Prince Charming she desires him to be. They end up happily married with two kids after Gerald proves himself on the battlefield while cleaning up Alfonso's messes.
• Secret Test of Character: During the absolution event, the King claims he will agree to Alfonso and Lucia's engagement if Alfonso defeats the barbarians ravaging the borderlands. But when Alfonso tries to convince Lucia to come with him, she blatantly refuses, since she knows from the game that he will die if he goes to war (and she will be assaulted by the barbarians as well). This gets her immediately sent to a monastery, since the Queen had made a deal with Lucia's family that she would be spared from punishment if she willingly went with Alfonso to war.
• Sequel Hook: The interludes released in Alphapolis details the in-between events of Alexandra's story with that of the 2nd volume focusing on the sequel game.
• Sibling Rivalry: Alexandra is currently on terrible terms with her younger sister Viviana since the latter is best friends with Lucia and has heard every single horrible thing the latter did to her. As such, Viviana supports Lucia's relationship with Prince Alfonso while relentlessly antagonizing Alexandra. In her attempt to fix things, the latter tries to relinquish her engagement to Viviana instead, since losing the engagement would be a huge blow to their family's reputation. This made Viviana realize how Lucia is completely in the wrong for seducing her older sister's fiancé and how Alexandra has been suffering from the infidelity the whole time, as well as the fact that with the way things are going, Viviana will also end up being dragged down once the inevitable fallout from Lucia’s actions come into play and ruin the kingdom. It doesn't fix their familial relationship completely, but it does prevent Viviana from coming forth during the absolution event against her sister. As such, Alexandra is happy to tell her sister that she’s proud of her being able to open her eyes to reality, despite how it must have hurt to do this to a friend.
  • Alfonso and Gerald are also on bad terms with each other. Gerald dislikes Alfonso's blatant disregard for Alexandra's devotion to him for the last several years, while Alfonso is annoyed by Gerald's meddling in his affair with Lucia and mocks him for his obvious crush on Alexandra, whom Alfonso openly despises. Unlike Alexandra and Viviana, the brothers don't ever reconcile, as Gerald takes the position of Crown Prince from Alfonso. The latter then goes on to be captured and betrays his country during the crusade, while Gerald goes on to win several battles and marries Alexandra.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Prince Alfonso was sent straight to war which, according to the bad ending of the Crown Prince route, would definitely get him killed by the barbarians. Ironically enough, Prince Alfonso managed to survive the crusade in this timeline, albeit in a worse position than if he were dead. He's horribly defeated, abducted, and willingly leaked state secrets to the enemies in exchange for his release, leaving his reputation down the toilet and every privilege and royal status he once had revoked.
• Stock Shoujo Heroine: Averted with Lucia. While she is friendly, open-minded, and cheerful on the surface, underneath that sweet face she's also capacious, manipulative, and quite selfish. You have to be if you're going to pursue the Reverse Harem ending.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Lucia, wanting the Reverse Harem ending, follow the game’s script to a T and did everything in her power to make all eight capture targets fall madly in love with her. However, she was so focused on obtaining her happily ever after that she ignored the nationwide consequences her affairs had on the kingdom since she seduced so many men of high status, wealth and nobility, including the already engaged crown prince himself and his own uncle, in such an abnormally short amount of time. As such, the public only saw Lucia as not the charming heroine but a devious vixen who would ruin their fair kingdom and was banished to a monastery for the rest of her days as punishment after she fails a Secret Test of Character by the Queen.
  • Similarly, Lucia spent years reminiscing about her end plan to her childhood friend using otome game terminology and tropes to explain it, but since video games and modern-day pop culture never existed in the reincarnated world, the latter has no idea what she’s talking about and is thoroughly convinced the former is delusional and insane. This is especially since the childhood friend knows she is the Real Lucia, having been hijacked by the Reincarnated Lucia long ago, and told off her counterpart to stop living their life in a fantasy world and accept reality for what it is to which she finally locked her up in their mindscape for good.
  • Prince Alfonso wants to marry for love, and not undergo a soulless, Arranged Marriage with Alexandra. On paper, this would be fine and all, but this only proves to everyone, including his parents the King and Queen, that Alfonso is completely unsuited for the throne as being driven by only emotion would surely bring the downfall of the kingdom as an oblivious lovestruck ruler who foolishly listens to no one but the gold-digging, shady Lucia. The current King and Queen fixed this problem by making Prince Gerald the crown prince instead (they couldn't make the second Prince Gregorio the heir since he's already in an arranged marriage with a princess from another kingdom, something he hilariously enough only finds out during the very meeting to discuss this issue) and sent Alfonso straight to war which led to his house arrest and the revoking of all titles and royal status without any hesitation because he’s too far gone to be reason with and also because he betrays his country by leaking state secrets to the enemy in exchange for his release after they captured him.
  • The spy sent to sneakily observed and record Lucia and Prince Alfonso's first time had written it in the style of a steaming-hot erotica novel. However, the records were completely unusable as evidence of the two’s infidelity due to its unnecessary details and description which cannot be taken seriously in court and Alexandra wisely never brought it up during the absolution event. Instead, Isidro published it as a best-selling romance fiction in spite of being based on real events (although it could also BE because it was based on real events, since by this point everyone is aware of what kind of person Lucia is).
• Tampering with Food and Drink: Roberto was taken out when one of the Isidro’s spies disguised herself as a maid and slipped highly potent laxatives into his tea. This results in Roberto having a day-long trip to the bathroom and being a no show to the absolution event.
• Those Two Guys: Balthasar and Roberto are close friends of the crown prince and both were taken out at the same time with similar methods of inducing sickness. They even share the same fate of going into battle with Prince Alfonso, losing horribly and becoming bedridden from their near-fatal injuries for the rest of their natural life. They are also the least-developed of all the love interests, not even having any lines of dialogue in the manga.
• True Neutral: In-Universe. Carolina is considered the rose of high society. Her involvement in the original story would swing either towards Lucia or Alexandra depending on the ending, as she doesn't want to get herself into trouble. In the new timeline, Lucia's unexplainably lustful behavior towards many high-ranking men has Carolina on edge, as she has become a threat to the kingdom's very existence. This allows Alexandra to swing Carolina to her side, having her help persuade love interest Theodore to not attend the ceremony.
• Tsundere: Alexandra, especially after she gets re-engaged with Gerald. She tries to act haughty and cold to him, only for his earnestness and charm to make her blush. She apparently was like this with Gerald when they were kids as well.
• Walking Spoiler: Anything involving Lucia's childhood friend is a huge spoiler, since it changes everything we know about Lucia herself.
• We Have Become Complacent: Part of why Alexandra's situation hasn't become completely hopeless is because she takes advantage of the fact that Lucia believes her work is done. She's bagged all the love interests and is well-prepared for the absolution event the next day. What Lucia wasn't expecting was for Alexandra to regain her previous life's memories of the game, or to use her connections and wealth to fight back against her. This even extends to the absolution event itself; Lucia doesn't expect to Alexandra to "sincerely" apologize for her actions in front of everyone, since it's an unscripted moment and Lucia, who is an expert on otome game tropes, knows that the villainess apologizing for her wrongdoings is NOT something that usually happens.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Alexandra reminisces to herself the fates of the so-called heroine Lucia and her capture targets after the three-year Time Skip:
  • Lucia was expelled for seducing many highly powerful, wealthy and politically influential people of the kingdom which includes the betrothed crown prince and sent to a faraway monastery to condone her inexcusable actions. Soon after, she was trapped by the Real Lucia in their mindscape and never saw her prince nor the outside world ever again, while the Real Lucia could finally the life she lost, eventually giving birth to the child she and Alfonso conceived during their one-night stand and handing the baby off to Alexandra so that she would be raised by a loving family.
  • After his disastrous confrontation at the absolution event, Prince Alfonso was forcibly abdicated from the throne and thrown into the crusade against the barbarians where he was further destroyed by losing horrendously. He leaked state secrets to the enemies upon capture and was stripped of all his titles and placed under indefinite house as punishment, never to see his previous Lucia ever again.
  • Balthasar and Roberto are still recovering from severe injuries from joining Prince Alfonso on the battlefield and are expected to be bedridden for life.
  • The former elegant butler Herald now aimlessly wanders the streets both homeless and broke once his severance paid dried up.
  • Mario's family fell on extremely hard times after a certain somebody (Isidro) exposed all their dirty dealings to the public with his reputation being beyond unrecoverable afterwards.
  • Prince Filipe took responsibility for sexually assaulting his assistant Letizia under the influence of aphrodisiacs and settled down with her. The two are currently Happily Married with a kid and another on the way.
  • Theodore became "quiet as a doll" and spent his days living in solitude with his skills and popularity as a teacher heavily declining.
  • Elia the assassin was imprisoned and finally executed for conspiring to kill Alexandra and other heinous crimes.
  • On the other hand, Isidro published the unused evidence of Lucia and Alfonso's infidelity as an erotica novel which sold like hotcakes and made a killing, while also using Mario's ledger against him and his family.
  • Zenaida goes from Alexandra's personal maid to sister-in-law after marrying the latter's brother and takes care of the Ducal household in her stead.
  • Alexandra is still the crown princess and is preparing to walk down the aisle at her wedding with her adoring future husband Prince Gerald and their two children, finally having the happy ending she always desired.
• Wedding Finale: The manga ends with Alexandra and Prince Gerald getting ready to walk down the aisle of their wedding after a three-year Timeskip.
• Yandere: It's implied some of the Real Lucia's feelings towards her reincarnated counterpart is this. The former finds herself drawn to the ambitious, capricious Reincarnated Lucia, as she has the courage and selfishness she always wanted. Her affections twist into a love-hate relationship as time went on, until their imprisonment at the monastery provided the Real Lucia the opportunity to lock the Reincarnated Lucia away in their mind for good, the former even telling the latter she loves her as she walks away.