Another World
It was a sunny day in the middle of February, and Alexander was sitting under his favorite tree on the campus’ front lawn, playing an otome. As he played, he would look up from time to time to glance at the people milling around him, some walking by with their own books, others just casually strolling through the grass.
Sometimes, if people get closer, Alexander would tilt his phone over to him, hiding the fact he is playing a game centered on women.
Yes, it is embarrassing if one were to find out but he can't just help it because the story is so well-written!
The characters are beautiful, especially the heroines while the male characters are handsome as always. After all, they are designed that way to attract customers, especially women to buy their game.
And now, he's almost done finishing the story. He's at the endgame, Alexander was focused on completing everything before he can continue to the second part. Just then, a shadow appeared over him, blocking most of the sunrays.
"Yow, we have a laboratory class in ten minutes, shouldn't you be going?"
It was his classmate, Alexander sighed and put the game on pause before looking up at him.
"It's already time?" he groaned as he stood up, stretching as much as he could, before turning around and putting on his backpack and resuming the game.
With his eyes fixed on his phone, Alexander spoke. "Let's go,"
...
The building where the laboratory room is located is just across the park. Students in uniform were walking across the pedestrian lane with cars waiting for the green light.
The two of them ran quickly, yet carefully, avoiding bumping into anyone else.
There are only ten seconds left before the red turns to green. Both of them knew the effect if the red light caught on to them, which is, that they'll be forced to wait for a minute before they cross.
As soon as they got to the sidewalk, the red light turned green, starting the timer from one minute. His classmate sighed in exasperation and glanced at him.
Alexander knew that look, it was a look insinuating annoyance, which he knows very well.
"You run so slow, Alexander. Why can't you just put your phone away and continue playing it in the lab, assuming our professor hasn't arrived yet," his classmate complained.
"I can't," Alexander simply shook his head as he tapped a finger on the touchscreen of his mobile phone. "I'm at 99.98 percent completion rate and I'm eager to see the ending..."
While they were waiting for the light to turn green, Alexander, with one tap of his finger, completed the otome game he was playing.
"Damn...what a happy ending for the main heroine, she deserved everything after going through horrible events to win the hearts of the main male lead while on villainess, she lost everything. She was stripped of her position and was exiled to a faraway province of the Kingdom of Solcier," Alexander muttered to himself, causing his classmate to turn his face to him with a frown look on his face.
"What are you blabbering about?"
"It's not your concern," Alexander said in a flat tone of voice.
"Heh…girly,” his classmate muttered under his breath.
At this point, the traffic light changed to green. His classmate gave him a light tug on the sleeves, signaling him that they should go.
Alexander walked forward, with his eyes glued on the screen of his monitor where it displayed the backstory of the villainess which seems as though it was trying to justify her actions.
In the middle of the pedestrian crossing, a honk blared from the distance. Alexander jolted, nearly dropping his cell phone before he grabbed it hastily, glancing to the source of the sound where he saw a speeding truck heading in his direction.
"Run!" his classmate shouted as he dashed away.
Alexander froze in sight, his legs unable to move despite him ordering them to do so. As the image of the truck get bigger and bigger, his eyes widened in horror and fear as it neared him.
Then, Alexander was rammed by a truck, sending him flying backward. As he landed heavily on his backside, he could feel a warm sensation from behind his head and his body. His vision was blurred and hazy as though he was in a daze, yet when he opened his eyes, there was nothing but darkness all around him. Then, without warning, everything started fading to white. The last thing he heard was someone shouting his name, but the sound faded away slowly like the sound of waves breaking upon the shore.
It was at that moment he knew, he died in an accident.
Or was he?
--
"Haaaaahhh!"
Waking up from his bed, Alexander gasped heavily as if he just drowned. It took him a few moments to register what actually happened and that it was real, and not a dream or a bad hallucination of sorts.
He slowly lifted his upper body and glanced around.
"Huh?"
Alexander noticed that there was something different in his surroundings. This was not the room he was familiar with. Instead of seeing a small bedroom, Alexander saw what seems to be a barn of a farmer. Haystacks lined each side of the barn, the ceiling had been painted with different symbols he couldn't comprehend, and the walls were lined with hay bales. A wooden staircase led up to the barn's roof. When Alexander looked down he saw he was wearing a shirt and pants similar to those worn by farmers.
"Who...are...you?" Alexander asked, his voice coming out hoarse like he just woke up from an incredibly long sleep.
"I'm a farmer who found you unconscious in the field. I should be the one asking about your identity," the farmer answered.
Alexander's eyes narrowed at his answer. What nonsense he is talking about? He found him in the field? He had never been on a field before. And how did he get here in the first place?
"What time is it, sir?" Alexander asked.
"Time? What are you talking about? It's just morning. Since you're okay now, why don't you return to wherever you came from."
Oh, that reminds him, he should prepare to return to his house. His mother will be worried sick, but there's no sense in leaving without getting answers from this ridiculous event of him waking up in a stranger's barn.
Wait...Alexander realized something.
The first thing he remembered was him playing his favorite otome game on his phone at the campus's park. His classmate notified him that the laboratory class will start in ten minutes, he got up and both of them ran to the sidewalk where they were stopped by the red light.
When the light turned green, they crossed the pedestrian crossing, and then a truck ran him over.
Was all of that a dream or real? He couldn't differentiate the two but one thing that bothers him is that scenario was familiar.
As a university student who loved reading light novels, manga, and watching anime, there's this type of scenario wherein a character is transported to another world after for example, getting hit by a truck.
His eyes widened in realization.
"Uhm...sir! Where is this place?"
"We're at the Dono's village of the Kingdom of Solcier..."
"Kingdom of Solcier..." Alexander repeated, that name sounds familiar. It was the name of the game setting of an otome game called "Capturing the Prince's Heart." The Dono Village is the place where the villainess, Natalie, was exiled.
It's too much of a coincidence. So does this mean, he died in real life and was whisked into this world?! The world of Capturing the Prince's Heart?!
Alexander rose to his feet and approached the man and looked him directly in the eye.
"Kingdom of Solcier...are you saying that I'm in the Kingdom of Solcier?" Alexander asked, his hand gripping the farmer's shoulder.
"What are you doing all of a sudden? Get your hands off me!" the farmer exclaimed in response.
"My apologies, I just wanted to make sure if I heard it right," Alexander replied as he loosened his grip on him.
"I don't know what you've gotten into kid but we are in Kingdom of Solcier territory,"
"Is that so..." Alexander gazed down somberly as he finally accepted his situation. He died and was reincarnated in the game world.
In that case.
"Uhm...where can I see the Duchess of Belfast? Natalie Belfast?"
"You mean the exiled duchess? There's only one place where you can find her, and that is where the biggest mansion in the village is located,"
"Is that so?" Alexander pondered for a moment. After the game, the villainess was stripped of her position and was exiled to this village to repent for her sins.
This means the storyline just ended.
Capturing the Prince's Heart is an otome game set in a certain nation’s academy, where the player forges romantic relationships with the characters. The heroine, Marie, is a commoner with unparalleled beauty and intellect and has a kind-hearted nature. She entered the academy through a scholarship and met four love interests.
They are the second and the third prince of the nation, the villainess' adoptive brother, and the son of the prime minister of the Kingdom of Solcier.
And then, Natalie Belfast, the second’s prince fiancee, and the game villainess. In the happy ending, after putting the heroine through a crime-like level of bullying, Natalie is stripped of her nobility status and exiled to the village of Dono’s village. After that, the heroine is happily engaged to the second prince.
In spite of that, Alexander found the game villain to be interesting and her character design was something that would make the man's heart flutter.
So does this mean, Alexander can meet up with a 2D character?
“I believe her estate is looking for a butler but no one