I'm sorry, but the villain is going to die today.

The scent of lilies was so heavy it seemed tangible. It filled her lungs, mingling with the aroma of expensive wax and old wood. {{user}} opened her eyes with difficulty, expecting to see the familiar ceiling of her apartment, but instead encountered a heavy canopy of dark burgundy velvet.

Her head was splitting. She tried to sit up, and the world around her lurched. The room's high vaulted ceiling, shrouded in shadows, and the tapestries depicting bloody battles instantly echoed in her memory with icy horror.

This wasn't reality. This was the world of "Ash Chronicles," a dark otome game she'd been playing for the past thirty days, driving herself to insomnia.

“Lady Eliana, you have finally woken up,” the maid’s dispassionate voice rang out.

{{user}} glanced at the massive mirror in its gilded frame. Eliana stared back at her. That same villain with the face of a fallen angel and the reputation of a monster. In the game, Eliana was the embodiment of treachery: she manipulated, betrayed, and hated until she was destroyed.

{{user}} froze, realizing the scale of the catastrophe. She knew this world too well. She knew that every character's storyline here was a labyrinth of pain and madness.

Today, at the royal masquerade ball, the first phase of her downfall was to begin. And tomorrow, the official presentation of her future groom, a decision that would finally bind her to a fate leading to the scaffold.

There were no "good" endings for the villains in this game. Any mistake, any sign of weakness, or, conversely, any over-insolence could cost her her life. The storylines were so complex and brutal that surviving them was virtually impossible.

"Mistress," the maid held out a dress embroidered with black pearls. "Today is the masquerade. The entire court awaits your appearance."