Gem of Ahlia.
It was the name of my favorite game.
A masterpiece of an otome game.
People attracted by its complex action and romance mechanic, its vast explorable map, and numerous main quests and side quests that felt endless.
I could still remembered how loud I laugh when I completed the game for the first time. I was all fun and happy. I felt like a hero, thought it was just a pixel game.
And maybe because I loved the game so much...
... I ended up reincarnated into its world after I passed away on earth.
"Theo, did you sure you had everything prepared?"
When I was tying my shoes, my mother of this life asked me again about that same question. It was already her fifth times aksing me this.
"Don't worry, I had everything inside my bag," I replied, shaking the bag a little to show my mother how heavy it had became.
"I see. That's good then. Good luck at the Graduation Ceremony~!"
I nodded and exited out of the house.
When I looked up, I was greeted by a sight that wouldn't be believable by anyone from Earth. A metal, floating city, with four massive chains propped it.
The city was called the City of Sky by this world's Inhabitants. The first ever floating city in the world.
That was where the The Academy, the place where the main plot of the game developing at first, was located. And today was the day my seniors, the third-graded students, graduated.
"I'll just normally participated in it, then go home as normally," I muttered, smilling at the sky.
My new name is Theo Roost.
I was born as an aristocrat's child at first. But then my father was accused of poisoning the King of the Tarram Kingdom's breakfast and was executed. The King then shifted his anger to the Roost Family, which ended in my Mother fleeing the country and started a new life in this city, the Dungeon City, with the young me.
The same as in the game, some of this world's Inhabitants sometimes would born with Magic in them. Some of them born with a power to wield flame, while the other could teleport, fly, or even born with a magic to shrink their size, and so on.
I, as lucky as it could be, was one of these blessed kid. I was born with a magic that could nullify gravity on the target. I called it Levitation for convenience.
Reincarnated, and also has a cool magic. Who would be happy—rejoiced over that fate?
I WAS happy.
Before I found a fatal flaw of this world.
Ahlia, the protagonist of this world, was never born. The Dungeon City was supposed to be her birth place. I knew her father and mother's names, even their house location. After all, I had played the game. Yet, I couldn't find her. In her place, another girl was instead born, who didn't even born with a Magic. A complete opposite from Ahlia, who has the most special Magic ever seen, Gem Resonance. A magic to communicate and unleash the true power of elemental gems—gems that dropped from slaying monsters in a Dungeon, which was the main focus of the current era.
In millitary, there was a modified gunpowder gun, with the gunpowder replaced by elemental gems—Gemgun.
In civilian, cars started to be made to use elemental gems as their fuel. And more, and more.
However, as they say, nothing good would come without a consequence. The Dungeons would later reveal itself as higher beings beyond human comprehesion, almost like gods. And they immediately started to slay human the moment they awakened.
Ahlia could stop them through negotiation, or by developing a weapon from studying Elemental gem that was powerful enough to kill a Dungeon. All with her magic. And without it, non of both options were available.
In short, Ahlia was a very important figure.
But she was non-existent in this world.
...
I was despaired at first.
I began to try to find a way to replace Ahlia's existence and prevent the world to be destroyed by the Dungeons in the future. I analized every plot, every detail, every conversation of the game's characters that I could still remember. Unfortunately, I found nothing.
The Dungeons revealed themselves abruptly in the latter part of the game. No character in the game could expect them to be sentience all these time. They showed like a literal natural disaster. Overwhelming, cruel, and sudden.
I questioned myself for years since I realized Ahlia's absence. Why did I even reincarnated in this world of the world would be ended in near future? What was the point of my existence?
No one except myself could know how depressed I was at that time. Fortunately, though, I had my mother. She clearly didn't believe what I said, but she told that if the world would actually ended, then I wouldn't face it alone. Everyone would face it with me.
Which made me realize the answer for all my questions was so simple.
If nothing could be done to prevent it, then why bother?
So stopped thinking about it ever since.
I enjoyed my life as much as I could. I even enrolled into the Academy because I curious how everything would turn out to be if Ahlia was absence.
Maybe some things would become better? Or become worse?
And then I saw the answer.
I was spectating the ceremony from the side like a common student at that time.
The professors were congratulating our graduating seniors at the podium, calling and praising the name of our seniors one after another with their proud, profound voices.
Everything was normal, until a man with short blue hair suddenly raised his arm to attract everyone's attentions.
The ceremony was paused. They couldn't just ignore him. Because he was the Crown Prince of the Fazaar Empire, the future emperor of the strongest country in the world.
The Academy was not weak, but they still had to give him some face and at least hear what he wanted to say.
However, what he said at that moment was something I never expected to hear.
"Tizmilly Fallburn!"
With a shrill voice, he called his fiancee who was standing among her own followers.
"Today, I, Agraviel Fin Fazaar, state! Today, at this very moment, I'll announce the cancellation of our engagement!"
With a disgusted expression on his face, he pointed his finger toward the beauty in a black-red dress.
"I've grown tired of your vile behavior!"
He then started to list every 'sin' Tizmilly had committed until now. He said it all like a detective who finally cornered a suspect.
My focus, though, was attracted to the existence of an unknown short pink-haired girl who was standing beside him while he was speaking to the crowd. The implication was crystal clear.
The details were slightly different from what I once saw in the game, but the result was the same.
Tizmilly lost her identity as the fiancee of the Empire's Crown Prince, and her family also abandoned her, erasing her name from their family lineage.
Her fall came so unexpectedly that I was shocked the entire time the event unfolded. When I came back to reality, Tizmilly had already lost everything except the dress she was wearing at that moment, since the Academy wouldn't allow them to go that far.
Her empty eyes when she saw her family, friends, and followers left her remind me of myself in my past life.
I knew the truth. Tizmilly never did everything they accused her of. It was all her followers' initiatives. She never ordered them.
I remember that I was irritated at that time.
To the Crown Prince, to Tizmilly's family, and those who used to using Tizmilly's name to bully others but fled the moment they realized that the ship was falling.
Even to the world.
I mean, what do you mean the protagonist of this world was non-existent? Without the Hero, wasn't the world doomed?
Out of spite, I approached her.
An idea formed by my past self's failure and my current self's identity appeared in my head.
In front of her, who was staring at the empty hall with her lifeless eyes, I bowed and extended my palm.
"My lady, instead of mourning that useless man, how about we open a restaurant together?"