I Stole the Heroines’ Tragedy Flags

As is always the case in life, all the shitty things I’ve been through always started from something insignificantly small.

It all began with a game.
After finishing another day of dull, monotonous routines, I sat on my hospital bed, just as I always did, browsing a game purchase site on my laptop. In a hospital where there was absolutely nothing else to entertain me, this was my only form of amusement.
Ding!

And that was when something changed.
As I opened the site like usual, a notification sound greeted me. A glaring “1” was stamped onto the gift box icon.
'…What the? A game?'

Someone had sent me a gift—an actual game. I knew that this site allowed gifting games even to people who weren’t on your friends list. I had heard of cases where people found others’ usernames through game reviews just to dump trash games on them as a prank.
'Who the hell would send me a game? I barely even leave comments.'
Curious, I clicked the purchase link to check the game. But all that welcomed me was a single short message.

[ This title has been removed due to a reported violation. ]
"..."
A notice from the site, stating that the game had been taken down due to reports. Honestly, that alone was enough to make me feel uneasy. Was this some kind of virus?

I clicked on the sender’s username, but all I got was a message saying This user does not exist. Either they had deleted their account immediately after sending the game, or they were never meant to be found in the first place.
That was when I turned my attention back to the gifted game. A game with no title, no banner—completely colorless, faceless. Looking at it again, a perfectly reasonable suspicion arose: wasn’t this just some asshole trying to mess with me?
I stared at the screen, debating with myself for several minutes.

'…Screw it, might as well install it.'
In the end, curiosity won over reason. Whatever happened later, the more pressing matter was escaping the crushing boredom of hospital life. And so, without knowing if it was a trash game or a malware-infested disaster, I opened the gift.
I installed the game and finally launched the program. And what I saw completely defied my expectations.

'…The illustration quality is way better than I expected.'
The game shattered my assumption that it was just another low-quality, mass-produced cash grab. The characters were surprisingly well-drawn. Even in-game, the title of the game was nowhere to be found, but it had already succeeded in grabbing my interest.
'Hmm, is this a visual novel…?'
But then again, there were more playable female characters than males. The setting was a medieval fantasy world, and the game revolved around life in an academy.

I scanned through the character descriptions, pondered for a brief moment, and then finally selected one to start the game. The tutorial, or at least what I assumed was the tutorial, began, and I pressed forward, feeling a growing sense of anticipation.
...
...
...
[ GAME OVER ]
[ ‘Ren Aizel’ has died. ]
[ Cause: Death by immolation (焚死) ]
[ Would you like to revive her? ] [ YES / NO ]

"..."
I take it back.
This game is trash.

More specifically, it was a painstakingly crafted, absurdly elaborate piece of trash.
How many times had I died just in the tutorial? When the hell was I supposed to reach the academy?
'The quality is unnecessarily high, but the difficulty is utter bullshit.'

I had been playing for at least three hours, and I still hadn’t made it past the tutorial. At first, I thought it was just a simple simulation game where I picked choices. The problem was that there were way too many choices—dozens of them, even in the tutorial alone.
'And the combat system is a goddamn mess.'
Out of all the turn-based games I’ve played, this was by far the most complicated. There were way too many factors to consider during battle, and the mechanics themselves were needlessly convoluted.

In short, this game was absolutely not designed for someone like me, whose brain shut down at the thought of strategy.
[ GAME OV― ]
"Ah, fuck."

While I was lost in thought, my character had died yet again.
She was like a fragile little goldfish, dying at the slightest wrong move.
I had already been repeating this cycle for over four hours. The sun had long since set, and the only thing illuminating the dark, solitary hospital room was the glow of my monitor.

'Should I just quit?'
Honestly, the quality was good, but the difficulty was just too damn high.
The game seemed fun, but if the tutorial was already this brutal, I didn’t even want to imagine what the main story was like.

I let out a sigh and stared at the screen. The lifeless body of Ren Aizel was once again displayed before me.
'…Seriously, what’s with this absurd level of detail? Do they really have to draw the corpse this vividly? At least put a gore warning or something…'
The tutorial took place in the past, before the playable characters entered the academy.

The Ren Aizel I had chosen was still a young girl, which made seeing her small, charred corpse all the more disturbing.
Especially death by immolation.
The illustration showed her entire body blackened and burned, her eyes rolled back in agony, her mouth frozen in a silent scream.

Even though I hadn’t eaten much for dinner, I could feel the bile rising in my throat.
This wasn’t just cruelty. It felt like pure malice on the part of the developers.
As if her death was inevitable,
as if no matter what I did,
there was no way to save her.

[ Would you like to revive her? ] [ YES / NO ]
The choice appeared before me once again.
For some reason, this question felt particularly mocking.

As if the game itself was laughing at me—
Are you seriously going to keep trying the impossible?
I hesitated.

"…"
My mouse cursor, which had been moving toward NO to give up, suddenly stopped. My eyes drifted back to the lifeless body of the girl.
A character whose choices always led to death. A story where the only thing I could do was pick slightly better options to postpone that death. Maybe it was nothing but a delusion, but I couldn't help projecting myself onto her—a patient waiting for the inevitable end in a hospital bed.

'…Seriously. What am I, a kid? An adult clinging to a game like this.'
…
…
…
Click.
With a bitter smile, I clicked YES.

And just like that, my insignificantly small moment of hesitation crossed the starting line. I had no idea what kind of hell awaited me at the finish.
Breaking free from my long thoughts, I opened my eyes.
When you live in a body that can't sleep properly, you get used to dozing off whenever you can. Maybe that’s why, from time to time, I found myself recalling the past—memories that couldn’t be undone.

As my eyes opened, my dulled senses resurfaced as well. And then, I started hearing the noises around me.
Vrrrrr!
The humming of the carriage I was riding in.

With the advancement of magic tools, even carriages—once relics of the medieval era—had evolved into something much smoother. The seating experience was eerily reminiscent of the cars from my previous life.
'If it moves without a horse, isn’t it just a car at this point?'
Of course, this wasn't an ordinary carriage. It was absurdly expensive, something only a marquis or higher would even consider as a personal vehicle. Most people still used traditional horse-drawn carriages.

So it was only natural that as this particular carriage passed through the streets, the citizens of the empire reacted.
'…Peaceful, isn’t it?'
Today, too, the empire was at peace.

"Fresh Chieria herbs straight from the northern Haulun region! Only ten silver coins!"
"Miss, how about this dress? It’s the latest trend among nobles!"
"Weapons directly sourced from Ilren workshop! Get in line if you want one!"
Merchants, adventurers, and all sorts of different races filled the empire’s markets, creating a lively, bustling scene.
The old days of racial discrimination were long gone. Now, most people got along reasonably well.
…Well, except for demons.

This was the Leonerit Empire.
A great empire founded by the first Hero after he defeated the Primordial Demon King.
With over a thousand years of history, it was hailed as the cornerstone of the continent’s peace. If this were a game, the empire’s approval rating among its citizens would probably be displayed as MAX.

'…Except for me.'
"Hah…"
"Disgusting. Can’t you shut your mouth?"
As I absentmindedly sighed, lost in thought about my situation, a sharp voice immediately cut in.

Lifting my gaze from the floor, I was met with a pair of cold, blue eyes glaring at me.
Golden hair, shimmering down to her jawline, drew attention. Her sharp features and defined jawline made her a striking beauty.
But having a beauty like her staring daggers at me, filled with nothing but contempt, wasn’t exactly a pleasant feeling.

"What are you looking at?"
"…"
Swish.
I lowered my gaze again.

'Yeah… not great.'
Just a few years ago, I used to call her noona, and we went on adventures together.
Now, we were so far apart it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call us mortal enemies.

'…Well, not like I didn’t earn this.'
I had prepared myself for it, but that didn’t mean it hurt any less.
Clink.

As I looked down, something caught my eye.
A cold, rigid restraint wrapped around my wrists, emitting an eerie, suppressive energy. Even at a glance, the visible magic circuits made it clear—this wasn’t an ordinary restraint. It was a magic tool.
A significant reason why the woman in front of me harbored so much hatred toward me.

The Elmasiel Restraints.
A magic device forged by Elmasiel, a 9th-circle grand mage, in collaboration with the Tower Masters.
It was created as a tribute to the emperor, a tool symbolizing his power.

Whoever wore these restraints, even if they were an 8th-circle mage or a master-level aura user, would be reduced to nothing more than an ordinary person.
If this wasn’t broken game design, I didn’t know what was.
'At this point, isn't it beyond the scope of a magic tool…?'

This was a device used only on the most heinous criminals—those deemed Zero-Tier Threats on the continent.
Those who wore these restraints were all buried deep within the empire’s high-security prison.
So what did that make me, someone currently wearing them?

'As a criminal, I’ve really made a name for myself.'
It was an achievement I wanted absolutely no part of, but I had no regrets.
The crime that led to these restraints being placed on me—attempted regicide.

I had tried to kill the emperor, the very symbol of an empire that had stood for over a thousand years.
Even though I had failed, there was no crime heavier than that.
Frankly, the only strange thing was that I was still alive.

'…I should have killed him back then.'
Instead, I hesitated in a moment of weakness and made the wrong choice.
If this were a game, a GAME OVER screen would’ve popped up for me.

'But I’m not the protagonist.'
I wasn’t even a side character.
I was an outsider, someone not even meant to exist in this world.

And yet, I would struggle to the very end—
Because in this world, where everything only ever falls apart, I had no other choice.