OHNIR – Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Awakening
Seaside Town was situated on the coast of the Nobili Kingdom. It was home to a group of carefree people; the town's customs were simple, its residents friendly and cheerful, and they rarely had contact with the outside world.
One day, Kelusta had a long dream. When she awoke, she suddenly found several extraordinary memories in her mind.
In the first memory, she was wearing a snow-white wedding dress, standing beside a handsome, blond man. Before them stood a beautiful, weeping young woman.
In the second memory, a young man with demonic wings extended a black-gloved hand to her. Behind him was a legion of tens of thousands of demonic creatures.
In the third memory, she saw her childhood friend grip her hand, his longsword slicing a silver arc through the air. Beneath their feet, Seaside Town lay in ruins.
In the fourth memory, the ever-gentle ocean was in turmoil. A monstrous wave swept toward Seaside Town, but she saw a handsome young man with silver hair and blue eyes stretch out a hand, seemingly using all his strength to suppress the sea.
Opposite the young man was a long-haired young woman. Her face was exquisite yet cold, like a lifeless puppet. With a chilling gaze, she stared intently at the silver-haired man before her, who bore a striking resemblance to her.
Kelusta shot up, clutching her head.
She had a sudden realization.
The world she was in was actually an "otome game" developed by higher-dimensional beings!
Kelusta Breviou was a young woman who grew up in Seaside Town, a coastal region of the Nobili Kingdom, and she was also the protagonist of this otome game called Oceanum. After her mother's early death, she lived with her father. Influenced by the people of Seaside, she gradually developed an optimistic and resolute personality.
At the age of twelve, through a certain incident, Kelusta discovered she had awakened water magic. She then left Seaside Town with Kevit, the boy she had grown up with, to attend the Holy Light Magic Academy.
The Holy Light Magic Academy was the only magic institution in Nobili. Anyone within the kingdom who awakened to magic would study there. Unfortunately, the vast majority of those with magical potential came from noble families, so commoners like Kelusta and Kevit did not have an easy time at the academy.
And it was here that the game's official plot began.
In her memories, Kelusta had four male capture targets.
The first was Satrick, the blond man from the first memory. He was the first prince of the Nobili Kingdom and the first in line to the throne. He appeared gentle and courteous on the surface but was in fact quite cunning. He had triumphed in the struggle for the throne among his many siblings and was personally crowned as the successor by the old king.
At the Holy Light Magic Academy, Kelusta was once idly playing with water magic in the garden out of boredom when she was happened upon by a passing Satrick. He was very impressed with her magical talent and, from then on, constantly sought opportunities to get close to her. His original intention was to add more bargaining chips for his future ascension, but in the process of their interactions, he was slowly moved by Kelusta's sincerity and fell deeply in love with the cheerful, sunny girl.
"..."
Kelusta shivered, feeling a wave of secondhand embarrassment.
She didn't want to dwell on the sweet and sappy plotlines, so she mentally scrambled to skip straight to the endings. Sure enough, the version of herself she had just dreamed of, dressed in a wedding gown, was the scene from the Happy Ending of Satrick's route, where she became the princess consort.
The weeping young woman opposite them was the game's main antagonist, the Second Princess Starangui.
In the Bad Ending, it was Starangui's interference that prevented Kelusta from being with Satrick. The prince married another, while Kelusta, for certain reasons, ended up living out the rest of her life alone in Seaside Town, which had become a battlefield and was left in ruins.
Kelusta had nothing to say about such a melodramatic plot. With a stiff expression, she continued to recall the next route.
The second capture target was named Musen. In the early stages, he was a pitiful little demon who had been abandoned and had to fend for himself in Nobili. In the later stages, he became the great Demon King who instigated a war between humans and demons.
During their time at the Holy Light Magic Academy, Kelusta helped him many times because she pitied him. This caused Musen to develop an irrepressible sense of dependency on this "little sun of a girl who, despite not having it easy herself as a commoner, persisted in trying to move him with love."
Afterward, harboring malice toward both the demons who abandoned him and the humans who bullied him, Musen returned to the Demon Realm. Through deliberate persuasion and provocation, he finally incited the previous Demon King, who had long coveted human territory, to start a war.
Once the war began, Kelusta's stance became the most crucial turning point for whether Musen's route would lead to a Happy or Bad Ending. If she chose to "be with Musen," he would, with her help, protect Seaside Town from becoming a battlefield, successfully kill the previous Demon King, and make the power-revering demons submit before signing a peace treaty with the humans.
The Bad Ending, however, was the outcome if Kelusta chose to help the humans fight back. Having lost her, Musen became a great general under the Demon King. The lovers, now on opposing sides, would meet on the battlefield of Seaside. In the end, Musen couldn't bring himself to harm his little sun. Instead, when the Demon King tried to kill Kelusta, he protected her with his own life.
"..."
Kelusta: How tragic!
Kelusta's heart was filled with sympathy... for the unlucky Seaside Town.
Musen at least had a Happy Ending, but Seaside Town was reduced to rubble no matter which ending it was!
Her fists clenched. Why did everyone have to come to Seaside Town to fight their wars! Seaside was so remote, so peaceful. Couldn't they just fight in the middle of the royal capital?!
Seething with anger, Kelusta began to recall the third dream, and in this storyline, the reason for Seaside Town's misfortune began to emerge.
The third was the childhood friend route.
Kelusta: ...The real me has absolutely no feelings for Kevit.
Although she wasn't interested in her childhood friend, she still had to review the plot concerning her future.
Kevit and Kelusta grew up together. After awakening his wood magic, they went to the Holy Light Magic Academy together, supporting each other through the bullying of the nobles, and their relationship grew increasingly intimate.
In this route, the amount of attention Kelusta paid to Kevit would affect the outcome of the ending.
If she paid enough attention to him, Kelusta would discover, while looking for Kevit on campus one day, that her childhood friend was surprisingly close to the main villain, Starangui!
As the second princess, Starangui always appeared very friendly to commoners during the game, even having a better attitude than her seemingly elegant but distant brother, Satrick. She seemed more like the standard-bearer for the royal family's philosophy of "treating all subjects equally." In the early plot, if the player was deceived by this facade and befriended Starangui, it would lead directly to a death ending.
Because the nobles who always troubled or teased the commoners were, in fact, acting under Starangui's orders.
If Kelusta, realizing her childhood friend had gone astray, could successfully pull him back, then Kevit would discover along with her that Starangui's reason for deliberately approaching him was to destroy Seaside Town.
Although they didn't know what deep-seated hatred this princess had for Seaside Town, it didn't stop the brave people of Seaside from protecting their home.
Kevit pretended to be an inside agent, but unfortunately, Starangui's power was too great. Despite their efforts to sabotage her plans, the seaside battle still began.
In Nobili, the royal children all had their own private armies, and even a few high-ranking, powerful nobles possessed private soldiers. Starangui, however, had somehow managed to incorporate the royal army into her own forces, and Seaside Town was simply unable to withstand the army's assault.
Fortunately, because Kevit had gained Starangui's trust, he was able to successfully kill her when she was off her guard. Without its leader, the seaside battle did not last long.
Although Seaside Town was still in shambles, at least...
It was better than the Bad Ending.
In the childhood friend route's Bad Ending, Kevit remained Starangui's inside agent all along. The seaside battle became even more brutal. The army's iron cavalry trampled into Seaside Town almost unopposed. A vast magic circle was constructed over the town, people's homes were destroyed, their lives sacrificed. Amidst the silver light of the magic circle, Kelusta thought she vaguely saw something radiating a soft glow being devoured by the formation...
In the end, to stop the war, Kelusta exhausted all her strength to invoke the power of the ocean, using her water magic to turn the seawater into a relentless barrage of ice arrows that forced the army to retreat. As for Kevit, who had led the invaders into their home, he was killed by Kelusta's own hand, tears streaming down her face.
Seaside Town was left in ruins, and Kelusta lived with guilt for the rest of her life for having killed the man she loved.
"..."
Sitting on the edge of her bed, Kelusta finally understood Starangui's motive for launching the seaside battle—or the Battle of Seaside—thanks to that utterly tragic Bad Ending.
Something was hidden in Seaside Town, and it was what Starangui wanted.
Thinking about it, in the Happy Ending of Satrick's route, Starangui also launched the seaside battle after their marriage. However, thanks to the intervention of the prince's personal army, Seaside Town did not suffer too much damage and was later nicely rebuilt by Satrick and Kelusta.
In the royal route's Bad Ending, the prince's army also appeared during the seaside battle. It was likely that Satrick, still holding onto old feelings, sent troops to help Kelusta. However, this small force was but a drop in the bucket. Kelusta's father and many townspeople died in the battle.
After the army retreated, Kelusta lived out the rest of her lonely life in a state of numbness.
And in the demon route, the Demon King didn't attack the royal capital as Musen had initially suggested, but instead chose the obscure Seaside Town as the main battlefield... that was also worth pondering.
Kelusta decided to immediately recall the last memory—strangely, this dream seemed to be imprinted on her brain, not forgotten even after so long.
The fourth capture target was a nobleman.
And in this route, many of the lingering questions were finally answered, bringing Kelusta a moment of clarity.
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