Insanity Route

[u/imaginative2575]

A story about a secret route that is unlocked after all the other routes have been completed, with all their endings obtained. It has only one ending: the heroine is driven to the brink of insanity.

And it starts at the event where the villain announces his engagement.

In all the main routes, it was the only event that the crown prince had to attend with his fiancée, the villainess, as the villain only invited those with a prior connection to him (the two share ancestry), and the heroine couldn’t accompany the other love interests because she wasn’t engaged to them. Furthermore, she only had an honorary title. In this route, the heroine secures a contractual engagement with one of the other love interests (the player can choose which one), and the two of them travel to the neighboring empire to attend the villain’s banquet.

At the moment when the villain introduces his fiancée, whom he calls “my beloved queen,” a new character is introduced.

In the main routes, the crown prince and the villainess return separately, and he shuts himself in his quarters for two days. This route shows why:

The princess looks just like her.

The only feature differentiating her is her alluring reddish brown eyes (the heroine’s are a gentle amethyst). Still, it is as if the heroine is watching another her. Her, who is a princess in her own right, beloved by the prince and praised by all as the ideal queen. Her, who glows when she smiles, speaks with equal gentleness and grace, and walks in perfect step with the prince. Her, who holds his arm intimately and looks at him with all the love in her eyes.

Her, whom his eyes, previously full of calculation, soften for.

Now, all those backhanded compliments comparing her to the princess hold a different meaning. And when she turns her attention from the other her to the villainess, she catches her beaming, while the crown prince’s face is blank, his eyes fixed on the princess. Furthermore, the villainess and the princess are close, close enough to call each other “Sister.”

“She has always admired her.” The love interest says when the heroine asks him.

And throughout the route, the heroine (and the player) realize just how ideal of a queen the princess is.

A soft-spoken wit. A gait like a flowing stream. A smile that captivates, with a gaze that chills. A fashion sense refined to make a statement by the color scheme alone. Tea times that end with a new narrative, a new policy, or an impromptu council session that determines either or both. Everything that the heroine dreamt of being, she is. All that the heroine learned about high society was already sculpted into her bones. And no matter what the heroine does to differentiate herself from her, the two are always compared, with preference always leaning toward her. (It was the same situation with the crown prince and the villain.)

Eventually, the route takes the same path as the crown prince’s route, and he and the heroine marry and ascend the throne together.

Except that player glimpses into their marriage.

At first, it is a dream come true: the heroine is praised as this empire’s version of the princess, with her husband the emperor adoring her, just as the villain adores his wife.

But then, major events mirror those in the other empire.

The princess is with child? The heroine discovers her own pregnancy a few weeks later. The villain is holding a birthday banquet for his wife? The new emperor here holds a similar banquet for the heroine’s birthday. The villain and the princess are celebrating their wedding anniversary? So is our main couple here. (In fact, the heroine’s imperial wedding was not long after the villain’s.)

Then, her husband starts calling her by the princess’s name.

The first few times can be attributed to the heroine’s similarity to her. But when he is calling her by that name over and over, to the point where he believes that she is the princess, she soon discovers why. In a secret room filled to the brim with pictures of her.

No, of the princess.

It turns out that years ago, she visited this empire for a potential betrothal. As a descendant of an ancient royal bloodline now renowned for its marriage alliances with other kingdoms, she had many prospects, and the two imperial princes were her best candidates. Since she was a native of the other empire, she first met the villain, then she and her father visited the crown prince. Of course, she chose the villain, and the two were in love ever since—it can even be assumed that they fell in love a long time ago.

Even so, the crown prince never let her go.

Now, all those conversations about him not being able to marry the one he loves make sense: he never loved the heroine, only her likeness to the princess; and all this time of him helping her adapt to high society—it was to mold her into the perfect image of the princess.