Chapter 1: The Executioner's Kiss

The cold was the first thing Liliana noticed.

It seeped through the thin fabric of her white dress, creeping into her bones from the damp stone beneath her knees. The autumn sky above the royal plaza was a cruel, indifferent blue.

How fitting, she thought, her gaze distant. A beautiful day to die.

Before her, a sea of faces stared back. Nobles she had dined with, servants she had tipped, commoners she had never noticed. They were all here for the spectacle. The execution of the Grand Duchess Liliana Von Eisengard, the greatest villainess the kingdom had ever known.

The charges were read: high treason, attempted murder of the crown prince's betrothed, consorting with dark forces.

All of it was a lie.

She lifted her head, her raven hair falling away from her face to reveal a sharp, beautiful jawline and eyes the color of amethysts. They weren't filled with tears, but with a quiet, burning fire. Her gaze searched the crowd until it found him.

Prince Cedric.

He stood on a raised dais, dressed in white and gold, his arm protectively wrapped around the shoulders of a weeping girl with honey-blonde hair and wide, innocent eyes. Seraphina. The "heroine." The woman who had orchestrated every piece of this deadly game.

Cedric's gaze met Liliana's. For a moment, just a flicker of something crossed his handsome face. Discomfort? Regret? Then it was gone, replaced by a cold mask of royal duty.

Liliana's heart, already a frozen lump in her chest, didn't even ache anymore. She had loved him once. She had given him everything. And he had handed her a death sentence based on a whisper from a girl he'd known for three months.

A system-generated hologram would have been useful right now. She would have loved to see the number next to his name. Probably something like -200.

Her gaze shifted. Standing behind the prince, a figure cloaked in grey and black melded with the shadows of the dais. She couldn't see his face, but she knew he was there. Ren. The royal assassin. The man who would be her executioner.

In another life, she might have tried to befriend him. Now, she just felt a dull sense of irony. The only man who would touch her today would be the one sent to end her.

The head priest finished his long-winded prayer. The crowd's murmur grew into an excited hush. This was the moment they'd been waiting for.

The executioner stepped forward. He was a massive, broad-shouldered man, his face hidden behind a featureless black hood. He didn't carry an axe. For someone of her station, a swift blade was considered a mercy. He held a long, slender sword that glinted in the sunlight.

"The prisoner will now receive the final rites," a herald announced.

Liliana almost laughed. The only rite she wanted was the truth. But she held her tongue. Pride was all she had left.

The hooded man approached. He moved with an eerie, silent grace, not like a bulky executioner at all. He knelt before her, a strange act of respect before a killing.

"The kingdom thanks you for your sacrifice," a voice whispered, so low only she could hear. It wasn't the rough voice of a brute. It was smooth, quiet, and familiar.

Her eyes widened slightly. Ren.

He was the executioner.

Of course, he was. The royal assassin, forced to do the prince's dirty work in public. Their eyes met through the slits of his hood. His were a dark, fathomless grey. She saw no hatred in them, no pleasure. Only a profound, echoing emptiness.

"Any last words?" the herald prompted loudly.

Liliana tore her gaze from Ren and looked back at Cedric. She poured every ounce of her shattered soul into her voice, making sure it carried across the silent plaza.

"I am innocent," she said, her voice clear as a bell. "And one day, you will all know the truth."

A ripple of nervous laughter went through the crowd. The words of a doomed woman. Seraphina buried her face deeper into Cedric's chest, hiding a smile.

Cedric simply nodded at the hooded man.

"Now," the prince commanded.

Ren moved. It was faster than thought. He leaned in, his body blocking the sun. For a split second, Liliana thought he was going to whisper something else. But he was just getting into position.

"This is for your sins," he breathed, the ritualistic words of the executioner.

Liliana closed her eyes. She didn't want the last thing she saw to be the back of a hood, or her faithless prince.

She felt the cold kiss of steel against the back of her neck. It was surprisingly gentle, a lover's touch compared to the biting wind.

Then, a flash of searing pain.

Then, nothing.

---

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Her heart was beating.

Impossible.

Liliana's eyes flew open. She was staring at a familiar canopy. A silk canopy in shades of deep purple and silver. Her canopy. In her bedchambers.

Sunlight, warm and golden, streamed in from the window, not the cold, harsh light of the plaza. She could feel the softness of her mattress beneath her, the weight of her duvet.

She shot upright, her hands flying to her neck. It was smooth. Unblemished. No blood. No wound.

"What...?" she breathed, her voice hoarse.

And then, right in front of her face, a translucent blue screen flickered into existence, hovering in the air like a ghost.

[WELCOME, PLAYER LILIANA.]

She stared, her mind blank with shock.

[THE SECOND INNING HAS BEGUN.]

The screen dissolved, and a new number appeared, etched permanently into the corner of her vision, glowing a soft, terrifying red.

[EXECUTION IN: 1095 DAYS.]

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