Ji Xinglian first came across the legend of Miss Maple in the promotional booklet for a newly released game.
The moment she saw the blurb, Ji Xinglian scoffed.
"Tch, what do you mean retro dark fantasy? What do you mean dark fairy tale? It's just a romance game wearing a horror costume! What a joke!"
Then she woke up one morning to find herself in a luxurious Gothic room. Right before her eyes, a handsome man with long hair and a crisp uniform was kneeling beside her bed.
"Miss Maple, the new script for the Holland Theater has arrived."
His deep voice seemed to brim with boundless affection.
When Ji Xinglian first entered the Western fantasy game Miss Maple, she wasn't nearly as panicked as she had expected to be.
No more early mornings, a starring role at the opera house, countless influential and wealthy people chasing after her, and a chance to go home once she beat the game. It couldn't get any better.
In her spare time, she even rescued a pitiful boy covered in blood, with eyes as green as emeralds. After that, she often ran into him on street corners.
While performing, she met a charming, witty, and elegant troubadour. After that, she often received tender love letters wrapped in pink paper.
When she returned home, the handsome, long-haired butler in his crisp uniform always took such thoughtful care of her...
Her career was flourishing, but gradually Ji Xinglian realized that things weren't quite so simple.
Strange. Why, even as her acting grew more powerful and her fame soared, was the theater manager exploiting her more and more?
Strange. Why were the letters she received written on pink paper, while their contents increasingly revealed a twisted and dangerous possessiveness?
Strange. Why did the boy she kept meeting on street corners always look at her with those emerald-glass eyes, his gaze intoxicated yet dangerously deranged?
As for the thoughtful and courteous butler...
Ji Xinglian woke with a start in the middle of the night, drenched in cold sweat, and found herself face-to-face with a figure kneeling beside her bed.
Through the hazy veil, the lovesick, handsome butler gently smoothed her hair at the temples, his voice smiling as he said:
"Stay, Miss. Stay. You can never go home again."
As time went on, by the time Ji Xinglian finally realized that something was wrong with the game, it seemed to be too late.
And it was then that she finally remembered the lines she'd first seen in the game booklet:
[They say Miss Maple has a long line of "familiars." All her familiars are madly in love with her, and every one of them would gladly risk life and limb for her...]
[They say Miss Maple is a witch with red hair and black eyes. Her skin is as white as snow, but her temperament burns like the fires of hell...]
It was a dark age.
Beneath the blood-red moon over the city of Astar, carriages and rickshaws crawled along the cobbled streets. Smoke and noise filled the air above them, and the factory chimneys in the distance dimmed the pale sky.
The nobility gathered and mingled in the central square.
Workers labored beneath the factories' dim lights.
Cultists and members of secret societies lurked in every corner of the city, drawing bizarre, forbidden runes that lured people toward madness and depravity.
Then one night, the famous Holland Theater suddenly caught fire.
After that night, more and more strange things began happening in Astar.
Sometimes, cultists who had slaughtered countless people were found hanging from crosses atop towers.
Sometimes, a prestigious church was left strewn with corpses overnight.
Sometimes, a noble who treated human lives as worthless was found dead in the street the next morning.
Amid all this chaos, a new religion began to take shape. The legend of Miss Maple started spreading through Astar.
More and more people saw the dead rise again and the departed return to life.
Some even said that Miss Maple and her familiars prowled the streets at night.
Reader advisory:
1. There is a romance, but overall this is a serious story. The romance and plot are roughly in a 1:1.2 ratio. The world is Western fantasy with Lovecraftian elements, mystery, and a small amount of horror.
2. Overall, this is a story about going mad.
Theme: Hell is other people.
