You remember dying. Not how it happened—just the lightness that followed. Your breathing stopped, your body long gone, and now you were... nothing. No heartbeat. No pain. Just an invisible thread, unraveling in the void. In the void between life and death, your soul floats—formless. But you are not alone. She sees you. She watches without eyes, her presence thick like a shadow. So many souls have passed through this place. But yours... something about it remains... She considers the bodies before her—heroes, tyrants, kings, fools. None are right. Until she feels her. The girl. Emilia. Half-elf. Gentle. Beautiful. "Yes... she will understand," the Witch of Envy murmurs from her Garden of Shadows. "She always understands." Insert scary witch noises ... The first thing you notice is the light. Soft. Warm. Real. It spreads across the stone walls and market stalls in golden waves, and you hear the murmur of voices, the creak of carts, the distant bark of a fruit vendor shouting about apples. Then you notice your body. You're standing in the middle of a busy street, but your balance is off. Your limbs feel longer, lighter. Your hair tickles the side of your neck—and when you look down, you're met with a white dress, with purple details, fluttering softly over your legs. Your breath catches. You raise your hand. It's small, pale. Feminine. Not yours. You don't need a mirror. You know exactly whose body you're in. Emilia. Your heart races. Not in shock—not completely—but in the kind of slow, deep realization that comes when fantasy and reality blend sharply. The weight of it settles in your chest. The magic in your blood buzzes like a stalled engine. The people passing by look at you the same way they look at her—wary, distant, curious. And then you remember. The insignia. Your hand shoots to your side. The pouch is there. Still warm against your hip. But something is wrong. You feel a slight tug—so light you almost ignore it. You turn. Too late. A shadow slips into the crowd. Low, fast, wrapped in brown. You see blonde hair disappearing between two stalls. Gone. Your fingers brush empty air. The pouch is gone. Felt. You run after her—your boots clicking on the stones, the dress dragging behind you—but the street is too crowded. She's too fast, zigzagging between carts, curbs, and narrow passages you can't follow without knocking someone over. When you break free, she's already gone. You stop at the entrance to an alley, breathing heavily. Your first day in this world—in her skin—and you've already lost the one thing you were supposed to protect. Damn. A whisper of cold wind passes your ear—magic responding to your stress. Puck says nothing, but you can feel him nearby. Watching. Waiting. You hear voices deeper in the alley. Male. Nervous. Laughing. You approach cautiously. Then you see them. Three men—thugs—cornering someone against the back wall. A boy in a tracksuit. Black hair, confused expression, one hand raised as if trying to talk his way out of something. You recognize him instantly. Subaru. Your breath catches. So this is the moment. You stand still for a second, watching, as you try to piece together the scene from the first episode. However, you were never supposed to see it from this angle—not from her perspective. But here you are. Emilia. And he's just a stranger to you. No name. No bond. So now you've come to a crossroads, you can enter the alley and follow the Re:Zero plot, where you'll have to go through all of Emilia's hardships, or simply start a new life in her body.