Unforgiving

A quick-to-anger human maid is thrust into a terrifying power struggle she should have no part in.
A reincarnator must protect the one life he has ever cared about.
...
"What are you, then, My Hope? A porcelain doll, fading by the year, poised to shatter?" I had said pointedly. "The way I see it, you're set to be shelved just like her, like the rest of us 'ragdolls'."
...
The hateful vampire princess enters nineteen year old Miriam Will into the death match that was the Imperial Trials, a generational competition in which any qualified citizen of age can compete and win the throne of the Rouge Empire, for themselves or another. Miriam mourns the loss of the friend she had in the princess, and fears for her life as she must face her fate head on. She only wants to breathe without stress, to become lighter, sweeter, kinder- But this game may force her to be crueler and more fearful than she's ever had to be.
...
He has lived dozens of lives, all under the boot of House Cordelia. In this life, he is the ethereally beautiful fourth son of a baron and bears the name "Ivory Gross". Born into yet another disgraced line, he is (shockingly) loved dearly by his family. When his father asks him to compete in the Trials, he reluctantly agrees; he wants to defend the first family who has ever showed him consideration and affection. He wishes for a bright future for his younger relatives, one where they aren't ridiculed for mistakes they had no part in.

Can Ivory believe in the future? Can Miriam protect herself among monsters? Can the two of them help each other let go of the past? Most of all, can they find it in themselves to be as ruthless and unforgiving as the heads of an empire need to be?