“Lady. Wake up now.”

I heard someone whispering above me.

Even though I was fast asleep, I was able to wake up even by the smallest presence of someone.

I refused to believe in what had happened to me which kept me awake all night, hoping that this was all just a dream. I wished so hard for me to wake up from it, and I think I fell asleep during the process of that.

“Lady.”

The cautious voice was heard again.

‘Is she calling me?’

The two man with blue eyes left already, and from what I remember, no one was in this room except for me ’till the very last moment I was awake.

For that reason, the one who could be called a ‘lady’ was me alone.

“…… .”

I was drowsy when I was lost in my thoughts that I couldn’t answer the call right away.

It was a moment later when I heard a rustling sound from the back.

I was somewhat awake from sleep now. I was about to put my strength to my body to get myself up from the bed.

A lightning-like pain was felt on my forearm from outside the comforter.

“Ack!”

My eyes automatically flashed open.

I screamed as I got up from the spot, kicking the comforter away. Next, I pulled my sleeves up.

It was to check my pained forearm.

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‘Th, this…… .’

I was shocked to see the flesh shown under the light sky blue pajama sleeves, making my jaws drop.

The thin forearm was covered with blue bruised scar of the needles.

If it weren’t a human flesh but some kind of fabric, it would’ve had lots of visible holes on it.

It was when I was still shocked by the sight of a drop of blood on one of my forearm.

“You’re awake now.”

Unconcerned casual voice came from beside the bed.

I turned my head towards that direction to see a brown hair girl with lots of freckles. She was a maid.

In the illustrations, every maids had no faces drawn and all wore the same maid outfit.

Including the girl standing in front of me.

I don’t know where she hid the needle she poked me with, but there was nothing in her hands.

She was observing me with the face of mockery and some kind of satisfaction.

‘What’s up with her, doing this kind of thing to a person who was doing absolutely nothing!’

I opened my mouth in desire to snap at her.

“……!”

However, no words came out of my mouth no matter how hard I tried.

‘Why isn’t anything helping me out in this kind of situation? Damn it!’

When I only glared at her with no words said, the maid acted as if nothing happened.

“I’ve prepared the bathing water for you in the bathroom so go and wash yourself first, lady.”

An evil smile was reflected on her face as she started to make the bed. She seemed to be used to doing this to this body.

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I sat still, biting on my lower lip, but was forced to enter the bathroom due to the maid’s push.

She told me she prepared the bathing water, but the only thing in the empty bathroom was a bucket filled with cold water.

It was freezing cold like ice water that it gave me goosebumps just by dipping my finger tip in.

‘I didn’t expect any service in helping me bathe but this, this is just too extreme.’

There were some stories about how the villainess got the worse ever treatment, but nothing explained something this specific.

I was once again, forced to realize from the overflowing feeling of reality.

That I’ve actually entered the game.

I pulled up the sleeve to see the scar with dried blood covering it again, and when I did, I sort of teared up.

‘What’s this. Nothing like this was shown in the ga…… .’

Suddenly, an image popped up in my head as a reminder.

It was an illustration of the villainess with a open-shoulder dress.

Unlike the other illustrations that had not the smallest mistakes in it, on the illustration of the villainess had several small dots drawn on the one forearm.

‘Nuts. I thought those were actual birthmarks!’

If it weren’t, then, maybe it was something important that would be mentioned in one of the stories I failed to unlock…… .

Who knew those were the traces proving all the abuses.

Though this was unbelievable, I was once again surprised of how detailed the story was plotted.

“Lady. Breakfast has been prepared. Are you done yet?”

The maid urged from the other side of the bathroom door.

‘Ugh, says her who isn’t a match for me.’

I felt annoyed but with no choice, I dipped my hand into the freezing cold water again.

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To me who suffered the worse for years from my step brother bastards, this was not even tickling.

I was the villainess anyways, so while I was at it, I wanted to make needle marks on that bitch as she did to me but I had to give it more time for me to investigate everything first.

Because unfortunately, I was in a state where I couldn’t even speak freely of what I wanted to speak.

The moment I stepped out the bathroom, drying my face with the towel, I could see the table all set with some food on it like the maid had said.

Seemed like I even had to eat my meal in the room. Probably because I was grounded by the first son of the duke.

“Take a seat, lady.”

I was pulled by the maid’s hand and sat on the seat by the table. As soon as I did though, I couldn’t do anything but to frown.

The food prepared as a meal for a human didn’t look edible at all.

On the plate was a piece of blue moldy bread and on the bowl was a kind of thick grey soup with undefined solids floating around.

“Hurry up and eat. I know you’re hungry.”

The maid smiled widely as she urged me to eat. I clenched my teeth and glared at her.

A white square screen popped into view right in front of my eyes.

(Flipping the table) What’s this? You crazy?! Bring me the chef right now! Right now!

(Shove the fork in the maid’s mouth) You tell me to eat these that not even the dogs would eat? Then how about you do it first!

(Eat.)

I’ve experienced the ‘game over’ twice at this scene.

When I chose 1, every one of the workers ran to the duke acted pitiful and poor to confess the villainess’ troublesome actions.

The son who grounded the villainess hears about this and grows so furious that he prohibited anyone offering a single drop of water to me during the grounded days.

So I died in hunger.

On my next turn, I chose 2.

Then the son of the duke who was just coincidentally passing by, jumped in to get the villainess off of the maid.

During the process, the villainess who was pushed roughly, fell, and the fork which fell on her afterwards stabbed her neck.

It was really a ridiculous way to die.

‘In the end, there’s only one to choose.’

This scene is probably the episode which held the story about the relationships between the villainess who became the heroine and the workers here who worked in the mansion for a long time.

However, me who didn’t want to see the scene where the heroine is mistreated from the start, just skipped the episode to the next one after dying twice.

It was because there were tens of episodes I had to unlock anyways even if it weren’t this one.

Right now though, in front of my eyes, there were no ‘Return’ buttons that would take me to the page that enabled me to choose the episodes from.

‘Damn…… .’

I sorrowfully glared at the maid standing next to me as I powerlessly clicked the number 3.

Once I did, as if someone was controlling my body, I started to move automatically without my wills.

My hands held onto the spoon and scooped up a spoonful of rotten soup.

My wills of me not wanting to eat this may have affected my movements as my hands with the spoon started to tremble on its way to my mouth.

The drops of grey liquid fell on the table.

No matter how strong my wills were, I couldn’t stop my body from moving on its own.

In the end, the spoon with the soup was shoved into my forcefully opened mouth.

“Ugh.”

The warm sensation of the grey liquid was felt on my tongue. At the same time, the horrible taste of it was sensed.

This wasn’t food. It was the taste of the boiled cup of organic garbage.

My body continued to act on its own as it forcefully gulped down the garbage water which has entered my mouth, down my throat.

“Gasp!”

The maid who watched, gasped, as if she didn’t expect me to really eat it.

‘Urgh, I feel like I’m going to vomit!’

I gagged. I was trying so hard to forget the feeling I was currently feeling.

‘I’m guessing that once is enough.’

I wouldn’t die just by consuming a spoonful of organic garbage.

I let out a sigh of relief since I’ve safely got over an episode.

It was my misunderstanding.

My hand which held the spoon with didn’t stop.

‘What’s it doing! What’s–!’

Even afterwards, I had to keep on shoving the moldy blue bread and the grey soup in my mouth.

It was not due to my wills.

The maid’s face paled at the sight of me forcefully eat the overdued foods.

My body which repeated those crazy motions came to a stop when the duke’s son happened to come in.

“What’re you doing?”

“Y, young master Reynold!”

The maid came to panik at the sudden appearance of a figure.

“Urgh, ugh!”

Me, on the other hand, didn’t have the time to focus on that. I had to cover my mouth with both my hands so fast.

I gagged so much. I felt as if everything I’ve consumed today was going to come flooding out any moment now.

‘Why do I have to experience these things?’

I’ve already experienced these things enough even before entering the game.

How many time did I have to suffer all the pains given by the two bastards in that hell-like house.

But I have to experience these things over again even in this fictional world?

“Uhh, ugh…… .”

A strand of salvia escaped my mouth, out through my palms.

I felt myself tearing up due to this unfair situation and the disgust.

I groaned like a person who just drank poison. Seeing that, the pink hair approached me with a shocked expression on his face.

“Hey, are you oka…… .”

He stopped in his words. He froze still with more shock shown on his face as he looked at what was set on the table.

“This…… .”

Moldy blue bread, rotten soup.

It was a mess. No one would be able to guess that this was served to a lady from the duke family. Not even the commoners would eat these garbage for breakfast.

The sight of the half of those foods gone and his pale younger step sister covering her mouth.

The face of the pink hair who turned his face to look back at the maid, changed to a horrifying frown.

“Hey, what did you just feed her?”

“Y, young master! Th, this is, well…… .”

The maid turned pale at the deathly aura and started to shiver in fear.

‘He obviously wouldn’t have guessed.’

How would an extra who was just passing by, have guessed that the fake lady who was always making a fuss of one or another would be eating the rotten food, purposely prepared, without any complaints.

The pink hair snapped at the maid who wouldn’t properly answer.

“This is more than enough humiliating to dare mock our family! A mere maid like you, doing these things to the one she’s serving……!”

“Young master! That, that’s a misunderstanding! Young master!”

“Get lost!.Scram from this room!”

“Y, young master!”

“I’ll kindly explain this whole thing to my father and brother. Is there someone out there? Butler!”

_______

CHAPTER 2: ‘THINKING THAT THIS LIFE WAS A GIFT FROM THE GOD FOR THE PITIFUL ME…… .’

‘Thinking that this life was a gift from the god for the pitiful me…… .’

However I succeeded in enduring and finally escaping the dang house.

I was accepted into the famous university that everyone in the world knows about.

There was a house I could fully relax in even though it was small and dirty.

There were nothing left but things that would help me on the way to the brightest future after I left the 2 bastards.

What I’m trying to say is that Penelope’s life which every littlest mistakes takes me to my death, isn’t any better. Never mind. Far worse.

It would be a different matter if I at least was the heroine of the normal mode whose every decision lead her to walk the flower path.

“……But why?”

But why, to me, who’ve j.u.s.t succeeded in escaping the hell-like house.

“Just why!”

Slam-!

I screamed, slamming on the sink. The girl’s beautiful face reflected on the mirror showed a horrifying expression.

The sight of her looking more furious than sad, certainly made her look like the greatest villain in the game.

“Hah…… .”

I sighed deep and ran my hand through my hair to flip it. I thought of things about Penelope.

Penelope Eckart. A villainess of one game, the heroine of the hard mode.

Penelope was actually a commoner with no surname.

[Penelope who grew up going from place to place with her poor mother, catches the interest of the duke who was desperately searching for his lost makne daughter.

When her mother who suffered an illness, passed away, she was adopted to the Eckart duke family.]

There was only reason she was able to turn into the lady of the duke family.

It was thanks to her appearance that matched the lost daughter of the duke.

The pink hair inherited by the dead duchess, and the clear blue eyes which symbolized the Eckart family.

I thought of the second son of the duke whom I just saw not too long ago.

His hair was the colour of the lovely pink.

However the hair colour of the women in the mirror was more towards flame colour than pink.

And the turquoise coloured eyes that slightly differed from the rest of the family members.

“He should’ve continued finding the his daughter, why did he have to take in a random kid?”

As Penelope grew, she did not to look like his daughter anymore. The duke soon lost his interest for her and locks her out of his sight.

All that was left for Penelope who lost the duke’s interest was her two step brothers and the worker’s abusing.

“Its so similar to my life to the point it feels unpleasant…… .”

Penelope’s life and the treatments she got was awfully like mine.

It was something I didn’t notice when I was playing it as a game.

I suddenly started feeling down.

‘Fake lady.’

Every workers working in this mansion called Penelope, fake.

Penelope herself was breathtakingly beautiful, but to other’s eyes, she was only a mere clone that didn’t even look like the original.

Maybe the story flowed differently if she acted cute towards others, but her personality hit the bottom even though she was only a girl who just coincidentally happened to enter the family.

Flashing back to the prologue of the story, it was explained ‘She was always on guard towards everyone like a hedgehog with spikes up, and always caused trouble where ever she went to no matter the place or the situation.’.

“I wondered why the choices of lines were all something that would surely cause a fuss.”

I nodded my head, finally understanding why all the choices I had to choose from were that insane.

Penelope was actually a villain who seemed powerful just by her name.

Unlike how naive the normal mode heroine looked like, she looked so keen and sharp.

But I sort of understood Penelope.

Just today. No, just a few hours. I’ve experiences the treatments she got for only for few hours, yet I think it was enough for me to understand how her life must’ve been.

‘Even though she’s called a fake.’

How could they wake her up, poking her with needles? Even so, she’s a girl picked up by the duke himself.

Not even one maid would wake the other maids that way.

It was when she was 12 when Penelope was adopted to the duke family.

If she was abused from that day and on…… .

There weren’t that much things a little kid could do to the adults who wouldn’t even listen to her words no matter how hard she shouted.

“Is this a proof trying to prove she’s a meant-to-be villainess?”

Nothing could change the fact that she was abused all the time even until today.

No characters were the least merciful towards Penelope, and the motions that killed Penelope inside were rough and insane.

“I feel a bit sorry for her.”

I raised my hand and stroked Penelope’s fragile soft cheek.

The figure with strong shade of pink hair reflected in the mirror looked sorrowful.

However, I got rid of the feeling of pity towards the other.

“Ha, who’s sorry about who.”

It wasn’t the time to think about things in peace.

I was Penelope now.

It meant that I could die in the male characters’ hands anytime like that Penelope did in the game.

It was fear that I felt when I reminded me of that.

_______

I searched for a pen and a piece of paper as soon as I got out of the bathroom.

I needed to figure out a way to survive as long as I’ve become Penelope.

In this hard mode, it was hard to raise the interest of one, and a drop to a negative leads to death.

It was even worse for the duke’s second son. His interest was already in the negative. It would be death that’ll come for me if his interest didn’t rise to a positive soon.

There was a need for me to organize some information about the game.

It was fortunate that the fake lady at least had some things she deserved as a lady.

In the large room stood a luxury bookshelf and a desk.

I didn’t hesitate to go to it and take a seat. I dipped the end of the quill into the ink.

“Characters first.”

There were 5 male characters in total in the game.

The 2 sons of the duke and the crowned prince, the wizard, the knight.

The hard mode started with their interests at 0% or negative unlike in the normal mode where it started with 30% of interest in each one.

I started to write down everything I remembered, on the blank sheet of paper.

First, Derrick Eckart.

(Korean Pronunciations: Derrick Eckart)

He was was the first son of the duke, technically the young duke of the family. Derrick was a typical noble man.

He was generally uninterested towards Penelope as he was too busy preparing to be the next duke of this family.

However there were strong and intense contempt and hatred towards her for taking his blood-related sister’s place.

In the game, Derrick killing Penelope himself was rare. However, he didn’t forget to punish her whenever she made a fault.

Then the player will be given a penalty and their choices of lines to choose from would be restricted.

Just like today, I cannot leave the room due to the punishment given yesterday.

Anyways, next. The youngest son of the duke, Reynold Eckart.

This kid, well, there’s really nothing much to explain.

A very wacky and active guy with a bad -temper, having a critical personality and is always picking a fight with Penelope on every single thing whenever he encounters her.

As he’s the leader to those who abuse Penelope, him being first to abuse Penelope is not even surprising. What is surprising is that he’s always the one who brings Penelope to her death through some unexpected weird ways.

“Now that I see, these two are somewhat similar to the bastards in our house, aren’t they?”

I clicked my tongue, going over the information of the two that I’ve written down.

These two had the easiest routes to master in normal mode.

It was because these two had ‘family love’ and not ‘lover’s love’ for her since they were blood related.

That being said, Penelope was not the least related to the two through blood. Therefore, it had the higher chance of having a different ending than in the normal mode.

However I shook my head.

I scribbled a big ‘X’ on their names I’ve written.

“They have no answers. These two are hopeless.”

Adding to that, Reynold’s interest starts at a negative.

Not even a 0, but a negative.

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Why would negative be a negative.

This was what the producer was telling me:

There’s no hope in the first place, so just give up on an ending with Reynold.

Besides, I was a person who go nauseous even just hearing the word ‘Oppa’, so I decided I’d fully give up on them.

“Next, the crowned prince.”

Callisto Régūlus, the crowned prince.

(Korean Pronunciations: Callisto reguleuce)

The only information I have about him were all from the normal mode.

The crowned prince who depreciates his life due to his unfortunate childhood events, meets the angel-like protagonist and heals his heart before he punishes the villainess Penelope.

That was a justice-has-been-done but from Penelope’s perspective, the crowned prince was a grim reaper.

He was the one who killed Penelope the most in the hard mode.

I pressed the reset button so many time during his route that I don’t even remember what happened in the whole game.

“Let’s not even go close to where this guy is.”

I remembered the illustration with Callisto slicing my neck several times.

I felt chills down my spine.

Criss cross. I drew ‘X’ on the crowned prince’s name many times.

Then I quickly moved onto the next.

The next was Buinter Verdandi. He was a wizard and a marquis.

(Korean Pronunciation: Vuinter [Bwinter] Berudandi)

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As a wizard, he works with his identity as a marquis, hidden.

He exchanges information and mysterious objects, and thanks to that, he is able to find out that the protagonist is the duke’s lost daughter.

After that, he gains information about the villainess making evil plans. He either warns the protagonist or blocks the danger himself.

Besides that, he was a character who was the most helpful in getting her honors and glamors.

He presented romantic magics in normal mode. He was a sweet man who helped the protagonist from behind.

But I don’t know how he was in the hard mode.

I was already busy, dying from the crowned prince and the 2 sons of the duke before Buinter’s route even started.

Anyways, he had some high possibilities and hopes unlike the three previous brats so I decided to let it be for now.

“And last, Eclipse.”

(Korean Pronunciations: Eclise)

Being a knight of the duke family, Eclipse was a commoner.

The duke, who went out to the town at night, happened to see Eclipse who was outstanding in swordsmanship, bought him at a high price to bring him in and make him into a knight-in-training.

Later, he becomes the youngest sword master and is given a status as a noble. He wins the title of ‘young and handsome guy’.

Eclipse was the one character you can most expect an ending from, out of the five males.

He was the only one who felt sympathy towards Penelope until the end.

Penelope was his last master he had served, and I think that’s why he was the one, least to stop Penelope from bullying the protagonist.

Even though I never even met him in the hard mode…… .

“Hahh…… There’s nothing much that’d help me at this point.”

I let out a deep sigh, looking at my finished list.

I didn’t know much about the hard mode since everything blocked the way in it.

Even if I did, I don’t know if it’d be useful or not since I don’t know how the system may differ from the game in reality.

The one thing I know for sure though, is that I die when the male character’s interests reaches negative and that there’s a time limit I have to reach an ending in.

Penelope’s coming-of-age ceremony.

I must finish the route of at least one of the capture characters before that day.

That’s because it is that day when the protagonist makes her debut in the story.

‘Poor Penelope.’

She loses everything due to the real daughter of the duke appearing just when she becomes an adult.

That was the start of the normal mode.

If I didn’t end up with anyone until then, then I was most likely to die from one of them even if I don’t act like a villainess.

Of course, there wasn’t a guarantee that I wouldn’t die before that even starts.

“……I can’t die.”

I clenched my teeth thinking about my sorrowful future.

Yes. I can’t die.

I’ve just escaped from that rotten house. I can’t just die in a game like this.

“I’ll not die no matter what.”

My morning class at school is waiting for me.

I’ll live and go back to where I belong.

I decided, blankly staring at ‘I don’t know what’, that I’d live.

It was then. Knock knock-.

I heard the knocking sound from the door, twice. Before I even had the time to hide the papers with the information I’ve written down, the door opened abruptly.

“Lady.”

The person who appeared in front of me was an old white hair butler.

He didn’t come in but stood by the door as he spoke.

“His grace is commanding for your presence.”

I knew that the words written on the paper wouldn’t show in his eyes, but I felt unpleasant at his rude attitude.

There was a manager when I lived at a house.

Even though that manager didn’t seem to like me, he didn’t open the door like the butler did just now.

Moreover, this world wasn’t based on democracy but classism.

(Democracy: Citizens vote for who gets the power over them.)

(Classism: Power is by social class- Duke, Marquis, Commoners, ect.)

I was deciding on rather I should just deal with it or do something about it.

But before I decided on what to do, a white box appeared in front of my eyes.

(Throwing the objects in the room) You dare open the door to my room without my permission? Do you wish for death, oldie?!

If he has something to say, tell him to come himself!

(Glares at him for 5 seconds, then gets up) Okay.

‘Ah.’

I forgot about it again. That I’m not in the state where I can get angry over things however I want…… .

However I also didn’t want to act like what any of the three choices that are given to me are forcing me to do.

I thought while choosing the third one as my option, annoyedly.

Interest or whatever, I need to do something about this option chart.

“…… Okay.”

It was fortunate that the duke was calling me at this time.

I hid the papers I wrote on, deep in the drawer before getting up from the spot.

Then I followed the butler out my room.

I only knew about this mansion through just a few illustrations, so I took this chance to carefully look around the places.

The mansion was gigantic in size just like some buildings you can see in a movie that showed a castle in Europe.

Penelope’s room was on the second floor.

Inside the mansion seemed busy. I met quite a lot of workers while walking through the halls.

The gazes of the workers who glanced at me when I walked by, didn’t seem kind.

However I ignored them without any fuss.

These kind of gazes don’t even bother me the least since I’ve felt these gazes way too much before I even came here.

The butler who was leading the way, got down to the first floor and soon arrived at the well-decorated door.

It seemed to be the duke’s office.

Knock knock knock.

“Your grace. I escorted the lady here.”

“Come in.”

Creak- The door opened with the butler opening the door.

I stepped in the room, feeling a bit nervous.

_______