Chapter 4

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.

“First, The characters.”

There are a total of 5 male protagonist in the game.

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

Unlike normal mode, Where the base is 30%, Hard mode starts with base affection of 0% (Special male protagonist starts with negative affection.) When the affection score is negative, The probability of death ending in the story is high.

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

First, Derrick Eckhart

A severe and cold noble, Derrick is the eldest son and heir of the Eckhart Dukeship.

Though he has no interest in Penelope as he is preoccupied in inheriting the Dukeship, he appears to Harbor hatred and contempt for her, for taking the place of his younger sister.

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.

The bad-tempered second son of Duke Eckhart is belligerent and has a foul mouth. Whenever he sees Penelope, he busies himself for with getting her in trouble, So he's one of the people in Duke's household whom you must watch for.

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

'Hmm... They're basically the same as the bastards in my family.'

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.

'There's no hope in these bastards.'

One of them, even started with negative percent. Why? Because the creator set it up this way. It's a hint that I should give up early on him since there's no hope for the ending with him in the first place.

And... Even hearing the word 'Brother' makes me shiver now.

The next male protagonist is Crown Prince.

Callisto Regulus...

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

In normal mode, The tyrant who treats humans like flies, meets those bastards' younger sister and is reformed. He then pushes the Villainess Penelope.

There, it could have been considered justice, but in hard mode... He was no different from the grim reaper.

I feel chills run down my spine.

In reality, Penelope had died in the hands of the Crown Prince more than anyone else in the hard mode. Thanks to him, I had to keep restarting and could barely in advance.

'Let's not get anywhere close to this guy.'

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

Then I quickly moved onto the next.

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

The marquis of the house of Verdandi is a sorcerer. He does things like mask his identity, acting as an eccentric merchant and dealing in all kinds of information and secret objects.

Everytime the Villainess Penelope was planning something dangerous scheme, he would protect the Duke's long-lost daughter with the unique information he possessed. He also helped a lot in increasing her fame.

Courteous and Romantic, He held nothing back in helping her both materially and spiritually.

But what was he like in Hard mode?

I was too busy, getting killed by the crown prince or my brothers to make any process with him.

I'll leave him for now. Though there's no telling what he's like right now. But there's still more hope with him than the other three so far.

And Last, Eckles.

He's taciturn apprentice knight of the House of Eckhart. Though he is currently enslaved by the victorious nation, He was a noble in the fallen kingdom of his homeland and enters the Duke's household, after his sword skills catch the eye of Duke Eckhart.

The duke discovers him during an evening outing to a nearby household, and he pays a hefty price to bring him in.

He's a skilled figure, who receives the title and honor of swordmaster in the latter half of normal mode.

Furthermore, he was the only love interest who showed the sympathy toward the Villainess Penelope till the very end.

Perhaps because of his sense of honor toward a mistress he had once served, he was the most neutral among the male characters when Penelope and her clashed.

Though I haven't even met him in hard mode… .

'Still, he's my highest chance of surviving.'

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

Because I constantly got stuck in the hard mode, the information I know is severely limited. Even if I did know more, I don't know yet how much of the game's original system would apply in this reality.

But two things are certain:

One is that I cannot let the male protagonists' affection drop to negative,

and I have to achieve an ending with someone before Penelope's coming-age-of-ceremony.

'The day the real heroine returns to the game...'

In normal mode the story begins on the day of Penelope's coming-age-of-ceremony, when the Duke's real daughter, returns. In other words setting of hard mode happens a little earlier than the normal mode's story.

If I don't reach an ending before then, the story will progress into normal mode, and the male protagonists, who cares for the long-lost daughter, will no doubt try to punish Villainess.

The day Penelope, the Duke's fake daughter comes of age, she loses everything because of the Duke's real daughter.

'Even now, the risk of the 'game over' pervades everything. If it gets to that point, There is no hope.'

I bite my nails while clenching my teeth.

Realistically, All that await me would be death at the hands of male protagonists.

'...That can't happen!'

Yes, After finally escaping my own Damned family, how could I just die inside a game like this?

"I refuse to die!"

I will do anything I need to survive. I will most definitely survive and return to my life-

'without fail.'

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.

"My 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.

"The Duke seeks 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.

(Throw something) Wanna die?!

Tell him to come here himself!

Okay.

Oh right. I can't even decide to be mad on my own here.

'Something really has to be done about these Goddamn multiple choice answers...'

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

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

“…Okay.”

This worked out well. Luckily the Duke is looking for me. This is my chance.

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.

I got glances like that before. Often enough before entering this world.

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.

"It is the butler, your grace. I have brought, Lady Penelope."

"Come in."

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

I stepped in the room, feeling a bit nervous.

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