Chapter 1
Everything was perfect. Even the half underground house for one person which is the size of the bathroom of the house I lived before. The fact that I had to work starting next was also not a matter to me. I’d finally escaped from that hell-like house and got my freedom. I could live happily just from that one thing, but…
“I’m pretty sure I told you to live as quiet as a mouse without any fuss, with not even your breathing sound could be heard.”
A man opened his mouth. His hateful gaze looked as if he was seeing a hideous bug.
“I heard that you acted like a mad dog at the Crown Prince’s return ceremony banquet.”
That icy, deadly gaze that seemed like it wanted to kick me to death was familiar to me. It was the kind of gaze I always got from that house. However, it didn’t mean I was fine, even though I’d experienced it a lot.
“What was your reason for acting like that?”
I couldn’t breathe properly within the tense aura. My lips started to tremble in fear. Suddenly, a white chart appeared in front of my face, and I could see words written line by line in the chart.
1. How do I know?
2. I didn’t have a purpose.
3. (With a pitiful tone of voice) Well… Um, that’s…
…What is this?
I was going to ask what it was, however, as if something was stuck in my throat, I couldn’t let out a sound. The man’s voice threatened me when I just stood there without speaking a word.
“You’d better speak.”
I felt his deadly aura to the point that it hurt my skin. I’ll die if I don’t give an answer. I unconsciously pressed the number 3 on the white chart.
“Well… Um, that’s…”
The same words on the chart automatically came out of my mouth against my will.
What the-… What is this?!
My mouth opened idiotically as I still couldn’t believe what I’d just said. I couldn’t even guess what kind of situation I was in right now. I was in an unfamiliar place when I woke up, and came to face these unfamiliar people who all had a deadly aura. I couldn’t think at all, as if I’d just woken up from sleeping.
“Well um that’s-. Next.”
The man didn’t seem to like the incomplete answer, as he commanded me for the actual answer with a scary look. New sentences eventually appeared in the chart.
1. I’m sorry. I’ll act properly next time.
2. A stupid maid was the one to start all the fuss.
3. The lowly ones treated me lowly. Me, the only daughter of Eckart!
I didn’t have time to sit around thinking of what was going on right now. I hurriedly picked an answer while taking a hint from the mood. Even though I know nothing about it, I have to say something in this situation. This was a result of my reaction to all my painful experiences back then.
“I’m sor-…”
“We wouldn’t have met each other like this in the first place if it was something that’d be solved with a simple apology.”
My line was cut by him right away. My heart sunk from the stabbing tone of voice he used. I curled up instinctively. Then, the man spoke in an icy tone.
“Penelope Eckart.”
Penelope Eckart?
“We’ll withdraw our name ‘Eckart’ from you for some time.”
That line and that name were very familiar. I raised my head at a lightning speed. I could clearly see the face of the man I couldn’t see well before. The man, who was some distance away from the bed, was not one of the ‘people of that house’, but a foreigner who I’d never seen before. His blue eyes reflected the ocean, and his black hair reminded me of obsidian. Above him was a long bar that was similar to a phone’s battery sign, with a single white word that sparkled.
In…terest…?
If my eyes were perfectly fine, then the white sparkling word above the man’s head definitely said ‘Interest’.
“Definitely no parties or banquets during that time, and you’re absolutely not allowed to leave your room. You, think over what you did wrong, and think of what you’d do from now on during…”
“…”
“What are you looking at?”
The man’s emotionless face turned to a frown, as if he was unhappy with me staring at something other than where I was supposed to look. However, I couldn’t react to that, and only kept on observing the bar above the man’s head.
[Interest 0%]
No way…
I unconsciously shook my head a couple of times. It was really unbelievable. Really.
“The rumors saying that you went insane must be true.”
The man glared at me for a moment for my weird actions before turning away from me. He walked toward the door with big and fast steps, as if he didn’t want to stay in the same place as me for even a second more. The [Interest 0%] was moving away from me.
What did I do wrong?
I pondered what this situation was about while staring at the back of the leaving figure. I felt someone’s eyes on me, seeming to mock me with a smirk. I turned my head to see another person with pink hair standing with his arms crossed in the shadows by the door. He had the same blue eyes as the person who’d just left, and his face held a smile that seemed to ridicule.
[Interest -10%]
The white word sparkled above the boy’s figure.
It’s even a negative.
“Fool bitch. Serves you right.”
Unlike his pretty face, he swore some nasty words, and left the room following the man who previously left.
Thud-!
The door slammed. I stayed seated with my head blank for a long while in this room where only I existed. My head wasn’t working well, and I still couldn’t figure out the situation I was currently in. I thought for a while, and realized that the place I was in and the two people I’d just seen were both somewhat familiar to me.
“It’s a lie, right…?”
I could finally speak what I wished to speak when I was left alone, but I didn’t have time to notice that. I couldn’t believe it. This wasn’t something that just happens.
“There’s no way, though.”
It couldn’t be that a scene from the game I was playing before falling asleep was replaying like it was reality, with me as one of the characters in the game.
“I must be dreaming right now.”
There wasn’t any other explanation that made sense. However, no matter how much I pulled on my hair and pinched my face, I still couldn’t wake up from the dream.
“N-No… No, no! No! I say no-!”
Penelope Eckart. She was the villainess of the most popular game for girls these days, and the heroine of the most difficult mode.
~*~
The capture targets feeling regret that they bothered their sisters, and the protagonist attacking their hearts little by little, was enough for me to dive into this game and drown in it. I, who once chose to only take a look at the game, was now drowning in it. Reaching the ending was easy, even though it was my first time playing this kind of game. It was fun, however the normal mode was way too easy, even for a beginner like me. From the start, all the male lead’s interest towards the heroine started with 30%. It was to the point it could be called the easy mode rather than normal. I unlocked every character’s happy ending within 3 hours of playing. Then, a card popped on the screen that said ‘Hidden Ending’ with a drawing of a lock on it.
“A hu-hundred dollars? Are they crazy? Why is it so expensive?”
To see the hidden ending, you needed to either pay a crazy high price for it, or finish the hard modes of each character.
“Shit… It’s already midnight, though.”
I thought about the class I had early in the morning. However, that didn’t go on for long.
“Ah, whatever! Let’s finish it!”
I was insane, being controlled by the game. I wouldn’t usually have done anything like that. My fingers excitedly clicked on the hard mode button. A different prologue video played, this time, with grandiose background music.
“Ooh. The heroine changed to her.”
It was unexpected that the heroine changed in this mode. She was the villain in the normal mode, the fake mistress of the Duke family. The story was set before the heroine of the normal mode appeared, so it felt like a whole different story and a different game.
“Maybe this is why this game’s so popular?”
The detailed illustration of the heroine in the hard mode appeared on my screen. The unique system of this game wasn’t like any other game, which made me more interested in the app. The villainess, who was the evil foil to the angel-like heroine, was the one who was winning the hearts of the strictly love-locked male leads now. That gave me a feeling of excitement that I couldn’t quite explain. I proceeded to the main story of the hard mode feeling overly confident, since I had finished all the normal mode routes. Even though it was called hard mode, I expected the choices of lines to probably be just a little bit more difficult to choose. However, I was mistaken.
“Ack! Why did I die again?!”
Hard mode was extremely difficult. The heroine was the villainess from the first part, so raising the characters’ interest was super freaking hard. Not only that, the interests raised with all that hard work all dropped down to ‘Game Over’ after just one small mistake. Not just a normal game over, but a very disturbing ‘death’ of the heroine.
“Why did this have to be so extreme?”
The illustration was also quite realistic and cruel. I frowned at the illustration of the heroine getting her neck sliced by the Crown Prince.
“This mad game…”
I died several more times due to the hard choices I’d made previously in the game. Frustration filled my heart at this horrible system. What was the producer thinking, making the difficulty setting like this? I died so many times that I was starting to feel stressed from playing it.
“Please let me live for once, please!”
My goal was to unlock the ‘Hidden Ending’, however it had been a long time since that goal had been forgotten. I had to see this poor pitiful villainess survive, and live happily with at least one of the male leads. What makes the villainess the guilty one? Honestly, it was the author who made her the villainess! Unlike the heroine from the normal mode, who’d gotten everyone’s love no matter which choice I made, the villainess, who was only abused and mistreated no matter how much she begged for love, reminded me of my own life.
“I’m seeing the endings to this, no matter what.”
I was killed again due to the older bastard brothers. The sound of me gritting my teeth was heard in the room. I didn’t remember how many times I’d died there by then. My hands, which clenched my heated up phone, trembled. I’d thought that I was getting too emotional about it, but I couldn’t stop my fingers from clicking the reset button. I started all over again, from the beginning. I chose the lines, slowly raised their interests, and gained fame, glamor, and money to open up the new route.
“Ack! Why?! Why?!”
But I died again. I was annoyed to the point I had a thought of just buying their interest using money. If the producer’s goal was to make others pay for the damn thing, then they’d greatly succeeded. Since they made me, who treasures money like no one else, want to use up my own for it. I didn’t use my money till the end, but I was on fire the whole night, trying to see the ending of at least one of the characters.
Die, and start over.
Die again, and start over.
Die,
Die,
And die again.
I only died until the sunrise, however, I wasn’t able to see the ending of any of them till then.
“Fuck… Again…”
I, who was going to press the reset button again, couldn’t handle it anymore, and crashed to sleep with my phone in my hand. When I opened my eyes…
“Penelope Eckart.”
Said the man with the gauge bar above him with the sparkling letters written [Interest 0%].
“We’ll withdraw our name ‘Eckart’ from you for some time.”
I was the villainess of the game that I never got to see the ending of.
Please let me know if there’s anything inconsistent or that needs further editing/corrections!!
-emrld
Scarlett Shoujo 