Chapter 2
“Lady. Wake up now.”
I heard someone whispering above me. Even though I was deeply asleep, I was able to wake up at even the smallest presence of someone else. I’d refused to believe what had happened to me was real, which kept me awake all night hoping that it was all just a dream. I’d wished so hard to wake up from it, but I think I fell asleep in the process.
“Lady.”
The cautious voice was heard again.
Is she calling me?
The two men with blue eyes had left already, and from what I remember, no one else was in this room except for me till the very last moment I was conscious. For that reason, the one who could be called a ‘Lady’ was solely me..
“…”
I was drowsy and lost in my thoughts, so I didn’t answer the call right away. A moment later I heard a rustling sound from behind. I was somewhat awake now, and was about to put my strength into my body to get myself up from the bed, when a sharp lightning-like pain shot through my forearm from outside the comforter.
“Ack!”
My eyes immediately snapped open. I screamed as I got up from the spot, kicking the comforter away. Next, I pulled my sleeves up to check my throbbing forearm.
Th-This…
I was shocked to see the state of the skin under the light sky-blue pajama sleeves, and my jaw dropped. The thin forearm was covered with bruised blue scars from a needle. If it weren’t human flesh, but some kind of fabric, it would’ve had lots of visible holes in it. I was still shocked by the sight of a drop of blood on one of my forearms, when…
“You’re awake now.”
Unconcerned, a casual voice came from beside the bed. I turned my head to see a brown haired girl with lots of freckles. She was a maid. In the illustrations, the 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 a 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 a 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.”
She gave a wicked smile as started to make the bed. She seemed to be used to doing this to this body. I sat still, biting my lower lip, but was eventually forced to enter the bathroom due to the maid’s pushing. She told me she’d 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. It gave me goosebumps just by dipping my fingertip in.
I didn’t expect any service in helping me bathe, but this was just too extreme. There were some stories about how the villainess got the worst treatment ever, but nothing explained anything about this specifically. I was once again forced to realize from the overflowing feeling of reality, that I’d actually entered the game. I pulled up my sleeve to see the scar with dried blood on it again, and when I did, I sort of teared up.
What is this? Nothing like this was shown in the game…
Suddenly, an image popped up in my head from my memories. It was an illustration of the villainess with an open-shoulder dress. Unlike the other illustrations that had not the smallest of mistakes in it, the illustration of the villainess had several small dots drawn on the one forearm.
Shit, I thought those were birthmarks!
If they weren’t, then, maybe they were something important that would be mentioned in one of the stories I failed to unlock…
Who knew those were traces of abuse?
Though this was unbelievable, I was once again surprised by 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’s below me in status.
I felt annoyed, but left with no choice, I dipped my hand into the freezing cold water again. I’d suffered worse things for years from my step-brother bastards, so this didn’t even tickle. I was the villainess anyways, so while I was at it, I wanted to make needle marks on that bitch just as she’d done to me. But, I had to give more time to investigate everything first, because unfortunately, I wasn’t in a state where I could even speak freely. The moment I stepped out of 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 meals in this 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 down by the table. As soon as I was though, I couldn’t help but 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 in 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 grinned 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.
1. (Flipping the table) What is this? Are you crazy?! Bring me the chef right now! Right now!
2. (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!
3. (Eat).
I’ve experienced the ‘Game Over’ twice in this scene. When I chose 1, all of the workers ran to the Duke and acted pitifully to confess to 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 her during her grounded days. So she died of dehydration.
On the next turn, I chose 2. Then the second 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 that fell on her afterwards stabbed her neck. It was truly a ridiculous way to die.
In the end, there was only one to choose. This scene is probably from the episode which held the story about the relationships between the villainess, who became the heroine, and the workers here, who’d worked in the mansion for a long time. However, I, who didn’t want to see the scene where the heroine is mistreated from the start, just skipped the episode after dying twice. It was because there were tens of episodes I had to unlock anyways, even if it wasn’t that one. Right now though, in front of my eyes, there wasn’t a ‘Return’ button 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 against my will. My hands held onto the spoon and scooped up a spoonful of rotten soup. My reluctance to eat it may have affected my movements, as my hand with the spoon started to tremble on its way to my mouth. Drops of grey liquid fell onto the table. No matter how strong my feelings were, I couldn’t stop my body from moving on its own. In the end, the spoon was shoved into my forcefully opened mouth.
“Ugh.”
The warm sensation of the grey liquid covered my tongue. At the same time, the horrible taste assaulted my mouth. This wasn’t food, it was a boiled cup of organic garbage. My body continued to act on its own as it forcefully gulped down the garbage water down my throat.
“Ah!”
The maid 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 senses 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, glad I’d safely gotten through an episode. It was my mistake. My hand, which held the spoon, didn’t stop.
What’s it doing?! What’s–?!
I had to keep on shoving the moldy blue bread and grey soup in my mouth. It wasn’t my choice. The maid’s face paled at the sight of me forcefully eating the foul food. My body, which repeated those crazy motions, came to a stop when the Duke’s second son happened to come in.
“What’re you doing?”
“Y-Young Master Reynold!”
The maid panicked at the sudden appearance of a person.
“Urgh, ugh!”
I, on the other hand, didn’t have the time to focus on that. I had to quickly cover my mouth with both my hands. I gagged so much, I felt as if everything I’d consumed that day was going to come bursting out at any moment.
Why do I have to experience these things?
I’d already experienced these things enough, even before entering the game. How many times did I have to suffer all that pain given by the two bastards in that hell-like house? But I have to experience these things all over again, even in a fictional world?
“Uhh, ugh…”
A strand of salvia escaped my mouth through my palms. I felt myself tearing up from the disgust and the unfairness of the situation. I groaned like a person who’d just drank poison. Seeing that, the pink haired man approached me with a shocked expression on his face.
“Hey, are you oka-…?”
He cut himself off, freezing in shock as he looked at what was set on the table.
“This…”
Moldy blue bread and 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 this garbage for breakfast. Before him was the sight of half of that food gone, and his pale younger step sister covering her mouth. The face of the pink haired man, who turned to look back at the maid, changed into a horrifying frown.
“Hey, what did you just feed her?”
“Y-Young Master! Th-This is, well…”
The maid turned pale at his 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 some kind, would be eating the rotten food purposely prepared without any complaints? The pink haired man snapped at the maid who wouldn’t properly answer.
“This is more than enough humiliation. 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!”
“Y-Young Master!”
“I’ll kindly explain this whole thing to my father and brother. Is there someone out there? Butler!”
~*~
I’d thought that this second life was a gift from God for my pitiful self… However, I’d succeeded in enduring, and finally escaped that damn house. I’d been accepted into a famous university that everyone in the world knew of. There was a place where I could fully relax, even if it was small and dirty. There was nothing left but the things that would help me on the way to my brightest future after I’d left the two bastards.
What I’m trying to say, is that Penelope’s life, in which every little mistake could result in my death, isn’t any better. Actually, it’s far worse. It would be a different matter if I was at least the heroine of the normal mode, where every decision led her to walk a flowery path.
“…But, why?”
But why? When I’d just succeeded in escaping that hell-like house?
“Just why?!”
Slam-!
I screamed, slamming my hands on the sink. The girl’s beautiful face reflected in 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, and ran my hand through my hair. I thought about Penelope. Penelope Eckart. A villainess of the normal mode, but 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, caught the interest of the Duke, who was desperately searching for his lost daughter. When her mother, who’d suffered an illness, passed away, she was adopted into the Eckart Duke family.]
There was only one reason she was able to turn into the Lady of the Duke family. It was thanks to her appearance matching the lost daughter of the Duke. The pink hair inherited by the dead Duchess, and the clear blue eyes which represented the Eckart family. I thought of the second son of the Duke, who I’d just seen not too long ago. His hair was a lovely shade of pink, however, the hair of the woman reflected in the mirror was more of a flame color than pink. And her turquoise eyes slightly differed from the rest of the family members.
“He should’ve continued looking for his daughter. Why’d he have to take in a random kid?”
As Penelope grew, she ceased to look like his daughter anymore. The Duke soon lost his interest in her, and locked her away, out of sight. All that was left for Penelope, who’d lost the Duke’s interest, was the abuse of her two step brothers and the workers.
“It’s so similar to my previous life to the point it feels unpleasant…”
Penelope’s life and the treatment she’d gotten was awfully similar to mine. It was something I didn’t notice when I was playing it as a game. I suddenly started feeling down.
Fake Lady.
Every worker working in this mansion called Penelope a fake. Penelope herself was breathtakingly beautiful, but to others’ eyes, she was only a mere defective clone. Maybe the story would have gone differently if she’d acted cutely towards others, but her personality was horrible, even though she only coincidentally happened to enter the family. Flashing back to the prologue of the story, it was explained.
[She was always on guard toward everyone, like a hedgehog with spikes up, and always caused trouble wherever she went, no matter the place or the situation.]
“I’d wondered why the choices 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 in name. Unlike how naïve the normal mode heroine looked, she looked so keen and sharp. But I sort of understood Penelope. Just today- No, just a few hours. I’ve experienced the treatment she’d gotten for only a 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 by poking her with needles?
Even so, she was picked up by the Duke himself. Not even a maid would wake another maid that way. It was when she was twelve that Penelope was adopted into the Duke family. If she was abused from that day forwards… There weren’t that many things a little kid could do to the adults, who wouldn’t even listen to her no matter how hard she shouted.
“Is all this trying to prove she’s fated to be a villainess?”
Nothing could change the fact that she was abused all the time, even until today. No characters were even somewhat merciful towards Penelope, and the situations that killed her were rough and insane.
“I feel a bit sorry for her.”
I raised my hand and stroked Penelope’s soft, fragile cheek. The figure with a strong shade of pink hair reflected in the mirror looked sorrowful. However, I soon got rid of the feeling of pity towards her.
“Hah, 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 at the hands of the male characters at any time, like Penelope did in the game. It felt fearful of the future when I was reminded of that.
Please let me know if there’s anything inconsistent or that needs further editing/corrections!!
-emrld
Scarlett Shoujo 