Chapter 3
I searched for a pen and a piece of paper as soon as I left 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 levels, and a drop to the 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 then dipped the end of the quill into the ink.
“Characters first.”
There were five male characters in total in the game. The two sons of the Duke, the Crown Prince, the wizard, and the knight. The hard mode started with their interests at 0% or negative, unlike in the normal mode where it started with 30% interest for each one. I started to write down everything I remembered on the blank sheet of paper.
First, Derrick Eckart. He was the first son of the Duke, technically the Young Master 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 the family, however he held a strong and intense hatred toward her for taking his blood sister’s place. In the game, Derrick killing Penelope himself was rare. However, he didn’t forget to punish her whenever she made a mistake. Then the player would be given a penalty, and their choices of lines to choose from would be restricted. Just like today, I couldn’t 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 not much to explain. A very wacky and active guy with a bad temper. having a combative personality, he was always picking a fight with Penelope over every little thing whenever he encountered her. As he’s the leader of those who abuse Penelope, him being first to abuse her isn’t even surprising. What is surprising, is that he’s always the one who brings Penelope to her death through some unexpected and weird ways.
“Now I see. These two are somewhat similar to the bastards in that 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 wasn’t related to them in the least. Therefore, it had a 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 negative. Why would it 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 got nauseous even just hearing the word ‘Oppa’, so I decided I’d fully give up on them.
“Next, the Crown Prince.”
Callisto Régūlus, the Crown Prince. The only information I had about him was all from the normal mode. The Crown Prince, who depreciates his life due to his unfortunate childhood events, meets the angel-like protagonist who heals his heart before he punishes the villainess Penelope. That was a justice-has-been-served situation, but from Penelope’s perspective, the Crown 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 times during his route, that I don’t even remember what happened overall.
“Let’s not even go close to where that guy is.”
I remembered the illustration of Callisto slicing Penelope’s neck multiple times. I felt chills down my spine. Criss cross. I drew an ‘X’ on the Crown Prince’s name many times, then quickly moved onto the next one. Vinter Verdandi. A wizard and a Marquis. 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 obtains 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 honor and glory. He presented romantic magic in normal mode, and was a sweet man who helped the protagonist from behind the scenes. But I don’t know how he was in the hard mode. I was already busy, dying from the Crown Prince and the two sons of the Duke before Vinter’s route had even started. Anyways, he had some possibilities, unlike the three previous brats, so I decided to let him be for now.
“And last, Eclipse.”
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. He bought him at a high price, and made him into a knight-in-training. Later, he became the youngest sword master, and is given a title as a noble. Eclipse was the one character you could most expect an ending from, out of the five males. He was the only one who felt any sympathy towards Penelope. Penelope was the last master he had served, and I think that’s why he was the only one to stop Penelope from bullying the protagonist. Even though I never even met him in the hard mode…
“Hah… 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 interest 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 that’s the 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 before then, I was most likely to die from one of them even if I didn’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 as I thought 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 won’t 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. I then heard a knocking sound from the door, twice. Before I even had the time to hide the papers with the information I’d written down, the door opened abruptly.
“Lady.”
The person who appeared in front of me was an old white haired butler. He didn’t come in, but stood by the door as he spoke.
“His Grace is ordering for your presence.”
I knew that he wouldn’t be able to see the words written on the paper, but I felt unpleasant at his rude attitude. There was a manager when I lived at my house, and even though that manager didn’t seem to like me, he didn’t open the door abruptly like the butler did just now. Moreover, this world wasn’t based on democracy, but classism. I was debating whether I should do something about it, but before I’d decided, a white box appeared.
1. (Throwing the objects in the room) You dare open the door to my room without my permission? Do you wish for death, old man?!
2. If he has something to say, tell him to come tell me himself!
3. (Glares at him for 5 seconds, then gets up) Okay.
Ah. I forgot about it again. That I’m not in a position 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 are forcing me to do.
I thought while choosing the third one as my option, annoyed. 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’d written on deep in the drawer before getting up. Then, I followed the butler out of my room. I only knew about the mansion from just a few illustrations, so I took this chance to carefully look around the place. The mansion was gigantic in size, just like some buildings you can see in a movie, or like 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 kinds of gazes don’t even bother me the least, since I’d felt these same gazes way too often before I’d even come here. The butler, who was leading the way, got down to the first floor, and we soon arrived at a well-decorated door. It seemed to be the Duke’s office.
Knock knock knock.
“Your Grace. I’ve escorted the Lady here.”
“Come in.”
Creak-
The butler opened the door, and I stepped into the room, feeling a bit nervous. Actually there wasn’t anything to be nervous about. It was only a single scene from a game… Even so, my hands continued to quiver a little. I was subconsciously being reminded of my biological dad, and remembering the attitude of the Duke towards Penelope in the game.
I was fully in the room now, but the Duke didn’t even raise his head. I hesitantly approached his desk and stood. I hid my quivering fingers and bowed down in greeting. There weren’t many details within the game, however my voice wouldn’t come out, so there was no way I could show my presence through speaking. Also, I felt like this is what I had to do, judging by the mood.
“You’ve come.”
The Duke finally took a glimpse of me by slightly raising his head. He had the same black hair and blue eyes that Derrick had. His face showed no emotion, just like the high-status nobles shown in the illustrations in the game. At the same time, a white box popped up in my view.
1. Why have you called?
2. I’m busy. Please get straight into the point.
3. (Glare without saying anything).
I pressed on the choice number 1.
“Why have you called?”
“I heard there was a fuss this morning.”
As soon as his sentence reached the end, the choices in the box quickly shifted to show new choices.
1. Your Grace has nothing to do with it.
2. You probably want this fuss happening.
3. It wasn’t my fault. This was all that stupid maid’s doing!
I lost control of my composure reading those choices.
Ha… These insane choices…
Of course, this was something I’d experienced once before. When I was playing the game in the other world, I was happy to press on the second one as my choice, my plan being ‘I will make Penelope a Sassy Chic Femme Fatale!’. However, thinking that this came back to me in this reality left me speechless.
Even though I still am titled as a villainess… What father on earth would treat his ‘not even blood-related’ daughter so well? Shit.
Tap-
When I didn’t speak for a while and just stood silently, the Duke put down his pen and lifted his head up fully. He had a sharp and keen look in his eyes as he observed me.
I hope this decision doesn’t trigger a death flag…
I chose number 1, trembling inside. I clenched my teeth to try and not say ‘that’ word out loud.
“Your Grace has nussing to do with it.”
I couldn’t stop that word in the end, and instead, it came out really weird.
“Penelope.”
His voice was as cold as ice, holding no warmth whatsoever. There was no change of the story flow, no matter how much I tried.
“Has it already been six years since you came to this house?”
I went back in my memories, searching for the right information about the game’s setting. The heroines on both the normal and hard modes were at the same age, 18. Penelope had been adopted to the Duke house when she was 12. That meant that, yes, he was correct. I remembered one thing I’d forgotten about the game. The 18th birthday is when the coming-of-age ceremony is held for everyone here.
That means that there isn’t much time left until the day of the coming-of-age ceremony for Penelope, right? Then how long do I have?
It was while I was working my brain that suddenly remembered the information. Thankfully, the Duke continued speaking without me having to choose one of the three choices.
“I don’t know if you know, but it’s not easy to step foot in this house. Only the ones who’ve proved that they can be of use to our house can go through the gates of our Eckart mansion after several strict inspections.”
“…”
“I didn’t hesitate or hold back in providing you support. I accepted everything, even after seeing you in your luxurious life, doing inexcusable things.”
“…”
“However, I can’t seem to figure out what good you have brought to our family these past six years.”
True. I would’ve held a sliver of his interest if I at least looked like his blood-related daughter.
However Penelope’s hair and eye color turned too different from the right shade of pink and blue. I wanted to nod while saying that his words were all true, however my body didn’t move an inch after the Duke started speaking because of the system controlling my body. The white box, which had disappeared during my silence, popped back up again.
1. So what do you expect me to do? Are you going to kick me out of this house now?
2. I’m not the one at fault!
3. (Kneel down).
Finally!
I was glad to see an actually normal answer I could choose without hesitation. It was an excitement I hadn’t felt since coming to this place. I knew it wouldn’t, but just in case it disappeared, I quickly pressed on 3.
Thud-!
My body was automatically moved to kneel down from some kind of force kicking the back side of the legs hard, and pushing my shoulders downwards.
Ack! Why is it so strong?!
I was expecting this, but it hurt more than expected, and my eyes slightly watered.
“You… What are you doing?”
The Duke seemed more shocked from the thud sound than I was. His eyes widened. I never chose this as my decision when I was playing before. I mean, it didn’t make sense. Why would she kneel down? I don’t know if the producer was lazy or thought it was a waste of time, but they made the next decision overlap with the choices in normal mode.
1. Is me kneeling down the only way to make you satisfied?
2. (Glare with no words).
3. I’m sorry for everything, Father!
I hurriedly pressed on 3 like I did before.
“I’m sorry for everything, Father!”
The voice that came out of my mouth was loud, probably because I chose 3 as if I was certain and confident 3 was it.
“…What?”
The Duke asked, as if nothing made sense. It was then the white box, which was now familiar to me, popped up.
≪ Hidden Quest {The Lost Title Of A ‘Father’} ≫
≪ Mission Complete! As a reward, the function [Choices ON / OFF] is given. ≫
≪ Do You Want To [OFF] The Choices? ≫
[Yes / No]
With nothing holding me back, I clicked on the [Yes] without hesitation.
≪ The Choices Are Now [OFF]. If You Wish To See The Choices Again, Shout [Choices ON]. ≫
And finally, that annoying white square box disappeared completely from my view.
Awesome!
I celebrated inwardly while clenching my hands into a fist. The hidden function [Choices ON / OFF] had permitted me to call the Duke, ‘Father’. If I choose [OFF] for the choices in the game, the lines are gone, and only the number 1, 2, and 3 are the only ones shown on screen. At times, the simple replies or the answers could be typed with the phone keyboard. By simple answer or replies, I meant ‘YES / NO’, the character’s names, and etcetera. It was an easy function to gain in the game when it’s played in normal mode. I think the purpose of it is to prevent the repeating situations depended on by the lines chosen, and also to project the flexibility of the game and the encouraging speedy play.
However, even with the given function, I rarely used it. There was no point. That was how easy and fast the normal mode was. That’s why I didn’t pay much attention to this scene in the hard mode. It was because I only chose the aggressive lines. I didn’t know the hard mode would work the same as the normal mode. I wasn’t able to get the [Choices ON / OFF] function due to choosing the wrong lines, but it wasn’t a needed function for me, who was addicted to choosing the right lines for the villainess. I didn’t know back then. That the addiction would become a poison to me later on, and that later on would be right now… I heaved a sigh at my foolishness back then, as I recited the words by my will, and not from the 3 lines I had to choose from before.
“Fa. Th. Er.”
Hearing the words coming out of my mouth by my will was so touching that I could cry. The tears literally lingered in my eyes from that. And the Duke, who never seemed to have heard the word ‘Father’ from Penelope, didn’t seem to believe that I had just said that, as his already widened eyes widened even more. I continued with my words, not the least affected by the Duke’s reaction.
“I apologize for making a fuss during my grounded days. I wasn’t able to show my manners as superior to the lower ones, and that caused this scandal to occur.”
“…”
“I will deeply reflect on my actions for the remaining time I’m grounded for. There won’t be a fuss like this again, so please forgive me this once, Father.”
I begged, kneeling on the ground. When you think of it, the fuss made in the morning wasn’t my fault. A maid bullied me.
My fault, my ass. It was a situation where I had to beg for help from someone.
However the past actions that Penelope had made before I became her had forced me to do this. I was in a situation where I couldn’t live without kneeling down. My life wouldn’t be in danger right away, even if the Duke doesn’t like me. However, if I don’t take this situation seriously just because I got the function to turn the choices off, there’ll be a high possibility of me taking the route where the death penalty would be the only thing waiting for me. It was an obvious thing. Penelope was already grounded right now after creating a fuss, and made another one during it, too. The so-called ‘Young Master’ (AKA Derrick) was the one to ground me this time, and I know that acting stubborn and aggressive right now would only lower his interest towards me.
“I understand how immature I’ve acted up until now.”
“…”
“If you give me another chance, I’ll do my best to show my use to this family until the day of my coming-of-age ceremony.”
I didn’t move an inch from the ground even after I was done talking. I’ve never begged, kneeling down on the ground even to my real birth parents. This proves just how shitty this game is.
I’m begging with my body on the ground. Just hurry and say okay already!
I was slapping myself mentally to keep myself awake. I needed some rest.
“You…”
The Duke looked down on Penelope as if he was seeing a stranger. He wasn’t able to speak at first. His jaw moved, but didn’t mumble out a sound for a while before he managed to let out a sentence.
“…I get what you’re saying. Get up from the floor now.”
“Yes.”
I got up without hesitation. My legs were tired to the point that I couldn’t keep my position any longer.
“The words spoken by the Eckart family are heavy, Penelope.”
The Duke spoke in a low tone, still looking at me. Those words held a lot of meaning.
“Thank you. I won’t let you regret forgiving me today, Father.”
“You should leave now.”
I hurriedly moved my body as soon as he’d finished speaking. I worried the route would change if I was too slow.
Please let me know if there’s anything inconsistent, or that needs further editing/corrections!!
-emrld
Scarlett Shoujo 