Chapter 5

I left the bathroom and immediately searched for a pen and paper.

Since I had become Penelope, I had to find a way to survive.

It’s very hard to raise a Raider character’s favorability in Hard Mode, and dropping to negative favorability leads to death.

The Duke’s second son’s situation was even worse. His favorability was originally a negative number. If I don’t raise his favorability to a positive number as soon as possible, then the only thing coming my way will be a death ending.

I think that organizing the game’s intelligence is a must at this point.

Fortunately, the fake duke’s daughter was at least treated as a young lady.

The large room is furnished with luxurious bookshelves and desks.

Without hesitation, I took my seat and dipped the tip of my quill into the ink.

“First is the character.”

There are five male characters in the entire game.

The duke’s two sons, the crown prince, the magician and the knight.

Unlike Normal Mode which gives each character 30% favorability at the start, Hard Mode starts them off with 0% or a negative number.

I started writing down everything I could remember on a blank sheet of paper.

First up, Derek Eckhardt.

He was the eldest son of the Duke, technically the youngest Duke in the family. Derek was a very typical nobleman.

He doesn’t care much for Penelope, as he is busy preparing to succeed the family as the next duke.

However, the fact that Penelope replaced his blood sister has caused him to harbor a strong sense of contempt and hatred for Penelope.

In the game, it is rare for Derek to personally kill Penelope. However, whenever she makes a mistake, Derek punishes her without mercy.

Immediately afterward, the player is also fined and the options available are limited.

Just like today, I was unable to leave the room due to yesterday’s church penalty.

Whatever, next. The Duke’s youngest son, one Leonard Eckhardt.

The boy, well, there’s not much to explain.

He’s a good-natured, jumpy, bad-tempered, fussy fellow. Whenever he meets Penelope, he always gets into an argument with Penelope.

Since he was the leader of the group that bullied Penelope, it was not surprising that he took the lead in abusing Penelope. What was even more surprising was that he always managed to lead Penelope to her death through some unexpected and peculiar ways.

“Now I see, these two guys are a lot like those two assholes in my house, aren’t they?”

I let out a tsk sound while reviewing the intel I wrote down about these two.

These two were the easiest route to raid in normal mode.

It’s because they’re related by blood, and they harbor “affection” rather than “love” for the heroine.

In other words, Penelope is not related to these two people. Therefore, there is a high probability that it will lead to a different ending than the normal mode.

However, I shake my head in denial.

Putting a big cross on his name.

“There is no answer to be found on them, and the hope is even slimmer.”

On top of that, Leonard’s favorability was initially a negative number.

Not even zero, but a negative number.

Why a negative number?

That’s probably what the author was trying to tell me: it’s hopeless to begin with, so give up on ending up with Leonard.

Also, I’m a person who cringes at the mere mention of the word “brother”, so I’ve decided to give up on these two guys altogether.

“Next, the crown prince.”

The Crown Prince, Callisto Legulus.

The only information I have about him stems from Normal Mode.

The Crown Prince despised his life due to all the misfortunes of his childhood, but he met the angelic heroine, healed his heart, and later went on to punish Penelope who was an evil servant.

Though it was for the sake of justice, from Penelope’s point of view, the Crown Prince is a hellraiser.

The person who killed Penelope the most times in hard mode.

I even hit the reset button so many times during his playthrough that I can’t recall what happened throughout the game.

“Definitely stay away from where this guy is.”

I remember the office-naked illustration of being wiped off the neck multiple times by Callisto’s drawn knife.

I felt a chill down my spine.

The crosses kept crossing back and forth, and I drew a cross over the Crown Prince’s name multiple times.

Then turned my vision quickly to the next one.

Next up was, Winter Belldandy. He was both a magician and a Marquis.

He hides his status as a Marquis and works as a wizard.

He deals in intelligence information and secret items. Thanks to this, he was able to discover that the heroine was the long-lost daughter of the duke.

After that, as soon as he was informed about the evil servant preparing an evil plan. He either either went to warn the heroine or personally blocked the danger for her.

In addition to this, he is the character who is most helpful to the heroine in gaining social fame and charisma.

In Normal Mode, he not only demonstrates romantic magic, but he’s also a warm-hearted guy who helps behind the heroine’s back.

But I don’t know how he’ll be in hard mode.

Even before the Winters line started, I was constantly dying at the hands of the Crown Prince and the two sons of the Duke’s family.

In any case, unlike these three milquetoast brats from earlier, he had high possibilities and hopes, so I decided to put it on hold and see.

“The last one is, Ikris.”

Ikris, who is a knight of the Duke’s residence, was originally a slave.

One night when the duke was out, he happened to see Ikris, who had outstanding swordsmanship, and bought him at a high price before bringing him back to the dukedom and raising him to become a well-trained knight.

Later, he becomes the youngest master swordsman and is given the status of a nobleman, earning him the title of “Young Talent”.

Ikris is also the only one of the five male characters who can expect an ending.

He is also the only one who sympathizes with Penelope until the end.

Penelope was the last master he served. I think perhaps the fact that the master-servant bond remains makes him the most negative in hindering Penelope from bullying the heroine.

Although I don’t ever meet him in Difficult Mode ……

“Haha …… Looks like there’s nothing that can help me at this point.”

Surveying the information written down, I let out a deep sigh.

Because everything is blocked in Hard Mode, it causes me to be ignorant of how to pass Hard Mode.

Even if I start the action, there’s no way to know if it’s beneficial or not. I don’t know how much different this world will be from the reality of the game.

But the only thing I’m pretty sure of is this: the ending must be reached within the time limit, and in addition, I die when the favorability of the object of the raid drops to a negative number.

Penelope’s Bar Mitzvah.

Must complete the route of at least one raidable character by that day.

This day marks the heroine’s first appearance in the story.

“Poor Penelope.”

It was so coincidental that on the occasion of her coming of age, the appearance of the Duke’s true daughter caused her to lose everything.

That was the prologue to the common mode.

Had I not produced an end with any of them up to that time, I might well have died at the hands of one of them, even if I had not behaved like an evil servant.

Of course, there was no guarantee that I wouldn’t die before then.

“…… I can’t die.”

I unconsciously clenched my teeth at the thought of that sad future.

Yes, I can’t die.

I’ve just escaped that hellish home, I can’t die in the game just like that.

I can’t die no matter what.

The morning class at school was waiting for me.

I’ll make it back to where I belong alive.

I thought somewhat blankly. ‘Even if I don’t know the method’, I decided to live.

Just then. Knock, knock one by one

From the door came two knocks. Even before I could hide the piece of paper with the information on it, the door suddenly opened.

“Miss.”

Appearing in front of me was a gray-haired, aged male butler.

He didn’t come in, but just stood in the doorway and spoke.

“The Duke-sama is looking for you.”

Even though I understood in my heart that the butler couldn’t see the words written on the paper, I was still irritated by his rude and impolite attitude.

In the past, when I was still living at home, I also had a butler.

That butler didn’t like me either, but he wouldn’t have opened the door as rudely as this butler did.

Besides, this world is not a democracy, but a complete class society.

While agonizing over whether or not I should get angry.

A white dialog box popped up in front of my eyes.

1.(Throwing things around the room) How dare you open the door to my room without my permission? Are you looking for death? Old thing!

2.(If he has something to say, tell him to let himself in.)

3.(Looks at him angrily for 5 seconds and then gets up) Got it.

‘Ah!’

I forgot again, it’s no longer a situation where you can lose your temper whenever you want.

But there isn’t a single one of the three options given by the system that doesn’t force me to do so. I really didn’t want to behave according to the aforementioned options.

I thought distractedly as I chose the third one as an answer.

Like favorability and such, one must do something related to those options to be able to do so.

“…… Got it.”

Luckily, that’s when the Duke summoned me.

Before getting up, I hid the papers on which I had written the words in the depths of my drawer.

After confirming that it was proper I stepped out of the room, following the butler’s lead.

Before I became Penelope, the only way I knew about the dukedom was through some illustrations from a game, but now that I was there, I had to use the opportunity to look around the place carefully.

The mansion was as large as some of the European castles featured in movies.

And Penelope’s bedroom was on the second floor.

The count’s house seemed to be very busy with all its languid servants. As I walked through the halls, I encountered many servants.

When I passed by, the gazes they threw at me were not friendly.

But I ignored them without a care in the world.

These glances don’t even bother me; I’ve been subjected to this kind of sight countless times before I came here.

The butler who led the way down to the first floor quickly reached a beautifully decorated door.

It seems to be the Duke’s office.

Knock knock knock.

“Lord Duke, I’ve brought the young lady.”

“Come in.”

Creak, creak ……. The door slowly opened under the butler’s movement.

I stepped into it somewhat nervously.