Chapter 3

“Lady. Wake up now.” I heard someone whispering above me. Even though I was fast asleep, I was able to wake up even by the smallest presence of someone. I refused to believe in what had happened to me, which kept me awake all night, hoping that this was all just a dream. I wished so hard for me to wake up from it, and I think I fell asleep during the process of that. “Lady.” The cautious voice was heard again. ‘Is she calling me?’ The two men with blue eyes left already, and from what I remember, no one was in this room except for me till the very last moment I was awake. For that reason, the one who could be called a ‘lady’ was I alone. “…… .” I was drowsy when I was lost in my thoughts, so I couldn’t answer the call right away. It was a moment later when I heard a rustling sound from the back. I was somewhat awake from sleep now. I was about to put my strength into my body to get myself up from the bed. A lightning-like pain was felt on my forearm from outside the comforter. “Ack!” My eyes automatically flashed open. I screamed as I got up from the spot, kicking the comforter away. Next, I pulled my sleeves up. It was to check my pained forearm. ‘Th, this…… .’ I was shocked to see the flesh shown under the light sky blue pajama sleeves, making my jaw drop. The thin forearm was covered with blue, bruised scars from the needles. If it weren’t human flesh but some kind of fabric, it would’ve had lots of visible holes on it. It was when I was still shocked by the sight of a drop of blood on one of my forearms. “You’re awake now.” The unconcerned, casual voice came from beside the bed. I turned my head towards that direction to see a brown hair girl with lots of freckles. She was a maid. In the illustrations, every maid 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 the 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 had happened. “I’ve prepared the bathing water for you in the bathroom, so go and wash yourself first, lady.” An evil smile was reflected on her face as she started to make the bed. She seemed to be used to doing this to this body. I sat still, biting on my lower lip, but was forced to enter the bathroom due to the maid’s push. She told me she 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 fingertips in. ‘I didn’t expect any service in helping me bathe, but this, this is just too extreme.’ There were some stories about how the villainess got the worst ever treatment, but nothing explained something this specific. I was once again forced to realize from the overflowing feeling of reality. That I’ve actually entered the game. I pulled up the sleeve to see the scar with dried blood covering it again, and when I did, I sort of teared up. ‘What’s this. Nothing like this was shown in the ga…… .’ Suddenly, an image popped up in my head as a reminder. It was an illustration of the villainess with an open-shoulder dress. Unlike the other illustrations that had not the smallest mistakes in them, the illustration of the villainess had several small dots drawn on one forearms. ‘Nuts. I thought those were actual birthmarks!’ If it weren’t, then, maybe it was something important that would be mentioned in one of the stories I failed to unlock……. Who knew those were the traces proving all the abuses? 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 isn’t a match for me.’ I felt annoyed, but with no choice, I dipped my hand into the freezing cold water again. To me, who suffered the worst for years from my step-brother's bastards, this was not even tickling. I was the villainess anyways, so while I was at it, I wanted to make needle marks on that bitch as she did to me but I had to give it more time for me to investigate everything first. Because unfortunately, I was in a state where I couldn’t even speak freely about what I wanted to speak. 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 meal in the 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 on the seat by the table. As soon as I did, though, I couldn’t do anything 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 smiled widely 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. (Flipping the table) What’s this? You crazy?! Bring me the chef right now! Right now! (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! (Eat.) I’ve experienced the ‘game over’ twice at this scene. When I chose 1, every one of the workers ran to the duke, acting pitiful and poor to confess the villainess’ troublesome actions. The son who grounded the villainess hears about this and grows so furious that he prohibits anyone from offering a single drop of water to me during the grounded days. So I died of hunger. On my next turn, I chose 2. Then the son of the duke, who was just coincidentally passing by, jumped in to get the villainess off the maid. During the process, the villainess, who was pushed roughly, fell, and the fork which fell on her afterwards stabbed her neck. It was really a ridiculous way to die. ‘In the end, there’s only one to choose.’ This scene is probably the episode which holds the story about the relationships between the villainess who became the heroine and the workers here who worked in the mansion for a long time. However, those who didn’t want to see the scene where the heroine is mistreated from the start just skipped the episode to the next one after dying twice. It was because there were tens of episodes I had to unlock anyway, even if it weren’t this one. Right now, though, in front of my eyes, there were no ‘Return’ buttons 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 without my will. My hands held onto the spoon and scooped up a spoonful of rotten soup. My will of not wanting to eat this may have affected my movements as my hands with the spoon started to tremble on their way to my mouth. The drops of grey liquid fell on the table. No matter how strong my will was, I couldn’t stop my body from moving on its own. In the end, the spoon with the soup was shoved into my forcefully opened mouth. “Ugh.” The warm sensation of the grey liquid was felt on my tongue. At the same time, the horrible taste of it was sensed. This wasn’t food. It was the taste of the boiled cup of organic garbage. My body continued to act on its own as it forcefully gulped down the garbage water which has entered my mouth, down my throat. “Gasp!” The maid who watched gasped as if she didn’t expect me to eat it. ‘Urgh, I feel like I’m going to vomit!’ I gagged. I was trying so hard to forget the feeling 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 since I’ve safely got over an episode. It was my misunderstanding. My hand, which held the spoon with didn’t stop. ‘What’s it doing! What’s–!’ Even afterwards, I had to keep on shoving the moldy blue bread and the grey soup in my mouth. It was not due to my will. The maid’s face paled at the sight of me forcefully eating the overdue food. My body, which repeated those crazy motions, came to a stop when the duke’s son happened to come in. “What’re you doing?” “Y, young master Reynold!” The maid came to a panic at the sudden appearance of a figure. “Urgh, ugh!” I, on the other hand, didn’t have the time to focus on that. I had to cover my mouth with both my hands so fast. I gagged so much. I felt as if everything I’ve consumed today was going to come flooding out any moment now. ‘Why do I have to experience these things?’ I’ve already experienced these things enough, even before entering the game. How many times did I have to suffer all the pains given by the two bastards in that hell-like house? But I have to experience these things over again, even in this fictional world? “Uhh, ugh…… .” A strand of salvia escaped my mouth, out through my palms. I felt myself tearing up due to this unfair situation and the disgust. I groaned like a person who just drank poison. Seeing that, the pink person approached me with a shocked expression on his face. “Hey, are you okay…… .” He stopped in his words. He froze, still with more shock shown on his face as he looked at what was set on the table. “This…… .” Moldy blue bread, 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. The sight of half of those foods gone, and his pale, younger step sister covering her mouth. The face of the pink man, who turned his face to look back at the maid, changed to a horrifying frown. “Hey, what did you just feed her?” “Y, young master! This is, well…… .” The maid turned pale at the 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 one or another would be eating the rotten food, purposely prepared, without any complaints. The pink-haired woman snapped at the maid who wouldn’t properly answer. “This is more than enough humiliating 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 from this room!” “Young master!” “I’ll kindly explain this whole thing to my father and brother. Is there someone out there? Butler!”