Actually there wasn’t anything to be nervous about.
‘It’s only a single scene from a game…… .’
Even so, my hands continued to quiver a little.
It was due to me subconsciously being reminded of my blood-related dad, 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 for a greeting.
There weren’t this much details within the game.
However my voice didn’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 aura.
“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 as those that Derrick had.
His face showed no emotions 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 any words said.)
I pressed on the choice number 1 out of the rest of the insane answers.
“Why have you called?”
“I heard there was a fuss today morning.”
As soon as his sentence reached the end, the choices in the box quickly shifted to some 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 mentality reading those choices.
‘Ha…… These insane choices…… .’
Of course, this was something I’ve 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…… .’
Which 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 on the spot, the duke put down his pen he was holding and lifted his head up to see me.
He held a sharp and keen aura within his eyes as he looked at me.
‘I hope this decision does no harm to making a death flag…… .’
I chose number 1, trembling inside. I clenched my teeth to try and not say ‘that’ word out.
“Your grace has nussing tu du with it.”
However I couldn’t stop that word in the end, and instead, came out really weird.
“Penelope.”
The duke opened his mouth. His voice was as cold as ice, holding no warmth what-so-ever.
There was no change of the story flow no matter how much I tried like this.
“Has it already been 6 years since you came to this house?”
I went back in my memories, searching for the right information about the game setting.
The heroine on both 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 the one thing I’ve forgotten about the game.
The 18th birthday is when the coming-of-age ceremony is held for everyone here.
That means that there were not much time left until the day of the coming-of-age ceremony for Penelope, right?
‘Then how long do I have?’
It was when I was working my brain at the suddenly remembered information.
Thankfully, the duke continued with his words without me having to choose one of the 3 choices.
“I don’t know if you know but it’s not easy to step a 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 save anything to provide 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 in appearance.
However Penelope’s hair and eye colour turned into a colour too different from the right shade of pink and the colour 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, from the system controlling my body.
The white box, which had disappeared from my silence, popped 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’ve never felt since coming to this place.
I knew it wouldn’t but just in case they disappeared, I quickly pressed on 3.
Thud-!
My body was automatically moved to kneel down from some kind of force kicking my 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 that 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 this. I mean, it didn’t make sense.
‘Why would a cheap gourd 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 Is 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 on 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 them.
There was no use of using it. 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 me choosing the wrong lines, but it wasn’t a needed function to me who was addicted in 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 to me 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 effected by the duke’s reaction.
“I apologize for making a fuss during my grounded days. I wasn’t able to show the 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 happening next time 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 the situation where I had to beg for help from someone.
However the past actions that Penelope had made before I became her had forcefully made me do this without a choice.
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 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 down to the ground. Just hurry and say okay already.’
I was slapping myself mentally straight after waking up while I was tired. I needed my rest.
“You…… .”
The duke looked down on Penelope as if he was seeing some stranger. He wasn’t able to easily let out words.
His jaws 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 too tired to the point that I couldn’t keep my position any longer.
“The words spoken by Eckart family are heavy, Penelope.”
The duke spoke in a low tone, still looking at me. Those words had a lot of meaning to it.
“Thank you. I won’t let you regret forgiving me today, father.”
“You should leave now.”
I hurriedly moved my body at the same time his words ended.
It was due to me worrying what if the route changes because I acted slowly.
_______
-CatLovesTowels -Lizette