Penelope Eckhart/Story

**WARNING**

This page is ***incomplete***, you have been warned!

## Normal Mode Cleared

After leaving her family, Cha Siyeon lives in a small apartment and studies at a university. During a day at school, she overhears some students talking about a game named *Daughter of The Duke - Love Project*. Her friends convince her to try it even though she thinks it looks too cheesy. But after playing for a few hours, she is absorbed like everyone. After clearing the Normal Mode, she wants to get the Hidden Ending of the video game, but the price is too high for her as she is poor even though her family is wealthy. Cha Siyeon tries another way to achieve the Hidden Ending by clearing the Hard Mode. As she plays Penelope, the heroine of this Mode, she empathizes with her and realizes how similar they are. Early in the morning, she still tries to get at least one happy ending with Penelope, despite being very tired, but she never achieves it after dying so many times in the game and then she falls asleep.

## Hard Mode Begins

Cha Siyeon opens her eyes and doesn't understand what's happening. Right in front of her is a black-haired man with blue eyes talking to her about the commotion she caused at the crown prince's homecoming banquet. Suddenly, dialogue choices appear in front of her eyes. Incapable of say a word, the young woman has to choose one of the dialogues to speak. The mysterious man then decides to put her under approbation as punishment. The main character notices his Affection Score at zero percent before he leaves her room. She then hears someone telling her she gets what she deserves. She then sees another man with pink hair and the same blue eyes as the other person who left the room but has a negative Affection Score. Siyeon realizes this isn't her; she has become the villainess of the otome game's Normal Mode she played a few hours ago, Penelope Eckhart.

[...]

The butler Pennel enters Penelope's room to tell her Duke Eckhart wants to talk to her. When they arrive in the duke's office, Penelope sees her biological father from Korea in Duke Eckhart. Duke Eckhart asks Penelope what happened this morning. She chooses one of the multiple-choice answers to say he doesn't need to pay attention to it. Her father tells her it has been six years since he adopted her, and Penelope hasn't proved her worth as an Eckhart to the dukedom. The multiple-choice answer she has been waiting for finally appears in front of her eyes, and she immediately chooses it. Penelope begs on her knees, saying it was all her fault, and calls Duke Eckhart "Father." The system window appears and gives the option to continue to use the multiple-choice answers or to turn them off. The protagonist can finally speak freely and begs her adopted father to forgive her. He accepts her apology, and Penelope leaves his office.

As Penelope is about to go back to her room, Derrick appears in front of her. He tells her Emily was the only one who volunteered to be Penelope's maid and blames her for ruining the maid's career. Penelope apologizes to him for causing an uproar and calls him "My Lord." Derrick forgives her and says this is the last time he will let her pass. Penelope almost falls, but Derrick catches her arm. He asks her if a doctor should check her health as he knows she ate rotten food. However, she answers it's not necessary and says she will not do anything to attract his attention with a cold smile.

Once in her room, Penelope falls asleep on her bed. She dreams about a flashback of the day Reynold framed the original Penelope for stealing Ivonne's necklace. The butler then suddenly barges into her room and wakes her up. Penelope reminds him of his position as a butler and asks him to send someone else in his stead in the future.

## An Alternate Route

Penelope receives an invitation to the Second Prince's birthday banquet which will be held in the Imperial Palace. Derrick has given her permission to attend and will even escort her there. This means her probation is officially over. At first she is hesitant to go to the Banquet since this is where she first meet's the Crown Prince inside the game, where he constantly kills her, but ultimately decides to go because she wants to try "dying", on the off chance this might return her to her original world.

When the maids hear that she will attend, they get more exited than her and with Penelope's recently gained respect, give her a full on spa treatment and care. They are quite shocked when Penelope, unlike her usual self, decides to dress as modest as it's possible for a duke's daughter with as few accessories then they expected.

As they stand outside one of Eckhart carriages, Derrick seems to be shocked at his adopted sisters appearance and comments that she has turned somewhat more human during her probation, at this moment Penelope notices that his Affection Score has gone up and assumes that it went up because he didn't see her for awhile. She doesn't notice his attempted to help her up the carriage and sits inside it. He shoots her an angry gaze, to Penelope's surprise, and sits inside the carriage opposite her.

## The Hunting Tournament

Duke Eckhart meets Penelope to talk about what happened at the drill hall with Eckles and Mark. [...] Duke Eckhart then gives her crossbow to Penelope and explains to her the marbles are magic and they have the ability to erase memories. Penelope then gives him an amulet with a teleportation spell. Duke Eckhart tells that she has matured a lot recently. Penelope admits to him that she does feel resentment toward him but has never been ungrateful for bringing her to the duchy. Her reputation points raise by fifteen points.

After coming back to her bedroom, she gives Emily an amulet as an apology for taking out her anger on her maid. Her reputation points raise by five points. The butler comes to give to his mistress a letter from the imperial palace. [...]