Chapter 2

Lydia hadn’t accepted her role as a villainess and simply resigned herself to the original story from the very beginning.

As someone who had been reincarnated into the novel, she had ambitions of her own. For a while, she had even tried to become the protagonist herself and change this damnable original story.

But there was one very important problem…

It was the sad truth that the world wouldn’t change just because Lydia herself struggled to change it.

“Big Sis, did that guest leave?”

It was shortly after she had kicked out the rude, unwelcome guest and was taking a brief rest.

Sylvia, who had apparently arrived at some point, peeked her head into the room and asked.

There she is, the root cause of my ruined life.

Lydia nodded with an indifferent expression.

Sylvia then giggled and walked into the study.

After naturally taking a seat across from Lydia, Sylvia watched her expression before cautiously asking,

“Big Sis, are you angry?”

“No. Why?”

“Because you were frowning again.”

Sylvia lightly tapped the space between her own eyebrows.

Then she used her fingers to pull up the corners of her mouth and demonstrated a smile.

“Hehe.”

It’s because of you, you hopeless idiot.

Looking at Sylvia’s innocent face and bright smile, Lydia swallowed down the words she couldn’t bring herself to say.

She was already at her wit’s end watching Sylvia smile as though she knew nothing despite having caused yet another huge incident.

But soon, Lydia shook her head.

Forget it. It’s not Sylvia’s fault, either…

Right. What crime had Sylvia committed?

It was all the fault of this damn dark-romance world.

Feeling a throbbing headache, Lydia pressed her temples.

At first, Lydia had gotten angry every time her sister caused trouble.

Why does she keep raising the difficulty of her own life?

Isn’t living already hard enough?

Are you even doing okay over there?

But it didn’t take long for her to realize something.

A heroine of a dark romance was basically a magnet that attracted all kinds of trash and perverts even when she did absolutely nothing!

This isn’t Sylvia’s problem. This world itself is fundamentally messed up.

And that was precisely why Lydia had chosen the path of a villainess.

If she wanted to protect her younger sister, then she had to become vicious herself.

Because of Sylvia’s pretty face and innocent personality, plenty of pieces of trash had flocked to her since she was young.

The problem was that Sylvia had absolutely no idea what those men were really after.

Damn bastards. They don’t even know their place.

Would it have been better if the men approaching her were candidates for the male leads?

Unfortunately, since the original story hadn’t even begun yet, Sylvia was surrounded by nothing but extras who weren’t even worth recycling.

At this rate, forget about the male leads—some thief who was worth less than a pile of animal bones might seduce Sylvia and drag her away!

Absolutely not. Do you think I stayed here just to watch something like that happen?

In the end, dealing with all those pieces of trash inevitably became Lydia’s responsibility alone.

Ironically, the people around them thought Lydia’s behavior wasn’t out of concern, but jealousy.

Apparently, the original-story filter was incredibly powerful.

Damn idiots.

Anyway, that was beside the point.

Having composed herself again, Lydia began lecturing her younger sister as she always did.

“What did I tell you back then? I told you never to sign anything given to you by strangers.”

“But they said they’d give me something delicious if I did…”

“What? Something delicious? Do I starve you or something?”

“Nooo… It’s just that… if I got something delicious…”

“Enough. Don’t ever sign anything like that without thinking again. Do you understand?”

Sylvia hesitated before reluctantly nodding.

“Mmm…”

Of course, Lydia wasn’t reassured in the slightest.

“You really aren’t going to do it again, right?”

In the end, Lydia asked Sylvia three more times and only stopped after getting a firm promise from her.

“Ah, Big Siiis! I said I understand!”

Good. Surely she won’t make the exact same mistake again after all this.

After nagging Sylvia for quite some time, Lydia absentmindedly glanced at the clock.

It was just about time for her to leave.

I should get going.

“Sylvia, Big Sis is going out for a while.”

“Where are you going?”

Lydia took a pouch from inside her desk drawer and replied,

“To make money.”

“This is unbelievable. A mana stone of such high purity!”

The man examining a fist-sized mana stone through a magnifying glass looked up with shining eyes.

“Where on earth did you acquire something this precious?”

Lydia answered indifferently.

“Don’t ask. You’ll get hurt if you find out.”

“Oh, come on. Don’t be like that…”

The man spoke in an oddly ingratiating tone.

Seeing the burly man’s attempt at acting cute, Lydia openly recoiled.

Ugh.

The man let out a dejected sigh as though his feelings had been hurt.

“Haa… I understand. You really do have a lot of secrets.”

He then carefully placed the mana stone on the table.

“All right, then. Let’s negotiate the price.”

Before the man had even finished speaking, Lydia opened her mouth.

“500,000 gold.”

“Gah! That’s far too much!”

“Really? I don’t think so.”

The man immediately argued back.

“No matter how valuable this is, it isn’t worth 500,000 gold. Of course, a mana stone of this size is extremely rare, but it’s not completely impossible to obtain. If we wait a month, we could find another one of a similar size…”

“Then 700,000 gold.”

“What?”

The man was stunned when Lydia arbitrarily raised the price.

But Lydia merely raised the corners of her lips leisurely.

“So, you don’t need it?”

A little while later.

Lydia walked out with the 700,000 gold she wanted.

If you were going to pay that much anyway, you should’ve just paid when I first asked for 500,000.

No matter what price she named, a successful transaction had been the inevitable result.

Because Lydia already knew that the other party needed the item, and she had deliberately brought something he wanted to buy.

Just like he said, it’s rare, but not impossible to obtain. It just takes time.

And the man’s superior was likely desperate enough for a mana stone that he couldn’t afford to wait even that one month.

Yes, it was obvious, but this was the result of Lydia making use of information from the original story.

The place she had just visited was one of the shops managed by the information guild known as Black Raven.

The place where one of the male-lead candidates is the head.

This was where people could primarily dispose of goods from the underworld.

Using information from the original story, Lydia sold items here that were just rare enough that obtaining them by chance wouldn’t seem particularly suspicious.

It wouldn’t be good to attract too much attention, after all.

Fortunately, Lydia was already considered something of an elite in this world, so occasionally displaying a “special ability” wasn’t particularly unnatural.

Of course, selling items that would end up in the hands of a male-lead candidate, like she had just done, was cutting things a little close…

But I can’t help it. There’s nothing better than this when I need quick cash.

Lydia sighed as she fiddled with the pouch that had become heavy with gold coins.

In truth, she didn’t need to go this far simply to earn money for living expenses.

There were plenty of ways to make money using information from the original story, so she didn’t necessarily have to take on risky jobs.

Unfortunately, there was something Lydia absolutely had to do.

The development of a Purifier drug.

A Purifier drug.

Yes. Her goal was to develop a medicine that could take the place of a Purifier.

That way, the male leads will become obsessed with the Purifier drug instead of my sister.

The problem was that this damn Purifier-drug business was an enormous money pit.

So much so that she had to take risks and establish business with the information guild run by one of the male-lead candidates.

It was honestly unfair, but there was nothing she could do about it. When you’re the one in a hurry, you’re the one who has to make a move.

I’m not giving my sister to those lunatics.

Do you have any idea how hard I’ve worked to raise her?!

“Big Siiis, you have to come back quickly, okay?”

When Lydia remembered Sylvia looking at her with her bright, sparkling eyes, her shoulders felt heavy once again.

Just you wait, you male-lead bastards.

Grinding her teeth, Lydia left the back alley where the information guild was located.

Just before she blended into the busy street filled with pedestrians, Lydia looked around.

But why is it so noisy?

As the capital’s center, the streets were always crowded and lively, but something about today felt different.

Did something happen?

Lydia looked around, searching for the reason behind the commotion.

Then, suddenly, she spotted a familiar face in the distance and froze in surprise.

…Ah.

Damn it.

Feeling a throbbing pain in her head, Lydia instinctively frowned.

Ludwig Claudewitz.

Why is he here?

He was one of the male leads from the original story.