Chapter 2

Eden.

Eden Vantchov.

That was the name of the very person who was destined to become the “Demon King” in The Demon King’s Consort.

Why is the male lead here? And in this state?

Completely flustered, I looked Eden up and down.

His black hair was caked with dirt, his skin was stained with grime, and scratches covered various parts of his body.

His painfully thin frame was the very picture of a child who had grown up without enough food.

Suddenly, I remembered the description of the male lead from the original story.

[Eden Vantchov was an illegitimate child born to the Empress. Abandoned at birth and destined to die, he miraculously survived by a stroke of luck and spent his childhood wandering the slums.]

That “slum” was……

Our Sergenev territory?!

Indeed, our territory bordered a region where monsters frequently appeared, so security was poor.

There were also plenty of rumors that criminals who couldn’t show their faces in the capital had fled to our territory.

And because there were practically no welfare benefits for the people living there, slums naturally existed.

But who would have thought that the junior version of the male lead had actually been living there?!

“F-Father.”

I looked up at my father with determination.

“I’m all grown up now. I’m too old to play with dolls. Why don’t you return this ‘doll’ to wherever you found him?”

I had no idea where he had picked this thing up, but—

Ew, no, Dad!

Let’s take him right back and throw him away!

“You refuse to accept it?”

“Yes. Um, my room is already full of things, so there’s no space……”

My father raised one eyebrow as if he had heard something utterly ridiculous.

“‘This’ already belongs to you.”

His voice was icy.

“If you intend to throw it away, dispose of it yourself.”

Dispose of it?

I had seen my father’s subordinates being “disposed of” several times at this castle.

They were usually traitors or people who had committed irredeemable mistakes.

Such people were thrown outside the forest, where monsters swarmed.

Every one of those unfortunate people probably died at the hands of monsters before they could last an hour.

If such a young child were thrown into that forest……

He would die.

Without a doubt.

No matter that he would eventually become an unparalleled hero, right now he was nothing more than a child.

The Demon King’s Consort was a grim, tragic story for its protagonist, but ironically, the world itself was a heroic tale that eventually ushered in an era of peace.

That was because the male protagonist would ultimately save the world from the monsters that plagued it.

The boy glaring at me so fiercely right now was actually the future hero.

If the protagonist dies pointlessly here, wouldn’t this world immediately head down a destruction route?

I couldn’t lose the second life I had worked so hard to obtain in such a meaningless way.

“Looks like you can’t even dispose of it.”

My father frowned as he looked down at my face, which had gone pale with worry.

“Give it here. Apparently, you still need your father’s help even to throw away your own trash.”

His voice carried deep indifference and a faint trace of contempt.

As though he were disappointed in his daughter once again, despite never having had any expectations of her in the first place.

For a moment, my chest stung slightly.

But regardless of that, my body had already moved in front of Eden.

“No, Father! Now that I think about it, I really like this doll! Wow, wow! He’s so pretty and cute!”

Pretending to be genuinely impressed, I grabbed Eden’s cheek and stretched it.

His white cheek elongated, and Eden’s face twisted viciously.

“Father, thank you! I’ll take good care of him! Nice to meet you, doll. My name is Lillian!”

“Lili…….”

With his cheek stretched, Eden muttered my name with a slightly distorted pronunciation.

It was downright chilling.

It felt as though he were memorizing my name to add it to the execution list he would one day keep as Emperor.

“Master.”

My father spoke in a mocking tone.

“A doll should call its owner ‘Master.’”

Dad! Please don’t do this!

I could hear Eden grinding his teeth.

My knees trembled at the feeling of watching another death flag being raised in real time.

His golden eyes, as though molten gold had been poured into them, glared at me as if they could pierce straight through me.

Then his lips, crusted with dried blood, slowly moved.

“Mas……ter.”

Eek.

That was an absolutely terrifying title for His Majesty the Emperor, who was destined to one day become known as a blood-crazed mass murderer.

I pretended not to hear that terrifying voice and forced myself to shout cheerfully.

“Well, doll, shall we go play house together? Father, is that okay?”

“Do as you please.”

With that, my father turned his head away from me.

As though his business here was finished and dealing with me any longer was simply too bothersome.

In the past, I might have been hurt by that cold attitude, devoid of even a shred of affection.

But now, I wasn’t particularly upset.

My mind was already filled with alarms screaming MALE LEAD APPEARED! and DANGER! DANGER!

“Yes! Thank you!”

I answered immediately and hurriedly dragged Eden away.

As I grabbed Eden’s arm and climbed the stairs, my mind spun rapidly.

The Demon King’s Consort was a hardcore, tragic romance simulation game.

“Hardcore,” “tragic,” and “romance.”

It was a combination that went together about as well as mint chocolate and stew.

In truth, there wasn’t a single bit of pink-colored LOVE in the story.

There was only the male protagonist’s insane obsession with the heroine.

The game got absolutely slaughtered for misleading consumers. Though I personally liked that aspect.

Who could have known that the 19+ rating wasn’t because of steamy romantic scenes between the protagonists, but simply because of the brutality?

Anyway, I, Lillian Sergenev, also proudly occupied a spot among the game’s characters.

As an extra?

No.

I was honored with the role of the main villain.

Lillian Sergenev. The heroine’s half-sister and the only human magic stone.

In this world, “magical power” could only be extracted from a very rare mineral called a “magic stone.”

And Lillian was the only human being capable of generating such precious magical power within her own body.

Thanks to this ability, Lillian managed to lure many talented mages to her side.

The novel described them as practically a harem made up of mages—a veritable army of magicians.

Apparently, the men in particular were so devoted to Lillian that they would even pretend to die if she told them to.

I remember her being quite the deadly femme fatale character……

It was a little hard to believe when I considered my current short limbs and chubby baby fat.

Anyway.

Lillian used that terrifying network of connections to try to eliminate her half-sister, the heroine.

However……

I was the one who got eliminated.

I ended up dying at the hands of the male lead.

Then if I simply avoid hurting my sister, won’t I survive?

Unfortunately, no.

Even if the male lead didn’t kill Lillian, she was destined to die before long.

Since her body itself was essentially a magic stone, the more magical power Lillian extracted, the more of her life force she lost.

And yet she recklessly used magic just to show off.

Even if the male lead hadn’t killed her, she would have died young anyway.

My second life is limited?

It was like a bolt from the blue.

But let’s scrape together every last bit of positivity and look at it from the opposite perspective.

If I can avoid the stupid things the original Lillian did, that means I can preserve my lifespan.

Fortunately, I had remembered my previous life while I was still young.

How lucky was I that I had come to my senses early, before I evolved into the unfilial menace who would eventually destroy my half-sister’s mental health?

Yeah. I can do this.

I just had to twist the original story so that none of it ever happened to my sister and me.

I can make that happen!

……That was what I had firmly resolved.

Until this guy showed up.

“How did things get this messed up?!”

I had just been living my life normally, and suddenly the male lead had dropped right in front of me!

I huffed and turned toward Eden.

“You! Why did you have to get caught by my father of all people? You should’ve done a better job avoiding him!”

When our eyes met, the boy glared at me with a rebellious expression, as though I had just said something utterly absurd.

I suddenly stopped talking.

……But is he really that male lead?

His unusual combination of hair and eye color, along with the matching name, had convinced me that there was no doubt.

But the more carefully I looked at him, the more suspicious I became.

He’s shorter than me.

Well, boys were said to develop a little later than girls, so I could let that slide.

And he’s as skinny as a bundle of firewood.

The “Eden Vantchov” from The Demon King’s Consort had what could only be described as a perfect physique.

Broad shoulders and a solid chest.

A sharply tapered waist and powerfully trained thigh muscles.

And an intense gaze that looked capable of giving someone a heart attack simply by looking at them.

In the game’s descriptions, he was constantly compared to a black panther or a jackal.

But this one is less like a black panther and more like……

……a cat?

Upturned eyes and golden irises that looked like works of art.

Delicately sculpted features like a doll, and skin so white it was almost translucent.

His beauty was so striking that, at first glance, he almost seemed sacred.

This face is going to grow into…… that?

The adult man had possessed such overwhelming decadence that simply looking at him felt like a crime.

He would constantly appear shirtless, and even without a single explicit scene, his appearance alone made it painfully obvious why the game had an adult rating.

And this beautiful young boy was supposedly the same person as that male lead?

He really is the male lead…… right?

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.

“You said your name is Eden, right? Not Edan or Aiden or something?”

“What kind of nonsense are you talking about?”

The boy’s eyes widened sharply.

For a moment, when he became annoyed, a faint killing intent flickered in those catlike eyes.

He’s radiating killing intent just because I asked his name!

Judging from that attitude, he really did seem like the male lead.

If that was the case, then I had only one top priority.

Things may have gotten horribly tangled, but I absolutely cannot let him meet my sister.

A fateful first meeting during childhood?

Hmph.

Even if the sky fell on my head, I would never let that happen.