I Became the Female Lead Ruined by Others - Chapter 4

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 4

The female protagonist of the game, Rozelina Mush—introduced from the start as possessing the most beautiful face in the entire world.

“They’re all scrambling to please you, but knowing you’re a fake, they still do it? Right now they’re convinced you’re the ‘real’ Young Lady of Noble House. It’d be quite the mess if this came out, wouldn’t it? Or maybe they’d try to pin it on mental illness? Call in the priests, claim you’re possessed by a demon, gang up on you for an exorcism?”

A demon wearing an angel’s face drew closer, laughing with sinister amusement.

“Those fools don’t even know they’re being deceived.”
“Are you blackmailing me right now?”
“Well, I think they’d believe you. They’d never suspect you anyway.”
……
“Wait, am I wrong?”

In that moment, I think I was more tense than I’d been since falling into this world.

“When did you undergo Possession?”
“The morning you came to the Baron’s estate. Why are you asking all of a sudden?”

That meant this person had only been possessed for about a year.
If that was true, the probability of her having evidence to prove I was a Possessed one was remarkably low.

‘But she could be lying about when the Possession happened.’

My attempt to breeze through the situation with false confidence crumbled, and my mouth clamped shut.
If not for her suddenly bursting into hearty laughter, I would’ve remained frozen the whole time.

“Come on, I’m just messing with you! Laugh!”

She ambled toward me with an awkward, stumbling gait.
Then she thrust her palm right in front of my face.

“Hand over some money.”

Money?
The conversation was shifting so rapidly I could barely keep up.

“Why do you need money?”
“Your family’s loaded, isn’t it? Me, I’m stuck in this rotting dump with barely two coins to rub together.”
“But that doesn’t answer why you need the money in the first place.”

She looked at me with an expression of obvious exasperation.

“I’m getting out of this business.”

As she spoke, she pounded her own chest repeatedly with her fist.

“I’m sick of being tangled up with those red eyes, sick of running around playing event games or whatever nonsense. Who cares what happens to this wretched game world? I’m leaving right now.”
“Leaving for where?”
“Where else? The original world! I’m going to poke around everywhere trying to find a way back.”
“That’s not wrong, but something like that……”
“Dammit, I’m a man!”
……?

The most beautiful female protagonist in the entire world roared in a voice like a songbird’s.

“Living as a pauper was depressing enough—how am I supposed to survive like this?!”

The man wearing Rozelina’s skin slumped back onto the sofa, sprawling across it with all the grace of a sack of grain. His legs were splayed open in the same crude, ungainly posture as before.
It suddenly occurred to me that he’d always sat like this—and I’d only just realized it now. The floor seemed to tilt beneath my feet.

“Where should we start digging, then?”

The question caught me speechless for a moment.
Though I’d lived here in Carzen for five years, I was hopelessly ignorant about the world beyond it.

“I’m not sure. The only kingdom mentioned outside the empire in the game is Sandrygo.”
“Sandrygo?”
“It was just the setting for the developer’s previous game. They mentioned it to get players excited, that’s all. I never even played the first one.”
“That’s probably our best bet then. How far is it from here?”
“Not too far, I’d think.”
“This is suffocating. So what—how do we research another country? Should we just take off like some backpacker with no plan?”

Those jade-green eyes gleamed with that crystalline brightness, still utterly luminous.
And as I stared into them, I felt myself being drawn in, and a single thought crystallized in my mind.

‘Wait a minute.’

In truth, Rozelina Mush was implicated in every death that befell Bianca Bardencia. That’s precisely why I’d taken her in and kept watch over her.
And if she harbored a spirit this unpredictable and uncontrollable, the danger only multiplied.

‘But now she’s saying she’ll just leave on her own?’

So I shifted tactics on the spot.
In a life of possession, a single moment of decisive action could mean the difference between life and death.

“Shouldn’t we prepare properly before going? Even if it’s close, there’s no telling what might happen.”
“Ooh~!”
“Besides, scraping together a large sum of money right now isn’t easy for me either. Let’s build this up step by step. I’ll help.”
“A minute ago you acted like you didn’t care, but now you’re getting cold feet?”

By the time our conversation had reached that point, we stood facing each other with our arms crossed.

“You have no reason to cooperate with me this much.”
“We’re both possessed, so I’m helping. Besides, I want to go home too. You’re going to look into the method, so I’m just trying to get a free ride.”

Of course, it was all a lie.
Why would I abandon the smooth, well-paved path that a young lady of noble house could walk—with or without rolling stones or grinding wheels—just because the female protagonist disappeared? The life ahead was golden.
Going back would only mean a ten-tatami studio apartment and mountains of debt waiting to crush me.

“I was already resigned to it, actually. With my father and brother, I couldn’t even imagine leaving.”
“Honestly, you weren’t panicked enough to justify how much you were freaking out. What’s wrong with both your heads?”
“……Anyway, I’ll provide the funding, and you’ll share information with me. Neither of us stands to lose anything.”

I nearly choked swallowing down that familiar rush of exhilaration that surged through me whenever I twisted the narrative.

“We should start preliminary research on Sandrygo too.”
“Damn it. So I’m stuck here longer. Fine—as long as I can go home eventually.”

He flopped backward onto the sofa.
Completely unconcerned that the skirt had ridden up to his knees.

“Just help me adjust while we’re saving up. Since I don’t know this game—character settings, hidden storylines, whatever—I need to avoid the landmines too, don’t I?”

* * *

“No matter how I think about it, I seem to be a walking disaster…….”

Thud.
The carriage, which had been rattling along the uneven road, suddenly came to a halt.
Lost in my recollections, I nearly pitched forward onto my face.

“We’ve arrived, ma’am.”

The carriage door swung open without ceremony, accompanied by a flat, toneless voice.
I straightened my appearance instinctively and waited for what came next.
But it never did.

‘……?’

No one came to offer me a hand down, bowing respectfully as they always had.

‘What is this? I know all these people.’

Back when I was a Young Lady of Noble House, I’d ridden in Baron’s carriage several times.
Every time, they treated me with the utmost courtesy.

‘True, I was his friend as well, but it was surely because I was the beloved daughter of the Bardencia Ducal House.’

In any case, it’s now abundantly clear that I’m no longer a Young Lady of Noble House.

‘Even if I come from a minor house, I’m still a nobleman’s daughter. Yet they treat me like this?’

A single step down from a carriage, and the cruel reality hits home.

“Sigh.”

I didn’t hold back the sigh that spilled out—instead, I gathered the folds of my skirt firmly in my hands.
Then, into that silence, I descended from the carriage with utmost care.
The moment my feet touched the ground, I lifted my gaze and swept my eyes across the surroundings. The scene felt strangely off.

‘It’s as if they’re all deliberately trying not to look at me.’

Do they know that their master threatened to beat me to death?
Where exactly does what I don’t know
stretch to?
Just how far does it spread?
In that moment, a man standing at the very back caught my eye.

‘Soldi!’

Soldi Malven.
A man from Sandrygo who nearly sold into slavery as a child, until Baron took him in and raised him to be an imperial knight.

―My Lady!
―You’re not calling me “sister” anymore?
―How long ago are you referring to, if I may ask…….

In my memory of him as a boy, he’d always been like a younger brother to me.

‘I promised him a fine sword for his birthday this year.’

But now that promise is one I can no longer keep.

‘Everything that was taken for granted until yesterday has become a mirage.’

With that thought, my heart began to flutter uneasily.
Five years of effort felt suddenly meaningless. In a single blow, what I’d lost without even realizing it wasn’t just the name of a Young Lady of Noble House.
I squeezed my eyes shut against the burning sensation that threatened to spill over.

‘Not just Soldi. Everything. All of it.’

It was as though the sandcastle I’d carefully built had been swept away by a wave, crumbling to nothing in a single instant.
No matter how much I’d told myself it was all a struggle to survive, there had been real feeling woven through it—genuine affection I couldn’t deny.

‘Even if I try to make a life as Rozelina, I have to bury it all now, pretend it never happened.’

Lost in that hollow sentiment, old memories surfaced, leaving me dazed.
The relationships I’d built, the moments I’d carved out for myself.

‘But none of it means anything now.’

I sat wallowing in that damp, suffocating feeling.
Tap.

“Pardon me, Young Lady of the Mush Baronial House.”

That changed the moment the knight beside me gave my shoulder a light, gentle nudge.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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