The Male Lead Has Gone Mad Over the Troublesome Villainess - Chapter 1

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

The Male Lead Has Gone Mad for the Troublemaker Villainess – Episode 1
Kael pressed his mouth shut.
With each breath, the sickly metallic reek of monster blood clawed at his nostrils—so rank it turned his stomach.
Could Rosana truly be alive in this Hell?
He had come back to this cursed place swearing to find her, and yet he could not shake the certainty that she was gone.
The ground beneath him—a morass of blood and rainwater—squelched with every step, flicking brackish mud up his legs. The downpour intensified, each gust heavier than the last.
“Rosana!”
Kael’s voice cut through the storm, sharp and desperate.
Even he didn’t understand himself.
The correct choice would have been to abandon the stragglers and press forward. A commander leading an Expedition could not break ranks—not for anyone.
His reason still screamed at him to rejoin the group at once.
Kael’s jaw clenched, the muscles standing out hard against his skin.
“Answer me, Rosana!”
What hope had he that she still lived?
He had seen her beyond the collapsing Bridge, seen the pack of monsters bearing down on her—and yet some part of him refused to accept that she was truly gone.
Kael could not fathom Rosana.
When had she become so selfless?
The woman who threw herself into danger for others felt like a stranger to him.
A curse escaped through Kael’s gritted teeth.
The rain fell in torrents now, reducing the world to a blur.
His soaked clothes clung to his skin, each step heavier than the last, as though his own body had turned to lead.
“Rosana!”
His voice was swallowed by the roar of the downpour.
By all reason, he should have given up.
Yet even as he thought it, his feet carried him forward. A little further—just a little further—and he would find her.
He could almost see her now: that bright, disarming smile of hers, the way she would greet him.
‘What? Why did you come back? To rescue me? Wow, if that’s true, then I’ve really changed my ways. So I did matter to you after all, didn’t I?’
She would chatter away like that, trailing at his heels.
‘There’s always an end to things. Our Expedition will succeed, and we’ll make it home. Trust me. Or trust Kael’s sword, at least.’
That voice—endless in its hope—echoed in his mind.
Her unflinching resolve, her fierce will to live even in the depths of this Hell—it had worn away at his heart, leaving him raw.
A woman like that could not be broken.
‘I’ll never die. Want to hear my life plan? I’m going to make a fortune. With that money, I’ll be independent, and, oh—I should probably fall in love too. So you hang in there as well! Let’s be happy together.’
A woman who spoke like that—who had such dreams to cling to—could not have simply disappeared.
Perhaps his own cold reason had been warmed by her, worn smooth by the heat of her presence.
The hope that she lived became the only thing that could move his legs.
Kael rubbed his face, wiping away the rain.
A Cave came into view.
It would be wise to wait out the worst of the storm. He changed direction toward it.
The Cave lay far enough from the Bridge that there were no monster corpses scattered about, no signs of battle.
With his hand pressed against the entrance, Kael paused—listening to what lay within.
“Ugh. It’s all right, Rosana. You’ve made it this far. You can survive. All you have to do is keep moving.”
That voice—thin and waterlogged, barely a whisper—drained the strength from his limbs.
She was alive. Against all odds, Rosana had survived.
Kael closed his eyes and drew a long breath of relief.
The taut nerves that had held him rigid finally slackened.
He shook the rain from his shoulders and stepped inside.
Rosana sat crouched on the ground, her head bowed between her knees.
“…Rosana.”
Kael’s voice came out fractured when he spoke her name.
Rosana lifted her head from between her knees.
Through the tangle of black hair that had fallen across her face, her blue eyes widened—wide and trembling.
Eyes that he had once looked upon with contempt.
Now they glistened with sudden tears, quivering in the dim light.
“K-Kael…! It really is you…!”
Rosana seemed scarcely aware of what she was saying.
Her exhausted face was shadowed beneath the eyes, dark bruises blooming across her skin.
Kael let out a dry, mirthless laugh.
“You said it would be fine. That I could leave you without worry.”
“…And it was. Look—I’m alive, aren’t I? Told you I was trustworthy?”
She prattled on despite her ashen, drained face.
Rosana pushed herself up from the ground with tremendous effort, bracing her trembling legs beneath her.
“What about Lilia? Is she all right? She wasn’t hurt too badly, was she?”
And here she was, asking after someone else’s welfare in that state.
Kael’s gaze swept over Rosana once more, taking in every detail.
She was soaked through with moisture and filth, her fair face streaked and matted with tears and mucus.
The traces of how much she’d wept, how violently she’d trembled with fear — they were written plainly across her features.
Yet her blue eyes still burned with an unmistakable light.
“Hm.”
Matters had clearly spiraled so far beyond reason that he himself was losing his grip on sanity.
The fact that watching her sniffle and wipe away tears stirred only the urge to hold her — that was all the proof he needed.
* * *
I realized I’d been reincarnated into “Salvation from the End Times” the moment I opened my eyes again after death.
“You will represent the Ardena Family in joining the Expedition. Consider it an honor to represent Ardena.”
The study was appointed in a stately, old-fashioned style, its furniture of dark ebony lending an atmosphere of grave weight.
The oppressive heaviness of the room pressed down on me so thoroughly that I could barely draw breath.
Beyond the desk sat a middle-aged man, flanked by several others standing in rigid formation.
They all regarded me the way one might observe a monkey in a cage.
Ardena.
Rosana Ardena.
The memories of my body’s true owner crashed over me like waves, drowning me.
Rosana Ardena’s memories slowly took root in my mind.
Rosana was a troublemaker villainess character from “Salvation from the End Times.”
A woman cursed with a sharp tongue and a bizarre talent for attracting disaster; the novel described countless innocent people sacrificed because of her.
You know those characters in movies who act selfishly, get everyone killed, then whine that they’re the real victim?
That was me.
Inevitably, she ends up as monster food and meets a miserable end.
Bad enough that I’d been reincarnated as a troublemaker villainess — but the real problem was that this world was specifically “Salvation from the End Times.”
Was I out of my mind?
Why, of all things, did I have to land in a apocalyptic tragedy rather than some sweet, fluffy romance comedy — even if I had to be reincarnated?
And examining the tattered, incomplete memories now, there was a reason Rosana had become such a villain.
She’d had no other way to live.
Born as the daughter of Duke Ardena, she ought to have grown up surrounded by love.
But reality was different.
She was always the first one pushed aside in the household — a burden no one wanted.
There was a promising heir, her older brother, and a charming youngest daughter.
And caught between them, Rosana was always the sacrifice.
Branded as difficult, overly sensitive, and defiant, she’d fallen out of favor with her father long ago.
So no one ever stood up for her.
Blame always fell on Rosana.
Guilt always circled back to her.
Memories the novel had left untold were slowly filling the spaces in my mind.
In the end, joining a life-or-death expedition had also become Rosana’s burden.
Insane……
It was abundantly clear that Duke Ardena valued his daughter’s life less than that of a fly.
According to the story, Rosana couldn’t even hold a sword. Could she even run properly?
There wasn’t a trace of muscle on her frame. The thin body was held together not by strength, but by malice and venom.
And he wanted her to join an expedition fighting monsters and recovering Sacred Relics with this body?
Was that anything short of a death sentence?
The Male Lead Went Mad for the Troublemaker Villainess
We Are Now Men: A Long Novel
Author
: We Are Now Men
Publisher
: Kwon Tae-wan, Woo Cheon-je
E-book Release Date
: 2026-09-05
Price per Episode
: 100 won (Episodes 1–5 free)
Provided by
: CL Production
Address
: 203 Ace Artis Forum, 62 Digital-ro 31-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul
UCI
G720:N+A014-20260819088
This book has been published as an e-book by KWBOOKS in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder.
Unauthorized reproduction or copying of this book’s contents without permission from the publisher is prohibited by copyright law.

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