Chapter 3.1

When a warning message appeared, a help option was available to check the details of the warning.

It wouldn’t be difficult to see what would happen when Edith Abina’s sanity weakened, but the problem was that the Marquis of Abina still held my hair.

“Well, now you’re quiet. Yes, a girl like you who knows nothing should be punished,” he said with a contented smile, thinking I was scared with the way I rolled my eyes trying to get away.

“In the meantime,” he continued, “Yes, it’s not like I didn’t prepare myself in case you became the Grand Duchess.”

The way he looked at me, pulling at my hair, was so dirty that I immediately felt sick.

“Get your hands off me.”

“I told you to figure out what was going to happen,” the Marquis grumbled, “Who are you to demand me to let go-”

“I have an appointment with the Grand Duke in a little while, so I have to go out.”

Of course, that was obviously a lie.

But when I checked the Marquis’ face, his eyes had widened with embarrassment, and his mouth opened brazenly.

“I can’t meet him with my hair messed up like this.”

The Marquis slowly loosened his grip then. Even as he lowered his arm, a shiver ran up and down my spine as his touch passed by my back.

‘My sanity was slowly damaged even before I entered the punishment room.’

“Fine, if you have an appointment with the Grand Duke, I can’t take you to the Punishment Room.”

I nodded in a hurry as I glared at the Marquis who licked his lips in disappointment.

“If you’ve said everything, then I’ll be on my way. I need to prepare too.”

As I turned around to quickly leave, the Marquis grabbed me by the shoulder and said, “Return immediately to the office when you are done meeting with the Grand Duke. By midnight, you will no longer be the Grand Duke’s Lady or the Marquis’ daughter.”

“…”

“I’ll have to watch you fall into being nothing but a lowly illegitimate daughter. Don’t you ever think of running away,” he warned, “You will be watched.”

Cold sweat dropped down my back as I thought to myself, ‘I’m gonna have to log out by the end of the day somehow.’

Avoiding the Marquis’ glare, I left his office without speaking a word.

BANG!

I worried that he would chase me while I left the hallway in a rush, but the Marquis didn’t even yell at me, perhaps thinking that I had enough time.

“Crazy guy.”

No matter how much Edith Abina wasn’t his own blood, I couldn’t believe that he’d look at a young woman as young as his daughter with lewd eyes.

‘What the hell is the punishment room like anyway?’ I wondered.

As far as I could remember, there were no target characters who enjoyed SM play in <Experience! Scenes of Life: The Saint>. If it’s the player’s taste, it can be forced, but it was basically a fairly healthy game directed primarily at women.

‘It’s a game that was developed with the goal of experiencing the job of a saint.’

Even if I die in such a game, I refuse to play with my stepfather, even a human made up of thick sausages.

I swept down the goosebumps from my arm and then opened the warning window I had folded earlier.

<WARNING> When approaching the ‘Room of Punishment’, Edith Abina’s sanity is damaged.

When I pressed the red-underlined ‘Mental Power of Edith Abina’, I heard a ringing sound and an explanatory text flashed in front of me.

Edith Abina’s Mental Power: the ability to keep Edith Abina sane. When it reaches zero, her sanity breaks down.

Edith Abina’s Spirit: A gateway between Reality and the Extreme Working World.

Passage of Two Worlds: Closes when Edith abina’s Sanity reaches zero.

“Huh?” I scratched my head, “What passage?”

Having played the game over 10 times, I frowned at the explanation that was given. Besides, the Extreme Working World, the name of this game was definitely a simple name of ‘Experience! Scenes of Life’…

‘Anyway, Edith Abina’s sanity must be preserved at all costs.’

Before I could find a way to escape, I began to rush in fear that the Marquis might realize my lie.

* * *

“Where are you going in such a hurry?”

Someone appeared and stopped me from rushing back into my room and prevented me from trying to log out again.

‘Who is it?’

It was a character I didn’t know.

I looked up at the young woman who was laughing as if something good was going on.

‘Let’s pretend that we know each other first.’

Since she spoke informally, it’s natural that I should reply informally, too.

“To my room.”

“Hmm? That’s short.”

Her thick and wavy hair swayed as she tilted her head from side to side.

A woman about an inch taller than Edith Abina came up to me and flicked my forehead with the tip of her finger.

“Do you still think you’re my older sister?”

‘Oh, this must be Edith’s half-sister, Lirina?’

I frowned as I recalled the set-up of the game which I had read thoroughly. Lirina was a supporting character that didn’t even have an illustration, so I had no knowledge of what she looked like.