I feel like at some point in their time together the male leads have contemplated putting Penelope on a leash when out in public. because homegirl be wandering away from them getting into all sorts of trouble.
They've definitely got a bunch of mini-heart attacks when they take their eyes off her for barely 5 seconds only to look back and find her gone.
Dude don't leave me hanging like that! I have so many questions.
[This is a idea-fanfiction collaboration with @ship-ovnik]
“Your Highness, would you like to hear a story?”
“Story? Do you know about something that the Crown Prince of this empire doesn’t know?”
“It’s a little story that could brighten up our evening”
Callisto put glass of wine on the bedside table and got out of bed, gave her his hand and sat her down on the couch opposite the other, on which he lay down comfortably with his head thrown back.
Surprisingly, His Highness turned out to be an attentive listener, who interrupted from time to time, asking a small clarifying question. Of course, it is much easier to surprise an inexperienced viewer, or rather a character from the game, with a retelling of “Harry Potter”, “The Chronicles of Narnia” and even “Winx” or “Twilight”…Literature that has never existed in this world.
If Siyeon had been asked if she had assumed that running away from the Eckart family would turn out to be the prince’s concubine, she would have immediately cursed this man, not sparing the magic stone, and ran away from him as far as possible. But here she is, in the palace of the Crown Prince, sitting in his chambers and trying in every possible way to delay the moment when he reaches out to her for caresses, retelling to him the plot of teenage literature from her world.
It was crazy, but damn it, he liked it, and he listened, greedily swallowing every word.
When Siyeon woke up in Penelope’s body, she realized with horror that it wasn’t a stupid dream at all. She got into the world of the game, becoming the main villain. Knowing the plot and further events, she tried to rationally figure out how to complete the game without repeating the sad end of Penelope. But after trying to use the game mechanics, in the form of answer options, as well as to establish relations with her brothers, she realizes that no matter what she chooses, she will still be in a losing position. Siyeon spends too much time trying to establish a relationship, and the risk of a bad ending does not decrease, the potential protagonist can change his mind at any moment and leave her with nothing, choosing Yvonne at the very end of the game. Neither Vinter, nor Callisto, nor Iklies inspired her with confidence. There is only one way out - to achieve a good ending for Penelope herself, without the participation of male characters.
“Surely there is a hidden ending in this game, where the villain remains alone and goes into the sunset so as not to interfere with the happiness of the main characters,” she thought, collecting jewelry and dresses with her to get money from their sale, on which she could live comfortably for many years.
Wearing a magic bracelet, Penelope hid her appearance and went to a small dysfunctional town where no one would ask her a single question about where she got such jewelry.
Penelope goes on a little trip, wanting to get away from the capital. And finally, she finds a small town in the south where needs a man in the town hall who can read, write and count. The elder turns out to be an elderly old man who was happy to hire her. Penelope helps in the library along the way, sorting books and helping to organize a file cabinet, while studying paleontology and the history of the ancient world, trying to learn more about the empire and its rules.
But after a few months, the quiet town turns into a noisy farce. Everyone is preparing for the holiday - the return of the Crown Prince from the war with victory. Fortunately for the residents, their city was one of the transit points before returning to the capital to replenish supplies and get some rest.
Hearing this news, Penelope was scared to death. She needed to avoid meeting a madman so that the game would not force her to participate in a chain of stupid quests for the sake of a percentage of sympathy over his head.
In order not to accidentally pass the game on a “happy” ending with him.
Penelope, as the elder’s assistant, was obliged to help with the counting of provisions and preparations for the celebration. That’s why she went to the military camp, where she met Cedric Potter, the assistant to the Crown Prince. And it would seem that the nightmare has passed… But, alas…
During the festivities in the central square, Penelope, enjoying the fireworks, did not notice how someone quietly crept up behind her and grabbed her hand.
“Is a beautiful lady walking here all alone?”
*The title is a reference to work about the Persian king Shahryar and his wife Scheherazade.
Thank you @sephoria98 and everyone who got me to 100 reblogs!
Tags: Angst, Exes to Lovers, Office
THE END
Y'all I graduated secondary school Today!!!
Now it's just ti sit back and prepare for university.
Oh my god I have all those except King's Cage
They're probably using the fact that no one knows that Penelope can use magic as their trump card. She could sabatoge their enemies using her magic and no one will suspect her.
They're plan was take down nobles on the Second Prince's fraction one by one. But shenanigans happen and their arranged to marry each other for some reason. And they use their engagement party to fully carryout their plans in one full swoop.
💔🗡 Villain Penelope AU
Bonus Baby Penelope
Everyone retained their memories from previous
In this au all the capture targets including the duke suddenly recall their respective memories of all the previous cycles. However there is one very big difference in this cycle, Yvonne is alive.
The Eckart siblings never snuck out to the festival, Yvonne had a fever from running around in the rain days before. She never convinced her brothers to sneak out to the festival, and she never got separated from them thus the Duke never adopted Penelope while looking for Yvonne.
Yvonne also has her memories from her time in the mirror of truth and being possessed by Laila.
Upon realizing that they never adopted Penelope the Eckarts begin frantically searching for her joined by the Crown Prince and Vinter. However, since it has been nearly six years by then, they have no leads. When they ask around the town about the duke who met her, they learn that her mother died but she was never buried and Penelope was nowhere to be found.
Cut to Penelope, after her mother passed away slave traders captured her, this particular group of slave traders has a reputation in the black market for selling high-quality ‘merchandise’. They initially intended to sell her along with the other enslaved children but because of her exotic hair colour, they decided to keep her until she was older so she would be sold at a much higher price.
This particular organization is known for selling high-quality slaves as they ‘train’ them to serve multiple purposes. Penelope was able to learn to read and write because of this. However, one day the slave traders found out she could use magic, and they quickly scrapped the idea of selling her and instead using her for their own purpose.
They forced her to learn magic on her own, she has a room with a straw bed, a bookshelf and writing material. Since she didn’t have anyone to teach her properly she had to get creative to get any results.
Compared to the other slaves she does get better treatment but she is more likely to get punished whether it was because they expect more from her and think she’s not working faster enough or she just happens to be in the vicinity whenever they're in a bad mood so they take out their frustrations on her.
Throughout the years she has gotten better at magic and has made process on her escape plan. The only problem is the colla they put on her neck that will electrocute her should she disobey an order. It's the only thing keeping her from running away and she is on a time crunch as she is finally going to be sold at the upcoming auction. And she's the main attraction.
Back to everyone else, Vinter has been looking for Penelope since the time-loop reset and has come across a rumour of a slave auction coming up at a party. It said that these merchants possess high-quality 'merchandise' and their prized possession is said to be a girl with the blood of a wizard.
This obviously gets his attention and upon further investigation, he not only finds out that the majority of the Empress's fraction are are going to attend this auction but the fact that these merchants may have ties with Laila . So he enlists the help of the Crown Prince in order to raid this event.
Callisto obviously uses the opportunity to weaken the Empress's fraction so that he could focus on finding Penelope. After much preparation, they've successfully completed the raid and arrested everyone involved.
Everyone involved is happy that she's alive and all but they quickly realized that unlike then she doesn't have memories of the time loops.
Callisto lead the royal guards whilst Vinter took stock of the slaves. You could imagine the look on his face when he came across the person he's been looking for, Penelope. He almost didn't believe it because she looked so....different.
She actually does have all her memories it's just that unlike them she went back in time to after her mother died so she now has to deal with her trauma from the six years she was a slave.
She's beautiful 😍
⚜️🌸 Yvonne