HKRH | CH 05

Chapter 05

To make matters worse, even though the complete edition had the same background as the basic version, many situations and story details had changed.

The biggest change was that the heroine’s identity—who used to be a saint—was now completely different.

And the most shocking thing was… the activation phrase that showed the male leads’ affection levels no longer worked.

Maybe it was because she hadn’t met them yet, or maybe that feature had been completely removed.

“Sigh, fine. I’ll just think about how to capture all three male leads while I grow up.”

As a newborn baby, she decided that once she grew up, she’d immediately start conquering the male leads of the complete version and reach the ending.

That was the only way to return to her original world—or so she believed.

That’s how she became Lady Natalie Ailsden.

At least until she was two years old, she still remembered that she was inside a game.

“But… after Sharon showed up, I started forgetting who I really was.”

Natalie tried to recall her hazy memories.

She remembered naturally growing close to Sharon, a girl her age who was always by her side.

“Maybe my mind started blending with this body when I reincarnated into it.”

When Natalie was three, her mother died, and she grew up with Sharon like sisters.

But maybe because she was in a child’s body, the influence of someone her own age who spent all day with her was much stronger than she expected.

“Why did I cry for no reason like that? That’s something Sharon would do…”

After a few times of acting like a real baby without realizing it, Natalie started to forget who she originally was.

As she grew from a baby to a child, she eventually forgot everything.

The rest was darkness.

She chased after her father and brother, desperate for love, envied Sharon—who everyone adored—and eventually became angry, jealous, and lonely.

She threw tantrums, got hurt, and in the end turned into a bad-tempered, friendless girl.

“And then I almost killed myself…”

Cold sweat ran down her back.

When she first fell into the game, she thought she could just grow up, quickly win over the male leads, clear the ending, and log out.

She never imagined she’d forget everything about who she was.

『Warning: Logging out before reaching the goal is impossible.
If you try to force quit, logging out may become permanently impossible.』

The message she barely remembered before entering the game suddenly came back to her.

“If I had jumped off that balcony, I might have been trapped in this game forever.”

The thought made her shiver.

If she died before clearing the ending, it might mean going back to her baby self and repeating the same life endlessly.

“Ugh.”

That was terrifying.

If she forgot again that this was a game, she might never complete her goal or escape.

Maybe even dying of old age in this world would count as a “forced quit” and start the loop over again.

“No way. I’m not going through that again.”

Natalie made up her mind—she would live, no matter what.

She would survive, capture the male leads in this body, reach any ending, and log out as soon as possible.

She rubbed her arms, brushing away goosebumps, and sat up.

Surprisingly, all the pain and sadness that had crushed her just a moment ago had vanished completely.

“Good.”

If she stayed stuck as the old Natalie Ailsden, she would never reach her goal.

Of course, Natalie was still her—she couldn’t erase twenty years of memories and emotions.

But she no longer needed to live as that unloved, prickly, miserable girl.

Creak—

Natalie quickly sat down at her desk and began planning her next steps.

“First, the male leads.”

There were three of them in My Male Lead, Who Is It?!:

the Crown Prince, the Grand Duke, and the Tower Master.

In the basic version, the heroine (a saint) raised their affection levels through quests and events.

Since the player had to keep all three above 70% affection to unlock an ending, it was a delicate balancing act.

“If any of them misunderstood or got jealous, their affection dropped.”

You had to keep everyone above 70%, while secretly focusing on just one to reach 100%. That was the real challenge.

Natalie tapped the paper with a frown.

“The problem is, in the complete version, the required affection is now 90%…”

She remembered that when a male lead’s affection passed 70% in the basic version, his possessiveness became intense.

“If 70% was that bad before… what happens at 90%?”

In the basic version, when she reached nearly 100% with all three, they’d fight physically—but never kill anyone, since it was all-ages.

But now that this was the 19+ complete version… and she was actually inside it…

“What if they start killing each other?”

Natalie immediately decided to never aim for the “All Live Together” ending.

Trying to get all three to 100% was too risky—and if one of them went crazy and killed her, it’d be over.

She wrote All Together Ending on her paper and crossed it out with a big X.

Screech—

“I just need to raise someone’s affection to 90% as fast as possible.”

Natalie started planning fast.

First, she needed to know where all three were.

“It’s the spring of Imperial Year 877. When were all three in the capital…?”

Luckily, they were all in the same place—the capital—right now.

She sighed in relief. If she’d been any later, she would’ve had to chase them all over the continent.

“Okay, so who can I meet first?”

Time was precious.

She started going through all the quests and storylines she could remember from the basic version.

“Even if the complete version’s details changed, the main structure should be similar.”

That’s why, even before regaining her memories, her instincts had led her to the right answers—like with the hat, the horse race, and the masquerade.

In the basic version:

The Hat – She invested early in Madame Dupre, a poor designer, and made a fortune when Dupre’s black hat became a massive hit.

The Race – She discovered the enemy tribe’s horses were weak to sunlight and used that to win a war.

The Masquerade – The Crown Prince, drunk and reckless, committed an unforgivable sin, and the saint herself sentenced him to death.

“So, which male lead can I go after first…?”

She thought deeply.

This time, the events might not happen exactly as before, so she couldn’t just wait—she had to create the chances herself.

As she reviewed every piece of information she remembered, her eyes twitched.

Then she realized something.

“The monsters… they’re going to burn this place down.”

Just like the previous three times, the dream she had wasn’t just a dream—it was a real, upcoming event.

In the basic version, that scene happened when the heroine visited a noble friend’s mansion.

Fire-type monsters appeared in swarms, turning the estate into a sea of flames.

“But…”

Fire monsters only existed in the southern tropics, not in the inland capital.

The fact they’d appear here meant someone was tampering with the story.

Natalie’s eyes gleamed.

If she played this right, she could start her conquests sooner than expected—maybe even meet all three male leads at once.

“Then first, I need to protect the Ailsden estate.”

Not to win anyone’s love—but because being Lady Ailsden was the perfect position to meet the male leads.

A grand mansion, enormous wealth, and the title of one of only two ducal families in the empire—too useful to lose.

Natalie stared at the list of names:

Crown Prince, Grand Duke, Tower Master.

Then she slowly wrote one more name next to Grand Duke:

Roger Crawford.

In the basic version, he was the “cold but gentle only-to-his-lover Grand Duke of the North.”

But that wasn’t why she was targeting him first.

“He was chosen by the Water God—and has the strongest water powers in existence.”

***

Defeating a fire-type monster would be as easy as taking a walk for him.

“This will be a good chance to get closer to him too,” Natalie said with growing confidence.

Just thinking that she already knew what would happen in the future filled her with excitement.

Morning sunlight was beginning to brighten the sky outside her window.

Natalie quickly changed her clothes without calling for a maid.

Since she had been ordered to stay in her room, she needed to leave the mansion quietly before her family or servants noticed.

Tap—

As she opened the door, her foot caught on something. It was a black wig.

The strands still had an unnatural shine, showing the traces of her effort — she had brushed it and covered it with expensive perfume, trying to make her hair look like Sharon’s glossy black locks.

Now it was ruined, trampled and messy.

Natalie stared at it for a moment, then let out a small laugh.

“I really was desperate, wasn’t I? How pathetic.”

Strangely, she didn’t feel hurt anymore.

Whispering the comfort that no one had ever given her before, Natalie tossed the wig far away.

Through the large window, warm sunlight began to pour in.

Beyond the wide garden, the bright red sun was rising.

Natalie looked at it — not at the black wig that reminded her of her dark past, but at the radiant sun that represented her new future — and smiled faintly.

“It looks like me,” she said softly.

Now, it was finally time to show the world who she truly was.