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Villains Are Destined to Die is a popular Korean web novel covering action, adventure, and comedy. Written by the author Gwongyeoeul. The webtoon comic adaptation is licensed in English by Tapas Media. Link (The first three chapters can be read for free). The webtoon is licensed for print release by Ize Press, an imprint of Yen Press.

Our protagonist, Cha Siyeon, has successfully escaped her toxic home life and started to attend the prestigious university she killed herself studying to get in... only to end up reincarnating as Penelope Eckhart, the adopted daughter of Duke Eckhart, the villainess of a reverse harem dating sim she was playing just some hours before, "Daughter of the Duke — Love Project". The problem is, she entered the game at its hardest difficulty, and no matter what she does, death awaits her at every ending! Before the missing real daughter Ivonne, the protagonist of the game's Normal Mode, comes back to her family, Siyeon as Penelope must choose one of the male leads and reach a happy ending in order to survive...

But with two brothers that always pick a fight with her over every little thing, as well as a crazy crown prince, whose routes all lead to death. There's even a magician who's enamoured with the heroine, and a loyal slave knight! But somehow, the favourability meters of the male leads increase the more she crosses the line with them! This is Penelope’s survival story, as she has been dropped in an insane reverse harem dating sim!

The original web novel can be read in Korean on KakaoPage.

Many of the tropes in this page contain spoilers from the completed Web Novel. You have been warned.


Tropes in Villains Are Destined to Die:

  • The Ace: Crown Prince Callisto. He is gorgeous, highly intelligent and the best warrior of the empire.
  • Actually Pretty Funny: When rumours start that Crown Prince Callisto is stalking Penelope after being dumped by her, all he does is laugh.
  • Action Survivor: After the assassination attempt during the Hunt Penelope qualifies, even if Callisto did the most work.
  • Adventurer Archaeologist: Siyeon/Penelope's dream. Which she somehow later achieves.
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: What the Duke fears is happening with Penelope and Callisto.
  • Alpha Bitch: Lady Kellin provoked the original Penelope into violence to play a Wounded Gazelle Gambit that saw her crowned as the Queen of the Annual Hunt. Is very satisfying when version two Penelope gets the award fair and square and rubs it in her face.
  • Amnesiac Hero: After getting lost as a young child Ivonne lost practically all of her memories and grew up as a commoner, it's only after meeting Vinter by chance that he figures out her real identity and brings her back to her family and so begins the Normal Mode storyline. But in reality the real young Ivonne died as her body was taken in by the Layla.
  • Ancient Conspiracy: The Layla have been attempting to return to power since the Ancient Wizards sealed them away. The Ancient Wizards also set up a lot of safeguards to prevent the Layla from returning.
  • And I Must Scream: The fate of the original Ivonne after Layla had taken over her body. Ivonne is still conscious but can do nothing but watch as the Layla commited atrocities one after another using her own technically dead body. Ivonne can only finally rest in peace once her physical body that Layla is occupying perished and move to the afterlife.
  • Angst Coma: The state of Penelope's original body back in Korea. Penelope's original body was left in a comatosed state after she was operated for her cancer and it's assumed by others that this is why she never woke up. In reality, Cha Siyeon's soul transmigrated to Penelope. A side story down the line eventually has Penelope return to her real world and pull off the life support of her original body before saying her farewell to her old family, choosing to stay for Callisto and their daughter Judith.
  • Assassin Outclassin': Callisto in his first appearance brings an assassin that he has already beaten into a bloody pulp to his brother's banquet so he can decapitate said assassin in front of his brother and the ambitious nobles.
    • Callisto and Penelope are ambushed by assassins in the forest during the Annual Hunt. Callisto deals with them with ease only getting injured when he has to protect Penelope.
  • The Atoner:
    • The abusive maid Emily really comes to regret everything she did to Penelope and after having her Jerkass Realization she does her best to help Penelope and does not expect any reward or even forgiveness. She even risks her life to help Penelope for no reason than genuine loyalty to her. It is the reason that out of everyone in the Duke's estate she is the only one Penelope actually can bring herself to forgive at the end of the story.
    • It takes a while for him to get there, but Reynold becomes one for Penelope after an Armor-Piercing Question from her. It culminates to Reynold helping Penelope escape the Eckhart's household shortly after Layla-Ivonne framed Penelope for hurting her and by the start of the side stories, Penelope's relationship with Reynold is far more cordial than that of hers with the Duke and Derrick.
    • The original timeline Vinter. He brought Ivonne back to the Eckharts on Penelope's coming-of-age on purpose, only to later realize too late he allowed Layla-Ivonne to both dispose of Penelope, the only person able to stop her due to her heritage as the last descendant of the Ancient Wizards, and gain access to the Imperial Palace and the Golden Dragon's fang within, allowing her to bring the end of the world. To atone for his horrendous mistake, he used the most forbidden of magic to turn back time, for which he was condemned to burn eternally. When the new timeline version merges with the original one, he is ready to do anything for Penelope's sake because she was the one that suffered the most due to Layla-Ivonne.
  • Awful Truth: Later in the story we find out an important plot twist of the original game from the hidden ending: Ivonne was actually dead the whole time and her body was possessed by an ancient evil entity called the Layla capable of brainwashing people shortly after disappearing, and her ultimate goal is to destroy the world. And Penelope, the supposed villainess, was actually trying to stop Ivonne because her heritage as a descendant of the Ancient Wizards, the people who sealed the Layla in the first place, had told her that something was wrong.
  • Babies Ever After: The sidestories reveal that both Penelope and Callisto eventually marry and have a daughter named Judith.
  • Badass Abnormal: While not having magical powers of his own, Callisto is the direct descendant of a demigod and thus stronger, faster and more resilient than normal men.
  • Belated Love Epiphany: Callisto has one when he saw Penelope nearly die from poison as he realized that he truly wants to live in a future with her and had been genuinely in love with her. Near the end of the story, Penelope also has one when she was split between using the dragon fang to return home and complete the game or to save Callisto from death and eventually choosing to save Callisto.
  • Beleaguered Assistant: Poor Cedric, who is Callisto's aide. Not only does he have to smooth things over when Callisto's temper gets the better of him but he also has to deal with all the palace intrigue.
  • Big Brother Bully: Both Eckart brothers towards Penelope, which mimics how her real world half-brothers treated her.
  • Big Brother Instinct: In contrast with how abrasive and mean they are towards Penelope, they loved and cared greatly for Ivonne. In the game once she comes back they soon reconnect with each other and both Derrick and Reynold spare no time in being protective of her, as their routes in the game in Normal Mode are obviously not romantic but familial. Although the fact the real Ivonne is dead and the current Ivonne is actually the Layla possessing her body puts to question how much of this was genuine or brainwashing.
    • Unexpectedly, both Reynold and Derrick develop one towards Penelope, but for radically different reasons. Reynold becomes highly protective after his Heel Realization, and would offer support and advice. Once Siyeon-Penelope change her behavior from a tantruming girl to a more refined and considerate noble, Derrick changes from regarding her as a step-sister nuisance to hide to more of a potential romantic partner to lock away far from the world for himself.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Callisto has a habit of showing up right on time to save Penelope's life. The first time, with the bear monster during the hunt was more or less a coincidence (he was looking around the forest for her). The second time at Soleia Island and later at Arkaina island he showed up right on time due to keeping track of her via magical GPS. Which his aide Cedric points out is not exactly legal.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
    • Lady Kellin and Layla-Ivonne are very good at making Penelope look bad and themselves good.
    • When Penelope meets with Vinter in Hard Mode, she realizes that he was the one in Normal Mode who purposely brought back Ivonne to the Eckharts during Penelope's coming-of-age ceremony. As Penelope herself points out the only reason he did that would be to ruin Penelope's one single day that would be only about her.
  • Birds of a Feather: What eventually builds up the romance between Penelope and Callisto, both bonded over how they grow up in near similar circumstances of losing a mother and having to deal with a dysfunctional family.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The story ends with the Layla sealed for good. However, the Eckharts will forever continue to live with the knowledge that they not only had lost the real Ivonne Eclharr for good as she died long before the story started and would be considered as the villainous imposter who took her place, they also had to deal with the fact that they had done too much wrong for Penelope to consider going back to the household anymore as she eventually leaves the family and never looks back. In spite of it all, Penelope finally earned her happy ending together with Callisto as she was able to find love with him and pursue her aspirations as an archaeologist.
  • Blood from the Mouth: Penelope, after drinking from a poisoned cup. Originally Layla-Ivonne planned to drink some of the poison to as a Deliberate Injury Gambit to incriminate Penelope for poisoning her. Well, she didn't count on Penelope figuring out it was poison and drinking it herself willingly because she had crossed the Despair Event Horizon and now wished to die to escape the game. It didn't take.
  • Blue Blood: Most of the cast is either high nobility or royalty, even Ecklise who is now a slave is actually a former noble, the only exception being Penelope who was adopted into nobility.
  • Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: The Duke is not happy that Callisto is courting Penelope. His main gripe with the Crown Prince is that he threatened her at swordpoint during their first meeting and after that he would not stop needling the Duke. He was also worried that Ecklise, being young and handsome, could try to seduce his daughter, which is why he wasn't keen on the idea of allowing him to be her personal knight.
    • The Duke is ready to rebel when he finds out that Callisto impregnated Penelope prior to their marriage.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Ecklise shortly after hard mode starts, not helped by the fact that he'd grown desperate to win Penelope's affections.
  • Broken Ace: Callisto is the most competent and worthy male lead but he is borderline insane from losing his mother, likely to assassination, his father's neglect of him and preference to his younger half-brother. Said half-brother and the second Queen constantly try to assassinate him.
  • Butterfly Effect: As Siyeon reincarnated as Penelope, she starts to change almost the whole narrative, much to the Layla's disdain, who struggles to adapt to the new circumstances.
  • Byronic Hero: Penelope and Siyeon, especially the former, are caustic and aggressive individuals that really just want people to care about them. Many of her poor relationships are at least partially her fault as she grew more bitter with age. Her understandably bad attitude at how she was treated completely undermined her attempts to gain the simple happiness of a real family and in the present she typically cannot even recognize that people do care about her.
  • Caged Bird Metaphor: As Derrick's favorability for Penelope rises, he captures a bird during the royal hunt the same dark pink color of her hair. It's gemlike, and some of its eggs are supposed to be gems. He offers to give it to her since it was what pre-game Penelope once asked for, but Penelope instead finds herself comparing herself to it, and it's condition as trapped in a cage the same as her trapped in a deadly game. And more abstractly, Derrick's desire to keep Penelope safe by keeping her in the mansion and far from noble society.
  • Cain and Abel: Callisto and his younger brother, the second prince. While both despise each other and want to be emperor, the younger brother is the one that actually tries to off the opposition.
  • Cassandra Truth: The original Penelope's actions in the normal route were done because she instinctively realized something was horribly wrong with Ivonne, who was possessed by a being that wanted to destroy the world. Unfortunately, because of a curse on her bloodline, no one would ever believe her, resulting in her taking extreme measures to stop Ivonne, leading to her own death.
  • Cast from Hit Points: The wizard in the cave near under the imperial hunting grounds was attempting to create a teleport point to allow the Layla to infiltrate the palace, which killed him. While this isn't universal to all magic, the most powerful spells seem to require this.
  • Character Development: Everyone gets this as the story progresses. From the duke, Reynold, and even Penelope herself grows over the course of the story. Though whether they grow for the best or the worst depends on the character.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The magical amulets that Penelope gives to the Duke and Callisto during the hunt save their lives later on. Same thing goes for the cufflink that Penelope gives Callisto on his birthday.
  • The Chosen One: As it turns out Penelope is the only Ancient Wizard left in the world and thus the only one capable of stopping the Layla. But unfortunately due to a heredity curse and Layla-Ivonne's influence in the original timeline, she ends up dead without anyone knowing this until it's too late.
  • Clingy Macguffin: The shard of the Mirror of Truth Penelope finds is highly resistant to all physical damage, even fire from a magical kiln is ineffective.
  • Comically Small Demand: When Callisto offers Penelope anything she could possibly desire as a reward for helping him thwart an assassination attempt she only requests that he never kill her for any reason. He sees it as this and laments that he made such a terrible first impression on her. Penelope on the other hand is extremely relieved since in the Otome Game Hard Mode Callisto was the one that killed her character the most.
  • Covert Pervert: After an assassination attempt that ended up with Callisto and Penelope falling in a lake he did undress her while she was unconscious to avoid a cold. He reassured Penelope that it was too dark to see anything but his affection for her increased by 5%.
  • Crazy Jealous Guy: Both Callisto and Ecklise are this but in very different ways.
    • Callisto can't abide the idea of losing Penelope either to death or to another man, to where he used a magical map to track her location, but he does respect her wishes, helps her fulfill her goals and does not monopolize her attention.
    • During the Hunt Callisto was ready to kill any supposed rival for Penelope's affection.
    • And later in the story when Vinter is freed from the Mirror of Truth, meaning he remembers everything that happened in the original timeline, Callisto has him arrested and ensures that the wizard will never get anywhere near Penelope. As he fears the possibility of Penelope choosing Vinter over him, which to him is far scarier than the Layla returning.
    • Ecklise, on the other hand, is obsessed with her and wants her to be completely dependent on him. Which is why he is the one who ends up bringing Ivonne back to the Eckhart family, thinking that this would surely made them throw Penelope out and she would end up with no else to rely on to survive but him.
  • Dating What Daddy Hates: The Duke intensely dislikes Crown Prince Callisto, particularly as he had harmed Penelope before, so he doesn't approve of the idea of them being together and absolutely dislikes the rumors that they are/were in a relationship.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Callisto, mostly to Penelope in a teasing manner and to the Duke and his sons in a harsh manner.
  • Debt Detester: Vinter is very careful not to owe anything to anyone. Penelope takes advantage of this trait to ensure that he will help her when needed and also to keep him firmly at a distance since she does not trust him.
  • Deliberate Injury Gambit: Layla-Ivonne had her wine cup poisoned in order to incriminate Penelope of poisoning her. However, this backfired when Penelope detected the poison thanks to a magical necklace, and because she had reached her Despair Event Horizon thinking that she had failed Hard Mode and would soon die, decided to switch the cups and drink the poison herself. When she's saved thanks to Vinter carrying around anti-toxins and the beginning of Normal Mode restoring her health, this has the benefit of now making some of the male capture targets and the duke suspect decide it doesn't exactly make sense as a suicide attempt, and instead places suspicion on Ivonne as a suspect. Vinter in particular notices she was poisoned with a different toxin than the one she'd asked from him.
  • Desperately Craves Affection: The original Penelope only wanted to be loved by her adoptive family, and most of her actions were born of her desire to be noticed and given attention by them. Also the reason as to why Callisto latches very strongly to our Penelope, as he has no one else to love and trust.
  • Determinator: Callisto is described as someone that can survive anything that the world throws at him. In fact, without him Penelope would have failed to defeat the Layla and the world would have been destroyed. Dude manages to kill a night unstoppable undead dragon.
  • Disguised Horror Story: Imagine playing the easy mode game as sweet, lovely Ivonne and then paying to see the hidden route and finding out that "Ivonne" was the true villain who succeeded in killing the true protagonist and destroyed the world.
  • Doting Parent: The moment Penelope reaches out to the duke again for the first time in years, he quickly starts bragging about her and how much she clearly cares about her dad. It wasn't that he truly hated her, he just didn't know what to do with her.
  • Do You Think I Can't Feel: Penelope was treated as if she was a doll or a pet and not a human being with her own desires and opinions, as well as thinking her an imposter trying to steal Ivonne’s place. It's not until when Siyeon reincarnates as her and starts showing her own ego that the people around Penelope start to realize that she is also a person and they need to treat her as such.
  • Driven to Suicide: At the beginning of the story our Penelope thinks that if she dies as the character she may be able to go back to the real world, so she plans to get herself killed by Callisto... Which she would later end up regretting.
    • Much later in the story at the time of her coming-of-age ceremony Penelope believes that she has already lost, since she didn't manage to raise the love score of any of the love interests to the full percent, that the man who proclaims to love her, Callisto, will inevitably fall for the newly returned Ivonne, and when Derrick ends up bringing Ivonne uninvited to the party, feeling that it's the last straw and that she will die soon anyway, she knowingly drinks the poisoned wine after the game informs her about it.
  • Do Not Call Me "Paul": Derrick abhors when Penelope calls him "older brother", something she noticed back when she began playing the game in Hard Mode, it made her feel as if he didn't consider her worthy of being his younger sister and compared her to Ivonne... But this is in fact a huge hint that his feelings towards her are anything but brotherly.
  • Drowning My Sorrows: After Penelope runs away with Reynold's assistance, the latter starts to spend his days drunk out of guilt that in part his actions and inactions have driven his adopted sister to despair. However the servants speculate that he had his heart broken... Which he did, but platonically rather than romantically.
  • Everyone Can See It: Callisto's servants and allies do not take long to start addressing Penelope as crown princess, as they notice his interest in her.
  • Everyone Loves Blondes: When Penelope first played the game in Korea, Callisto was the route she went for the most.
  • Everything Trying to Kill You: In this case, every love interest during Hard Mode. The very first interaction Penelope has with Reynold, 2 of the 3 choices will kill her. When she stumbles upon Vinter's secret mage office he's pointing a wand at her and willing to kill her. Callisto holds her at sword point and actually shallowly cuts her neck. Derrick would have at one point punished her to house arrest without food, and she'd have starved to death because of her poor nutrition. Ecklise seems less dangerous initially, but later on we find from Ecklise inner monologue that he is torn between murderous intent and an unhealthy obsession.
  • The Evil Prince: Callisto's brother "invited" him to his birthday banquet... by sending an assassin. The first impression we get from Callisto is not much better either, as he ends up killing Penelope the most in the gameplay.
  • Failed a Spot Check: Penelope's father is genuinely oblivious to how poorly the servants treat her until she just stands up and leaves in the middle of a meal. When he asks why, she merely points to her completely untouched meal and the ridiculously tiny utensils she was given. The fact that he didn't even know she was being abused and wouldn't have allowed it does nothing to make her feel better, however, as all he actually had to do was look at her even once during dinner to see she was unable to actually eat the prepared food.
  • A Father to His Men: Despite being quick to threaten violence, Callisto's men are shown to be loyal to him, at one point cheerfully yelling that he finally found a woman who will take him when he presents Penelope as the future crown princess.
  • Friend to All Children: Vinter takes care of orphans that come from wizard lineage, he teaches them and protects their identity, as their kind is being unjustly persecuted. He also seems to help normal orphans in the slums, and that's how he meets Ivonne in the Normal Mode storyline, being charmed by her kindness and sweetness towards the children.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Penelope was called the 'fake' heroine by many of the players of the game but her route covers deeper facets of the love interests and the world building of the game. It turns out she's less fake and rather the real heroine while Ivonne is the fake.
    • When Siyeon plays the hard mode, she remarks Penelope didn't do that much wrong considering the position she was in and wonders why people were making her out to be so evil in the normal mode. Likewise, she also notes how easy it is to complete normal mode. This is the earliest hint about the Layla's ability to brainwash and the curse on Penelope's true bloodline that forces everyone to see their descendants as villians.
    • Layla cultists try to cause chaos during the Annual Hunt. One of them even alludes to the Layla goddess aka Ivonne, who is also spotted by Penelope during the adventure on Soleia island.
  • Gender-Blender Name: Callisto is typically a female name meaning the "most beautiful".
  • Gentleman Wizard: Vinter Verdandi, a courteous marquis who is also a sorcerer.
  • Gilded Cage: Despite the mistreatment she received, this was Penelope's life in the Ekhart estate, consigned to pretty clothes and jewelry with no affection and persistent abuse. Later, this is revealed to be Derrick's intention for Penelope in Hard Mode; keeping her under house arrest so she is safe and in his control.
  • Glamour Failure: Layla-Ivonne has no reflection in tea or in mirrors. In other parts, it's noted that they have corpse cold hands.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Derrick really does not like it when Penelope pays attention to Callisto or Vinter... Which actually hints that his feelings are not fraternal but rather of romantic nature.
  • Gossip Evolution: By the time the Annual Hunt and Penelope's trial on trumped up charges is over the Court and the Nobles are under the impression that Callisto and Penelope had a love affair which Penelope decided to end due to the difference in status, but Callisto decided not to accept it and kept stalking her... The truth is nowhere close to what actually happened.
  • Had to Be Sharp: Callisto lost his mother at an early age and his Wicked Stepmother started plans to get him out of her own son's way.
  • Heir Club for Men: The norm in the empire. But Callisto plans to change it because he wants his daughter Judith to succeed him.
  • Hereditary Curse: The bloodline of the Ancient Wizards were cursed by the Layla to be negatively perceived by the public, resulting in them being Heroes with Bad Publicity. Penelope was no exception, which unfortunately made it easier for Layla-Ivonne to manipulate things to dispose of her in the original timeline. However, with the Layla completely sealed once more at the end of the story, the curse has been lifted.
  • Hero Antagonist: In-universe. The original game's plot twist was Penelope, the supposed villainess, was the true heroine of the story who'd been trying to stop Layla-Ivonne from bringing the end of the world, her efforts hampered by the curse on her bloodline that the Layla had long ago cast.
  • Heroic Lineage:
    • Callisto and the rest of the royal family are direct descendants of a demigod.
    • Penelope is actually descended from the Ancient Wizards that sealed the Layla away in the first place.
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: The Ancient Wizards are remembered as vicious and power hungry due to a curse that the Layla put on them to ensure that they were negatively perceived when in reality they were the ones that saved their world from the Layla. It persists three thousand years later in their descendants, like our poor Penelope.
  • Hoist by Their Own Petard: Layla-Ivonne tries a Deliberate Injury Gambit during Penelope's coming of age ceremony to try getting rid of Penelope. But Penelope knowing this and thinking she's already lost, drinks the poison instead in an attempt to commit suicide. Because Penelope got poisoned instead of her, some of the male love interests and the duke become suspicious of Layla-Ivonne, which prevents her from being able to manipulate them like what happened in the Normal route.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Callisto is a lot taller than Penelope and he can easily carry her and run off.
  • Hypno Trinket: The fragments of the Mirror of Truth can be used as such.
  • I Choose to Stay: In the final sidestory, when Penelope is brought back to Korea via Judith accidentally destroying the Mirror of Truth, Penelope eventually chose to cut the life support of her former body back in Korea, having already earned her happiness with Callisto and having officially somewhat mended her relationship with the Eckharts by that point, and thus decided to leave her old life behind in favor of Callisto and the new family she made.
  • I Know What You Fear: This is how the Layla uses the fragments of the Mirror of Truth to brainwash people, they allow the wielder to see the target's greatest fear and convince them it has happened.
  • Improperly Paranoid: Vinter at first seems Properly Paranoid, which is understandable considering mages outside of royal offices are persecuted by the empire and hunted by Layla cultists for brainwashing or to be food. However, once he meets Penelope his natural secrecy blows into paranoia, at one point he instigates and allows his young apprentice Raon to be kidnapped by Layla cultists to see if Penelope would help or fight the cultists. Penelope helps rescues Raon, and sees through this plot and is furious, both for his negligence towards Raon and his manipulation. This backfires horribly later on when it turns out Raon was brainwashed into a sleeper agent. And even after this, he still was skeptical of Penelope and more trusting of Ivonne. This changes once the memories of the original Vinter come back to him.
  • Irony: Early on, Penelope herself thinks that she wouldn't like to go after Callisto in order to survive due to having experienced dying while playing his route in Hard mode too many times before. Callisto ends up being Penelope's safest bet to survive, get out of house Eckart and earn the happy ending that she always wanted with her life.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
    • In a fraternal example, after realizing how much he made Penelope suffer, and after her suicide attempt in her coming-of-age ceremony, Reynold helps her escape the duke's mansion instead of stopping her.
    • As their relationship improves, Callisto becomes perfectly willing to put Penelope's desires before his own, even joking he'd help her bring down the empire if she wanted to. Though he also places her physical safety above his own and he'd rather send her far from danger, she's also able to convince him on several occasions to let her do risky things.
  • Jerkass Realization: Some characters end up realizing that the way they treated Penelope was nothing short of awful. Emily comes to deeply regret how she treated Penelope, even the butler sees how his indifference towards Penelope has hurt her as well, since it enabled the mistreatment by the rest of the servitude under him and made her more prone to lashing out. Callisto is very well aware that holding a defenseless and frail woman at swordpoint and cutting her in the neck was a dick move. Siyeon's real-life family has this as well, although it was far too late to make amends with Siyeon, who decides to live on as Penelope and cuts the life support of her original body. Penelope herself comes to one towards the end too, particularly on how she used and didn’t treat him like a person but as a tool.
  • Kill and Replace: This is how the Layla has survived for centuries, taking over the bodies of people in an attempt to get close to the imperial palace. Their most recent victim is the original Ivonne.
  • Large and in Charge: Callisto. He is the tallest of the cast at six feet one and is basically in charge of the empire since his father is quite useless.
  • Living Emotional Crutch: Penelope to Callisto to the point that he would commit suicide if she were to die.
  • Living MacGuffin: Penelope, when her soul vanished after dying constantly, shattering the time loop and the world stopped.
  • Love Hurts: Poor, poor Callisto. It's not fully his fault either since Penelope has her own circumstances to why she couldn't fully reciprocate to his romantic feelings yet.
  • Loving Bully: As it turns out the verbal and emotional abuse Penelope receives from Derrick is partly a mask to hide that he also has romantic feelings for her. As it's not possible for him to act on those feelings but he can't resist the attraction he feels towards her he channels it into insults and criticisms of herself and her behavior.
  • MacGuffin: The Shards of the Mirror of Truth and Penelope's mirror wand.
    • Most importantly the Golden Dragon's fang, an artifact powerful enough to destroy the world. Layla-Ivonne's goal is to retrieve it from the palace.
  • Mage Species: All magic users are by descent. There is even an Ancient Mage bloodline that has Genetic Memory for its spells. Vinter is the former, Penelope is the latter.
  • Made a Slave: Ecklise is a fallen noble whose kingdom was defeated and was made a slave.
  • Malicious Slander: There is a lot about Penelope, mainly spread by Lady Kellin, who is jealous of Penelope's natural beauty and higher status as a duke's daughter.
  • Master Swordsman: Callisto and Ecklise are both excellent swordsman. However, to Penelope's minor concern, for some reason Ecklise is not actually progressing to the level of a master swordsman like she knows he can and, in fact, already should have done. Were he to do so, it would allow him to end his status as a slave and gain the status of a knight, but he seems stuck.
  • Meaningful Name: Callisto means "most beautiful" and he is indeed quite handsome. Penelope appreciates his looks the most from the capture targets.
  • Mind Control: The Layla are able to play with the minds of humans, and that's the reason Layla-Ivonne was able to enact her plans so flawlessly in the previous timelines until Siyeon takes over Penelope's body.
    • More than Mind Control: Ivonne manipulates Ecklise's and Derrick's feelings towards Penelope in the changed timeline.
  • Missing Mom: Several mothers of the cast are deceased. It's the early death of Siyeon's mother that caused her to be taken in by her biological father, meanwhile the original Penelope also lived in poverty alongside her mother, whose passing away is what allowed Penelope to be adopted by Duke Eckhart, whose own wife had died some years before, leaving his biological children motherless too. Callisto also lost his mother at a young age, which is one of the things that make him and our Penelope relate to each other and grow closer.
  • Morality Chain: Callisto is several times stopped from murder just by thinking of Penelope's appalled reaction.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: After Penelope blows up at Reynold and tells him what her pre-adoption childhood was like (she assumes, since she didn't live it herself) she admits that she might well have hoped that Ivonne would never come back. If she did, Penelope might get thrown right back out onto the street again where she could easily die at any time for any reason. And then her new family framed her for a nonsensical crime and used it as justification to abuse her for years. Reynold realizes to his horror that she was right, especially when she points out the necklace that she was accused of stealing was something she, a child from the slums, didn’t even know COULD have value.
  • Next Life as a Fictional Character: Cha Siyeon was an illegitimate child who escaped her abusive family by going to university. Through her classmates she heard of the viral Otome Game "Daughter of the Duke - Love Project" and got hooked. After beating all the routes in normal mode, she had the option to buy the very expensive true ending or to earn it through playing hard mode. A thrifty young woman, she decides to play hard mode where instead of playing as the protagonist Ivonne, she has to play as the villainess Penelope Eckhart. Whom she wakes up as she is being belittled and mocked by her abusive family. The epilogue reveals Cha Siyeon is still barely alive in a comatose state in the real world, and she chooses to live on as Penelope by cutting the life support from her body.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Penelope brought in Ecklise early to the Eckhart household in order to ensure her own survival in the future. However, due to her own issues and single-minded focus of surviving, she treats Ecklise as a character rather than a person. She lavished him with gifts, encouraged a dependence for his physical safety on her while simultaneously making him feel indebted, and the sole source of her protection. This caused Ecklise's affection and fondness for her to devolve into heavy Yandere levels of obsession. Down the line, at the least, Penelope acknowledged that she is at fault for Ecklise turning out the way he did.
  • No Social Skills: Penelope is rather caustic and not above resorting to violence, harsh language or threats when necessary, when in a bad mood or Just Because. She's also almost completely unable to tell when people she speaks to are actually concerned for her or care about her because she just assumes everyone hates her due to her abusive upbringing.
  • Not Blood Siblings: As Penelope is adopted and not related to Derrick nor Reynold by blood, in the Hard Mode they are presented as possible romantic interests. Though our Penelope quickly discards them as options, as they remind her too much of her abusive biological half brothers from her life as Siyeon.Later in the story it's shown that Derrick has always had romantic and possibly sexual feelings for Penelope, which is why he always hates when she calls him "brother". On one hand he is disgusted with himself for feeling that way toward his adopted sister, but the way he deals with those feelings is by being harsh and abusive towards her.
  • Not Quite the Right Thing: Penelope needs to raise a target's favorability by a high amount in order to stay safe, start a route and finish the "game" she's in. She eventually settles on Ecklise as the best option as she considers everyone else too untrustworthy or aggressive. However, her method of doing so is to make him physically and emotionally reliant on her, which starts causing behavior that make her somewhat uneasy. Her lack of respect or interest coupled with their twisted dynamic ends up making him obsessed with her. When she gets the option to see the nature of the affection people hold for her, Reynold is a bright pink color indicating a healthy entirely sibling relationship. Ecklise, by contrast, is a reddish black color that reminds her of a scar. In the end, he actually brings back the supposedly real daughter in an attempt to have Penelope driven out so he can keep her for himself, believing she'll be forced to depend on him.
  • Obliviously Evil: Callisto knows he has a bit of a bad personality, but seems to be genuinely baffled by Penelope's fear that he might kill her at any second or that he might have really killed her during their first meeting. Thing is, as she already knows, he's responsible for a staggering number of bad ends.
  • Oblivious to Love: Penelope, Penelope and Penelope. As she has tunnel vision with making sure to survive and escape her predetermined death, she seems refuse to notice or can't truly believe in the affection that the love interests show her, always second guessing and comparing their behaviors with their Normal Mode Game counterparts...
    • She fails to understand the significance of Callisto constantly trying to meet her, him wanting to kill any rival for her affections and giving her extremely expensive gifts. Though given her own past, Penelope personally has a hard time seeing genuine care and love (Be it platonic or romantic) for her after being used to the thought that she is unwanted and hated for most of her life.
  • Obnoxious In-Laws: The Duke and his sons loathe Callisto and really do not want Penelope to have anything to do with him, much less marry him. Callisto loathes them even more due to the way they have always treated Penelope and for interfering with his courting. The sidestories implies that they only mostly got along because of Penelope and Callisto's daughter Judith, who is heavily doted on by the duke and Penelope's brothers.
  • Only One Name: Commoners do not have a last name, only nobility.
  • Parents as People: The Duke does care for Penelope but he has no idea how to relate to her or his sons leading to him burying himself in his work and allowing the abuse she endures daily at to continue and get worse. It also applies to her real-life father.
  • Parental Neglect: Due to the Duke's neglect and lack of interaction with the original Penelope, she is utterly love-starved and abused by her step-brothers... Our Penelope can't help to think how much it mirrors her relationship with her real family in Korea.
  • Please, Don't Leave Me: Penelope's suicide attempt nearly causes Callisto to emotionally splinter.
  • The Power of Love: Love, in all of its forms, be it familial, romantic or platonic, helps the people in the story to counter the Layla's mental machinations. Though only people that have less tainted affections towards Penelope are highly resistant if not outright immune to the Layla's brainwashing.
    • The Duke: Paternal affection.
    • Reynold: Brotherly affection.
    • Vinter: Genuine admiration and romantic love.
    • Callisto: Romantic love and deep trust.
    • Ecklise: Romantic love... but as what he felt evolved into an obsessive love-hate towards Penelope, that made him putty in Ivonne's hands.
    • Derrick: Brotherly affection... or so he wished his real feelings actually were. In reality he was ashamed of his romantic feelings towards his adopted sister and that plus the jealousy he felt towards the men close to her, made him an extremely easy target for the Layla.
  • Properly Paranoid: The Mirror of Truth reveals the real reason Penelope tried to kill Ivonne was because she instinctively had a bad feeling about her. As it turned out, she was correct to have this feeling as Ivonne was actually the Layla plotting to end the world. Unfortunately, the curse on Penelope's bloodline made it impossible for anyone to believe her and Layla-Ivonne took advantage of this to dispose of her, allowing her plan to go off without a hitch.
  • Protagonist-Centered Morality: Discussed In-Universe. Siyeon notes that Penelope's portrayal in hard mode is far different from how she's viewed in normal mode, which implies some of this trope is in effect. Which acts as foreshadowing that something isn't quite right with Ivonne.
  • Protective Charm: Charms are made of gems set in pendants or brooches, and in fact are fashionable (if expensive) accessories and gifts. Penelope gives 3 to people close to her; her father, a love interest, and her maid. In the first two cases it saves their lives.
  • Rags to Royalty: Our protagonist Siyeon is a Cinderella Style, in both of her lives. As Siyeon she was a poor illegitimate child raised by her single mother and her rich father only brought her into his family after her mother's death, as Penelope she was an orphaned beggar who was later adopted by Duke Eckhart.
  • "Reborn as Villainess" Story: Siyeon is reincarnated as the villainess Penelope Eckhart of the Daughter of the Duke — Love Project otame game, in the hard mode version. Now she must make choices like in the game to try to reach the one happy ending, avoiding all the other routes that end in death.
  • Refuge in Audacity: Penelope has veered into this in more than a few occasions:
    • After the Second Prince's banquet she followed Callisto to the rose garden because she wanted to see if she has access to the Reset Button of the game she's believed she transmigrated into. From an outside perspective, she followed a man who walked into a banquet dragging a human corpse, alone, from an inside perspective she's intentionally making a decisions she knows will get her killed on the off-chance she finds a mechanic that benefits her. It's only her piquing Callisto's amusement by confessing her love as an excuse that she survives by the skin of her teeth.
    • During her trial for supposedly trying to assassinate Callisto, with Callisto was unable to testify due to a poison coma, her primary defense is (falsely) admitting to a love affair with him. And it works because no one would believe someone would have the audacity to lie about being in a relationship with him, nor about wanting to leave him. When he recovers, Callisto finds it amusing and enjoys rubbing in their supposed relationship in the face of her Father and brothers.
  • Rejected Apology: When Reynold confronted her in the attic during the fireworks display about how she wanted Ivonne gone, she decides not to get angry or grovel or run away, and instead tries the Armor-Piercing Question Did You Think I Can't Feel? statement, explains how she'd figured out that he framed a young Penelope for stealing a valuable necklace early on to turn the dukes household against her, and that she was just an illiterate girl with no concept of money or the value of things trying to escape poverty and find a home after her mother died. It works, and instead of killing her as she feared, he has a Heel Realization and later on he offers an honest apology for all the harm he did. She calmly replies "I don't want it." The reason why is complicated, but it boils down to the fact that "Penelope" is actually Cha Siyeon and sees herself as such. She thus considers that the apology should have been given to the previous Penelope, and even though she herself suffered some amount of abuse by Reynold, she doesn't really care about fixing their relationship or even having one. This further spurs Reynold's character development, since from his POV he comes to think Penelope would rather cut ties with him and he resolves to do better.
  • Replacement Goldfish: Penelope was supposed to fill in the gap that Ivonne left, but not everyone was on board with it and she was too different from the original Ivonne.
  • Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Because of the original timeline Vinter's spell that allows the original Penelope multiple chances to defeat the Layla, the Layla has been stuck repeating the same events of the game hundreds of times and has even perfected her strategies to win. She comments on the fact that this loop is incredibly different, to the point that Cha Siyeon / Penelope have been a Spanner in the Works to her.
  • Rose-Haired Sweetie: Young Ivonne is remembered by her family as a sweet and kind young girl... And even after losing her memories, she grew up to be a charming and nice young woman, who worries about orphans and people in worse situation than herself... Or at least the possessed by Layla version of Ivonne pretends to be, and she ends up being quite successful at it.
  • Royalty Superpower: Judith appears to have inherited the Ancient Magic power that her mother Penelope lost.
  • Secret Identity: Since wizards face prejudice Vinter hides that he is one and practices the craft in a rabbit masked merchant persona.
  • Serious Business: For Penelope, establishing a romantic relationship with one of the Romance Game male leads is literally a matter of life and death.
  • Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Penelope has magenta hair and aquagreen eyes. She also happens to be a direct descendant of the Ancient Mages, making her the last existing person who can wield Ancient Magic and is absolutely crucial to defeat the Layla. Her death in the Nornal Mode of the game, no matter who kills her, leads to the bad ending.
  • Slave to PR: Derrick is obsessed with upholding the good reputation of the Eckhart family name.
  • Spanner in the Works: Penelope, or rather, Cha Siyeon reincarnated as Penelope, ends up being this for the Layla because of changing the timeline so much it becomes harder for Layla-Ivonne to dispose of her.
  • Squishy Wizard: As it turns out Penelope might be the only Ancient Mage left in the world... but she is also a young, untrained girl with a delicate body.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Callisto makes a magical map that shows him where Penelope is at all times. It enables him to rescue her from danger several times.
  • Take That!: After being crowned Queen of the Annual Hunt (similar to Queen of Love and Beauty in ASOIAF) Penelope has to give a speech. She says that winning it was absolutely no big deal much to the ire and humiliation of Lady Kellin who became Queen of the Hunt by playing a series of Batman Gambit and Wounded Gazelle Gambit.
  • Tomato Surprise: The Mirror of Truth reveals this about Ivonne and Penelope; it turns out Penelope, the last descendant of the Ancient Wizards, was trying to stop Ivonne, who was actually possessed by the Layla, from freeing her brethren and destroying the world, but was unable to do so due to her brainwashing and the curse on Penelope's bloodline.
  • Troll: Callisto really enjoys riling up people, be it his ambitious half brother, his aide, love interest and especially his future in laws.
    • Penelope is one too, though to a smaller degree... She kisses Callisto in front of Reynold just to piss off the later.
  • Tsundere: Reynold doesn't dislike Penelope nearly as much as you would think based on his behavior. His feelings are actually quite conflicted, but even when he realizes "Oh, I'm the asshole" he still carries a strong tsuntsun edge.
  • Undying Loyalty: After her Jerkass Realization Emily becomes truly devoted to Penelope as part of her atonement and also realizing her actual situation in the house.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The original timeline Vinter caused the end of the world by bringing Layla-Ivonne back to her Eckhart family during Penelope's coming of age out of spite for Penelope, putting her in the perfect position to both dispose of the only person able to stop her and acquire the fang needed to accomplish her goal to end the world. He is well aware of this.
  • Useless Bystander Parent: Penelope really has it the worst, as she has this type of parent twice. The biological father of her original body and the adoptive father of her second body are of the neglecting variety. While they are not actually involved in her brothers' abuse of her, they do not stop their sons from making their daughter's life a living hell. If they had showed even the slightest interest in their daughter's well being she would have not been mistreated and belittled by everyone. Though resentful toward him throughout the story for this, she does seem to eventually accept him enough to let him interact with her daughter with Callisto and have tea with him by the epilogue.
  • Villain Protagonist: In-universe. The original game's plot twist reveals Ivonne was evil all along as her dead body was possessed by an entity that wished to retrieve the artifact needed to bring an end to the world, making her the true villain of the story.
  • Warrior Prince: Callisto is the empire's best warrior.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: After Reynold gets particularly hostile towards Penelope in an argument, he accuses her of hoping Ivonne was dead and makes it clear he's not going to let her avoid the fight he's trying to pick. She eventually blows up at him and says he’s actually right and of course she would be happy Ivonne is gone because it meant she would no longer have to eat rotting garbage or deal with being unable to even dispose of her mother's corpse. And then when she thinks things are looking up, her new brother frames her for stealing something she didn’t even know was valuable and treats her like shit for a decade as justification for it? The point lands: Reynold clearly never thought about things from her position and feels pretty terrible. And thankfully, this blowup Penelope had at him sticks in his head and kick-starts his character development where he grows genuine brotherly affection toward her.
  • Wicked Stepmother: The Second Queen wants Callisto dead so her own son can inherit.
  • World's Strongest Man: Callisto, he took out an undead dragon on his own, without ANY magic.
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Layla-Ivonne's MO to get others- namely the male love interests, to act against Penelope. In the new timeline Penelope unintentionally defies her attempts at this when she willingly drinks the poisoned chalice Layla-Ivonne initially meant to drink in order to frame Penelope.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Layla cultists are more than willing to brainwash or kill children to further their goals.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: Oh Penny. Penny, Penny Penny. No, you are not in a romance story but in an apocalyptic epic. Also the romantic aspect is not wholesome because the capture targets are in shades of Yandere. In all fairness, Siyeon has never experienced love and she wasn't in any position to suspect Ivonne is possessed by a being able to brainwash people and wants to destroy the world from playing the Normal route alone, nor that the character she had possessed was the true hero of the tale..
  • Yandere: ALL the male leads have shades of this but Ecklise ends up taking the cake.
  • You Lose at Zero Trust: In Hard Mode, Penelope will be killed when any male lead has their favorability reduced to 0%. In the regular game most of Penelope's dialogue tree options will lower favorability, and combined with all the male leads starting at 0% or negative 10% as opposed to Ivonne's 30%, and it makes Cha Siyeon-Penelope very afraid to make wrong choices early on. In the world properthis ends up inverted for Ecklise, as while Penelope is able to develop a high favorability with him, she instead accidentally fosters a dangerously codependent and obsessive love.

Alternative Title(s): Death Is The Only Ending For The Villainess, Villains Are Destined To Die

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