Home/The Male Lead, Whom I Thought Was the Villain, Is Acting Strange/ch 2

Chapter 2.

‘Seriously, isn’t this just too much?’

I was so indignant and dumbfounded that I couldn't even muster a bitter laugh.

I'd died young in my past life without even reaching thirty, and now, even after being reborn, I was fated to die again.

And at the hands of a psychopathic villainous male lead, no less!

That's right. In the original story, the mastermind who slaughtered House Espello was none other than the male lead himself.

Muriel spent days upon days weeping and drowning in grief. The man she loved had been murdered overnight—her reaction was hardly unreasonable.

Then, as her anger overtook her sorrow, she frantically began searching for the culprit like a woman possessed.

‘That was when she went to the information guild in the back alleys, right?’

For reference, the guild master there was a sub-male lead who had fallen for Muriel at first sight.

He was also a madman who tried to win Muriel's attention by driving a wedge between her and the male lead, tormenting and scheming alongside her.

At this point, it felt less like a romance fantasy and more like a misery-porn disguised as romance, starring people who learned their 'romance' from a fantasy version of family education.

Anyway, with terrifying obsession, Muriel tracked down the male lead, kidnapped him, and imprisoned him in a basement.

And so began the insane first meeting between the male and female leads.

"Why did you kill Rainer... and the people of House Espello?"

"...Who knows."

"Tell me, you madman! Why did you kill him!!!"

Muriel glared at the man kneeling before her as if she could kill him, screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Why did you take him from me? Why!!"

Whatever the reason, Muriel had not an ounce of intention to forgive him.

But she felt that if she could at least learn something about Rainer's death, she might be able to endure this absurd reality.

However, the man cruelly shattered her last hope.

"What difference does it make if I talk? It's not like your dead lover is coming back to life."

He spoke with lifeless, mineral-like golden eyes that betrayed no warmth.

At that, the thin thread of reason that had been stretched to its limit in Muriel's mind finally snapped.

It was the kind of scene that made you want to tear into the book, grab the male lead by the collar, and beat the hell out of his smug face.

In the end, Muriel went completely off the rails, pouring all her rage and resentment onto the male lead and beginning to torture him.

Needless to say, all sorts of R-19 madness unfolded in the process.

In Tomorrow of a Cruel Angel, the "cruel angel" was surely meant to be Muriel, but I could never agree with that description.

An angel, my foot... Even King Yama himself would bow his head like a ripe stalk of rice before Muriel.

---

But the male lead was even worse.

Not once did he beg for forgiveness or plead for his life.

Like a martyr enduring persecution, he silently accepted her cruelty—and that only drove Muriel further into madness.

In her desperate search for vengeance, Muriel ultimately committed an irreversible act.

She unleashed the demonic beast sealed within the male lead's body.

The reason Cruel Angel was an apocalyptic misery-porn was because the world was constantly plagued by monster attacks.

Commonly called "fiends," these creatures were low-level lifeforms, little more than beasts. They operated purely on instinct—attacking and devouring humans indiscriminately.

In contrast, "demonic beasts" were high-ranking beings with intellect rivaling that of humans.

And the demonic beast sealed within the male lead was Durendal—known as the Frost Demon.

Said to have been sealed away 400 years ago by Radenica, the first emperor of the Arcane Empire and a great sorcerer, it was the most powerful demonic beast of all.

During the First Fiend War, Durendal's rampage...

---

‘Anyway, to summarize the key points...’

First, I needed to sever the connection between my brother and Muriel so that the original story's core events wouldn't unfold.

Second, I had to prevent the male lead from destroying our family.

Third, I had to stop Durendal—sealed within the male lead—from going berserk.

It seemed like everything would be fine if I could just prevent the first event, the root of all tragedy. But reality wasn't that simple.

Because I had no idea why the male lead had annihilated our family in the first place.

In the original story, even under brutal torture, the male lead never once revealed why he had destroyed House Espello.

Hard to believe, but Cruel Angel was still, technically, a romance novel.

Perhaps the male lead, who had a yandere obsession streak, had wiped out Rainer—his romantic rival—along with his entire family?

But that was just speculation.

The problem was that Cruel Angel was mostly told from Muriel's perspective, so there was hardly any information about the male lead.

If he had attacked House Espello for reasons other than jealousy...

---

...then simply preventing Muriel and my brother from meeting wouldn't solve the problem.

‘Durendal's rampage is a dangerous variable too.’

The reason Muriel noticed the seal on Durendal was because the male lead had shown periodic instability.

In other words, although Muriel pulled the trigger on the rampage, the signs of an impending eruption had already been there.

If Durendal went berserk and triggered a world-ending scenario, saving my brother and our family would be utterly pointless.

It was a lose-lose situation no matter which way I turned.

‘Damn it, nothing about this is easy!’

Suddenly, I remembered a movie where the protagonist, after taking a red pill and learning the truth, fought to save the world.

Every time I watched that movie, I always thought the same thing.

If reality was such a god-awful shithole, the protagonist would have been better off taking the blue pill—the one that let him see only what he wanted to believe.

Well, since I'd already learned the truth, there was no helping it. I had no choice but to twist the original story and survive by any means necessary.

Separating Muriel and my brother was a task for three years later. And since I didn't even know where the male lead was yet, I could put that aside for now.

What I needed to do right now was clear.

---

---

"Bro."

I called out to my brother, who was crouched in the training yard.

---

"What's your ideal type?"

Rainer, who had been carving through the air with his sword with pinpoint precision, flinched and stopped mid-motion.

"What the hell are you talking about, all of a sudden?"

He turned around with a baffled look, furrowing his brow. I shrugged nonchalantly.

"You're popular, you know. Haven't you been getting a ton of marriage proposals?"

---

A background as a scion of one of the four great noble houses, the skill of being the youngest Aura Master, and a handsome face to boot.

Rainer, who was five years older than me, had long since passed the age of adulthood.

It felt awkward saying it myself, but my brother was a top-tier catch no matter where you showed him off.

With all those qualifications, it was an open secret that women of marriageable age were circling him like hyenas.

Wiping the sweat beading on his forehead with his elbow, Rainer let out a scoff of disbelief.

"Since when did you start caring about that?"

"I'm trying to start caring now. So just tell me what your type is."

"There's no such thing."

Yeah, right! Look at this fake male lead, talking big when he's going to fall head over heels and end up slaughtered!

I had the original story's contents in my head. Cruel Angel was an R-19 romance novel.

Which meant I knew every single sordid detail of what my brother had done with Muriel.

---

Do you have any idea how horrifying it is to know your sibling's steamy love life?

It felt like I'd reached into Pandora's box—the one you should never, ever touch—and shaken out every last rotten thing inside! Damn it!

I suppressed the urge to scream, "The king has donkey ears!" while gritting my teeth.

Oblivious to my inner turmoil, Rainer let out a light chuckle.

"Why are you suddenly asking me that?"

"Just curious. I'm dying to know who my future sister-in-law might be."

I smiled brightly while quietly grinding my teeth. The mention of "sister-in-law" made Rainer's well-groomed eyebrows twitch.

"Oh, come on. Just tell me. It's not like talking about it makes it real."

"I told you, there's no such thing."

Wow, playing hard to get, are we?

When I kept pestering him, Rainer made a troubled face and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. His profile looked strangely serious.

It made sense—he'd spent his whole life just training. Getting asked something like this was probably a first.

---

After a moment of silence, Rainer spoke, almost dismissively.

"Hmm... If I had to say, maybe the cute, innocent type?"

I nearly groaned at his predictable answer.

See? I knew it. He's already prophesying his own death!

That description fit Muriel perfectly—her slightly drooping eyes, cute and innocent like a puppy's.

‘And that cute, innocent face will be the one to tear him apart!’

I had absolutely no intention of letting Muriel anywhere near my brother.

Even if I managed to stop the male lead and prevent Muriel from going crazy like in the original story, it didn't matter.

Even considering that she'd lost her mind after losing her first love, torturing someone through a full-course meal of suffering was not the act of a sane person.

‘Not that anyone in that novel was sane. Except maybe my brother.’

The more I thought about it, the more it felt like Rainer was just a disposable character created by the author solely to drive Muriel further into madness—and that made me want to cry.

Of course, I was a hundred times more pitiful since I didn't even appear in the original story and died as an extra!

I opened my mouth with a resolute look in my eyes, like a revolutionary on the eve of war.

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