악역의 엔딩은 죽음뿐 [Ag-yeog-eui Ending-eun Jug-eumbbun]

Villains Are Destined to Die (Novel) #1-5

by Gwon Gyeoeul, 권겨을, Maut (Illustrator)

역하렘 공략 게임의 악역,
에카르트 공작가의 하나뿐인 공녀이자 입양아 페넬로페로 빙의했다.

그런데 하필 난이도는 극악!
뭘 해도 엔딩은 죽음뿐이다.

‘진짜 공녀’가 나타나기 전에 어떻게든 여주의 어장 중 한 명을 공략해서 이어져야 한다!

사사건건 시비를 거는 오빠 1, 2.
모든 루트가 죽음으로 이어지는 미친 황태자.
여주바라기 마법사와 충직한 노예 기사까지!‘

일단 가망성 없는 놈들은 바로 버리자.’

“그동안 제 주제를 잘 몰랐어요.
앞으로는 쭉, 신경 쓰실 일 없이, 쥐죽은 듯 살겠습니다.”

근데 왜 자꾸 선을 그을수록 호감도가 오르는 거야?!

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Light Novel, Manhwa, Manga, Fiction, Comics

ebook

First published March 31, 2019

About the author

권겨을

Reviews

[Jessi ❤️ H. Vojsk [if villain, why hot?] · Rating 5 out of 5]

Started reading the Manhwa, then found the translated novel.
I love the story so much and Penelope is such a badass 💪🏻♥️

[aleksandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25/5

Rtc because I really really enjoyed it 🙂‍↕️

[Afia Fairuz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an awesome novel. It's actually an online novel which I started to read as a Manhwa. But as the first season of the manhwa ended I couldn't stop my interested heart. So I started reading this novel on a website named Novel cake. Then finishing 231 Chapters I read all 40 side stories and 8 special chapters.

It was a very pleasant feeling. This novel depicts the story of a girl who fells asleep playing a love stimulation game. But after walking up she finds herself in the game(Inca Empire) as the antagonist Penelope Eckert. This game has two modes, easy and hard. She wakes up in the hard mode where the antagonist Penelope plays the role of the FL. And for finishing this game she has to chose a love route with one of the five male protagonists(Calisto Regulas, Vinter Vardandi, Eckles, Derick Eckert, Ranald Eckert). As Penelope was known as the villainess and The Duke of the Eckert adopted her after loosing the main FL Ivonne, Penelope was treated unfairly in the dukedom. At first the game gives her some choice list through system window and she kept choosing those options to raise the favorability of the male leads. Cause for her surviving was the first option and her single mistake can push her to the path of death.


Then Penelope starts planning to raise the favorability of Eckles, whom she bought from a black market as a slave and tries to go through the love route with him to escape from this stupid game. But Eckles, who was actually the prince of a defeated country Delmen, understands that she was using her . At first he gets angry though acted loyal in front of her. Eventually he falls in love with her. But his love was quite aggressive. On the other hand , the other ML's also starts to grow deep affection for her as she keeps behaving more gentle than the main Penelope of this game. At one time the crown prince, Calisto Regulus gets interested in her as she kept acting strange than the rumor's. His interest turns into love and his usual cruel image starts to fade.
Well, at some point Eckles gets jealous as he encounters the crown prince and brings back The main daughter of Eckert, Ivonne, who was actually possessed by the evil Leila thinking that in that way Penelope will only depend on him.
On the other hand Ivonne stars to brainwash Eckles, Derick so that she can abandone Penelope as a villainess. Ivonne tried to awake her evil spirit fully. Like this the plot keeps twisting and in the end of this novel Penelope finds her true love interest. Her life in the real world was also very painful. And so she chooses to stay in this game world after finding a true family and love which she yearned for years.


This novel is very interesting. Some may think its a typical romance novel. But the truth is its something more than romance. The twisting plot and the ending of each character was magnificent. My heart hurt a lot when I read the ending of Eckles. Cause I actually shipped Penelope and Eckles. But after reading the novel I understood that, Calisto is the best choice. Anyway it was a good choice reading it. The lessons this novel provided was just mind-blowing.
I loved reading it. It kept my heart pounding like it's gonna burst at any time. So I hope you won't regret reading it.

[يُمنَى · Rating 3 out of 5]

المانهوا يا جماعة..
وجمال المانهوا وحلاوة المانهوا.
أظن ده كان أفضل علاج أمشِّي بيه 2020 فعلاً.

ملخص الليلة من غير حرق: بنت عندها مشاكل أسرية وبعد تخرجها من المدرسة قدرت تستقل وتعيش لوحدها، وفجأة بقى عندها هوس بلعبة نزلت جديدة وعليها كلام كتير من صحابها في الجامعة. اللعبة ليها مستويين، المستوى السهل بطلته.. آاه.. البطلة؟ المحبوبة، والمستوى الصعب بطلته البنت الشريرة. كل هدف اللعبة إنك تحببي شخصيات اللعبة في البطلة عشان تعدي، وده سهل جدًا تعمليه بالبطلة الأساسية.. بس شبه مستحيل تعمليه بالشخصية الشريرة إللي أول ما تتنفس حد ييجي يقتلها.
في ليلة بطلتنا الجامعية بتنام، هوب دابل كيك بتصحى تلاقي نفسها شخصية من شخصيات اللعبة.. وعشان فيها حاجة لله لبست الشخصية الشريرة وحِلّني بقى على ما تحبب خلق الله فيها وتصلح المتدغدغ قبل ما حد ييجي يطيرلها رقبتها، خصوصًا بعد ما شكّت إن صناع اللعبة نفسهم ممشيين كل الشخصيات ضدها لله والوطن.

بي.إس: كملتها بالرواية :D

[v *✲ﾟ*｡★ · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is literally my guilty pleasure manwha,, i love penelope so much omg! morally grey villain mc check! amazing dynamics w love interests check! enemies to lovers check!

[Mai · Rating 3 out of 5]

15.02.2023: Callisto, the crown prince, owned this novel

-----------
The Crown Prince is the only reason I kept reading this

[Fatimah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sobbing crying throwing up screaming at one point I could not read a single line without crying if anyone recommends you this book take it as a threat. AND DCLAIEBEKBDKDBSKSBMS ECLISE MY CHILD 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 I hate Penelope tbh! I liked her sm until like chapter 137 then I hated her sm she got bitchy but Callisto and vinter I love too <3 reynold Is cute and omfg that hot ass dad….. derrick death. Do not read this book

[Zelena · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
The main character is a girl boss and despite all the challenges thrown at her she doesn't need a man to save her. The two main love interest are so hot and I can't choose between them cause there very different but so similar.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished the main story (pg. 1342). Honestly the ending felt a little anticlimactic but I think that’s because of the translation not being the best. The manhwa will probably be more intense. The story overall is great though.

[mikaela (spinebreaker) · Rating 5 out of 5]

everything is a spoiler and i still haven't processed it 12 hours later so maybe just

let me cry in peace

i can't wait to see this illustrated (but that might be a lie because. girl. i might die)

[Inn Auni · Rating 4 out of 5]

BEWARE of SPOILER

Cha Siyeon was brought home by her father to a household filled with cold, indifferent half-brothers. Despite her late mother having nothing to do with the death of their mother (at least according to the MTL), they still held her responsible. Even the household staff treated her like trash, viewing both Siyeon and her mom as homewreckers. College was her ticket out—finally free, she moved out and juggled three part-time jobs while studying. Somewhere in between, she still found time to play an otome game.

The game had two modes:

Normal mode followed the heroine, Yvonne.

Hard mode followed the villainess, Penelope.

In normal mode, Yvonne began with a 30% favorability rating from each of the five male leads:

Crown Prince Callisto

Marquis Vinter

Young Duke Derrick

Duke’s second son Reynold

Knight Eclise

In hard mode, as Penelope, the favorability was either zero or negative. And the plot? Straight out of the "villainess gets doomed" playbook:

Yvonne goes missing as a child

The Duke adopts Penelope because she resembles Yvonne

Derrick and Reynold resent Penelope for taking Yvonne’s place

On Penelope’s 18th birthday, Vinter returns with the real Yvonne

Eclise, a former slave purchased by the Duke, is appointed Yvonne’s escort

Yvonne meets Callisto → they fall in love

Penelope, as the villainess, is ultimately killed by Callisto

After dying countless times in hard mode, Cha Siyeon rage-quits the game… only to wake up inside it—as Penelope. Now, she must reach 100% favorability with one male lead and receive a love confession before the coming-of-age ceremony to return home.

The novel spans five volumes with:

231 main chapters

40 side stories

8 special chapters

The translation? Pretty much raw MTL—definitely a "hard mode" read in more ways than one. But it was popular enough to get a manhwa adaptation.

My thoughts:
I gave this 4 stars, but only because of the side stories. Why? Because it felt like the author suddenly realized, “Oops, I forgot to wrap things up properly.” So we get 40 more chapters to finally give Penelope her closure.

Then—surprise!—the author again realizes Cha Siyeon didn’t get hers. Cue another 8 special chapters to fix that.

It honestly felt like James Cameron waking up one morning and deciding, “You know what? Jack Dawson survived the Titanic. Let’s give him a new arc where he moves on because Rose already got her happy ending.” And then writing yet another side story where we watch Rose living her best life with her family, just so she can finally let go of the past.

So, was it a tragedy? Not really. The “tragedy” tag is basically false advertising at this point.

[Rachel Ladner · Rating 4 out of 5]

After spending a summer obsessed with female-POV dating sims ("otome" games), this series hooked me from the beginning with the twist on the premise. An impossible dating simulator? I've read a fair number of these stories that begin with a doomed "villainess" and each have their own unique hook, but the video game aspect and reward system really helped keep the story exciting and ensured the stakes were always high. I couldn't put this one down until I'd finished it.
I don't want to pick this one apart when talking about "criticism," but I'll add the disclaimer that it probably isn't for everyone. Someone who isn't a fan of otome games in general would be more bored by the tropes than amused by watching them play out predictably. Or they might be frustrated by some of the characters defying reasonable expectations. Reynold/Renold/Leonard (name subject to translator) is a total headache each time he appears.
But the overall tone is great, the overall plot is quite satisfying, with the choices of the protagonist setting up things that come back later, and I quite enjoyed the read. I will be following the manhwa based on this series as it comes out.

[Ang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good story hooks persistently throughout the beginning during the memory gap between the old and new Penelope. I'm impressed that the theme of her past trauma was upheld throughout the book. Perhaps due to translation errors, it was a tad confusing at times but the twists and developments in the story was fantasticn, sometimes heart wretching and moving.


Spoiler below







The ending was a bit unsatisfactory when she finally went back to see her family. Very surprising when her dad recognised her. Her choice was predictable but I didn't think she would run back to her own world that fast while her father still called her name. It didn't make sense to me how emotionless she was when seeing her old family's guilt and care but it is realistic since she lived through hell with them. The most predictable development was meeting Eclipse, that was random but understandable in tying up the loose end. My only qualm is her relationship with Callisto, sometimes too controlling, was hoping they would better their communication but it seems things became much smoother after they were married. Hooray to a great novel.

[Kiara ✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

⇢ ˗ˏˋ 5 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘀 ✧💋

“ Villains Are Destined to Die “ or “ Death is the only ending for the villainess “ is my favorite novel as first I start reading as a manhwa then later I read the novel cuz I couldn’t wait for other chapters to come out. So I find it online the novel ofc It was in English and I finished up now Since I finished I am again reading the manhwa just to so the art since is so pretty tbh. It is worth to read the novel but also see the manhwa which You can find both ( novel and manhwa) just by typing one of this two titles, If the first title I write does show u the manhwa write the other title, same goes for the novel.

Huge love 🫶

[Loverture · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. I find it a rather engrossing but not the most satisfying book. Also, the translation quality went downhill halfway through the book and just a small step above machine translation at some points.

[Tamara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, this was one long ride. I like the web comic version more though (what was published so far), maybe because the writing was very descriptive and repetitive, and it managed to jar me out of the story more than a few times, and the web comic drawing are oh so pretty and could compensate for anything 😅

The aspect of the story that deals with Penelope's trauma and her relations with her family was intense and sad. It was not exactly a revenge story, more a story about vindication. In that aspect it worked well for me.

The latter part (the side stories) that dealt with her romance were strangely out of character for all parties involved and I didn't enjoy it as much.Callisto suddenly behaving obsessively was very out of character and it didn't suit him. He was my favorite throughout the story because he at least seemed to really see Penelope for who she is, without preconceived notions or expectations, and despite her "reputation". Then she decided to stay in that world for him, and he becomes so anxious she is going to leave him, going as far as imprisoning her in her room. That, and the physical violence (namely, Penelope grabbing Callisto by the hair and pulling it very violently to show her frustration) was OTT to say the least, and it left a bad taste in my mouth.

In all I'm looking forward to the rest of the story in web comic form, and I'm grateful I won't be left with cliffhangers anymore 😂

[Mimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Started where the Manhwa left off (ch145).

Solid 5 ⭐ read up to the end of the main story. Bumped it down to 4.25 ⭐ after the main story, and focused on the special stories.

The main plot was SO good. Kept me on my toes, nothing was dragged out unnecessarily. However, the special stories at the end felt kind of lackluster? It felt like the author wanted to push some plot that they had cut out in the original story... and it made a little less sense. Especially the minor plot with their daughter being born with wings?? I didn't really understand the set up for that ending -- unless the author is planning for a sequel.

On top of all of this, I felt like Callisto... didn't really feel like Callisto at the end? He just felt a lot less secured about himself, which was one of the reasons why I liked him in the first place.

Also, we all hate Derrick in this household. I hate him with every inch of my fiber.

[Jana|جنى · Rating 2 out of 5]

2⭐
Alright alright ..
I think all of us did start reading the manhwa first then decided to read the novel causes we couldn't wait for the chapters. Am I right?

I was confused should I rate this novel like any other novel/book?

Well.. I'm still confused so..

Story 3/5
Writing 1.5/5
Plot 4/5
Characters 4/5
The translation wasn't great and wasn't bad

[mith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I still have side stories left but tapas isn't done w all of them (why are there always like 50 side stories???) But I'm so glad I read this. The way my obsession just 📈📈📈📈 after the latest manhwa chapters had me crazed. Now I can relax.

[Tânia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not expect all the twists and turns.
I'll be waiting for the manhwa to adapt all these beautiful scenes. Because Calisto is bae <3

[Perí · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
The lightnovel is in Tapas.

[raven (jude's wife, in another life) · Rating 3 out of 5]

i shoudlve never read the side stories

[Douaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

SALIIIIIIIT FREAKING FINALLY (j'ai pas lu les 6 special chaps cus I'm too lazy). God knows how long this has been to finish 😭

[karol ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

pensé que nunca iba a terminar de lo largo que es jsjsjjs
me he tardado literalmente un mes

[epiphany]

ch. 34 / may 2020

[Biblioish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Description :

I’ve reincarnated as the reverse harem game’s villainess, the one and only step-daughter of the Eckart duke family.

But the difficulty just has to be the worst! Everything I do will only lead me to death.

I must be paired with one of the main male characters from the heroine’s harem before the ‘real daughter’ of the duke family appears! Two older brothers who always pick a fight with me on every little thing. The insane crown prince whose route will always lead to my death.

‘I only see the heroine and no one else’s wizard, and also her loyal slave knight, too!

‘First, let’s take some of them which I see no hope in, out of the list!’

“I didn’t know my place up until now. From now on, I’ll live as quiet as a mouse so you wouldn’t care the slightest bit! But why do their interests in me keep on rising every time I draw the line?!

-----------------------------------------------------------------

I loved how this novel started out but i kinda disappointed by its ending.

It started out so well because of some elements that made this novel kinda different from the others. But as we go on the plots were getting easier to figured out. Although i think the author try to make the ending not so predictable by not giving us kinda the end we expected because the end, for me, was a total let down.

I believe some characters can have a totally different ending or maybe a less terrible one, i would say. After all, their dispute was basically based off miscommunication, which is not my cup of tea in a book/story.

I'm giving this a 3stars because the first 100 chapter was totally my taste especially with their family dispute. The actions FL(Penelope) take towards her families and her subordinate could totally be more delicate and well-thought.

Also i read this in Eng, so thats mean i'm reading a not official translated version so the text bound to have errors and some not understandable phrases.

[a · Rating 5 out of 5]

bir oyunun içinde reenkarne olma konulu novellerinin tanrıçası penolepe karakteridir tartışmasız... hiç sıkmadan 1 günde bitiyor tüm novel, kraliçem deccal erkeklerin arasında hayatta kalıp kendi yolunu çizdi ya. üstelik tüm sorular cevaplandı, ne gerçek dünyadaki ailesi ne de buradaki ailesi hakkında hiçbir soru işareti bırakılmadı

[Ahmed El-Sharawy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too many plot holes and people changing way way too profoundly too quickly that it just made the novel feels cheap

[Kd_ch333 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently started reading the manhwa and totally got hooked, especially in chapter 160! It was so good that I couldn't resist picking up the novel too, and I'm really glad I did!😭😭😭

[Hahaha_lol · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this book twice. I'm not a precise book critique; I couldn't tell you the definite positives and negatives of criteria such as characterization, plot, writing, and so on. I would give this a 6-stars if I could.

But whatever magic went into this book, whatever it was about it, kept me obsessively reading and analyzing until the certain end. So at first glance it was just that the plot that was immersive - but on a deeper thought, this book does not leave any open ends or laziness on any of the facets that make a book a Magnus opus. Does a book have to be printed, classic and formal to be named this? No. I've read much literature and this one deserves all my praise.

Characters are given their due in characterization - the protagonist is the best written person I have had the pleasure to read about and analyse. She makes sense, and there is no nonsense overpowering or lack of/cliche vulnerabilities. The plot is tied up pretty neatly - readers learn of things that are reasonable to learn from the protagonist's boundaries, and the mysteries can only be speculated on.

If I thought about it more, this book is actually a satire on its trope of the "villainess reincarnation survival" genre - the type where the villainess encounters a bunch of male leads and also the original heroine. In this genre, the villainess catches the heart of many of the male leads. However, those stories don't realize the actual terror of being stuck in such an obstinate system with their life on the line. Villains are Destined to Die stressed me out because of its new, perhaps real, take on such scary situations where every step may lead to the protagonist's death, and where even their most concentrated planning doesn't succeed. The protagonist is portrayed as a human where the universe isn't on their complete side anymore. Besides, the story also spoils the trope of obsessive male leads and how these men appear to a woman in reality. If anything else, I would praise the book for its depiction/support of healthy, mature romance in which both partners are consenting and understanding.

Abuse is a huge theme. Not just the enactment of it, but the confrontation and resolving of such abuse in a self-respecting manner. I cannot help but feel full sympathy for the real villainess in the original game, who could not come to terms with her lack of love and suffered abuse/neglect/death. But this is exactly why I am so surprised by how our protagonist was written in order to dynamically change throughout. I can't help but be silently impressed by the author's exploration of abuse, both the act and the afters of the theme.

To write such an interesting book, which has the possibility of simply entertaining by virtue of a superior plot to giving life-changing messages based on deeper themes and analyses, depending on the audience, is not short of a feat. I recommend this book as I would any classics of our time.