Chapter 1
The Male Lead Went Crazy for the Troublesome Villainess — Episode 1
Kael clamped a hand over his mouth.
Every breath dragged the sickeningly rank stench of monster blood into his nose.
Could Rosana really still be alive in this hell?
Even after coming back to this hell to find her, he could not be sure she had survived.
The ground, churned with blood and rainwater, was nothing but muck. Every step sent foul, muddy water splashing up. All the while, the rain was falling harder.
"Rosana!"
Kael shouted her name, his voice sharp.
He did not understand it himself.
Leaving the stragglers behind and departing was the correct course. What was more, the commander leading the expedition had no business breaking away from the column alone.
Even now, reason was warning him that he ought to rejoin the expedition at once.
The muscles in Kael's jaw bulged taut.
"Answer me, Rosana!"
What possible hope did he think he was clinging to?
Even though he had seen the horde of monsters charging at her beyond the collapsing bridge, he wanted to believe she was alive.
Kael could not understand Rosana.
Since when had she been so selfless?
This Rosana, the one who had thrown herself into danger for someone else's sake, was utterly unfamiliar.
Kael spat out a curse through his teeth.
The rain was growing so fierce that his vision was starting to blur.
His soaked clothes clung to his body, making every step feel heavier.
"Rosana!"
His voice, too, was gradually being swallowed by the roaring rain.
By now, it was about time to give up.
Even as he thought that, Kael forced himself forward again. It felt as though, if he searched just a little longer, he would find Rosana.
It felt as though Rosana would greet him with that bright, clear smile of hers.
'What's this? Why did you come back? To save me? Wow, if that's true, then I've really turned my life around. So you were worried about me too, Kael?'
It felt as though she would chatter on like that and trot along after him.
'There's always an end. Our expedition is going to succeed, and we're going to make it home. Trust me. Or, if not me, trust Kael's sword.'
That voice, endlessly talking about hope, kept surfacing in his mind.
The unyielding spirit that never despaired even in this hell, and that fierce vitality, tore at his heart.
So there was no way a Rosana like that could have been broken.
'I absolutely won't die. Want to hear my life plan? I'm going to make a ton of money. With that money, I'll become independent, and, oh, I should date, too. So you hang in there too, Kael! Let's both be happy.'
There was no way the Rosana who had said all that would have left behind the things she clung to so dearly.
Perhaps even Kael's cold rationality had, before he knew it, been softened by Rosana's warmth.
The hope that she was alive kept his feet from stopping.
Kael scrubbed a hand over his face, wiping away the rain.
Just then, a cave came into view.
Taking shelter from the rain for a while would be wise. He moved toward the cave.
Perhaps because it was a fair distance from the bridge, there were no monster corpses or signs of battle near the cave.
Kael, who had braced a hand against the cave entrance and was checking for any presence inside, suddenly went still.
"Hic. It's okay, Rosana. You've done well so far. You can make it back alive. You just have to keep going."
The moment he heard her weak, tearful voice, the strength seemed to drain from his body.
She really was alive. Rosana had survived that hell.
Kael closed his eyes and let out a deep breath of relief.
The nerves that had been standing on end loosened.
Kael shook off the rainwater and stepped inside.
His eyes landed on Rosana, huddled on the ground with her head bowed low.
"......Lady Rosana."
Kael called to her, his voice cracked.
Rosana lifted her head from between her knees.
The blue eyes revealed through the strands of fallen black hair wavered violently.
They were eyes he had once despised without reservation.
Moisture quickly welled up in those eyes, and then they trembled.
"Ka—Kael......! It's really Kael......."
Rosana did not seem to know what she was saying.
Her exhausted face was shadowed dark all the way beneath her eyes.
Kael let out a hollow laugh.
"You said you'd be fine. You said I could leave and trust you."
"......Of course. Look. I-I'm alive, aren't I? Pretty trustworthy, right?"
Even with her face drained deathly pale, she still managed to run her mouth.
Rosana barely got to her feet. She forced strength into her trembling legs and just managed to hold herself upright.
"What about Lillia? Is she okay? She wasn't hurt badly, was she?"
Looking like that, and she was asking after someone else.
Kael slowly swept his gaze over Rosana once more.
Not only was she a mess, soaked with water and filth, but her fair face was smeared with tears and snot.
The traces of how much she had cried, of how she had trembled in fear, remained plain to see.
And yet her blue eyes were still full of light.
"Ha."
It seemed that, with things having come to this, he was no longer in his right mind either.
Even as he watched her sniffle and wipe away her tears, the first thing he wanted to do was hold her.
* * *
It was only after I died and opened my eyes again that I realized I had transmigrated into <Salvation from the Apocalypse>.
"You will join the expedition as the representative of House Ardena. Consider it an honor that you can represent Ardena."
I was in an antique room where furniture of ebony wood created a heavy atmosphere.
A suffocating pressure bore down on me, so intense that I could barely breathe.
Beyond the desk sat a middle-aged man, and beside him stood a row of other men.
Every one of them was staring at me as though watching a monkey in a cage.
Ardena.
Rosana Ardena.
The original owner's memories crashed over me like a wave and swallowed me whole.
Rosana Ardena's memories slowly settled into my head.
Rosana was the troublesome villainess character from <Salvation from the Apocalypse>.
A woman with a cursed mouth and a bizarre ability to invite danger upon herself. The novel described countless innocent people as having been sacrificed because of her.
You know those characters in movies, right? The ones who act selfish, get everyone else killed, and then whine that they're the most miserable of all?
That's me.
In the end, she becomes monster feed and meets a gruesome death.
No, it's bad enough that the body I transmigrated into belongs to the troublesome villainess. The bigger problem is that this place is, of all things, the world of <Salvation from the Apocalypse>.
Is this insane or what?
Why, when I transmigrate, is it not into a romance comedy as sweet and fluffy as cotton candy, but into an apocalyptic tearjerker from the very start......?
On top of that, looking through the tattered, threadbare memories I had now, there was a reason Rosana had become a villainess.
Rosana was a person who had no choice but to live that way.
As the daughter of the ducal House Ardena, she should have grown up loved.
But reality was different.
She was always the first one cast aside in the family, a nuisance.
Her older brother, a promising heir, and the charming youngest daughter.
Between the two of them, Rosana was always the scapegoat.
Because she was prickly, sensitive, and rebellious, she had long since fallen out of her father's favor.
So no one ever tried to shield Rosana.
Bad things were always Rosana's share.
Blame, too, always fell on her.
The memories the novel had not been able to fully contain were slowly filling my head.
In the end, Rosana was the one made to join an expedition where she would have to risk her life.
Insane.......
The Duke of Ardena clearly regarded his own daughter's life as worth less than a fly's.
According to the novel, Rosana's body could not even wield a sword. No, could she even run properly?
I couldn't feel a single muscle. What was holding up this scrawny body didn't seem to be muscle, but spite and venom.
With a body like this, I'm supposed to join an expedition that fights monsters and recovers a holy relic?
If that isn't a death sentence, what is?
The Male Lead Went Crazy for the Troublesome Villainess
Urineun Ije Namiya — Full-Length Novel
Author
: Urineun Ije Namiya
Publisher
: Kwon Taewan, Woo Cheonje
E-book Publication Date
: 2026-09-05
List Price per Episode
: 100 won (Episodes 1-5 provided free)
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