I Plotted The World Destruction With The Male Lead - Chapter 1

She felt betrayed, but it wasn’t something to faint over. A man as ambitious and greedy as him would never be satisfied with a mere C-rank Guide.

This was the same man who had kept Eleanor by his side for years but hadn’t even kissed her.

Because she was a C-rank Guide.

He believed she wasn’t his equal, whispering sweet words while never progressing to a deeper relationship.

So he could discard her anytime.

Or, when the time came, he planned to force Eleanor into a union with his rival in the East, Duke Van Balzac Granmire.

Though Eleanor was an adopted daughter, she was still a duchess from a noble house. If she were to bear a child, it would be something he couldn’t ignore.

That way, he could eliminate Van Balzac Granmire and secure the empire’s only A-rank Guide for himself.

That A-rank Guide was none other than Charlotte Enrique.

An A-rank Guide and the fiancée of Carlisle Jabez, the Grand Duke of the West.

For Eleanor, who had been guiding Carlisle for years as his fiancée, it was a devastating blow.

Even though she had anticipated it, anger and fury surged within her.

But Eleanor wasn’t the only one enraged. The Duke of Armore, who had adopted her with the intent of making her empress and Jabez’s fiancée, exploded in outrage.

“How did this happen, Eleanor?! You knew, didn’t you?!”

She turned to answer him, but a slap struck her face. The Duke’s fury was uncontrollable, as though he could no longer restrain himself.

Eleanor collapsed to the floor, her lip torn from the force. He raised his fist to strike her again, but the nearby servants intervened.

Regardless of the reality, Eleanor outwardly carried the title of the Duke of Armore’s eldest daughter. Striking her would harm his reputation.

“You must become the Empress if we are to have our Elena as the Emperor’s consort! What will you do about this?!”

Charlotte, who had become Carlisle’s fiancée, was the daughter of a marquis. As the child of an influential noble family, Charlotte had no reason to approve of a duchess’s daughter with no guiding abilities as the Emperor’s consort.

The Duke of Armore had only pretended to care for Eleanor while secretly planning to elevate his own daughter, Elena, to the role of imperial consort and ensure the imperial succession through her.

Eleanor could only press her throbbing cheek and stifle a bitter sigh.

“Jabez… that despicable man! He dared to entrust me with such filthy work. Why did he order the extermination of the Themise family?”

At the mention of the Themise family, Eleanor’s head snapped up. The Duke, realizing his slip, looked uneasy for a moment but quickly masked it with an expression that said, What is there to fear now?

“Exterminate the Themise family? What have you done to my family?”

At Eleanor’s question, the Duke of Armore sneered at her with a face twisted in rage.

“It was the Emperor’s command! He ordered your past to be cleaned up to make your status flawless for the Empress position!”

The thought came to her then: This is different from the original story.

The Hawke family, who sold her, a C-rank Guide, to the Duke of Armore and then became the Barony of Themise, had not been killed in the original story.

Something had changed.

What is it? What am I even thinking?

Her mind, swirling with confusion, suddenly opened to memories of a world entirely different from this one. Eleanor remembered her past life, as well as the plot of the original novel in which this world’s story was written.

And then she blacked out.

In the darkness, Eleanor contemplated the end of the novel. It was a story doomed to a sad ending.

The female lead is me… Eleanor Hawke. And the male lead is…

Van Balzac Granmire.

The Duke of the East, who had been framed by Carlisle and trapped in the imperial underground prison. Originally, Charlotte had been his fiancée.

In the novel, Eleanor descends to the underground prison where Van was confined, freed him, and tried to escape the empire with him.

Though Eleanor and Van seemed destined for one another, with an extraordinarily high compatibility rate, Eleanor was only a C-rank Guide. As such, Van couldn’t fully utilize his abilities.

The two lived as fugitives, constantly on the run, until Van was eventually killed in a battle against Carlisle. In front of Carlisle’s eyes, Eleanor ended her own life.

The moment she recalled this, Eleanor lost consciousness.

*

When Eleanor came to, the sky outside had gone completely dark. Although it was just a pantry, it had a small window that allowed her to see the darkness outside.

Raising her upper body from the cold floor, Eleanor could guess what had happened to her.

The Duke of Armore must have shouted something like, “Get rid of her where no one can see!” and the servants of the household had likely tossed her into this nearby room.

As she glanced at the cabinet filled with dishes, Eleanor got to her feet. She had only one thought in her mind.

Carlisle.

By now, he had likely heard the news from the Duke of Armore’s estate. Even so, she imagined him enjoying his newfound status as emperor without a trace of guilt or remorse.

She had seen this coming. Despite ascending to the throne, Carlisle had never summoned her to the imperial palace.

The reason was simple: she was the adopted daughter of the Duke of Armore.

While she was disguised as the daughter of a minor noble family, in truth, the Barony of Themise never existed. Carlisle’s claims to the Duke about her fabricated background had probably been nothing more than a stalling tactic.

And because of that trivial reason, Eleanor’s family had been slaughtered.

Because they were commoners.

Eleanor opened the door and stepped out of the pantry. The mansion was quiet, save for the faint sound of a woman weeping.

It was likely the Duke and Duchess’s real daughter, Elena, crying. The Duke and Duchess were probably standing by her side, trying to comfort her.

Fools.

Carlisle was not a man to be underestimated. Even if Elena had succeeded Eleanor as empress, there was no chance he would have allowed her to bear his child.

Eleanor ascended the stairs and entered her room. Surprisingly, it remained untouched. No doubt the Duke and Duchess planned to evict her or sell her off to another royal family once she had outlived her usefulness. For now, though, everything remained as it was.

Perhaps Carlisle himself wasn’t sure what to do with her. Greedy as he was, he couldn’t decide her fate yet.

Education and experience had opened Eleanor’s eyes. Just moments ago, Carlisle had been the center of her world, someone she loved deeply. But now, he felt utterly insignificant.

Eleanor, who now possessed memories of her past life, was no longer the same person.

In her past life, she had been a modern woman—someone who neither trusted easily nor fell in love quickly. While she cherished her family, trusting them was an entirely separate matter. That was why Eleanor now felt foolish for having once placed her complete faith in Carlisle.

She began gathering the belongings she needed from her room.

Though Carlisle had never offered his body to her, he had always been eager to grant most of her requests.

It was a common trait among royals who had Guides. While they looked down on Guides based on their status, they would still go to great lengths to win their favor.

Only Guides could cleanse the “filth” of royalty.

The filth—poison—was the consequence of being “half-gods.” It was said that royals bore a curse for daring to wield the power of gods while having human blood.

And only Guides had the ability to neutralize that poison.

In the empire, Guides were exceedingly rare. At present, only two were alive: Charlotte, Carlisle’s fiancée, and Eleanor herself.

Most royals didn’t live past the age of twenty, and that was precisely why the Duke of Armore had adopted Eleanor and even granted her family noble titles. At the time, it wasn’t yet known that Charlotte was a Guide, so everyone assumed Eleanor would become empress.

That was all in the past.

For reasons unknown, the Duke of Armore chose not to back the emperor’s nephew, Duke Granmire of the East. Instead, he aligned himself with Carlisle Jabez, the Grand Duke of the West.

As soon as Eleanor became the Duke of Armore’s adopted daughter, she was engaged to Carlisle. Of course, the fact that she was a Guide was kept a strict secret.

If the truth had come to light, the emperor would have snatched Eleanor from Carlisle and paired her with his nephew, Duke Granmire.

Eleanor spent the next six years moving between the Duke of Armore’s mansion and Carlisle’s estate, often staying for days at a time at Carlisle’s request to fulfill her role as his Guide.

For six long years, she stayed by his side, guiding him. Carlisle, with his strikingly handsome looks, never treated Eleanor poorly, even though he knew she was of common birth. It was only natural that a young and naive Eleanor would fall for him.

Though she wasn’t a fool, love had clouded her judgment, making her overlook any suspicions about him.

Love? What a pathetic, useless thing!

And what had those six years of devotion led to? In the original story, Eleanor helped the male lead, Van, escape and fled with him—only to meet a tragic end by taking her own life.

In the novel, Carlisle had been stunned when he saw Eleanor’s corpse. He, who had once been haunted by the terror of not receiving proper guidance, was someone who could never be satisfied with just one Guide.

Even though Eleanor had betrayed him and fled, Carlisle had planned to capture her and keep her by his side. Charlotte, the one who was supposed to bear his children, might die during childbirth, so he needed a backup Guide.

However, as he cradled Eleanor’s lifeless body, Carlisle finally admitted to himself that those excuses were just lies. The truth was simple: he had loved Eleanor.

While receiving her guidance, Carlisle had been careful not to fall in love with her. Despite yearning for her intensely, he hadn’t even kissed her. It was all because he feared what would happen if a royal like himself became emotionally attached to a Guide.

Royals could imprint on Guides, but Guides could not imprint on royals. Guides weren’t of divine blood.
They were merely seen as proof of compatibility with demigods.

After returning to the imperial palace, Carlisle embraced Charlotte, who warmly welcomed him. He vowed to forget Eleanor through her. Since Charlotte was also a Guide, he believed that forming a deeper bond with her would make him emotionally dependent on her instead.

And that… was where the novel ended.

An epilogue depicted Carlisle still trapped in misery, haunted by his choices, but that wasn’t what Eleanor wanted.

Am I supposed to be satisfied knowing he’ll think of me occasionally and wallow in unhappiness? Ha!

She loathed this world. Waking up one day to find herself the protagonist of a novel had initially seemed intriguing, even exciting. But how was she supposed to accept such a wretched ending?

Eleanor couldn’t imagine herself falling in love with Van, the male lead. After all, she had only seen him a handful of times.

Carlisle had always been meticulous about keeping Eleanor away from other royals, even stationing a personal guard in the Duke of Armore’s mansion to monitor her. After becoming emperor, however, he had withdrawn even that guard.

Everything you wanted… I’ll destroy it all.

With her memories of both her past life and the novel’s plot now fully intact, Eleanor knew exactly what she wanted.

She wanted the empire’s complete destruction.

The destruction of this world.

And she intended to achieve it with her own hands.

T/N: I suddenly obsessed with Guideverse >.< Maybe I will translate another 2 or 3 novels in the same genre. Is it a genre? I don’t know. Hewhew~