Catherine

If Greg were in this room right now, he would have recognized the blonde girl's identity instantly.

Catherine Roman.

She was the fourth romanceable heroine in the original game and the daughter of the president of the Roman Chamber of Commerce—the largest and wealthiest commercial organization in the kingdom.

The title sounded glamorous, enough to make countless people envious.

However, very few were aware that Catherine's actual standing within the chamber was far from the stable, glorious image presented to the public.

She was merely an illegitimate daughter.

Her mother had quietly passed away from illness during years that were now a blur in her memory.

As for her high-and-mighty father, the president of the Roman Chamber of Commerce, he had never given her anything more than the 'Roman' surname. He never offered the attention a daughter deserved; everything she currently possessed was something she had fought for herself.

Above her were several legitimate older brothers and sisters.

They were either born of the primary wife or from more favored mistresses. They had been operating within the chamber for years, possessing deep-rooted foundations.

Unless something unexpected happened, the position of successor would never fall to an almost forgotten illegitimate daughter like her.

However, for Catherine, this was not just about fame, fortune, or status; it was about fundamental survival.

She knew better than anyone that within the Roman Chamber of Commerce—a massive, cold machine of profit—familial affection was as thin as winter ice.

Once one of her brothers or sisters finally claimed the position of successor, given their general contempt and latent hostility toward her, it was almost certain her end would not be a happy one.

In the best-case scenario, she might be stripped of everything and exiled to the borderlands.

More likely, she would quietly disappear, and the modest fortune under her name—which was still enough to make some people envious—would be naturally swallowed up by the winner.

Therefore, the struggle for the succession was not driven by ambition for her, but by the instinct for survival.

It was to live—to live decently and safely.

Through her cruel struggle for existence, Catherine had long ago seen through the cold essence of human relationships in this world: profit.

Pure, naked profit, unadulterated by any unnecessary warmth.

She had seen too much.

For the sake of a lucrative contract for the chamber, partners of many years could turn on each other in an instant, trading barbs at the negotiating table as if they wanted to devour one another.

To seize the mining rights of a vein, blood-related brothers would secretly trip each other up, spread rumors, or even resort to orchestrating 'accidents.'

Her lofty father, in his youth, had surely climbed over the shoulders of his own brothers and uncles—perhaps even staining his hands with the blood of his kin—to secure his seat as president.

In the face of sufficient profit, the image of a devoted father and filial son could instantly transform into that of mortal enemies, and lovers who swore eternal oaths could betray each other in the blink of an eye.

Warmth, morality, loyalty?

Those were merely beautiful curtains used to mask the exchange of interests, or invisible shackles used to bind the weak.

The truly powerful cared only for leverage and results.

To gain leverage for her own survival, Catherine had done many things.

Some of them, if scrutinized under the light of day, could be described as wicked or even cold-blooded.

But to her, they were merely necessary means of survival—a rational gamble within the established rules.

She never actively harmed the innocent. What she did was simply provide choices, set a price, and then wait for others to voluntarily walk into the chessboard she had laid out.

Just like the matter the maid had just reported.

Through secret channels, she had privately funded a small magic engineering workshop to develop a new type of wide-area dispersal magic conduit with unverified effects.

Theoretically, it could repel or intimidate monsters below a certain level, but its stability, range, and duration were all unknowns. It might even carry unpredictable risks.

Catherine needed experimental data. She needed someone to test it in a real dungeon environment.

However, she couldn't use the chamber's resources or her own public assets. That would expose her research project too early and draw the alertness and sabotage of her siblings.

Thus, she had carefully selected her targets: three upperclassmen from fallen noble families who had mediocre talent and were in desperate need of large sums of money to maintain their outward dignity or pay off family debts.

Through an intermediary, she contacted them under the name of a fictional exploration equipment testing company, offering an exceptionally lucrative testing commission.

The contract described the magic conduit as 'potentially effective in dispersing monsters below Level 25.' At the same time, in the inconspicuous fine print, it used cold, objective professional terminology to clearly state: the testing process involved unknown risks, including but not limited to the failure of the magic conduit, backlash, or the attraction of stronger monsters, which could result in severe injury or death for the testers.

She had not deceived them.

She provided high compensation and disclosed the risks.

The three of them had read the contract thoroughly. They understood the dangers involved.

But in the face of a massive sum of money and the desperate desire to escape their predicament, they chose to sign. They chose to take that prototype into the deep area of the first layer, a place where few people ventured.

It was a trade. A choice.

They traded potential risk for a certain amount of money that was enough to change their current lives.

Therefore, even if they truly met with misfortune in the dungeon, Catherine's heart would not produce a single drop of the unnecessary emotion called guilt.

They chose the path themselves. She hadn't held a knife to their throats to force them.

The only thing she felt a slight regret for was the loss of experimental data.

The total loss of contact meant that not a single person had successfully brought back any useful information, whether it was a success or a failure.

This forced her to find the next set of testers and start all over again, wasting more time and money. It was a hassle, but not unacceptable.

In fact, Catherine's complex, realistic, and even somewhat cold personality was one of the primary reasons Greg had repeatedly played the original game.

Compared to the traditional Galgames on the market where the heroines were either naive and kind or tsundere and cute, the female characters in this game had exceptionally vivid and... dangerous personalities and backgrounds.

Aside from the second heroine, Silvia, who still retained a relatively normal kindness and a bit of cowardice, the other heroines would reveal a heart-pounding uniqueness and danger once their emotional routes were opened and their backstories were explored.

For instance, the third heroine, Lilith Kahn, appeared on the surface to be a proud and fiery princess. But once her affection level reached a certain point and she noticed another heroine's affection surpassing hers, her hidden, almost pathological possessiveness would explode.

The game screen would suddenly turn dark and gloomy, accompanied by eerie background music.

Lilith would smile and invite the player character to the dungeon for special training, then 'accidentally' trigger an event that trapped the two of them in a sealed area. With those red eyes burning with a dangerous flame, she would whisper softly:

"This way, no one will come to disturb us anymore."