A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 155

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Cyprus de Mer carried the blood of the Imperial Family.
His mother was of royal descent, and she had survived the tumultuous era by openly supporting the current Emperor, Brocol, through wars and purges.
His father was a relatively ordinary man.
A man who lived in the shadow of his exceptional wife, forever jealous of her superiority.
Yet even such a father possessed one redeeming quality.
It was his appearance.
‘A pleasure to make your acquaintance, the Grand Duke’s Consort.’
‘You are as beautiful as I have heard, Grand Duke. But has the Grand Duke’s wife not come with you?’
Twenty years prior.
An Imperial New Year’s banquet that Cyprus’s mother could not attend, occupied with matters concerning her Territory.
It was there that Cyprus’s Father and Yusara’s Mother met.
Cyprus’s Father was a man who lived well thanks to his wife’s fortune, and spent his leisure hours in consistent infidelity.
Yusara’s Mother was a woman who had recently lost her husband to an affair and had fallen into despair.
She was a woman wounded by men, yet ready to surrender entirely if another man offered even the slightest comfort.
It took the two of them less than thirty minutes to find themselves alone together in a secluded corner of the Imperial Palace.
‘My husband abandoned me…. Perhaps it is because I am no longer beautiful. Yes, it is all my fault.’
‘You are beautiful.’
‘I… am?’
‘You are beautiful. Grand Duke, or rather…. my lark.’
It was clumsy dialogue that would have drawn ridicule from others, yet it mattered not.
For they were sincere.
Moreover, the Grand Duke’s Consort’s compelling eyes—those beautiful green eyes that Cyprus and his sister Kiriel had inherited—were more than sufficient to compensate for his inadequate words.
‘Look into my eyes. See yourself reflected there. Are you not beautiful?’
‘Ah….’
‘I love you.’
Thus did Cyprus’s Father and Yusara’s Mother fall in love.
As is often the case with those who commit infidelity, they were not particularly careful.
Their letters were frequently discovered in careless places, and their pretexts for secret meetings were flimsy.
It did not take long for the inhabitants of the Grand Duke’s Castle to learn of the Grand Duke’s Consort’s infidelity—a common occurrence, but this time on an unprecedented scale.
‘There are limits to insulting Mother!’
‘Sister.’
‘Mother is the Grand Duke. The ruler of this Southern Region. If Father had any regard for Mother’s honor, how could he make a mockery of her like this?’
‘Does Mother… know?’
‘How could she not!’
‘…I cannot understand it, sister. The Grand Duke suffered because of her husband’s infidelity, so how could our father inflict the same pain upon her?’
‘Do not try to understand, Cyprus! Do not attempt to comprehend the thoughts of such people.’
Cyprus de Mer had a sister.
She was the heir of the de Mer Family, blessed with her father’s radiant beauty and her mother’s brilliance.
She was also a girl who had greatly shaped Cyprus’s character and values.
‘The Grand Duke is here at our Castle now? How shameless!’
‘…I saw you and Father slip into the garden alone earlier. Father was having a carriage prepared.’
‘How dare you….’
‘….’
‘Cyprus. I’m going to meet with those two people.’
‘You are?’
‘I’ll make them understand what they’re doing wrong. Infidelity is a shameful and vulgar act. How could they possibly hold their heads high before my face—born of a legitimate marriage? How could they dare?’
‘But….’
‘Mother has always devoted herself to our family, to this Southern Region. So how could Father do this to her? This is an insult and a betrayal!’
Thump. Kiriel stamped her foot.
In that moment, Cyprus felt something ominous, but he couldn’t stop his sister.
If he tried to restrain her now, it might seem like he was defending Father.
‘When I think that my eyes resemble Father’s, I want to gouge them out!’
‘Sister….’
‘Father should be ashamed. And so should the Grand Duke.’
And in that moment, Cyprus would spend the rest of his life regretting that he hadn’t stopped his sister.
‘Father!’
‘Kiriel…?’
‘Where are you going right now?’
Yusara’s Mother had come to the Southern Region under the pretense of celebrating the Grand Duke’s birthday.
Everyone in the castle viewed her with displeasure—an adulteress who had brazenly shown her face at the Grand Duke’s Castle.
The butler and Head Maid treated her with open coldness, and the maids did their utmost to be discourteous.
To the adulterous pair, who firmly believed they were in love, even such silent protests felt like some kind of obstacle course for their romance.
‘Everyone hates me!’
‘Hush. It’s alright. I’m here, aren’t I? Here, I have that apple wine you love. Won’t you have some?’
‘Feed it to me.’
‘Very well. Let’s drink together.’
Still, he felt somewhat self-conscious.
‘Let’s go to the Villa. Then we can be alone.’
‘But today is the Grand Duke’s birthday, isn’t it?’
‘It doesn’t matter. All that matters to me is you. I’ll drive the carriage myself.’
In the dead of night, thoroughly intoxicated, the two of them tried to slip away from the Grand Duke’s Castle in their carriage—only to have Kiriel, Cyprus’s sister, block their path with her bare hands.
‘Neigh!’
‘Oh my!’
‘Kiriel, step aside!’
‘I won’t! Father, you should get out of that carriage at once! Today is Mother’s birthday!’
‘I said step aside!’
‘Grand Duke! Just because you’re hiding your face doesn’t mean I won’t recognize you. Get down this instant. This is my mother’s land, and I am the rightful heir of the Southern Region. No matter who you are, you cannot be disrespectful before the master of the South.’
‘Kiriel! Aren’t you listening to me! Move!’
‘Father, aren’t you the one who isn’t listening to me? I told you to get out of that carriage!’
‘How insolent…. You refuse to obey your father’s command!’
‘Father has no authority to command me! This land’s master is not Father—it’s Mother. Only Mother can give me orders.’
Kiriel’s bold declaration struck a decisive blow to the intoxicated Cyprus’s Father’s inferiority complex.
‘You dare…!’
Already drunk enough to drive a carriage with impaired judgment, Cyprus’s Father trembled with rage—humiliated before the woman he loved.
At that moment, Cyprus had woken from his solitary bed, worried about his sister, and followed her barefoot in only his slippers.
And he witnessed it.
‘Fine then, you won’t move, will you?’
His father, teeth clenched, drove the carriage forward with brutal force….
Pushing his sister aside as he passed.
‘Sister!’
That was the last moment Kiriel’s legs were whole.
Cyprus’s Father, having struck down his own daughter, crashed into a massive tree not far beyond the castle gates.
He died instantly at the scene, while only Yusara’s Mother—the Grand Duke—miraculously survived and fled back to the Capital.
Cyprus’s Mother, whose heart had long since rotted away, fell ill from that incident onward and eventually passed.
‘Cyprus, you must inherit Mother’s title.’
‘Don’t say such absurd things, Sister. The master of the Southern Region is you.’
‘You know as well as I do. Our Southern Region requires a master who can travel freely and inspect the Territory in person. One without freedom of movement cannot rule the Southern Region.’
‘….’
‘You are the Grand Duke. Cyprus de Mer.’
Kiriel’s final act as acting Local Lord was to bury this incident so thoroughly that even the Emperor remained ignorant, all for the honor of the Southern Region.
On the day Cyprus inherited the title of Grand Duke, he closed every Temple of the God of Indulgence in the Southern Region.
The god of the unfaithful—the god his father had believed in.
‘Burn the temples and exile the priests. And.’
‘Yes.’
‘Smash the heads off every statue of the god we collect, bury the heads in the pig pens, and bury the rest beneath the Western Plaza. So that passersby can trample them.’
And immediately, I was cursed.
* * *
“It was a curse that burned my entire body. But at the same time, I received a blessing.”
“A blessing from the God of Marriage, I presume.”
“Exactly. You said the Grand Duke believes in the same god, didn’t you?”
“…Yes.”
Brazenly so.
“Because the God of Marriage, who protects matrimonial bonds, took my side, the curse was counterbalanced, and I’ve managed to survive until now. But….”
“By openly entering the domain of the God of Indulgence, it became useless.”
“Right.”
Cyprus closed his eyes as if breathless.
The ring-shaped mark carved into his chest had darkened further.
“Yusara. I hated you. Our family was shattered after that incident… but you knew nothing of it.”
“….”
“Every time I saw you running, walking, dancing, I thought of my sister, who must spend her entire life confined to a wheelchair.”
“….”
“Every time I look at you, I’ve wanted to ask: do you know what your mother did to our family?”
“….”
“Whenever you spoke of your affection for me, I wanted to tell you to your face—don’t even dream of it. You’ll never love a woman who carries the blood of the Grand Duke. And yet….”
“….”
“In the end, it seems I’m just my father’s son, unable to escape what he was.”
“…So that’s why you wouldn’t say anything?”
“Yes. I didn’t want you to see what kind of person I really am.”
“….”
“I placed your mother’s sins upon you, and every time I looked at you, I saw her superimposed over your face. And I wanted to make you suffer—if not your mother, then you instead.”
“You wanted to hurt me….”
“Yes. It felt like revenge for my sister, who can’t take a single step beyond the Grand Duke’s Castle.”
Cyprus opened his eyes again.
Those green eyes looked up at me with an expression of resignation.
“There. I’ve told you everything now. What will you say to me?”
[Temple Rooftop]
-Yusara, Praha, Cyprus, Yujein (Alive)

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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