A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 185
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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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A gaze scrutinizing my expression.
Rough, callused palms contrasting with the softness of his nose bridge.
That distinctive scent of Praha’s skin—perceptible only when pressed this close.
If we kiss for too long, my lips really do swell.
This is far too stimulating for morning. Let’s talk about something else.
“Please build a train station in Sodom.”
Smack, smack—I blocked Praha’s face with my hand as he kept bumping his lips against the corners of my mouth.
With his lips pressed against my palm, Praha blinked and spoke within seconds.
“A train station… you say?”
“Yes.”
Bringing up work in the middle of this—isn’t that cruel?
But… if we stopped working just because we’re in a relationship, the Empire would collapse!
Work must be done!
I ran my fingers through Praha’s damp, disheveled hair—the kind that would dry into a mess if left as is—and continued.
“You know I’m developing that place into a tourist city, right? But the accessibility is terrible.”
If it were a truly captivating city, people would come despite multiple transfers, but unfortunately my territory hasn’t reached that level yet.
“I know it’s not large enough for a proper station, but if you could build one nearby, I’ll operate shuttle carriages or something to make it work. And please create a Portal connecting to the Capital.”
Of course, I’m aware that Portals are only installed in major cities.
“I’m not saying anyone should be able to come and go freely—only for certified tourists…”
While I spoke, Praha just kept blinking.
I squeezed both his cheeks, his eyes still unfocused, and rambled on alone.
“People need easy access first, or they won’t even consider visiting. If you install the Portal, I’ll pay all profits—minus operating costs—as taxes. It’s not a bad proposal. Because.”
I thrust forward the proposal I’d spent days carefully preparing.
It had been beside us, but I’d crumpled it when I just lay down on top of it.
Praha, his shirt half-undone and pressed against me, awkwardly propped himself up and accepted the proposal.
He flipped through to the final page with genuine seriousness.
Then he laughs.
“We were clearly in the middle of a grooming ceremony.”
“Huh?”
“This is a meeting.”
“Ha ha.”
He’s right.
“So you hate it?”
I looked up with a slight smile, wondering if he disliked that I suddenly brought up work.
When our eyes met, Praha carefully folded the proposal and set it on the table.
“No.”
“Mm.”
“I like it very much.”
His voice dropped lower.
“I like you too, Praha—wait, no, stop! That tickles!”
I found myself laughing as I embraced Praha, who was pressing closer.
Our eyes met mid-laugh.
“….”
“….”
I turned my head away and gently bit my lip as his lips sought mine again.
“….”
“….”
“Your shirt is making me itch….”
“Should I take it off?”
“No! No!”
I had to get dressed! This was the time for putting clothes on, after all!
With our lips still pressed together, I reached out and buttoned his shirt for him. Neatly.
I could distinctly feel the corners of his mouth curving upward against mine, which made me bristle slightly before quickly subsiding….
‘The attendants must think we’ve died in here.’
Just as that thought crossed my mind.
Praha pulled my hand to his cheek and spoke.
“There’s something I want to ask as well.”
“What is it?”
“Are you truly certain?”
“About what?”
“Your family… them.”
“Ah.”
Praha didn’t finish his sentence, but I understood.
He was asking if it was really alright to leave my family behind in the Southern Region.
Whether I hadn’t been hurt by them—a family that wasn’t really a family, only thinking of how to use me.
It seemed the conversation Cyprus and I had yesterday had been weighing on him.
“It’s fine. Even without a family, I have friends and colleagues. And.”
“And?”
“Now Praha is my new family.”
At those words, spoken almost as a joke, Praha flinched even more noticeably than before.
“…That’s right. I am your family, your lover, and your pet.”
“What? Your pet?”
Huh? His lips descended onto my eyelids as I stared up at him.
Twice on each eye, twice on each cheek, then my nose tip, my chin….
“Dogs don’t get kissed like this….”
“This dog does.”
“We’re going to be late….”
Even as I glanced at the clock, I yielded to him.
That morning, Praha nearly arrived late to the conference.
And around midday, I received Kimon as my Guard Knight—limping along with a vivid bruise darkening his shin.
(Note: Kimon is a married man.)
* * *
“Oh, that’s right. I’ve been troubled by something.”
“What troubles you, sir?”
“Whether I should change the name of my Territory.”
“The name?”
“Considering recognition, it might be better to leave it as is… but it’s become famous as the city where zombies appeared, after all.”
Yet Sodom’s image is so tarnished that I feel I should change it while I have the chance.
“What do you think?”
In the afternoon Office.
At my question seeking his opinion, Praha furrowed his brow.
With those puffy lips and eyes narrowed like that, he looked like a character from a storybook. Adorable.
“If you’ve become famous as the zombie city, wouldn’t changing the name confuse the people?”
“You’re right, aren’t you?”
Though he’d likely already figured it out, Praha, now Emperor, had disclosed the zombie catastrophe to the Empire’s citizens.
An explanation was necessary for the suddenly vanished gods and divine power, and ultimately, he’d judged it better to record it in history for posterity’s benefit rather than keep it hushed.
That’s how I was able to become a hero who saved the Empire.
Without anyone knowing, I couldn’t receive such praise as a hero.
“Right. Since we’re going to market it as the zombie city anyway, changing the name would be ridiculous.”
“Indeed.”
“Then it seems best to keep the name as it is.”
It’s an unsettling name, but I’ll do well and change what it means through my actions.
“Thank you for your input.”
I smiled contentedly and blew a kiss across the desk toward Praha.
It was a thoughtless gesture—his puffy lips were simply too endearing.
And as I immediately buried my face back in the documents, I realized rather late that the room had fallen silent.
“…?”
After a long moment of such quiet, I lifted my head to check.
My eyes met with Praha’s, who was staring intently at me.
“….”
“….”
“What is it?”
“…Your lips appear swollen, sir.”
“Yes, well….”
They were like that earlier, after all.
“Your lips are swollen too, Praha.”
“Yes.”
Praha simply affirmed and rested his chin on his hand.
If you have something to say, say it. That’s what his gaze seemed to convey—nothing more.
And then, like a sigh, he murmured something.
“Starting next year, what if we established a midday grooming ceremony as well?”
“….”
“And an evening grooming ceremony too.”
“We’d end up doing nothing but grooming all day long…?”
“That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“It’s terrible.”
Stop spouting nonsense. Get your head in the game and work. I scolded him as one might a misbehaving puppy.
“Finish quickly so we can have dinner together.”
The moment I made the subtle suggestion, he buried his nose in the documents.
While Dazling glared at me with disapproving eyes, Kimon, who had been standing beside me, widened his eyes in shock and looked back and forth between me and Praha.
That’s right, surprising, isn’t it?
A lot has changed in the time you’ve been dead and gone.
‘Do well. I’m the true power of this Palace now.’
I chuckled to myself and buried my own nose in the documents.
To have dinner together, we couldn’t afford to rest for even a minute from now on.
That’s the only way we could have dinner!
‘When the imperial family is busy and exhausted, the people prosper….’
I have Empire citizens like rabbits that I need to feed and care for.
So how exactly do I plan to revitalize the Territory?
I’ll tell you now.
Former office worker Yusara’s city revitalization project.
In my past life, I was neither a president nor a mayor of Seoul, just nothing at all.
My only experience managing anything was a one-day bar at a university festival and tycoon games!
How to breathe new life into a city despite the Territory residents mired in hedonism and excess with not a shred of sincerity, crumbling infrastructure destroyed by zombies and an Elephant, depleted finances, and the notorious reputation as a city of indulgence—overcoming all these adverse conditions.
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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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