A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 29

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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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Yellow exterior walls and mint-colored awnings. The aroma of brewing coffee.
People who seemed to have stepped straight out of a nineteenth-century painting, standing at the bar sipping espresso.
A man towering conspicuously among them.
Slightly tousled blonde hair, pale skin, sleeves rolled up on his shirt.
It was the Grand Duke.
The Grand Duke, who had been leaning against the bar conversing with the barista, walked toward me with a bewildered expression.
“What brings you to this place, my lady?”
“Well….”
I’m currently investigating what kind of world this actually is.
I was equally flustered, alternating my gaze between the shop he’d just exited and his hair gleaming in the light.
I hadn’t expected him to be here.
The world is falling apart… and he has time for coffee?
‘A last supper?’
“To think I’d meet you here. What a remarkable coincidence.”
“Indeed.”
“Heh.”
The Grand Duke let out a hollow laugh, as though meeting me here was some extraordinary occurrence.
He didn’t seem to be in a particularly foul mood.
‘Thank goodness. If I’d encountered one more person picking a fight today, I might have exploded.’
That aside—was this man really wandering about alone without an escort?
“Is it really acceptable for you to be out alone like this? It’s dangerous.”
“It’s not.”
“It’s not acceptable, so why….”
“Just because.”
The Grand Duke chuckled softly, admitting he’d done it anyway despite knowing it wasn’t allowed.
I was at a loss for words.
‘Did he hit his head or something?’
I folded my arms and scrutinized the man before me.
Despite having clearly gone without sleep, his beauty remained unblemished.
A purple tie that few could carry off accentuated his flawless complexion and delicate eyes.
The Grand Duke tilted his head, noticing my observation.
“I borrowed Praha’s clothes. Do they suit me?”
He continued giggling at something he found amusing.
“What would I know about that?”
“You’re quite interested in fashion, my lady. Doesn’t the Department Store in the Capital owe its survival to you?”
“Me?”
Perhaps the noblewoman Yusara did.
But the salaryman Yusara?
I wear the same clothes four days a week. I insist it’s a Steve Jobs concept.
The Grand Duke continued laughing as I stood before him yawning and stretching.
“To think I’d run into a noblewoman here. Ha.”
“…It seems you’re quite delighted to have met me. You can barely contain your laughter.”
We live in the same city—it’s not impossible to cross paths.
I pointed at the Grand Duke’s arm with indifference.
One of his arms was wrapped in bandages and secured in a splint—I had no idea when he’d injured it.
“What happened to your arm?”
It was perfectly fine when we returned to the Imperial Palace, wasn’t it?
“Ah, this.”
The Grand Duke lifted his arm to show me, responding as though it were nothing serious.
“I injured it while trying to catch a small bird that was falling.”
“Ugh.”
“…Did my words just make you nauseous?”
“Yes… it sounds rather unpleasant.”
Why would he catch a bird? Was he some kind of fool?
“You certainly have boundless energy.”
The moment I shot back at him, he simply laughed it off.
After applying the magical healing potion across my body and admiring my now-flawless skin, I turned to the Grand Duke with a question.
“Why don’t you use that expensive treatment—the one with the pearl—to heal yourself?”
“Hmm?”
“The one you sent me. I’m truly grateful for it, but if you gave it to me and left yourself without any, then…”
I meant to suggest he take it back since he surely had plenty at home. The Grand Duke closed one eye and smiled.
“Surely not. I don’t love you that much.”
“I see…”
“This is merely.”
“Merely?”
“A temporary measure to appear pitiable to the old fools at the Imperial Palace.”
“I understand.”
Do as you wish.
I cut off my attention to the Grand Duke and turned my focus toward the interior of the shop.
I’d been hearing the crackling sound of coffee beans roasting from inside for a while now.
This aroma. This sound.
So this shop’s business was none other than.
‘A Cafe!’
I found it—my potion shop…
I quickly made my way to the counter and got in line.
The moment I approached, the people waiting to order parted like a receding tide, which made me slightly anxious (wondering if villainess characters were perhaps forbidden from drinking coffee).
“I’ll have a caramel milk.”
The Grand Duke, who had squeezed in beside me, dispelled that anxiety.
“With cream on top, and I’d prefer goat’s milk for the base.”
I replied curtly.
“I don’t have any money.”
“That’s unfortunate. I’ll pay for the lady’s drink as well.”
“Your Highness, why would you do that?”
We’re not the sort of people who buy each other coffee.
I’m not this body’s owner, but I know well enough that you and the body’s owner don’t get along.
Yet the Grand Duke merely grinned widely.
The Grand Duke spoke.
“You’re aware that the Department Store, which the lady is responsible for a single penny of the total sales, is my property, yes? It’s flattery toward my most valued customer.”
“If the lady is responsible for even a penny of the sales, then you must understand the extent of my wealth. Let’s each pay for our own drinks.”
“But you just said you had no money?”
“I meant I have no money to spend on Your Highness.”
“However, I truly wish to buy the lady a coffee… If I can’t, I feel my heart will shatter.”
“Your heart will shatter because you can’t spend money?”
I stared at him in disbelief.
He was genuinely drooping his shoulders as if it were the truth.
‘So after possessing this zombie body, the best I can manage is arguing at a cafe counter about who pays for coffee… This is no different from a weekday afternoon at Yeouido.’
A weekday afternoon at Yeouido, no different at all.
‘Fine. Let’s save money. Maybe my younger brother took all the wealth and I’m just a pauper now.’
“Yes, well… if you insist, then.”
“Thank you.”
The Grand Duke giggled like someone who genuinely wanted to buy me coffee.
“By the way, lady, what will you have?”
“I’ll have an iced americano….”
Ah, they don’t have americano here, do they?
“A strong cold coffee without syrup or milk.”
“Cold… coffee?”
“Yes, why?”
“I just thought your taste was rather unusual.”
The Grand Duke added, “This is the first time I’ve seen someone drink coffee cold.”
Before I could even retort.
“Your Highness!”
The Cafe Owner, recognizing the Grand Duke, stepped out from behind the counter and bowed so deeply his waist nearly touched his knees.
‘What is this caste system?’
I felt momentarily uncomfortable watching the elderly Cafe Owner show such deference to the young Grand Duke.
“I have no change.”
But when I saw the Grand Duke hand over a tip worth twenty-five times the coffee price simply because he had no change, I understood the owner’s attitude.
‘It wasn’t a caste system at all. It was capitalism.’
The Grand Duke returned to me, skillfully carrying the tray of drinks in one arm, arriving almost simultaneously with the order.
“Shall we sit for a moment? Coffee tastes best when enjoyed with leisure.”
“Yes, well… sure.”
There was nowhere else to go anyway.
“I ordered ordinary beverages for you all—that should be fine, yes?”
Emphasizing the word “ordinary,” the Grand Duke asked the Maid and Knights standing behind me.
“Your Highness!”
“Your Highness!”
The Maid and Knights, suddenly receiving the Grand Duke’s gift, bowed their heads in surprise.
I seated them at the adjacent table, overwhelmed with gratitude, and sat across from the Grand Duke.
“Your Highness, you didn’t need to go this far just to preserve my dignity in front of others.”
I twirled the straw—made of some peculiar material—as I spoke, and the Grand Duke across from me tilted his head.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you didn’t need to buy me coffee, which I dislike, just to save face for me in front of others.”
The Grand Duke’s expression hardened as he listened to my explanation.
“I don’t dislike that lady.”
“Yes, yes.”
He doesn’t dislike her, sure.
“In any case, thank you. I’ll drink it well.”
How long had it been since I’d had coffee?
-Yusara’s Grand Duke Benevolence Poem-
Grand: The Grand Duke bought it
Free: Free coffee.
‘Even if heaven and earth were remade, coffee’s aroma remains the same….’
I bit the straw with my lips and took a long, deep sip.
“Ugh!”
I was horrified.
What is this? Why is it so lukewarm!
The Grand Duke laughed like a madman when he saw my contorted expression.
“There’s no one here who wants cold coffee. They probably just put a few ice cubes in hot coffee.”
“That’s not what I wanted….”
“Would you like some of my milk instead?”
“Never mind!”
No wonder the ice melted so quickly!
I stirred the already-melted ice with my straw and looked at the Grand Duke.
“But why did you come here anyway? There’s milk at the Imperial Palace too, isn’t there?”
“I have nothing to do.”
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
“I’m serious.”
“….”
“Yujein went to the Temple to prove her abilities, Praha is busy, Dazling was pushed into the treatment room, and Mascarpone was taken away by the Marquis and his wife.”
“Ah.”
“After that, with my Territory being far away, I found myself with nothing to do, so I came out for a walk to clear my thoughts.”
“Shouldn’t Your Highness visit your Territory? Aren’t you obligated to check on it?”
Other nobles prioritize their own well-being over their Territories, so I wondered if you might be the same.
The Grand Duke’s smile grew even brighter at my question.
He was smiling, yet the muscles in his jaw tensed visibly.
His neck flushed crimson, the veins standing out against his pale skin.
“Actually, I was planning to take a Portal to my Territory the moment I finished my report to His Majesty at dawn.”
“But?”
“The old fools wouldn’t let me. They said that if I opened the Portal to my Territory and there happened to be corpses on the other side, what would happen if they spilled into the Imperial Palace?”
“Ah….”
“Without authorization, I’m forced to remain in the Capital.”
The Grand Duke laughed bitterly and took a sip of his caramel milk.
I had nothing to say to that.
“When will you be able to leave?”
“Who knows. The matter will probably come up during tomorrow’s emergency meeting.”
“Ah. That emergency meeting.”
“Yes. That emergency meeting.”
We exchanged a silent look of understanding.
‘So there’s another person dissatisfied with the meeting schedule.’
The day after tomorrow, no less.
This would never happen in Korea.
‘If this were my country, it’d be: “Damn it, why are zombies walking around? I have to go to work tomorrow! Crash, bang, boom—whatever, just throw some bureaucrats at it and call it solved. Normal operations resume tomorrow.”‘
Then the politicians would come out and blame each other—the ruling party blaming the opposition, the opposition blaming the ruling party—and the discussion would end.
But eventually, it would get resolved quickly.
But here!
‘Two whole days just to prepare for a meeting? This is infuriating!’
“As you likely already know, Portals exist only in a few major cities. In case of enemy invasion, a Portal is the most effective means to reach the Capital in an instant.”
“I see. (Though I didn’t know that.)”
“Which means Portals are installed only in cities that are nearly impossible to occupy, and fortunately, my Territory is one of them.”
“I see.”
Of course. He’s royalty too, with a higher succession rank than the Troublemaker.
“But corpses could appear anywhere, couldn’t they? Isn’t there a possibility they could cross over from the other side, as those old fools suggested?”
“No. Portals only open in one direction at a time.”
“Then why won’t they let you go?”
“They say it’s just a precaution.”
“….”
“I even asked those old fools about it—didn’t they care about the people of my Territory? Do you know what they said?”
“What did they say?”
“That I’m too naive. Ha ha ha!”
“Ugh….”
It seems that dismissing a young person’s sense of justice as naïveté is universal, no matter where you go.
“For now, I’ll wait until tomorrow’s meeting. If you try to stop me from visiting my Territory then, I’ll kill everyone.”
‘Kill me! Send me away!’ If you struggle and thrash about, I’ll let you go. Hahahaha! The Grand Duke laughed.
“If I kill someone and end up in prison, you’ll come visit me, won’t you?”
“Well… I’ll think about it if I’m still here by then.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’m evacuating.”
“Really?”
“No.”
The Maid and Knights at the adjacent table watched me conversing so casually with the Grand Duke, their eyes darting with curiosity.
I ignored their wide-eyed stares and simply stirred my coffee absently.
‘I suppose it does look strange to them.’
Me, sitting across from the Grand Duke who usually couldn’t wait to devour me, and the Grand Duke buying me coffee.
They must be wondering when we became so close.
‘This is what they call camaraderie between those who’ve clawed their way through hell together.’
The Maid and Knights’ astonishment reached its peak with the Grand Duke’s next action.
“Ahahaha, this is really funny….”
The Grand Duke, still laughing, brought his lips close to my ear.
“Oh my…!”
The startled Maid spilled her coffee.
Regardless of that.
At the Grand Duke’s whispered words, I froze completely.
[(Temporary Safe Zone) Capital District 3 Cafe]
– Yusara, Grand Duke (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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