A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 31

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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 returned to the Imperial Palace, his destination the Crown Prince’s Palace. He entered the office without bothering to ask permission.
Praha, watching Cyprus stride in alone, asked a question.
“You didn’t take an escort?”
“What for.”
“If another corpse turns up, I won’t be able to stop you with that injured arm of yours.”
“I wasn’t planning to stop it—I was planning to run. Being alone makes that easier.”
“What if an assassin approaches?”
“You’re the one suffering from assassination threats, Your Highness the Crown Prince. Not me.”
“Knowing you’d say that, I assigned one anyway.”
“Assigned what?”
“An escort.”
“Then why did you ask?!”
“Did you meet the Grand Duke’s daughter?”
What was with this sudden conversational turn?
Cyprus let out a soft laugh.
It seemed the last question was the real purpose after all.
“If you assigned an escort, you’d already know whether I met her or not.”
….
“Did you send me out to meet Yusara?”
“Did you meet her?”
“I did.”
Cyprus held up the cup in his hand, mentioning how they’d shared a beverage and eaten pastries together.
Praha fell silent upon seeing the green cup from the Capital’s most famous Coffee House. His handsome cheeks looked rough.
Now that he thought about it, after all that commotion yesterday, neither he nor Cyprus had managed to sleep. Not a wink.
“Aren’t you tired, Praha?”
“I’m tired.”
If he was tired, he should go take a nap somewhere. Why was he stubbornly staying here instead?
Cyprus smiled and tilted his head.
A few hours earlier.
The emergency meeting he’d called upon returning from the Villa had adjourned around midday.
They’d accomplished nothing.
‘Let’s hold an emergency meeting the day after tomorrow!’
That was all.
They’d kept people sitting for hours just to decide that one thing. Efficiency at its finest.
Cyprus, angered at having his request to inspect his Territory denied, sprawled lengthwise across a Conference Room chair, still wearing his dust-covered shirt.
An Attendant approached Cyprus hesitantly, his arm shielding his eyes.
“Your Grace, shall I escort you to the Dining Room?”
“What I need isn’t a meal—it’s authorization to use the Portal to my Territory.”
“I apologize….”
“You have nothing to apologize for. Don’t worry about it and go on your way.”
It was then that Praha strode forward before Cyprus, who was stretching while lying down.
He grabbed the massive figure sprawled across the chair by the arm and hauled him upright without ceremony.
“Ow! I’m a patient, Praha!”
“You’re leaving.”
“Why are you suddenly kicking me out?”
“Go outside the Palace right now.”
“But why so suddenly?! I need to contact my Mansion first to have clothes brought over….”
“Wear mine.”
“Ha.”
What kind of Crown Prince lends his clothes to a Grand Duke?
“Just telling me to leave like that….”
Where to?
I knew he was the type to only say what he wanted, but this was infuriating.
Regardless, Praha had already gotten me on my feet.
He dragged me along like a dog tugging at his pants leg, washed me, and dressed me.
“Now go.”
“…Am I really going?”
“Yes.”
“Where? And more importantly, why?”
“….”
“Could you at least answer me…?”
Meanwhile, several Imperial Knights took turns reporting something to Praha.
After listening carefully to the final report, Praha spoke to me.
“Go to Helena Street, District 4.”
“Where on Helena Street?”
“…Just Helena Street.”
“Why?”
He gives such specific instructions but clams up the moment I ask for a reason. What am I supposed to do?
I laughed despite my slight irritation—I tended to laugh when annoyed.
“You seem pretty certain about what you want, so why don’t you go check it out yourself?”
“I can’t. I’ve summoned the generals. …Let me correct that. Go to District 3.”
“So what’s going on?!”
“Hurry.”
“Hey!”
No matter how much I pressed, I got no answers. I had no choice but to head toward District 3.
‘He told me to go, so here I am. Ugh.’
As I wandered through the bustling crowds of pedestrians, a disguised Imperial Knight slipped past and whispered.
“His Highness says to go to the Stock Exchange.”
‘What am I supposed to do with this?’
I’m exhausted to death—what is this nonsense?
Beyond irritation and into sheer bewilderment, Cyprus entered the Coffee House across from the Stock Exchange.
“Your Grace!”
A familiar Barista greeted Cyprus warmly.
“How have you been?”
“Thanks to your concern, I’ve been well. And yourself, Your Grace?”
“Oh, you know—managing.”
These people couldn’t possibly imagine that I’d spent yesterday fighting corpses.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, I turned my head.
An unexpected person stood there.
“…Yusara?”
My expression of surprise in that moment was neither acting nor exaggeration.
Behind Yusara, whose eyes had widened in shock, a disguised Imperial Knight nodded and vanished.
‘…So you wanted me to go meet Yusara, Praha?’
Hah.
What is this situation.
Watching Yusara maintain that sullen expression, I found myself laughing uncontrollably.
Yusara seemed to share the same thought, asking with suspicion written across her face.
“But why did you really come here? There’s milk at the Imperial Palace too.”
You’re right.
With corpses waking and wandering about, I’m not so scatterbrained as to leisurely come out for milk.
Praha sent me.
He went to considerable effort, mobilizing several Imperial Knights just to arrange this meeting between us.
He was worried about you, it seems.
He thought you might find some comfort in seeing me.
“Haha.”
Yusara gave me a strange look as I continued laughing.
Yet I couldn’t stop.
Praha and I were cousins and close friends.
An honest friend should have told Yusara the truth about how I came to be here—that ‘Praha was concerned about you’—but.
‘I don’t want to.’
I simply didn’t want to.
For reasons I couldn’t explain, I preferred to appear as a fool who’d crawled out from the Imperial Palace to District 3 just to buy milk, rather than mention Praha here.
So I said nothing.
“I won’t cry.”
Yusara’s tightly clenched lips, straining against tears, were exactly as they’d been in childhood.
So was her habit of tearing hot bread in half and eating it messily.
‘Does the Grand Duke still starve her.’
In any case, the sharp edge that had marked Yusara when we first met had dulled by the time she left after seeing me.
This was probably what Praha had wanted.
Then it’s settled.
The problem was.
Cyprus, emerging from his reverie, posed a question to Praha.
“But how did you know Yusara was there? And in real-time, no less.”
“….”
“You didn’t have Yusara under surveillance, did you?”
“I monitor all high-ranking nobles.”
“True. But you don’t usually track their every move in real-time like this.”
How many Knights did you assign to her?
Cyprus offered a slight jab. Praha responded with an impassive expression.
“The Grand Duke is a key figure in this incident. She could have been infected without knowing it. I simply assigned someone to watch in case symptoms appeared later.”
Praha mentioned that he’d also assigned people to Mascarpone and Yujein.
Cyprus swallowed a sip of milk from the glass in his hand and asked.
“Fine, sure. That’s all well and good, but why didn’t you go yourself? She would have preferred it if you’d gone and comforted her.”
“I told you. I summoned the generals.”
“A lie.”
“….”
“You lacked the confidence.”
“….”
“You didn’t have the confidence to console Yusara, who’s surely despondent by now, did you, Praha? You’re not close to her. You’ve never been close. You lacked the confidence, so you sent me instead.”
“…You were close, and it fell apart.”
“Still, I know Yusara better than you do.”
“Yes. That’s why I told you to go see her.”
Not because I lacked confidence, but because I thought the person she needs right now isn’t me—it’s you.
Cyprus asked.
“Why do you care so much?”
Praha did not answer that question.
Instead, he extended a single sheet of paper.
It was a document bearing the Emperor’s signature, granting permission to use the Portal to Cyprus’s Territory.
“It’s valid for four days. Return within that time.”
As if he’d said all he needed to say, Praha rose to his feet.
“Where are you going?”
“I summoned the security chiefs.”
Another lie.
Cyprus called out after Praha as he left the Office.
“Praha!”
“….”
“Are you going to tell Yusara that you sent Papri back to the Villa?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Without slowing his pace, Praha spoke.
“Do you go around telling everyone what you ate yesterday evening?”
It was his way of saying that Papri’s death wasn’t worth discussing.
“You’re always so cold about these things….”
Cyprus watched Praha disappear around the corner, a smile tugging at his lips.
Had Praha taken an interest in Yusara?
“…Yusara did seem different yesterday.”
I saw it myself.
She used to shudder at the mere sight of me.
But today?
‘There was no need for you to buy me coffee, which you dislike, simply to preserve my dignity in front of others.’
Her expression as she spoke was remarkably composed.
She didn’t seem particularly fond of me, yet she wasn’t desperate to devour me either.
She simply appeared indifferent to me.
As if I didn’t exist in her world at all.
How could that be?
Cyprus rested his chin in his hand and began methodically retracing the events from yesterday at the Villa.
Where should I even start?
Ah, this first.
‘I’m not disappointed at all.’
‘Why aren’t you disappointed?’
‘Disappointment requires some level of expectation.’
‘….’
‘I have no expectations of either of you, Your Highness.’
The expression on Yusara’s face as she said those words.
Yesterday, the only reason Cyprus had followed Yusara all the way into the Gallery was one.
To prevent her from causing trouble.
Everyone had forgotten about it afterward when corpses came pouring out, but Yusara had been humiliated in the Second Floor Corridor.
If she went inside alone and then recalled that incident in the dead-end Gallery, screaming or throwing a tantrum would be problematic.
So he followed her.
Whether she was crying alone inside or her pride was further wounded by being caught—he didn’t care. As long as she didn’t cause a scene.
But when she outright said she wasn’t disappointed, it irritated me.
‘Later, if the man I love and the Grand Duke both fall into the water, I’ll save the man I love first. You do the same. Act as you wish and harbor no resentment.’
Why won’t you resent me?
The moment I emerge after saving someone else, you should glare at me from the water with betrayal in your eyes.
If I don’t save you.
Then who will you save?
But as things stood now, Yusara would probably—
‘Save someone else instead of me? I suppose I have no choice.’ She’d swim out on her own strength.
Or if someone tried to rescue her, she’d refuse with ‘Save the weaker one first!’
“Yeah, that could actually happen.”
Cyprus laughed again. He’d been laughing continuously since earlier.
‘I thought no one knew Yusara as well as I did.’
Even that simple, transparent Yusara had secrets I didn’t know about.
That fact stung.
Whether my feelings were hurt or my pride was wounded.
Either way, I was irritated.
The Attendants who had entered to tidy the room bowed deeply to Cyprus, who stood alone chuckling softly while holding the permit Praha had handed him.
“Ah, sorry. I’ll leave now.”
The engagement between Praha and Yusara had fallen through because of Praha’s refusal.
But if things continued as they were.
If things kept going this way.
Who could say?
‘It’s fine. Yusara liked Praha anyway. She’s looking at him now with the exact same eyes she used to look at me back then.’
I should bless them if they end up together. That’s what friends do.
So why do I keep feeling this way?
Cyprus smiled while contorting his face.
“This is amusing….”
Yeah. It was amusing.
[(Temporary Safe Zone) Imperial Palace]
– Praha, Cyprus (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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