A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 48

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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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The past.
The teenage years of three people.
When Yusara still harbored feelings for Cyprus.
That day, snow fell heavily in the depths of winter.
In weather so cold it froze even tears, neither the Imperial forces nor their enemies could survive.
When winter arrived, both sides observed an unspoken agreement to cease their war of attrition and consolidate their forces.
Praha and Cyprus had recently returned to the Capital as winter set in.
And the moment news of Cyprus’s return reached her ears, there was one who came rushing first.
“Cyprus!”
“Yusara.”
Morning.
At an hour that barely adhered to propriety—far too early for a noble girl to venture out.
Yusara, her cheeks flushed crimson from the cold, pushed through snow that buried her ankles and knocked upon the doors of the Grand Duke’s Residence.
The girl, guided into the reception room, ignored Praha, who sat reading in the same space, and spoke only to Cyprus, the one she favored.
“I’ve been waiting!”
Spring, summer, and autumn dragged on far too long.
“I’ve come to love winter now. It’s the season you return.”
Half-melted snowflakes dripped steadily from her hair and gloved hands as she spoke her heart so openly.
Even drenched like a drowned mouse, she smiled brilliantly.
Praha, catching a glimpse of her, thought to himself.
‘She didn’t even bring a maid.’
“Cyprus, did you receive my letters?”
“No. Mail doesn’t reach the Northern Front.”
‘A lie.’
I saw unopened letters from you being used as kindling in your quarters.
Unlike Yusara, Praha had harbored no intention of visiting Cyprus this morning.
He had merely stayed late the previous evening reviewing the war situation together, and the accumulated snow had prevented his departure—now he regarded the two of them with an awkward expression, his gaze shifting between them.
“I see. Then I’ll send even more! At least one will get through.”
‘No matter how many you send, Cyprus won’t read them.’
“While you were gone, I….”
“Mm.”
Cyprus’s expression remained serene as he observed Yusara trailing after him.
“So I….”
Chatter, chatter.
What had transpired in the Capital over the past three seasons—which streets had welcomed new shops, how many traitors had been executed in the plaza.
Cyprus gently interrupted the unceasing stream of words from Yusara.
“Yusara.”
“Yes!”
“I’m sorry, but I have an urgent letter I need to send. Would you wait here for a moment?”
“A letter?”
“It’s a letter I received in summer, but I haven’t written a reply yet.”
“Oh, sure!”
“Right. Praha will keep you company in the meantime.”
“Sure!”
Just moments ago, Cyprus had said letters don’t reach the Northern Front.
Now he was leaving to write a reply?
Yet Yusara nodded at Cyprus’s unfailingly kind and gentle demeanor.
Only Praha, suddenly left alone with Yusara, stiffened his expression in bewilderment.
“Then.”
Cyprus departed.
Yusara, who until then hadn’t removed her gloves and hat, finally surrendered her coat to the servant’s hands.
“It’s cold….”
She murmured, moving toward the fireplace.
The cheerful chatter that had filled her mouth moments before now fell silent.
“….”
“….”
Silence settled over the drawing room.
Praha, seated by the window frame, quietly lifted his eyes, watching for a moment as water dripped from Yusara’s dark hair and slowly dried by the hearth—
then lowered his gaze back to his book.
“….”
“….”
Yusara didn’t speak to Praha.
Praha didn’t speak to Yusara.
Between the boy and girl who exchanged not a single word, only the crackling of burning logs echoed.
Ten minutes passed. Twenty. Thirty.
Three hours.
The sun climbed to its warmest position, the snow had nearly melted, and Praha prepared to return to the Palace—
yet Cyprus still hadn’t returned.
“….”
“….”
Yusara, facing the fireplace, didn’t rise.
The moisture that had dampened her hair had long since evaporated. Her cheeks flushed warmly from the heat, visibly rosy.
“The weather is cold, Your Highness.”
The Imperial Palace Attendant wrapping a scarf around him, Praha asked quietly.
“Where is Cyprus?”
“The Grand Duke has gone out. He asked me to tell you that he’ll see you at the Palace tomorrow, Your Highness.”
“…I understand.”
Yusara must have clearly heard what the Attendant said.
Yet she stubbornly kept her back turned, her gaze fixed only on the fireplace flames.
Her face flushed crimson, beads of perspiration forming on her brow.
As if I hadn’t heard a thing.
“Then.”
I had nothing to say in response, no clever words to offer.
Praha merely bowed his head and turned to leave the drawing room, but at the last moment, he spun back around.
“My lady.”
It was an impulse.
He wasn’t good with words.
But to leave that hunched back alone and walk away—that stubborn silhouette was simply too….
“Cyprus is not a good man.”
“….”
He stared at Yusara, who didn’t respond, before turning to leave.
“I know.”
The answer came from her still-turned back.
“I know. Cyprus is not a good man.”
“….”
“But he’s the man I love.”
“….”
“That’s what matters most to me.”
Separate from whether someone is objectively a good person—the man I love.
That’s what matters most to me….
In the carriage returning to the Imperial Palace, Praha turned those words over in his mind the entire way.
* * *
Two winters passed after that.
The voices of Praha and Cyprus, which had been noticeably unsteady enough for the generals to tease them about, grew deeper.
Their frames, which had been gangly and unstable like young fawns with only their limbs growing long, began to settle into solid, sturdy forms.
This memory took place at the Imperial Palace’s New Year’s Banquet.
For the Empire, locked in prolonged war, winter was the height of the social season—when noble officers who had been deployed to the front lines returned home.
Moreover, that year was when rumors spread throughout society that “the Grand Duke has finally rejected the lady.”
It was a time when gossip columns competed to publish accounts of the humiliation Yusara had suffered.
“At last we’ll get to see the lady’s shamefaced expression.”
“I’m dying to know what sort of face she’ll wear when she appears.”
Even those who, during the harsh season, would have chosen a plush sofa and mulled wine over a party, stirred their heavy frames to attend the banquet just to see the lady’s face.
“If I could only attend one party, I’d choose the Imperial Palace’s New Year’s Banquet.”
“So would I. Both of the people we’re hoping to see will be attending that banquet, won’t they?”
“This will be the first time the lady has faced the Grand Duke in public since that day, yes?”
How absurd—taking such interest in the romantic rejection of a mere teenage girl. These people had nothing better to do.
Though Praha himself was still in his teens, he thought this way.
‘There’s no need to hurt someone whose feelings are already wounded.’
Even if the entire world flocked to gawk at the lady, Praha had decided he would stay away.
So it was absolutely not by his own will that he witnessed this scene.
‘You can’t tell anyone what you just saw. Understood?’
‘….’
‘Understood?!’
That fateful New Year’s banquet.
Praha, exhausted the moment he saw people, had slipped away early.
He’d been alone in a guest room one floor above the Banquet Hall, reading a migratory bird encyclopedia.
Hidden behind the curtains, lest the attendants find him.
Which meant encountering the Crown Prince here was entirely unintentional.
“I absolutely won’t cry. Not at all!”
The Crown Prince who had been smiling right up until leaving the Banquet Hall.
Suddenly burst through the door and crouched down.
Praha nearly dropped the book he was holding.
“Absolutely… not!”
Yet tears streamed down the Crown Prince’s cheeks, contradicting his words.
He clenched his teeth to keep from making a sound.
‘….’
Watching Yusara cry so hard both cheeks were soaked.
Praha behind the curtain found himself uncertain when to leave, trapped in awkwardness.
‘I’ll just stay hidden.’
He decided.
He’d remain concealed until Yusara left, then slip out afterward.
With that resolve, he folded his already-grown frame—far larger than most adult men—into an uncomfortable crouch.
But then.
A Noble Lady who had followed Yusara (Praha, even now as an adult, never learned her name) opened the closed door.
‘…!’
The eyes of the Crown Prince wiping tears with the back of his hand met the gleeful smile of the Noble Lady.
“My goodness, Your Highness…! Are you crying right now?”
“You…!”
Yusara swiftly grabbed the Noble Lady’s wrist and pulled her into the room, locking the door.
“Hmph.”
The door is locked. But can you lock your own mouth as well?
So go ahead and try, the Noble Lady’s lips curled upward.
And Praha witnessed it.
Yusara using ‘that ability’.
“You can’t tell anyone what you just saw.”
It was the moment Yusara first awakened her hypnotic magic.
‘…!’
The Noble Lady’s lips trembled under the spell before forcibly sealing shut.
Making only muffled sounds, the Noble Lady’s expression was so bizarre that all three of them understood it was magic.
And who had cast that magic.
Wee-wee-wee—
The Imperial Palace’s security alarm, triggered by the detection of magic, began wailing loudly.
“Miss, what did you just do to me…?”
What Yusara, using this ability for the first time, didn’t know was this:
This magic wasn’t permanent.
Once the ability’s time limit expired, the Noble Lady would be free to leave and spread word of the scene she’d just witnessed.
Of course, that ‘scene’ also included the strange magic Yusara had cast on me.
Wee-wee-wee—
“Who goes there!”
The sound of Imperial Knights rushing from a distance reached my ears.
Before me: a Noble Lady grinning cruelly. Behind me: a door about to burst open with Knights.
Yusara, drained of all color.
‘What do I do.’
Praha deliberated, but his body was already rising and stepping forward without his own awareness.
The door swung open!
“What’s the matter…! Your Highness?”
“It’s nothing. I made a mistake.”
Praha, emerging from behind the curtain, calmly handled the Imperial Knights who had rushed in.
Soon, when only three people remained in the room.
Praha spoke to the two girls, who were shocked at the existence of another person.
“I would appreciate it if everything the Noble Lady experienced here remained a secret.”
More precisely, to the Noble Lady standing before Yusara.
“Y-yes?”
“It wouldn’t be good for the Noble Lady either if it became known that you followed the Crown Prince after he left the Banquet Hall.”
The noble girl had actually followed Yusara, not Praha, but he spoke as though he didn’t know that.
“Don’t tell anyone. Then I won’t pursue the matter of you secretly following me either.”
“B-but Your Highness. You saw it yourself. The magic….”
“The alarm went off due to my mistake.”
“That’s…!”
“I’m the type to make many mistakes.”
With an expressionless face no different from usual, Praha threatened her.
Not to tell a soul about what happened in this place for the rest of her life.
“Otherwise, I myself don’t know what rumors I might spread about the Noble Lady.”
It took less than five minutes for the Noble Lady’s face to flush crimson before she bolted from the room.
Only the two of us remained in the room.
“….”
“….”
A sigh.
“I told you I’m not a good man.”
Though there was much else I could have said, what came from Praha’s lips was precisely that.
At those words, Yusara looked up at Praha.
Their eyes met.
Praha thought, ‘This is the first time she’s ever looked at me with such intensity.’
For some reason, I had no desire to look away, so we held each other’s gaze for a long moment.
Yusara spoke.
“Your Highness saved me.”
“….”
“Why did you? When you don’t even like me.”
“It seemed like the right thing to do.”
“You’re not saying you don’t dislike me?”
“….”
Because I do dislike you.
Yusara stared intently at Praha, who met her gaze with stubborn silence.
“Your Highness.”
“Yes.”
“If that Noble Lady hadn’t come in, you would have stayed hidden until I left, wouldn’t you?”
“…Yes.”
I cannot lie.
At Praha’s affirmative nod, Yusara fell silent.
A smile slowly bloomed across her tear-stained face.
“You’re not a good man….”
Two winters ago, in the parlor of the Grand Duke’s Residence, Yusara remembered the conversation they had shared.
Suddenly, Yusara asked.
“Then what about Your Highness?”
Are you a good man? Someone worthy of my love?
To that question, Praha had answered thus.
[What the three attendees of the New Year’s Banquet cared about most]
Yusara: I need to shine the brightest here today.
Praha: When should I slip away so it looks natural?
Cyprus: ♩ ♪♬(Lost in thought)

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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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