A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 68

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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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“I’ll go alone to negotiate with Marquis Prome.”
“Why is that?”
“A cornered rat will bite the cat, after all.”
Crunch.
I licked the sugar dusting my lips.
We’d bought pastries that resembled churros from the village and were heading back to Promae Castle, each of us holding one in our mouth.
When I’d stood drooling outside the bakery during their closing sale, Tangerine had bought them for me.
‘You want that, don’t you, my lady?’
‘How did you know?’
‘Because I want to eat it too!’
If you want something, you should eat it! Tangerine had declared this with such enthusiasm before bursting through the bakery door.
Since Tangerine only had large-denomination bills that could buy the entire shop, I’d pretend not to notice that Praha had paid instead…
‘Let’s just say Tangerine bought it with Praha’s money.’
I continued speaking while brushing away the falling sugar.
“Once the Marquis realizes that both Highnesses already know about his tax evasion, he’ll think everything is lost.”
“Then he might act in a self-destructive manner.”
“…You’re right. A cornered man will do anything.”
“Yes. Normally we wouldn’t care either way, but that’s not what we want right now, is it?”
Our current goal isn’t to deliver divine justice to a corrupt lord.
It’s to quickly and efficiently deal with the zombies first.
“We can remember the Marquis’s crimes and hold him accountable after this is over. For that to happen, both Highnesses must pretend they know nothing about this matter.”
Ah, it’s too sweet. I can’t eat anymore.
Deep-fried and rolled in sugar with cinnamon sprinkled on top—even half of it is too much.
“My lady, are you finished eating?”
“Yes. Now I want to drink cream coffee. The kind where you stir the cream a thousand times until it’s thick and fluffy, piled high on top.”
“Can’t you have it when we return?”
“All my maids will have left by then, and I’d feel bad calling them back just for that.”
I wished a fairy would appear and give me cream coffee.
As I muttered this, still awkwardly holding the half-eaten pastry, Praha approached and took it from my hand.
He finished it in two bites, then crumpled the wrapper and tossed it into a trash bin.
The surroundings suddenly fell silent.
I was taken aback too.
‘I was eating that… Why would you…?’
Even my own mother won’t eat what I’ve left behind.
While everyone else just rolled their eyes, Praha’s expression remained completely unfazed.
He didn’t even seem aware of what he’d just done.
Calmly, Praha spoke.
“This time we were fortunate enough to hear one person’s circumstances and save them.”
Cyprus picked up the conversation, his expression suggesting he was suppressing a smile.
“True. There are probably countless people in this country in situations like Smoothie’s. How do we save them all?”
“…Indeed. A suggestion box installation?”
“My lady, what is a suggestion box?”
“Well.”
I explained this and that.
“You certainly know many ingenious systems, my lady.”
“Yes, well. In any case, first we need to bring those noble politicians to their senses.”
“Let’s make an example of Marquis Prome this time and give him a thorough beating.”
“Yes! Let’s hang him in the Capital square and stone him!”
“Tangerine, you can kill a person with a single stone…. Isn’t that just saying we should kill him?”
“Exactly!”
As we chatted about this and that, the Lord’s castle came into view ahead.
“Anyway, let’s say I discovered the Lord’s tax evasion while wandering about alone, as I do enjoy digging up such matters.”
“Do you think the Baron will believe it?”
“He’ll believe it if I say I came to negotiate alone because I wanted to monopolize the credit.”
“Then we’ll return and prepare to climb the mountain again tomorrow morning!”
“My lady, do your best!”
After finishing our conspiracy, I parted ways with the group.
“Wait.”
Praha stopped me as I was about to enter.
“Why, Your Highness?”
“Once you finish your conversation with the Baron, could we meet briefly in the Central Courtyard?”
“Of course. I should report to Your Highness how things went.”
“That’s one reason….”
“One reason?”
“Never mind.”
“What is it? Why did you stop mid-sentence?”
I narrowed my eyes and pressed Praha for answers. He kept his lips sealed and simply shook his head obediently.
What was that about?
“Understood. I’ll see you later.”
And I entered the Lord’s castle confidently, alone.
The two guards standing watch at the Castle Gate widened their eyes as they saw me striding forward.
“…My lady?”
“That’s right, it’s me, the lady.”
☆My grand entrance☆
What happened next proceeded roughly like this.
I made a scene.
“Marquis Prome, come out!”
You know that thing that often appears in dramas.
Pushing past the protesting staff and storming in to flip the company upside down.
‘I’ve always wanted to do something like this!’
I hurled whatever came to hand, smashing it to pieces as I made a beeline for the Lord’s Private Chamber.
The Local Lord, already in bed, bolted upright in sheer panic.
“Y-Your Highness?!”
Jingle. Jingle.
‘This man even sleeps with a bundle of keys hanging from his waist.’
“Y-Your Highness. What on earth is the meaning of this….”
I lifted my chin arrogantly at the stammering Local Lord.
I repeated the exact words I’d spoken at the Castle Gate earlier.
“That’s right. I am the Empire’s one and only princess.”
Normally he was so eager to brush me aside, but the moment I invoked rank to crush him, he crumbled instantly.
At my unreasonable demand, tea and dessert were hastily prepared in the Lord’s Private Chamber.
I seated the Local Lord before me in his nightclothes and sleeping cap, then sipped my tea leisurely and ate cake.
‘He can’t even blink without permission. So this is the thrill of playing the villainess.’
After I’d drawn out the moment long enough for him to grow thoroughly anxious.
“Your Highness, surely this isn’t because I refused to allow your companions to stay in Promé….”
“That’s not why I’m doing this. Your refusal means nothing to me.”
Once you hear what I have to say, you’ll have no choice but to retract that refusal anyway.
And indeed, that’s exactly what happened.
The corruption in Prome Territory came pouring out of my mouth in torrents.
Tax evasion, embezzlement, and as a bonus, workplace harassment.
With each word I spoke, the Local Lord’s face drained of color in real time.
“Y-you can’t make such accusations without evidence…!”
“Evidence? Of course I have it.”
….
“But here’s the thing. I certainly have evidence, but do you think the Emperor will need evidence once he hears this story?”
You know the Emperor’s temperament as well as I do.
You saw it during the divorce trial, didn’t you?
“Once His Majesty learns that you evaded taxes through illicit means, I suspect he’ll….”
I placed the apple cinnamon macaron I’d been eating on top of my head.
I pointed at it with my finger and continued.
“He’ll place an apple just like this on your son’s head and have you shoot it with an arrow from this~~~much distance away, won’t he?”
How’s your archery, by the way?
Confident?
“Of course, I don’t want to be that cruel either. I have just one demand. Allow our party to achieve what we came to Promé for and leave in peace.”
If you grant me that, I’ll bury your crimes (for now).
Just then, the door to the Lord’s Private Chamber opened and the Lady of Prome entered.
She’d clearly just woken up, wearing only her nightclothes and a robe. In her hands was a plate piled high with cinnamon rolls.
The Lady of Prome offered them to me with an obsequious smile.
“Fresh-baked cinnamon rolls. I thought you might be hungry since the conversation has gone on so long.”
Glancing at the plate, I saw an enormous cinnamon roll the size of my face, wafting a savory aroma.
It was that cinnamon roll Praha had raved about before, insisting I simply had to try it.
The Baron’s wife serving refreshments personally—how unusual.
She must have been quite desperate.
“No matter how important the conversation, filling your stomach comes first, doesn’t it? Please, do have a taste.”
I wasn’t hungry.
I shook my head firmly.
“It’s fine. I’d rather not. I want to hear your answer to my proposal first.”
“My lady, please don’t be like that….”
“Choose. Do we go to the Emperor as things stand now? Or will you permit us to explore the mountain?”
“My lady….”
The Local Lord whined, his mouth drooping pathetically.
He dragged his feet, refusing to give me an answer.
Beside him, the Lady of Prome continued nervously licking her lips as she pressed the cinnamon roll upon me.
Something felt wrong.
‘This shouldn’t be such a difficult choice.’
Execution or hunting—they were deliberating between those?
The atmosphere felt distinctly off.
My mind, lost in thought, let words tumble out unbidden.
“…The reason you don’t want us going to the mountain isn’t simply about the hunting ground, is it?”
“….”
“Are you doing something else up there on the mountain?”
I rose abruptly from my seat.
‘I made a mistake.’
I shouldn’t have revealed that I’d caught on.
I needed to leave.
But the Lady of Prome was faster.
Thud.
“Husband!”
“Do something, Baron! Move the lady at once!”
The Lady of Prome, who had hidden a poker beneath her gown, struck my head and trampled my fallen back.
Crash.
The plate holding the cinnamon roll clattered to the floor.
“Baron, hurry!”
“B-but!”
“No ‘buts’! If what we’ve done is exposed, not only we but our children will face execution!”
Thwack. Thwack.
The Lady of Prome, her reason abandoned, rained blows upon me while urging her husband onward.
The poker that had just struck the back of my head now battered my shoulders and back indiscriminately.
Curling into a ball against the pain, I thought bitterly.
‘That was a mistake.’
My failure was not accounting for the Marquis’s wife.
Once divorced on paper and stripped of all rights to the territory, she should have become like a kite with a severed string.
Yet this woman still reigns here as the Lady of Prome.
I should have anticipated that she would be far superior to her husband.
Smack!
“Baron! Don’t just stand there like an idiot!”
“But my lady! The princess said she would keep the tax evasion matter secret!”
“Foolish nonsense! These people are about to comb through Mount Prome thoroughly! And if they happen to discover that we’re hunting humans there, if they catch on to what we’re doing! We’re all as good as dead!”
What? Hunting humans?
Smack!
“How do we even know if that talk about corpses was anything but empty words meant to probe us after they’d already figured everything out!”
Smack!
“We’re finished either way! Whether we’re caught for human trafficking or for kidnapping the princess!”
“Yes, yes! I understand! I understand!”
“Since Their Highnesses mentioned their schedule is tight, they won’t waste time searching for some missing princess….”
If we just quickly sell the princess off to some foreign land and claim she ran away with a man, no one would ever know….
The Lady of Prome pulled the tablecloth away and threw it over my body.
When I resisted, she kicked my head with her foot.
I bit down hard on the sofa, pretending to endure the pain.
‘I saw this on TV once—the FBI does this when they’re kidnapped. I forget why, but!’
Still, it’s better than doing nothing!
“Ugh….”
Blood trickles down my forehead. Soon my body is shoved into what feels like a chest.
“Ahhh!”
The Lady of Prome brutally bends my resisting fingers backward, slams the lid shut, and locks it from outside.
‘I let my guard down….’
I should have been more careful.
‘But who could have known they were hunting humans in this remote territory.’
Still, you all let your guard down too.
My companions will come looking for me when I disappear.
Definitely.
I’m 100% certain.
[(Temporary ?Safe? Zone) Promae Castle]
– Yusara (Alive)
– Praha, Cyprus, Yujein, Tangerine (???)

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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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