A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 89

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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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Q. Do you prefer men with soft hands, or does it not matter to you?
‘Soft hands are nice, I suppose.’
Anything smooth is better than rough, after all.
But soft hands alone don’t make everything perfect.
Our Manager has soft hands too—they’re smaller than mine and plump, and every time I see them, I get cravings for braised pork trotters. He doesn’t do housework, you see. Yet even his hands are gentle.
Either way, the question had been posed. I was obligated to answer.
Do I prefer men with soft hands?
The carriage had fallen silent. Everyone was staring at my mouth, waiting. Feeling the sudden weight of their gazes, I asked back.
“Do I have to answer?”
Cyprus leaned in from beside me with a laugh.
“Why not? Tell us. I’m curious too.”
“It’s not really an important question.”
“Exactly because it’s not important—answer honestly.”
“It won’t help my life at all….”
“Huh? What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
While I bickered with Cyprus, Praha watched me in silence. His amber eyes gleamed strangely. He looked like he’d be deeply disappointed if I said I preferred soft hands.
‘Praha and Cyprus definitely don’t have soft hands.’
Aside from their size and attractive shape, calluses hardened their palms into rough, coarse texture, and the scars from being torn and healed during rigorous training remained etched into their grip. Even Cyprus, who maintained himself meticulously from head to toe, bore calluses along his sword hand that rivaled Praha’s.
As for Praha, who seemed unaware hand cream even existed—there was no point mentioning it.
His hands were completely different from Smoothie’s slender, delicate ones, who had wielded nothing but a pen his entire life.
‘Last time I saw him grip a hot coffee cup bare-handed without even flinching. The calluses made him immune to the heat.’
Wait, why do I know so much about how their hands feel?
“Sigh….”
I gave up. I’d just be honest.
“I prefer—”
“You prefer—?”
“Large hands. Whether they’re soft or rough doesn’t matter. I like big hands with long fingers.”
“How large must they be?”
“Hmm… large enough to wrap around my ankle with room to spare?”
At those words, everyone in the carriage looked down at their own hands.
“Yes! I pass!”
Tangerine, quick to test by grasping my ankle, threw both hands up triumphantly. Yujein, who had the smallest hands among us, looked dejected.
“Yujein isn’t a man anyway, so it’s fine.”
I offered comfort while glancing sideways at Praha. The handsome face that had looked melancholy as a dog separated from its owner had returned to its usual expressionless mask.
Praha spoke.
“My lady.”
“Yes?”
“Should you ever find yourself dining with that person, please be certain to invite me as well.”
“Ah… yes. Well, I suppose I will.”
“Absolutely.”
“…Yes.”
“Oh, then me too.”
Cyprus chimed in from beside me, and when he slyly tried to grab my ankle, I stepped on his wrist instead.
Only then did Praha let out a soft laugh.
‘Sigh.’
What was this feeling—like I’d barely managed not to disappoint an eager puppy?
* * *
“I’m absolutely sick of Local Lord’s castles.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
We arrived at another City as evening fell and decided to spend the night at an Inn.
This City naturally had its own Local Lord overseeing the region, but everyone in our party agreed that the procedure of visiting the castle, receiving a welcome, attending a banquet, and then being seen off the next day was tedious.
Naturally, we chose to stay at the largest Inn in the City.
“I wish I could give everyone their own room, but we must consider security.”
“Then perhaps Tangerine and I could share one room, and you two Highnesses could share another.”
“Yes. We’ve arranged them facing each other, so please inform us immediately if anything happens.”
“Then the day after tomorrow, we’ll take the train…”
After dinner and discussing our itinerary, Yujein and Tangerine headed upstairs first. Praha also went to that floor to change his bandages. I stayed on the ground floor under the pretense of having something to do.
‘I need to study ancient language.’
Of course, I could study in my room instead.
‘But Yujein, who’s under the impression I’m a native ancient language speaker, is on this floor…’
So I had no choice but to settle into a corner of the ground floor and diligently began learning the characters.
I still had to practice archery and physical training too.
“Why is there so much to do?”
Coaxing and consoling myself—wanting nothing more than to abandon it all and sleep—I pulled out the round chip I’d kept in my pocket.
It was something Cyprus had given me the day before we departed.
The golden chip, unmistakably meant for a Casino, had a loaf of bread and a Circus tent pattern engraved into it.
An admission token to the Casino in Sodom.
An object left behind by Promae Lord’s Son, who had murdered his mother and sister and lost his mind.
If Sodom was overrun with zombies when we arrived, this chip would be utterly useless, but if not, it could prove quite valuable.
I’ll keep it for now.
“Siiiiigh…”
“My. The earth must be sinking.”
“Your Highness.”
I wasn’t even surprised anymore.
Cyprus appeared beside me and smiled charmingly. When he looked at me with eyes seeking permission, I nodded, and he promptly sat across from me.
“Aren’t you going to your room?”
“If I go up there, all I’ll see is that bastard Praha undressing. Didn’t want to waste my eyes, so I stayed down here.”
“Hmm.”
Praha undressed. Hardly a sight worth throwing away, if I’m being honest.
Wouldn’t that be quite the spectacle?
The table at a comfortable height for me was too low for Cyprus. He nearly lifted it with his knees before stepping back slightly. He flipped through the book I’d marked with red circles and laughed.
“So you are studying after all.”
“I have to. Consistent foreign language study helps prevent dementia, you know.”
“You should have done it when you were young, like everyone else.”
“It’s remarkable that I’m doing it at all now.”
“It would have been more remarkable if you’d done it back then.”
“You didn’t come here to pick a fight, did you?”
“Of course not. I came to bring you coffee.”
With that, he slid a large mug toward me. It was an iced Americano.
After spending the entire day exhausted from riding in a carriage, the moment I saw the coffee, an overwhelming urge to gulp it down surged through me—but I forced myself to refuse.
“I’ve quit coffee.”
“Why? You were drinking two cups a day without fail.”
“I was locked in the Prison, you know? That’s where I learned just how terrifying caffeine can be.”
I’m not joking. Praha and I were trapped together in that cramped cell, and if either of us had needed to use the bathroom…
It would have been mortifying.
Taking that experience as a lesson, I decided to avoid caffeine for a while.
At least for one hundred days.
The bear goddess survived one hundred days eating only garlic and mugwort—surely I can manage one hundred days without coffee.
‘But looking at that black murky liquid right in front of me, I want it so badly!’
Get yourself together, Yusara. Are you worse than a bear?
I scolded myself and forced my eyes away from the mug.
Despite his kindness being rejected, Cyprus didn’t seem upset. Instead, he grinned widely and said to me:
“Your willpower is impressive. I brought this as a bribe because I wanted your opinion on something, but since you won’t accept it, what shall I do?”
My opinion? Cyprus wanted my opinion?
“Just tell me. As long as you don’t call me the Grand Duchess, I’ll listen to anything.”
“But I can’t call the Grand Duchess anything but the Grand Duchess…”
This is absurd.
Cyprus took a sip of the coffee I’d refused.
“Ugh. Murky swill.”
The moment the coffee touched his tongue, he grimaced and muttered. He made a show of spitting it out, then after a long pause, he suddenly spoke.
“Lately, whenever I see you, something feels strange.”
“Huh? Strange how?”
Like you can’t control your anger? You’re furious?
“My throat feels parched, and my fingertips tingle.”
“…”
Cyprus met my eyes and asked:
“Do you know why that is?”
“…”
Well, I know you’re trying to play another trick on me.
I gave a half-hearted response.
“Well, perhaps it’s because I dislike them so much?”
“One doesn’t typically find their gaze drawn repeatedly to someone they dislike, do they?”
“That’s true enough.”
“And when facing them up close like this, one’s heart races.”
“Then it’s probably just excessive dopamine.”
Go see a doctor and ask them to prescribe you some haloperidol.
I accepted his words without sincerity, scratching my shoulder absently.
Cyprus really does need to visit a hospital sometime. Why has he been pulling these pranks so often lately? As if anyone would fall for it.
“There doesn’t seem to be any physical health issues, so perhaps it’s a psychosomatic illness?”
I gathered my things haphazardly, speaking whatever came to mind.
I was finally concentrating on something, and now he comes along with his foolishness. I can’t study properly here. I’ll have to go upstairs.
Regardless of what I said, Cyprus tilted his head, absorbed in his teasing.
“This is an illness?”
“Of course it’s an illness. What else would it be?”
“If this were an emotion, what emotion would it be?”
“Your Highness knows well enough.”
“I don’t understand.”
….
“I truly don’t understand, Lady. What emotion is this?”
I pretended not to hear, tucking the book under my arm and tidying up my space.
Cyprus, who could seize me whenever he wished, made no move. Only after I gathered my books, gripped the inkwell in hand, and prepared to leave did I speak to him.
“I don’t know what’s gotten into you lately, but this isn’t amusing.”
….
“If this isn’t an illness, then it’s love—but Your Highness couldn’t possibly love me, could you?”
….
“Stop joking. I’m going upstairs.”
I was finally in the mood to study, yet he finds endless ways to interfere….
This is why environment matters so much for studying.
Mencius’s mother didn’t move three times for nothing.
Muttering complaints, I climbed to my quarters on this floor and closed the door.
“Why on earth is he like that?”
On the surface, we treat each other like the closest of friends, but in truth, Cyprus dislikes me. And Cyprus knows that I know this fact.
We simply pretend not to know while knowing all along.
So why suddenly resort to such pranks? Does he think I’ll fall for it?
Now isn’t the time to torment me with such things, is it?
“I don’t understand….”
In any case, he’s a man without a single serious bone in his body. I shook my head and carelessly scattered the books I’d brought onto the sofa. Only then did my mind settle enough to look around the room.
Yujein and Tangerine had gone upstairs first, yet there’s no one in the room.
“…Yujein? Tangerine?”
I knocked on the bathroom door attached to the room. The light was on, but when no one answered, I called out a few more times before simply opening it.
“…!”
In the center of the bathroom sat a bathtub. Within it, submerged in water that had turned a deep crimson, Yujein lay slumped with her head bowed.
[Inn, Second Floor]
– Yusara, Praha, Cyprus, Tangerine (alive)
– Yujein (…?)

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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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