The Male Lead Has Gone Mad Over the Troublesome Villainess - Chapter 35

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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 Male Lead Has Gone Mad Over the Villainess — Episode 035
“Our town was originally a waystation on the Salt Route. Salt and spices traveling north from the South passed through here before being sold further on. Thanks to that, our marketplace flourished quite well. The name Saltveil itself comes from that.”
The manager gazed around the warehouse with a bitter expression.
“But everything changed when the monsters appeared. This stock here is the last shipment that arrived around that time. Before long, the northern route closed first, and when we lost places to sell to, it simply remained trapped in the warehouse. The merchant caravans coming up from the South stopped coming long ago.”
“So that’s why it’s piled up like this.”
The manager laughed self-mockingly.
“You can’t chew salt and eat it. We’re not going to dissolve pepper in water and drink it either. Everyone here is starving while sitting on top of all this.”
Something clicked sharply into place in my mind.
Wait.
What is salt used for again? Curing meat, isn’t it?
“Is there anywhere around here to hunt?”
“There are mountains aplenty. Deer, wild boar — no one goes into them these days, so if anything, they’ve increased. But why would you—”
“So why don’t you hunt?”
A bitter shadow crossed the manager’s face.
“Since the monsters appeared, even the hunters won’t venture into the mountains. After several people didn’t come back, no one’s willing to take the risk.”
A path seemed to open before my eyes.
The townspeople can’t enter the mountains. But we have armed knights and soldiers.
With salt and spices, we could make excellent jerky.
If the Expedition brings in game and the townspeople process the meat? Then using Saltveil’s excess salt and spices, we could make superb preserved provisions.
The Expedition gains much-needed food, and Saltveil can finally use the salt and spices that were becoming a burden. The surplus jerky could even be stockpiled as the town’s winter stores.
A mental calculator began spinning rapidly in my head.
* * *
I was rushing toward the house where Kael was staying when I heard a voice from a distance.
“Why can’t I go inside?”
It was Mirel. She was raising her voice at two sentries standing before the house.
“I am the daughter of this land’s Lord. Surely I should be allowed to present something directly to His Highness! What right do you have to stop me?”
I clicked my tongue softly and slowed my pace. Kael emerged from inside, his expression cool as if worn down by the commotion.
“What’s going on.”
“Your Highness!”
Mirel’s voice changed instantly.
“Please take me with the Expedition too.”
“……Hah.”
I’d be exhausted too if I were Kael. He shook his head slightly, but Mirel’s voice turned pointed.
“I want to go with you, Your Highness.”
“What use could a young lady possibly be to our Expedition? Do you even know how to handle a sword?”
“I—I can take care of you, Your Highness!”
Mirel clenched her fists and cried out. Her face had flushed crimson, though apparently she understood the meaning of shame.
Mirel blinked rapidly.
“I can treat your wounds too! That much I can do!”
Everyone else wants to avoid going, so why is she making such a fuss? Saltveil is adjacent to Gracestone’s territory, so it was exempted from this conscription.
Kael’s expression turned caustic as he smirked.
“I don’t need a young lady’s help managing my own affairs. Go home. If you persist, I’ll have to hold your father accountable.”
Kael spoke in a low voice. When Mirel met the contempt in his eyes, she burst into tears. Then she spun around and spotted me.
Mirel gritted her teeth and glared at me, redirecting the arrows of her humiliation toward me instead.
“…You’re a common-born lady? The servants said the knights mentioned it.”
“Yes.”
“Yet you seem quite unbothered by your station.”
I had things I could say, but my mind was so full of sacks of salt stacked to the ceiling that her words barely registered.
“Yes. It doesn’t bother me.”
I shrugged and replied.
She seemed to say something more behind me, but I didn’t catch it properly.
Kael, standing at the door, watched me with a slanted look. His expressionless face was as sharp as a blade, yet it didn’t frighten me in the least.
“Your Highness, I have something to tell you.”
Kael tilted his chin.
“Do you happen to hunt?”
In my previous life, I was once isolated in the mountains for several months. It was a deserted island with no sign of human presence, so my companions and I had to survive on whatever the land provided. Hunting was nearly a survival strategy.
Kael’s eyebrows twitched.
“Common-born lady, what are you saying?”
“I’m fairly good at it.”
I smiled and pointed toward the mountains with my fingertip.
“Want to wager on who catches more?”
I shrugged and added to the thought.
“The Adhesive will take some time to finish, I think.”
Resin was being boiled down with water to the right thickness and processed into Adhesive—work that was in full swing. The village women, Vanessa, and the children were all lending a hand, and the Shoes coated with Resin were already lined up drying. Which meant I had nothing to do.
“Since there’s time to spare, why not enjoy a small diversion?”
Kael let out a hollow laugh as though I’d said something preposterous. Then he rubbed his brow slowly and asked.
“What are you plotting, Rosana?”
“That is…”
“Come inside.”
I passed through the door Kael opened for me and stepped in. I caught a glimpse of Mirel from a distance, her eyes boring into me with such intensity I thought they might pierce through.
Looks like I’ve earned her enmity for good. Well, better to spar with me than with Seraphine—that’s strategy too, in its own way. I grinned at Kael. Our male and female leads should save their love for prettier things.
“…Why are you smiling like that? It’s unsettling.”
“It’s nothing, Your Highness. Ah, Lord Register—you’re here. I’ve been meaning to speak with you!”
I moved naturally inside and explained the plan to make Jerky and trade it for grain. Given that Salt and Spices here were worth roughly a third of the grain price, this was…
“…Madness…”
Register muttered without thinking and covered his mouth. Watching him, I smiled broadly. Yes, this was going to be a windfall.
* * *
Mirel knew where the Crown Prince lodged.
It was a two-story house with an intact roof, set a little apart from the center of the village. Supposedly it had once been the residence of a merchant caravan master.
‘Ugh, if only he’d stay at a fortress instead.’
Mirel clicked her fingernails together. No matter how hard she tried to approach Kael, it wasn’t easy. There were always people around him.
Mirel had always believed she wasn’t meant to rot away in this place. With her looks, she could easily establish herself in the Capital. She had resolved to become Kael’s woman.
‘Mirel, listen well to what your mother says.’
Her mother, who had died of lung disease in this countryside, had left her certain words of earnest counsel.
‘A woman’s fortune follows a man’s. I watched myself waste away unfairly in this village. You must never let that happen. You must go to the Capital and catch a man of wealth and certain standing. You can do it. You, who look like me!’
Her father and mother were different. Mirel resembled her mother. Because of it, she clashed endlessly with her father, but what did it matter? She would be leaving soon enough.
It was as Mirel was turning back after Kael’s refusal.
‘That woman.’
It was the woman she’d seen by the water that afternoon. The one covered head to toe in mud and dark blood. Had they said she was a court lady? Her appearance made it hard to believe she had the blood of a noble house. That hadn’t changed now.
When Mirel exchanged a few words with her, she smiled and passed by. Mirel thought Kael would cast her out too. How could someone looking like that possibly stand beside the Crown Prince? But when she and Kael exchanged a few words, he led her inside.
Soon the lamplight dimmed as though the wick was being trimmed, then brightened again. Beyond the window, the shadows of two figures overlapped.
The bell marking midnight rang.
The door had not opened by then.

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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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