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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the ‌‌‌latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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A Corporate Slave Becomes a Villainous Nuisance in a Zombie Apocalypse
Episode 29
Yellow exterior walls with mint-green ‌‌awnings. The ‌‌‌aroma of brewing ‌‌‌‌‌‌‌coffee.
People standing ‌‌‌at the bar sipping espresso, as if they'd stepped straight out of a nineteenth-century painting.
Among them, a man who stood out with striking presence.
Slightly tousled blonde hair, pale skin, sleeves rolled up on his shirt.
It was the Grand Duke.
The Grand Duke, who had been leaning against the bar conversing with the barista, walked toward me with a bewildered expression.
"What brings you to this place, my lady?"
"Well...."
I'm currently investigating what kind of world this place has become.
I was equally ‌‌perplexed, alternating my gaze between the shop he'd just exited and his hair gleaming in the light.
I hadn't expected him to be here.
The world is falling apart... and he has time to drink coffee?
'A last supper?'
"To think I'd meet you here. What an extraordinary coincidence."
"Indeed."
"Heh."
The Grand Duke let out a hollow laugh, ‌as if meeting me here was something remarkably surprising.
He didn't seem ‌‌‌‌to be in a ‌particularly bad mood.
'Thank goodness. If I'd ‌‌encountered one more person looking for a quarrel today, I might have lost it.'
That aside—is this man really ‌‌‌wandering around alone without an escort?
"Is it really safe for you to be ‌‌out alone like this? It's dangerous."
"It's ‌‌‌not." ‌‌‌
"It's not safe, so why...."
"Just because."
Knowing it wasn't safe, he'd simply done it anyway, the Grand Duke chuckled with amusement.
It was absurd.
'Did he hit his head ‌‌‌or something?'
I crossed my arms and studied the man before me.
Despite what must have been a sleepless night, his beauty remained flawless.
A purple tie that few could carry off accentuated his unblemished complexion and delicate eyes.
The Grand Duke, noticing my scrutiny, tilted his head.
"I ‌‌borrowed Praha's clothes. Do they suit me?"
He continued to chuckle, clearly amused by something.
"How would I know."
"You're ‌‌quite particular about fashion, my lady. Didn't the department stores in the Capital practically depend on you for their livelihood?"
"Me?"
Perhaps the ‌lady Yusara did.
But the corporate slave Yusara?
Four days a week, I wear the same outfit. I insist it's a Steve Jobs concept.
The Grand Duke continued laughing at me as I yawned and ‌‌‌stretched.
"To think I'd meet a noblewoman here. Ha." ‌‌‌‌
"...It ‌‌seems you're quite delighted to have met me. You can't ‌‌seem to stop laughing."
We live in the same ‌‌city, so running into each other was possible.
I pointed at the Grand Duke's arm with indifference.
One of his arms was wrapped in bandages and secured in a splint—I wasn't sure when he'd injured it. ‌‌‌
"What happened to your arm?"
It was fine when he returned to the Imperial Palace, wasn't it?
"Ah, this."
The Grand Duke lifted his arm casually to show me, as if it were nothing.
"I injured it while trying to catch a small bird that was falling."
"Ugh."
"...Did you just feel nauseous hearing what I said?"
"Yes... it's just gross."
Why would he catch a bird? Was he Nolbu or something?
"You certainly have plenty of energy."
At my jab, he simply laughed it off.
After applying magical healing potion all over my body and smoothing out my skin, I asked ‌‌the Grand Duke a question.
"That expensive healing potion you mentioned—the one with the pearl—couldn't you use that to fix it?"
"Hmm?"
"The one you sent me. I'm truly grateful for it, but if you ran out because you shared it with me..."
I meant for him to take it back since there was plenty left at home. The Grand Duke laughed, closing one eye.
"Surely not. I don't love you that much, noblewoman."
"I see..."
"This is merely."
"Merely?"
"A temporary measure to appear pitiful to the old folks in the Imperial Palace."
"I understand."
Do as you wish.
I cut off my attention from the Grand Duke and turned my focus toward the interior of the shop.
I'd been hearing the crackling sound of coffee beans roasting from inside.
This smell. This sound.
So this shop's business was none other than.
'A Cafe!'
Found it, my potion shop...
I quickly went to the counter and got in line.
The moment I approached, I noticed the people waiting to order parting like a receding tide, which made me slightly anxious—worried that perhaps villainesses were forbidden from drinking coffee.
"I'll have a caramel latte."
The Grand Duke, slipping in beside me, dispelled that anxiety.
"Top it with cream, and goat's milk would be ideal."
I replied curtly.
"I don't have the money for that."
"What a shame. I'll cover the lady's as well."
"Why would you do that, Your Majesty?"
We weren't the sort to buy each other coffee.
I wasn't even this body's owner, but I could tell the relationship between her and the body's true master was strained. ‌‌
Yet the Grand Duke merely grinned.
The Grand Duke spoke.
"The department store where the lady accounts for a single percent of total sales is my property, you know. Consider it flattery toward my most valued customer."
"If she's responsible for even a percent of sales, then you understand the extent of my wealth, don't you? Let's each pay for our own drinks."
"But you just said you didn't have money?"
"I meant I don't have money to spend on Your Majesty."
"Still, I really do want to buy the lady a coffee... If I can't, I feel like my heart will shatter."
"Your heart will shatter because you can't spend money?"
I stared at him in disbelief.
He was genuinely drooping his shoulders as if it were true.
'Here I am, possessing a zombie apocalypse protagonist, and what am I doing? Arguing at a cafe register about who's buying whose coffee...'
It was no different from a weekday afternoon at 12:30 in Yeouido.
'Fine. Let's save money. Maybe my younger brother inherited everything and I'm just a pauper now.'
"Yes, well... if you insist, then."
"Thank you."
The Grand Duke giggled like someone who genuinely wanted to buy me coffee.
"So, lady, what will you have?"
"I'll have an iced americano..."
Oh right, they don't have americanos here.
"Strong cold coffee without syrup or milk."
"Cold... coffee?"
"Yes. Why?"
"Your taste is quite unusual."
I've never seen anyone drink coffee cold before, the Grand Duke added.
Before I could even respond.
"Your Majesty!"
The cafe owner who recognized the Grand Duke came out from behind the counter and bowed so deeply his waist nearly touched ‌‌‌‌his knees.
'What is this caste system?' ‌‌‌
An ‌‌‌elderly cafe owner showing such deference to a young Grand Duke made me uncomfortable for a moment.
"I have no small change."
Then I watched the Grand Duke hand over ‌a tip worth twenty-five times the coffee price simply because he had no small change, and I understood the owner's attitude. ‌‌‌‌
'It wasn't a caste system. It was capitalism.'
The Grand Duke returned to me, skillfully carrying the tray of drinks in one arm, arriving almost as soon as the order was placed.
"Let's sit for a moment. Coffee tastes best when you savor it leisurely."
"Yes, well... of course."
It wasn't as though I had anywhere else to be.
"I ordered ordinary beverages for you all—that should be fine, yes?"
The Grand Duke emphasized the word "ordinary" as he addressed the maid and knights standing behind me.
"Your Majesty!"
"Your Majesty!"
The maid and knights, suddenly receiving the Grand Duke's favor, bowed their heads in surprise.
After seating the grateful pair at the next table, I sat across from the Grand Duke.
"You didn't need to go this far for my ‌‌sake, Your Majesty."
I twirled the oddly-textured straw as I spoke, and the Grand Duke across from me tilted his head.
"What do ‌you mean?"
"I mean you didn't need to buy me coffee—something I dislike—just to preserve my dignity in front of others."
The Grand Duke's expression hardened as he listened to my explanation.
"I don't dislike you."
"Yes, yes."
Well, he didn't dislike me.
"In any case, thank you. ‌‌‌I'll enjoy it."
How long had it been since I'd had coffee?
-Yusara's Grand Duke ‌‌‌‌Debt Repayment Verse-
Grand: Coffee bought by the Grand Duke
Free: Free coffee.
'The scent of coffee remains unchanged, even if heaven and earth were remade...'
I bit the straw with my lips and took a long, deep sip.
"Ugh!"
I was horrified.
What is this? Why is it so lukewarm!
The Grand Duke burst ‌‌into mad laughter upon seeing my contorted expression.
"There's no one who seeks cold coffee. They probably added a few ice cubes to hot coffee."
"This isn't what I wanted..."
"Would you like some milk instead?" ‌‌
"No thanks!"
So that's why the ice melted so quickly!
I stirred the already-melted ice with my straw and looked at the Grand Duke.
"But why did you come here anyway? There's milk at the Imperial Palace too, isn't there?"
"I had ‌‌nothing to do."
"Don't talk nonsense." ‌‌
"I'm being serious."
"..."
"Yujein went to the Temple to prove her abilities, Praha is busy, Dazling was shoved into the treatment room, and Mascarpone was taken away by the Marquis and his wife."
"Ah."
"And so, with my Territory far away and nothing to occupy my time, I found myself standing alone. I came out for a walk to clear my thoughts."
"Your Majesty's Territory—shouldn't you be visiting it?"
Other nobles prioritized their own well-being over their Territories, so I was asking if he was perhaps the same.
The Grand Duke's smile grew even brighter at my question.
He ‌‌‌‌was smiling, ‌yet the muscles in his jaw were visibly ‌‌‌‌tense.
His neck, drawn taut, flushed with barely contained emotion.
"Actually, I tried to use the Portal to ‌‌‌‌my Territory immediately after reporting to the Emperor at dawn."
"And then?"
"The old fools wouldn't let me. They said if I opened a Portal to my Territory and there happened to be corpses there, what would happen if they spilled into the Imperial Palace?"
"Ah...."
"I haven't received permission, so I'm being forcibly detained in the Capital."
The Grand Duke, laughing bitterly, took a sip of his caramel milk.
I had nothing to say in response.
"So when will you be able to leave?"
"Who knows. The matter will likely come up during tomorrow's meeting."
"Ah. 'That' emergency meeting."
"Yes. 'That' emergency meeting."
We exchanged a silent look of understanding.
'So there's another person here dissatisfied with the meeting schedule.'
The day after tomorrow, no less.
This ‌‌would never happen in Korea.
'If this were my country: Damn it, why are zombies walking around? I have to go to work tomorrow! Crash, bang, boom—whatever, just throw some civil servants at it and call it solved. Normal operations resume tomorrow.'
Then the Korean politicians would come out and blame the opposition party, and the opposition would blame the ruling party, and that would be the end of the discussion.
But regardless, it would be resolved quickly.
But here!
'Why does meeting preparation take two whole days! This is so frustrating!'
"As you likely already know, Portals exist only in a few major cities. Should enemies attempt invasion, a Portal is the most effective means to reach the Capital in a single step."
"I see. (Though I didn't know that.)"
"Which means Portals are installed only in cities that are virtually ‌‌impossible to occupy, and fortunately, my Territory is one of them."
"I see."
Of course. He's Imperial Family too—higher in the line of succession than Nuisance Man.
"But corpses could appear anywhere, couldn't they? Is there truly no possibility of them crossing over from the other side, as the old fools claim?"
"None. A Portal only opens in one direction at a ‌‌‌‌time." ‌‌‌
"And yet they still won't ‌‌‌let you go?"
"No. They say it's a precaution."
"...."
"I even asked those old fools about it. Didn't they worry about the people of my Territory? And do you know what they said?"
"What did they say?"
"That I'm far too naive. Ha ha ha!"
"Hah...."
It seemed that dismissing a ‌‌young person's sense of justice as naïveté was universal, no matter where you went.
"For now, I'll wait until ‌‌‌‌tomorrow's meeting. If you try to stop me from visiting my people then, I'll kill every last one of you." ‌‌‌
'Kill me! Send me away!' If you thrash about like that, I'll let you go. Hahahaha! The Grand Duke laughed.
"If I end up in prison for killing someone, you'll visit me, won't you?"
"Well... if I'm still here by then, I'll think about it."
"Where are you going?"
"To evacuate."
"Really?"
"No."
The maid and knights at the adjacent table stole glances at me as I conversed so casually ‌with the Grand Duke.
Ignoring their wide-eyed stares, I simply stirred my coffee absently.
'No wonder they find this strange.'
Me, sitting across from the Grand Duke who had always been desperate to devour me, and the Grand Duke himself buying me coffee.
They must be wondering when we'd become so close.
'This is what they call camaraderie between those who've clawed their way through hell together.'
The maid and knights' astonishment reached its ‌‌‌‌peak at the Grand ‌‌‌Duke's next action.
"Aha, that's really funny...."
As the Grand Duke laughed, he brought his lips close to my ear.
"Oh my...!"
The startled maid spilled her coffee. ‌‌‌
Regardless.
At the Grand Duke's whispered words, I went rigid.
[(Temporary Safe Zone) Capital District 3 Cafe]
- Yusara, Grand Duke (Alive)

---------------
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: ‌‌‌valirscans.org
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