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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 46
"Ugh...."
I rotated my shoulders, ‌‌‌‌which felt stiff as though the muscles had atrophied.
"Uuuugh...."
Five thirty in the morning.
The empty Courtyard echoed only with my groans—ugh, krgh—like a zombie's lament.
"I'm going to lose my mind from exhaustion...."
After all the trouble of regressing, I'd enjoyed the banquet until one in the morning, and now here I was ‌‌‌at five in the morning the next day, out for archery practice. My life's a legend.
Truly legendary.
"If I just start shooting arrows without warming up, my shoulder's going to give out. Should I do some stretches first?"
How did I used to do it back when I was in the traditional archery club....
Even as I stretched my limbs, the drowsiness clinging to my eyelids refused to fade.
Yesterday, when everyone had rushed ‌‌‌over to my side of the table and the atmosphere had completely reversed, the banquet didn't end until after midnight.
'Let's dip marshmallows in that flowing ‌‌‌‌chocolate!'
'Let's do it!'
'Bile wine? Get out of here! I'm not eating that garbage!'
Once the distinguished guests had left and only the Prome Lord and his wife remained, their expressions never brightened for the rest of the banquet.
That's when they finally seemed to ‌‌‌‌understand.
Praha, Cyprus, Yujein, Tangerine.
That the way my companions treated me was different from what they'd expected.
'And me as well.'
I'm not the person they'd heard rumors about.
"Why can't ‌we all just get along with everyone? Do we really have to single out one person and ignore them?"
I couldn't understand why people who'd lived long enough to be mature would live their lives that way.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk."
As I clicked my tongue and continued stretching, memories of yesterday's banquet flickered through my mind.
"Heh, heh, heh."
The Prome Lord, apparently unable to help himself, had awkwardly moved his chair over to our table.
"Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh."
He'd laughed as if ‌‌‌trying to hide ‌‌‌‌his embarrassment.
"Now that I think about it." ‌‌
He'd changed the subject.
"I never did ask what brought such distinguished ‌‌guests to our Prome."
"Oh, we came because of a sacred relic!"
It was Yujein who answered.
"A sacred relic...?"
"Yes, we came to see the sacred relic of the God of Light on Prome Mountain."
To be precise, we came to take it, not just see it.
"He kept saying 'trust me and just try eating it once,' so.... Anyway."
Cyprus, who had been waiting for an opportunity to drizzle caramel syrup over my chocolate fondue, took up the conversation.
"You're aware that Yujein here serves as a priestess of the God of Light, yes? ‌‌‌With a saint born for the first time in centuries, I thought it wouldn't be amiss to collect the sacred relics while we're at it."
Of course, it was a lie.
I couldn't very well say the truth: 'Zombies ‌‌‌appeared, so I came to retrieve the sacred relics!'
"Time is pressing. I intend to ascend the mountain immediately after preparations are complete. If you have a map recording the mountain's terrain, I'd like to see it."
"The mountain, you say...."
Standing directly across from the Lord of Prome, I watched his complexion ‌‍subtly stiffen at those words.
'He doesn't seem particularly pleased.'
If word spread that this was a holy pilgrimage site ‌‌visited by the Imperial Family and a saint, the tourism revenue would be quite substantial.
Once people began ‌‌‌traveling here, transportation infrastructure would naturally develop further.
If I were the Lord of Prome, I would have thought this was an ‌‌opportunity to make a fortune.
Yet his ‌‌‌reaction seemed lukewarm.
'Is it because I mentioned taking the sacred relics?'
But the people of Prome didn't need them anyway.
If they had needed them, they would have retrieved them from the Ancient Labyrinth long ago, rather than leaving them abandoned there.
The Lord of Prome murmured, his face lost in thought.
"So you intend ‌‌‌to ascend the mountain...."
After several seconds of awkward silence, the Lord of Prome burst into exaggerated laughter.
"Ha ha, if that's the case, we should certainly lend our hands! I'll have our family's knights escort you!"
The Prome Family would assist in accomplishing your objective in the shortest time possible and descending the mountain.
And so forth and so ‌‌‌on.
Praha cut off the Lord of Prome's overly enthusiastic proposal.
"If I wanted an escort, I would have brought Imperial Knights."
"That's right! My skills are excellent. These knights here aren't my match!"
"Still... if our knights accompany you, you won't even need to consult the map...."
At those words, Praha glanced at me and said something like this.
"Baron."
"Yes?"
"Do I ‌‌appear to have difficulty reading maps?"
"N-no, that's not what I meant!"
"If you have manpower to spare for escort duties, it would be better spent repairing the broken paving stones in ‌‌your territory. The residents ‌‌‌‌seemed to find passage inconvenient."
Sharp ‌as a blade, Praha.
When had he been whimpering just moments before?
'That's right.'
The ‌‌group had even moved seats for me, and since it felt awkward to be the first to leave, I remained at the table until well past midnight before returning to my room.
In the process, I also received more advice from Smoothie regarding inheritance and employment matters.
'That's how it works?!'
'Yes, yes....'
'Oh, I should be taking notes on this!'
While I clung closely to Smoothie's side, Praha watched from beside me with an expression of clear displeasure.
Praha, his expression is always cold anyway.
"People really do need to train themselves.... Train, exercise...."
I ‌‌steadied my breathing, which was already growing labored after just a ‌‌‌‌few laps around the Garden.
Lady Yusara's body—that is to say, ‌‌‌my body.
Gaunt as it was, it possessed surprisingly good stamina.
Because I had been exercising consistently.
'Since both Cyprus and Praha are exceptional knights, I trained myself to keep up with them and try ‌things together.'
You know how it is.
If a celebrity I adore visits an exhibition, I go too. If ‌‌‌they watch a ‌‌film, I watch it as well.
The Duke found it distasteful when he saw me training my body by constantly asking the knights for advice, ‌‌but.
Just wait and see.
This will save my life.
'If my first self had taken interest in something else, I would have become ‌‌‌‌someone great. Even when I was a foolish villainess, I had such remarkable drive.'
In any case, my stamina is merely that of a somewhat exceptional ordinary person.
I doubt my stamina will improve much just from exercising and practicing for a few days like this.
But it's better than doing nothing.
I'll grit my teeth and do ‌‌it.
Later, when I'm a grandmother at 199 years old with all my teeth fallen out, I won't be able to grit them even if I want to.
Let me grit them while I still can.
Whoosh— thwack!
It was while I was drawing the bowstring with such resolve.
"If you pull like that, your body will twist to the right as your strength gives out."
"Ah!"
I startled at the low voice that suddenly came ‌‌from behind me.
Thunk.
The arrow I'd shot poorly lodged itself in the ground in front of the ‌‌temporarily erected target.
"Who are you!"
"A puppy."
Praha, who replied in ‌‌‌‌a low voice, stepped out from beneath the shade.
His already cold-looking face gleamed even more frigidly in the pale dawn light. His hair, not yet fully dry from washing, hung loosely, and he wore a casual shirt and trousers.
The shirt was thin enough that the well-developed contours of his chest muscles were distinctly visible.
'Huh.'
This man and his physique showing off again.
I was about to stare, so I looked away, but he spoke casually as if unaware.
"Did you come out to practice?"
"Yes. Since I'm not good at it... I'm going to keep at it until ‌‌I improve."
"How diligent of you."
"Indeed. I came out thirty minutes earlier than His Highness."
"I came out after washing up."
"..."
Yeah, I didn't even wash my hair before coming out....
'You always do smell like soap, though. Such a fastidious one.'
Even now, I do.
I asked while catching the faint waft of soap.
"Why does it veer to the right?"
"Your lower body's center of gravity hasn't been corrected."
"Center of gravity?"
"Yes. Since your body isn't perfectly symmetrical, as things stand, the weaker you become, the more your body will rotate in that skewed direction."
Praha added his explanation and stepped beside me.
He stared blankly as if asking why I wasn't shooting again already, so I quickly adjusted my stance.
"If the axis wavers, you must stop immediately and rest."
"How would I be able to tell if the axis is wavering?"
"I'll be watching."
Whoosh—thunk.
After watching just once like that.
Apparently deciding it was hopeless, he moves behind me.
As Praha stands at my back, a shadow falls across my head.
"Like this...."
A warmth barely grazing my elbow. A body that bumps against me slightly each ‌time I breathe, expanding and ‌‌contracting.
'Don't be aware of it. Don't tense up.'
Let me dispel this tension with nonsense.
"I haven't washed up—what if I smell bad?"
"Since you're well below my nose, I don't think you need to worry about that."
"...."
I've been getting nowhere since earlier.
"If you rush like that, you'll get hurt. Like this...."
Large hands rising in sync with his words.
I flinch at the sensation of being embraced, and Praha freezes along with me. ‌‌‌
"...."
"...."
"...I apologize. Was it ticklish?"
"A little...." ‌‌‌‌
"I'll be more careful."
'The more careful he is, the stranger it feels....'
The cold dawn air.
Thin clothing.
The man's body behind me, covering mine like a blanket.
His jaw, speaking instructions softly, touches the crown of my head.
The warmth I feel.
'Isn't he scared at all? If I misunderstand and get clingy again, what then.'
It would be better if he weren't so accommodating.
There's no tension in this.
'Let me just finish this quickly.'
With ‌‌that thought, I straightened my shoulders and drew back the bowstring.
But in doing so, I accidentally struck Praha somewhere along his ribs.
"...."
Praha ‌‌‌‌flinched sharply as my elbow made contact with his body.
"Oh! Are you alright?"
I spun around in alarm.
"...I'm fine."
Praha's expression remained composed, but a faint blush colored the area around his cheekbones.
'Did it hurt him badly?'
"I'm sorry."
Praha gazed down at me as I smiled apologetically.
His amber eyes traced slowly from my smiling lips to the prominence of my cheekbones.
The arm encircling me tightened.
Before I could even register what was happening, the tension released.
Praha turned his head and spoke.
"Skill does not improve simply by shooting many arrows. Approach this with composure."
"But I want to finish quickly...."
"At that rate, you'll finish dying quickly as well."
"Oh. Yes, understood."
"Try again."
Praha retrieved an arrow and nocked it on my bowstring himself, and for some reason, his training seemed far more rigorous than before.
'I need to build up my strength first.'
'Try again.'
'Again.'
I never knew a person could sweat like rain just from ‌shooting a bow....
"Huff, huff...."
By the time the sun had fully risen.
When I felt I truly couldn't continue anymore.
I spoke to Praha, who still held me from behind as if cradling me.
"Um, Your Highness."
"Praha."
"Crown Prince Praha. I apologize for yesterday."
I absolutely wasn't trying to get him to stop archery practice and take a break.
"I never meant to insult you by calling you a dog, and when I heard what the Baron said, I just got ‌‌‌angry in the moment."
"...The reason the lady was angry ‌‌was because the Baron insulted the property manager?"
"Huh?"
Why is Smoothie suddenly coming up now?
"I mean, that annoyed me too, but more than that... I've never really liked people who make such crude jokes in the first place."
Normally, I would've just taken it silently ‌‌‌‌whenever my boss said things like that, but this time I decided to voice it out loud.
"I don't like people like that either."
"Really?"
"Yes."
It worked!
"It felt refreshing. Seeing the Baron's dumbfounded face."
"It was refreshing for me too."
"It was all thanks to you, Your Highness."
The way you barked out support like that yesterday without ‌‌‌‌hesitation.
Remembering that, I laugh.
I felt the sound of air deflating above my head.
"Next time someone makes a joke like that, punch them in the jaw."
"The way Your Highness beat up that Imperial Knight?"
"...I didn't beat them up that badly, but you should do it that way."
"Um...."
"Do it. I'll take responsibility."
"I think I'd lose."
I said it dejectedly.
Look at how fat the Baron is. They say he even enjoys hunting. I can barely hit a target with an arrow—how am I ‌supposed to win?
Then Praha opened ‌‌‌‌his palm and held it against mine to compare sizes.
"Would you like to try gripping my wrist?"
"Like this?"
"No. Tighter. Squeeze it hard."
He taught me a self-defense technique I could use against men.
"In a one-on-one situation, if you just grab this, you're guaranteed to win."
"Oh...."
"...."
"...."
"...."
"Your Highness, have you actually used this technique before?"
"Yes."
"...."
A technique for crushing that... that... part of a man's body—something too sensitive to mention without risking censorship—and Your Highness has actually used it?
[(Temporary Safe ‌‌‌‌Zone) Promé Castle] ‌‌‌
- Yusara, Praha, Cyprus, Yujein, Tangerine (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
---------------