TNMN 23

Chapter 23

Emily, who had come early without notice, didn’t say a word until the steam rising from the teacup on the table had completely dissipated. Feeling suffocated by the silence, Alosha let out a short sigh and decided to speak first.

“So, what urgent matter brings you here so abruptly without any word beforehand?”

At Alosha’s grumbling tone, Emily smiled gently and set down her teacup.

“I’m hurt. Do we really need separate notice between us?”

When a handsome man deliberately acts coy, even the irritation she’d felt just moments before melted away. Alosha cleared her throat a couple of times and glared at the beaming Emily with an expression that said she found him annoyingly charming.

“So, really, why are you here?”

“…I heard that a beautiful lady had captured the impenetrable Duke, and I simply couldn’t contain myself. I know it’s rude, but I rushed over here despite that.”

She knew the merchant guild’s news traveled fast, but she hadn’t expected it to reach them within a single day. Alosha blinked her eyes in surprise.

*’Could it be jealousy?’*

At the party, he had been flirting with her in a way that seemed like, yet not quite, a come-on. Perhaps he really did have an interest in her. Alosha blinked excessively and smiled at the corner of her mouth. That man must like her. Alosha cleared her throat to make her voice sound prettier.

“How did you find out?”

“I should be the one asking that. Just how did you manage to seduce Duke Whistler?”

At Emily’s question, Alosha recalled what had happened yesterday. It wasn’t really a romantic affair to call it seduction, nor had Whistler been captivated by her looks.

*’I should be the one asking that.’*

Even for someone obsessed with romance like herself, she knew that Whistler’s “Let’s see you try” wasn’t said because he had actually fallen for her. Originally, it wasn’t supposed to progress to dating so quickly. She had planned to make the Duke recognize her existence, annoy him, prove her usefulness, and based on modern knowledge and her friend’s novel, make the Duke become interested in her, gradually encroaching on him—a whole 25 chapters’ worth of plot had been thrown away, leaving Alosha with a headache.

However, telling Emily honestly about her troubles would be a blow to her pride, so Alosha answered with a confident smile.

“…With my beauty.”

Emily stared at Alosha intently for about five seconds before letting out a short sigh.

“I see.”

Alosha, who had read much from that five-second silence, felt a sense of injustice. Just moments ago, she had felt her heart flutter at the thought that he might be jealous of her and Whistler, but that feeling came crashing down. It was a moment of realizing once again that this novel was a fantasy with no romance whatsoever.

“It’s true. Duke Whistler said he’d never met a woman like me and that he wanted to see me.”

Much had been omitted in between, but Alosha grumbled with a sulky expression.

“Indeed… it’s rare to find a type like Lady Alosha.”

At Emily’s nodding agreement, she wanted to ask him what exactly her “type” was, but her head was already complicated enough with thoughts of Whistler, and she didn’t want to bother with a back-and-forth with Emily.

“So, did you come just to confirm that?”

“That’s part of it, but I also came to give you something.”

Saying that, Emily pulled out a small envelope from his bosom and handed it to Alosha. Opening it right away, Alosha’s eyes went wide at the check bearing the name of his merchant guild, with an amount she had never seen before.

“Wh-what is this?”

“Thanks to you, our guild made a huge profit yesterday. As a token of gratitude, I decided to share a portion of the profits with my partner.”

“…You could have just kept quiet and I wouldn’t have known, but you’re quite honest.”

“The foundation of any deal is trust, isn’t it?”

It was a considerable sum for a simple thank-you for the guild’s profit, so Alosha eyed Emily suspiciously.

“What’s your ulterior motive?”

“An ulterior motive? It’s purely goodwill. And it also carries the meaning of a request—that whenever something like yesterday happens in the future, you’ll let me know.”

So, in the end, it was a sort of bribe, asking her to call Emily whenever there was a profitable opportunity like yesterday’s.

*’But it was too much money to refuse.’*

With a large sum comes great responsibility, and there’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world, but Alosha decided to accept this huge sum before her eyes.

After seeing Emily off and heading back to her room, Alosha unfortunately ran into Dane, the one person she didn’t want to see right now.

“…You’re still here?”

Taken aback by Alosha’s cold response, Dane drooped his shoulders with a complicated expression.

“I have something to say…”

“What is it?”

“Can we talk over some tea for a moment?”

“I just had some.”

“That person, he’s the head of the Laos merchant guild, right? I saw him leaving, and he had this slippery look about him—didn’t seem like a good person. It’d be best not to get too close.”

Alosha stared blankly at Dane, who had said he had something to tell her but was now spouting nonsense about Emily.

“I didn’t know you enjoyed badmouthing others so much.”

Wasn’t that a bit rich coming from someone once called the century’s worst troublemaker? Realizing the implication of Alosha’s words, Dane’s face flushed red.

“I-I…”

“This doesn’t seem like the right place to be gossiping about others so early in the morning. Is that all you wanted to say?”

“D-Don’t get close to the Duke!”

At his sudden outburst, Alosha was dumbfounded. If Dane were a woman, she could understand it as a jealous girl trying to drive a wedge between her and Whistler, but why was a third party with no connection to her love life meddling?

“Why?”

“Well…”

Dane bit his lower lip. It would be complicated to explain. He couldn’t easily blurt out that he had regressed and that the Duke would kill Alosha in the future. Alosha let out a short sigh and brushed past Dane.

“If that’s all, I’ll be going.”

“Wait!”

Dane called out to stop her, but Alosha walked straight into her room. She wondered if she had been too harsh, but upon reflection, it was a relief she hadn’t slapped him the moment she saw him.

[The Returned Black Sheep of the Count’s Family Saves the World from the Villain]’s protagonist, Dane. He was such a troublemaker early on that the Count’s family had practically disowned him. As the heir to the Count’s family, he neglected his studies and was drawn to alcohol, gambling, and women.

*’I absolutely detest that.’*

Even in blockbuster romance novels, there were occasionally protagonists like that—rough, rebellious types. Sometimes they would turn over a new leaf and become paragons of virtue through the love and devotion of the heroine, but right now, Alosha was more interested in melting the heart of a cold-blooded man.

Instead of thinking further about Dane, Alosha turned her mind to Whistler, the one she needed to conquer.

*’First, I need to go see him.’*

The information Alosha had about Whistler was extremely limited, and none of it seemed likely to help with romance. After finishing breakfast, Alosha gathered a few things and headed straight for the Duke’s residence. She hadn’t been invited, but since they were lovers, surely something would work out.

“How may I help you?”

“I’m here to see the Duke.”

“…Do you have an invitation?”

Seeing the guard’s face, which plainly said, “Of course you don’t,” Alosha blinked rapidly.

“No, I don’t have anything like that.”

“Then I cannot let you in.”

“…Please tell the Duke that his *girl-friend* Alosha is here.”

“…Leave.”

Alosha emphasized the word “girlfriend” to the guard, but he looked even more bewildered and declared she should go away. If she turned back now, the story wouldn’t progress, but she couldn’t think of any way to breach the iron fortress that was the Duke’s main gate.

“What shall we do, my lady? Shall we return to the mansion?”

The coachman subtly asked Alosha, who was glaring at the Duke’s gate with blazing eyes. Huffing and puffing through her nostrils, Alosha gritted her teeth and turned her head toward the coachman.

“Take me around to the back gate.”

The coachman followed her orders and turned the horses toward the rear gate. Arriving at the back gate, which seemed relatively less heavily guarded than the main entrance, Alosha stepped down from the carriage. She looked around for any kind of hole or gap in the wall, avoiding the areas where guards were posted, but of course, there was none. So, there was only one way to get into the Duke’s residence.

“I’ve escaped through castle windows and climbed trees before; this should be nothing.”

As Alosha eyed the high wall, the coachman watched her with a worried gaze.

“Are you sure you’ll be alright, my lady?”

“Of course I’m not alright. But it’s something I have to do.”

Saying that, Alosha used the coachman’s seat as a stepping stone and crawled up onto the roof of the carriage. Standing up on shaky legs, she leaped onto a thick tree branch in front of her and finally managed to climb onto the wall within reach.

“Got it.”

Having become like a prince on a perilous journey to meet the Sleeping Princess, Alosha looked down at the distant ground below and let out a long sigh.

“Right, to win a handsome man, getting hurt jumping from a wall that’s about one and a half stories high is nothing.”

To obtain a handsome man or beautiful woman, an ordinary person needs that much effort and courage. Repeating to herself “I can do it” dozens of times.

“Hup!”

With a hearty shout, she finally jumped from the wall. Following a primal instinct to minimize damage, she protected her head and curled her body into a ball.

“Ugh…”

There was no such thing as good luck. The pain shooting through her entire body made her want to cry out loud, but she had just snuck into the Duke’s residence and had to keep as quiet as possible. There were no visible wounds, but judging by the throbbing pain all over, she’d probably be covered in bruises by tomorrow or the day after.

“Still, I succeeded, so that’s what matters.”

It had been less than five minutes since she infiltrated the heavily guarded Duke’s estate and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Who goes there!”

She felt utterly screwed.