VWB 23

Feeling a tickle in her mouth, Yevgenia grit her teeth and pushed Yulan's shoulder away with force.

“What do you mean, no one? Madam and my maid are clearly downstairs.”

Fortunately, Yulan didn't seem to be entirely serious, as he let himself be pushed away easily.

Of course, while his body moved back, his mouth continued to move in an irritating manner.

“If you're going to be like that, there were dozens of subordinates downstairs that night, too.”

“You just can't lose a single argument, can you?”

“My body isn't accustomed to losing. You can understand, right, Young Lady?”

“Ha! I wonder how you survived all this time, holding back the urge to brag about being a Prince.”

His confident gaze was so unsightly.

Feeling as if she were getting goosebumps, she rubbed her arms for no reason.

Only after scooting her hips to the opposite side to create a proper distance from him could she bring up the main point.

“First, there's one thing we need to make clear.”

At Yevgenia's solemn voice, Yulan tilted his head as if telling her to go on.

He looked more than ready to tease her the moment she said anything even slightly strange.

Ahem. Clearing her throat with a fake cough, she declared:

“I made this proposal purely to undo the engagement talk; I absolutely have no other intentions. ...Do you understand?”

“...Ah, so you mean you intend to use my body purely as a tool?”

He wasn't wrong.

In a relationship devoid of personal feelings, aimed solely at achieving a goal, it was only right that their bodies be nothing more and nothing less than tools.

However, she hadn't expected him to point it out so bluntly.

Her face flushed with shame.

Pressing her cheeks with the back of her hand to calm herself, Yevgenia spoke.

“'Tool' is a bit much. Um, let's say I'm receiving help. Purely.”

“What we're about to do won't be that pure.”

“If it bothers you that much, just think of it as enjoying ourselves by mutual consent. You liked it too, so that's... that's why you did it, right?”

She tried to speak brazenly, but since she wasn't used to discussing such things, she ended up stuttering.

At that, Yulan smirked like someone who had just found a weakness and asked back.

“What exactly is 'that'?”

“J-just figure it out. I'll never say it with my own mouth, even if I die.”

Looking at Yevgenia with narrowed eyes, Yulan chuckled softly and nodded.

“Fine, whatever. I can't stand to see my precious first customer die.”

Meanwhile, Yevgenia was busy fluttering her hands over her burning face to fan herself.

She had to pull the conversation back to a professional level quickly to end this embarrassing dialogue.

With her face still reddish, she spoke in a voice she made as stiff as possible.

“Seeing as you still have no intention of withdrawing the engagement even though one letter was erased, there's a possibility that Father won't budge even if two letters are erased.”

“...Hmm.”

“So, rather than a request, this matter is, um...”

Searching for the right word, Yevgenia's head suddenly snapped up.

She had found a word that fit the situation quite well.

With her lips curling slightly in satisfaction, she blurted it out.

“Right, how about calling it joint research? I'll be assisting in your research.”

“Joint research? Hahaha...”

Yulan laughed out loud, as if he had heard something utterly ridiculous.

Feeling embarrassed by the reaction, Yevgenia glared at him with her lips tightly shut.

But he didn't mind at all, meeting her gaze with eyes that had grown even colder.

“You do realize that the 'assisting' you're talking about is no different from human experimentation, right?”

“...Do you have to put it like that?”

“I don't think I said anything wrong. If it's still unpleasant to hear, it just means the proposal you're making is that absurd.”

Yulan was irritating at times—actually, quite often—but he seemed especially irritating when he was speaking the truth.

She hadn't known him for very long, but even combining every version of him she'd seen so far, none were as irritating as he was right now.

Biting her lip, Yevgenia grumbled inwardly.

'It's not like my lifespan is guaranteed to be cut by several years like in the original story. If there's a chance it won't be, isn't this a total win?'

Having grown so disgusted with Raymond that she was prepared to become terminally ill, even this thin sliver of hope felt like a massive snowball to her.

If she could roll this snowball all the way to the cancellation of the engagement, she was more than willing to give up at least 30 years of her life.

On the contrary, she might close her eyes believing she lived a satisfying life, boasting that she lived a shorter life more happily and fully.

'I'll buy a pretty villa in a quiet seaside village and live leisurely until the end. Hmm... no matter how I think about it, there's nothing bad about this.'

As Yevgenia fell deep into thought, Yulan's gaze toward her began to grow complex.

His eyebrows twitched, his brow furrowed, and then he tilted his head, looking as though she hadn't taken his words seriously at all.

Perhaps it was because she was too young to think about death...

It suddenly hit her that she had only just become an adult.

Not knowing how terrible it is to be given a date of death and wither away day by day, watching a woman blinded by a feverish love is an exhausting experience she wouldn't want to go through twice.

The brief silence was broken by Yulan's voice, which had dropped an octave.

“Do you love that man that much?”

“...Huh?”

Yevgenia, who had traveled as far as a future where she lay on a plush bed in a quiet seaside villa, drinking sangria with ice and enjoying a performance by an invited prima donna from the capital, was snapped back to reality with a bewildered expression.

She was dazed, and his question had been far too abrupt.

'That man? Love him? What on earth is he talking about?'

Frowning slightly as she chewed over the question, she suddenly had a realization.

'Right. I'm currently playing the role of a devoted lover risking her life to break the engagement for Raymond. I forgot because there wasn't much to talk about.'

Because she had completely forgotten, her face flushed slightly out of embarrassment.

To Yulan, it looked as though she were blushing while thinking of the person she loved, so in a way, it was a perfect reaction.

Lest her lie be discovered, she lowered her gaze and spoke.

“It's a bit... embarrassing to tell someone who isn't the person in question...”

'It's actually because the very idea of saying I love Raymond makes me want to gag, but let's just go with that!'

Unlike the relaxed Yevgenia, Yulan seemed to grow even more frustrated.

In truth, if he met a woman who would throw away her own future for the sake of the man she loved, he too would probably beat his chest and try to stop her.

It was simply surprising that he, who had seemed like nothing more than a cold lunatic, was showing such a human reaction.

Regardless, there was no other way if Yulan didn't accept the proposal, so she cautiously gauged his mood.

And Yulan was not one to miss such a cue.

Closing his eyes tight, he let out a loud sigh, clearly intended for her to hear.

“...Fine. If you've prepared your heart, it's a good thing for me. I can conduct various experiments on your body without hesitation.”

It was simply repeating something they had already done once, yet he spoke as if Yevgenia were about to commit an unimaginable act.

Even though her mind knew that the 'various experiments' he mentioned would be no different from before, her heart strangely fluttered.

Just as she couldn't understand why she felt so anxious, Yulan lightly grasped the ends of her hair.

As her hair was tugged slightly, small goosebumps broke out across her body.

The tension that had been slowly rising—

“Young Lady, go downstairs.”

—dropped with a thud.

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