LTTCH 10

Chapter 10

“Tch, we lost him.”

It was the uncle.

She clenched her fist in frustration.

I patted her back to calm her down.

“We can go buy shoes next time.”

“Why?”

I almost told her the truth—that we had already met the real target of today’s outing, Male Lead 3—but swallowed the words.

For Shamal and Beatrice to connect, it would be better to create a more romantic situation.

“We ran into bandits, so I got scared. I want to rest today.”

To avoid the uncle’s suspicion, I made up an excuse on the spot. The uncle looked at me with a pitying expression.

“Fine. For me, something like this is nothing, but it must’ve been scary for you. Let’s just go home.”

Even as she said that, she seemed fairly tense herself, as she plopped down into her seat.

The way she sat with her legs spread wide as usual was still a problem, though.

But I decided not to scold her for it this time.

Because I was genuinely grateful she had tried to protect me when the bandits appeared.

I opened the carriage door to call the coachman—and saw a red crack slicing across the sky.

Ah, right! The world destruction gauge!

I quickly opened the system window and checked it.

[World destruction until collapse: 7%]

The number had increased slightly, but it couldn’t be helped.

I had to confirm Shamal’s possibility.

I comforted myself and called the coachman.

Then, the coachman—who had been hiding near the escort knights—walked out again with a wink.

As if to say things had gone well.

* * *

After the bandit incident was resolved, I waited for Shamal every day—but there wasn’t even a shadow of him.

Since he was originally portrayed as extremely timid, I started to worry whether he would even gather the courage to meet Beatrice.

“Maybe Shamal really won’t work.”

At this point, I should focus on the Crown Prince and the Duke instead.

I looked out the darkened window and slowly got up.

Swallowing my disappointment, I was about to go to bed.

But then…

The moment I stepped toward the bed, a gust of wind blew in and flung open the window connected to the balcony.

I fixed my messy hair and saw a familiar figure standing on the balcony.

“Shamal.”

Shamal carefully entered my bedroom.

“Hello.”

“You finally came.”

“Y-yeah.”

As always, Shamal fidgeted with his fingers and avoided my gaze.

“Are you ready now?”

“Yeah… I, I came to meet Beatrice too.”

Such a modest dream.

I looked at him warmly, and he continued.

“B-but… someone like me… can I really talk to a wonderful woman like Beatrice?”

“Shamal, what are you saying?”

He shrank his shoulders tightly.

Watching him made me feel sorry for him.

Come to think of it, Shamal’s background was just as unfortunate as Renée Sauver’s.

He was a character with extremely low self-esteem due to being abused while growing up under a single mother. That was why he became so timid.

No, this won’t do.

Before I connect him with the uncle, I need to raise Shamal’s self-esteem first.

Only then could he confidently say sweet things to her.

“Shamal is our benefactor.”

“B-benefactor…? That’s too much…”

He panicked at my words.

I smiled as gently as I could.

“If it weren’t for you, something really terrible would’ve happened. Thank you so much.”

“N-no, it’s nothing.”

Even after being praised, he only shrank further.

Feeling sorry, I grabbed his shoulders and made eye contact.

“Shamal, when someone praises you, don’t deny it—accept it. Repeat after me: ‘Thank you for the compliment.’”

“But…”

“Say it. ‘Thank you for the compliment.’”

With a stern look, I forced him to repeat it.

“T-thank you for the compliment…”

Good.

Satisfied, I let go of his shoulders. Shamal lowered his gaze again, embarrassed.

“By the way, Shamal’s magic was really amazing. How did you blow away so many people at once? That’s incredible.”

“It’s just a basic spell…”

“Most people can’t even use basic magic. Anyway, Shamal is amazing.”

“Ah…”

He buried his face in his hands from embarrassment.

His ears, visible through his dark blue hair, had turned red.

He looked kind of cute like this.

Maybe someone gentle like Shamal suited a wild, gangster-like woman like the uncle.

Thinking of my mission to match Shamal with the uncle, I tried to encourage him further.

“Shamal, if you want Beatrice to like you, you need to believe in yourself and be confident. Only when you love yourself can others love you too.”

“I… have to love myself?”

“Yes. If you become confident, I’ll arrange a meeting with Beatrice.”

“B-but I don’t know how…”

Hmm…

After thinking for a moment, I came up with a good idea.

“Then how about you come find me whenever you have time? Each time you come, I’ll tell you one good thing about you. That way, you’ll start liking yourself more.”

Shamal looked unsure if it would really work, but he nodded anyway.

Hehe. Perfect.

I’ll praise him in ways that will make him appealing to the uncle.

Imagining their happy wedding, I waved to Shamal.

“Then come often. Promise.”

“Yeah. See you next time.”

And just like that, he left.

I lay down on the bed feeling relieved.

Now that Shamal would soon meet the uncle, only the Crown Prince remained.

“The Crown Prince…”

The most obsessive of all the male leads toward Beatrice in the original story.

He fell for her just from her face, and no matter what she did, he loved her anyway.

“His affection level might already be 100.”

The others weren’t quite at 100 yet, but the Crown Prince might be different.

“He’s impossible to predict…”

I turned over in bed and wrapped myself in the blanket.

“Whatever. I’ll think about it tomorrow.”

Tomorrow, I still had to continue the heroine lessons I had skipped due to the outing.

Just thinking about teaching the uncle everything from scratch made my head hurt already.

* * *

“Now, question.”

The uncle was actually a very enthusiastic student. The problem was…

“The Crown Prince says, ‘I must go due to state affairs.’ What should the heroine say in this situation?”

“Get lost quickly.”

“How is that something a heroine would say? That’s something you would say.”

Her answer rate was terrible.

“Uncle, this is serious.”

I sat upright and lectured her. The uncle, meanwhile, picked at her ear and ignored me.

“Do you want to see the world end?”

“I wouldn’t mind seeing it once.”

“What do you mean you wouldn’t mind?! You said you want to kill Gwak Beom! Then you need to get out of this novel as soon as possible!”

My head was starting to pound. Did this woman even want to be the heroine?

Of course, she didn’t choose to possess Beatrice’s body, but still…

“Okay, try again. The Duke helped you when you almost fell. What should the heroine say?”

“Do you want your wrist chopped off? Let go, you—”

“Stop! What kind of heroine says that?!”

“I can’t think of anything else.”

“Try a little harder. Remember the heroine traits list we made? Think about it while looking at that. If you were the heroine, what would you say?”

The uncle frowned in deep thought, then muttered:

“Th-thank you…”

“That’s it! Just make it a bit softer.”

“Thank you very much…?”

“Exactly!”

I clapped in excitement.

Finally, she said something fitting a heroine!

Meanwhile, the uncle looked like she had just swallowed something bitter.

“Why should I even be thankful?”