PSTAC 07

 Chapter 7

A running puppy.
A raccoon rolling on the grass with its belly exposed.
A puppy enjoying a swim.
A cat circling around my feet and acting cute.

This place was practically the paradise I had built with my own hands. And seated across the table was the peace-destroyer who had intruded upon my heaven.

“I heard my dog is here, Agatha.”

The moment paradise turned into hell was instantaneous. The peace-destroyer’s eyes were fixed on me. Cold red eyes glared at me from behind his glasses.

“Did you kidnap my dog to get my attention?”

It was common knowledge to everyone in the Empire—and to readers of the novel—that the peace-destroyer was a famous dog lover.

But kidnapping? Excuse me? I’m such a decent frog I could live my whole life without the law.

“I received a report that my dog was seen here. You’d better not pretend otherwise.”

“Cough!”

A report? A report?

What kind of lousy person goes around falsely accusing an innocent person? Bring them here right now. Let’s do a three-way confrontation.

The man frowned and turned his face away from me.

The man’s name was Nael Millan Bruls, the male lead of the novel I had entered, Don’t Be Obsessed with Saint Lucia.

And at the same time, he was someone who ended up on terrible terms with Agatha Lucy Stadion.

In the novel, Agatha was the villainess who liked the male lead, stalked him, and bullied the female lead. Because of an old verbal promise made between their parents when they were children, Nael thought he would definitely end up with her rather than the female lead, who had lower status.

Believing in that promise, Agatha harassed both main characters, and in the end she lost all her wealth and title, was accused of treason, and met an unpleasant ending.

That was around the middle of the novel, and I had paused reading because it was being serialized so slowly and painfully. I had planned to finish it once it was completed.

But then I became that Agatha.

And since it had already been six months since I woke up as Agatha after the carriage accident, there were still about six months left before the heroine awakened as a saint and the novel truly began.

“Why on earth would that dog be here? Or would it?”

“Exactly. That’s what I want to ask. You were quiet for about half a year—did your illness flare up again?”

Nael glared at me with a cold face.

His silver hair, which swayed slightly whenever he moved, was beautifully groomed. And the red eyes visible behind his glasses were as lovely as if the finest rubies had been carefully cut and polished. His stiff lips had a faint reddish tint that somehow harmonized with his features.

But all of that was drowned out by the thick disgust directed at me.

‘Well, if I were in his shoes and got bullied just because someone claimed to like me, I’d hate it too.’

After my ex-boyfriend had broken up with me and then kept clinging to me and following me around, I had been deeply forced to realize that unwanted affection is no different from violence.

Didn’t I move, change my phone number, and even switch jobs because of that bastard?

What Agatha had done to Nael in the past was undeniably terrible. I was wronged because I hadn’t done it myself, but if I suddenly said I had been a soul who got dropped into this body like winning the lottery, everyone would just take me for a madwoman.

Tsk. He looked like he could kill with his eyes alone. I casually looked away and denied it.

“There’s no way.”

“There’s no way? Is that a new method of getting attention? There isn’t a single quiet day. I’m the mad one for thinking you had finally given up on me.”

I said I wasn’t the one who did it.

I only ended up using honorifics without even realizing it.

More importantly, since I had entered this body, I hadn’t even stepped on Nael’s shadow. My efforts to avoid the male lead up until now had all been ruined because Nael himself came to find me.

Come to think of it, this is ridiculous. He came looking for me, so why is he acting like this toward me? I’m the one being wronged.

“Fuu. Let’s stop this meaningless squabbling. Hisha is my dog. I’ll have to take him back.”

“Hisha?”

I knew about Hisha too. Hisha was Nael’s divine beast. As far as I had read in the novel, Nael’s puppy had not yet awakened as a divine beast.

It was because of that divine beast that Nael and the female lead became entangled… and if this went wrong, both the female lead and the male lead might get tangled up together. Wouldn’t that be a death flag?

I quickly nodded. He had lost the puppy he was raising, and if finding that puppy meant he would leave, then there was no reason not to let him.

As if waiting for my permission, Nael sprang up and strode off.

Which dog was it that had bitten the male lead and brought him here? I sincerely hoped he would find it quickly and leave.

Just when I was hoping he would find it soon, Nael reappeared about two hours later.

He looked disheveled, as though he had fought a fierce battle, and Hisha was growling with bared teeth. Hisha, held by the back of the neck, looked even smaller next to the large Nael.

“Now that you’ve found Hisha, there’s no reason for you to come looking for me again, right?”

“…Hah. You really do all sorts of things. Then should I think you came here to see me, Duke?”

Of course not. As long as we can help it, let’s not see each other.

“No. I just wanted to say that I hope nothing like this happens again. We’re the kind of people who are better off not seeing each other.”

Nael was scary, but I had to say what needed to be said.

My natural tendency to speak up when I had something to say kicked in again. Meeting a man who even loathed me was not a pleasant experience.

I still couldn’t understand how the original Agatha had chased after such a man. I’d suffocate just from his gaze.

In that sense, I hoped this would be the last time we met. Nael was a huge obstacle to the paradise I dreamed of.

“Fuu. That’s exactly what I wanted to say.”

Nael glanced at me as though he had no interest in dealing with me any further, then left my paradise.

Yes, don’t come back. Please.

“Duke, are you all right?”

Emma asked me with a worried expression. She had definitely seen how Nael had come and how I had retreated far away to leave him to it.

I glared at Emma, who looked awkward, and said,

“Throw salt.”

“Pardon?”

“Buy a ton of rock salt and scatter it everywhere! So he can never come back!”

“Yes, Your Grace!”

Emma said cheerfully, full of energy.

Emma often said that now that I had lost my memory, it was best that I no longer chased after the Crown Prince. She even cried when I threw out all of Nael’s portraits that had been in my bedroom.

Our Duke… our Duke…!

Watching such an Emma briskly go fetch rock salt and scatter it around, I clapped my hands.

Let’s cut ties. Cut them completely!

Once Nael left the mansion, he let out a sigh and glared at Hisha. If not for Hisha, he would never have come all the way here.

Hisha was no ordinary dog. In fact, if he wanted to, he wouldn’t even have been kidnapped in the first place.

“What a hassle. I don’t know what kind of nonsense this is. Why are you here?”

“Yip?”

“Don’t spout dog nonsense.”

[That is an insulting remark.]

In response to Nael’s words, Hisha stopped acting cute and said solemnly.

A dark blue puppy wolf sat on Nael’s shoulder, blinking its golden eyes. It might look like an adorable puppy on the outside, but its true nature was a wolf.

“Did that woman kidnap you? You definitely had the strength to resist. You could have run away too.”

No matter how he thought about it, there was no reason for Hisha, who had been quietly staying at his residence lately, to be here. Hisha tilted his head.

[I don’t know either. I only remember that when I came to, I was already here.]

As expected, that woman had definitely plotted something.

During the past six months, Agatha had strangely changed. She used to be extravagant and love parties, but one day she stopped coming out of the mansion.

At first, rumors spread that Agatha was sick, but she proved her own health by acting wildly in public and snatching a puppy from another young noblewoman.

Even after divine beasts lost their rank, nobles had not given up hope and were still raising animals. Of course, there were more and more people abandoning them, but there were still those who kept them.

And yet she had stolen one of those animals.

The young noblewoman whose puppy had been taken cried and gave a gossip magazine interview about it, so the story spread throughout high society.

But Agatha acted as though she didn’t care at all and continued her bizarre behavior. She began collecting more animals.

“She’s always been selfish.”

Agatha had always been that kind of woman. From childhood, her own feelings mattered more than anything else, and she imposed them on others as if Nael’s feelings were irrelevant.

You’ll… live like that forever.

He had definitely thought that.

But today’s Agatha felt a little strange. On top of that, she had even said to Nael,

We’re the kind of people who are better off not seeing each other.

Had Agatha really changed?

“What does it matter?”

After a brief pause, Nael stepped forward without hesitation. The escort knight waiting for him brought over his horse.

I sincerely hope today is the last time I see Agatha.