CH 96

Now, the unknown number of regressions brought them back to the point before the saint appeared and uttered the word ‘crown princess’.

(TL/N: it’s before the whole ‘saint medicine distribution’, ‘cooper’s meltdown over the saint/crown princess’ and ‘lawrence proposing’ stuff, in other words, they’ve regressed to around episode 79.)

Richard and Ophelia moved in unison without saying a word.

Based on the information they knew, they searched for the place where the so-called saint appeared.

In the meantime, they found not only that, but also those who were looking for the woman.

Perhaps they were ordered by Raisa Neir.

Besides Ophelia and Richard, only Raisa knew the future when the saint appeared.

So they always had to move one step faster than their competitors.

It was very easy.

Because it was Richard.

Soon after, he found the ‘saint’ and was able to catch the original producer of the drug she was dealing with.

He was a man with a horizontally long scar across his forehead.

Richard asked, stepping on his neck and pressing on it without break.

“What was the purpose?”

“No… Nothing.”

“The purpose of hiring the saint and distributing the medicine.”

He applied very little force to the foot that was on his neck, but the man’s face turned black in an instant.

Ophelia, who had been watching silently, tilted her head and spoke up.

“Richard, he will die before he speaks.”

“Kuh, keuhuk! Keuk, euk, euk-k! Uk!”

The man, barely breathing, let out a violent cough.

But his one opportunity to breathe didn’t last long.

It was because Ophelia, who had crouched down beside him, patted the side of his head, which had been stepped on by Richard’s feet.

“Be honest, everything will be fine.”

In a situation where it was already not okay at all, the trust level was infinitely close to zero, especially since it was a word from the person who created the situation, but he had no way not to respond.

And the story that came out of his mouth was truly unexpected.

The story that Ophelia and Richard expected was information about a religion related to bizarre human trafficking.

But the drug producer had something else to say.

“I… I wanted to expand the supply of medicines throughout the empire.”

Ophelia blinked quickly and tapped her ear.

She even then thought she had heard wrong. She raised her head and glanced at Richard, but he only nodded.

“I didn’t hear wrong?”

“Yes.”

“You made a plan. To create a fake saint in order to spread the medicine throughout the empire, and for her to enter the Imperial Palace?”

The man’s entire body trembled at Ophelia’s words.

“H-How did you know I was going to send her to the Imperial Palace…!”

“What, it was real.”

A drug producer who joined hands with a fake saint.

The conclusion that most people think of when they see or hear that sentence alone would be simple.

—There is going to be a big scam somewhere.

Wasn’t it?

Even though it was fake, the shield of a saint combined with medicine that relieved pain and fatigue.

They were wonderful things to mislead people.

“I thought you were doing this for money. No, I thought you were some kind of cheater thinking about crawling into the palace to pull off a big con.”

“Oh, money! If I needed money, I wouldn’t have made that medicine!”

The man expressed his regret with all his heart.

“I can’t take how much money it costs me to make it, more than four times what it’s sold for. I’m about to lose my head from hiding from the moneylenders!”

Listening to him, Ophelia nodded. It seemed that his disappearance before regressing was not a disappearance, but a submergence.

(TL/N: ‘잠수’ means dive/submergence, but it’s apparently also used to mean ‘staying off the grid’.)

“I… I just thought it would be possible to make a lot of medicine and distribute it to as many people as cheaply as possible, since even if she doesn’t become the crown princess after entering the palace, there will be a money source if I could catch any noble!”

“Are you a saint?”

“What?”

“No… um… should I say an adult?”

(TL/N: ‘성인’ can mean ‘saint’, ‘adult’ and ‘grown up’.)

It was true that he wanted to attract nobles and get money from them, but that was for public happiness, not personal gain.

“Richard.”

“Yes.”

“If this is the case, would it be better to have a saint?”

“No way. Do you think I can put up with it when she talks about the crown princess seat?”

“Well, I can’t stand it twice.”

There wasn’t anything to be proud of, but Ophelia straightened her back and hit herself on the chest.

Seeing this, Richard burst out laughing, and Ophelia realized belatedly that what she said was terribly childish and direct.

“I… No, no.”

The shame was indescribable, but there was no undoing, so Ophelia just shifted her gaze, her cheeks flushed.

“Oops.”

In the next moment, her eyes widened sharply. 

It was because Richard, who had taken his foot off the man in a flash, raised her up at once.

“Richa…”

—Chu.

Before she could finish her words, the sound of a light kiss echoed clearly in the quiet and dim warehouse.

Seeing Ophelia with her eyes wide open, Richard lowered his lips again, as if he hadn’t had enough, and soon the sound of pecks and kisses echoed in succession.

A light kiss that started on the lips soon continued to her cheeks and further down to her neck.

As he pressed his teeth on the blue veins where he could feel her heartbeat, Ophelia suppressed a groan, making her shoulders shake. 

At that, she felt the vibration of Richard’s low laugh.

When Ophelia pushed his steely shoulders away, he kissed Ophelia on the top of her head as if it was a finishing touch.

“My Ophelia.”

Richard hugged her tightly and whispered. Ophelia didn’t know what to say, so she kept her mouth shut, but not only her cheeks but also the tips of her ears were stained red.

And the man who looked up at the two of them from a distance froze with his mouth open as if he had lost his words.

‘What the hell is going on right now?’

In front of his eyes, like a kaleidoscope, the events up until this moment passed by.

After a fairly satisfying dinner, he was on his way back to his makeshift shelter, taking the utmost care to stay out of sight, when he was grabbed by the back of his neck and dragged into a storage room.

When he asked the person if he was a loan shark, he told him to reveal his plans related to the saint.

The person even knew of the plan, which he hadn’t told the woman who would play the saint yet.

And… A sudden act of love… 

Although both their bodies were covered by their cloaks, he could see everything they were doing… 

“You two… what the hell are you two doing?”

At that, Ophelia and Richard looked into each other’s eyes and nodded at the same time.

Naturally, the man who did not hear their conversation that occurred through their eyes was dragged back to the Imperial Palace without knowing why.

After that, as a matter of course, the fake saint did not appear in the world.

And with the full support of the crown prince, the man who was the original producer of the medicine began to improve the existing medicine so that it would not turn into poison no matter what it was mixed with.

.

Around the time when the original producer of the medicine entered the Imperial Palace and blinked, holding all the ingredients and tools he wanted in confusion.

Ophelia visited Richard’s office for the interim report.

She picked up the papers outside the door and twisted her body around to move the doorknob with her butt.

—Tachak.

As the door opened, the view that had been blocked by papers suddenly opened.

Soon after, she had to reflexively squint.

It was because Richard, bathed in sunshine, smiled to the point the corners of his eyes folded.

Even though Ophelia saw him everyday, she didn’t know her frown could straighten because of his dazzling face.

Plus… 

“Ophelia.”

The voice calling her was so sweet that it almost melted the inside of her mouth.

A hot breath fell between her forehead.

Ophelia’s face was grim as she stared up at Richard, who lightly kissed her.

But her cheeks and the tips of her ears were the color of ripe apples, so Richard couldn’t hold back and lowered his lips to her cheeks again.

“Stop it, it will wear out like this.”

Richard poured kisses on Ophelia until she pushed him away, then rolled her eyes and smiled.

“I want to check.”

“What?”

“You. Ophelia.”

The low call was so scratchy that Ophelia’s cheeks, which were slowly regaining its original color, turned red again.

Her transparent feelings looked so appetizing that he was salivating.

Richard whispered while touching Ophelia’s lower lip.

“Ophelia. Ophelia. Ophelia.”

He was just calling her name, but his desire to crawl through it was as clear as day.

His soft hand stroking his slender waist tickled the lower part of her belly button, making her body twist by itself.

“Ugh, ugh. Don’t call me like that.”

Ophelia, who had been waving her hand while covering her face, feeling both ashamed and insanely excited, soon found her shoulders shaking and turned her head to one side, shouting, 

“Stop teasing me!”

“No, because it’s cute.”

It was a voice that did not let go of mischief, but since the sincerity contained in it and the desire that could not subside were clear, Ophelia pursed her lips and finally said nothing.

Lowering the documents at the top for the interim report, Ophelia sighed.

“… Richard.”

“Hmm?”

“Um, that’s not it!”

Ophelia hit the arm that was wrapped around her waist.

She knew it wouldn’t affect him because the force was akin to a cotton bat’s, but she had no other choice.

“Let go of me!”

“I don’t want to.”

“No, this is something you can’t say no to!”

“I can’t.”

“What is that pathetic voice… No, what are those eyes, really!”

Ophelia let out a sigh when she saw Richard with eyes like a puppy abandoned in the rain.

“I don’t like it.”

“It’s not like that…”

Ophelia hesitated for a moment. Then, feeling shame and wanting to go hide in a mouse hole, she softly said, 

“Because I love you so much I can’t work.”

It was her true feelings, without a single crumb of lies mixed in.

She couldn’t concentrate on the damn papers because her heart was racing wildly from being so close to him.

Indeed, the paper was white and the writing was black. What else could she say?

“Ha!”

Ophelia’s shoulders twitched at the hot breath that tickled the back of her neck.

As if he was engraving an imprint, once and again in the same place, he lowered his lips and then set his teeth.

“Ugh, euk!”

It didn’t hurt, but a thrill ran through her spine and to her toes at once.

Before the stimulus even wore off.

“Ugh.”

A hot tongue slipped right there.

Ophelia scratched Richard’s arm as the sound of licking and sucking blatantly rang through the air.

“I can’t do this anymore.”

It was the first time in her life that she was at a loss over her feelings.

And that was what she said to herself when her patience was starting to run out.

Before letting her go, Richard gave Ophelia a long kiss on the nape of her neck.

Ophelia couldn’t bear to touch the place where his lips had touched. She could only shrug.

As if to appease her, Richard held her hand.

How long had it been since he held her hand like that?

Ophelia stayed on that astonishing thought for a few seconds, then she let out a long, barely subdued breath and said;

Ame: We all third wheeling here (⁄ ⁄>⁄ ▽ ⁄<⁄ ⁄)

Dea: FSHKHFAIOLHFSORH…that’s it, this is how i feel, they’re going to give me cavities