Flirting With the Villain’s Dad

Chapter 3

It took three hours of arguing before Father finally confessed. What he said made my jaw drop.

I blankly repeated my father’s words. “So you... blocked off Glückmahn Road?”

It hit me like a bolt of lightning. This was what had happened.

Glückmahn Road was the shortest, most direct route connecting Azekian to the west and Bellecourt to the east. And the owner of Glückmahn Road was the kingdom caught between those two empires, Livovny.

Livovny had agreed to open the road in return for a portion of the mana ore that the two empires traded. Bellecourt did not naturally produce mana ore, but it was full of mana and critical in keeping the imperial palace and the empire’s borders protected.

Bellecourt had won the right to use Glückmahn Road, despite the trouble it caused them. Livovny had agreed to the arrangement because it was more beneficial to receive the mana ore through what was basically a toll than to spend taxes to mine the mana ore themselves.

That had been fifty years ago.

However, Azekian had recently uncovered a large amount of mana ore. Of course, the amount of mana ore traded between Bellecourt and Azekian exploded as well.

With the way things were shifting, my father, the king of Livovny, felt a little threatened. So around this time, two years ago, he had requested that Bellecourt pay a percentage of the mana ore traded instead of a fixed number. He wanted ten percent of it.

Of course, Bellecourt rejected the request. Ten percent? I didn’t know anything about trade, but even I could tell this was ridiculous.

Basically, after receiving one hundred ore for the past fifty years, Livovny suddenly requested one thousand.

“So, you’ve had Glückmahn Road blocked off for two years now?” My voice got louder in disbelief.

Does this man know who he’s dealing with?!

Father rushed to make excuse after excuse. “What could the empire possibly do? They have to use Glückmahn to reach Azekian, so we have the upper hand here.”

There was something incredibly misleading about what my father said. I couldn’t possibly have missed it, having read the novel.

Two years since he blocked off Glückmahn. Two years! Even I’d be furious!

My voice got louder and louder. “You’re not afraid of retaliation?”

“Goodness, Yenny. Bellecourt may be the powerhouse of the east, but they are part of the Rhyger Peace Alliance. They can’t possibly cause us harm.”

Father was doing whatever he could to calm me down, but unfortunately, it wasn’t working at all.

Bellecourt was going to invade Livovny and kidnap Theresia!

“So, you don’t have any plans to open Glückmahn again.”

“There’s no reason to, dear. If we hold out a little longer, we’ll be able to receive such an abundance of mana ore that the kingdom could never have imagined. And monthly, at that,” Father said gently.

Sure. If I hadn’t known the original story, then I might have cast my lot for Livovny winning this tug-of-war.

But I did know. Bellecourt, the defenders of peace on the continent, were about to run out of patience!

“Ngh… Honestly…”

But there was nothing more I could say to my stubborn father. In the end, I left the study without getting anything done.

My ambitious Plan A ended in complete and utter failure.

I didn’t expect it would fall to pieces before I could even try anything. I was about to let out my 145th sigh, but I bit my lip instead. I had to focus. How long did I plan on standing around sighing?

“All right… In that case, Plan B it is,” I mumbled to myself, scaring Fernando, who had been trailing behind me.

I stomped down the corridors with determination.

If I can’t stop Bellecourt from invading Livovny… Then I’ll just have to settle for stopping Theresia from getting kidnapped!

Thus, Plan B was formulated. I would stop the emperor of Bellecourt from kidnapping my sister!

I was in the middle of thinking of how brilliant Plan B was, even more so than Plan A, when a question struck me.

Hey, when exactly… is Bellecourt going to invade Livovny anyway?

At this point, it wouldn’t be farfetched to say that luck had abandoned me, right? I grabbed my head and groaned.

“Agh, what the heck, honestly?!”

I didn’t know. I really didn’t know! I couldn’t recall!

I grabbed fistfuls of my light pink hair as a sad, tearful voice escaped my lips. “Gah, when in the world is it…?”

When was Bellecourt going to invade us?!

Plan B also ran into trouble as soon as I came up with it. Before I could stop Theresia from being kidnapped, I needed to know when those damn imperial troops were going to invade us, but I had no idea exactly when that would be.

Worse, unlike the Glückmahn Treaty, the event had definitely been discussed in the novel. I just couldn’t remember it! And I read it!

I grabbed my head and sorted through my memories.

I felt like the timing of Bellecourt’s invasion was very clearly written at the very start of the novel, but… why couldn’t I remember?! More importantly, I knew for sure it was mentioned a second time after the plot had made quite some progress. It had definitely been mentioned.

I had been so caught up in the main characters’ romance that I had flipped through all the background information, so it was only natural.

Go die, Past Me. Why hadn’t you paid closer attention?!

I tugged at my fluffy cotton candy hair and took deep breaths.

“No, I need to calm down. I can do this. I know something will come to mind…”

…But nothing did. My memories escaped my head and evaporated into thin air. For some reason, the more I thought, the less I remembered.

In the end, I flopped onto my bed. “Damn it.”

I couldn’t believe I knew tragedy was looming, but not when.

At this rate, my sister will disappear in the middle of the night without anyone noticing!

I suppose I was never destined to become the hidden hero of the kingdom anyway. What was I supposed to do now?

I punched the large pillow and yelled in frustration, “Why do I have to worry about this in the first place?!”

My thoughts returned to the starting point. The starting point of the starting point. The point in time when all of this had suddenly landed in my lap.

Just why did I have to play the secret heroine of the empire in the first place? Why was I trying my hardest to recall a romance novel I’d just read to pass the time?

The truth was, when I thought back, the starting point was all too clear.

Everything began when I first possessed Yerenika’s body eight months ago.

* * *

Before I became Yerenika, I was just an average university student. My name was Eunsuh Suh. My graduation was around the corner, and I was looking for a job.

I’d been a poor—basically unemployed—university student living in a cramped room and surviving off of part-time wages. I was returning home one morning after finishing an overnight shift.

And I died.

I croaked and parted from the mortal coil. I was sure I did. The bus I was riding hit a car going the wrong way head-on.

I had no idea of the impending accident as I was busy reading a webnovel on my phone. I only had ten chapters left of the new viral novel Brigitte Wants to Be Happy on a paid serialization site when there was a loud noise, and my body was thrown forward.

There was nothing to grab to stop me from tumbling all the way to the front of the bus, and when I opened my eyes, I saw the bright headlights of the car driving straight at us.

The next moment, the bus flipped over. The floor became the ceiling, and I heard the sound of something breaking. My body dropped down.

It was such a short moment that I didn’t even have time to be afraid. I was thrown head-first into the half-crumpled body of the car, and before I could even feel pain, the world went dark.

Looking back on it, it was a major accident. The bus had completely flipped over, so it wasn’t that surprising that I would have died on the spot.

Yeah. I thought I had died for sure, but then it turned out I hadn’t…?

When I woke up, I was lying in a comfy bed. I blinked in a daze and thought, Am I not dead?

When I stretched my hand out before me, it was much softer, longer, and smoother than it had been before.

It was only after I saw my reflection in the mirror for the first time since waking up that I screamed.

“Eeeek!”

“Yerenika?”

At the sight of the curly-haired redhead who dashed in at the sound, I screamed again, covering my eyes with my two pale, smooth hands.

“Eeek! Beauties!”

My reflection in the mirror and the redhead who had run over in surprise were such beautiful femme fatales that it was impossible to look at the mirror with a clear mind. And even more shocking was what the redhead said.

“Your Highness! What happened?!”

They called me “Your Highness”!

I fainted right then and there.

In my defense, I didn’t pass out from happiness. It was all too much. I’d received a mild shock in the new body I woke up in, and it hadn’t been able to handle it. There was no other reason why I would have been passed out for a week straight after that.

After I woke up again, the first thing I did was drag myself out of bed to find a mirror. The reflection looked just the way it had when I looked a week prior. I had light pink hair that looked as soft and fluffy as cotton candy, clear, sky-blue eyes, and a small face with delicate features.

I unconsciously reached out to the mirror.

“Whoa…”