I Transmigrated as an Extra in a Trashy Dark Romance Game - Chapter 73

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※ This work contains depictions of coercive relationships, explicit language, and other graphic content. Reader discretion is advised.

* * *

The banquet, which had only heightened her anxiety, finally ended. Edith returned to her room and threw her exhausted body onto the bed. Just as she was about to rest, a female attendant—one who appeared to be of higher rank than the previous maids, not the one who had first opened the door for her—suddenly appeared.

“Miss Edie, His Highness Prince Kazaniel requests your presence.”

“Huh? At this hour?”

The attendant, hurrying her along with the message that Kazan was calling for her, abruptly and inexplicably took Edith to a bath. She washed her, applied a slippery, faintly floral-scented body oil, and dressed her in a sheer nightgown with a robe over it.

“Seriously, is all this really necessary?”

Edith voiced her displeasure to the attendant escorting her to Kazan’s chamber, finding the whole situation increasingly absurd. But the woman simply walked in silence.

Even the attendants were ignoring her. Was Kazan only surrounding himself with people who shared his personality? Lost in thought, Edith soon found herself before the door.

“Enter.”

At the attendant’s knock, a voice came from within—low and weighted, yet still carrying a faint, boyish huskiness. Kazan.

“Mr. Kazan, why did you call me at this hour?”

Alone, Edith entered his room. She glanced around the space, easily twice the size of her own quarters, then sat on the sofa across from where Kazan was seated.

He moved to sit beside her, draping an arm over her shoulder and burying his face against her.

The skin contact was more intimate than usual. Edith’s body tensed slightly but quickly relaxed.

“I just needed someone to talk to. And I wanted to hear your thoughts on our kingdom’s banquet.”

“You could talk to Mr. Perry. I’m tired.”

“…….”

“Hmm… It was exotic. Nothing particularly special… Ah, the Sunlight Berries were delicious?”

Kazan still rarely responded to her words. Edith, now accustomed to this, answered as if talking to herself. She rolled her eyes and noticed a fruit plate on the table before her, bearing wine and Sunlight Berries. Perhaps he’d been drinking at this hour?

Kazan, who had been looking at her face, turned his head away. Through his body pressed close to hers, she felt a slight tremor.

Each time he trembled, his thick arm brushed against her chest through her thin nightgown and robe. The sensation made Edith flinch in turn.

A strange heat rose. She gently lifted his arm.

“Are all Imperial noble ladies like you?”

“What do you mean by that, Mr. Kazan?”

Lifting her face, she glared at him looking down at her. Kazan, without answering, simply picked up a Sunlight Berry from the plate and brought it to her lips.

“But I’m sick of these now. I’ve eaten too many…”

She accepted it when he brought it to her mouth, but even this distinctive tangy sweetness was starting to cloy. Chewing with a fed-up expression.

“…If you like it here, would you stay in this kingdom even after this year is over?”

Pressing his finger against Edith’s cheek as she chewed, Kazan spoke with an expression somehow full of expectation—his sentence missing its subject, leaving it unclear what exactly he was asking.

“No. Once this year is over, I’m definitely going home.”

She would quietly hide in the kingdom, avoiding them all. And when the game ended safely, she would return to reality. That was her only wish. Edith’s voice was firm.

“Hmm…”

The light in his expectant eyes dimmed in an instant. She felt the strength drain from his body.

The weight of his arm grew heavy, making it hard to breathe. Edith pushed at the arm she’d been holding and asked him to move away.

“…Can’t be helped…”

Kazan murmured, but his voice was too faint to catch. Edith asked him to repeat himself, but he only withdrew his body from hers, remaining silent.

A long, quiet stretch passed. Just as Edith was beginning to find the silence tedious, drowsiness washed over her. Her head bobbed, drooped, and finally came to rest against his shoulder. She fell asleep.

Kazan, lost in thought, lifted his head as if he’d finished turning something over in his mind. He looked at Edith, asleep against his shoulder.

He gazed at her for a long time. Then, without waking her, he carefully lifted her slender frame, carried her to her room, and laid her down on the bed.

* * *

It was late afternoon when Edith finally opened her eyes. Perry stood before her, his expression stiff.

“Were you in the prince’s chambers last night?”

“Yes, he called for me. Said he wanted someone to talk to.”

“Haa… Do you know who brought you back to your room last night?”

She remembered dozing off, nodding sleepily beside Kazan, who had sat in silence without saying a word.

When she woke, she was in her own room. She’d assumed someone must have brought her back.

Thinking Perry was trying to take credit for it, Edith looked at him and spoke.

“Ah, now that you mention it, I definitely fell asleep on the sofa in Mr. Kazan’s room… Was it you who brought me back, Mr. Perry?”

“No. The word among the attendants is that Prince Kazan himself carried the sleeping Edie all the way to her room.”

More than one attendant had witnessed it. By morning, the story had already spread—Perry could vividly picture them squealing and whispering among themselves. He pressed a hand to his forehead.

“Ah, so it was Mr. Kazan… The rumors are spreading again. I’ve caused trouble.”

“Ediee…”

Nothing had even happened between them the previous night. Edith simply clapped her hands together at the realization that Kazan had been the one to bring her back. Watching her, Perry’s boyish face crumpled into a grimace.

“From today onward, I’ll be serving as your personal guard, Edie.”

“Aren’t you the captain of the Desert Guardians? You must be far too busy to guard someone like me.”

“It’s a direct order from the prince. For now, I’m fine, Edie.”

“Ah, well. I prefer reading in my room anyway, so I don’t really need guarding… You don’t have to stand. Please, sit and rest, Mr. Perry.”

Edith gestured for Perry to take a seat on the sofa in her quarters. He had been sighing deeply since yesterday, and he looked tired. Following her suggestion, he was just about to sit down when—

Knock, knock.

The door opened. Entering the room were the princess consort candidate with tawny curly hair and freckles dusting her deep bronze skin—the one Edith had seen at the banquet—along with two other women she vaguely recognized.