The Heir I Dragged Into My “He’s My Fiancé!” Lie Is Somehow Playing Along!? - Chapter 1.1

(“So I’ve been recognized?”)

Alice stared blankly up at Umi’s beautiful profile.

Until now, she had only seen Umi from a distance. With his well-proportioned features and slender build, he gave off a somewhat feminine impression.

But up close, she realized that was mistaken.

His arched eyebrows were dignified, his eyes were truly cool and refreshing, and his pupils were startlingly clear.

Every single one of his facial features was beautiful.

Moreover, his high nose bridge and well-shaped lips carried a faint sensuality and a confident, assertive air.

Furthermore, the heat and strength of the arm touching hers felt masculine.

His long fingers, which had looked slender, were sturdy and thick-boned with a firm grip as he held Alice tightly.

Right in front of all the employees present.

(“Wh-what is this situation? I’m the one who dragged this passing prince into this without any discussion, but why am I the one being caught with an ‘absolutely won’t let you escape’ intensity?”)

Alice had been smiling while breaking into a faint cold sweat, but she suddenly noticed a sharp gaze directed at her from beyond the crowd.

It was Akihisa, his eyes wide with surprise, staring at her intently.

The moment their eyes met, he let out a sound as if he couldn’t help himself.

“Shirotsuki, were you two-timing me too!?”

Huh? Alice quickly ran through her thoughts.

Just three minutes ago, she had been framed and cornered, on the verge of becoming discouraged and resigning.

If things had continued like that, she might have broken, but now, having dragged Umi into this head-on encounter and accelerated this outrageous situation of her own will, part of her mind felt strangely sharp.

Maybe it was because she had become stubborn, thinking she couldn’t possibly lose here.

“Saito-kun. What you just said, no matter who hears it or how, I think it’s a verbal blunder. Someone who admits to being stalked wouldn’t say ‘two-timing’ to their stalker, right? What did you mean by that?”

Ugh—Akihisa seemed to flinch.

If this were the usual Alice, she would go easy on him here.

She would arbitrarily withdraw, thinking it unbecoming of an adult to argue with a colleague in front of everyone and corner them with righteous logic, and instead propose a compromise like, “Shall we talk it over properly later, just the two of us?”

But now, the situation was different.

Akihisa had demeaned Alice’s dignity, spread lies, and as a result, had nearly driven her to resign.

(“And he even took my money! I’m the fool who handed over tens of thousands of yen every time, even though I thought something was weird and suspicious. Yes, I’m a fool. But whenever he said he was in trouble; I’ve always been easily tricked since way back. Because I’m a fool!”)

In this state, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say the situation had escalated to a kill-or-be-killed level.

With a firm resolve not to overlook Akihisa’s mistakes, Alice pulled her smartphone from her jacket pocket.

“Saito-kun, it seems you’ve been slandering me with some pretty wild rumors. The atmosphere was weird the moment I got to the office, so I’ve been recording everything until just now. ‘Two-timing’ was a verbal blunder, right? By the way, we exchanged messages a few times, but I noticed you unsent them quite frequently. You see, when I make meeting arrangements, I have a habit of taking a screenshot of the messages so I don’t forget the place or time, so I have almost all the unsent content saved. If it were to leak, I don’t think anyone would believe your story anymore.”

Even if she didn’t have close friends at work, it wasn’t as if she hadn’t worked seriously since joining the company.

Though rumors built on lies had been spread, an atmosphere where she couldn’t refute them had been created under management’s lead, and the surroundings had become an environment where others found it hard to speak up, there should still be people who trusted Alice’s work ethic and doubted Akihisa’s claims.

(“The recording is a bluff, but the screenshots are real! I screenshotted all our date plans! I want to die! There are also records of him sending stamps like ‘I like you’ and ‘I love you,’ so I don’t intend to leak them! Ah, just thinking about it makes me furious! I’ll delete all those sweet stamps from my downloads! I’ll only keep harsh, super-S stamps like ‘You are already dead,’ ‘How pathetic,’ and ‘Is that all you have to say?’! I’ll never use ‘I like you’ again in my life—eeeeek!”)

Frustration nearly caused her delusions to burst forth, but now wasn’t the time for that.

Clearly, Akihisa was making an “Oh crap” face.

Alice grew even more determined, thinking she had to chase him down like a hound and scatter him like a wolf. Just then.

“Excuse me. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t leave me out of the conversation, but Alice isn’t two-timing anyone.”

Umi cut in from the side.

“Ah, Alice…?”

Stunned, Alice murmured.

Umi, his eyes sparkling brilliantly and even the air around him seeming to glitter, looked down at Alice.

“Sorry, I couldn’t help it. Mixing personal and professional matters at work is no good. Alice is usually so strict about drawing lines, she won’t even make eye contact with me, so I was just too happy that she ran to me today and relied on me. I thought I might die from excitement. I wonder if you can hear it, the sound of my heart.”

Huh? Alice tilted her head, maintaining eye contact with Umi with a strained half-smile.

(“What’s going on? Is Prince Yumikura a pretty unusual guy? Or rather, what is that false memory? Even if he’s going along with my on-the-spot lie, isn’t he being way too into it!?”)

It was a completely impromptu performance, with no rehearsal or discussion.

And the stage was the morning office, right after clocking in, with almost everyone present; the audience glued to the Yumikura Theater were real employees, whether she looked left or right.

Leaving aside Alice, a low-ranking employee who could be blown away by a breeze, in the case of Yumikura, the young elite from the founding family, this conduct in front of the employees felt like it had easily leaped far beyond what could be dismissed as “just fooling around.”

Umi tightened his arm around Alice, then lifted his face.

“Alice is dating me, and only me, for real. Or are you saying, Saito-san, that you had something going on with my girlfriend? I hear you’re about to get married? And that your fiancée is an employee at one of our branches? You didn’t think that just because she’s at a regional office, whatever you did at headquarters wouldn’t get found out? Some might say affairs and cheating are personal freedom, but I don’t like that. And if it’s all between company employees, the company can’t overlook it either.”

Smooth as flowing water.

(“‘Alice is dating me, and only me, for real’ is a complete lie. But when he says it so confidently, even I start to feel that way I’m pretty sure I wasn’t dating Yumikura-san. Huh?”)

Had she somehow ended up in a parallel world? Just as Alice began to doubt her own sanity, Umi spoke up brightly.

“For now, since we’re within work hours, let’s end non-work-related topics here. Everyone, please return to your duties. Let’s have a good day’s work today.”

Smoothly drawing the curtain on the Yumikura Theater, he smartly ordered the gathering to disperse.

As the employees began to scatter in a “Yeah, let’s get to work” atmosphere, not only did the hostile mood full of prejudice toward Alice vanish as if it were a lie, but even the air filled with congratulations for Akihisa’s marriage and promotion and sympathy for his stalking victim disappeared.

The female supervisor left behind with Akihisa awkwardly averted her eyes from Umi, and Akihisa, though looking unconvinced, turned his back and started walking away.

(“What is this feeling, like a curse has been lifted. Hah, could it be a dream? Was I just dreaming?”)

Though she thought checking her bank balance via her banking app might bring her back to reality, Alice felt like taking a chance on it being a dream.

Just then, she felt a stir in the air.

“Alice.”

Whispered in a deep, voice-actor-like low voice right by her ear, Alice let out a “Gwah—!” a thick, cartoonish scream you’d never hear in real life.

Umi, who chuckled softly again from very close by, continued whispering.

“Like a classic office story trope, I’d like to have a follow-up meeting in either the locked document room or, for some reason, the small conference room that’s been reserved. Which do you prefer?”

“Wh-what are you saying?”

Being alone in a locked room with a picture-perfect, handsome elite superior…

(“Even if this is being set up like a classic office story development… it’s a problem!”)

A handsome guy on Yumikura Umi’s level was someone to admire from afar, definitely not someone you wanted to share breathing space with.

Even now, because of the overly close distance, Alice’s legs were trembling, and if she weren’t being supported by his strong arm, she’d probably collapse on the spot.

The moment she thought about it, she became conscious of her contact with Umi, and her heart nearly stopped.

“Ahaha. You’re troubled, troubled. Sorry, was that too sudden a difficult choice? For now, how about lunch? I’ll come invite you later.”

Clearly stating what seemed like his genuine, somewhat twisted feelings with a laugh, Umi said “See you later” and released Alice.

After walking a few steps, he glanced back over his shoulder, fluttered a hand in a wave, and even winked.

(“He’s not a three-dimensional human. That’s the first time anyone’s winked at me. Prince Yumikura is fearsome.”)

And the one who had so spectacularly dragged that fearsome human into the dire straits of her life was none other than Alice herself.

With the mindset of a carp on the chopping block, she now had to wait for lunchtime.