The Heir I Dragged Into My “He’s My Fiancé!” Lie Is Somehow Playing Along!? - Chapter 1.7

—My hobbies are cooking and gaming, so I’m extremely indoorsy and never want to leave the house on my days off.

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A date at home right after meeting someone has an impossibly high hurdle.

Alice, being an adult woman, thought she understood that point well.

Even if it was under the influence of alcohol, she was aware she’d made a careless promise.

On the other hand, since she’d heard what seemed to be Kai’s true feelings, it was incredibly hard to say, “Actually, let’s meet up somewhere outside instead.”

(Well, I didn’t exactly invite him to my place, but I did take him straight to a cheap izakaya near the station. Even though I dragged him into my territory, it’s hard to ask the Prince to “bend his principles, leave his house, and spend his day off doing something he doesn’t want to do.” I can’t say it.)

The only thing Alice has to rely on here is the fact that Kai isn’t the aggressively flashy type.

He never said it outright, but the women who’d ask that Kai to “take them out” were probably stunning beauties. Considering the nature of his work in PR, they might even be celebrities.

From his comment about turning them down with, “Sugar dating? Don’t ask me,” there was absolutely no scent of a womanizer about him.

In that case, his “I’ll cook, so why don’t you come over?” to Alice really must be just a casual invitation to hang out. To put it another way, it wouldn’t be strange at all if it were just like Liu Bei inviting Guan Yu over.

(If I were Zhuge Liang, I might make him beg a few times, but I don’t think I’m the brilliant strategist who’ll bring the Prince a sweeping victory later. So, I’ll just stick with being Guan Yu. Should I just take his words at face value and go with the intention of eating a delicious meal?)

After enjoying a fun conversation and delicious drinks at her usual, comforting izakaya, Alice returned home, slept soundly, and went to work as usual. But while she worked, her mind was completely occupied with the impending visit to the Prince’s home the next day.

“…But if it’s where the Prince lives, then that’s practically a palace. Is sake okay for a gift…?”

As she was agonizing over this, her neighbor Ishizuka, who had been glancing her way, leaned in and whispered to her.

“Shirotsuki-san, I don’t think you like this kind of talk, but let me just say one thing. Yesterday’s farewell party for Saito-kun was a total flop.”

Saito? Hearing the name of someone she’d left behind light-years ago, Alice turned to face Ishizuka.

Her head was so full of sake brands that she nearly blurted out something weird, so she swallowed her words once.

She calmed her feelings and replied.

“Thank you for your concern. I’ve been thinking a lot since yesterday, too. Until now, I thought I was pretty cool for ‘not sticking my nose into gossip and not chatting much at work.’ But I think that made me seem really unapproachable to everyone. Please let me know if anything else comes up. The story about the farewell party being a flop is super interesting.”

She realized, as soon as she said it, that her true feelings—enjoying the misfortune of a con artist—had slipped out.

But Ishizuka looked oddly relieved and quickly leaned in closer to whisper in her ear.

“It’s the section chief. Ever since Saito-kun joined the company, the chief has taken him under his wing and doted on him. So when Saito came to him for advice, saying, ‘I’m being stalked by Shirotsuki-san,’ the chief got all fired up, like righteous indignation or something. It seems he got carried away. He was absolutely determined to drive you out of the company.”

“Wha—? So, my position was pretty precarious?”

A shiver ran down Alice’s spine, and her face stiffened.

Nodding, Ishizuka leaned in even further and said, “Yes, you.”

“Saito-kun said, ‘The person I want to marry is at a regional branch, so this is a good chance for me to transfer there as a field employee. Since we’re long-distance, I don’t want any weird rumors reaching my fiancée, so I’d prefer not to be treated as important within the company. I’d like everyone to cooperate in keeping the fact of my transfer from Shirotsuki-san until the last possible moment. Even if there’s a demotion for Shirotsuki-san, I’m afraid of retaliation, so I’d like any moves to be made only after I’m gone.’ So, everyone was stuck.”

“So, the chief took that at face value and decided on his own to enforce it within the department? Ugh… That’s dirty.”

She managed to hold back the outburst—Perish, you villain, vanish from this earth for the time being.

(Maybe I’m finally starting to grasp the situation. It’s true that the chief and I didn’t get along. I think there was a good chance that in the next personnel shuffle, the chief would be transferred somewhere and I’d be promoted. At a time like that, he was approached by a young male employee he’d already been favoring, and it was material he could use to bring me down, so he made full use of it.)

If there was a miscalculation, it was probably that he didn’t understand Alice’s temperament.

Since she’d never been particularly close with anyone to begin with, she didn’t really notice if people kept their distance, and in that sense, she wasn’t damaged at all. There might have been employees who were blatantly avoiding her, but she didn’t pay it any mind.

Of course, that’s also why Akihisa’s marriage scam succeeded.

Alice learned the hard way that deliberately isolating yourself like a rogue is dangerous.

While Alice was lost in these thoughts, Ishizuka sighed and muttered beside her.

“If the chief miscalculated…”

“Huh?”

Did she read my mind? Alice flinched, and Ishizuka gave her a curious look before continuing.

“I think he was probably planning to take this up with upper management as a serious employee issue. Or rather, he might have already taken steps and gotten the story through. But then, out of nowhere, the Prince showed up yesterday.”

“Ahh…”

Feeling foolish, Alice could only say, “Ahh…”

(That’s it! I thought the story about Prince Yumikura overhearing my conversation with Akihisa was fishy, but maybe he’d actually heard about it beforehand. With his personality, it’s possible he was investigating it himself to determine the truth. In that case, him showing up yesterday wasn’t a coincidence at all. Maybe he came to swing the axe?)

Before Kai, who must have had that intention, could make his move, Alice had already acted.

From Alice’s perspective, she thought she’d jumped straight onto the bad ending route. But then Kai, who knew everything, forcibly smashed the instant death flag and switched her to the survival route.

Even for Kai, it was a desperate move by going along with the engagement announcement.

(The Prince, he’s really a prince…! No wonder Guan Yu wanted to follow him! Show that kind of chivalry, and any warrior would fall for him. The pinnacle of bromance… On top of having such a handsome face, he’s cool on the inside, too. Prince Yumikura is too divine.)

They’d been drinking alone together for so long yesterday; he’d had plenty of opportunities to tell Alice the whole story.

And yet, Kai hadn’t given even a hint of it.

He didn’t try to make Alice feel indebted to him; on the contrary, he even said, “Since I made a declaration of dating, I really do want to date.”

He’s so straightforward, it makes you worry he might get tricked by bad people.

Even if Alice, who just got tricked by a bad person, worries about him, it probably won’t resonate with him at all. He might just give her a disappointed look and say, “For you to say that…”

“Hey, I had no idea you and the Prince were dating. I don’t think anyone knew. It was so cool when he called you ‘Alice’ so boldly~. Which one was it? Did you ask him to call you Alice?”

Now it was her turn to be asked. Ishizuka, looking intensely curious as if to say, “Information is a trade,” prompted Alice to firmly correct her.

“No. I asked him to call me Guan Yu.”

“…Huh?”

Ishizuka blinked in confusion. “Forget I said that,” Alice said, trying to forcibly end the conversation.

(I’ve always been bad at small talk. I can’t say anything meaningful, the conversation never takes off, and I end up making people give me weird looks. The Prince, who talked so calmly for hours yesterday, is a mystery. What was that about?)

Ishizuka didn’t press further, and as if worried the conversation had gone on too long, she leaned in one last time and whispered to Alice.

“At yesterday’s farewell party, the chief looked pale, and Saito-kun seemed out of sorts, too. We all just drank and ate on our own and left quickly. At that rate, it would’ve been better not to go at all.”

Alice tried to think of something to add, but nothing came to mind in the moment, and the conversation ended there.

(I’d like to say “karma’s a bitch,” but no matter how you look at it, this is the Prince effect. Yesterday, Prince Yumikura told me regarding my career advancement, ‘You need to work a little harder,’ but maybe he’d already looked up my work performance without my knowing.)

And on top of that, he might have given me the valuable advice, “You’re not so outstanding that you can just replace the section chief.”

Under the circumstances, she should take work hours seriously and focus on her job. She told herself she had to produce results.

After that, she concentrated on her work.

Akihisa was on paid leave to prepare for his transfer, so he wasn’t in the office to begin with, and thus out of sight.

The section chief seemed to be conscious of Alice, but since there was no work-related reason to talk, he didn’t approach her.