I Don’t Want To Be The Protagonist of a Romance Novel – Chapter 43

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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As the alcohol wore off, he woke up from his sleep at some point, his eyes fluttering open.

The first thing he felt was a sense of bewilderment.

What the heck, why am I here?

That kind of feeling.

“……”

Lifting the blanket and checking underneath, he was wearing outdoor clothes, not pajamas. No wonder he had felt uncomfortable tossing and turning in his sleep.

It wasn’t to the point of being too tight, but it felt like he had fallen asleep wearing jeans.

He began to slowly ruminate on why he had fallen asleep in his outdoor clothes yesterday.

He clearly remembered going out alone with Eileen and having something like a date.

It was just an ordinary day.

Except for the typical date spots from his previous life being strangely transformed into a medieval fantasy setting, there wasn’t anything particularly special.

And at the end, when they had gone to a restaurant that Eileen used to frequent as a regular when she was attending the academy to have dinner, they had drunk the complimentary alcohol while eating.

While drinking…

“…Damn it?”

Although he didn’t intend to, a curse slipped out of his mouth.

No, how could I, who could remain sober even after chugging a bottle of soju, get drunk and have a blackout just from drinking a few glasses of wine?

It was absurd.

While he was past the age of taking pride in his high alcohol tolerance, it was still disconcerting to wake up with a blackout after drinking just a few glasses of wine.

…He wasn’t unaware that alcohol tolerance wasn’t something that could be overcome by willpower alone, but was greatly influenced by one’s innate constitution.

He could simply accept that his body in this life was weak to alcohol, but he couldn’t help feeling perplexed.

No matter how long it had been since he last drank, even though his head had been strangely throbbing for a while, it turned out to be due to a hangover.

“…Ah, this is ridiculous.”

You’ve become weak, Rudrick Weiss.

He should have noticed when the wine tasted bitter instead of sweet, but to think he would have a blackout after having just a few glasses as a side drink.

Recalling the memories of his previous life, when he had never missed a single drinking session, he couldn’t help but shake his head.

As he continued to sigh alone, shake his head, or talk to himself, he felt a gaze steadily watching him.

“…Are you awake? I’m not sure what you were thinking about, but for a monologue, it was quite noisy.”

A pair of amethyst eyes were staring at him intently.

A cat that had been curled up at the foot of the bed was looking at him with a mixture of strange emotions.

“Good morning, Arwen.”

“…It’s not particularly good.”

He tried to brush it off by greeting her as casually as possible, but Arwen sighed.

Stop sighing in your cat form. It’s hard to get used to.

“Why isn’t it good?”

“…Rudrick, do you remember what happened yesterday?”

“…No.”

His attitude naturally became respectful.

In his previous life, he had rarely gotten drunk, and he had almost never been drunk to the point of having a blackout, so he had no idea what he might have done.

He really couldn’t predict it at all.

When he got drunk, even if someone tried to give him a ride or call a taxi, he had the habit of insisting on walking home alone, no matter what…

“Well, it’s better that you don’t remember.”

“…What on earth did I do when I was drunk?”

“At first, it made me sweat a bit, but if you think of it as seeing a side of you that you can’t usually see, it was alright.”

“So what exactly happened?”

Judging by Arwen’s words, something had definitely happened, but not being able to remember what it was made him go crazy with curiosity.

Arwen left those words and disappeared through the door, still in her cat form, without answering.

…At least tell me what I did before you go.

For now, he washed his face, quickly rinsed his hair, and changed his clothes, as it was time to go to the research lab.

And right in front of the research lab door, he ran into his mentor.

“Rudrick, good morning.”

“Yes, I hope you slept well too, mentor?”

“I stayed up all night, so my condition isn’t great in the morning. This is why aging is no good. Take good care of yourself too, Rudrick.”

His mentor clicked his tongue and patted Rudrick’s shoulder as he usually did before passing by.

“Ah, by the way, Her Grace the Grand Duchess should be inside.”

“…Eileen is still here?”

“She hasn’t been able to have an audience with Her Majesty yet, so it seems she will be staying in the capital for a few more days. And I heard that your drunken state yesterday was quite something. Haha.”

Leaving those words behind, his mentor walked away.

Again?

At this point, he was starting to get scared.

What on earth did his drunken self do that everyone was avoiding talking about it and bringing it up whenever they saw him?

After mentally preparing himself, he opened the door to the research lab and saw two people sitting on chairs.

Sylphia and Eileen.

“…Good morning?”

“……”

“……”

And in response to his awkward greeting, the two of them avoided his gaze as if they had agreed upon it.

Even for him, that reaction was structurally unavoidable to be hurtful.

An awkward silence hung in the air.

It was becoming an atmosphere he really disliked.

Like the self-introduction time at the beginning of a semester when everyone was uncomfortable.

When someone tried to be the first to speak, everyone’s attention would be focused on them, making it burdensome, and naturally, they would only glance at each other, creating a suffocating atmosphere.

Similarly, the two of them were not saying anything and just observing his reactions, which he could no longer tolerate.

How could he study magic in this atmosphere?

“Eileen, and Sylphia.”

Their gazes turned towards him.

At least he had succeeded in capturing their attention.

“What exactly happened yesterday? Tell me quickly.”

“…Well, that’s…”

Sylphia trailed off.

Surely he couldn’t have done something like in a cute novel, where he would slam his hand against the wall and say, “Hey, be mine,” or cling to them, saying he liked them, right?

If he had really done that, it wouldn’t just be a moment for kicking the blanket, but a moment for hanging himself.

With an anxious heart, he waited for the next words to come out of Sylphia’s mouth, and she mumbled with a flushed face.

“That side of you was also new and nice. It was hard to imagine it coming from the usual Rudrick…”

“Although it caused me to be misunderstood… In any case, it seems necessary to keep a distance from alcohol, Rudrick.”

Eileen chimed in from the side, causing his strength to drain from his body.

He didn’t understand what they were saying, but he had a feeling that it would be faster to just move on to the next life.

Yes, should I just die?

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“So that’s how it is.”

Elena muttered as she held the report and stroked her chin.

Elena Esgelant.

The prestigious position of being the Second Princess of the empire naturally allowed her to have most of the authority in her hands.

If she wanted to, she could even access the top-secret information compiled by the counterintelligence department.

In the empire, the position of an imperial family member, not even a collateral but the Second Princess who could ascend to the throne in case of an emergency, held such significance.

That’s why.

Elena became lost in thought as she read the report submitted in writing by the counterintelligence department.

The Nord Grand Duchess’s visit to the capital would naturally take the form of using a teleportation magic circle, and due to her characteristics as a high-ranking noble who was distant from the central political scene of the empire, her every move was naturally a subject of interest to the empire’s counterintelligence department.

Given who she was, they couldn’t openly monitor her, but they still had to grasp her movements in advance, as it was a matter that couldn’t be helped.

Eileen, having reached such a level, must have also sensed the movements of the counterintelligence department implicitly.

Thanks to that, the report had Eileen’s activities from yesterday neatly summarized.

However, there was one major problem with that report.

“…I don’t like this.”

Elena clicked her tongue.

At the end of the report, there was a side note mentioning the name Rudrick Weiss for the position of the Nord Duchess’ lover, which was still vacant.

To put it simply and clearly, this report could be regarded as a summary of Eileen and Rudrick’s date.

Eileen, who had long passed the marriageable age but had been living a life distant from men, had spent the entire day enjoying actions that could only be seen as a date with a man.

Naturally, from the perspective of the counterintelligence department, whose job was to collect, process, and organize information, they couldn’t help but think that Eileen, who hadn’t even had a fiancé until now, had finally decided to get married.

Although she understood it in her head, Elena’s brows furrowed.

“I should have been in that position.”

Tsk.

Elena clicked her tongue again.

She didn’t like it.

Really.

While someone had become mentally impatient and made a reckless move, only to be rejected to her face, hurting her fragile heart, her cousin was leisurely enjoying a date under the guise of an outing, laughing and having a good time.

It was a billion light-years away from the sensibility of a tyrant.

Who was she?

Elena Esgelant.

Wasn’t she the ruthless empress who had unhesitatingly killed even her own blood relatives and usurped the throne, and even now, after the regression, was steadily making plans to aim for the throne again?

To borrow an expression from before the regression, as an empress who had worn a crown washed in blood, she had to get her hands on whatever she wanted in order to feel satisfied.

“…This won’t do.”

Elena muttered and began to ponder deeply.

Failure is the mother of success.

There was no rule that said she had to give up just because she had been rejected once.

Moreover, scheming was one of her greatest strengths, so it was time to search for a way without giving up.

At the very least, Elena’s determination wasn’t so weak as to be shaken by something like this.

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