Chapter 17
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: Drug Smuggler
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“Then again, she has the face of someone who’s never known a day of hardship. Like a noble lady.”
“Right. I’ve never seen such a stunning face in my life.”
“Star candy. Yes. Pretty as a piece of star candy, isn’t she?”
The cringeworthy comparison made Ethan’s skin crawl. He could understand why everyone brought up star candy when they saw Cherry, yet he couldn't understand it at all.
“Still, our young bachelor here is quite the looker himself. The two of them would make a fine pair.”
“Looks to me like he’s always trailing after the young lady from the abandoned house.”
“I have done no such thing.”
Ethan narrowed his eyes, his displeasure immediately evident. The villagers exchanged glances once again.
They were unsettling looks, but Ethan decided to ignore them and stood up.
“Where are you off to?”
Inspector Hans asked, watching Ethan grab his jacket from the back of the chair.
“Going to see the young lady from the abandoned house, I bet.”
The innkeeper answered for Ethan in a low voice.
“No…”
He’d reflexively started to deny it but caught himself. It was true that he was about to visit Cherry’s mansion for surveillance.
At that, the villagers' eyes twinkled as they looked at Ethan.
*Tsk.* Ethan clicked his tongue in annoyance, put on his police cap, and informed Inspector Hans.
“I’m going on patrol.”
* * *
I set up the scarecrow in a corner of the garden and opened the main gate.
Workers were busy repairing various parts of the mansion.
After buying furniture in Kintne yesterday, I had requested a house call from some repairmen.
And today, just like that, the workers had come out to fix up the mansion.
Of course, that was thanks to offering them five times their usual fee.
I told them I’d pay half the wages upfront and the other half upon completion within a week, and they all came running.
*‘Money really is the best. Being rich is the best!’*
I had no idea how lucky I was to have been born an heiress. I could even prepare for the apocalypse this easily.
Just then, the worker repairing the wall approached and spoke to me.
“Miss, you asked for torches to be installed on the wall, right?”
I nodded.
“Please make the wall much higher, thicker, and sturdier than it is now. And install wall-mounted iron torches on the outer face. Put barbed wire on top of the wall, too.”
“Wall-mounted iron torches on the outside of the wall? The outside?”
The workman confirmed with me several times. When I nodded firmly, he scratched the back of his head, remarking that it was the strangest request he’d ever heard.
Well, it probably did seem strange.
The structures I was requesting were defensive measures I’d devised after carefully studying the characteristics of the virus monsters described in the novel.
*‘They’re weak to heat, so I need to use fire to keep them away from the walls.’*
My plan was to install torches on the outer wall to threaten the monsters and keep them from approaching.
I couldn’t keep them lit all the time since they’d attract attention, but they would serve as a decent temporary measure.
Anyway, as I watched the wall repairs progressing, I turned to the workman who was supposed to fix the main gate.
Several strong men arrived and set down a massive stone gate. I decided to call it the Stone Gate from now on.
“I heard there’s a habitat for wild animals like bears in the forest. I need a gate sturdy enough that even a bear couldn’t break it down.”
“This should do it. It’s incredibly sturdy. Took a whole lot of effort to find.”
The workman said, wiping the sweat from his brow. I’m sure it did. As I said before, that’s why I gave him a generous five times the usual pay.
“Is it easy to open and close?”
“Well, it’s not exactly easy. It’s a stone gate, after all. This stone crossbar, in particular, is a bit heavy for one person to lift. But it’s sturdy. Once you bar it, there’s no way to open it from the outside.”
The other workers were finishing the installation of the Stone Gate. Just as the workman had said, the crossbar was also made of stone and looked solid.
It looked heavy enough to require two workers to lift it, but with my superhuman strength, that wouldn’t be a problem.
Only after meticulously checking the Stone Gate’s installation process did I prepare to tend the garden. This time, I planned to plant some Elpinus Herb.
Luckily, the box of Elpinus Herb I’d secured from the mansion at number 61 contained not only the herbs but also seeds. A considerable amount, at that.
*‘I think they said there was a place where Elpinus Herb grows wild. Should I go herb gathering?’*
After planting the herbs, I would start on the vegetable patch. It was late spring, just before summer, which was, very luckily, the perfect season for planting crops.
*‘Wait, every time I think things are going my way, something awful is bound to happen…’*
No, it can’t be… It’s not like I’m jinxed or something.
I shook my head and looked out at the untidy garden.
For the vegetable patch at Happy House, I had prepared tomatoes, cabbages, onions, carrots, potatoes, and green onions.
In this world without modern refrigerators, I couldn’t store food for long, so the only thing I could do was grow it myself…!
First, I stopped by the general store in the village and bought every type of shovel, hoe, hand plow, trowel, and watering can they had. Next, I didn’t forget to purchase a gardening outfit.
I bought a generous two-year supply of seeds.
Back at Happy House, I immediately changed into my ‘gardening outfit.’ It consisted of a jumpsuit, boots, a straw hat pulled down low, and a towel wrapped around my neck.
*‘Ugh. I hate these clothes so much.’*
The rumors about Cherry Sinclair being fashion-sensitive were not false. Even with memories of my past life mixed in with my current one, I had still lived as Cherry for a full nineteen years.
I was the type of person who would rather die than give up my dresses and jewelry, but there was no way I could tend a garden in a dress.
Anyway, after getting all geared up, I started pulling weeds with a hand plow. Only after all the weeds were gone could I till the field with a hoe.
*‘I’m really working hard.’*
Thinking that, I wiped the sweat from my face with the towel.
*‘Hoo…’*
A while later, exhausted, I let out a hot breath and stared blankly up at the sky.
It was an afternoon with the sun beating down fiercely.
The sun was blazing… So it was hot, and tiring…
I was hungry.
*‘Did I really want to work this hard?’*
This is what they mean by asking for trouble. But the future Cherry will thank me.
Just as I was thinking that and picked up the hand plow again.
“Freeze.”
Someone was pointing a revolver at me. Startled, I looked up to see it was Ethan. What the. When did he get here?
I glanced to the side. The main gate was open. The workers who had been installing it had backed away, their faces shocked.
“Aargh!”
Just then, the workman repairing the wall saw the gun, screamed, and fell off his ladder. Ethan didn’t even blink as he barked an order at me.
“Cherry Sinclair. I’m arresting you on the spot for drug smuggling.”
Wait, what?
“Drug smuggling?”
“Don’t even think about making excuses. Those herbs and seeds over there—they’re drugs, aren’t they?”
Ethan pointed to the Elpinus Herb and the herb box on the ground.
It seemed he assumed that any herb-like thing I possessed must naturally be a drug.
Seriously, what is with my reputation?
“Hah… I knew it was suspicious for the Cherry Sinclair to come down to this rural backwater and live in seclusion.”
Ethan stared at me with contempt.
See? I knew it. The moment I think I’m lucky, something damn awful happens right after.
From now on, you can just call me Murphy Sinclair, damn it.
* * *
In the end, I was stuck at the Brunel police station all afternoon.
And at Ethan’s request, a narcotics investigator from the Benton Police Department and a medical consultant specializing in narcotics were dispatched that evening to determine if the herbs were indeed drugs.
The problem was the medical consultant.
I carefully studied the doctor standing with the narcotics investigator and Ethan.
He was wearing a luxurious suit that was out of place in this rural town. And atop his dark navy hair sat a top hat, the symbol of a gentleman. Yes. The kind of hat Arsène Lupin wore.
Above all, his striking good looks immediately captured one’s attention. Furthermore, his sweet, honey-colored eyes were constantly filled with amusement.
If it weren’t for the lollipop in his mouth, he would have looked like quite the gentleman.
*‘Knox Cornell Ludpersher.’*
The doctor before me was the second male lead from the novel *Love in a Ruined World*.
*‘What are you doing here?!’*
I was definitely cursed. All I did was steal some Elpinus Herb from the mansion at number 61 and flee to Brunel!
The novel’s main setting was clearly the capital, Benton, yet for some reason, the main characters were all gathering in this rural town before the world had even ended.
Is this what they call the butterfly effect…