Chapter 5

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 5

Chapter Title: I'm a Homebody, but I Got Possessed into a Dark Captivity Novel

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'I'm screwed.'

Really, truly screwed.

With a face so devastatingly handsome right in front of me, the only thought I could muster was this.

But I quickly pulled myself together and shook my head. I even forced an awkward smile as I did.

"W-Well, I... I have no idea what you're talking about..."

I actually know the future. This world is the novel I read, and I possessed a character in it.

...But there's no way I could say that, not even if my mouth were ripped open.

No evidence anyway, so flat-out denial is the way to survive!

I decided to play dumb.

"That's not something I did. Haha."

"Princess."

The duke called me in a heavy tone.

"Do you know how the empire deals with liars?"

"......"

"They start with brutally cruel torture. If you still don't confess, they rip your mouth open."

What?

B-But! Even if I told you, would you believe me?

At best, they wouldn't toss me into that mountain convent that's basically a loony bin.

...Wait. Wouldn't convent life be so bad?

"Daydreaming so leisurely in front of me."

"Eep!"

Why is he so sharp?

I was about to blurt something out, but my voice was too quiet, so the duke spoke first.

"But you're no ordinary criminal, so I can't treat you that way."

'Why do you keep toying with my heart like that?!'

The fingers lifting my chin released me, but I stayed rigid as stone.

The duke, now a step away, flashed that picture-perfect smile again.

"I left you in a deliberately harsh environment, yet you stayed quiet. No complaints at all, from what I heard. Are you expecting the Salt Kingdom to come rescue you someday?"

"...?"

"You lived as royalty, never imagining you'd face treatment like this. Is it just remarkable courage, or do you have some ace up your sleeve?"

His words sparked a sudden curiosity.

Why was the room they gave me so comfortable, even while hiding my easily exposed identity with lies?

It was simple, but the three meals a day lacked nothing.

Why did Liam keep assuming I'd try to escape from this cozy spot?

'No way... They don't actually know how I've been living?'

Then everything I've enjoyed so far was some kind of punishment?

It was absurd, considering I'd spent my days in a bug-infested room that sweltered by day and froze by night.

I clenched my jaw tight to stifle a hollow laugh.

If he was mistaken, and that mistake worked in my favor, no need to correct him.

I steeled myself and spoke.

"I don't know what you're getting at, but... even if I did, I'm a princess of the Salt Kingdom. I can't divulge internal national affairs."

The duke's face turned icy.

"So you won't say where the leak came from."

But I wasn't as terrified as before.

If he'd decided to kill me, he wouldn't bother with this hassle.

Plus, since he suspected an information leak, he'd keep me around to dig something up.

In that case...

'In that case, thank you very much!'

In the original story, Salt falls anyway.

I worked hard at first because I didn't realize I'd possessed the body, then because I worried about the innocent people who'd suffer.

But now, there's nothing I can do.

So the only thing left for me is one option.

"I-If you don't trust me, just lock me up!"

"...What?"

"I can't go around spouting fake knowledge about things I don't know just to save my neck and harm innocent people, so..."

The duke stared at me in disbelief, but I pressed on undeterred.

"Sure, being cooped up in a stuffy room unable to do anything is torture that flays the flesh and carves the bones... but I'll humbly accept it!"

After a long silence, the duke muttered a simple impression and approached silently, like a predator sizing up prey.

Thump, thump, thump.

My heart pounded wildly in sync with his closing distance.

"...Stubborn."

Fortunately, he said just that, then brushed past me lightly and sat down.

"Then I'll share some regrettable news with the ignorant princess—one that someone in the know would hate to hear."

His flat voice carried no emotion.

"What...?"

But I understood his meaning before I could finish asking.

He pulled a single sheet from his breast pocket and showed it to me.

A very familiar format—the exact same as documents from the Salt Kingdom.

"Ah..."

I couldn't pretend not to know.

I gaped at the neat seal stamped at the bottom.

'Did they just stamp that right there?'

A trade certificate.

The item was the wheat I'd stockpiled against Kletan's unilateral export halt.

Remeia had sold it right back to the empire.

Are you insane!?

"W-Wait a second."

Why would the empire, overflowing with wheat, pay exorbitant fees to buy it back?

But as I skimmed the document in my panic, I froze solid.

"Th-This..."

"Something wrong?"

Wrong?

Obviously.

"Give it here!"

I lunged for it, but the duke swiftly snatched it back and tucked it away.

"You claim to know nothing."

"I know nothing! What don't I know! Even if I don't know! B-But!"

Panting wildly, I protested in a near scream.

"Even so, this... this is something anyone but an idiot would spot!"

"So, what is it?"

Under his relentless questioning, I answered with a grimace.

"This deal... it's a scam..."

The intermediary guild's seal next to the princess's was one I'd never seen in trades with the empire.

Interstate deals usually go through certified major guilds, so why insert an unknown one?

This was textbook trade fraud—skimming goods or fees in the middle.

So common that anyone in operations would know instantly.

'Remeia!'

You can punch such a hole in the economy this fast.

I was genuinely impressed.

"Ah."

I looked up at the duke in dismay.

"No way... Did you set this up...?"

My reflection stared back from his beautifully curved green eyes.

"Normally, the side that falls for it is the fool... but oddly, things aren't going well in Princess Remeia's office, where you worked."

I gritted my teeth and replied.

"That's... none of my business."

"Right, of course not."

The duke chuckled leisurely, then ordered flatly.

"Take her away, as the princess wishes. Guard her so she can't escape."

"Yes, sir."

It wasn't even a loud command, but knights appeared from somewhere and seized my arms.

Dragged away like a criminal in custody, my eyes stayed fixed on the duke.

'That's too much.'

The original story describes Salt Kingdom on the brink of ruin.

The trade routes were already cut off, and stockpiled food was gone.

People starved to death, plagues spread from corpses, turning it into a living hell.

I'd tried to soften that fate, even a little.

The book's description was just fiction, but the Salt I lived in was a real world with real people.

Yet Remeia had thrown away even that last bastion with her own hands.

A surge of resentment slipped from my lips unbidden.

"Couldn't you just let it slide a little...?"

"Me?"

The duke replied as if hearing something amusing.

"No reason to."

Bang.

With that, the door slammed shut right in front of me.