I Reincarnated as the Villain in an Eroge, But Before I Realized, I Became a Capture Target
Translator: Reo
Editor: PalenMisha
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Luca POV 15 (Part 2)
Perhaps Noel had warned her ahead of time, but I never got an invitation from Camilla. And, when we got to the city and befriended Bennett, she didn’t come to my room that night. Instead, all of them slept in the next morning.
I chuckled as they apologised to me. They all seemed hungover, so I let them be for the day, heading out to the adventurer’s guild on my own.
This time I was going to get Zagan to accept my request to travel together.
But when I checked at the front desk, I was told that, unfortunately, Zagan hadn’t come in yet. Having no choice, I asked them to let me know when they saw him and went to take a look at the bulletin board where requests were posted.
Let’s see… G-rank requests would be over here. Dogsitting, cleaning the park… Ah, there’s a request to help clean the guild building. If I take this, then I’ll know when Zagan co— huh?
All of a sudden I felt Zagan’s presence, and when I turned to look at the entrance, he was actually there, stepping inside the guild. The moment I saw him the world seemed to sparkle and my heart started to race.
God, I liked him.
Since he wasn’t even trying to hide his overwhelmingly strong presence, everyone inside the guild was closely observing him. There were some who let out small shrieks, some who strengthened their bodies, and some who gulped in fear but kept their guards up.
In the middle of all that, Zagan, heading towards the front desk, stopped. He seemed to recognize me.
I was happy simply that I got to see him, but the fact that he didn’t ignore me made me even more ecstatic.
I felt the urge to share this joy with him, but from the perspective of the current Zagan, this was only our second time meeting. So instead, in an effort not to frighten him, I put on my princely smile.
“Zagan, what an unexpected surprise. Are you here to help around as well?”
“Luca Soleil, was it…? I see that even a prince takes on requests from the guild.”
“I wanted to be of help to others even if only a little. Well, I say that, but I only recently registered with the guild so I can only tackle small requests at the moment.”
The reason he’d gotten so close—close enough that our shoulders were almost touching—was because he was looking at the requests I’d been inspecting, confirming what I was saying, right? Still, it made me happy. I could feel my cheeks growing red.
I couldn’t see his eyes because of his hood, but judging by how his head moved, he was skimming through the requests. Then at one point, the movement stopped, his head staying still for several seconds. It seemed he’d found something he was interested in. Judging by the angle, was it this one?
When I pulled the request notice off the board, his head followed my movements. Seemed like I got the right one.
“This… would you like to do it together?”
It was a dogsitting request. Reading it more closely, it was a request asking for help in taking care of the dogs at a nearby pet daycare.
Probably, just like the request to clean the guild, it was a G-rank task meant for beginners, where they could do a proper job, but under supervision. Perhaps if a fifteen-year-old were taking on their first request, the guild staff would recommend something like this.
Zagan’s interest in it was because he liked dogs, right?
Thinking about it, in that room, I did see him petting a dog from time to time.
Instead of asking him about that, I brought my face closer, peering inside his hood, trying to gauge his expression.
Yup… it was hard to tell by his expressionless face, but the atmosphere around him felt gentler than before.
By the way, if you stare at me like that with those beautiful red eyes from this distance, my heart will start pounding, you know?
I know I was the one who brought my face close to his, but he didn’t avert his head nor did he take a step back. Just what was his personal space like?
Ah, his gaze dropped down for a second, but then he was back to staring back at me just as fast.
“If it’s just for a bit, I guess I could give you a hand…”
Huh? What was that cute thing? A tsundere? Was Zagan a tsundere? He really wanted to, but he couldn’t admit it, so he said it in such a roundabout way? Did he notice he was blushing slightly? And why does he keep staring at me if he’s so embarrassed? It made me want to kiss those adorable cheeks.
“Luca?”
Aaaaaah, so cute!!! Calling my name while tilting his head all confused like that. No!
“Sorry, it’s nothing. I’ll go tell them we’re taking this.” I put on my usual smile, heading straight to the front desk and putting some distance between us in a way that hopefully seemed natural.
That was dangerous. Zagan was so cute, I almost lost my mind. I never felt as grateful as I did now that I was good at putting on a fake smile.
Yeah, yup, mhm. He’d already decided what request to take and was super looking forward to it, so he was trailing after me without taking a closer look at the bulletin board. He even stood right next to me while we were waiting to receive approval from the front desk. Haaaa so cute!
When they asked to see our guild cards, Zagan gently placed his S-rank card next to my G-rank one. Why was even that small movement cute? Or was it because I was blinded by love?
“The two of us will be taking this,” I urged the staff member who had frozen upon seeing Zagan.
“U-understood,” they responded, trying to hurry despite how flustered they were.
After receiving the documents that needed to be verified at the daycare and a map, we quickly headed out.
“Hey, Zagan.”
When I called out to him, he responded with a “Hm?” and looked up at me. Truly adorable.
“I can’t wait to see what kind of cuties they have there.”
“That’s right.”
Even the way he nodded was cute.
There was so much I wanted to ask him, but for the sake of growing closer, I couldn’t suddenly dive into the deep end. First off –
“Now that I think about it, you were initially heading towards the front desk, didn’t you have some business to attend to?”
“I was going to sell some of the materials I have on hand and order bentos to take with me when I’m dungeon diving. So it doesn’t matter either way if I do it before or after this.”
“I see. Having food is important. Have you ever made the bentos yourself?”
“Never. Cooking would be a waste of time.”
“Considering your rank though, you probably get a lot of high-quality food ingredients from monsters, no? Do you sell it all?”
“If it’s grilling meat, I can at least do that…”
In other words, he was bad at cooking but he didn’t want to say it out loud. So cute.
Zagan looked up at me again, perhaps because a giggle had escaped me. Since he was expressionless, it was hard to tell if he was angry, sulking, or just simply reacting to the noise.
“How about you, Luca? A prince like you probably never had to cook before.”
He turned the question back on me, so did that mean he was sulking?
It might improve his mood if I told him I couldn’t cook either, but I didn’t want to lie to Zagan.
“When I went on expeditions with my teachers I’d cook from time to time, so I can make simple stuff, like stir-fry or stew.”
“Really? That’s impressive.” Zagan blinked a couple of times, then praised me straightforwardly.
I was relieved – it seemed like it didn’t bother him too much.
Speaking of which, wasn’t Zagan always complimenting me throughout the different loops?
It was kind of hard to tell since his tone basically mocked people and his words were rude, but whenever we’d faced each other for real, he’d told me I wasn’t too bad.
Being praised by Zagan for the first time in a while made my chest feel warm with a mixture of nostalgia and love. I couldn’t stand it – I wanted to hug him. But we weren’t even friends yet.
Noticing my arm reaching out to him, I clenched my fist tightly and lowered it back down, hoping he didn’t see.
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