The Male Leads Are Trapped in My House

“Well, I guess she does look like someone who’s never had to struggle a day in her life. Like a noble lady.”

“Exactly. I’ve never seen such a dazzling face before.”

“Like sugar crystals. Yeah, just like sugar crystals, right?”

Ethan shivered at the cringeworthy metaphor. He could understand why people kept comparing Cherry to sugar crystals, yet he couldn’t fully grasp it either.

“Well, our young bachelor is quite a looker himself, so they do make a good pair.”

“I saw him trailing after the lady like a lost puppy.”@@novelbin@@

“That never happened.”

Ethan furrowed his brows and immediately showed his displeasure. The villagers exchanged glances again.

Their expressions were somehow irritating, but Ethan decided to ignore them and stood up.

“Where are you off to?”

Hans, the innkeeper, asked as he watched Ethan grab the jacket draped over his chair.

“I bet he’s going to see the lady in the mansion.”

The innkeeper muttered quietly, answering on Ethan’s behalf.

“No…”

Ethan instinctively started to deny it but shut his mouth. The truth was, he had indeed planned to visit Cherry’s mansion under the pretense of surveillance.

The villagers’ eyes sparkled as they stared at him.

Tch. Ethan clicked his tongue in annoyance, put on his police cap, and informed Hans.

“I’m heading out for patrol.”

*****

I set up a scarecrow in one corner of the garden and opened the main gate.

The workers were diligently repairing various parts of the mansion.

Yesterday, after returning from Kintne village with furniture, I had hired contractors to handle the repairs.

And just today, they’d come out for on-site repairs.

Of course, it helped that I’d offered to pay five times the usual rate.

I paid half upfront and promised the rest upon completion within a week, and that had them rushing over immediately.

‘Money really is the best. Being rich is amazing!’

I couldn’t be more grateful to have been born an heiress. Preparing for the apocalypse like this had been so much easier.

Just then, one of the wall repair contractors approached me.

“Miss, you wanted torches installed on the walls, right?”

I nodded.

“Make the walls much higher, thicker, and sturdier than they are now. Also, install iron torch brackets on the outer walls. And add barbed wire on top of the walls.”

“You want iron torches installed outside the walls? On the outside?”

The contractor double-checked my request several times. When I firmly nodded again, he scratched the back of his head, clearly baffled by the strange order.

Well, it probably did seem odd.

But the structures I’d requested were carefully designed based on my analysis of the virus monsters described in the novel.

‘Those things are weak to heat, so I need to keep them from getting near the walls by lighting fires.’

The torches on the outer walls were meant to scare off the monsters.

Of course, I couldn’t keep the torches lit all the time since they’d attract attention, but they’d work as a temporary measure.

I watched the workers reinforce the walls and then turned to check on the contractors repairing the main gate.

Several laborers were lowering a massive stone gate into place. I decided to call it the Stone Gate from now on.

“I heard there are bears and other wild animals in the forest. I need a sturdy gate that won’t budge even if a bear tries to break in.”

“This should do the trick. It’s solid. It was a real pain to get our hands on it.”

The contractor wiped the sweat off his forehead. No doubt it had been. That’s why I’d paid them five times the usual rate.

“Is it easy to open and close?”

“Eh, not exactly. It’s a stone gate. Especially this stone latch—it’s pretty heavy to lift alone. But it’s sturdy. Once it’s locked, there’s no way to open it from the outside.”

The workers finished installing the Stone Gate. Just like the contractor said, the stone latch looked secure.

It was so heavy that it took two men to move it, but that wasn’t a problem for me—I had superhuman strength.

After carefully inspecting the gate installation, I prepared to start gardening. This time, I planned to plant an Elphinus Herb.

Fortunately, the box of Elphinus Herbs I’d retrieved from 61 Notium Street contained seeds as well as the herbs. There were plenty of them.

‘I think there’s supposed to be a natural habitat for Elphinus Herbs somewhere. Should I go gather more later?’

Once the herbs were planted, I’d expand the garden. It was late spring, just before summer—the perfect season for planting crops.

‘Wait, hold on. Whenever I think something’s going well, something awful always happens later…’

No, no. That couldn’t be. I wasn’t some tragic character like Kim Cheomji.

I shook my head and looked at the messy garden.

For now, I’d prepared tomatoes, cabbage, onions, carrots, potatoes, and green onions to plant in the Happy House garden.

Since there were no modern refrigerators in this world, I couldn’t store food for long periods. My only option was to grow it myself!

First, I stopped by the village’s general store and bought every kind of gardening tool available—shovels, hoes, hand plows, watering cans, and more. Then, I didn’t forget to pick out the perfect gardening outfit.

I also bought a two-year supply of seeds to be safe.

Back at the Happy House, I immediately changed into my “gardening look.” Wearing a jumpsuit, boots, a straw hat, and a towel around my neck, I was ready.

‘Ugh. I hate this outfit.’

Cherry Sinclair’s reputation for being fashion-conscious wasn’t a lie. Even though my past and present memories were mixed, I’d lived as Cherry for 19 years now.

I might be someone who could never give up dresses and jewelry, even in death, but gardening was one thing I just couldn’t do while dressed up.

After equipping myself properly, I began pulling weeds with a hoe. Only after clearing the weeds could I till the soil with a mattock.

‘I’m really working hard, aren’t I?’

Wiping the sweat off my face with a towel, I let out a deep sigh.

‘Whew…’

After some time, exhausted and hot, I tilted my head back to gaze at the sky.

It was a scorching afternoon.

The sun was blazing… and I was tired, sweaty… and starving.

‘Did I really want to work this hard?’

This must be what it meant to bring trouble upon yourself. But Future Cherry would thank me for this someday.

Just as I picked up the hoe again, it happened.

“Stop right there.”

Someone pointed a revolver at me. Startled, I looked up—and there stood Ethan. When did he get here?

I glanced to the side. The gate was open, and the workers installing it had stepped back, their faces frozen in shock.

“Ahhh!”

One of the contractors working on the wall screamed at the sight of the gun and fell off his ladder.

Ethan didn’t even flinch as he barked his next words.

“Cherry Sinclair. You are under arrest 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 Elphinus Herbs and seed boxes scattered on the ground.

He really thought that anything I had involving herbs must be drugs.

‘Why the hell does everyone think I’m a criminal?’

“Hah… I knew it. It was suspicious that Cherry Sinclair came all the way out to this backwater village to live in hiding.”

Ethan looked at me with pure contempt.

See? I knew it. The moment you think things are going well, the universe shoves you face-first into the mud.

Just call me Cheomji Sinclair, damn it.

*****

I ended up stuck at the Brunel Police Station for the entire afternoon.

Then, by Ethan’s request, an anti-narcotics investigator and a drug expert from the Benton Police Department were dispatched that evening to test the herbs.

And that’s where my problems really began.

I studied the so-called drug expert carefully as he stood beside Ethan and the investigator.

He was dressed in an elegant suit that didn’t suit this rural town at all. Perched on his dark navy hair was a top hat—the kind worn by gentlemen or, more specifically, by Arsène Lupin.

But most of all, his strikingly attractive features stood out. His golden honey-colored eyes sparkled with amusement as if everything was a joke.

Without the lollipop in his mouth, he might’ve even passed as a refined gentleman.

‘Nox Cornell Ludfisher.’

This man was a supporting male lead in the novel Love in a Ruined World.

‘Why the hell are you here!?’

There was no doubt about it—I was cursed.

All I’d done was steal some Elphinus Herbs from 61 Notium Street and escape to Brunel, and now the novel’s characters were swarming this tiny village before the world even ended!

So this was the butterfly effect…!