NOVEL NEXT Chapter 17 - Punsu All-Stars
< Chapter 17: Punsu All-Stars – 1 >
My encounter with Visenya Andrastra ended just like that.
The problem was what came next.
*Shashak.*
“?”
*Shashashak!*
“…”
I began to sense someone following me.
It seemed like they were trying to conceal their presence to some extent, but I could unmistakably tell someone was there. Honestly, I had only one thought.
‘…Aren’t you supposed to be guarding the princess?’
Camille Roche.
In the original work, she was the red-haired bodyguard who lost her life at the end of the first part.
When Eugene Hastings went to rescue Visenya Andrastra, she was the woman dying from gunshot and stab wounds all over her body.
– Count.
– Sir Roche.
A brief exchange of glances.
That was the last time they crossed paths, and Camille Roche spent her last breath fending off the rioters.
‘Tsk.’
It was a heroic and tragic end.
‘How on earth did it come to this?’
There she was, having abandoned her job, wearing a ridiculous fake mustache, glaring from a corner.
…I decided to just ignore her.
What else could I do?
* * *
A few days passed like that.
Tomorrow was the day of the Budget Resolution Committee meeting, commonly referred to as the ‘Budget Committee’.
The Budget Committee was a powerful organization that reviewed and finalized the budget of the new Republic government.
If one were to name the most powerful standing committees in the Republic’s National Assembly, the ‘Legislation and Judiciary Committee (Law and Justice Committee)’ and the Budget Committee would certainly be mentioned.
(※ Incidentally, I am the only one who concurrently serves on both the Law and Justice Committee and the Budget Committee. However, after experiencing it myself, I found it too much to handle, so I amended the law to prevent anyone from holding multiple standing committee positions in the future.)
No, wait.
Come to think of it, that’s not something to whisper in parentheses.
Handling one standing committee position is tough enough for most people, but I am handling two. Isn’t this practically dedicating my life to my country and nation?
‘I wish the whole nation would recognize my spirit of service.’
Half out of my mind, I grumbled, and the reason was the enormous stack of documents.
“When am I ever going to get through all this?”
Rubbing my stiff neck, I walked down the empty hallway at 3 a.m.
For reference, most of the budget being reviewed this time was related to the New Deal.
I was crushed under the disaster I had brought upon myself.
In a situation where it was hard to complain to anyone, I sighed deeply and read the numbers that wouldn’t stick in my head over and over again.
Then it happened.
“Huh?”
Light was seeping out through the crack of the conference room door.
It was the place where the Budget Committee meeting was to be held the next day.
‘Who doesn’t care about the fuel costs?’
It was obvious without even looking. It must be the doing of a Royalist congressman who still thought he was wealthy.
I approached the conference room door, contemplating if I should slightly reduce Count of Monte Cristo’s sponsorship funds, but stopped at the voices coming from inside.
“‘Objection!’ No, that’s not it… ‘Ha, is that all? Your numerical abilities are pathetic.’ …Ugh, this is just a social misfit!”
Inside the brightly lit conference room, someone was tirelessly mumbling to themselves without a hint of boredom.
‘Visenya Andrastra?’
She was set to debut as a Budget Committee member tomorrow, so why was her voice coming from here at this hour? I cautiously peeked inside through the crack in the door.
And I saw a terrible sight.
Visenya was experimenting with all sorts of postures in the seat where she would sit for the first time tomorrow—crossing her legs, propping her chin up, and so on.
Then, she made a fatal mistake.
Trying to blink cutely, she ended up poking her eye with her long, thick eyelashes.
Watching the heroine of the original work roll on the floor by herself, letting out a stifled ‘Kyaaaa!’ made my brain freeze.
“…”
‘Is she seriously practicing to look impressive at her first meeting tomorrow?’
Visenya’s antics didn’t stop there.
She opened a hand mirror and started striking various poses, trying to look noble, fatal, cool, and cute all at once.
She puckered her lips, slightly leaned her upper body, winked, and even gently brushed her hair back to reveal her neck.
Then, she playfully flicked her forehead in the mirror and sighed.
“Ha! Seriously, Visenya, what are we going to do with you? At this rate, your popularity will just ‘explode’ again. Oh, this sinful woman.”
(For reference, during all this, her right eye, injured by her own eyelashes, was red and teary.)
Goodness.
I covered my mouth.
‘This is a social suicide attempt.’
No, wait.
If someone sees this, it won’t stop there. It would be a biological suicide as well.
Just then, I heard Lize’s voice behind me, sending shivers down my spine.
“Congressman?”
I wasn’t the only one startled. There was a commotion inside.
– Eeek!
– Crash!
I flinched, but then naturally straightened up, opened the conference room door, and turned off the light.
“Someone left the light on.”
“…Parasites. No matter how tirelessly you dedicate yourself to this country, there are such people, and that’s why this nation can’t progress.”
I heard a startled movement inside.
“Should we consider cutting the maintenance costs of the National Assembly building?”
Lize, seemingly genuinely angry, spoke with a murderous glare in her eyes.
I was about to say that it was a good idea when I remembered that the maintenance company for the National Assembly was a handy source of pocket money for me.
‘The amount is small, but it’s cash I can withdraw every week!’
I couldn’t afford to lose that.
I shook my head gently with a soft expression.
“Punishment without principle is just venting frustration.”
“!”
“But Lize is also right. Leaving it as it is, is not the best plan. Let’s review the priorities.”
“Congressman…!”
* * *
Ah, how could this person be so…
How could he be such an embodiment of strict principles?
Firm but not cruel,
Kind but not weak.
‘Indeed, you are the one…’
Lize Carter tried her best to conceal her quickening breaths.
“Hup.”
She hid her trembling thighs with her skirt pulled as far down as possible and took shallow breaths.
‘Indeed, you are the one who must lead this era.’
Even if you don’t remember.
I will remember.
‘The day of destiny. The meeting of the Red Dawn.’
The day when Eugene Hastings stood with his back to the fervent crowd of protesters, decisively piercing through the ranks of the ‘revolutionary army.’
The silhouette of that day seemed to overlap with the Congressman before her.
* * *
“Lize?”
“Y-Yes?!”
Lize’s voice shot out, sharp and high like a misplayed string instrument.
Then she blushed deeply and lowered her head.
Why was even she acting this way?
Was today the day everyone created their own embarrassing moments?
‘As long as it’s not me.’
I couldn’t get caught up in this vortex of cringeworthy memories.
I needed to leave this cursed hallway.
“We should head back in. We’ve had enough fun.”
“Ah, yes, yes!”
I glanced once more at the still-silent conference room door before heading towards the office, where a mountain of paperwork awaited, with Lize following me.
* * *
The next day at the Budget Committee meeting.
The moment I saw the lineup gathered in the conference room, I couldn’t help but rub my temples.
‘Is today the Punsu All-Stars game?’
Familiar faces among the standing committee members.
And the reporters packed the room.
Each face in the crowd had its own absurdity.
First, the pure white woman who gently brushed her heavenly blonde hair.
The moment she walked in and sat down, stifled groans erupted from all sides.
With a mysterious smile that seemed both noble and serene, she displayed her beauty that was ‘striking from every angle.’
“Heh.”
“As expected, the lily of the royal family.”
“Ugh, it’s feudal!”
The communist committee member next to me even bit his lip, needing to rearm himself ideologically, as her beauty exuded a sense of ‘class’.
I could bet a business that tonight, when the reporters and our committee members go home and see their wives’ faces next to them, they’ll involuntarily sigh.
‘Ah, she’s someone chosen by the heavens!’
‘The bloodline of royalty is indeed different!’
A smiling ideological weapon.
Affirming a class society with just her presence.
Truly, an unfair beauty.
When our eyes met, her innocent, coy blink suggested that if she had been born in the 21st century, she would have sparked a global phenomenon with her overwhelming ‘charisma’.
The reason I couldn’t be impressed watching her from the sidelines was…
– Kyaaa!
I clearly remembered her flailing around after poking her eye with her own eyelashes while practicing that very look.
“Damn, I can’t erase that memory.”
I rubbed my temples.
Every time I met Visenya’s eyes, the precious lines from that dawn flashed in my mind, making it impossible to concentrate.
– Ha! Seriously, Visenya, what am I going to do with you? At this rate, your popularity will just ‘explode’ again.
Her confident gaze, believing herself to be the most cunningly cute and foxy-sexy in the world, was indeed the essence of a ‘hot girl appeal’.
“Ughhh!”
Why did my hands and feet have to suffer in embarrassment?
Visenya, unaware of my distress, captivated everyone in the room with her ‘perfect’ pose and gaze, which she had honed after many attempts.
And then, there was another All-Star who displayed an equally impressive foolishness with a short and strong impact.
“…”
Among the reporters, I spotted the now-familiar twitching mustache.
“…Ha.”
Camille Roche.
I thought you were a cool character.
Return to me the Camille Roche I cherished as an editor—slightly quirky but with a cool charm!
As I was tormented by these thoughts, the chairman struck the gavel.
Bang bang.
“Alright, let’s have some order. Congratulations to Congressman Andrastra on your election and appointment.”
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman.”
Visenya received the congratulations with an enchanting smile.
Even the chairman, who was neutral and too old to be swayed by beauty, couldn’t help but gasp at her charm.
“How can she be so composed and graceful?”
“Her dignity is different. She’s just born with it.”
“…”
I almost wished I could be as blissfully ignorant as the fools beside me, just admiring her.
Visenya’s naturally changing expressions were a top-tier show that could captivate anyone just by watching.
Ah, but knowledge is a curse!
– Oh, you sinful woman.
The more she did that, the more vividly the scene from dawn replayed in my head.
“Uh, then… well…”
The chairman, lost in Visenya’s performance, forgot the agenda for today.
After declaring the meeting open, he clumsily fumbled through the documents, but since most of the congressmen were in the same state, it wasn’t a big issue.
“Ah, the topic of discussion today is—”
At that moment, a woman who had been particularly restless among the press rushed in.
Then she lifted what she had been holding, pretending it was a camera bag.
“I can’t accept a budget like this!”
The clear shout echoed through the conference room, and I realized what was about to happen.
Thump!
The ‘black heart’ pulsed.
My body, which was undoubtedly mine, moved as if possessed by a ghost.
I swung my hand with all my might.
Shoo!
A white flash darted.
“Ahhhh!”
The next moment, the intruder’s wrist was severed from her arm as she screamed.
“Gasp!”
“Paper?!”
The paper stuck in the wall fluttered in the breeze.
But the blood spreading from the severed wrist of the woman who tried to throw the bag proved that it was indeed this piece of paper that had cut her.
The congressmen who had come to their senses belatedly looked my way.
The pile of papers that had been stacked like a mountain in front of me.
Without realizing it, my body, possessed by superhuman instincts, had picked up one of those sheets and thrown it towards the ‘threat.’
‘So, those papers are all…’
Each one of those sheets was sharp enough to cut off a person’s wrist.
The conservative congressmen gulped repeatedly, but their mouths were so dry that they couldn’t even swallow their saliva properly.
‘Last time, I was such a jerk.’
‘I lay down and dared them to hit me if they didn’t like it!’
As their past misdeeds came to mind one by one, the atmosphere became very uncomfortable.
One particularly guilty member began to offer an inappropriate excuse.
“Um, Congressman Hastings, about that incident last time, well, it was all for the sake of this mature democracy… that…”
Boom!
An unexpected loud noise.
A fireball expanded.
The sight of the fumbling congressman being engulfed by the fiery explosion, his flesh torn and crushed, was disturbingly clear.
‘I am—’
At this moment, it wasn’t Kim Yujin’s intellect moving me but the ancient instincts of this body.
Where am I?
I was leaping over desks.
Stepping on chairs, documents, and the heads of fellow congressmen as I rushed forward.
And then I threw myself towards Visenya, who had widened her big eyes,
“Vis!”
The three of us were tangled together, enduring the collapsing debris.
‘Three?’