Trapped! I Was Played In A Ruined Romance

Chapter 11

Ada Williams

Maybe.

Just maybe.

I'd found an advantage.

The thought appeared so suddenly that my pulse jumped.

I forced myself to slow down.

Easy.

Nice and easy.

Considering how things had gone since waking up in this world, there was a very real chance I'd come up with a brilliant plan only for the system to show up five minutes later and ruin everything.

Or threaten to kill me.

Or both.

"Don't get excited." I muttered the warning to myself.

"Every time you get excited, something goes wrong."

Straightening my back, I kept walking toward the fields.

The wind swept across the farmland, setting the crops in motion.

The place was actually beautiful.

Hopefully, once all this insanity was over, I'd get the chance to stop and appreciate it properly.

I reached the fields and got back to work.

Pulling weeds. Checking seedlings.

Trying to figure out what needed water.

What needed shade.

And what desperately needed divine intervention.

Every now and then, I activated the inspection skill.

Information popped up over certain plants.

[Condition: Fair]

[Needs Irrigation]

[Quality: Common]

The sight still felt a little strange.

Even so, I couldn't deny how useful it was.

While I worked, my thoughts kept circling back to the same problem.

If I really knew parts of the story...Then maybe I could use that knowledge.

Not to save the world.

Not yet.

My own neck came first.

The difficult part was figuring out who might be willing to help me.

I went through the characters I could remember.

A few nobles.

Some knights.

Even a handful of merchants.

People with influence in White Hill and the surrounding towns.

Unfortunately, they all shared the same issue.

None of them would agree to marry an orphaned farm girl.

Especially one whose greatest asset was a run-down farm.

"Damn it."

I yanked a weed a little harder than necessary, and the entire root came out intact.

At least something was cooperating.

I kept thinking.

White Hill. The neighboring towns.

Future events.

Mentioned locations.

Side characters.

The heroine's routes.

The investigations...

Then a memory surfaced, and my hands stopped moving.

Wait.

Investigation?

Neighboring town?

The black market!

My stomach twisted.

Because I remembered something about that.

I'd never liked that part of the story.

Honestly, it was one of the reasons I almost quit the game even earlier than I did.

There had been an event involving a slave market hidden somewhere in the neighboring city.

Or at least that was what the story heavily implied.

I never reached the point where everything was fully revealed.

Still, I remembered bits and pieces. The rumors.

The disappearances.

People from other races being sold.

Used as labor.

Test subjects.

Even ingredients.

And a few other things I'd rather not think about.

The whole thing felt absurdly out of place in a romance story.

Like someone had taken a romantic drama and shoved a horror movie right into the middle of it.

I had hated it.

But now...

My thoughts started moving.

Slowly.

Dangerously slowly.

Then an idea appeared.

Such a ridiculous idea that I stopped working altogether.

"No."

I looked up at the sky.

"No."

I thought about it again.

"Absolutely not, Ada."

Then I considered it a fourth time.

And realized I was taking it seriously.

"...."

I rubbed my face.

Because it made sense.

Unfortunately, it made far too much sense.

What if I bought...

A slave?

The word alone made my skin crawl.

It was awful.

Completely wrong.

DISGUSTING.

Part of me wanted to slap myself just for thinking it.

"Wow."

I shook my head.

"I really am starting to lose my mind."

But who else could I convince?

I didn't need a real husband.

There didn't have to be romance.

There didn't have to be any of that.

I just needed someone willing to show up, play along, and stay for at least a week.

Maybe two.

Then disappear.

That's it.

I'd buy a slave, keep them around for a few days, and set them free afterward.

That wouldn't make me a terrible person, would it?

Problem solved.

The system never said I had to love someone.

It never said I had to stay married for the rest of my life.

All it said was that I had to get married.

And that sounded like a massive loophole.

At least on paper.

Then another problem appeared.

A huge one.

I stopped working again.

For several seconds, I just stared into space.

Then a few more passed.

A tired laugh escaped me, carrying almost no humor whatsoever.

Because I'd finally noticed the glaring flaw in my own plan.

"Right."

I folded my arms.

"Excellent idea, Ada."

I shook my head.

"Truly brilliant."

My eyes drifted toward the fields.

Then the house.

Then my hands.

"Now there's only one tiny detail left."

A sigh slipped out.

"Money."

Because as absurd as the idea was...

I was broke.

Spectacularly broke.

The farm hadn't produced anything yet.

The crops were still growing.

The animals had only just begun to bring in any value.

And I had...

Seven days.

Seven damn days.

Completely drained, I let myself fall backward.

Puff.

I landed right in the middle of the field and stared up at the blue sky overhead.

Clouds drifting by.

Birdsong somewhere in the distance.

And the crushing weight of every problem hanging over my head.

Now, on top of everything else, I still had to come up with the money.

A lot of money.

I dropped an arm over my eyes.

"So annoying."

The wind swept across the fields.

As if the world itself were laughing at me.

And for the first time since I'd come up with that "brilliant" idea...

I started to suspect it might be just as impossible as all the others.