Chapter 5
I'm a Homebody, But I Transmigrated into a Grim Confinement Story
Episode 5
‘I’m doomed.’
I’m really doomed.
To think this is the only thought I could have with such a breathtakingly handsome face in front of me.
But I soon came to my senses and shook my head. I didn't forget to flash an awkward smile behind it.
“W-w-well, I don't really understand what you're saying…”
I actually know the future. This world is the book I read, and I transmigrated into it.
…But I couldn’t say that even if my mouth were torn open.
There’s no evidence anyway, so denying everything is the only way to survive!
I decided to play dumb.
“It’s not like I did it. Hahaha.”
“Princess.”
Then the Grand Duke called me in a heavy tone.
“Do you know how the Empire deals with criminals who lie?”
“……”
“They usually resort to very cruel torture. If you still don’t confess the truth, they’ll rip your mouth open.”
Huh?
B-but! Would you even believe me if I told you!
I’d be lucky if they didn’t just lock me away in that convent in the remote mountains, which is no different from a facility for the mentally ill.
…Wait a minute. Is a convent life not that bad?
“You’re thinking about something else while I’m right in front of you.”
“Hmph!”
Why are you so perceptive?
As I was about to blurt out anything, perhaps because my voice was too quiet, the Grand Duke spoke first.
“However, you are not an ordinary criminal, so I cannot treat you as such.”
‘Why do you keep giving me hope and then crushing it!’
The fingers lifting my chin dropped away, but I remained frozen like a stone.
The Grand Duke, taking a step back, offered another smile as if drawn.
“Even when left in deliberately poor conditions, you remained quiet. I heard you didn’t complain even once. Do you think someone from the Kingdom of Salt will come to rescue you someday?”
“……?”
“You must have never imagined being treated like this while living as royalty. Are you simply brave, or do you have something you’re relying on?”
His words piqued my curiosity.
Why was the room I was given so comfortable, even though I hid my identity with lies, when it could have been easily revealed?
Why were my three meals a day sufficient, though simple?
Why did Liam keep assuming I would try to escape this cozy place?
‘Could it be… they don’t even know how I’ve been living?’
Then, was everything I enjoyed up until now a form of punishment?
That was outrageous, considering I spent my days in a hot room and my nights in a cold one, befriending insects.
I felt like I would let out a hollow laugh if I stayed silent, so I tightened my lips.
If the other party is mistaken, and that mistake is working in my favor, there’s no need to correct it.
I steeled my resolve and opened my mouth.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about… but even if I did, I am the Princess of the Kingdom of Salt. I cannot divulge internal state affairs.”
The Grand Duke’s face turned cold.
“So you won’t say where the information leaked from.”
But I wasn’t as terrified as I was before.
I figured that if he had decided to kill me, he wouldn’t go through such a troublesome process.
Besides, since the Grand Duke suspects a leak, he’d likely keep me around to find out what happened.
In that case…
‘In that case, I’m thankful!’
The original story stated that Salt would fall anyway.
I worked hard initially because I didn’t realize I had transmigrated, and then because I worried about the innocent people who would be sacrificed.
But now, there’s nothing I can do.
So, there was only one thing I could do now.
“If… if you don’t believe me, then just lock me up!”
“…What?”
“I cannot speak about things I don’t know just to save my own life and cause harm to innocent people…”
The Grand Duke stared at me with an incredulous expression, but I continued without backing down.
“Of course, being confined in a stuffy room and unable to do anything is agonizing, like having my flesh cut and my bones scraped away… but I will accept it humbly!”
After a long silence, the Grand Duke, uttering a simple observation, approached me silently like a predator stalking its prey.
Thump, thump, thump.
My heart pounded wildly in time with his gradual approach.
“…Stubborn.”
But fortunately, he uttered just one word before lightly brushing past me and taking a seat.
“Then, to the Princess who claims to know nothing, I shall deliver some unfortunate news that someone who knows would regret.”
His calm voice carried no emotion.
“What…?”
But before I could even finish my question, I understood the meaning of his words.
Rustle.
The Grand Duke pulled a document from his pocket and showed it to me.
It was a document in a very familiar format, one that… looked exactly like the ones used in the Kingdom of Salt.
“Ah…”
I couldn’t not know.
I gaped, looking at the seal stamped neatly at the bottom.
‘He’s stamping it right now?’
A trade certificate.
The subject was the wheat I had stockpiled in preparation for Cletan’s unilateral export suspension.
Rumeia had resold it to the Empire.
Are you insane!?
“J-just a moment.”
Why would the Empire, which has an abundance of wheat, go through the trouble and expense of purchasing it?
But even in my panic, as I calmly read through the document, I froze like ice.
“Th-this…”
“Is there a problem?”
A problem?
Of course, there is.
“Give it to me!”
Whoosh.
I tried to snatch the document, but the Grand Duke quickly grabbed it back and put it in his pocket.
“You said you didn’t know anything.”
“I don’t know what! What don’t I know! What don’t I know, but! B-but!”
Panting heavily, I protested as if screaming.
“Still, this… this is something anyone with a brain would know!”
“So, what is it?”
Under his continued questioning, I answered with a crestfallen face.
“This deal… it’s a scam…”
The stamp of the intermediary merchant guild, placed next to the Princess’s seal, was one I had never seen during trade with the Empire.
Normally, inter-state trade is handled by large, certified merchant guilds, so why would a no-name guild suddenly get involved?
Such cases are most often trade scams intended to extort goods or fees.
It’s so common that anyone involved in practical matters would know it instantly.
‘Rumeia!’
I can’t help but be impressed by how quickly they can create a hole in the nation’s economy.
“Ah.”
I suddenly looked at the Grand Duke in bewilderment.
“Don’t tell me… this was intentional…?”
My reflection was perfectly captured in the Grand Duke’s beautifully curved green eyes.
“Usually, in cases like this, the one who was fooled is the fool… strangely, it seems Rumeia Princess’s office, where you are absent, isn’t running smoothly.”
I gritted my teeth and replied.
“I… I don’t know anything.”
“Yes, you wouldn’t know.”
The Grand Duke chuckled leisurely and commanded indifferently.
“Take her out, as the Princess wishes. Ensure she is thoroughly monitored so she cannot leave under any circumstances.”
“Yes, I will escort her.”
Though their voices weren’t particularly loud, knights appeared from somewhere and grabbed my arms.
Even as I was dragged away like a criminal being apprehended by detectives, my eyes remained fixed on the Grand Duke.
‘This is too much.’
There is a passage in the original work describing the Kingdom of Salt just before its collapse.
“The trade routes had already been cut off, and there was no stored food.
People starved to death, and epidemics spread from the corpses, creating a literal hell.”
I wanted to alleviate that situation even a little.
What was described in the book was just text, but the Salt I lived in… was a world where real people lived.
But Rumeia had thrown away even that minimal safeguard with their own hands.
A surge of emotion welled up, and a plaintive voice escaped my lips before I could stop it.
“Please be a little lenient…”
“Me?”
The Grand Duke replied as if he had heard something amusing.
“There’s no reason to.”
Thud.
With those words, the door closed right in front of me.
