Get Ahead of the Fallen Heroine and Make the Bull-Headed Man the Victim

89. Win-win is nothing, there’s also a three-way win.

The instance where Noah and Valentina are located is not near the capital, but in the northern part of the kingdom.

It’s a certain distance from the capital—not too far, but definitely not close.

Ordinary adventurers would need at least a few days to travel from the capital to here.

Valentina is able to arrive here in a short time because she took a shortcut, which is a secret teleportation array that only those of royal blood can use.

Though it’s said to be royal blood, it’s actually just for the heroine, after all, the other royals are merely NPCs active in the capital, and only Valentina, as the heroine, goes on adventures throughout the country.

Of course, even though Noah isn’t of royal blood, as long as he returns to his dilapidated temple first, he can easily travel to various places.

After spending about an hour and a half on the road, Valentina returned to the capital.

The reason it took so long was that Valentina was delayed by other magical creatures on the way to the teleportation array.

If Noah had helped, Valentina wouldn’t have needed to fight those creatures at all, but there are no “ifs.”

“Hey, finally back in the capital! For you, Princess, that was quite slow. So, how does it feel? Are you starting to miss the invincible power of the dragon?”

As soon as they returned to the capital, Noah began to pick on her again.

In his mind, Valentina should still be competing with him to see how many days she could go without using the dragon’s power.

So he said this, knowing full well that the princess wouldn’t be happy.

And indeed, she wasn’t.

“What invincible power? It’s as if no dragon slayer could ever win against it.”

Having calmed the wild joy in her heart, Valentina deliberately played along with Noah, making him think she had no interest in the dragon’s power.

But in truth, if she weren’t afraid of Noah finding out, she would want to maintain that posture in her room forever!

After all, that was proof of Noah’s affection for her! As long as she had that posture, it wouldn’t matter if she was alone, because she knew someone was watching over her.

“Hmph, don’t jump to conclusions. Who knows, one day you might regret not having it.”

Oblivious, Noah teased Valentina, who definitely needed that dragon’s power, as he walked past her.

It seemed he was planning to leave her.

This caused a violent stir in Valentina’s heart.

In the past, Valentina would have sighed in relief, thinking she could temporarily escape from Noah.

But now, she was holding her breath because she hadn’t spent enough time with him yet!

How long had it been? At least 18 hours out of the 24 in a day spent together! The remaining 6 hours of sleep should be enough, right?

The princess, almost revealing her feelings, quickly restrained her hand that wanted to touch Noah’s arm, hiding her somewhat twisted, pathological expression. Then, she pretended to be disdainful and said:

“Wait a minute, I was really dissatisfied that you introduced me to a shop I hadn’t been to last time. I have a place I want you to try too. Will you come with me?”

This time, her heart raced not from joy, but from nervousness.

If she failed, she would have to endure the feeling of disappointment while pretending not to care and continue with her activities.

Just thinking about that made her feel uneasy.

“Unsatisfied about a shop you haven’t been to? … Ah, that’s about the day I pretended you were my childhood friend on a date, huh? I didn’t expect you to be so competitive about such places. Alright, let’s go check out the shop you mentioned. If it’s not good, I might just smash the place!”

I have to say, this time Valentina hit the nail on the head.

Because Noah actually intended to ignore Valentina and go eat by himself.

He had been hungry since a little after one in the afternoon, and now it was almost three.

The silver-haired princess in her short black skirt looked beautiful but couldn’t eat; beauty is just a metaphor, after all. How could she not be hungry? So Noah planned to take care of it himself.

But since the princess had said so, Noah wouldn’t be polite. Although he could probably guess which shop it was, why refuse a treat?

“Hmph, it will definitely be delicious enough to win you over. Follow me, it’s not far from here.”

I never expected Noah to take the bait so easily. Valentina quickly suppressed the corners of her mouth and led the way toward a certain direction, guiding Noah.

As for Noah mentioning pretending to be her childhood friend… so what? She had never minded it.

Seeing the princess so eager, Noah immediately smiled and followed suit.

The reason for her laughter, of course, was that she was already thinking about how to stir things up later.

At this moment, the two walked one after the other as if they were in a dungeon filled with monsters in the outskirts, but this was the royal capital, and Valentina was quite conspicuous.

The silver-haired, purple-eyed princess wore a special battle dress that was both beautiful and practical, exuding the elegance of an adventurer while also possessing the grandeur of an evening gown.

Coupled with the graceful demeanor she had cultivated through training, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say she was a moving landscape of the royal capital.

The advantage was that it could intimidate ill-intentioned villains and enhance Valentina’s image among the public.

The downside, of course, was that she was too eye-catching, making it easy for people to recognize her.

“Isn’t that Tina? Have you been out again? It’s best to be a bit cautious at this time, you know.”

Just as they were on their way to the shop, Valentina was stopped by a man with dark golden hair, dressed in a scholar’s robe, who suddenly appeared in front of her.

It was Allen, who had begun to suspect whether Valentina and Clyde were really dating.

From noble mtl dot com

This was the first time Valentina had seen Allen since the demon attack, and although she couldn’t fully trust Agatha’s word—after all, Agatha could have been deceived by the goddess—she felt it was wise to remain on guard since Allen might be the mastermind behind it all.

If she misunderstood, she could always apologize later.

But if she misjudged the person, she would be the one at a loss.

“It’s fine, Mr. Allen. I’m okay, but you might get caught up in my affairs, so please be careful, alright?”

When faced with Noah, the person she longed to connect with, she had to put on a distasteful expression.

But when it came to Allen, the suspicious cleric, Valentina instead displayed a demeanor of respect and concern.

She was surprised at how strange she had become; it seemed she had truly changed quite a bit.

But she didn’t dislike her current self.

“Haha, since my student says so, I, as the teacher, have no choice but to listen. By the way, Tina, have you been to see Clyde? Should we go check on him together? He must be worried about you.”

Noah didn’t notice that Allen, who was naturally much more arrogant than Noah, couldn’t possibly see through Valentina’s act.

He simply continued to play the role of a reliable adult, pretending to care about the mental well-being of the young people, while actually planning to see how their relationship stood.

If they weren’t actually dating, he wouldn’t be interested at all.

In fact, if they weren’t dating or if their relationship hadn’t progressed, he might encourage Allen to make more effort to get closer to Valentina, all for his own amusement.

“Clyde? As for Clyde…”

Valentina had intended to say they would go later.

She found Allen too bothersome at the moment; she had finally seized the opportunity to spend some time with the evil god, after all.

“T-Tina, you’re walking too fast! Huh? Isn’t that Mr. Allen?”

“Eh?”

“Ah?”

But as the brown-haired boy hurriedly ran into their line of sight, Valentina and Allen were both surprised by each other’s presence.

…Ah, so that’s how it is.

However, due to the previous incident, the princess quickly realized that this ‘Clyde’ was Noah in disguise.

—Hehe… now things are getting interesting.

Whether it was a divine prank or not, a wonderful coincidence occurred at this moment.

Because all three of them present shared the same thought about the situation.

Each believed that they would be the one to benefit from what was about to happen.

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PS. There’s one more update, around 1 o’clock.