Though I’m a Homebody, I Found Myself in a Dark Captive Genre

“What is this?”

Liam couldn’t hide the cold expression on his face.

It was because he had been secretly hoping the princess might show him something impressive.

“It’s a letter.”

But the result was just a single letter?

Even though Duke Blaire had delegated the necessary budget and authority?

He looked down at April with a slight sense of disappointment.

“Just send it to the address written on it.”

The princess, not hiding her tired expression, shook the thin envelope in her hand and urged him.

Her small face changed several times even during the brief encounter, but he couldn’t figure out what she was thinking.

Liam reluctantly took the letter and checked the recipient.

[Illamena Alliance, Golbro Territory, Genebra Golbro]

When he stared at it as if asking who this was, the princess answered.

“It’s someone I got to know through work. I’m asking for some help with manpower.”

Just as the duke had said. She was trying to find a group of workers to be sent for dam construction.

With his prediction confirmed, Liam smirked and crossed his arms.

“Is this it?”

“Pardon? Well… I think this is the best I can do for now.”

“If anything happens, the letter will be delivered by a knight who has sworn loyalty to Duke Blaire.”

It was a warning that there would be sufficient measures in place even if the princess tried to secretly send a rescue request to the Salt Kingdom.

“Oh, okay. I see.”

But the princess just nodded listlessly.

“Anything else…?”

“No. That’s all.”

In the past, Liam would have suspected she was up to something else if she left so quickly. But now, he understood.

The princess wasn’t sneaking off anywhere. She was heading back to her room faster than anyone else.

‘Why does she keep locking herself away in that prison?’

Once, there was a con woman who pretended to be the granddaughter of a cousin of the late duke’s hidden son.

The woman, after being locked in the room for just three days, would cry and long to be outside as often as she could when she was briefly allowed to go out.

The princess, however, had an excessively strange side to her.

“By the way.”

Even though the letter would take three days to deliver through the gate, finding the right manpower and negotiating would take at least a few weeks.

Thus, the task he had been given by the princess seemed destined to fail.

‘I’ll have to tell the Duke to prepare a backup plan.’

A sense of regret crossed his face.

.

.

.

A week passed.

Indeed, a whole week passed in such a disappointing way. Since sending the letter, nothing had happened.

By this point, Liam began to worry if the princess might escape.

After reporting the situation to Duke Blaire, Liam had been carefully watching for any suspicious behavior from the princess. Well, he had intended to.

‘She has to leave the room first before I can keep an eye on her or question her.’

However, even after a week since the letter was sent, the princess’s door remained firmly shut.

The plates and dishes that came out were cleaned three times a day, so it didn’t seem like she had died or escaped.

“Hey.”

“Hello, Aide.”

Unable to stand the frustration any longer, Liam reached the door of the princess’s room and greeted the guard at the door.

With a calm face, he lowered his voice and asked.

“Has anything happened?”

“Anything happened…?”

“Any attempts to escape, or suspicious people lurking around?”

The guard was startled and quickly waved his hands.

“There’s been nothing of the sort! The internal window can’t be opened from the inside, and the door is guarded in three shifts without a single crack.”

Liam had already known that fact, so he could only awkwardly nod in response.

“Alright… then, please continue doing well.”

It was already half of the two-week period that the princess had been given, and Liam was growing increasingly anxious.

* * *

‘This is heaven.’

I was truly enjoying my sweet vacation.

I could sleep for fourteen hours without anyone waking me, and meals were served on time despite that.

Naturally, my body and mind, which had been dried out without any energy, began to regain their vitality.

‘Doing nothing could make me so happy.’

Before, I couldn’t even imagine staying home without a smartphone, but after being exhausted by the fantasy world’s grueling labor with no human rights, my thoughts had changed.

People are simple creatures who can be happy just lying on the bed with a blanket over them.

So, I was extremely happy and content at the moment.

Of course, just because my heart had become full didn’t mean I suddenly wanted to get busy and move around.

The bomb the Duke had thrown at me had yet to be solved, so I wasn’t idly wasting time.

But I had something to rely on.

‘If there’s a lack of people, you just fill the gap.’

There were many specialized groups performing requests across the continent. The mercenaries from the Illamena Alliance were one such group.

And the recipient of my letter, Genebra Golbro, was the daughter of Count Golbro, who owned the Black Eagle Corps, a construction unit. She was also the liaison in charge of negotiating to hire them.

In other words, I had directly requested them, setting very specific conditions that could not be refused.

‘Unless there’s a natural disaster, the Black Eagle Corps should be on their way to Blaire Territory by now.’

I didn’t even need to wait for two weeks to get the result.

Once the letter left my hands, half of the solution was already secured.

Others might have thought I was hiding away in my room, crying and giving up.

But sometimes, it’s more effective to speak through results than to explain every detail of a plan.

More than anything, right now, I just wanted to be quiet. How long had it been since I didn’t talk to anyone?

‘If I hadn’t cut off the trade with Illamena Alliance just in time, I would have been in trouble.’

Originally, the Black Eagle Corps had an exclusive contract with Salt, which made it impossible to take on any other requests.

But the King of Salt, Berga, had severed the trade this month due to the false hope that an exploration team, heavily invested in, would bring back slaves for free.

I knew the exploration team had been sent by fraudsters hired by the Empire, but I couldn’t find a way to persuade the King, who didn’t like me.

But I never expected things to turn out this way.

It would have been foolish not to take advantage of the situation, so I had to seize the opportunity.

‘The work will be done quickly.’

Illamena Alliance mainly deployed workers in various fields to fund the alliance’s operations.

Therefore, their capabilities far surpassed ordinary mercenary groups or guilds.

If anyone could finish the ongoing, slow progress of construction, it would be them.

‘And I’m already skilled at meeting the conditions that will satisfy them.’

After exchanging hundreds of letters with Genebra, I had become quite adept at dealing with her.

Back when I had been slaving away like a servant in Salt, I had to help with administrative tasks to gain people’s favor, especially due to the insistence of Lemeia. That’s how things unfolded.

Normally, negotiating with such professional groups would require long and tiresome discussions about prices and details.

But explaining how I communicated with Genebra would require a lot of tears, so I’ll leave that for now.

Once the mercenaries arrived, the administrative staff of the Duke’s household would handle everything, so there was no need for me to be involved.

“Until then…”

Let’s rest.

I’m sorry to the Duke for giving me such a big task with a budget and authority, but you never know when I’ll be back to working like a donkey.

For now, I’ll enjoy my rest without regrets.

I lay back on the soft bed, rubbed my back against the pillow, and closed my eyes.