chapter 6
Yoo Sara tied up her hair.
The kind of person who normally wouldn't even turn her head much because she didn't want her hairstyle ruined.
She had taken a dead body's shoes and put them on.
And now she was tearing up her dress.
...That's strange.
Silence filled the corridor.
Everyone was watching me carefully.
Even Yoo Je-in, who had fallen together with me.
'Makes sense. Two people fell together, but only one of them was offered a helping hand. Of course everyone's going to be conscious of it.'
It's like those dating reality shows where they do a popularity vote on the first night. When one person gets zero votes, everyone starts tiptoeing around them.
Wasn't this kind of the same feeling?
I sighed inwardly and put strength into my legs.
Looking up at Yoo Je-in, who was still sitting on top of me, I asked,
"Are you not getting up?"
"Ah! I'm sorry!"
Only then did everyone snap out of it and try to help me up.
"It's fine."
I refused and stood up on my own.
"..."
I rotated my ankle to gauge the injury. It throbbed a little, but it didn't seem serious.
'Good thing I wore combat boots.'
If I'd been wearing high heels too, this would've been a disaster. I might not have been able to walk at all.
After testing my ankle a few times, I opened my right hand.
Blood was flowing from my palm, which had been sliced open by the paper knife I was gripping.
The long, straight cut stung sharply.
It wasn't bad enough to require treatment, but still...
It was bleeding!
'Thank goodness this is a zombie setting.'
Imagine if this were a vampire world.
They would've smelled the blood and come swarming already. Ugh.
And this stupid knife was so weak that after cutting my palm, it snapped clean in half.
It hurts so much.
Someone please blow on it and make it better.
Waaah.
I cried only inside my head.
As I stood there silently, everyone watched me nervously.
The first to speak were the two idiots responsible for this awkward silence—the Crown Prince and the Grand Duke, who had only offered their hands to Yoo Je-in.
"Young Lady, are you alright?"
"I'm sorry."
Without even looking at them, I replied,
"It's fine. What's wrong with helping whoever you want?"
Faced with an unexpected situation, they'd simply reacted instinctively and reached out to the person they cared about more.
They probably never imagined they'd both try to help the heroine at the same time and accidentally humiliate me in the process.
It wasn't something they needed to apologize for.
'Getting an apology would just make me feel more pathetic.'
What exactly were they apologizing for?
Sorry we like Yoo Je-in more than you?
Of course—
As a human being, I was a little hurt.
And yes, it was incredibly embarrassing that nobody even asked if I was okay, yet I'd ended up answering "I'm okay" by myself.
But what was I supposed to do, cry?
'Whatever. I have lots of friends back in Korea. If I fall over, there are 999 friends in Seoul who'd pull me back up.'
"Young Lady..."
"I'm really fine. I'm not even hurt that badly."
I still avoided eye contact.
The calmer I remained—the opposite of screaming and throwing a fit—the heavier the atmosphere became.
It wasn't concern for me.
They were simply tense.
Afraid I'd do something unpredictable.
Afraid I'd cry, scream, or storm off on my own because neither the Crown Prince nor the Grand Duke had paid attention to me.
Sure, they were worried.
And maybe a tiny bit guilty.
But more than that—
They were worried I'd cause trouble.
In fact, standing behind Yoo Je-in, Mascarpone had already let out a sigh.
Like she'd become tired just thinking about it.
"Why were you running around with a knife anyway? You only ended up hurting yourself."
"Young Lady... I'm so sorry. I..."
Yoo Je-in limped toward me.
"Uh, don't."
I grabbed her arm as she knelt in front of me and tried to brush the dirt off my dress.
"Don't. My clothes are dirty anyway."
"But because of me, you..."
"Any injuries? I can heal—"
"I'm fine."
"Your palm though..."
"That's my own fault. You don't need to worry about it."
No matter how many times I denied it, Yoo Je-in still looked guilty.
She looked like she'd swap skin with me if she could.
Sighing, I said,
"If you're really sorry, do something about those shoes."
"Huh?"
"Break the heels off. The men here can manage that much."
I looked at the Crown Prince and the Grand Duke in turn.
Both flinched.
"If you've got enough holy power to heal me, use it on your own ankle instead. Looks like it's seriously sprained."
"Young Lady..."
"Enough. You know we don't have time for this."
I cut off her apology.
Throwing away the broken knife, I wiped the blood from my palm on my clothes.
Then I addressed everyone.
"Aren't we going?"
Only then did the attention focused on me disperse.
Everyone returned to their positions.
As if nothing had happened.
'This leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.'
Whatever.
Why should I care?
Once I go home, I'll never see these people again.
"It appears that knight was guarding the central staircase and cutting down the corpses climbing up. He was injured in the process."
"So he was the last one infected."
"Then since that knight killed all those corpses, does that mean there aren't any left?"
"I wish."
Although I'd asked, "Aren't we going?", we couldn't leave immediately.
Reason:
There was no path.
You couldn't exactly walk down a staircase covered in corpses.
Even ignoring the danger of stepping on flesh and blood, if even one of them was still alive and grabbed someone's ankle—
everything would spiral out of control.
Going all the way around through the distant left corridor wasn't ideal either.
'Who knows what we'd encounter on the way.'
Some people were already limping from injuries.
"There don't appear to be any more corpses in the central corridor."
Judging it dangerous to remain in the open hallway, we moved into a washroom beside the stairs.
After scouting the area, Darjeeling confirmed it was safe.
The moment he did, everyone collapsed onto the floor with groans.
I found the least filthy patch of floor and sat down too.
'Never thought I'd live to see myself sitting on a bathroom floor.'
The Crown Prince looked at everyone sprawled out after only walking a short distance.
Then he leaned against the entrance wall.
Darjeeling stood in his blind spot.
The Grand Duke stood in Darjeeling's.
Everyone whispered anxiously.
"I hope all the corpses in the mansion are piled up over there."
Supporting Character #2 offered a hopeful opinion.
The Grand Duke shook his head.
"I doubt it."
Seeing the devastated expression on her face, he explained gently,
"Remember the servant we found near the secret room corridor? The one that bit the knight to death? There are probably other corpses like that servant—ones that never gathered at the central staircase."
That made sense.
Zombies weren't dolphins.
They didn't all travel together in neat groups.
After thinking for a while, Mascarpone asked,
"Come to think of it, why was that servant there in the first place?"
"What do you mean?"
"When we found him, he was still just a corpse. Not transformed yet. That means he was alive before then."
"You're asking how a living person managed to get past all the corpses and reach the right corridor."
"Exactly."
"To get there, you'd have to pass through the central corridor at least once. And as everyone knows, there was a zombie knight there. The one His Highness just... dealt with."
"Maybe he passed through while the knight was still alive and defending the area?"
"So the knight knowingly sent away a servant who was obviously about to become a zombie?"
The Crown Prince spoke.
"He probably used the servants' passage."
"The servants'... passage?"
"A route built inside the walls so servants could move around unseen. A sort of secret passage. He likely came out through that route into the secret room corridor."
"And then..."
"He died before reaching the secret room."
The Grand Duke finished.
I spoke up.
"Then shouldn't we use that passage too?"
Look.
(Far away) Left Staircase
Central Staircase
Current Location
Somewhere around here: Servants' Passage
The Secret Room we came from
Right?
Since we couldn't use the central staircase anymore, wouldn't the passage be a better option?
Everyone glanced at me when I suddenly spoke, but nobody commented.
The Crown Prince shook his head.
"There's a high chance the corpses that mangled the servant's arm are still inside that passage."
"Ah."
I hadn't considered that.
"Then we'll have to use the left staircase."
"Yes. The problem is that it's quite far from here."
"...But we don't have any other choice."
In reality, the left staircase was our only option.
It seemed the Crown Prince and Grand Duke had brought everyone here less to discuss plans and more to give them a short rest before the long walk.
Supporting Character #2 asked pale-faced,
"How far is it?"
"About as far as we've already traveled. Then we need to go downstairs and make our way back toward the center. And we don't know what's waiting on the first floor."
Everyone's gaze naturally turned toward Yoo Je-in.
Realizing it, her cheeks turned red.
Her holy power could heal paper cuts.
Not a sprained ankle.
And she'd already exhausted her power blessing everyone earlier.
The Annoying Guy sighed.
"This is why you shouldn't go around casting blessings nobody asked for."
...
Earlier he'd been complaining that she should've cast them sooner.
Human beings really were shameless.
Until recently I'd managed to ignore his nonsense.
But after getting hurt and feeling depressed, his stupidity became unbearable.
'I'm pretty awful too.'
The Annoying Guy kept talking, completely oblivious.
"I've actually been thinking this for a while."
Leaning forward dramatically, he announced,
"Let's have the men escape first."
"..."
"..."
"Impressive. That's a remarkably cowardly idea."
The Grand Duke mocked him.
The Annoying Guy stood firm.
"Think about it rationally. We can't fail to escape because some people are holding us back."
"If that's rationality, I'd rather be emotional..."
"I'm not saying abandon them. The women can go back and hide in their rooms while we escape first and send rescuers. Isn't that the most efficient solution? That girl can't even run anymore!"
His stubby finger pointed directly at Yoo Je-in.
"If there were only one burden, we could take turns carrying her. But there are four."
The four burdens, of course, were the women.
Me.
Yoo Je-in.
Mascarpone.
Supporting Character #2.
"Honestly, we should've done this from the start. Why did we even bring them? No strength, no stamina, can't use weapons... they just slow us down."
The women couldn't argue.
Not even the confident Mascarpone.
Nor the quiet Supporting Character #2.
And certainly not Yoo Je-in.
Unlike him, they had enough shame to recognize the truth.
The Crown Prince sighed.
"Papri."
Hearing the irritation in his voice, Papri raised both palms.
"Alright, alright. Then leave that knight behind as an escort too."
Darjeeling blinked after being suddenly dragged into the conversation.
The intention was obvious.
The Crown Prince and Grand Duke were too important to leave behind.
But a knight?
A knight could be sacrificed.
Used as a shield.
Snap.
At that moment, the last thread of reason in my head broke.
Holy shit.
I can't tolerate this anymore.
[Imperial Villa – Second Floor Washroom]
Survivors: Yoo Sara, Yoo Je-in, Crown Prince, Grand Duke, Mascarpone, Supporting Character #2, Darjeeling, Papri