A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 101

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“Kicked her out? Why?”
She deserved to be treated like a leader.
“There were still living adults in the Warehouse, and Cherry apparently killed them all.”
“….”
“Lime said that since she killed everyone’s parents, did we really want to stay with a parent-killer? And the other older kids agreed he had a point….”
This was maddening.
I found myself interjecting without thinking.
“Did nobody defend Cherry?”
“Well, there was someone….”
“There was?”
“Lime told them to shut up unless they wanted to get kicked out too.”
“Hah.”
“At first, some of the older kids said, ‘But that doesn’t mean we have to kick her out.’ But once the argument dragged on, they just wanted Cherry to leave.”
“So you just threw her out? You all knew it was dangerous out there.”
Tangerine cut in.
She was right.
They’d cowered behind Cherry when things got desperate, trembling like leaves. Then once the zombies were all locked in the Warehouse and they could finally breathe, they turned on her like ungrateful dogs.
Rationalizing it as, ‘Well, all the adults are locked up now, so it’s fine to kick her out, right?’
When Cherry was the one who’d locked them all up in the first place!
‘And besides, Cherry’s just a girl. Lime probably thought he could overpower one girl on his own.’
It wasn’t hard to imagine how loud a thirty-one-year-old man’s voice would be on this Island—a place that had become a lawless wasteland overnight, populated only by children.
“What happened to Cherry after that?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been here the whole time since then.”
“Did anyone hear what became of her?”
“No.”
“By the way, how old is this Cherry?”
Yujein asked. Muffin rolled her eyes and answered.
“Seventeen years old.”
Cherry. Seventeen years old.
Lime. Thirty-one years old.
A thirty-one-year-old adult man had bullied and driven out a seventeen-year-old girl.
“And….”
Muffin hesitated before continuing.
“The older kids who defended Cherry at first were kicked out a few days later too.”
“…Can I ask why that happened?”
“The reasons varied… but anyway, that’s why there are only eleven of us now.”
“I’m going to lose my mind.”
Tangerine clawed at her own hair.
I felt the same urge to jump up and scream into the void.
‘Lime, you should be grateful you’re unconscious right now.’
“So after that, you’ve all just stayed here on the Island? Never thought about leaving and going to the Mainland?”
“We didn’t.”
“Why?”
I asked without holding much hope for the answer.
It was probably one of these reasons.
– No one knew how to pilot a Ship.
– The nearest Village on the Mainland to this Island had terrible people. Without our parents, if we children went there alone, those villagers would probably enslave us.
But this time too, the answer was.
“Lime said we couldn’t go.”
“Why again!!!!!! No, sorry. I’m sorry. I’m not angry at you.”
I apologized to the flinching Muffin. The children who had been glancing at Muffin talking with the villainess (me) over there gasped in surprise and backed away.
‘I feel like a monster.’
Muffin said.
“He said if our Island is in this state, the Mainland would be the same. He told us not to waste our energy on futile escape attempts and just live quietly here instead.”
“….”
A second Troublemaker, really…
“There was a sister who suggested we light a signal fire to call for rescue…”
“There was?”
“He asked if she even knew how to do that, said she was just blowing hot air and ruining the mood, and scolded her severely.”
“…Did that sister get kicked out too?”
“She almost did, but she cried and begged, so Lime forgave her. She’s over there now.”
Muffin’s small hand pointed to a girl who was fanning the unconscious Lime and attending to him.
“Ha….”
Someone utterly unremarkable had luckily survived among the children and was now ruling like a king.
I pressed my aching forehead.
I told Muffin.
“The Mainland is fine.”
Of course, we’re still checking whether everywhere is fine, but there’s no need to burden her with those details.
“…Really? You’re not tricking me?”
“Why would I trick you.”
“Because you’re a bad person, sister.”
“…Yeah…. It’s a good attitude to be suspicious of unfamiliar adults. Want to see this?”
I pulled out a flower from my pocket and showed it to Muffin.
A flower I received from Praha before coming here—I took one of them to the General Store and had it dried.
The flower was preserved as if time had stopped in its original bloom shape, and a string was attached to its stem. So it could be used as a hair tie.
Praha’s gaze recognized the flower and turned toward my face.
‘What, so what. It’s fine to keep one flower.’
Ignoring the gaze touching my cheek, I spoke to Muffin.
“The outside world is turning just fine. There are flowers, and there’s an auntie at the General Store who makes hair ties from flowers.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
The child’s finger extended cautiously and tapped a single petal. After letting them touch it a bit more, I opened my mouth.
“Muffin, once we finish investigating this Island, we’re leaving right away. Would you like to come with us then? Do you have relatives on the Mainland?”
I raised my voice so the children sitting farther away could hear and answer too.
Cyprus spoke cheerfully.
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t have relatives. The Southern Region is always open to those who are lost.”
“It means you don’t need to worry about having nowhere to go once you leave.”
Praha added.
Yujein nodded kindly beside him.
“We’ll take all the children who want to escape from here.”
The children who had been wary of the large Cyprus-and-Praha combined (I had decided to call them Kipraham now) and me, the Empire’s official villainess, seemed to melt under Yujein’s radiance. One child asked hesitantly.
“…Can you really take us off the Island?”
“I… I have an aunt living in the Capital.”
“Me too….”
As the hesitant children began opening their mouths one by one, glancing at each other nervously.
“No way!”
Lime shot up and shouted at the children.
When Lime, who was practically the king of the Island, bellowed, the children who had been about to come over sat back down.
Lime pointed at me.
“Everyone, snap out of it. Do you know who that woman is?”
“….”
“That woman isn’t doing this for you—she’s got some ulterior motive!”
You’re the one who’s forgotten who I am….
I didn’t want to bring up rank, but still—I’m a duchess and you’re a commoner, yet here you are pointing at me and spouting off.
Having spent so long as an absolute authority on this Island, it seems you’ve completely lost touch with reality.
The reason he didn’t want to leave the Island was obvious.
I studied Lime.
A small, frail frame. A hunched posture. Eyes that couldn’t meet anyone’s gaze directly, always darting downward. A thin, reedy voice.
He’d lived a life of constant disrespect at the bottom of the hierarchy, so being surrounded only by children here, where he could be supreme—he must have been happy. Why would he want to leave?
Why would he want to go?
He could rule here.
‘Even so, he’s really lost all sense of fear. Kipraham is right here too.’
Even if Lime didn’t know Kipraham’s true identity, anyone could see his build was extraordinary…. Wasn’t he afraid of getting hit if he kept acting out?
Ignoring Lime’s desperate thrashing, I spoke only to the children.
“Don’t mind what that person says. You won’t see him again once you leave the Island anyway. Do what you want. If you want to go, come over here.”
“Don’t you dare move, I’m warning you! See what happens!”
The children who had been exchanging glances lowered their eyes.
A man who’d been acting as the boss here for a long time, (admittedly not impressive) but familiar vs. me, whom they’re seeing for the first time today, probably looking like some legendary witch to these kids’ eyes.
Muffin, who was already standing beside me, grabbed my sleeve.
A moment passed,
Only one child came to stand beside me.
The remaining eight stayed right where they were.
“….”
“See!”
Lime lifted his chin triumphantly.
“Both of them will definitely regret it. Getting dragged around like pack mules, that’s all they’re good for. Even if they come crawling back later with a limb missing, I won’t take them back!”
He hurled curses while pointing at Muffin and the girl who had come over to my side.
Cyprus beside me finally stepped forward to beat Lime senseless, and I had to stop him.
“We can’t do that.”
“Why not? Everyone wants to give him a thorough beating.”
“If we subdue him through violence and then take the children away, that’s just forcing them to come with us, isn’t it?”
And if they see an opportunity to escape or start screaming?
I’m done dealing with situations I can’t control.
“If we suppress Lime by force right now, the children will only become more frightened. If we forcibly take them away in that state and encounter a zombie, things could spiral completely out of hand.”
“Sigh….”
“We need to make them trust us.”
I grabbed Cyprus’s elbow and pushed him toward Praha.
“Make yourself look as small as possible and sit in the corner. Keep a kind expression on your face.”
And I should keep my mouth shut and stay tucked away in the corner too.
‘It was a mistake for me to step forward in the first place.’
Someone with low favorability like me shouldn’t have volunteered to persuade them. No wonder things went wrong.
“Sigh….”
Being unlikeable is exhausting.
“W-we think we drove Cherry away. If we leave, you’ll lock us in Prison, won’t you?”
Another child shouted from over there while I was comforting the newly arrived girl.
Locking people in Prison costs money too—why would we bother with you? Wouldn’t it be better to just leave you here?
I explained it to them roughly like that.
“You’re lying!”
“We don’t believe you!”
“If you’re not locking us in Prison, you’re planning to sell us as slaves, aren’t you?”
“Witch!”
A flood of objections followed.
The children’s words grew harsher, as if they were conscious of Lime glaring at them from beside me.
“How dare you, you wicked woman!”
“Get out!”
“Yeah, get out!”
A little longer and they’d start throwing stones.
I pressed my palm to my forehead and pointed at Yujein.
“Fine, I’m a wicked woman so my words have no credibility. But you know who this lady is, right? She’s a Saint.”
“….”
“….”
“If you can’t trust me, then trust this older sister instead.”
I spoke with half-hearted resignation.
Instead of an answer, a large hand came down to cover my eyes.
I could tell from the soap scent alone. It was Praha.
Praha, who covered my eyes just as I had done to him moments before, whispered softly.
“Please don’t do that.”
His voice was wounded.
“Don’t speak like that. There’s no need to debase yourself to save those children.”
I’d heard every insult hurled at me—villainess, witch, and worse—yet the voice that truly bled was Praha’s, trembling low and raw.
Standing before me with his body shielding my view, Praha led the group into a building away from the children.
The entire time, he kept himself between me and them, blocking my sight.
As if he would catch every blade flying from that direction with his own back.
The situation came to an end like that.
With nothing gained.
[Inhabited Island]
– Yusara, Praha, Cyprus, Yujein, Tangerine, Muffin (Alive)
– General (Deserted)

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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