A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 108

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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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Cyprus thought to himself.
‘I’d rather die on the streets than go to the Southern Region.’
Yusara hadn’t said it in so many words, but that’s how it sounded to Cyprus’s ears.
Once this is over, I’ll never have to see you again.
Whether my name echoes in your head a dozen times a day or not doesn’t concern me, and our life paths will never intersect again.
She said in words, ‘I won’t go to your wedding,’ but what she really meant was that Cyprus would be erased from Yusara’s life entirely.
How much you regret it afterward is none of my concern.
“Hah.”
My chest felt bitter.
It wasn’t just bitterness—my blood had run cold.
Heat rose within me.
Not the heat of anger, but the suffocation of helplessness.
I wanted to scream at the walls.
Could it be that Yusara knew all of this and was doing it anyway?
‘Just as I know Yusara well, she knows me well too.’
She knows exactly what I’m thinking right now, and deliberately chooses her words to wound me, selecting only the phrases that will cut deepest.
Otherwise, how could such exasperating words come from lips I so desperately wanted to touch?
I never imagined there would come nights when I’d replay those past days—when I could have touched those lips but found them utterly repulsive and turned away.
‘When did this start?’
How did I become like this?
She was never someone with this kind of power over me. The Yusara I knew was surely….
No. Do I even truly know Yusara anymore?
Her soul is far deeper than my own—an endless sea stretching infinitely, and I am like a castaway drifting across that vast expanse, begging for mercy.
In that complex ocean whose depths I cannot fathom, there must be countless thoughts I know nothing of….
“I need to know.”
The more I don’t know, the more I want to understand.
Never before had I been so curious about what someone else was thinking.
‘Perhaps Yusara wants revenge on me.’
Maybe she wants to repay me exactly as much as I ignored and neglected her in the past. Maybe that’s why she torments me like this.
If Yusara truly harbored such feelings, did I have any countermeasure?
No.
All I could do was take whatever she wielded and accept the blow.
While being grateful that at least some desire for revenge remained.
Fortunately, Cyprus was not someone with a naturally negative disposition.
Thoughts like ‘She said she’d stay by my side until the zombie crisis ends? Then I’ll spread zombies across the entire world!’ never took root in the heart of the golden-haired youth, bright as sunlight.
Instead, I gritted my teeth.
In any case, she said she’d stay by my side until this is over, didn’t she?
Let’s see what happens then.
Can she keep pretending not to notice if I keep clinging to her like this?
* * *
“There’s no need for that.”
A deep, measured voice echoed from the building’s entrance.
I spun around.
A woman stood there with shimmering silver hair tied high, carrying a woven basket in one hand.
A blood-stained kitchen knife hung at her side, and a crude wooden spear—carved from a branch—was strapped across her back, its tip crusted with what looked like dried flesh. Strips of cloth, torn from some unknown source, were wrapped tightly around her neck and wrists.
Behind the woman stood children of varying ages, their anxious eyes constantly darting backward.
The woman strode forward and set the basket down before us with a thud.
The basket tipped, and a white furry bundle tumbled out.
“Whimper….”
“General!”
Yujein recognized the puppy and rushed over, scooping up both the dog and the basket.
“Where have you been all this time!”
“Yelp….”
“Do you have any idea how worried we were?”
Her words were reproachful, but her hands moved quickly to comfort the dog. General whimpered and burrowed into Yujein’s embrace. Once the puppy felt safe, it turned toward the silver-haired woman and began to bark.
“Woof! Woof woof!”
…General must have had a rough time. I’d never seen him bark so aggressively before.
“Woof woof woof!”
General barked ferociously, but the woman who’d brought him in the basket didn’t even glance at him.
The woman, who completely ignored the dog, gestured with her chin toward the children still standing in the doorway.
“What are you doing? Come inside.”
“Um, sis….”
“Come in. It’s safe.”
Only then did I realize the woman’s face was quite youthful.
‘So this must be Cherry.’
I’d assumed she was an adult because of her calm voice and demeanor.
“That’s right, everyone! Get inside quickly! I can’t lock the door until you’re all in!”
Tangerine jumped up and rushed over (not forgetting to pat General’s head on the way) and began ushering the hesitant children into the hall.
“Hurry, hurry, hurry! If you keep standing outside and the infected adults come running, you’ll get infected too!”
“Infected?”
“The corrupted adults!”
“Whine….”
“Oh, did anything chase you on the way here? Everything okay?”
Yujein, who was vigorously rubbing General’s small head and making an ugly face in the process, quickly attended to the children.
“Come this way, come this way. Are any of you hurt?”
She started to set General down on the ground but worried the puppy, now emboldened by our reunion, would immediately rush at Cherry, so she picked him back up.
“Did any infected follow you?”
“Just to be safe, I’ll go scout the area!”
Before Cyprus could finish speaking, Tangerine bolted out.
Slam!
Tangerine slammed the door shut as she left, leaving only an awkward silence in the Lobby.
The newly arrived children, who had been expelled and now returned, and the existing children, who had driven them out, exchanged cautious glances without daring to greet one another.
The newcomers in particular were fidgety, torn between reading the room of the established children and gauging the reactions of us unfamiliar adults.
“…Oh!”
Some of the children who recognized me widened their eyes.
Fortunately, the newly arrived children possessed enough sense not to point at me and cry out “You wicked woman!”
“Is it really… that rumored…?”
“Why would a noble be here…?”
“Then could the person next to her possibly be the Crown Prince…?”
“You idiot, that honorific is only used for the Emperor….”
“There’s even someone with blonde hair and green eyes….”
“From the Southern Region….”
“No, no, they said their relationship wasn’t good….”
“So these must be the concubines the young lady keeps with her….”
“How enviable….”
The children, being children, couldn’t entirely suppress their desire to whisper among themselves.
‘Still, I suppose that’s acceptable.’
While my own children casually referred to a nation’s Crown Prince and Grand Duke as concubines without a care, I turned my attention to Cherry, who was setting down her travel bag.
Her clothes were filthy and disheveled, her face smudged with dust.
It was obvious at a glance.
How much hardship that child had endured as the guardian of the expelled children all this time.
‘She doesn’t even look like she’s five foot three. And they drove her out.’
My gaze naturally drifted to Lime.
Lime was also watching Cherry.
As Cherry loosened her hair, which had been tied up high, and brushed away the dust clinging to it, her eyes met Lime’s.
The children swallowed hard at the confrontation between Lime, who had carelessly expelled people, and Cherry, who had saved all these children only to be driven out alone.
Only Lime prepared for an attack with sharpened eyes, while Cherry simply ignored him with ease.
“This.”
Cherry, having retied her hair, pulled out a crumpled stack of papers from her pocket.
It was the poster we had put up.
“Did you sisters put this up?”
“W-well, yes… Wait, General. No. We can’t use this if it’s exposed.”
“But why didn’t you write the text in ink instead of this? I got suspicious because the letters were written in blood.”
“….”
That wasn’t blood—it was spoiled sauce….
Though the smell was certainly metallic….
“So you’re saying you want to escape from here?”
“That’s right!”
“And you’ll take us with you.”
“That’s right!”
“We’ll need a large ship to take everyone with us. What did you arrive in?”
“We came in a small boat… but I saw a larger ship at the Dock. If we could find the key to that ship…”
“Ah. That one.”
Cherry, still bent at the waist, picked up the bag she’d set down with her left hand. She placed it on the dining table, rummaged through it, and pulled out a beautifully crafted large key, which she handed to Yujein.
“That dog was carrying it around.”
“Could this possibly be…?”
“Yes. It’s the key that can operate the Tribute Ship at the Dock that you all saw.”
“Unbelievable! General!”
Yujein, overcome with emotion, embraced General.
“Arf arf…”
“Oh no, General. You can’t do that. Um, over there. But why does General hate you so much?”
At Yujein’s cautious question, Cherry scratched her eyebrow with her left hand.
“I accidentally hit the puppy’s cheek with my hair when I turned my head earlier. I apologized, but it seems the anger hasn’t fully subsided. I’ll shave my head once we get out of here.”
That… that extreme of a measure?
“You really are a good person!”
Yujein, her guard completely lowered, cried out with glistening eyes.
All this while, I’d been watching Cherry’s right arm. It was wrapped clumsily in cloth and moved somewhat awkwardly. Blood was seeping through the fabric.
I asked.
“Say, how did you hurt that? Were you bitten by a zombie or something?”
“Ah. This?”
Cherry glanced down at her own arm and replied flatly.
“Why would you ask if I was bitten?”
[Inhabited Island]
– Yusara, Praha, Cyprus, Yujein, Tangerine, General, Muffin, Pickle and others (Alive)
– Cherry (???)

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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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