A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 128

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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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“Take care, Cherry.”
“Yes. Safe travels to you and the two Highnesses.”
“Woof.”
“General, you too. Pickle and the others as well.”
“Grand Duke! Since this is our last moment, wouldn’t it be wonderful to let General sink his teeth into your thigh one good time?!”
“Tangerine, have you lost your mind…?”
“Arf….”
“See? He’s reacting! I’m telling you, he understands every word we say!”
“How intriguing.”
“What are you expecting?!”
“Sniff…!”
“Yujein, either cry or laugh—pick one…!”
“Why does this dog hate me so much….”
“It appears he’s the Crown Prince’s lapdog!”
After resolving the zombie crisis, we promised to meet again, then parted ways with the children.
And several days later.
At the entrance leading into Sodom, the city of indulgence.
“…Wow.”
“…Oh.”
“What is this place?”
We entered Sodom in the late afternoon as dusk began to fall.
Unlike the cities we’d passed through before, towering walls encircled all of Sodom, preventing anyone from peering inside.
The moment we crossed that boundary, the atmosphere transformed entirely.
Despite the evening hour, it wasn’t cold, and though the sun was disappearing, it wasn’t dark.
The prison-like high walls seemed to trap all the day’s heat within the city itself.
A pleasantly warm languor that settled over you even while standing still.
The people’s movements were strangely languid and flowing.
Those flickering lights in the distance turned out to be lamps shrouded in hookah smoke. A half-naked man lay sprawled across a carpet spread on the street, eating fruit and exhaling smoke with a whoosh.
Good heavens.
“The children shouldn’t see this!”
Tangerine covered Muffin’s eyes.
“The children shouldn’t breathe in this smoke!”
Yujein covered Muffin’s nose.
“Oof!”
With her eyes and nose blocked, Muffin tapped Yujein’s thigh repeatedly.
That’s right.
We’d ended up bringing Muffin and Cheese, along with Cheese’s younger sibling, all the way to Sodom.
Initially, we’d planned to leave them at the Temple.
But the only temple in this area was dedicated to the God of Pleasure.
There were more temples than marked on the map, and they were all temples to the God of Pleasure.
“Children in a place like that? Absolutely not.”
Cyprus, rarely showing such stern disapproval, objected vehemently, and we agreed—we couldn’t entrust the children to such a location.
But most decisively of all.
“Sodom? The people there are perfectly fine. They come out occasionally to buy silk and spices.”
On our journey here, we’d heard testimony from residents of Gomorrah, the nearby city.
That the people of Sodom were perfectly fine.
So we came here half-believing, half-doubting. And yet.
“…They really are fine.”
Aside from people already drunk on alcohol and tobacco despite the hour not yet being evening, swaying about aimlessly, there wasn’t a trace of zombies anywhere.
This city, mimicking a desert despite being no desert at all, was filled entirely with shops painted in purple and silver. The street stalls too were uniformly purple.
Windows and doors had an open structure, unobstructed so that one could see straight through inside. Even if they tried to block the view, it was just a single transparent curtain.
Even private residences were like this!
“What are they thinking, leaving themselves open to thieves like that?”
“Indeed. Is the security as good as in the Southern Region?”
Cyprus, who had taken a hard punch to the stomach from me just days ago and still bore the bruises (I knew because he showed me his abs every morning), responded to the question.
Cha-ching—every time people passed by, the bead ornaments hanging from their necks and waists chimed loudly.
Women dressed like Princess Jasmine walked stiffly past Yujein and me, Tangerine, flashing us flirtatious smiles.
“Kehe…”
One woman openly gasped in admiration, staring blatantly at Yujein’s chest. Yujein, hiding behind me with Muffin’s nose, trembled with embarrassment.
“Why, why are they doing that?”
“I’m curious too.”
The scent of incense drifting through the air.
Thinking that this city overloaded the senses—sight, smell, and hearing all at once—I gazed toward the distant Lord’s Castle.
The only structure with a golden domed roof among the dreamlike purple and silver surroundings—a low castle.
“Not a zombie in sight, and not even a thief.”
“Exactly! The security actually looks quite good!”
“But somewhere in this city…”
There are people who were kidnapped and brought here, enslaved.
[A quick summary of what we know about Sodom]
1. One of two regions that went silent after the zombie outbreak.
2. The last place my runaway Younger Brother was headed.
3. The city where Lord Promé sold the slaves he kidnapped.
4. We naturally expected this city to be devastated by zombies, but… it’s perfectly fine, so we’re bewildered.
‘Regardless, point 3 is definitely true.’
The fact that they can hide this and masquerade as such a peaceful city isn’t reassuring—it’s terrifying.
Either way, this completely contradicts the hypothesis we’d constructed about zombies and God.
“Um, is this really Sodom?”
“Yeah. It is. Why? Cheese, something on your mind?”
“My parents told me stories about their hometown when I was young… but it seems different from what I heard.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
Hmm.
“We’ll have to investigate this ourselves.”
“I agree!”
“Why… why did contact suddenly break off when everything seems fine?”
“We should visit the Lord’s Castle to find out.”
Praha, who seemed oddly at ease since the confession, responded to Yujein’s words. A low voice suddenly sounded beside me, and he gently grasped my startled elbow.
His manner was kind and tender.
Almost relieved.
It was I who flinched as if touched by flame whenever I felt Praha’s presence.
“After Promé, I’d rather not stay at the Lord’s Castle if I can help it…”
“But this time, we must go.”
“I’m going to demand answers! Why would you ignore the Emperor’s summons when there aren’t even zombies around, forcing us to make this journey ourselves?!”
Tangerine thrust out his belly, declaring that only a strawberry cream cake could repay such a debt.
I gazed enviously at those sculpted abdominals that wouldn’t show a hint of softness even if he ate strawberry cream cakes piled high as a mountain.
“Hey there, handsome! Won’t you stop by and make an offering to our god?”
A cloying voice interjected from beside us.
Someone who appeared suddenly linked arms with Cyprus.
Cyprus had been smiling warmly with his eyes until that person linked arms with him.
“Praise the God of Pleasure, the deity of our city, before you go!”
“No.”
The moment he heard what came next, his demeanor turned cold and he unlinked their arms. It was an uncharacteristic coldness from Cyprus.
“Oh my, how frightening. This is an opportunity to learn what true pleasure really is, you know? Our god is quite generous!”
“Even if this world had only that god left, I still wouldn’t go.”
“Hmm. Then which god do you believe in, handsome?”
‘Wait, did they just say older brother?!’
You’re male, aren’t you…?
Why, why, why, why, why… are you calling him older brother?
I was astounded.
The first time I heard it, I thought I’d misheard.
Standing there with my mouth agape, Cyprus remained unfazed. For him, his disdain for the God of Pleasure seemed to matter more than some unfamiliar scrawny man calling him older brother.
Cyprus stretched his neck and replied in an even tone.
“If I had to choose, I believe in the God of Marriage.”
“Hmm.”
The person—who I thought was male but maybe was actually female, though honestly looked male no matter how I looked at it—pouted their lips seductively.
“In our Sodom, nobody believes in that boring god.”
“Nobody?”
“Really. See that mountain over there?”
The man pointed to a low hill, far smaller than Mount Prome, and whispered conspiratorially.
“There used to be a temple dedicated to the God of Marriage. People who wanted happy marriages would go there to make wishes. Or those seeking beauty. But the previous Lord…”
“The Local Lord said that?”
“He claimed that while he held the position of Local Lord, no one in Sodom would ever marry. And as for people’s appearances… he said they all look the same when viewed through alcohol and cigarette smoke.”
“….”
Even if I drank nine bottles of whiskey, I doubt I’d ever confuse Cyprus with the man standing before me.
Is this some kind of public service announcement?
A warning that excessive drinking and smoking could make you mistake someone like this for Cyprus?
“So the Temple of the God of Marriage was gradually pushed out, eventually relocated to the Mountain, and now it’s completely gone. If you were to visit, maybe only the foundation remains? I haven’t been there myself, so I wouldn’t know!”
“I see….”
That’s quite a story….
“By the way, I have a few questions to ask.”
I asked the man, who seemed thoroughly smitten with Cyprus. Still keeping his gaze fixed on Cyprus, the man answered in a gentle tone.
“Yes, ask me anything.”
“Are there casinos in this city?”
“Plenty. They’re everywhere you go.”
“Is there one that’s particularly famous?”
“Hmm… there are a few, but you need an invitation to enter those places.”
“How do you get an invitation?”
“Spend money around town.”
The man laughed coquettishly, saying that if I threw around a hundred gold coins a day, word would spread quickly.
That was when it happened.
“Get out of the way! Move!”
“Kyaaaah!”
From far away, I heard the deafening sound of tents and market stalls being overturned.
Boom boom boom boom boom.
At the mysterious commotion, Praha, Cyprus, and Tangerine immediately pushed our entire group and the man into the Temple.
“My, how forceful!”
The man clapped and laughed, but we all naturally ignored him.
Cyprus, who hadn’t entered the Temple, stood blocking us at the entrance.
“Move!”
“Ahhh!”
“Help me!”
Screams that wouldn’t stop. The sound of things being overturned and shattered. Tremors that shook the very earth.
What? What is this? I craned my neck to look outside.
And there I saw an Elephant being dragged along by three straining men holding its rope.
[Sodom]
-Yusara, Praha, Cyprus, Yujein, Tangerine, Muffin, Cheese, Cheese’s Younger Sibling (Alive)

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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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