A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 143

—————

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

—————

The stubbornness of children sometimes transcends imagination.
Especially when it’s a child who has never once failed to get what they wanted since birth.
‘Why, why, why are you coming out from there…♪’
When I went to ask a colleague from the neighboring team for something, I witnessed a female employee from that team sitting under the colleague’s desk, the two of them holding hands and chattering away.
When the employee who made eye contact with me giggled and crawled further under the desk to hide.
I’m experiencing a level of bewilderment comparable to that moment right now.
“Hmph.”
I alternated my gaze between Melon, who was already pouting, and my doll figurine clutched in her small hands.
“We were gathered together when someone walked through the door! It looked like they were trying to steal Yusara’s doll! I grabbed them because I was worried it might be dangerous if they left now!”
Tangerine seized Melon by the scruff of her neck, hoisting the child dangling into the air with both hands.
“Let go! You’re a bad lady!”
“I don’t want to! Yusara, what should we do?”
“…Sigh.”
Right. What should I do?
Normally, I would have just handed over the doll out of annoyance and exhaustion.
I’d tell her to be quiet and I’d give it to her.
But not this time.
Have you seen “The Noisy Place”?
In that movie, a kid makes a toy doll scream loudly and dies…. This doll is exactly that kind of doll.
‘It’s dangerous.’
It’s not that I dislike you, Melon, and am refusing to give it to you.
Use this opportunity to learn to respect others’ wishes.
“Sigh.”
“Understood!”
Tangerine, who read my true feelings from just my sigh, swiftly snatched the doll from Melon’s hands.
“It’s mine!”
I gazed at the doll as it returned to my hands from the struggling Melon, feeling a complex emotion.
…Should I just leave this here and go?
‘No. If someone who enters this room accidentally touches it and it makes a sound, they’re as good as dead.’
I’ll take good care of it myself.
“So, what happened?”
Praha, ignoring the tantruming Melon as if she were beneath notice, asked Tangerine.
“Well, you see!”
Tangerine, who had been giggling while staring at the snot droplet hanging from the child’s nose, began her explanation.
Do you remember, Your Highness?
A few days ago at dawn, when Muffin left her room alone to go to the bathroom.
I stepped away briefly for patrol, so Your Highness went after Muffin instead.
“Praha wore my clothes when he went out! I saw it!”
The outfit was far too flashy, after all!
Anyway, that’s not the important part!
Between Muffin’s room and the Crown Prince’s chambers, Yusara’s and Yujein’s rooms were sandwiched in between, so the child had to leave her room before the two Highnesses could hear any sound and follow.
A large man following from behind in the dead of night would surely startle the child, so they kept their distance and followed in secret—until Muffin suddenly began to run, or so they said.
“The one following me was the Crown Prince Highness?!”
“I was the one who followed without you noticing.”
“But that’s….”
“Which means someone else made the noise!”
“I… I was sleeping soundly and unaware that something like that was happening….”
“Indeed, history truly unfolds under the cover of night.”
The Highness, puzzled by Muffin’s sudden sprint, soon discovered the large shadow trailing behind her—and when he tried to intervene and take Muffin away—!
“…What did you see next, Highness?”
“…Blood pooled on the floor.”
Right! I forgot because I was hungry!
There was blood with a foul stench pooled on the floor, or so they said!
Since rescuing Muffin was the urgent priority, we decided to investigate that blood later and jumped down from the Staircase—and at that very moment, a Maid appeared from the other side, or so they said!
A shadow that vanished without a trace, blood pooled on the floor, and Muffin caught by the Maid!
The Highness had only one body!
And so our Crown Prince Highness made a decision…!
To save Muffin from among them!
“Um, Yusara. Why is Tangerine speaking in such a dramatic tone?”
“Ever since witnessing an execution ceremony, he occasionally speaks like that….”
Unable to confirm the identity of that shadow which suddenly vanished while prioritizing Muffin’s safety, the Highness subsequently ordered me to follow even the Maid if necessary.
The Highness personally returned to verify the blood pooled on the floor, but by then the bloodstains had already been completely wiped clean.
Faithfully following the Highness’s command, I confirmed that the Maid entered through a door in the First Floor Secret Room.
It was camouflaged with a painting so that people unfamiliar with it couldn’t easily find it.
“And today…!”
“Today?”
“When the commotion about the theft broke out, I confirmed that the Servants who were running about all rushed toward that location!”
Tangerine’s eyes widened as he said they all entered but never came back out.
His expression was the kind that suited the words, ‘I saw it clearly with these two eyes of mine!’
“To protect these youngsters and confirm all of that besides—I am truly a born Imperial Knight!”
I’m truly amazing. Tangerine spread his arms wide.
Yusara and Yujein clapped for him.
Praha, who whistled expressionlessly in agreement, spoke.
“There must be something behind that door.”
“Yes, whatever was stolen from there! Whatever is there! I believe we need to investigate! What about the zombie?”
“Found one in the First Floor Dining Hall. No external injuries, and I thought it was female, but it was male.”
“What’s a zombie?”
Melon interjected with a question.
Seeing the child with fluffy hair tied with a ribbon, resembling the Lord of Sodom, something came to mind.
“Didn’t you say the Local Lord’s father passed away not long ago?”
Due to the accident, the Local Lord had changed suddenly, or so I’d heard.
“Actually, what if he didn’t die while hunting, but became a zombie for some reason, and they’re keeping him behind that door?”
Out of misguided filial piety, unable to bring himself to kill his own father, he’d hidden him away in the First Floor Secret Room.
Then he’d brought people through human trafficking to serve as food for the zombie.
The shadow that had followed Muffin last time was his escaped father, and the thief who stole from the castle today was actually a zombie too…
I must have been watching Netflix too much.
“What do you mean zombie?!”
I turned to look at Melon, who was shouting about why I was ignoring her words.
“Melon, there were no adults in the castle. Where did your mother and older sister go?”
“Why are you ignoring me…!”
“If you tell me, I’ll give you that doll from earlier when we leave here.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah. You can have it. Promise.”
“…Mom and my sister went to pray.”
“Pray?”
“Yeah. On a set day each month, we offer tribute to the god of Our City and say prayers. Thanks to the god watching over us, we’re able to live so abundantly.”
“So they’re not in the castle right now?”
“Yeah! But they’ll be back soon.”
“…Now I understand why Mocha chose today.”
Let me organize this for a moment.
– Today is the day the adults empty the castle.
– Mocha, who knew this fact in advance, used this opportunity to get me out of the castle and let me meet my younger sibling.
(He was supposedly trying to save me.)
– While this was happening, something went missing from the castle where only a few servants remained.
Mocha seemed to know about it, so the thief was probably Mocha’s accomplice.
– That missing item was in the First Floor Secret Room in the corner.
– The few servants and guards protecting the castle went into that secret room and never came back out.
– A zombie without external wounds is wandering through the castle.
“Mocha definitely knew about this. The way he left that unpleasant message proves it.”
“Who is Mocha, Yusara?”
“Well, about that…”
I explained this and that.
“He said he was trying to save me. And he said something else too.”
“What did he say?”
“That we all have to die.”
“What?!”
“I don’t want to die!”
I haven’t even secured my own place in the heart of the Capital yet, and now I have to die?!
Tangerine cried out almost in a wail.
As someone who wants to get a house in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, it was a statement that hit far too close to home.
“I wonder what that Mocha’s objective was….”
“Indeed.”
Steal items while people were absent, and finish by spreading zombies to kill everyone in the castle?
“Still, if everyone has evacuated the castle, the probability of the virus spreading would be low even with zombies present.”
“I just hope the zombies don’t escape outside the castle before that!”
Tangerine interjected cheerfully.
Upon hearing her words, Praha suddenly turned to look at Cyprus.
“…Cyprus, didn’t you leave the door open when you came in earlier?”
Praha asked whether Cyprus had wedged something to keep the back door from closing when he entered through it.
“Oh, that.”
Cyprus, now the center of attention, touched the back of his head awkwardly.
“I just closed it again.”
“…Why?”
“My finger got caught in the door frame while closing it, and it hurt for a moment….”
….
“I didn’t mention it because I knew you’d look at me like that….”
Right, well done….
So the castle doors are sealed, which means there’s no risk of zombies escaping, but we can’t leave either, and we’re stuck wrestling with zombies inside this locked castle by ourselves?
Fantastic!
[Sodom Castle Guest Room]
-Yusara, Praha, Cyprus, Yujein, Tangerine, Muffin, Cheese, Cheese’s Younger Sibling, Melon (Survived)

—————

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

—————