A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 148

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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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“Praha.”
“….”
“Don’t chew on it.”
“Why.”
“I think pretending to be weak is your specialty.”
“What did you just say?”
“Does it feel good being coddled under the guise of a death prophecy?”
“….”
“And you’re always asking to have your head patted.”
“Be quiet.”
“I don’t want to.”
“…Cyprus.”
“What.”
“Are you acting petulant out of jealousy right now?”
“Ah, you kissed her forehead?”
“….”
“You were so careful about it, I’d bet a hundred gold coins she didn’t even feel it—like it was a feather instead of lips.”
Thwack!
“Hey! Did you just kick me?!”
“What are you going to do about it?”
“Men really are….”
“Tangerine, were you just talking about us…?”
“Ah, did I give it away?”
“….”
“….”
The two men grew somewhat sullen, but Tangerine hummed cheerfully as he walked on.
The three of them were retracing their steps.
They planned to exit through the fastest ventilation duct that their broad shoulders would permit, then return to the Cleaning Supply Cabinet where Yusara, Yujein, and the children were waiting.
Tangerine, twirling the sword in his hand, asked a question.
“But did Count Sodom and his eldest daughter really become zombies?”
“I couldn’t confirm Pochacha. And the Count….”
“…Almost certainly.”
Praha, recalling the image of the Count walking with blood smeared across the front of his nightclothes, answered slowly.
“How tragic! I heard Melon giving quite the speech in the bathroom earlier about the unfortunate plight of orphans to Muffin and Cheese, and now she’s become one herself!”
Tangerine spoke without a shred of sympathy.
The three soldiers, having stashed two civilians and four children in the Cleaning Supply Cabinet, pressed forward without hesitation.
All three were veterans of crawling across battlefields where bullets rained down like hail.
At a speed incomparably faster than before, they arrived at the Governess’s Small Room they had passed earlier.
“Be careful not to inhale the ash.”
Praha issued the warning in a low voice.
“Understood!”
Crack!
Tangerine responded cheerfully and kicked the cracked Ventilation Duct, her arm driving the Governess zombie backward.
Thud! Crack!
The charred hand of the zombie wedged in the gap tumbled to the floor, scattering ash in its wake.
The three of us leaped down through the hole we’d torn into the ceiling.
“Grraaah!”
“Kaaagh!”
The gathered zombies turned toward us with a cacophony of groans as we landed.
“Quite a few of them.”
“Indeed!”
Among them were Guard zombies clad in armor that rose to their necks, making it difficult to sever their heads.
Yet none of us showed alarm.
“Ah, my knees.”
Cyprus, who had landed last, began to complain theatrically.
He claimed his knees hurt, yet he rotated his neck this way and that, then stretched one arm across his chest with the other.
Brushing dust from his hair, Cyprus chuckled.
“Ah, what a shame I can’t show my magnificent zombie-slaying prowess to certain people.”
Praha fastened the sleeve button he’d left undone without responding.
Tangerine cried out.
“I’ll kill the most!”
Shing.
All three of us drew our blades.
* * *
The soft, supple sensation of her forehead pressing lightly against mine before pulling away cleanly.
The strength in those hands that had steadied my entire body.
The wrist and forearm that showed no strain, as if it were nothing at all—not even a vein raised….
Body heat. Eyes.
Like a sun in the darkness.
But now was not the time to dwell on such things.
“Are you alright, Yujein?”
“Y-yes… I’m fine!”
Yujein nodded, cold sweat dripping down her face.
Her complexion looked poor—crawling this far with such meager stamina had clearly taken its toll.
Since we’d begun this adventure together, she’d received instruction from Tangerine and undergone physical training, yet stamina doesn’t build overnight.
Besides, she’d been casting magic continuously since we encountered the zombies in the Basement.
“Your knees hurt, don’t they? Stretch your legs out this way.”
We were sitting in a Cleaning Supply Cabinet—about one and a half times the size of a gosiwon.
“Sniff… M-mother….”
Beside us, Melon wept upon realizing what had become of her family, while Cheese’s Younger Sibling fidgeted anxiously at her side.
My heart was heavy, but there was something I needed to do before I could comfort the child.
I peered outside through the gap between the door handle of the Cleaning Supply Cabinet, which Yujein had forcefully broken open earlier.
‘How many zombies are on this floor anyway? At least I don’t see anything from here.’
But I wouldn’t open the door to check.
“Yujein, how much time has passed now?”
“Two minutes…”
Not even enough time for instant ramen to cook.
“Haven’t we been in a situation like this before?”
“Yes…! Back then, at first…! At the Villa!”
“That’s right. We did.”
Waiting for Praha, Cyprus, and Dazling at the Huntsman’s Cabin.
‘I wonder how Dazling is doing.’
Two of the people who were alive then died before even a full day had passed.
Today, something like that shouldn’t happen.
I sighed and turned around to look behind me.
Melon, her ears bright red, had buried her face in her knees and was crouching in the corner.
The child who had laughed with delight at others’ deaths as entertainment at the Execution Ground days ago was now unable to focus, consumed by the thought that she herself might become the target of death, that her family might already be dead.
“…Are you alright?”
When I asked softly, a sullen response came back.
“I’m thirsty.”
I wanted to fulfill the child’s demands as much as possible, as she desperately tried to maintain her dignity.
“There’s no water…”
I looked around inside the Cleaning Supply Cabinet with an embarrassed expression.
Now that I thought about it, Muffin and Cheese hadn’t said anything, but they looked like their throats would dry up at any moment.
“Are you thirsty too, Yujein?”
“Well, I am… but I’m fine!”
Fine, indeed. Even though she’d been hot and thirsty since earlier.
“The children don’t seem to be fine. So it would be good if we drank some too, incidentally.”
“Oh, or maybe… oh!”
Yujein suddenly jumped to her feet.
“There’s probably a faucet in here for washing mops!”
“Oh!”
Normally, I wouldn’t drink water from a place where mops are wrung out, but this situation was different.
“Usually, places like this have wall-mounted faucets. You can store mops and wash them too… probably around here… here it is!”
“Wow!”
I clapped my hands for her.
“How do you know all these things?”
“I used to clean the Temple a lot when I was young.”
Yujein laughed with a grin toward me and opened the cabinet door.
Crash!
“Ahhhhh!”
And the corpse inside came tumbling down onto Yujein’s head.
“What, what is this!”
A corpse hanging from a faucet, along with buckets, mops, and brooms, buried the small frame of Yujein.
Crash!
“Ahhhhhhh!”
“Argh!”
“Ahhhhh!”
The children, mistaking it for a zombie, screamed in terror.
“Shh! Shh! Everyone! Be quiet!”
I hurried to soothe the children and approached Yujein, brushing the corpse off her head.
‘Ugh, the bodily fluids…’
The skin was still warm to the touch.
It seemed that after zombies appeared in Sodom Castle, someone had hidden here alone and, unable to bear the terror, taken their own life.
But that wasn’t the pressing problem right now.
“Grrrrgh! Grrgh!”
“Kyaaah!”
From a distance, the zombies reacted to the noise we had just made.
The distinctive barking sounds of zombies echoing from the Servant Quarters across the way.
I could almost see them detecting us and snapping their necks in our direction.
Then suddenly, the door burst open.
“…!”
“…!”
“…Um, sister?”
The person who opened the door was Pochacha.
Her red, coily hair, which should have been neatly braided and decorated with ribbons, was a complete mess. Blood stained her hands and face, and fragments of something broken clung to her legs.
A girl who had just clawed her way out of the chaos stood before us in a torn dress and blood-stained bare feet, having flung open the Cleaning Supply Cabinet door.
Pochacha’s eyes, glistening with tears, swept across me standing upright, Yujein crouched on the floor, the corpse rolling beside her, the children, and finally her younger sibling Melon.
The sisters’ eyes met.
“Grrrrgh!”
Behind her, the sound of zombies beginning to swarm toward us.
If we stayed like this, we would all die.
“Ugh… ugh…”
Pochacha looked back and forth between her trembling younger sibling and the zombies rushing toward us, gritting her teeth.
Slam!
The Cleaning Supply Cabinet door closed again.
Tap-tap-tap-tap.
The sound of footsteps running in the opposite direction from where we were hiding.
“This way! This way!”
Pochacha began screaming, her voice trembling with tears.
“This way! This way! This way!”
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
“Can’t you hear me?! This way!!!!!!”
Pochacha’s voice, trembling with sobs, grew increasingly distant.
“Sister!”
“No!”
Cheese grabbed Melon, who was trying to rush out.
Thud-thud-thud.
“You monster bastards! Come this way, all of you!”
The wailing girl’s screams, the sounds of the zombies, the pounding of feet—all fading into the distance.
“Grrrrrgh!”
“Kieeeek!”
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
A harrowing cry, like a final death knell.
And then.
Silence.
[Cleaning Supply Cabinet]
-Yusara, Yujein, Muffin, Cheese, Cheese’s Sibling, Melon (Survived)

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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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