A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 161
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
“The prophecy warned me. That I would meet my death at the hands of one already dead.”
It seems that warning was accurate.
Right now, I feel as though I’m about to die.
Praha’s words emerged muffled from within his mouth.
His thick eyelashes were visible far too close as his eyes remained shut.
I couldn’t tell whose ragged breathing it was. As my legs gave way and I began to collapse, Praha caught me again, pulling me back into his embrace.
With my legs wrapped firmly around his waist, Praha laughed against our joined lips.
“Is this uncomfortable?”
“No….”
“I find it quite pleasant.”
Even as he asked, he didn’t release my lips from between his teeth.
His hand slipped through my hair, touching my damp strands. He squeezed firmly as though barely restraining himself, then slowly released the pressure.
Only when my face flushed from the lack of breath did our pressed lips finally separate.
My spine tingled.
“Ah….”
As I gasped to catch my breath, Praha touched my cheek with the fervor of someone intoxicated. He’d been caressing me like a jeweler handling precious gems since moments ago.
Praha spoke.
“If you’ve lived two lifetimes, then I must be considerably younger than you.”
Surprised by his words, I lowered my head to look at him.
As our eyes met, a feather-light kiss fell upon the corner of my eye.
“About twenty years younger, then?”
“Roughly… that much.”
“Then I’m the younger man you prefer.”
“When did I ever say I preferred younger men….”
Praha, distorting the truth to suit himself, pressed his lips alternately against my forehead, the bridge of my nose, my cheek, and the corner of my eye.
His lowered voice created a gentle vibration against our touching skin.
“Since I’m twenty years younger, I must kiss you twenty more times. And then do that twenty times over. And then twenty times again….”
“Then we’d be doing this for the rest of our lives…!”
“That is precisely what I desire.”
He was utterly unreasonable.
My worries that this was wrong, that Praha might become infected too, scattered like dust before the body heat pressing against me again and again.
When I lost control and gripped Praha’s cheek, my feet lowered to the ground. Even in that brief moment, he kept our lips pressed together, reluctant to part.
As my feet touched the earth, the height difference forced me to crane my neck.
Similarly bending low, Praha’s hands trembled at my back and waist, as though he wanted nothing more than to lift me again.
When I regained my senses, I found myself lying atop Praha.
Before my eyes, the God’s Altar shimmered with rippling light.
An altar that descended downward in form.
Upon the crystal chalice at its center, I saw something that hadn’t been there moments before.
“Ah….”
As I raised my torso to look closer, Praha petulantly pulled my lips toward him.
“Wait, look over there…!”
I lifted my head to get a better look, and his face followed, his lips meeting the tip of my chin. I barely managed to hold onto my crumbling sanity at the warm, soft sensation.
“Hold on, just a moment…!”
“I don’t want to.”
“No, that’s not what I meant….”
“I don’t want to….”
“No, let go for a second!”
There’s something over there!
I pressed my palm against his lips as they kept drawing closer.
Praha’s tongue brushed against the fleshy part of my palm. He showed no sign of stopping, continuing to kiss my palm and fingers. I grabbed his hair and pulled.
“Come to your senses!”
He’s completely lost it!
“You need to look at that!”
Only then did Praha finally snap back to awareness and lift himself up.
“I was in the middle of the most important thing in the world.”
“No, no. You have to see this.”
I approached the Altar with Praha clinging to my back, now gripping a handful of my hair and sucking on it.
As we drew near, the water churned as if it had been waiting for us. I snatched up the object that had been swept across the water’s surface toward us.
“…A ring?”
Pale purple, pink.
It was a pair of rings, each adorned with a teardrop-shaped gemstone facing opposite directions.
They looked incredibly expensive.
“It’s a sacred artifact.”
As I assessed the price of the jewels at a glance, Praha spoke up beside me, identifying the rings’ true nature.
“A sacred artifact?”
“Yes.”
This?
“Take a closer look.”
I held out what I was holding so he could examine it more carefully.
He didn’t look at the ring—instead, he pressed his lips to the tip of my finger.
Since Praha showed absolutely no interest in the sacred artifact, I racked my brain instead.
“It does seem to resemble what’s carved on Cyprus’s chest.”
It must be a sacred artifact.
One that eternally binds ‘two lovers who adore each other’ so they never part.
But why did it appear before us now?
…Surely it’s not because we kissed so passionately and recklessly….
“Could it be because we saved Cyprus? But that doesn’t quite explain it… Oh.”
Now I remember.
When I first heard the story about this sacred artifact.
The memory of the crimson stone I glimpsed in Prometheus’ Ruined Temple.
“The God of Marriage and Beauty bestowed sacred relics upon his followers! They say it was a couple who survived forty days isolated together in a cave!”
“Is that so?”
“Yes! The man severed his own fingers and fed her his blood to save the woman!”
“How remarkable. But what does that have to do with you?”
“It’s fascinating! The power the sacred relic possesses, the way one obtains it—it’s so romantic. Two people who love each other…”
“It seems to be thanks to you, Praha.”
“Me?”
“Yes. Because you… for my sake, even knowing I might become a zombie.”
You kissed me without hesitation.
I couldn’t finish my words and pulled Praha into an embrace.
Praha, who had tilted his head in confusion, immediately wrapped his arms around me. A smile gradually bloomed across his bewildered face.
“Then you won’t become a zombie.”
“Why?”
“A god would never bestow sacred relics upon someone about to fall under another god’s influence.”
“…You’re right.”
Those legendary lovers ultimately survived.
So we would survive as well.
“You’re right. I… we will be safe.”
“Yes.”
I looked up at Praha while holding him close.
The moment our eyes met, his lips descended without hesitation.
We only separated after a very long time had passed.
“Since there are two, we can each wear one.”
“Yes. I like that.”
The beautiful but small ring clearly wouldn’t fit Praha’s hand, yet he spoke with such confidence.
I took Praha’s hand first.
“If it’s a sacred relic, does it have some kind of function?”
“I’m not certain. I do hope it has the function of striking lightning from above if the man wearing one of the paired rings were to be unfaithful.”
Huh.
“Then lightning would strike your head, Praha.”
“I suppose it can’t be helped.”
“What if I were unfaithful?”
“I shall ensure such a thing never comes to pass.”
What a double standard…
Fortunately, the ring expanded to fit the wearer’s hand size.
“Now it’s my turn.”
Praha, carefully receiving the ring, took my hand.
His hands trembled visibly despite his composed expression, making it difficult for the ring to slip on. His nervousness infected me as well.
Just as my face flushed crimson, a timely interruption came from outside.
Bang, bang, bang!
“Yusara! Your Majesty! Are you in there?! I’ve made a necklace for you!”
“Oh, Tangerine…!”
“Once you wear this, I think you’ll be able to come out now!”
I’m coming in!
Without waiting for a response, Tangerine pushed the door open.
Startled and trying to pull my hand away, I found Praha holding it firm as he finally slipped the ring onto my finger.
Because of that, everyone witnessed the whole thing.
“Oh….”
“Wow….”
“Ah, that’s… oh. Cyprus is awake.”
“Yeah. Thanks to this.”
Cyprus stood there looking somewhat exhausted but otherwise fine.
Despite the dark shadows beneath his eyes that made him look like he’d been through hell, he still managed to appear handsome—his gaze traveled from Praha’s disheveled, tangled hair to my slightly torn lip where my fangs had caught it, and finally settled on the ring we both wore.
“…So it came to this?”
“…Are you feeling alright?”
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
“….”
“It’s okay. I’m not the type to be discouraged by something like this.”
Yet his eyes glistened with unshed tears.
I looked at the ring on my hand once, then at Praha and Cyprus, and finally at Tangerine and Yujein.
“I have something I need to tell you all.”
I didn’t need to reveal everything, but I wanted to at least explain how I survived falling through the zombie horde.
Because I trusted these people.
“It might be something you can’t believe.”
At my hesitant words, Tangerine tilted his head curiously.
“If it’s something Yusara is saying, there’s nothing we couldn’t believe, is there? Unless you’re about to say something like ‘Actually, I hate chocolate and love bitter greens.'”
“I-I would believe you even if you said that!”
Yujein interjected urgently from beside him.
“Who in the world would say such a thing, Yujein!”
The two of them started bickering while Cyprus continued staring at me intently. When our eyes met, he winked.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.
I had believed I had no achievements in this world, but it seemed that wasn’t entirely true.
“But it really might be something you can’t believe. The truth is, I….”
[(Safe Zone) Temple with Sacred Relics]
– Yusara, Praha, Cyprus, Yujein, Tangerine, Aspara, Muffin, Cheese’s Younger Sibling, Pochacha (Alive)
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————