A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 175

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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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“This won’t end like this! We keep killing until no more zombies pour from the Gate. If we think about whether the Gate will exhaust first or we will, the answer is obvious.”
“Then….”
“Let’s go inside that Gate. We’ll check what’s in there. After that, we can either burn it all down or seal the hole completely.”
“B-but in the meantime….”
“The Imperial Knights will hold the line.”
“I’m here too!”
Mascarpone shouted.
Before I knew it, Mascarpone had pressed against my shoulder and thrust a magical item into my hand.
“You’ll need this.”
I listened carefully to the quick explanation of how to use it.
“Do you understand?”
“Yes. I understand.”
“Good. My mother will be sending reinforcements soon. You know she’s the chief mage, right? With my mother and the Knight Order together, holding the line won’t be a problem.”
“Perfect! Then shall we head in right away!”
Into that disgusting black hole! Tangerine cried out eagerly.
Beside her, Yujein nodded with a determined expression.
Cyprus laughed, and Praha’s lips curved upward as well.
Their straightforward response left me flustered instead.
“Aren’t you going to ask what happens if we go in and find nothing?”
“Then we just come back out!”
“Right….”
I want to learn that kind of personality from Tangerine.
“Then let’s go inside the Gate!”
“B-but how do we get in?”
Right.
How are we supposed to go against the flow of zombies now pouring out like a flood?
Without getting bitten, without getting torn apart….
Is that even possible?
“S-should we do it now?!”
Yujein, eyes wide open, stomped down on a zombie torso that had rolled to her feet, pinning it in place.
She was asking if we should camouflage ourselves by chopping up zombies and smearing them on our bodies like before.
I hastily shook my head at Yujein, who was already thinking about tearing apart the scattered zombies without being told.
“It won’t work. From now on, we’ll act like we’re clearly not zombies. They’re coming out and we’re going in—they’ll notice immediately.”
“Should I just go in alone?”
Cyprus, still untouched by zombie attacks, brought down the plate he was holding onto a zombie’s head as he asked.
“And let you go in alone without knowing what’s in there!”
“Be careful!”
“Ugh!”
There’s no time—I’m busy talking and fending off the zombies rushing this way.
Corpses have begun piling up on the ground.
This is troublesome….
“I have a way!”
Mascarpone, who had just rushed into the Hall and received a staff from her mother, cried out.
“It’s a wind spell I just developed! When I fire this, a strong gust will blow forward and split the zombies to both sides!”
Oh!
“Like the parting of the Red Sea?!”
“What’s that?!”
“Such a thing exists! Anyway, we just need to pass through the gap that opens, right?!”
“Exactly!”
“Perfect! I’m counting on you!”
“Yujein!”
Tangerine, who had heard Mascarpone’s words beside me, called out to Yujein.
“Come this way!”
Soon all the familiar faces gathered around me.
“Be careful! The duration won’t last long!”
“Mascarpone, do just this and then fall back immediately!”
“What are you talking about? I’m not leaving! I’m needed for you to escape safely!”
Mascarpone shouted at me to stop rambling and focus.
Mascarpone stood facing the Gate directly and leveled her staff. Even seeing the horde of zombies rushing toward her, she didn’t step back or waver.
The way she stared unflinchingly at the pouring zombies was far different from how she had trembled in fear when first encountering them at the Villa.
Her short hair fluttered and swayed in the wind—
“Now!”
A corridor wide enough for one person to pass through appeared in a straight line through the zombies.
“Go now!”
“Got it!”
Praha and Cyprus led the way.
Yujein followed behind them, then me, and Tangerine brought up the rear.
Uuugh….
This wasn’t swimming upstream—what in the world was this!
“Kyaaaah….”
“Grrgh….”
Through the barrier of wind created by Mascarpone’s spell, I could see zombies baring their teeth and glaring at us.
Similarly, the Knights, their eyes narrowed against the wind, slashed down the surging zombies one by one.
“Hurry!”
Mascarpone groaned painfully from behind.
There was no time to peer into what lay beyond that black Gate.
Praha and Cyprus disappeared first through the two wind walls.
Yujein, who had struck the entire Hall with lightning to incinerate the zombies before entering, came next.
And finally, me.
By then, Mascarpone’s strength had run out.
“Ahhhhh!”
A zombie thrust its arm through a weakening gap in the wind barrier.
Tangerine, rushing from behind, shoved the zombie away before it could claw my forearm.
“Yusara!”
“Yusara!”
“I’m fine!”
The bracelet Mascarpone had given me began to hum as the attack threatened my life, but I had no time to look down at it.
The wind barrier behind me fluctuated—weakening and strengthening—in rhythm with Mascarpone’s struggling efforts.
“Run!”
“Tangerine! Behind you!”
“Cough!”
Mascarpone coughed, blood spilling from her lips.
The wind wall narrowed steadily, then finally vanished entirely.
Tangerine and I, surrounded by zombies.
“Grrrrgh!”
“Get away!”
Tangerine slashed through a zombie lunging at us and seized my arm.
As I entered the Gate, he shielded me with his entire body to keep the zombies from dragging me back.
But another zombie clung to his back.
“Tangerine!”
“Get inside!”
Tangerine, exposing his back to the snarling zombie, pushed me through the Gate.
He pushed, then stepped backward.
At that moment, the bracelet on my wrist—which had been vibrating—flared with light as magic manifested.
A transparent barrier enveloped me.
“Ahhhhh!”
“Where are you going!”
But Tangerine, who had created distance to protect me, fell outside the barrier’s range.
“Tangerine!”
As he struck a zombie’s face inches from his own, another zombie latched onto his back.
One more, then another, and another still.
He shook off the first few, but surrounded by zombies swarming like ants, soon….
“No! Dodge! Fall back! Don’t let them bite! Shake them off!”
I cast magic immediately, but it was too late.
I watched as a zombie’s teeth scraped across Tangerine’s wrist—exposed by the thinner clothes he wore today.
“This is exactly why I should wear thicker clothing!”
Tangerine laughed, grumbling.
Dozens of zombies swarmed toward him.
He swayed under their weight, scratched in countless places, yet Tangerine remained standing tall.
Seeing me safe within the barrier, he smiled.
The clean arc of the blade protected me until the very end.
“No, this can’t be…”
“In the end, I never did hear the secret you were going to tell us, Yusara! What a shame!”
My entire body was soon swallowed by the Gate.
Leaving Tangerine behind.
“I haven’t even moved into the house the Grand Duke gave me yet…”
When my eyes met Tangerine’s one last time as he cheerfully muttered to himself.
Tangerine smiled.
“Yusara, it has been an honor to serve you all this time!”
* * *
My darkened vision suddenly blazed with light.
Crack!
Simultaneously, a tremendous force struck down upon my crown.
Or rather, it struck Praha, who had fallen with me.
And the magical power that had already manifested to protect me formed a luminous barrier over myself and my companions who had already scattered around us.
I gazed down at the source of the force that had shielded us.
“…Mascarpone’s bracelet.”
The bracelet Mascarpone had gifted me before I set out on my first adventure.
She had insisted I wear it always, fearing even a scratch on something so clearly precious.
The power flowing from that bracelet was protecting me and my companions from the assault.
In that moment, I understood.
“…This bracelet was Mascarpone’s protective charm.”
A one-of-a-kind item—created by a mage who knew protective magic, now deceased, making it impossible to craft another.
An object that burdened Mascarpone with the guilt that perhaps Consomme would have lived if she hadn’t been so greedy.
“…She gave that to me.”
And now that very object had saved us.
I helped my companions to their feet as they gradually regained consciousness beneath the translucent barrier overhead.
Praha, Cyprus, Yujein.
“What about Tangerine?!”
I shook my head quietly at Yujein’s urgent question.
“…I couldn’t.”
I should have looked after Tangerine. Instead, I foolishly accepted protection.
“I… I couldn’t bring him with me.”
Praha clenched his teeth, and Cyprus quietly closed his eyes.
“This can’t be real…”
No, it truly couldn’t be.
But there was no time to surrender to grief.
Even now, attacks rained down upon us from above.
‘They seem to be targeting Praha.’
Then… was this the God of Light’s assault?
“…There are no zombies here.”
“Where is this place? I’ve never seen a location like this before.”
Praha and Cyprus, their eyes reddened, bit their lips and forced themselves to change the subject.
They were right.
We had entered through a Gate that spewed zombies endlessly, yet inside the Gate, there were none.
Unlike the others who wondered where we were, I sensed I knew the answer.
“…This is the Movie Theater.”
The beginning of this entire story.
The last place I had been before returning to this world.
It was when I was gazing at a screen showing nothing.
[So we meet here after all.]
A voice that resonated directly in my mind, not through my ears.
Everyone else seemed to hear it too, as they all looked toward the ceiling, yet the owner of the voice remained invisible.
[This is the passage between worlds. It is my domain.]
“…The owner of this voice is…”
“Yes. It’s the Light God.”
[I never expected you to charge in here directly. Quite bold for a human.]
That contemptuous attitude toward humanity remained unchanged.
[Do you wish to know how to resolve this crisis?]
Of course I do.
[Kill that child.]
At the same moment, an intense light struck down upon Praha’s head once more.
Crack!
The protective barrier created by Mascarpone’s magic flared as if shattering.
The God spoke to me.
[Kill that child. Then I shall end this punishment.]
[Movie Theater]
– Yusara, Praha, Cyprus, Yujein (Alive)
– Tangerine (Deceased)

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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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