A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 18

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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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“So, what will you do first once you leave here, Miss?”
“I’m going to have coffee. Coffee, no matter what.”
“Me too! A warm, freshly brewed cup with a little cream.”
“As for me, it’s iced coffee, absolutely.”
The Crown Prince’s group hadn’t returned.
We were anxious, but no one showed it.
The moment we let it slip, everything would spiral out of control.
We all knew we were uneasy, yet we deliberately concealed it.
“Can you all be quiet?”
That is, until the Troublemaker started acting up again.
The Troublemaker, sitting with his back pressed firmly against the corner of the wall, glared at us and spoke.
“What’s so great about that? Can’t you read the mood?”
I was the one who fired back.
“What are you talking about? Your voice is the loudest one in here.”
“That’s not what I meant!”
The Troublemaker, as if dying of frustration, ruffled his hair and shouted loudly.
“Don’t you people think for yourselves? Are you just going to sit here waiting for men to rescue you?!”
“Uh, but you’re sitting here with us too.”
I stared blankly at the Troublemaker, who seemed desperate to practice his hypocrisy but couldn’t quite manage it.
Who would think we were relying on him?
I spoke up.
“Of course we think for ourselves. For instance, in a situation like this, we think things like, ‘That guy is really annoying, I wish he’d just shut his mouth.'”
“Hey!”
“Let’s hear it then. What should we be thinking right now?”
“Three people who know how to use a sword went out and haven’t come back! Aren’t you anxious? Did they escape on their own and abandon us?!”
“….”
So it was him who was worried?
The Troublemaker jumped to his feet and pointed at my forehead.
“It’s strange that Praha suddenly gave his rope to her! Not to anyone else, but to the Miss! What’s the difference between that and giving a lollipop to a child you’re abandoning? Is it his last act of conscience?!”
“….”
The Miss listening to this must feel hurt…
‘He must be really anxious. Look at him getting irritable.’
I spoke to the Troublemaker, who was having a fit, in a flat tone.
“Don’t worry. Those people will never leave us behind.”
“How would you know that, Miss?!”
How would I know?
Well…
“Because Yujein is here.”
“What does that even mean?!”
“Of course I’ll come back. The person I love is here.”
That’s what I said, but truthfully, they would return even if Yujein weren’t here.
Because.
‘They’re male protagonists, after all.’
I couldn’t call men who only rescue the women they fancy “male protagonists.”
– Yusara’s opinion on men, formed after experiencing a senior colleague eight years her elder during her internship who treated her kindly until she mentioned having a boyfriend, then completely changed his behavior –
In my view, how a man treats the person he loves isn’t particularly important. That’s simply love.
Love can fade and change at any moment.
What matters is how he treats those he doesn’t love.
Coming to rescue those he doesn’t love simply because the action is righteous.
That’s an unchanging part of his character, the mark of a true male protagonist, and something I can trust unconditionally no matter how our relationship transforms.
‘Even though one of them cruelly rejected me in the past and the other will kill me in the future.’
They’ll come back! Because they’re protagonists!
Surely men lacking even that basic character wouldn’t occupy a protagonist’s position!
But I didn’t want to suddenly launch into my own half-baked philosophy here.
“They’ll come back. Both of them. To retrieve Miss Yujein.”
I gave a vague answer.
The fact that I, who had been desperate to devour Yujein, spoke words acknowledging her seemed unexpected—people fell silent.
Especially the women who knew that I had harbored unrequited feelings for the Grand Duke in the past and the Crown Prince in the present had quite the reaction.
“My lady….”
“Are you… all right?”
Consomme nearly burst into tears.
Both the Crown Prince and the Grand Duke showed no interest in me and only loved Yujein.
The look in her eyes suggested she was imagining what kind of storm I must have weathered internally to come out so calmly after being so bitterly stubborn about not accepting this obvious truth.
“What else can I do? It’s not something I can change.”
“Hic…!”
Consomme stifled a cry, both hands covering her mouth.
‘Consomme’s empathy is practically at audience-member levels.’
Combined with the incident of falling on the Second Floor earlier, I could plainly see Consomme’s imagination snowballing.
“My lady.”
Yujein called out to me, startled by my name tumbling from my lips.
I gazed at her face—like a summer fruit freshly pulled from cool valley water on a sultry afternoon.
I let out a short laugh and added.
“You can’t pretend emotions don’t exist just by ignoring them. I have eyes too.”
‘Besides, it’s none of my concern.’
Once I return home, that’s the end of it.
I thought this internally and rose to my feet.
I checked my watch and spoke.
“The promised hour has passed. …By quite a bit.”
At those words, worry that had been forgotten resurfaced, and I carefully met the eyes of each person as they flinched.
“It would be fortunate if the three of them return now, and I’m certain they will, but I think we should prepare for the possibility that they might not.”
“….”
“Or even if the three of them do return, if the corpses find us first before they do.”
In that case, the three who returned would discover us already turned into zombies.
Q. Just wing it~ Surely we won’t get infected? There’s an original work anyway. We’ll survive here for now.
A. We’re not gambling with our lives.
I stretched my arms out long, rolling my head as I did. The tension in my muscles eased.
I didn’t have any brilliant solutions myself, but compared to these fragile-minded people, I’d weathered enough of the world to have better mental fortitude.
After using this body for a few hours now, it seems the lady Yusara’s physique isn’t entirely without stamina.
And I know more about zombies too.
(Troublemaker excluded) I’m also the tallest here.
‘I suppose you could call me the relatively stronger one.’
Yujein was injured, and Mascarpone and Consomme were dressed in slippers and gowns—they clearly looked like they’d never opened a water bottle by their own strength.
‘Consomme rides in a carriage all the way into the Park. I’ve said enough about that.’
With the three of them absent, I was the one who had to protect the group. I had to keep them safe.
I’d do my best despite my shortcomings!
Not out of modesty—I really am lacking!
Yujein, who had been biting her lip, offered her opinion.
“What if we went out to look for the three of them? They might be in a situation where they need help.”
“There’s no way we could help them without weapons.”
Mascarpone responded. Consomme nodded in agreement beside her.
“Yes, and if our paths don’t cross….”
The Garden must be quite large if paths could miss each other like that.
There was another concern.
“Even if we go out, we should do it during the day.”
“Why is that?”
“The corpses have no vision, but we do. As Miss Mascarpone said, if we’re unarmed and want to avoid the corpses, we need sunlight.”
Fighting them head-on was out of the question—we had to evade.
I continued, speaking gently to soothe Yujein’s worried expression.
“Our best option is to hide here safely and leave once the sun rises. To do that, we need to prepare to survive the night safely.”
“What kind of preparations are you referring to, my lady?”
I took the magical rope the Crown Prince had given me in both hands and stretched it out to show Consomme, who had asked.
“We need to set traps. To keep the corpses from getting in.”
I wanted to suggest, ‘There are plenty of severed corpses here—what if we smear them on ourselves to disguise ourselves as corpses too?’
But if I did that, I felt the group would reject me entirely.
‘And I don’t even have a blade.’
In the end, the method I chose was the rope trap the Crown Prince had set on the Second Floor earlier.
“From watching His Highness the Crown Prince do it, I noticed he tied this rope to protruding places like pillars or handles.”
Unfortunately, this smooth Cabin, which seemed to be made purely for decoration, had no such protrusions.
“I want to tie this rope on both sides of the door so that any corpse coming in will get caught here, trip, or have its neck cut.”
“It’s certainly dangerous….”
“But what if the two of you get caught in the trap when you return?”
“I can control the sharpness of this wire with my will. If you or Dazling get caught on it, you’ll just end up looking ridiculous tumbling to the ground.”
Even as I spoke, I was already fumbling along the wall with my hands, searching for any protruding edges.
“Ow!”
My finger got pricked by a wooden splinter in the process.
“My lady, are you alright?!”
“Yes, I’m fine. I think tying it here would work?”
The height was perfect—right at my neck level when I stood up straight. This way, whether the zombies were small or large, they’d all be caught and sliced equally.
“This won’t block everything, but it should help.”
Consomme was the first to step forward.
“What if we tie the other end here? How long is the wire?”
“I’ll help too.”
Next came Yujein, still watching my expression carefully, limping toward us.
Mascarpone, who had been sitting with her lips pursed in a pout as if she didn’t want to talk to me, quietly got to her feet as well.
“You’re going to help?”
“It’s not because I like you, you know?”
She still disliked me, but she was surprisingly cooperative.
“Then let’s put it up here….”
“Huh? There’s something there too?”
“Looks like a nail!”
“Just in case, should we set something up there too? If corpses just keep piling up….”
“Good idea. Who can reach up there?”
“I’ll try. I’m the tallest here.”
“Are you bragging about your height right now, my lady?”
“What? Yes. Um… well… it’s not working.”
“Or perhaps, my lady, if you stood on this chair….”
“Miss Yujein, that chair is missing one leg.”
“Oh my! I’m so sorry!”
“I’ve noted your assassination attempt, Miss Yujein.”
What had looked easy when the Crown Prince did it was proving far more difficult to accomplish myself.
‘So trap-setting requires talent too.’
The darkness made it even harder—the only light came faintly from the Main Building’s lamps and the moonlight outside the window.
We stumbled about aimlessly, bumping into each other, falling over….
“What a pathetic sight.”
While the four of us grunted and groaned trying to accomplish something, the Troublemaker just sat in the corner, muttering to himself.
“Or perhaps, my lady, if I lay down on my stomach, you could step on my back and climb up….”
“Miss Yujein, do you have a lot of divine power? Can you self-heal if I break your spine?”
“Good grief, what a bunch of troublemakers.”
Mutter, mutter. Mutter, mutter.
How irritating.
I hopped up on my toes to glare at the nail above my head, then turned to look at the Troublemaker.
“Help me out, would you?”
He was a few centimeters taller than me, after all.
The height was precarious—I couldn’t reach it, but the Troublemaker seemed like he might just barely manage it.
“Huh? I said help me.”
At my words directed at him, the Troublemaker looked at me.
He curled his thick lips into a sneer and spoke.
“Why should I?”
Even in this darkness, I could tell he was wearing a mocking expression.
“Why should I help with that?”
“This isn’t something we’re doing just for the four of us, is it?”
“Anyway, even if we set this up, when the corpses come flooding in, we’re all dead. What, we buy ourselves maybe 2 minutes? It won’t work anyway, so why bother?”
Two minutes? He’s being generous. I was estimating thirty seconds.
I shrugged in acknowledgment.
“You’re right. Surviving two minutes is surviving a lot. Still, you could buy yourselves those two minutes before your precious older brothers come back, couldn’t you? They’re running hard to save you—do you really want to die because of a two-minute difference?”
I’d tried to speak as kindly as possible, but apparently my sarcasm showed through. The Troublemaker, who had been glaring at me silently, finally opened his mouth.
“Fine. I could help if I wanted to.”
Right. Then help.
I stared at him pointedly with that meaning.
The Troublemaker laughed and said,
“But I’m not going to help because of your tone.”
This bastard really…
[Imperial Villa Exterior Hunting Lodge Cabin]
– Yusara, Yujein, Mascarpone, Consomme, Troublemaker (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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