A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 20

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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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Chapter 4. Even If You Are Flame, I Remain
“Aaaahhh!”
I screamed first, thrusting the rope I’d been gripping toward the approaching threat.
“Insane! Insane! Insane!”
This mad zombie—why were its arms so impossibly long?
The moment I lunged to sever the flailing limb that seemed to be searching for a lock, I recognized something familiar about both the arm and the massive hand attached to it.
“Huh?”
Before I could even hesitate, the arm’s owner seized my wrist firmly.
The figure bent at the waist, attempting to meet my eyes through the window gap.
“Lady?”
“Um…”
It was the Grand Duke.
“Would you open the door for me, Lady?”
“Ah… yes… of course.”
I’d nearly sliced through the Grand Duke’s forearm.
I fumbled to unlock the mechanism and pulled the door open.
Seeing the traps we’d set, the Grand Duke casually swept his blade through them, clearing them all away.
“What is this cobweb?”
“It’s a trap we set up?”
“I see. That explains the tingling sensation in my legs.”
“For heaven’s sake.”
“I’m serious.”
“Never mind. But why did you break the window? Couldn’t you have just knocked on the door?”
“I would have preferred such a normal approach, but the Crown Prince here forbade it. He said we mustn’t touch the door carelessly.”
“Why?”
“He was certain you would have rigged the door with cobwebs.”
“…”
“Praha understands you better than expected, doesn’t he? How enviable.”
With that, he immediately turned and helped support the Crown Prince.
A pungent smell emanated from the three figures entering.
“Your Highness!”
“Your Highness!”
Seeing the Crown Prince pale and leaning on the Grand Duke’s support, everyone jumped to their feet.
“What happened?!”
“Is the Crown Prince injured?!”
Four people clustered together like Ninians, chattering away.
Then the Crown Prince, who had been resting his forehead on the Grand Duke’s shoulder, opened his eyes slightly.
“I’ve developed a cramp in my leg.”
Ah.
“Please sit over here at once, Your Highness.”
“Yes, please sit down and rest. The Grand Duke and Dazling as well.”
“Were there many corpses in the Garden?”
“Crown Prince, you’re truly all right, aren’t you? Shall I take a look?”
“We had no idea what had happened….”
“Sniff.”
In an instant, the cabin erupted into chaos.
After enduring more than two hours of anxiety and dread in the darkness, Consomme burst into tears, and Mascarpone’s nose quivered with emotion.
Everyone offered words of concern, yet I found myself unable to speak at all.
The Crown Prince’s face, utterly drained of color, had looked genuinely corpse-like for a moment.
‘I thought you’d been bitten and turned into a zombie, you bastard….’
He was scaring us half to death.
In truth, the Crown Prince’s condition looked far from good. With his bangs drenched in sweat and his eyes barely open, he resembled far more than someone merely suffering from cramps.
The Crown Prince, rejecting Mascarpone’s offer to sit, spoke to the group.
“We must leave immediately.”
“Immediately?”
“Yes.”
Then he fell silent, swaying.
The Grand Duke, supporting the Crown Prince’s forearm across his shoulder as he struggled to stand, explained what had transpired in the Garden.
“…There must have been around a hundred of them.”
“A hundred?!”
“Yes. At first we managed to cut through them, but they swarmed faster than we could slash, and it seemed we’d be surrounded without escape.”
“Seemed…?”
“So we gave up and fled, when Praha said something. He insisted this was the only path to the Main Portal, and we had to break through.”
And then?
“So he suddenly set the corpses ablaze.”
“What?”
“Before anyone could stop him, he fired off every remaining fire arrow. Haha. That’s one bold fellow.”
“….”
“The lady was right. They died once we set them on fire.”
The Grand Duke winked at me.
Dazling’s expression darkened as he listened. The nightmare from earlier came flooding back.
“If hell exists, I imagine it looks something like that….”
We could only gape.
He set the corpses on fire?
‘So that’s why he can barely walk!’
He’d fired off every single magical fire arrow—something an ordinary person could barely manage two or three times!
“The problem comes after that….”
The Grand Duke spoke with a slight wrinkle of his nose, as if it were nothing serious.
“Since he was shooting flames in a Garden filled entirely with trees and grass, the Garden caught fire along with the corpses.”
“….”
Are you saying our only escape route is now on fire?!
I snapped my gaze toward the Crown Prince.
Meeting my eyes, the Crown Prince spoke with unwavering confidence.
“Which is why we must hurry. Before it burns completely.”
Seriously?!
“No, wait—couldn’t you just escape first and—?!”
“That would only delay our departure.”
So he wanted us to bolt like a pheasant with its tail on fire, without even a moment to mentally prepare?!
“I apologize for not giving you time to ready yourselves.”
Hah…
The Crown Prince was essentially pushing his own people off a cliff.
Yujein asked.
“So all the corpses burned to death?”
“No. Half are dead, and half continue wandering while still burning.”
“So roughly fifty remain. If we encounter them…”
“You needn’t worry about that. The likelihood of suffocation or incineration is far greater before then.”
The gardener hadn’t watered in ages, so the flames spread quickly. The wind is cooperating nicely too. Haha.
“For that reason, let us depart at once.”
Even as the Grand Duke explained the situation, his eyes methodically assessed each person’s condition.
When his gaze settled on me, I felt utterly dumbfounded.
So we’re supposed to sprint at full speed through a burning garden right now?
Before we suffocate?
It had only been hours since I’d prayed never to have to flee with these people again…
“Won’t we die if we enter the flames?”
“What if sparks hit us? What about burns?”
Questions erupted from all sides.
The Grand Duke lined each person up before him one by one, conducting a final check for injuries and whether they could run, before responding.
“It hasn’t spread that severely yet, so we’ll be fine. Let’s move as quickly as possible. As for burns from flying sparks… well, isn’t that something we simply have to accept?”
…!
“Exactly—a burned survivor beats an unburned corpse, doesn’t it?”
“Precisely reasoned, my lady!”
Yujein refused the Grand Duke’s offer to carry her and instead poured her holy power into her ankle. Every ounce of her meager strength—barely enough to heal a cut finger—drained into that single joint.
By any measure, she didn’t look fine, yet Yujein stood firm. The Grand Duke said nothing more.
Now that I looked closer, the Grand Duke himself wasn’t in great shape either.
“Is anyone else having difficulty moving? Miss Mascarpone?”
“I’m fine, Your Highness.”
“And you, Miss Consomme?”
“I’m okay too.”
“Then let’s go.”
The Crown Prince exhaled deeply and shook his head like a dog, staggering slightly before managing to stand on his own feet.
He swept back his disheveled hair and turned to face us.
“Cyprus and Dazling will take the front, and I’ll cover the rear. When Cyprus signals, sprint at full speed. Don’t look back under any circumstances. Even if you’re gasping for breath, don’t stop. If you stop, you die.”
“….”
“No matter what sounds come from behind, the living must keep running.”
I swallowed hard and nodded.
Outside was absolute chaos. Smoke and the reek of burning hung thick in the air—how had I not noticed this before?
I glanced back at the Crown Prince following behind us, who looked decidedly uneasy, and headed toward the Garden entrance.
‘The smell of ash….’
A pungent, acrid stench that seared the nostrils.
Walls towering far above human height, vines coiling around them, narrow flowering shrubs—everything was burning.
Crack! Pop! Crack!
I thought it was gunfire at first, but it was the sound of wood splitting as it burned.
I’d assumed the smoke wouldn’t accumulate too badly outdoors, but the walls were impossibly high.
I covered my nose and mouth with my sleeve as I asked.
“Don’t tell me this is… a maze garden?”
“Yes.”
“No…!”
What madman builds a maze in his own home!
“It’s Mother’s preference.”
“Mazes are excellent for cognitive development! A splendid choice! You do know the way, right?!”
“Yes.”
Well, that’s a relief!
I stared into the Garden’s depths where black smoke billowed upward, my voice breaking.
Fortunately, it wasn’t completely engulfed in flames. We could pass through if we had to.
‘Think positive. If I mentally trick myself into thinking this is a Maze Runner experience….’
That doesn’t help at all, damn it.
Ugh.
The real problem was the smoke. If it kept pouring into my lungs, suffocation was only a matter of time.
I had to sprint roughly twenty minutes’ worth of distance before the smoke killed me.
‘Have I ever run twenty minutes in my entire life….’
No….
The most I’ve ever done is run five minutes from my apartment when I was about to miss the subway. And my place is right next to the station….
Consomme and Mascarpone, who barely walk five minutes a day, looked even more panicked than I felt.
“Kyieeeek!”
“Kaeek!”
To make matters worse, the screams of burning zombies echoed from within the Garden.
Was this… actually a viable plan? By any rational standard? Scientifically speaking?
No sane person would attempt this.
But before I could think further, the Grand Duke’s signal came.
“Now!”
My body, accustomed to following orders in an office setting, moved automatically the moment I heard the command.
Even as my inner voice protested: ‘Me? You want me to do this?’
♪Even if you are fire, I’ll run into you♪
* * *
Even if you are fire, I’ll run into you…. Even if you are fire, I’ll… fire….
My older sister’s favorite song echoed through my mind.
‘I literally am the fire itself! Ugh!’
“Everyone crouch as low as you can! Cover your nose and mouth with your clothes!”
Running while crouching and covering my nose and mouth—it made no sense whatsoever, yet I grabbed Consomme’s wrist as she fell behind, pulling her along.
“Gasp! Gasp! Go ahead without me!”
“No time to talk—just run!”
“I can’t, I can’t… I can’t do this! Go on!”
“What nonsense are you spouting!”
There was no such thing as “can’t”!
“Left!”
At the front, the Grand Duke and Dazling were slicing through the burning zombies’ necks while directing everyone’s path.
Thank goodness the Garden was made of stone walls—otherwise, we’d all be dead by now.
Tears and snot streaming down my face, I forced my unseeing eyes open.
“Left! And immediately right!”
“Kyaaah!”
“Watch out!”
If my facial skin was completely cooked by the time we escaped, what would I do?
My eyes hurt. They burned. Were my eyeballs cooking too?
I had no idea how much time had passed.
“Gasp….”
The deeper we went, the harder it became to endure. The air was scorching. So scorching that even the inside of my mouth burned. It felt like I was holding my face over the steam rising from a coffee pot.
“Cough! Cough! Cough!”
“I can’t stand! I can’t see!”
“Crawl if you have to!”
“I can’t breathe!”
I navigated by the sound of people’s anguished cries ahead of me.
Afraid of falling behind, terrified of being left alone in this burning maze garden.
“Cough! Cough!”
All while forcibly dragging Consomme’s arm as she begged me to leave her behind.
Our positions shifted several times as people stumbled and writhed in agony around us.
Thud! Crack!
“Ahhh!”
Black ash and burning branches fell everywhere. I kicked them away with my combat boots to keep Consomme, in her slippers, from stepping on them, nearly twisting my ankle several times in the process.
“Ugh….”
I blinked hard, letting tears stream down my face.
In that moment of sudden clarity, a massive tree came into view—falling directly toward our heads.
Shoving Consomme forward was an instinctive decision.
“Kyaaah!”
Then came the thunderous crash.
A colossal tree now stood between Consomme and me, a barrier of wood and shadow.
The Troublemaker, who had been directly in front of Consomme, spun around in shock.
The massive tree. It divided me from those who had been walking ahead.
No one stopped behind me.
‘Am I alone?’
A chill ran through me in that instant.
“Get down!”
Someone rushed toward me and pulled my body into a roll.
[Imperial Villa Exterior Maze Garden]
– Yusara, Yujein, Crown Prince, Grand Duke, Dazling, Mascarpone, Consomme, Troublemaker (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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