A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 22

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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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“Kyaaah!”
“Get it together?! Stand up! Plant your feet properly!”
I grabbed the thrashing Mascarpone and shoved her upward without hesitation. Her panicked feet slid frantically across my bare shoulders and chest.
After a few attempts, she seemed to grasp the situation and began struggling to find her balance.
“Ugh!”
The problem was that my scrawny frame could barely support another person’s weight.
“Aaaaah!”
“Erk! Hey! My fingers! My fingers!”
To make matters worse, Mascarpone’s cloth slippers were filthy from treading through blood and corpses. When they slid across my right neck—
My breath caught.
“Kyaaaah!”
“Kieek!”
“Ugh!”
I braced my trembling thighs and forced every ounce of strength into my legs.
I have to stand. Somehow!
If I don’t, we both die!
Sway, sway….
“Argh!”
If I fall back—
“Grab the wall! The wall!”
“I’m trying!”
Build muscle!
“Did you get it?!”
“Y-yes!”
Mascarpone’s toes pressed against my collarbone as she pulled herself up. It felt like my bones might shatter, yet I felt no pain.
Let a zombie come chasing from behind! Is this even painful?
“Step on my shoulder! My shoulder!”
If I fall back—
“Agh! Wait! Don’t let go!”
“Hold on!”
Muscle!
“Ugh!”
I gripped the wooden palisade with my trembling arms. I held firm, practically pushing my forehead against the wood.
Unable to overcome the weight, my body threatened to collapse, leaving me no chance to look upward.
“Kieek!”
I couldn’t look back either, where the zombies were surely rushing toward us.
I grabbed Mascarpone’s ankles to support her as she desperately tried to pull herself up.
“Kyaah!”
As I lost my balance and swayed left and right, Mascarpone swayed with me. Gritting my teeth, I pressed my forehead against the wooden wall again.
“How much farther?!”
“I’m doing it!”
“Hurry!”
“Grrrrrowl!”
They’re chasing us from behind!
My anxiety was so intense that I felt tears welling up for real now.
“I’ve got it! I’ve got it! I grabbed the protruding part!”
“Climb up! Now!”
“N-no, I’m not tall enough! My arms won’t reach!”
“Step on my head and climb! My head!”
“How can you say that!”
“Ah, just step on it!”
I’m already stepping on your shoulders anyway, so what difference does it make if I step on your head too!
“My neck won’t break just because you’re stepping on it, so just do it!”
I need you to get up so I can get up too, so please hurry!
“Quickly!”
At my desperate cry, Mascarpone’s foot finally pressed down on the crown of my head.
There was one firm push, then a leap.
“Ugh!”
The moment the weight lifted from my shoulders, I collapsed backward as if I’d been flung.
My eyes met Mascarpone’s as she cleared the Wooden Palisade.
‘My neck really could have broken….’
Too exhausted to speak, I managed a bitter laugh.
“Mascarpone!”
“Lady Mascarpone!”
Thud!
“Kyaaaah!”
Damn it….
“Now it’s the young lady’s turn!”
At the same moment, my body was hurled upward.
Praha, who had grabbed my forearm, lifted me up and threw me toward the wall. The Grand Duke, already positioned above, caught me mid-air. Together we tumbled over the Wooden Palisade.
“Kyaaah!”
“Argh!”
In the final moment, a zombie latched onto my heel.
Thud!
Thump!
“Hah….”
Thanks to that, I landed in a pathetic sprawl.
“Kyaaaah!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
‘See, a difference of 0.1 seconds saves your life….’
If I’d been even a moment later, it would’ve been a disaster.
Looking back, Praha was also safely rolling across the ground beside me. In that moment of relief, I exhaled a breath.
“You look even more charming from below, my lady.”
The Grand Duke, who had fallen with me in his embrace, laughed from beneath me.
“Eek!”
I scrambled to my feet.
The Grand Duke remained sprawled on the ground, grinning wickedly.
“Isn’t your reaction a bit cold? I even served as a cushion for you with my own body.”
“What cushion! You were hard as a rock!”
“That’s because I’m a man in excellent physical condition….”
“Is this really the time for jokes?!”
First I was pinned under the Crown Prince, and now I’m on top of the Grand Duke—was this some kind of possession holder’s benefit?
【Two of the world’s most handsome men and thrilling skinship 1+1 bonus offer】 Something like that?
No, wait.
Not the Crown Prince.
Praha. Crown Prince Praha.
“Stop spouting nonsense.”
Praha approached and extended his hand. I thought he was helping the Grand Duke up from the ground, but his hand came toward me instead.
“Wait.”
Praha’s fingertips brushed across my forehead.
“Ow.”
My forehead, which had been scraped raw from bearing weight against the wooden palisade, was bleeding.
‘I’m going to have a bump right in the middle of my forehead. There’s no helping it. I’ll just pretend to be Buddha.’
Praha spoke softly.
“That must hurt.”
“My entire body aches.”
I’d clenched my teeth so hard that all my teeth seemed damaged.
“But why….”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Praha’s words were cut off.
Ignorant zombies who knew no way to open a door except by ramming their bodies were making a ruckus from behind the wooden palisade.
“Let’s talk later and get moving, Praha. We don’t know when that will collapse.”
The Grand Duke interjected with a cheerful smile.
Praha, who seemed to have more to say, soon gave up and took the lead. Mascarpone asked.
“Is everyone here?”
“Yes. If we follow this path straight, we should reach the Artificial Lake. There’s a Portal next to it.”
“Right, that’s how it was. Sigh… Even though I came this way just a few hours ago, my memory is hazy.”
“You’ve been through so much.”
“Besides, we came by carriage last time.”
“Exactly. And our lady Yusara here didn’t even remember that this Villa had a Maze Garden.”
The Grand Duke smiled with one eye narrowed, jesting as he looked at me.
‘It’s because I was possessed, you see?’
It wasn’t that I couldn’t remember—I had no memory to begin with.
“Then let’s hurry. Before those creatures break through the wall and come over again.”
Consomme, who had apparently abandoned all pretense of dignity, snorted sharply into her dress hem and urged us forward.
I formed a larger formation and walked toward the Lake.
As I walked alongside them, I took a moment to assess my own appearance.
‘They’ll chase after me shouting “A beggar, my lady!”‘
My palms were torn open and bleeding again, my fingernails were broken, and every exposed patch of skin was a mess of sweat, blood, and raw abrasions. My throat and lungs felt constricted, and my ankles throbbed with pain.
Looking down at my neck and shoulders, I could see slipper marks.
Perhaps from being stepped on by shoes covered in ash. They felt warm.
‘Could it be a burn?’
I was brushing it off roughly when—
“Hey.”
Mascarpone, who had somehow moved to my side, called out to me.
I coughed and glanced over at her.
‘Now that I think about it, I was speaking informally to her earlier because of the rush. What is she going to say?’
But what Mascarpone said was something entirely different.
“…Thank you.”
“Huh? For what?”
“For what you just did. For lifting me up.”
“Oh.”
“If you hadn’t been a lady, I wouldn’t have made it over before the corpses caught up. I really am grateful. I owe you a debt.”
“No, what… there’s no need to speak of debt. We’re in the same situation, trying to escape together.”
In a crisis like this, we help each other. What debt is there in that?
I was taller than Mascarpone and had better stamina. In every way, it made sense for me to go first, so I simply helped her up.
If it had been the Troublemaker standing beside me instead of Mascarpone, even if he were only five feet tall, I would have acted exactly the same way.
“It was more rational for me to lift you up than for you to lift me up, so that’s what I did. There’s no need to thank me.”
“Still.”
“Mascarpone is right. You gave up your turn for us as well.”
“That’s true. It was so remarkable even in the midst of urgency!”
I almost cried, you know? Yujein and Consomme, who had drawn near, chimed in as well.
“Consomme was crying just a moment ago anyway…”
They seemed moved. Because I had lifted them up first.
‘It’s just the natural thing to do.’
So even a villainess has her good points? Just doing the basics and I get praised.
“I think I was wrong about something.”
Mascarpone spoke, her cheeks flushed.
“Even in a situation like this, I kept picking fights with you because I disliked you… yet you helped me without hesitation. Honestly, I’m not sure I would have acted the same way if I were in your position.”
“Uh… mm.”
“I’m so ashamed of myself. I want to apologize.”
“Mm. But….”
You have every reason to hate me, don’t you?
I humiliated you.
We only cooperated because of the crisis, and you have more than enough reasons to despise me.
Don’t feel guilty—you can keep hating me once we leave.
That’s what I wanted to say.
But Mascarpone’s expression was so overwhelmed that I couldn’t bring myself to say it.
Instead, I said something else.
“I understand. I apologize for being disrespectful to you all this time too.”
“…Yeah. Thanks. Oh, there’s something on you here.”
“Huh? Ugh! What is this bug?!”
Somehow, we’d naturally fallen into casual speech with each other.
“Don’t you hear the sound of water?”
“You’re right. The air feels fresher too.”
“That’s probably because we’re getting farther from the Burning Mansion… Oh!”
Indeed, ahead of us lay a lake as transparent and beautiful as a mirror. And beside it, a Portal.
‘Finally here….’
Then.
Rustle.
“Huh?”
Whoosh. Whoooosh.
“Grrr….”
“Grrrr….”
“….”
Zombies all the way out here?
As if they’d been lying in ambush, dozens of zombies revealed themselves simultaneously.
From the lake I’d just admired, zombies waded through the water, emerging with a squelch.
Long white worms packed into their deeply sunken eye sockets.
Saliva dripped steadily from their gaping mouths.
‘This is seriously too much, isn’t it?!’
Behind us, the Burning Mansion we’d just escaped. Ahead, the Portal. Between them, a horde of zombies.
=Trapped between a rock and a hard place.
There was no curtain to shield us this time.
“Grrrrgh….”
Without anyone saying a word, we instinctively pressed our backs together and formed a circle.
The difference from before was that these zombies weren’t rushing straight at us—they were closing in slowly, surrounding us.
I could sense it.
‘This is the final trial.’
If we die here, we die. If we live, we live.
The real question is who dies and who survives.
That’s when Yujein, standing shoulder to shoulder with me, began to tremble.
“Yujein?”
I called her name without taking my eyes off the zombie horde.
“….”
She didn’t answer, only trembling more violently.
With no other choice, I stole a glance at Yujein.
Suddenly, Yujein stepped forward.
“Yujein!”
Her hair whipped wildly as she advanced, as if to face the zombie horde alone. Yet there was no wind.
A white and blue aura rose from her entire body.
In that instant, all the tension drained from me.
‘The Saint is awakening.’
Right. This is where the protagonist needs a moment to shine.
I’d wondered why zombies appeared here at all.
It was an event for the protagonist’s awakening.
Slowly, Yujein raised her hand.
I lowered my weapon entirely.
Not that I had much of a weapon to begin with—just the magical rope I’d borrowed from Praha and never returned.
With keen interest, I prepared to witness the protagonist’s awakening event, the manifestation of sacred holy magic.
“Yujein! Come to your senses!”
“Yujein!”
“….”
Don’t worry, everyone.
Now the zombie horde that’s been tormenting us will dissolve into light with a single gesture from Yujein.
Holy power. Mystical, reverent, sacred, and pure white.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
“…Huh?”
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
“Uh… uh….”
The god Yujein serves…
Could it be Thor?
[Imperial Villa Main Portal]
– Yusara, Yujein, Praha, 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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