A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 26

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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 5. The Salaryman in a Strange Land
‘Did I help at all?’
‘Help? That was help itself!’
She seemed pleased that she’d been useful.
‘I stepped on something hot while running. It’s fine. We’re almost there anyway.’
Her feet looked like they were in considerable pain.
‘How much do you usually walk?’
‘Well… I sometimes go to the Park on sunny afternoons.’
Once we escaped from here, I was planning to teach her about exercise.
“….”
I opened my eyes.
A ceiling fresco depicting a woman born from sea foam came into view.
This wasn’t my home.
“….”
‘Why is it still Monday?’, ‘Why is it still Tuesday?’, ‘Why is it still Wednesday?’ and now—
‘Why am I still possessed?’
I stared at the bed posts draped with translucent lace curtains, my eyes the only thing moving.
I’d lost consciousness and regained it, yet the possession hadn’t lifted.
This is insane.
‘But I escaped the zombie Villa. Shouldn’t that be the end?’
There’s nothing left for me to do here….
Except to forcibly follow the protagonists on their adventure without the villainess, only to die at Praha’s hands.
‘Could it be that I only escape if I die according to the original story?’
And if I actually die here?
‘What am I betting on to take such a risk? And what’s happened to my real body?’
Did I die? Get injured? Was I hit by a projector falling from the Movie Theater ceiling and now in a coma?
It would be better to be injured and unable to come to work than to have abandoned my post at lunch and never returned….
‘I can’t lose this job.’
I’m not joking—I’m serious.
How hard was it to get into this company!
I submitted dozens of applications and barely became a salaryman, learned the job through tears and sweat, composed acrostic poems with my boss’s name at company dinners (which is why my colleagues call me the Yeouido Poet…), and through all this social climbing barely made it to assistant manager and even bought a car.
And now I’m supposed to go through all that again?
I’d rather die.
‘I need to go back. If I go back… I can forget everything that happened here.’
The moment I struck down zombies with my own hands.
Running through the burning Garden, holding Praha’s hand.
Having to watch my newly made friend die right before my eyes.
As if it were all just something that happened in a dream.
Thinking of it as just one vivid nightmare.
As if Consomme not returning alone and being left behind there never actually happened.
Such a person doesn’t actually exist—they’re merely a character who died in a dream.
After all, you don’t spend your entire life wracked with guilt just because someone died in a movie.
‘So I absolutely have to go back.’
I squeezed my aching eyes shut, then opened them.
Then I bolted upright.
“Kyaaah!”
“Eek!”
“Miss!”
People I hadn’t even known were beside me shrieked in alarm.
…I was more startled than they were.
“Miss! Are you conscious?!”
“How is your body?!”
They rushed toward me in a clamor. From their uniforms and head scarves, they appeared to be maids.
“If there’s any discomfort…!”
“I’m fine.”
I endured the muscle soreness that felt like I’d been beaten and asked the nearest maid.
“What time is it? How long was I unconscious? Has anything happened outside?”
And you are maids, right?
“How did I get home?”
I did speak informally to you, didn’t I?
This is my home, isn’t it?
Fortunately, everything checked out. The Blonde Maid, who wore a distinctly different uniform and no head scarf, answered without seeming particularly troubled.
“The Crown Prince brought you here, miss.”
“The Crown Prince did?”
“Yes. You wouldn’t regain consciousness, miss. We treated all your external injuries, but you remained unconscious, so His Highness was very worried.”
“Ah.”
“That’s what you were curious about, wasn’t it?”
“….”
I’d asked because I was curious about everything else too.
I asked four questions but received only one answer.
I had no choice but to ask again.
“How long was I unconscious?”
“About half a day, miss. My goodness, the Crown Prince was truly worried about you.”
“….”
“It’s no lie. How else would he have brought you here himself, leaving Yujein behind?”
I’d heard that girl had become some kind of saint or something….
The Blonde Maid, trailing off, twisted her eye corners in mock concern.
“Who knows? It seems His Highness has finally opened his heart to you! It was good that you pushed yourself to attend the gathering!”
She feigns flattery, but her voice is laughing.
‘She’s treating me like an idiot.’
Fine, I’ll let it slide. I’m an idiot anyway.
‘I know absolutely nothing about this world, so of course I’m an idiot.’
I ignored the maid’s condescending tone and asked a different question.
“What about the clothes I was wearing?”
“Your clothes, miss?”
“That revealing red dress. Were there anything in the pockets? A few small stones and… slippers.”
“Ah, those stones you speak of.”
“Yes. Those stones and the slippers.”
“I set them aside separately. I had a feeling you’d be looking for them.”
The Blonde Maid laughed.
Apparently a maid of some rank, she gestured to another maid instead of fetching them herself.
What fell into my palm moments later was…
“…Why are there only stones? Where are the slippers?”
“The slippers, miss?”
“The white slippers that were with these. Made of cloth.”
“Ah. We threw those away, miss.”
“…You threw them away?”
“Weren’t they trash?”
…
Who in their right mind carefully keeps trash in their pocket?
“When we tore off the ruined dress, we sent those to the Incinerator. They were covered in dirt, had the footprints of whoever wore them pressed into them, and were filthy.”
The Blonde Maid added matter-of-factly.
Dizziness washed over me in an instant.
“…Those aren’t trash.”
They’re not trash.
They were the slippers Consomme was wearing.
I’d brought them along because I was worried about the girls who had to run in high heels.
The only thing of Consomme’s that had made it back.
They were anything but trash.
My head spun.
“Why did you throw those away without permission! Get them back right now! No, never mind. I’ll go myself.”
I threw off the blanket covering me.
As I swung my legs out of bed, every joint in my body screamed in protest.
“Where is the Incinerator?”
The maids gasped at my momentum as I rushed toward the door in my nightclothes.
The Blonde Maid grabbed my arm.
“Miss! Those slippers are gone now! They’ve already mixed with the other trash and gone into the flames!”
“I won’t know unless I check!”
“You’d have to dig through the trash! We don’t even know which bundle they’re in!”
“That’s why I’m going to find them! I’m not asking you to do it, so stop wasting time and tell me how to get there!”
“Miss!”
The maids fluttered about in confusion.
Regardless of their fussing, I rose fully and slipped my feet into my slippers.
“Where is it? Where exactly?”
“Sigh.”
The Blonde Maid simply sighed without answering.
Now I noticed she even wore a bundle of keys at her waist.
‘So she must be the head maid or something.’
Though she looked far too young for such a position.
The head maid (presumed) rubbed her brow and spoke.
“I understand, I understand. I was mistaken in my thinking. I’ll go back and search for it.”
Then she whispered something to the maid standing behind her.
The maid, catching my gaze, quickly bowed her head and left the room.
“…You’re going to search for it, right?”
“Of course.”
“Sigh.”
Something about her demeanor felt off, but there was nothing more I could do.
‘I don’t even know what position this head maid holds in this household.’
I’ll just wait and see.
My energy drained, I leaned back against the headboard.
I studied the head maid standing before me.
‘Not a single apology despite her mistake.’
They discarded someone else’s belongings on a whim without uttering a word of regret.
And this is supposed to be a hierarchical society, no less?
‘Come to think of it, that dead knight I met at the Villa also looked down on me.’
At least he had the excuse of being Imperial Family, but what about these people?
Feigning concern, playing nice while subtly mocking and belittling me.
The foolish villainess Yusara might not have noticed, but I’m not some office worker for nothing.
‘As mentioned in the phone guidance just now~’
In emails like this.
‘I’ll keep evidence of what I said earlier in writing, so don’t try a different story later or you’re done for.’
I have the perception to read between those lines.
‘They call her a villainess, but I thought she’d strike down everyone who disrespected her. Guess that’s not the case either.’
Such a hollow style.
‘Ah, whatever. Not my problem.’
I clicked my tongue inwardly and examined the red stone in my hand.
The red stone I’d extracted from the zombie’s corpse.
“Hmm.”
What on earth could these be used for?
1. A summoning stone that calls forth zombies.
A sorcerer seeking revenge against the Imperial Family created it.
Since I’ve collected several of these stones, they’ll automatically shatter in about ten hours and open a zombie gate.
Zombies pouring forth.
= Yusara. Villain of the century, recorded in history books.
2. A control stone that can command zombies.
Possessing this stone allows one to control zombies at will.
I carelessly let an evil person steal it from me….
= Yusara. Fool of the century, recorded in history books.
3. An infection stone that transforms people into zombies.
Anyone who possesses this stone or has it embedded in their body gradually becomes a zombie.
= Yusara’s life ends here. RIP.
*Note: I must not overlook the fact that only my eyes, as the possessed one, can see these stones.*
“…I have no idea.”
Type 1? Type 2? Type 3?
Since every zombie had this stone…probably type 3?
Type 1 (summoning stone) or type 2 (control stone) wouldn’t be that common.
Not a single one was missing—they all had them.
If it’s type 3….
‘So I’m becoming a zombie, then?’
Becoming a zombie in a zombie novel, like some office worker K.
“Miss, please don’t be upset. We’ll find it right away.”
“Was that a gift from the Crown Prince? We had no idea.”
I glanced at the maids, who still treated me like a child.
Seeing them so calmly prattling on about gifts, it seemed nothing unusual had happened outside yet.
‘Whatever happens from here on out.’
-Recalling the novel’s subsequent plot for a moment-
The Capital remains intact.
While opinions swirl about the cause of the zombie incident at the Villa.
The protagonist’s group establishes an Investigation Team.
Participating members: Saint Yujein, Crown Prince Praha, Grand Duke Cyprus, and others I don’t remember.
Naturally, as the villainess, I’m not included.
Unable to send the male leads and Yujein alone, the jealous villainess drags along a few knights and follows the Investigation Team, committing the nuisance of using her house’s knights as shields whenever zombies appear, and dies by Praha’s hand.
This means the Capital remains intact until the Investigation Team departs.
‘They wouldn’t leave to investigate if a zombie outbreak happened in the Capital.’
But what if my possession changes the story?
What if I become the villain who breaks this peace and summons zombies here?
Then what do I do—where do I bury the stone immediately?
‘I’ll throw that stone into the sea…. Drop it deep…. So no one can ever find it.’ (Commitment)
The stone happens to be beautifully shaped, perfect for someone digging in the ground to mistake it for a jewel and pick it up.
Of all things, the stone happens to look so pretty that it’s just the right size for someone to pick up thinking it’s a jewel while digging in the ground.
I turned to the maid.
“How many people are in this mansion? Some of them can’t evacuate on their own… So, are there children or elderly? How many knights?”
“Children? There are quite a few, sir. Many commoner children come to help with the Duke’s work.”
“Quite a few? How many exactly?”
“Well, I’d say about ten didn’t come today.”
“Eek.”
What kind of work requires borrowing children from outside?
“And the elderly?”
“There are no elderly at all, sir. The Duke dislikes older people.”
“He dislikes older people?”
“Once a servant reaches thirty-five, he sends them elsewhere. He says he must keep young blood close to stay youthful.”
The head maid replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
What peculiar hiring standards.
Is he casting child models right now?
‘So that’s why the head maid is so young.’
Sigh. None of my concern.
What matters to me now isn’t this family’s employment practices—it’s the purpose of these crimson stones.
I examined the red stone in my palm.
Then.
“…Huh?”
There’s something inside….
The moment I unconsciously applied pressure with my hand.
Crash!
“Yusara!”
“Ah!”
Who just bursts into someone’s room like that?!
[(Temporary Safe Zone) Duke’s Residence 3rd Floor – Maiden’s Chamber]
– Yusara (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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