A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 58

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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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When a person dies, livor mortis sets in on the skin. Discoloration occurs, decay begins, and flies drawn by the stench lay their eggs upon the corpse.
Yet this person…
“Looks far too pristine. Like someone merely sleeping.”
“Could the God of Light’s power be at work?”
In the meantime, Tangerine returned from her reconnaissance and reported.
“There’s a Crossroads ahead!”
“At last, the Crossroads appears.”
“Did you sense any indication that the two paths converge further ahead?”
“None whatsoever!”
“Then only one of them must be the correct path?”
“If we choose the wrong one…”
“We die. Just like those who touched the wrong handholds.”
“Then it seems that corpse must be the answer after all.”
I was told to turn away from the woman who took her own life.
If I simply ignore her and pass by, the trap won’t trigger—is that how it works?
No matter how much I dwell on it, something feels deeply wrong.
‘Is this the God’s Maze, or the Maze of the Conscienceless? Can only sociopaths devoid of compassion pass through?’
“Tangerine.”
I called out to Tangerine, who was drinking water.
“Yes, my lady?”
Tangerine, who had just popped the last of the jelly into her mouth, leaned her body toward me.
Praha, standing beside her with an expression that revealed nothing of his thoughts, did the same.
Four gleaming eyes fixed upon me with intense focus.
I felt a slight flush of embarrassment.
‘I didn’t expect to command this much attention.’
“Speak, my lady.”
“It’s nothing significant.”
“Nevertheless, I shall listen.”
“Well…”
How moving, that they listen to me with such concentration. Truly touching.
If my Junior Colleague back in Korea had paid even half as much attention to my words as Praha does, my frustration would have been cut in half.
The one who advanced fastest among my peers—my words were completely ignored, while they only listened to my male colleague who was passed over for promotion in favor of me.
That’s why you two can’t work together as a pair.
Feeling both irritation and embarrassment simultaneously, I posed my question.
“What exactly did the warning on the wall say?”
“Exactly as I interpreted it! It said to turn away from the woman who took her own life, by her own hand or by her own strength!”
“By her own strength?”
“Yes!”
Hmm.
I approached the suspended woman.
I stopped at a distance where I could grasp the corpse’s feet if I stretched out my arm.
“….”
How often did one encounter a human corpse in reality?
I’d only seen them occasionally in films or dramas.
Yet such scenarios appeared frequently in detective stories.
Scenes where an apparently clear-cut suicide is revealed to be murder.
‘A sort of cliché.’
I reached my conclusion.
“I don’t believe this woman took her own life.”
Praha picked up on my words.
“May I ask your reasoning?”
“There’s no platform beneath her feet.”
“…!”
“That’s right!”
To hang oneself, one needs a platform to stand upon—a chair, a box, something.
You climb onto it, loop the noose around your neck, then kick away the platform so your body suspends in the air.
Once dead that way, the body cannot clean up after itself.
“So there must be a platform here.”
“Precisely. If that woman chose death by her own hand, there should be something nearby—even a broken piece of wood.”
As you can see, this area is far too clean, wouldn’t you say?
“I believe we cannot turn away from this person. She did not take her own life.”
Though I’d argue we shouldn’t turn away even if she had, but let’s discuss that later.
“What shall we do then?”
“We’ll bring her down.”
At my words, Praha stepped forward.
He spread a blanket across the floor where the corpse hung.
Now accustomed to it, I fired the iron arrow at the ceiling, the rope snapped cleanly, and the body fell.
“Up close, she looks more like she’s simply sleeping….”
“It’s tragic.”
After taking sufficient precautions in case this corpse too might awaken like a zombie, I untied the rope from her neck.
“The rope is remarkably thin, even for a rope.”
“Yet it’s incredibly strong! And quite long!”
Tangerine, who had wound the rope around her hand, beamed with delight as she secured it.
“A rope this light that can support a person’s weight is rare! And it takes up so little space!”
At least one person found happiness in this.
“Yujein, could you offer a prayer for this person?”
“Of course!”
Yujein, appearing pleased to have a task, quickly clasped her hands together and closed her eyes.
I poured a little wine over the corpse.
Pour a little wine over the corpse.
(Praha: Cyprus, did you bring the alcohol all the way here?
Cyprus: This isn’t ordinary wine! It’s Southern Region grape wine!)
“And thus….”
After Yujein recited the prayer and breathed sacred power into the corpse’s forehead, the mouth—which had been sealed shut, something none of us had dared to open (which was strange in itself; why would a dead body keep its mouth closed?)—fell open.
“There’s something inside!”
Cyprus quickly stepped forward, worried I might reach toward the corpse’s head.
“I’ll handle it.”
“Be careful. It could be dangerous.”
“It’s amusing hearing that from someone wearing a clock on her palm.”
This bastard.
Cyprus pressed both cheeks of the corpse to open the jaw, and withdrew a tightly rolled parchment from within.
“Ugh.”
As the endless length of paper continued emerging from the mouth, Yujein covered hers.
It was certainly not a pleasant sight.
“Careful. Don’t tear it.”
“Done. Let’s see… it’s a map.”
What lay inside the corpse’s mouth was a map of this labyrinth.
“So that’s why this place is called a labyrinth.”
From the cavern where we now stood, the paths ahead were extraordinarily complex.
First, they branched into the two paths Tangerine had seen, then split into three paths, then five, then eight….
“Is this physically possible?”
“It must be because this is a space where divine power operates.”
At each crossroads, only one path was correct.
The wrong paths each bore symbols of fire, blades, serpents, or skulls.
“Does it mean your entire body catches fire if you take the wrong path?”
“That’s not all. Look at the back here.”
“What is this!”
“Does it mean there’s an Underground Level in the labyrinth?”
“The level we’re on is the 1st Floor, and it looks like there’s another level below!”
“We haven’t found any Staircase leading down.”
Cyprus rubbed his brow as he spoke.
“There must have been many people who died in this labyrinth, yet we found no skulls or abandoned belongings on our way here.”
“Then….”
“Could the Underground Level be a tomb where the bodies of those who failed are discarded?”
“Ugh.”
A chill ran down my spine.
After carefully examining the map front and back, I turned my gaze to the corpse lying before us.
“Regardless of how this person died, at least it wasn’t suicide.”
“And now we’ll never find the culprit….”
“At this point, we won’t be able to find the culprit…”
Honestly, isn’t the culprit obvious?
Isn’t the master of this maze the perpetrator?
Using a corpse as a riddle for the maze—what filthy taste.
I thought the God of Light was actually a demon, but I didn’t voice it aloud with Yujein, a priestess, standing beside me.
“Should we continue covering her with the shroud?”
“But if this maze is restored after we escape, this woman will have to repeat the same ordeal again.”
“Still, she’ll be able to rest for a while at least.”
Everyone agreed with that.
After collecting the body, we made our way to the Crossroads that Tangerine had spotted earlier.
“This way!”
“Your Majesty, what does the map say?”
“It indicates we should take the left path here.”
“Just to be safe, let’s test the right path too.”
Cyprus borrowed an arrow from me and fitted a piece of leftover bread from yesterday onto the arrowhead.
Without even nocking it to the bowstring, he hurled the arrow down the right passage like a spear.
Then.
Sizzle!
Green liquid poured from the ceiling of the right passage, dissolving the arrow.
“….”
“….”
“I’m glad we didn’t venture into the Crossroads without testing first!”
Tangerine clutched her chest in relief.
“It would have been disastrous if we hadn’t found that map.”
“We should have brought the knights of Promé after all, shouldn’t we?”
“Tangerine.”
“I’m joking, joking.”
In any case, thanks to the map left behind by the corpse, we passed through the subsequent Crossroads without much difficulty.
“The difficulty certainly isn’t so extreme that we’d go mad from it.”
“At this rate, we should be able to find the sacred relic and escape quickly.”
The most challenging aspect of this maze is probably the heat, after all.
Oh, and the insects too.
“Kyaaah!”
“Is it a bat?!”
“It’s a moth!”
What kind of moth is this enormous!
I swung my bag to drive away the moth that was descending toward Yujein.
Then Praha swatted away another one charging at my face.
“Why is the moth so fearless?!”
“With a body that size, I imagine it wouldn’t fear anything either!”
“I think I just made eye contact with the moth….”
Surely not. That moth can’t see anything anyway.
Drained of all spirit, I let my shoulders sag.
Praha, who had been staring at me intently before turning away, let out what sounded like a chuckle, and I shot him a glare.
Yujein cried out.
“I can feel divine power over there!”
“Praha, what does the map say? Is this the end of the maze?”
“No, we have much further to go.”
“Let’s go check it out!”
Naturally, our pace quickened.
This time, we entered a square chamber.
The ceiling soared to a height incomparable to any cavern we’d traversed thus far.
Light poured in from above.
A massive boulder rose directly in the path of that radiant beam.
And embedded in that boulder was the sacred relic.
Even I, devoid of any divine power, could recognize it instantly.
That was the sacred relic.
Befitting its name as the “sacred relic of the God of Light,” it gleamed with a bluish luster—an elongated form of pale silver that sparkled brilliantly.
‘A magical girl’s wand?’
Ding.
“The sacred relic has wing ornaments on it?”
“There’s a heart embedded in it too. It must be a gemstone.”
‘It would suit Yujein, but what kind of divine relic looks like this?’
Like some cheap trinket you’d find at a dollar store.
‘I always thought “God” referred to an exalted being beyond human comprehension.’
Yet this deity gambles with human lives.
And now a magic wand?
It’s rather anticlimactic.
But perhaps only I harbored such thoughts—my companions wore serious expressions.
Yujein turned back to us.
“Should I go pull it out?”
“Let’s go together.”
We rushed toward the boulder as one.
Up close, the sacred relic looked even more like a magic wand, surrounded by its ethereal aura.
“Since we don’t know what might happen when we pull it out, it would be wise to protect Yujein.”
Following my suggestion, my companions drew their weapons and nodded in agreement.
“Yujein.”
“Y-yes!”
Receiving our signal, Yujein nodded with solemn determination.
“My lady, how much time remains in the hourglass?”
“Quite a bit still.”
About half?
At this rate, I’ll have plenty of time left even after retrieving the sacred relic and finding the exit.
‘So it was all just an illusion of time pressure—easy mode after all.’
“Ugh!”
Without missing that brief opening, Praha swatted away the enormous moth attempting to land on my head with the back of his hand.
The moth, struck by a hand the size of a cauldron lid, tumbled through the air and collided with the torch Tangerine was holding, igniting in a whoosh.
“….”
“….”
“What an inauspicious omen to encounter at this stage….”
“Let’s grab the sacred relic and get out of here.”
“Yes!”
Yujein, her lips pressed firmly together, grasped the sacred relic with both hands.
Soon, a faint luminescence began to emanate from her hands.
Divine power flowed through them and made contact with the sacred relic.
Crack.
The stone split open.
Effortlessly.
Yujein withdrew the sacred relic and lifted it high with a triumphant flourish.
“We did it!”
A radiant smile bloomed across Yujein’s face, which had been so downcast until now.
In that instant.
The blue aura that had permeated the entire maze vanished all at once.
“…What?”
“The God of Light’s blessing….”
The divine power filling the maze had dissipated.
And simultaneously, black lines materialized in the air.
I know what that is.
[Ancient Labyrinth: Chamber of the Sacred Relic]
– Yusara, Praha, Cyprus, Yujein, Tangerine (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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