A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 8

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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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“I’m fine.”
Watching Yusara rise to her feet on her own, Praha felt like he’d become a thoroughly despicable person.
A faint smile, then an expression that wavered as if flustered.
A hand that rose slightly, then withdrew.
Everyone watched as her extended hand, finding no one to grasp it, fell back down to her side.
I knew I wouldn’t forget the look in her eyes at that moment for a long time.
* * *
When was it? I watched a movie with my university classmates. Afterward, we had this conversation.
‘Parting is difficult, so you have to make the decision to part. If parting were easy, you’d just do it—you wouldn’t need to make a resolution about it.’
‘Who said that?’
‘The director who made this film.’
Either you fail to part in the end, or even if you succeed, the process is unbearably agonizing and difficult—so they made a movie about it and titled it “The Decision to Part.”
I agreed.
‘Right, when we make resolutions, we resolve to save money, to quit our jobs, to stop drinking. We don’t make resolutions to go home after work and lie in bed.’
‘That’s not a resolution—that’s a desire. The desire to lie down….’
‘A desire just to lie down? Are we slaves?’
So my point is, if it were easy for me not to act out, I wouldn’t have needed to make a “resolution not to act out.”
Not acting out is hard.
Especially in a situation like this where an idiot keeps coming and going right in front of me.
Had stress really been piling up that much?
An unexpected possession, suddenly being picked fights with from all directions, falling down and not being helped up by these cold-hearted people.
Did I vent all the anger that had risen to my throat on that Troublemaker?
I did something petty—attacking someone by fixating on their appearance.
My character is really terrible….
‘Yes, I’ll do my self-reflection once I get home!’
I set aside the stray thoughts branching off in all directions. There was no rush to reflect—I could do that lying in my bed at home.
My primary objective was getting home.
With the resolution to “go home, lie down, and reflect,” I looked at the people around me.
While I was spacing out and the Troublemaker was rubbing his elbow and muttering to himself, the others were composing themselves in their own ways.
“The soles of my feet hurt…. They’ve turned red.”
“It’s probably because the shoe soles are thin. It would be nice if we had thick socks or something.”
“I feel like stealing the maidservants’ socks and wearing them.”
“When I wake up tomorrow morning, I’m sure my legs will be cramping.”
Watching them intently, I finally understood why the Crown Prince and the Grand Duke had unnecessarily lingered here for so long.
‘These people don’t have the stamina.’
They don’t have the stamina to walk from here to the Left Staircase and then to the Kitchen without rest, at a brisk pace.
The same goes for moving from one end of such a vast Villa to the other.
‘This might be nothing to a working person like me who takes the subway every day, but for these other kids who are noble to their bones, it’s the ordeal of a lifetime.’
Of course, I’m currently possessing a court lady too, but….
‘Now that I think about it, this court lady Yusara supposedly has the same name and appearance as me… but I haven’t verified how similar. At least my limbs look almost identical. Is there a mirror anywhere here?’
No. There wasn’t one. Now wasn’t the time to look in a mirror.
I alternated my gaze between Supporting Character 2, who had abandoned all pretense of noble dignity and was massaging her bare feet after removing her slippers, and the Troublemaker, who continued to sweat profusely.
Their faces were deathly pale.
‘Did I just make things worse by fighting with the Troublemaker and inflicting more mental damage on everyone?’
I cautiously asked Supporting Character 2, who seemed the kindest among them.
“That must have been quite difficult, wasn’t it? Walking all the way here.”
“Pardon? …Yes. Since I don’t walk much in my daily life, it was rather taxing.”
“How much do you normally walk?”
“Well… I occasionally visit the Park on sunny afternoons.”
“Ah, so you take walks in the Park?”
“Pardon? No. I go to where the Lake is visible and spread out a blanket to sit with friends.”
“So you do walk from the Park entrance to the Lake? That’s only a few steps, isn’t it?”
“I’m not sure. I always have the carriage stop right in front of the Lake.”
…So that basically means she doesn’t walk at all?
“My memory is a bit fuzzy, but how did we get here after stepping out of the portal?”
“The carriage dropped us off at the entrance.”
….
So I was escaping with people who don’t walk even five minutes on their own feet….
My resolve to ‘go home, lie down, and reflect’ instantly transformed into a resolve to ‘exercise’.
When I get back, I’m exercising. I’m increasing my early morning swimming from three times a week to five.
I could only pray that there would be no need to run away from these people.
“Miss Yujein, how is your ankle?”
“I tried to use my ability, but… it seems the recovery isn’t complete yet. I’m sorry.”
“Please, don’t apologize.”
A faint white light appeared and disappeared at Yujein’s fingertips. As she withdrew her hand from her own ankle, her expression toward the Crown Prince who had asked the question was one of profound apology.
‘The holy power I imagined was supposed to resurrect the dead and commune with gods and all that. Why are the gods in this place so stingy? They could at least heal a simple ankle injury.’
Though in itself, healing even minor wounds with divine power was remarkable.
“Allow me to examine it.”
The Crown Prince, who had left Dazling to guard the entrance, and the Grand Duke approached us. The Crown Prince attended to Yujein while the Grand Duke tended to me, inspecting our wounds.
It was a role division that clearly reflected awareness of what had happened earlier.
The Grand Duke, who had knelt on one knee before me, spoke.
“My lady, please show me your hand.”
Without waiting for a response, he drew my hand toward him and cleaned the wound with water from his own handkerchief.
My hand instinctively recoiled, but the Grand Duke held it firmly.
“Are there any other injuries?”
“No.”
“Think carefully. You took quite a fall back there.”
Despite his curt tone, his touch was gentle.
His steady fingers traced my palm. The blood was wiped away as if brushing dust from a canvas.
‘I think I’m going to laugh because it tickles….’
“You’re really sure there’s nothing?”
“Yes.”
Mascarpone, who had been watching, chided me.
“Don’t be stubborn about your pride, Miss Yusara.”
When I turned around, she smirked with the corner of her mouth raised.
“You love getting attention, don’t you, Miss Yusara? When else would you get the Grand Duke’s attention if not now?”
She’s picking a fight again.
There was a reason Mascarpone kept needling me like this.
A concert hall, years ago.
Mascarpone had mocked Yusara for not adhering to the dress code, calling her uncultured.
Yusara had grabbed Mascarpone by the hair right then and there.
Since Yusara’s reputation was already in tatters, she didn’t care, but Mascarpone couldn’t leave her home for a while after that incident.
In that moment, the Grand Duke’s nose bridge wrinkled.
“Are you two going to keep fighting?”
Huh. I hadn’t said anything.
“Stop fighting and focus on me. Your handsome healing fairy tending to your injured hand.”
“Good grief….”
The Grand Duke tore the handkerchief like he was ripping paper, then wrapped the clean half around my palm.
The Grand Duke asked, pretending to concentrate on the treatment. Casually.
“Miss Yusara, do I have a good physique?”
“Don’t you have a mirror?”
I answered coldly.
The Grand Duke scratched his cheek.
“I do look in mirrors. But hearing it said outright that I’m a well-built man… it’s just. How do I put it.”
“Gratifying?”
“Embarrassing, actually. I never expected you to say something like that.”
“Ah, yes.”
It wasn’t something Yusara would have said, that’s for sure.
Not wanting to talk further (I’m still upset with you both!), I shifted my attention to Yujein and the Crown Prince.
Beneath the hem of Yujein’s dress as she sat on the floor, small feet were visible. Despite how tiny her feet were, the heels of her shoes were so impossibly thin they looked precarious.
Yet somehow those shoes, supporting what must have been forty kilograms, caught the Crown Prince’s eye for a moment.
“Pardon me.”
He grasped them with one hand and snapped them clean off.
“You were right, Miss Yusara. I should have done this sooner.”
Even as he said this, he glanced subtly in my direction, attempting conversation. I ignored him.
‘Both the Grand Duke and the Crown Prince have been watching my expression since earlier.’
The Crown Prince, rising to his feet, suddenly called out Troublemaker’s name.
“Papri.”
“What is it, brother?”
“I don’t think I said something earlier.”
“Huh?”
The Crown Prince looked down at the Troublemaker, rotating his neck in a stretch.
Once he stopped moving, the Crown Prince spoke.
“I do not consider any of you here to be a burden.”
“….”
“These people are my guests, and had I not invited them, they would never have been here to face such circumstances. Therefore, the responsibility for their safety rests with me.”
His perfect face tilted slightly to the side.
“If I invite people at my whim and then call them burdens because the situation has changed, who would ever accept an invitation from the Imperial Family? Or perhaps you wouldn’t know—having no friends to invite yourself?”
‘The Troublemaker has no friends. I knew it.’
The Troublemaker said nothing in return. Neither did the Crown Prince.
The rest was over.
In place of the Crown Prince and Grand Duke who needed to protect the party, Mascarpone and Supporting Character 2 stepped forward to support Yujein.
The formation had changed.
Grand Duke/Dazling
Troublemaker
Mascarpone/Yujein/Supporting Character 2
Crown Prince/Me
Why was I in the back again, you ask?
Because I didn’t want to walk with the Troublemaker.
It was just as we all moved silently through the center toward the Left Corridor.
“Aaagh!”
The Troublemaker, who had been huffing and puffing, suddenly began kicking the wall with his feet—bang, bang.
His thick-heeled boots struck the wall with a crash, creating vibrations so violent that the decorative armor beside it trembled. Supporting Character 2, who was following behind, flinched. The Grand Duke spoke cheerfully.
“Papri, you’ll break it that way?”
A chill ran down my spine.
I looked at the Central Staircase we hadn’t yet passed.
The mouths and hands of the zombies piled on the stairs—still alive, merely severed and unable to move—twitched in response to the vibrations and noise the Troublemaker had created.
The severed flesh swelled and deflated in that grotesque sight, making my hair stand on end.
I grabbed the Crown Prince’s sleeve beside me.
“Your Highness.”
“…Yes.”
“You said earlier that the dead Attendant might have come through the servants’ passage.”
“Yes.”
“Could you tell me again exactly where that servants’ passage is…?”
“…It’s inside the wall. A wall close to a sealed room.”
The passage was inside the wall.
The very wall that the Troublemaker was now kicking so hard the corpses scattered on the stairs were flinching.
“Your Highness. …What do you think is the probability that the severed-armed Attendant locked the passage door before dying?”
Before I could even finish speaking, the Crown Prince, understanding my meaning, spun around sharply.
The wall was rattling. The curtain-covered wall. The ‘secret passage’—and we could now tell where the entrance was.
I looked ahead. My eyes met those of my companions who had been listening to our conversation.
Their gazes slowly shifted past my back.
Clatter, clatter.
The sound continued.
Clatter. Clatter-clatter. Clatter-clatter-clatter-clatter-clatter-clatter-crack-crack-crack.
Crash!
“Run!”
[Imperial Villa 2nd Floor Corridor]
Grand Duke/Dazling
Troublemaker
Mascarpone/Yujein/Supporting Character 2
Crown Prince/Yusara
(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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