A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 82
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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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Wake up!
My voice, infused with golden light, scattered through the empty air as I cried out.
‘My voice….’
Sound had become light.
There was no other way to describe the surreal sensation.
My shattered voice in the void transformed into particles themselves. An optical illusion bloomed—like raindrops glistening in a summer afternoon sky.
A flash.
Praha’s eyes opened.
Thump, thump, thump….
Beneath my palm, Praha’s heart began beating again.
The dull flicker in Praha’s sunset-colored eyes sharpened with vitality, then focused—finding me.
That familiar deep voice reached toward me.
“Why are you crying?”
“Hic….”
I thought you were dying….
Those amber eyes, jewel-like and radiant, filled me with desperate joy.
It felt as though I’d seized him by the wrist just before he crossed the river to the afterlife.
My lord, do not cross that river.
What kind of dog tries to cross without his master’s permission? I’ll fill that river entirely….
“I’m asking why you’re crying.”
“Because it’s hard….”
“Hard?”
“Yes! Life is so painfully difficult.”
I spoke through tears and snot streaming down my face. Praha, still lying down, tilted his head in confusion.
Praha, pulled back from the threshold of death by me, looked down with only his eyes at my hand resting on his bare chest.
‘He hasn’t fully regained consciousness yet.’
His gaze lacked its usual maturity. The casual speech he’d just used with me confirmed it.
Praha, with eyes innocent as a young boy’s, gently touched my finger resting on his bare chest. His weak hand brushed my fingertip. I too lowered my gaze to my own hand.
A filthy hand, and clothes even filthier than that. My sleeves—which had suffered alongside me all day—were torn, singed, and utterly ruined.
Praha began carefully folding my crumpled sleeves into neat order.
And with those boyish eyes, he scolded me.
“You can’t go around like this…. You’ll get hurt if someone sees.”
“You should worry about yourself….”
When you’re not even in your right mind.
You come back from the dead only to straighten someone else’s clothes?
I rebuked Praha, who was fiddling with my sleeve hem like a five-year-old child.
“Do you know how terrified I was? I thought you were dead!”
“I won’t die until we escape…. If I die, you’ll be alone here.”
“You literally just died….”
My worry was mountainous—whether oxygen deprivation to his brain had caused any damage, and right now….
Praha had no idea what I was thinking internally—he was focused solely on adjusting my clothes.
Satisfied with the sleeves he’d arranged, Praha looked up at me with a slight smile playing at his lips.
He struggled to speak clearly through his badly cracked throat.
“I’ll make you walk through corridors made of flowers and fall asleep in beds made of clouds.”
“…What?”
“I take back what I said about being the worst man. I’m going to be a good man.”
“What do you mean—”
“The best man in the world… so… maybe…”
He trailed off and slowly closed his eyes again.
I quickly bent down and pressed my ear against his chest. Thankfully, his heart was still beating, but…
What do I do now?
Why isn’t anyone coming to save us? Cyprus! Tangerine! Yujein! Are you all dead?!
Please!
“Someone, anyone, help me!”
“Of course.”
“…?!”
And then the ‘golden light’ truly appeared.
Cyprus cast a shadow over me, his blonde hair disheveled and plastered to his forehead with sweat, catching the sunlight filtering through the trees in a brilliant glow.
Cyprus wielded that radiance like a personal halo as he let out a soft laugh.
“Though I must say, I’m a bit disappointed…”
“…”
“I’m hardly ‘anyone,’ am I?”
“…”
I stared at Cyprus with my mouth hanging open.
His entire body was drenched in sweat—so much so that it seemed to steam off his skin.
The tie and jacket he usually wore so meticulously were nowhere to be found, and Cyprus stood before me looking just as disheveled as Tangerine, yet wearing a radiant smile.
The smile of someone who had finally found a treasure they’d been searching for across decades.
“Are you alright, Yusara?”
“What? How did you… how did you know to come here?”
“Curious?”
“No! Your Highness the Crown Prince, please help him first!”
I quickly gestured for him to look, cradling Praha’s head in my arms. Only then did Cyprus’s expression turn grave as he observed Praha lying quietly with his eyes closed.
“What happened?”
“He was struck by a blade.”
I explained to Cyprus as he expertly checked Praha’s neck and wrists.
When it happened, what the situation was, how he was struck, how much blood he lost, how active he’d been afterward, what symptoms appeared—I didn’t know what information would be most helpful, so I just told him everything. As I rattled on, Cyprus, who had knelt beside Praha to assess his condition, let out a soft chuckle.
“My lady, breathe while you speak.”
“But…!”
“It’s nothing serious. He absolutely won’t die from this. He’s far too sturdy.”
“No… but he just went into cardiac arrest!”
“Your heart is beating just fine, isn’t it?”
“That’s because…!”
Because I did something about it!
Seeing me at a loss for words, Cyprus pressed his hand against Praha’s thigh.
“Don’t worry. The princess only stripped off his shirt, but if we removed his pants, you’d see a wound just like this one on his thigh. He survived that, so he’ll survive this too.”
Cyprus even laughed as he mentioned that back then, Praha had lost an entire bucket of blood and still lived.
I alternated my gaze between Cyprus’s expression—so casual, as if this were nothing serious—his rapidly moving hands, and the magical healing potion he withdrew from his pocket.
Then I asked, my strength suddenly draining away.
“…You’re certain?”
“Absolutely. I swear it by the Southern Region.”
“So if I fall asleep now and wake up later, I’ll see the Crown Prince alive and moving?”
“Of course.”
“Good. Then take this.”
“What is it?”
“The real ledger of the Prometheus Trading Company that I stole from the Local Lord’s office earlier.”
Evidence of human trafficking….
I looked between Praha and Cyprus one last time, meeting Cyprus’s eyes before pointing at Praha.
“I have a lot to say to this person, so you absolutely have to keep him alive….”
Then I surrendered myself to the encroaching drowsiness.
I’ve reached my limit too. Time to rest….
* * *
“It’s a miracle the fire didn’t spread!”
Tangerine cried out after circling the Mansion to check for any surviving undead. Yujein was clinging to her back like a sack of cargo.
“Tangerine, I can stand on my own!”
“It’s too dangerous. Your Highness, how are the Crown Prince and the princess?”
“They’re fine.”
Cyprus rose to his feet after pouring the magical healing potion he’d brought into Praha and Yusara.
Nearby, soldiers Yujein had brought from a neighboring city were moving about to handle the aftermath.
“Have you finished the emergency treatment?”
“Roughly?”
“Roughly?!”
“I’m not a doctor, Tangerine. What do you expect?”
“You’re incompetent!”
“I’ll do better….”
Cyprus gave a light nod, deciding the immediate cleanup around here was done, and helped Praha to his feet. With one arm, he effortlessly lifted him and let him lean against his shoulder.
It was a striking contrast to Yusara’s desperate struggle—carrying, dragging, and sweating profusely as she’d fled with Praha.
Tangerine approached, set Yujein down, and hoisted Yusara onto her back. Yujein picked up Tangerine’s bag beside her.
“There’s a shortcut ahead that Marquis Prome seems to have used! I’ve already stationed a carriage and a physician!”
“Well done.”
“I’m better than you, aren’t I, Your Highness?”
Between the Grand Duke and the Knight exchanging clipped remarks, Yujein asked while attempting to coax even the faintest healing power into Praha’s wounds.
“Was it the Princess who destroyed the building?”
“Wouldn’t you think so? Once she wakes up, I’ll have to ask her in detail, but she said she found evidence of the crimes too!”
“That’s truly remarkable…!”
“I agree! I was only thinking of slicing these bastards’ necks one by one, but to wipe them all out in a single stroke like this! Now that’s efficiency!”
Tangerine clenched her fist, already planning that next time she encountered such wretches, she’d simply herd them into one place and finish them all at once.
“The Princess is truly the talent the Knight Order overlooked….”
“Wait, there are wounds on her feet too….”
“What on earth happened in there….”
Cyprus, who had remained silent throughout the conversation, caught a glimpse of Yusara draped across Tangerine’s back.
‘She looks like a wreck.’
Her hair caked with white dust, her face grimy as though fresh from a coal mine, her hands and feet filthy, wounds scattered across her body, and her face streaked with dried tears.
If she were left standing at the Castle Gate of the Southern Region like that, people would surely mistake her for a beggar and toss coins her way.
By any measure, she was the very picture of gracelessness.
And yet.
‘For a moment, she looked like an angel.’
Yusara crying out to the fallen Praha.
Light bursting forth from her entire body as if reflecting her will.
The light had been so blindingly intense….
As though it pierced his chest like an arrow.
‘For an instant, I felt drawn into a scene from mythology itself.’
What on earth had that been?
Cyprus pondered the question.
[Mount Prome]
-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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