A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 9

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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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Dazling charged ahead with his sword raised high. Mascarpone, Supporting Character 2, and the Grand Duke—carrying Yujein in his arms—followed in his wake. Yujein’s body stiffened in surprise at being lifted without permission, but she had no choice in the matter.
“This way! …Wait! Don’t come yet!”
Dazling reached the Left Staircase first, and even from this distance, I could clearly see him gritting his teeth.
Mascarpone stumbled as she tried to stop in alarm. Her indoor slippers slipped up around her ankles.
The Grand Duke caught her with his remaining free arm as she began to slide.
“Are you alright?!”
“Sir Dazling is ahead…!”
“Stay close behind me!”
The Grand Duke, steadying Yujein in the crook of his arm, turned to look back.
Our eyes met as he checked whether I was following.
And then I realized it.
The Crown Prince wasn’t following.
I looked back.
The Crown Prince was backing away slowly, watching the approaching zombies with an eerie calm.
What is he doing?!
“Hey!”
He didn’t even glance at me when I called out.
“Hey! Are you insane, trying to get yourself killed?!”
I was about to rush over and drag him by the collar when—
The Crown Prince unwound the magical rope coiled around his wrist.
He tied one end to a protruding pillar on one wall, then secured the other end to a window latch on the opposite wall. His movements were practiced, as if he’d done this before.
After setting the trap with impressive speed, he sprinted toward me.
“Why aren’t you running?”
This time, the Crown Prince urged me forward.
“You weren’t coming, so… ugh!”
“My apologies.”
Without breaking stride, the Crown Prince wrapped his arm around my waist and hoisted me onto his shoulder like a sack of grain.
My body suddenly shot up nearly 190 centimeters into the air, and I swallowed a scream.
“Ugh!”
“Bear with it.”
Whether my arms flailed or my neck whipped up and down, the Crown Prince simply ran.
It was a speed I couldn’t believe possible while carrying a 169-centimeter adult woman on his shoulder.
All I could do was try not to bite my tongue.
Behind the Crown Prince’s back, I could see the Corridor we’d just traversed.
The zombies rushing toward us were getting their necks severed as they hit the rope he’d set up.
Slice. Thud. Thud. Roll.
“Shriek…!”
The sight of corpses’ jaws and necks separating and falling to the ground unfolded before my eyes like some VR game.
Spraying blood, a severed head rolling underfoot—the zombie behind it stumbled, collided with another, and the thin rope trembled as if it might snap under the weight….
“Gack!”
The white cord, taut as a musical string, turned crimson in an instant.
“Screech!”
The zombie’s lips, which had been lunging toward me with its mouth agape, were sliced clean through by the blood-red wire.
The first wave of zombies that had rushed forward had their necks severed in moments, collapsing where they stood, yet still more came. As a cluster of them became entangled in the wire simultaneously and tumbled, the window latch supporting the cord was torn free.
With that, the trap was finished.
“The trap has collapsed!”
“Ignore it and run!”
How am I supposed to run when you’re carrying me?!
Any second now, a zombie with its arm outstretched would grab my hair!
If the distance closed any further, I’d be the first one caught! I shut my eyes and clung to the Crown Prince’s back.
Thud-thud-thud. Thud-thud-thud.
“Aaaahhhhh!”
Please, please, please….
‘Damn it, I’m terrified! Sob, sob, sob!’
The sound of slicing from somewhere I couldn’t see. Screams. Footsteps.
“Mascarpone!”
“I’m fine, aaahhh!”
“Get away!”
“Are you alright?!”
“Yes! Lord Dazling…!”
“I’m fine as well!”
Coming down the stairs like this, I genuinely thought I might bite my own tongue!
“This way!”
The moment we reached the bottom of the staircase, we had no choice but to take refuge in the most obvious place.
Whoosh!
The instant the Crown Prince and I entered, the Grand Duke shoved the curtains shut. Behind the thick blackout drapes, the Crown Prince lowered me down smoothly.
Thud-thud-thud-thud. The blind zombies rushed past us by mere inches, their footsteps fading.
Just as a sigh was about to escape me.
“Shh.”
The Crown Prince pulled me into his embrace and held me there.
His large, rough palm cradled the back of my head. My face was buried against his shirt. The Crown Prince, shielding me with his own arms and body, peered through the gap in the curtains at what lay beyond.
From where I was, all I could see was the Crown Prince’s throat and his chest rising and falling.
Each time the Crown Prince breathed, the muscles against my nose expanded and contracted gently.
The scent of sweat and blood mingled with soap.
The Crown Prince’s scent.
“Wait… this is too—”
As I tried to pull away, he held me even tighter. The Crown Prince whispered.
“…Stay still.”
“….”
“There’s no door here.”
Only then did I realize that the place we had just entered was separated from the outside by nothing but thick curtains—there was no door.
Zombies infesting the corridor, and there’s not even a door to seal them out.
Isn’t this insane?
‘Forget reaching the Kitchen!’
The situation has gotten worse than before!
I stifled my ragged breathing by burying my face in the Crown Prince’s shirt.
Heat and breath radiated from the man’s arms wrapped around my back of my head and waist.
The Crown Prince, focused entirely on the situation outside, only flinched each time my breath touched him, as if he’d forgotten I was nestled in his arms at all.
Or perhaps he was prepared to offer his own arm to the zombies instead if anyone broke through, protecting me in the process.
I stayed like that for a moment.
‘This is suffocating….’
I twisted my body, but he didn’t budge.
His hand was tangled in my hair.
I raised my arm and tapped the forearm that was holding me. Only then did the Crown Prince lower his head toward me.
I whispered against his approaching lips.
‘Please let me go now.’
I can’t breathe!
“…Oh.”
“….”
“I apologize.”
Only then did the Crown Prince slowly lower his arms.
The instant I was released from his embrace, I peered through the gap in the curtains. Immediately, I locked eyes with a zombie and nearly jumped out of my skin.
“…!”
If I hadn’t remembered that they had no vision, I would have screamed.
Ignoring the Crown Prince, who seemed desperate to push me to safety behind him, I surveyed the corridor.
The zombies that had followed us down from the Second Floor and all the ones that had poured out from the 1st Floor in response to the commotion were wandering the Corridor, making sounds like “Kieeeek…” and “Grrrrgh…”
Getting past them to reach the Kitchen was… well.
‘It might be possible if you were skinny enough to slip through the gaps between falling raindrops.’
In other words.
We were doomed.
When I turned around, I saw my companions scattered about. Troublemaker was sprawled flat on the floor, while Yujein and Supporting Character 2 huddled beside Mascarpone, who leaned against the wall.
Everyone was breathing heavily like freshly caught fish, their chests heaving, and because they were covering their mouths with their hands to muffle any sound, they seemed unable to calm down at all.
“Gasp. Gasp. Gasp.”
Even so, when I saw Troublemaker slowly shifting his back to hide behind the others, Mascarpone let out a derisive snort.
“Seriously though….”
“Mascarpone….”
Supporting Character 2, who had grabbed Mascarpone’s leg, shook her head.
“If… if you make noise… we’re all dead.”
She was right.
The only thing separating the Corridor from this narrow space we occupied was the curtain.
‘Did the Grand Duke and Dazling go inside to scout ahead?’
Beyond where the two had vanished, a narrow, elongated corridor stretched out with only dim lighting. Despite the darkness that suggested something might leap out at any moment, it possessed an ornate quality.
Silver lettering was inscribed on the black walls.
[Brocol.
Emperor of the Empire, blessed by the Twelve Deities.
King of territories where the sun never sets.
(…)
In honor of the Imperial Family’s infinite glory.]
Seeing the readable text brought me some reassurance amid all this.
‘Wow, I can actually read the letters here?’
So I’m not illiterate!
Thank goodness!
Judging by the inscription on the wall, this place resembled a Gallery displaying the Imperial Family’s treasures.
[Building layout revisited]
2nd Floor: Staircase/Central Staircase/Sealed Room
1st Floor: *Gallery*/Kitchen/Dining Room
In the end, reaching the Kitchen meant traveling half the distance we’d already covered again.
Just then, the Grand Duke and Dazling, who had scouted the interior, emerged from the darkness.
Seeing us huddled behind the entrance, they tilted their heads in confusion.
The Grand Duke asked.
“Why are you all crowded here?”
At the Grand Duke’s clear voice, Supporting Character 2 waved her hands like a startled sea otter.
“Your Highness, your voice is too loud…!”
“This volume is fine.”
“But…!”
“Really, it’s fine. The only person who would hear a voice this loud and come chasing after us is that foreign princess who claimed to have received divine revelation that she should marry me.”
Such a person existed?
“If you all moved further inside and sat down, it would be far less frightening. You’d be able to breathe more easily too.”
He had a point.
Yet the group made no move. They seemed either too exhausted to budge, or lacked the courage to venture into the darker interior beyond this point.
Sighing at the unmoving group, the Grand Duke approached the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince, still watching the outside, asked.
“Well?”
“Nothing.”
“I see.”
Mascarpone, sensing something ominous, furrowed her brow and questioned.
“Excuse me, Your Highnesses. What do you mean by ‘nothing’…?”
Instead of the Grand Duke, who smiled awkwardly, the Crown Prince replied matter-of-factly.
“There is no door in the interior that Cyprus just explored. The only entrance to this Gallery is….”
“Creak!”
“”
The Crown Prince didn’t finish his sentence, but everyone understood what came next.
The only entrance and exit to this gallery is
right here, where I’m standing.
‘We’re trapped.’
Outside, shambling zombies. A gallery with no way out.
‘What if we go out, dispose of the corpses, and clear a path?’
Dazling spoke through lip movements. The Crown Prince, somehow understanding, shook his head.
‘There are too many.’
Right. Zombies had rained down from the sky. There would be far more of them wandering the Island than the original number of people stationed here.
The Crown Prince, the Grand Duke, and Dazling all seemed to think something was off about that.
‘The total number of people supposed to be on this Island was definitely thirty….’
‘How could….’
Hmm.
I turned away from the three of them exchanging words among themselves.
My eyes met Mascarpone’s, whose gaze was exhausted. Her once-neat hair was now disheveled, her feet pitch-black with grime. The hem of her dress was wrinkled and creased. She’d been so quarrelsome until moments ago, but now, worn out, she said nothing.
I crouched down in front of Mascarpone, who hadn’t even thought to fix the slipper caught around her ankle. I tapped her outstretched leg lightly and called her name.
“Miss Mascarpone.”
I’d been curious about something since earlier. It seemed like now was the time to ask.
[Imperial Villa 1st Floor Gallery]
– Yusara, Yujein, Crown Prince, Grand Duke, Dazling, Mascarpone, Supporting Character 2, Troublemaker (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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