A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 94

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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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“That won’t do!”
I grabbed Praha’s arm in surprise.
Feeling the tension coil through his muscular arm—an arm too thick for my hand to fully encircle—I realized the truth. This man was actually going to shoot!
“What if the arrow-struck person goes berserk and hurts the dog?!”
Shooting an arrow wasn’t the problem, but if the dog got hurt, that was absolutely unacceptable!
“I can simply shoot the neck to immobilize them.”
“That’s true, but—!”
“Please release me. If you continue holding my arm, my aim may suffer.”
Praha added that his concentration was difficult when all his attention was focused on his arm.
Ah… well.
I awkwardly let go of his arm.
In that moment, Tangerine rushed forward.
Tangerine—a psychopath who tormented small animals, a budding serial killer who subdued them all at once—lifted the whimpering dog into her arms.
“It’s really tiny….”
By then, we had already moved to Tangerine’s side.
Up close, the dog’s condition was pitiful. Wounds everywhere, fur matted and missing in patches… had they been playing soccer with the dog instead of a ball?
You lunatics, doing that to a creature that can’t even speak!
Yujein’s face flushed crimson as she confronted the psychopaths.
“Why did you torment the dog?!”
“That dog stole our fish!”
One of the children, being pummeled by Tangerine and forced to his knees, cried out indignantly. Tears glistened at the corners of his eyes—aggrieved that an unexpected adult had beaten him senseless.
Let me see, his age…
Fifteen, maybe sixteen at most?
He complains about getting a chestnut bump, yet he kicks a dog?
Your future is pitch black, kid.
If you’ve got nothing better to do, go home and do squats!
“Do dogs eat fish?”
I whispered to Praha, who still held his bow beside me. After a moment’s thought, Praha answered.
“If hungry, they would likely eat it.”
“I suppose so…. Then where is this fish the dog supposedly stole?”
The delinquent youth pointed to a fish rolling across the ground—barely the size of a single finger. I was speechless.
“You beat a dog over one measly trash fish? You could’ve just kicked it away!”
“Theft is theft! Crime is crime!”
“Are you serious? About a dog?”
“What does it matter that it’s a dog! If a dog kills a person, would you still excuse it just because it’s a dog?!”
“Then press charges! Send a summons to the dog and lock it in Prison!”
“Why are you interfering?! Who do you even think you are!”
“It matters. The dog is my kin.”
For the record, that last statement came from Praha.
These days, Praha and Cyprus wore thick glasses wherever they went to avoid being recognized by people. They were trying to look like studious bookworms, but their physiques couldn’t be hidden, so they just looked like fit nerds instead.
By the time the fit nerd’s declaration of “dogs are my kin” had left the children utterly speechless,
“What’s going on here!”
The fishermen who had been moving crates from the other side noticed the commotion and came running.
They appeared to be the parents of these delinquent youths.
“These brats aren’t helping with work, and they’re causing trouble here—but who are you people?”
“Are you gentlemen their parents?”
Cyprus, posing as a nerd, asked while blending Yujein and Tangerine’s speech patterns together.
“So what?”
“These kids were tormenting a dog!”
“That’s right!”
Tangerine beside him quickly thrust the dog she was holding forward.
The fisherman glanced down at the pitiful creature and reached out to grab the dog by the scruff of its neck.
“This mutt?”
“Yes! Look, it’s been hurt quite severely….”
But the fisherman threw the dog to the ground.
“Yelp!”
“You made our kids kneel because of this worthless mongrel? And you’re an outsider? Huh?”
Then he squared his shoulders and stepped forward aggressively, shoving Tangerine’s shoulder.
“Huh? Answer me, huh?”
It’s worth noting that he was pushing Tangerine, who appeared relatively defenseless, rather than Praha or Cyprus.
Tangerine, struck on the shoulder, quickly glanced back at Praha.
Praha nodded.
After that… well.
The three most dangerous people in the martial world are children, the elderly, and women—let me just say that.
Cyprus winked at me.
“You saw it, didn’t you? That self-defense technique I taught the lady is exactly what you just witnessed.”
“I didn’t see anything!”
It was far too fast!
“What a mess….”
While Tangerine dispensed justice, Yujein lifted the dog and poured her divine power into it, while Praha assisted from the side, producing salve and bandages.
Once the treatment was complete, Yujein, cradling the dog, spoke.
“Should we take it with us?”
“That would be best. There should be someone in the village who can care for a dog.”
“It would be nice if an inn could take it in.”
“We were heading to an inn anyway. Let’s go there, have a meal, wash up, and arrange for a boat to take us.”
Cyprus, whose green eyes were barely visible behind his thick-rimmed glasses, spoke.
And so we left the commotion at the entrance behind and entered the village. We had already stopped paying attention to the fishermen who had been beaten down by Tangerine and their sons.
No one regretted it, and no one worried about it.
But then.
“…The people won’t rent us a boat?”
“The Inn refuses to sell us meals! And of course, they won’t give us lodging!”
“Why?!”
“Apparently it’s because I beat up the villagers earlier!”
“What? How is that relevant?”
“They seem to have remarkable solidarity among themselves! I was told outsiders should get lost!”
“If we don’t leave immediately, they said we’d taste something very spicy.”
Cyprus chimed in from beside me.
“What in the world….”
This wasn’t some rural village from a storybook….
I stood there dumbfounded, my mouth agape. Yujein muttered under her breath.
“They’re all in on it together….”
“So there’s no one who can look after the dog either?”
“That’s right.”
“Sigh.”
What was wrong with the hospitality in this village?
To make matters worse, we also failed to gather information about the Island we were trying to reach.
“Whether those islanders are alive or dead—what’s it to us?”
“Isn’t that Island a major one where tribute ships bound for the Capital stop? It must have had a large population, yet you’re saying no one cared that contact was lost?”
“Ah, so what’s it to us! Even if we knew, we wouldn’t tell! Get lost!”
…Was this really happening? Humans acting like this en masse over just one dog….
“I’d rather swim there myself!”
Yujein burst with frustration.
“I wish I could bring an army and make them tremble!”
Tangerine spoke. I agreed with her.
After spending the entire day asking around, I managed to rent an old boat from a Retired Fisherman. The elderly man, who lent us the decrepit vessel at an exorbitant price with an air of self-importance, caught sight of the dog perched on Cyprus’s shoulder and pretended to recognize it.
“So this is that infamous dog, eh?”
“Grandfather, you know about this dog?”
“Of course I do. The Village Chief came by earlier and earnestly warned me not to rent you a boat.”
“But you’re renting it to us anyway?”
“The Village Chief doesn’t pay for my living expenses, does he? I have to survive first.”
“By any chance, could you look after this dog?”
I really didn’t want to leave it in this wretched village, especially since we were heading to an Island where there might be zombies.
“The dog? Me?”
I handed the dog to the old man, whose expression showed clear reluctance.
“We’ll come back and get it when we return. Just watch it for a few days until then. We’ll pay you more.”
“Hmm.”
“I’m not asking you to feed it premium food three times a day with high-palatability treats and rotate through ten different toys. Just clean water, leftover food, and a space to shelter from wind and rain will do. Just keep the local children from bothering it. Is that too much?”
“…Well. If that’s all it takes.”
The old man nodded.
Despite what humans had done to it, the dog still loved humans and wagged its tail at the old man. Yujein waved her hand sadly in farewell.
“Take care. I’ll be back soon.”
The elderly man, who had been stealing glances at Yujein’s lovely face, asked a question.
“Does this dog have a name?”
Before we could answer that he didn’t, Praha spoke up.
“General.”
“….”
When did he give it that name…?
* * *
“That Island originally had an enormous Underworld God’s Temple.”
“Is that so?”
“It was originally an Island where Priests gathered to live. Though it was in the distant past.”
“I see…. But it seems that’s not the case now?”
“No. The Emperor destroyed the Temple when we were young and built other structures in its place.”
“…Why would he do such a thing?”
“He claimed it was to commemorate Praha’s tenth birthday…. But really, he probably just found it distasteful to have a Temple of such grand scale on an Island that size.”
“Huh.”
Truly a man of consistent character….
As I sighed beside him, Praha quietly sliced fish. He was preparing something for our companions to eat since we hadn’t had a meal.
That’s right.
We had ultimately….
left that Village without eating a single meal….
I was cursing the distant mainland that had already faded from view when it happened.
Tangerine, who had been sprawled out conserving her strength, spoke.
“Do you hear that sound?!”
“A sound?”
“Yes… a creaking, creaking sound….”
“….”
Creaking, creaking…?
A bad premonition seized me as I looked around.
Cyprus rose instead of Praha, who was slicing fish.
“Do not move. If you move carelessly, you might be flung overboard, which would be problematic.”
“Surely that old man didn’t give us a broken boat?”
“Surely not.”
“I’ll resent him even in death if that’s the case….”
After poking around here and there for a while, Cyprus suddenly yanked open a space in the floor.
“Creeeeak!”
And a white object suddenly burst out, clinging to Cyprus’s leg.
“Ah…!”
“General!”
General had been hiding inside the boat, bleeding from wounds he’d apparently sustained somewhere.
[Sea]
– Yusara, Praha, Cyprus, Yujein, Tangerine, General (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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