Possessed a Healing Game, but It’s a Zombie Apocalypse - Chapter 15
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 15
But the joy was short-lived. As time passed and the number of zombies that had entered the farm reached nine, and the sun was gradually setting, Nana still showed no signs of returning.
“Why isn’t the butler back yet?”
Ateruna, who had been watching the zombies working on the farm, showed a worried expression.
“She must have gotten hooked on securing labor. She’ll come back on her own when it gets dark.”
Though Ishanka made a remarkably accurate observation, he too was equally concerned about Nana not returning.
“She should hurry back. I learned this while wandering around, but that Eastern Forest gets dark faster than other places. If it’s sunset here, then there it’s probably… Hey! Brother, where are you going?!”
“I’ll be back in a moment.”
Before Ateruna could say anything more, Ishanka quickly ran toward the Eastern Forest with his longsword in hand.
* * *
Ishanka approached Nana, who had been looking back and forth between him and the zombie with a bewildered expression, and silently extended his hand. Nana took his hand and stood up.
“How did you know to come here…?”
“I tracked the direction those zombies you mentioned were coming from.”
“I see. Thank you. Thanks to you…”
“Are you out of your mind?”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m asking if you’re out of your mind!”
Nana flinched at Ishanka’s shout.
His light purple eyes were churning wildly, devoid of their usual calm.
“If I had been just a little later, you would have died. No, you would have become the same kind of monster as those things. Did you come here alone not knowing that?”
“No, I did prepare in my own way…”
“Prepare? Is this what a prepared person looks like? Covered in dirt and without any weapons!”
Nana was struck speechless by Ishanka’s fierce rebuke.
Ah, he’s really angry. But he has every right to be.
She avoided Ishanka’s gaze with a guilty expression and mumbled out excuses.
“I did think before acting. That’s why I managed to send zombies to the farm without getting caught by them until now. Just now… I was careless for a moment, but if I had just walked a few more steps…”
“Even the most skilled veteran can lose their head on the battlefield from a moment’s mistake.”
Nana had nothing more to say to Ishanka’s firm words. Indeed, if he hadn’t arrived just in time, Nana really could have become a zombie.
Seeing Nana looking dejected, Ishanka let out a small sigh and took her hand, walking toward the farm.
It was getting quite dark now and could be dangerous, but Ishanka, accustomed to mountain darkness from his long nomadic life, effortlessly led her along a safe path.
“What on earth were you thinking, coming alone? When you clearly knew it was dangerous.”
“Well, that’s…”
Nana hesitated and pursed her lips.
“Because I couldn’t bring myself to ask you to come with me.”
“Why didn’t you ask me again? Because I said no?”
“No, it wasn’t because of that…”
Nana hesitated for a moment, then raised her head to look directly at him.
“Because you looked sad.”
Ishanka’s eyes wavered.
“What do you mean by that?”
“When I asked you to come with me last time, your expression wasn’t angry but looked like you were about to cry. Like a child who had lost something precious.”
“…”
“I couldn’t force someone who made that kind of expression to come with me. So I just tried to handle it alone…”
Ishanka couldn’t grasp what expression he was making right now.
As she said, he had lost many precious things due to black magic.
But no one had ever acknowledged that.
Ishanka stared down at her blankly.
To most of the minority ethnic groups, he had never been a young child who lost his parents.
He was just a tool to bring glory and prosperity to the tribe, an incarnation of Aibanu, and no one was curious about the human Ishanka inside that shell.
But this woman before him was different.
She looked at him purely as one person, without any conditions or compensation.
Someone who first looked into the festering wounds hidden behind a simple refusal and willingly took on danger alone for fear of touching that pain.
‘For my sake…’
A corner of his chest sank heavily.
He couldn’t precisely define the identity of this churning emotion, but one thing seemed certain.
He absolutely couldn’t leave this woman alone.
Ishanka gripped the hand he was holding tightly.
“From now on, wherever you go, I’ll follow you.”
For Ishanka, who had never followed anyone around in his life, this was quite a bombshell declaration.
“What? Why?”
“Because I feel like I won’t live long if I leave you alone. And…”
Ishanka paused to choose his words.
“I’m more anxious leaving you alone. It would be better to keep you in front of my eyes. As you said, I’m good at fighting, so I’ll be helpful.”
“No, but you don’t need to go that far…”
“If it’s too burdensome, please think of it as atonement for having accused you of being a black magician.”
“Come on, that’s already been resolved. I don’t hold grudges, so I don’t mind.”
Though Nana tried to wriggle out of it, Ishanka didn’t back down.
“Then let’s call it an extension of the employment contract. Taking responsibility for the employer’s safety is also the employee’s duty. I should earn my keep, shouldn’t I?”
Those persistent excuses to stick by her side no matter what.
Nana no longer had the confidence to win against him. No, perhaps she didn’t want to win.
The look in his eyes as he gazed at her was too serious to be a joke.
Nana unconsciously burst into clear laughter.
“I can’t win, really. Fine. Then from now on, let’s stick together like gum.”
On the forest path where darkness had fallen, the two people’s shadows stretched long like one, heading toward the farm.
* * *
Morning on the farm starts earlier than anywhere else. You have to work from dawn before sunrise to finish work and rest before the hottest noon.
“Mmm… I want to sleep more…”
Outside the blanket is dangerous… By the time Nana, who had been tossing and turning in bed for a while, fully got up, the sun was already high in the sky.
Nana put recently harvested and roasted coffee beans into a tool similar to a millstone, ground them finely, and made coffee.
It was a bit disappointing that this country didn’t yet have the technology to make ice, so she couldn’t make iced americano, but she thought even this was something.
She sipped the warm coffee in her cup while enjoying the outdoor scenery.
Zombies pulling weeds, zombies plowing fields with hoes, zombies planting potatoes and other plants…
Since zombies had no intelligence, they could only be made to do simple labor, but farming was originally a series of simple tasks anyway.
Moreover, zombies didn’t eat or get hot. They were the best labor force, perfect for working all day long.
The combination of peaceful farm scenery and hideous-looking zombies didn’t match at all, but seeing it every day, she gradually got used to it.
If there was one thing she still couldn’t get used to…
“Ah! Those damn birds again!”
It was the wild animals stealing and eating the crops.
Though the great disaster of the zombie apocalypse had struck this world, it didn’t completely apply to animals.
Zombies didn’t catch or bite anything other than humans, and carnivorous animals instinctively avoided and didn’t attack humans who had turned into zombies.
But with the land and plants dying, herbivorous animals were gradually starving to death. In the midst of this, Nana’s farm appeared, full of fresh and delicious grass. To herbivorous animals, Nana’s farm was no different from an oasis in the desert.
At first, Nana deliberately placed unusable crops or weeds in locations where wild animals frequently appeared.
Did they know the world would suddenly become like this? How hungry must they be to come all the way here?
But this symbiotic relationship ended when herbivorous animals trying to eat the grass Nana had brought and carnivorous animals rushing to catch those animals invaded the farm, making a mess of the crops, followed by birds flying in to steal the crops.
“Argh! Why do you only steal the most delicious harvest! Just because you’re beasts doesn’t mean you should know what tastes good!”
When there was just one, the wild animals were pitiful, but when they became four, then dozens, ruining the farm every single day, she couldn’t help but get furious.
Nana tried commanding the zombies to chase away the birds that perched in trees targeting the farm, but they didn’t even have the intelligence to climb trees.
With no other choice, she had the zombies patrol at set intervals, chasing away wild animals that entered the fields and shaking the trees where birds perched to drive them away.
However, with only about 10 zombies, it was impossible to completely block all the wild animals swarming into Nana’s farm.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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