Possessed a Healing Game, but It’s a Zombie Apocalypse - Chapter 22

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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 22

The next morning.

Unlike usual, Nana remained buried in her bed without opening her eyes, as if possessed by a sleep demon.

Her breathing was steady and peaceful, but she showed no reaction to any external stimuli.

Tan-bbang carefully entered Nana’s room and gently tapped her face with his front paws. Not even an eyebrow twitched.

This time he jumped onto her stomach! The soft blanket shifted, but Nana remained deep in slumber.

As if giving up on waking her further, Tan-bbang decorated the blanket with cat fur before slipping out through the cat door.

As soon as he entered the living room, the cat’s form disappeared and a human figure revealed itself. It was Ateruna.

“The employer is…”

“She’s just sleeping. No need to worry.”

“…”

“Oh, really! I’ve seen quite a few people like this while following Grandma Rosha around. This is a kind of discharge state that comes when tension is released. All the fatigue and stress that had built up until now has burst out at once. She’ll be completely fine after a good sleep.”

Ishanka quietly nodded at that explanation, but the anxiety deep in his eyes didn’t completely fade.

Could the contact with Ash, or proximity to the zombies, have had some dark magic-like effect on her? He couldn’t shake that possibility.

But if Ateruna’s words were correct, it would be fortunate.

Several days passed.

Nana, who had been curled up in silence, slowly opened her eyes.

Her disheveled appearance as she groggily got up and stood before the mirror was terrible. Dark circles ringed her eyes, and her hair was scattered like a bird’s nest.

But her eyes in the mirror were clear. There was no wavering or agitation. A firmly settled silence enveloped her gaze.

After briefly washing her face and neatly dressing herself, Nana silently left her room.

“Are you going to see him again?”

Ishanka, who had been standing by the front door, spoke quietly.

His gaze slowly turned toward Nana. His voice was calm, but there was a strange sharpness in his words.

The thought that she still harbored feelings for that zombie somehow didn’t sit well with him.

The scene he had accidentally witnessed in the Eastern Forest remained an indelible memory for Ishanka.

In the sunlit forest, Nana had been smiling at Ash. Her cheeks were flushed red and her lips moved constantly.

It was a brightness different from usual. A warm and gentle smile.

Something began to tickle somewhere in his heart as he watched her.

Without knowing what that emotion was, he found himself unconsciously drawing a little closer to her.

Then he heard the words from her mouth.

“So you see, Ash…”

At that moment, he realized her gaze was directed not at him, but at that brown-haired zombie.

A sensation as if his heart was growing cold.

Something was boiling up from a corner of his chest, but he couldn’t bring himself to acknowledge that emotion.

‘Whoever is beside her has nothing to do with me.’

He tried to convince himself. He was merely her employee; he had no right to dictate her feelings.

But while his head understood, his heart wouldn’t follow at all.

A nameless emotion was stirring stickily in his chest.

After that day, he left as if fleeing that place.

But his steps headed toward the Eastern Forest every day. Using hunting as an excuse, or claiming it was simply his route.

But he knew. He was seeking that place to see Nana.

And there he met Nana every day. Chattering before Ash, laughing, pouring out stories.

Each time he saw that sight, Ishanka was increasingly consumed by something unknowable.

‘She never made that face when she was with me. What exactly is so special about that guy?’

A dead person. A shell that couldn’t speak, couldn’t smile, had lost all emotion.

The fact that such an existence still occupied somewhere in Nana’s heart was unbearably irritating.

He wanted to erase it. He thought if he removed it from sight, his heart would feel better. But it wasn’t so.

Then, at the moment Nana approached Ash’s side, he no longer had time to think as his body reacted first.

It wasn’t thought but instinct.

In that moment, he was already holding onto Nana.

“He is a dead person, a zombie.”

Ishanka’s voice was cold. He tried to suppress his emotions, but couldn’t erase the sharpness that leaked into his words.

“I don’t know what relationship you had with him, but no matter how precious someone was, the dead should be buried in memories.”

“I know that too.”

Nana answered quietly. There wasn’t an inch of wavering. Her eyes were calm and her voice was composed.

“That’s why I’m going.”

Ishanka couldn’t continue speaking and looked at Nana’s face for a moment.

It was definitely the face of someone who had been lying in bed just moments ago, but now she looked as solid as a warrior walking toward a battlefield.

“Isha, you’ll follow me too, won’t you?”

“Pardon?”

“That works out well. Let’s go together.”

It was an unexpected statement.

Ishanka, who had been standing by the door worried she might sneak out to see Ash again, was momentarily dazed by her proposal. Go together? To that zombie right now?

Was she planning to introduce them?

His mind was confused, but his body was already following Nana’s steps toward the Eastern Forest.

The forest air was strangely heavy. The cool dawn atmosphere swept between the trees.

Nana headed toward the familiar tree stump. There sat the brown-haired zombie, Ash, always in that same spot.

“Stand up.”

At Nana’s brief command, Ash, who had been staring only at the ground, slowly rose.

Unfocused eyes.

Listless movements.

So different from his appearance in life.

Nana stared at his face for a long time, then carefully took something from her pocket.

In her hand was the dagger Ishanka had given her long ago.

A simple sword with no patterns or decorations.

The weight of the dagger was fully transmitted to her fingertips.

“Isha, how much do you know about them?”

“I only know how to kill them effectively.”

“That’s good. Where should you stab a zombie to stop it?”

“The most certain way is to take off the head. But if that’s difficult, just stabbing the heart should stop their movement.”

At his explanation, Nana nodded and gripped the dagger tightly. The blade reflected dizzily in the dawn light.

“I’ve thought about many things.”

Her eyes wavered. But soon they hardened again.

“As you said… Ash is dead. What’s in front of me is just Ash’s shell. An existence that doesn’t even recognize me outside the farmland and could bite me to death at any time. At the same time, he’s a remnant of my past and a specter.”

The dagger in her hand trembled.

But her steps slowly approached Ash.

“So I’m going to let him go. Bury him in memories and let him rest in peace.”

The moment Nana took a step toward Ash, Ishanka reached out and grabbed her.

“Let me do it.”

Nana’s bewildered expression was reflected in Ishanka’s light purple eyes.

“You’ve probably never killed a person, let alone an animal. For a beginner to stab a heart with a dagger is never an easy task. Much less cutting a neck.”

“But this is…”

“I’m your worker, aren’t I? The employer’s work becomes my work too. Leave this kind of thing to a professional.”

Nana nodded without saying anything. Watching his back, she felt strangely bitter that he seemed to have caught the last hesitation remaining within her.

Ash stood still. He neither moved nor spoke. Ishanka stood before him and drew the sword from his waist without hesitation.

And with a single motion.

The sharp sword tip pierced Ash’s heart precisely.

Ash didn’t resist. Without grimacing or making a sound, he quietly collapsed to the ground.

Gray smoke rose from Ash’s blood flowing from his chest, and his form began to turn to ash, slowly scattering in the wind.

Watching Ash disappear, Nana closed her eyes.

“Hello? You must be Adrien. I heard about you from my mom. I’m Ash Miller. Just call me Ash.”

“Wow, these weeds are… no joke. Did you do all this by yourself? You’re really amazing.”

“Adrien. If you’re free today, want to go on a picnic? Oh, of course! It won’t be just us two—Sam will come too! So don’t feel pressured!”

“Um, Adrien, when the flower festival is held in the Village this May, would you… like to dance with me?”

The wind passed by and Ash completely disappeared.

Nana quietly looked down at that spot.

Bidding a final farewell in her heart, she began to face the reality she had ultimately turned away from for the first time.

She made a decision.

She would declare the now-ruined Sweet Little Village as her own land.

And someday, she would revive it into a village where laughter flows once again.

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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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