I Reincarnated Into a Healing Game… and It’s a Zombie Apocalypse?! - Chapter 79

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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 79

11. You Who Have Fallen in Love Are a Coward

The place where Ishanka currently resided was a duke’s mansion that had once stood in the capital of the Kingdom of Belmore.

Thanks to abundant resources and excellent geographical advantages, Ishanka had made this place his new capital.

However, due to the invasion of the minority ethnic groups he had led, the palace had partially collapsed and restoration work was currently underway.

Because of this, Ishanka was using the elegant Duke’s Mansion as temporary quarters instead of the unfinished Royal Palace.

“How is the restoration progress going?”

Ezion answered Ishanka’s question.

“It’s winter now, so construction is being delayed due to snow, but it should be completed around next year.”

Ezion added.

“And I’ve told them to reflect Nanuk’s style during the restoration work. We need a symbol that this is our land. Fortunately, there was no particular resistance among the workers.”

The Kingdom of Belmore had looked down on craftsmen. They despised them as lowly people who scraped by with a few manual skills.

But the minority ethnic groups who had taken over after Belmore’s fall treated the craftsmen differently.

For those who had not been respected, Ratnagara, their new master, was inevitably much more appealing than the old kingdom that had treated them like dogs and pigs.

“Beasts have started coming down from the Western Mountains. It seems winter food has become scarce.”

Hearing Ezion’s report, Ishanka briefly turned his gaze to the window. The land spread out under the gray sky. People he now ruled were living there.

“Has it already come to that?”

“Can’t you not go this time? You’ve become the king of a nation now.”

At Ezion’s words, Ishanka laughed briefly.

“If a king just sits at his desk all the time, his senses will rust.”

Ezion inwardly sighed and shrugged his shoulders. It was a very Ishanka-like answer.

Suddenly Ishanka remembered.

A white wolf that rarely showed itself in the hunting grounds.

He thought he’d like to catch that creature with its exceptionally fine fur if he encountered it this time.

Not simply as prey.

A white wolf… If he groomed it well and gave it as a gift, would Nana be happy? She seemed to quite like animals.

The thought of wanting to see the smile spread across her face passed through his mind without him realizing it.

A subtle smile spread across Ishanka’s lips. This wasn’t a warrior’s instinct or a king’s duty.

It was simply the desire of one man named Ishanka.

* * *

Nana barely managed to get up from her spot with hollow eyes.

She had tossed and turned all night without getting proper sleep. It was because of Ishanka.

More precisely, it was because of the thought that his fiancée might exist.

The more she thought about it, the more her stomach twisted and it felt like one corner of her heart was being roughly scratched.

Ishanka and his fiancée whose face she didn’t even know.

The moment she thought of those two, Nana immediately fell into a deep quagmire.

‘No, no. I decided to hear it directly from Ishanka. I said I would see with my own eyes, confirm with my own ears, and then judge.’

She shook her head vigorously, trying to pull herself together.

Swoosh, her hair flew as it brushed against her face.

After taking a deep breath, she put on a thick outer garment.

Let’s go outside. I need a change of mood.

If she stayed in her room like this, she felt she would only sink into bad thoughts, so she walked aimlessly.

The wind was cold, but rather, that coolness seemed to anchor her heart.

How long had she walked?

Her steps had somehow led her toward the kiln.

‘Maybe I should buy some bread…’

Nana casually looked around the kiln area and slowly moved her steps.

Now the people here no longer found the Kingdom girl with apricot-colored hair, Nana, strange.

Sometimes curious gazes would follow her, but such things didn’t bother her anymore.

Just then, Nana unconsciously stopped walking and listened carefully to the whispering of two women she heard from the left.

“Did you hear? Murica Vilona, that Vilona Tribe girl who’s supposed to be the king’s fiancée, has returned!”

“Really? Why?”

“Why? Since the king has returned, she’s obviously coming back to hold the engagement ceremony, right?”

Those words pierced her ears like a dagger.

Murica Vilona.

Fiancée.

Ishanka.

That short conversation rang with a thud in her head.

‘It’s okay, it’s probably just a rumor. Just talk going around.’

But her heart reacted much faster than that.

Her vision suddenly became dizzy and her chest sank inward.

Her breath caught.

Nana bit her lips tightly.

She didn’t even realize it hurt.

‘I haven’t heard an accurate answer from Isha yet. I need to hear it directly. Yes, it’s probably just a rumor. It’s probably nothing.’

But no matter how hard she tried to pull herself together, the anxiety that stubbornly arose continued to dully color every corner of her heart.

Like slowly spreading ink.

Nana absentmindedly raised her hand and touched her fingertips.

They were cold.

It seemed like they had been warm just moments ago.

It wasn’t just her fingertips.

It felt like even the inside of her chest was gradually cooling down.

‘Let’s pull myself together. Yes, let’s pull myself together.’

Nana whispered softly.

However, what remained in the center of her heart was only unavoidable anxiety and heavy pain.

* * *

At that moment, the mansion was bustling with thumping footsteps.

“Hey, brother! Did you hear about that Vilona bitch?!”

Ateruna burst open the study door and shouted.

“Huh? What, where did that bastard brother go?”

She looked around, but Ishanka was nowhere to be seen.

“If you’re looking for our leader, it’s a wasted trip, Ateruna.”

Ezion, who was standing leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed, said quietly.

“What? Where did he go?”

“This beast hunt. He already left at dawn.”

“What, how can he just leave like that without saying anything?”

“He notified the warriors in advance and told you too. You just heard it in one ear and let it out the other.”

‘When did I ever let it slip.’

Ateruna grumbled inwardly and pouted her lips.

“Then brother doesn’t know about that thing coming here either?”

“Probably not. I just heard about it too.”

Ezion shrugged his shoulders.

So suddenly without any prior discussion… Ezion also seemed frustrated as he sighed again.

“But why is that suddenly coming?”

“Don’t, don’t do that. She’s officially coming as a representative of Bilona, so she’s a guest.”

“Someone who shows up so suddenly like this is a guest? How utterly rude.”

Ateruna bit her nails, feeling anxiety rising within her.

‘There were rumors all over the streets that Murica Vilona was coming… Surely the butler didn’t hear about it too, right?’

In fact, Ishanka and the Bilona chieftain’s daughter, Murica Vilona, had already broken off their engagement.

When Ishanka was in Sweet Little Village, he had personally sent a letter breaking off the engagement.

But since they handled it quietly to save face, the world still thought the two were engaged.

‘Please… please don’t let it have reached the butler’s ears. Ah, just when things were finally going well between those two, why does she have to throw cold water on it now!’

That damn girl is absolutely useless in every way!

Ateruna hoped all of this was just needless worry, just her own pointless delusion.

But the people of the world, unaware of her feelings, were already spreading word of Bilona’s visit from mouth to mouth.

* * *

Nana believed the rumors would naturally die down with time.

The more baseless a rumor, the faster it inflates but also the quicker it dies out.

But contrary to Nana’s hopes, the talk about Murica Vilona refused to disappear.

“Did you hear about Bilona this time? They say she brought a whole cart full of gold?”

“The region where Bilona settled was always famous for its gold mines. Since she’s the king’s fiancée, she must have brought it as a gift.”

“They say the Bilona chieftain is generous, and he’s being lavish with his daughter’s marriage too.”

Wherever she went, whoever she met, it was all talk about Bilona.

Nana’s anxiety only grew.

On top of that, Ishanka hadn’t shown himself for several days.

Usually he would show his face at least once every two days, but this time they said he had gone out hunting wild beasts.

‘I have to ask him when he returns.’

The resolution she had carved into her heart was buried in emptiness. Anxiety crept up persistently and stubbornly.

Still, Nana endured.

‘I won’t believe it until I hear it directly from Isha.’

Only that one thought was holding her together.

After enduring like that for several days, Rosha returned from an outing and said,

“Ishanka has returned. It seems he was delayed a bit catching a white wolf.”

The moment she heard those words, she couldn’t hold back any longer.

Nana immediately ran toward Ishanka’s mansion.

There were guards at the entrance, but thanks to her fame as “the Kingdom person the king brought,” she was able to enter the mansion without much resistance.

She never knew that the reputation she usually found annoying would shine so brightly, at least for today.

Thump, thump.

The closer she got to the study, the faster and more roughly her heart beat.

‘Calm down, Nana. Calm down.’

But her heart, as if sensing what she was about to face, refused to calm down.

When she reached near the study door, she could hear voices leaking from inside.

The door seemed to be slightly open.

Nana carefully raised her hand to knock.

At that moment.

“It’s been a while. My Aibanu.”

An unfamiliar woman’s voice.

What she saw through the half-open door was a purple-haired woman embracing Ishanka with both arms wrapped around his neck.

That scene burned into Nana’s eyes.

Her breath caught and her mind went blank for a moment.

The sounds of the world grew distant.

Everything became hazy, like sounds heard from underwater, muffled and unclear.

And then the words that followed.

“…Even if you take that Kingdom woman as a concubine, I can understand with a generous heart. We’re destined to become king and queen, after all.”

A crushing pain struck her chest.

Her heart was so loud that even her ears felt muffled.

She couldn’t distinguish where reality ended and where the nightmare began.

The one thing that was certain was that what she had vaguely feared was actually happening right before her eyes.

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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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