The Lady Hides a Zombie [Novel] Chapter 2

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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: A Warlock in the Family
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It was a bombshell declaration.
“…Zombies?”
Yulia, who had been pale with shock, asked without thinking.
“The zombies I know of?”
“Yes.”
“The kind that go ‘Groooan’ and eat people…? The ones that infect you with a bite?”
“Not exactly. They’re more like zombies, not actual zombies.”
I only used the term ‘zombie’ from old legends as a reference.
My gentle explanation seemed to leave Yulia speechless. And understandably so.
It was absurd enough to have died in a carriage accident and come back to life. But to find out she was now a zombie?
No, not even a ‘zombie,’ but ‘something like a zombie’!
I had to choose my words carefully to ease their confusion.
“I had no choice. It would have been better to ask for your consent, but you were all dead. I’m sorry for turning you into zombies without your permission.”
“No, that’s not the problem!”
Yulia cried out, her voice sharp.
“How is something like this even possible?! I’ve never heard of anyone coming back from the dead. Not even the great Saint from the Holy See, who they say can make the lame walk, can bring back the dead!”
“Strictly speaking, you haven’t been brought back to life. In your current state, you’re still closer to being dead corpses.”
Yulia didn’t seem to understand the difference. Her mouth opened and closed, at a loss for words.
While she was about to die from frustration, Isaac and Edmond were trying their best to assess the situation calmly.
“…Is that your ability?”
Isaac offered an answer that was closest to the truth.
“That’s right.”
I affirmed calmly.
“Ha. So your ability, which never manifested in twenty-three years… is controlling corpses?”
He roughly ran a hand through his hair. Without his glasses, the sharp line of his eyes was fully exposed.
I gently pointed out the error in Isaac’s words.
“It’s binding the souls of the dead to me.”
“What?”
“I make their souls obey me and inhabit new bodies. It’s just that the only vessels available right now were corpses, so I had them inhabit their corpses.”
“What in the world are you talking about?”
Yulia asked again, frustrated.
“Normally, when the body dies, the soul departs. I’m saying I forcibly held yours back.”
“We… died?”
“Yes. Your bodies did.”
Dead bodies moving on their own—what else could they be but zombies?
Though the entire conversation was a string of confusion, Edmond seemed to have barely held on to his reason.
He knew what this ability—one he couldn’t decide whether to call miraculous or grotesque—was generally called.
“……Are you saying you’re a warlock?”
“!”
“!”
At that name, Isaac and Yulia flinched involuntarily. On this continent, that name was practically taboo.
But just as I had been, I calmly nodded my head.
“That’s right.”
If our parents knew I’d revealed myself as a warlock, they’d probably claw their way out of their graves. But this time, I truly had no other choice.
No, in this case, it’s my siblings who’ve clawed their way out of their graves.
A chilling silence descended. Amidst it, Isaac’s wrist, which had been bothering him all day, fell off with a snap.
*Thud.*
The wrist rolled across the floor, coming to a stop at my feet.
Isaac stared at the cross-section of his arm where his wrist had detached, not a single drop of blood seeping out, and muttered blankly.
“It’s real…”
For a while, no one spoke.
Then, Yulia shot up from her seat.
“This is ridiculous. Warlocks, and their dark arts, vanished from the continent 300 years ago!”
Yulia shouted harshly. But contrary to her sharp tone, her voice was trembling uncontrollably.
“Besides, Emily is… a ‘Walker’.”
There was no denying I was the fourth daughter of House Walker. Of course, there were those who occasionally had their doubts, but they were nothing more than ‘doubts’.
That was because my twin, Yulia, carried clear proof of the Walker bloodline.
“Why do you think our family is born with a special ability in every generation? It’s because we’ve received Divine Grace. And you’re telling me the grace God bestowed this time is… dark magic?”
It sounded like utter nonsense.
Dark magic was an act of defying God, of breaking the world’s taboos through wicked means. Unless God had gone mad, there was no way He would bestow such a thing as a ‘grace’.
“But if not that, how else can we explain this phenomenon? Yulia, you felt it clearly too, didn’t you?”
Edmond immediately retorted.
It’s not easy to mistake the moment the chilling shadow of death falls upon you.
“That may be, but…!”
“Besides, my wrist is in this state.”
Isaac replied, waving his detached wrist.
“Look at this cross-section. Would you call this the arm of a living person?”
He turned the wrist over. Between the layers of muscle and bone, empty blood vessels were visible.
“We died today. And Emily brought us back.”
“……”
Yulia could no longer find the words to argue. She must have been keenly aware that something was wrong with her own body.
Her sensitive fingertips could normally detect a difference of even 1ml in a potion. Alchemy was just that delicate a science.
But now, her sense of touch was so dull it must have felt as frustrating as wearing thick gloves.
Yulia looked down at her pale hands.
When she willed them to move, they obeyed. Yet her expression showed she couldn't believe her body had already met its end.
But the despair was short-lived. We had already learned once before how to rise from death.
After our parents’ sudden accident, the old adage that death comes without knocking was always engraved in a corner of our hearts.
A determined light entered Yulia’s eyes.
As Yulia calmed down, Edmond laid out the cold reality.
“Warlocks are executed on the spot as soon as they’re discovered. The moment the Holy See finds out, not only will we be returned to nothing, but Andrea won’t be safe either.”
All of House Walker would be torn to shreds. That, at least, was something I wanted to avoid.
“Can’t we just say there was an accident and pretend to be dead? We could go into hiding somewhere. Wouldn’t that be better than having our dark magic exposed?”
I shook my head at Yulia’s words.
“If that happens, only Andrea and I will be left in ‘House Walker.’ Since my legitimacy isn’t recognized, the sole heir would be Andrea, and he’s too young.”
According to the laws of the Belond Empire, an heir who has not come of age cannot legally exercise their rights until they do. Instead, a legal guardian is appointed to act as regent…
“The council of elders would never stand by and do nothing.”
Isaac shook his head.
There were too many hyenas surrounding House Walker, just waiting for a chance to tear us apart.
“When our parents died, Edmond was exactly eighteen. Thanks to that, we were able to keep the family from being taken, but we all know how difficult that process was, even for a legitimate heir.”
Luck like that doesn’t strike twice. This time, we would have truly lost everything.
Everyone’s faces hardened as they imagined the family’s fate.
“And we can’t very well reveal that Emily is a warlock just to get her legitimacy recognized… This has become quite a predicament.”
The confusion had now subsided, and everyone was contemplating how to move forward. I realized this was the perfect time to speak.
“There’s only one way left.”
I met each of their eyes as I continued.
“Until Andrea comes of age, we do our absolute best not to get caught.”
It was the best solution I could come up with.
“So we just have to endure for seven years.”
“Yes. Once Andrea turns eighteen, we’ll be able to figure something out.”
Edmond’s cool gaze drifted into the air, as if weighing the possibilities.
“Seven years…”
“Is it possible? With bodies like these, it wouldn’t be strange if a wrist just popped off while escorting a lady at a ball.”
“We have to make it work.”
Edmond said decisively.
“Because there’s no other way.”
He was right.
“…What in the world has happened to us?”
“This is insane.”
Isaac and Yulia grumbled, but they didn’t directly contradict Edmond’s words.
Just then, Isaac raised his intact hand.
“Hey, sorry to interrupt this serious conversation, but my wrist is still in this state, you know? Emily, do you know how to reattach it?”
Isaac laughed awkwardly. Ah. Right, there was that.
“Yes. But it’s only a temporary fix. As I said before, your bodies are still closer to… corpses.”
I winced slightly, finding the word ‘corpses’ unpleasant to say.
“So they break and fall apart easily.”
“To the point where a wrist might snap just from picking up our youngest brother and putting him down~.”
Isaac, who once possessed the monstrous strength to shatter boulders with his bare hands, muttered under his breath.
“This might hurt a little.”
After carefully aligning the cross-sections of Isaac’s cold wrist and hand, I bit down hard on the tip of my pinky finger.
“!”
Before Isaac could say anything about my sudden action, a miracle occurred.
My blood floated in the air as if it were a sentient snake.
It nuzzled against my wrist as if fawning over its master, then swiftly coiled around Isaac’s.
What looked like a red bracelet slowly melted into his skin, and just like that, the wrist was as good as new.
“Whoa…”
Isaac rotated his wrist back and forth. It felt a little stiff, but it wasn’t much different from when he first came back to life.
Magic that used blood as a medium.
That was the ultimate proof that I was a warlock.
“Since when… No, that’s not important.”
Edmond made a cold assessment. Grilling me about my past now would be meaningless.
‘If I told them I stole and read a forbidden book of dark magic from the imperial library… they’d freak out.’
Mm. Better not to say anything.
Isaac twisted his restored wrist again and again, letting out a continuous stream of impressed noises. ‘Wow…’
“Dark magic. And to think my own sister is a warlock…”
I flinched at Isaac’s muttering.
Warlocks were the most hated beings in this land.
Pointed at as public enemies of humanity, their heads would surely roll the moment their identities were revealed. That’s why, from a very young age, our parents had trained me to thoroughly hide my identity.
Perhaps it was because I had lived my entire life in hiding. My fingertips began to tremble. To hide it, I deliberately gripped the fabric of my skirt.
“Emily.”
Just then, my name was called unexpectedly. I looked up with a start.
“Y-yes.”
“…Well done.”
Those were words I had never expected to hear.
“If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have had this chance at a future. House Walker would have fallen straight into the hands of the elders. So don’t hang your head as if you’ve committed some crime.”
Edmond’s tone was as cold as ever, but I could read the affection between his words.
“No matter what anyone else says, this ability of yours is a Divine Grace, and it is proof that you are a ‘Walker’.”
He reached out with a large hand and slowly stroked my hair. It felt just like we were children again.
“So hold your head high.”
“…Yes!”
Knowing how much this clumsy comfort meant coming from Edmond, I smiled all the more brightly.