Chapter 14
“To be fair, she looks like someone who’s never had to lift a finger in her life. Just like a noble lady.”
“Exactly. I’m telling you, I’ve never seen such a dazzling face in all my born days.”
“Star candy. That’s it. She’s as pretty as a piece of star candy, isn’t she?”
Eden felt a shiver of goosebumps at the cheesy comparison. He understood why everyone brought up star candy whenever they saw Cherry, yet at the same time, he didn’t understand it at all.
“Well, our young bachelor here is quite handsome himself, so the two of them do make a fine pair.”
“From what I saw, it looked like he was following the lady from the haunted house around like a lost puppy.”
“I have done no such thing.”
Eden narrowed his eyes, immediately showing his displeasure. At that, the villagers exchanged glances once again.
For some reason, their looks were unsettling, but Eden chose to ignore them and stood up from his seat.
“Where are you headed?”
Inspector Hans asked, seeing Eden grab his jacket from the back of the chair.
“Looks like he’s off to see the lady at the haunted house,” the innkeeper answered in a low voice on Eden’s behalf.
“No…”
He started to reflexively deny it, but then he shut his mouth. It was true that he had been about to head to Cherry’s mansion for surveillance purposes.
The villagers’ eyes sparkled as they stared at him.
Tsk. Eden clicked his tongue in annoyance, put on his police cap, and informed Inspector Hans.
“I’m going out on patrol.”
I placed the scarecrow in a corner of the garden and opened the front gate.
Contractors were busy repairing various parts of the mansion.
After going to Kintne yesterday to buy furniture, I had requested on-site repairs from the contractors.
And today, right on schedule, the workers were here servicing the house.
Of course, this was only possible because I had offered five times the usual rate.
When I told them I’d pay half the wages upfront and the rest upon completion within a week, they all came running.
‘Money really is the best. Being rich is the greatest!’
I couldn’t be more grateful that I was born an heiress. It made preparing for the apocalypse so much easier.
Just then, the wall repair contractor approached me.
“Miss, you asked for torches to be installed on the walls, right?”
I nodded.
“Please reinforce the walls to be much higher, thicker, and sturdier than they are now. On the exterior, install iron wall-mounted torches. And put barbed wire on top of the walls as well.”
“You want iron wall-mounted torches on the outside of the walls? The outside?”
The contractor double-checked with me several times. When I gave a firm nod, he scratched the back of his head, muttering that it was the strangest request he’d ever heard.
Well, it certainly would seem strange.
The structures I was requesting were defensive walls I had designed after meticulously organizing the characteristics of the virus monsters described in the novel.
‘Since those things are weak to heat, I have to keep them away from the walls by lighting fires.’
I planned to threaten the monsters and keep them from approaching by installing torches on the outer walls.
Since they would be conspicuous, I wouldn’t be able to keep them lit all the time, but they would serve as a good makeshift measure.
Anyway, while watching the wall repairs progress, I turned to the contractor who was supposed to fix the front gate.
Several sturdy men arrived and lowered a massive stone gate. I decided to call this the Stone Gate from now on.
“I heard there are habitats for wild animals like bears in the forest. I need a gate so solid that it won’t open even if a bear charges at it.”
“This should do it. It’s incredibly sturdy. It was a nightmare to track down.”
The contractor said, wiping the sweat from his brow. I’m sure it was. As I mentioned before, that’s why I paid five times the usual rate for the repairs.
“Is it easy to open and close?”
“Well, it’s not exactly easy. It’s a stone gate, after all. Especially this stone crossbar—it’s a bit heavy for one person to lift. But it’s strong. Once you bar it, it’ll never open from the outside.”
The other workers were finishing the installation of the Stone Gate. Just as the contractor said, the latch was also secured with stone and looked incredibly solid.
It looked heavy enough to require two workers to lift together, but since I had Super Strength, that wasn’t an issue.
Only after meticulously checking the installation process of the Stone Gate did I begin preparing to tend the vegetable garden. This time, I planned to plant an Elpinus herb.
Luckily, the Elpinus herb box I had secured from the house at No. 61 contained not just herbs, but seeds as well. Quite a substantial amount, too.
‘I think I heard there’s a place where Elpinus herbs grow wild. Maybe I should go herb hunting.’
After planting the herbs, I planned to cultivate the rest of the garden. It was currently late spring, just before summer—by sheer luck, the perfect season for planting crops.
‘Wait, whenever I think I’m lucky, something shitty always happens later…’
No, surely not… I’m not some tragic character cursed with irony.
I shook my head and looked out at the untended garden.
For the Happy House vegetable garden, I had prepared crops like tomatoes, cabbage, onions, carrots, potatoes, and green onions.
In this world without modern refrigerators, food couldn’t be stored for long, so the only way was to grow it myself!
First, I stopped by the village general store and bought shovels, hoes, hand hoes, trowels, and watering cans—every kind of tool available. Next, I didn’t forget to purchase a ‘gardening look.’
I bought a generous two-year supply of seeds.
Upon returning to Happy House, I immediately changed into my ‘gardening look.’ I put on a jumpsuit and boots, pulled on a straw hat, and wrapped a towel around my neck.
‘Ugh. I hate these clothes.’
The rumors that Cherry Sinclair was sensitive to fashion were true. Even if my memories of my past life and current life were mixed, I had lived as Cherry for nineteen years.
I was someone who wouldn’t give up dresses and jewelry for the life of me, but there was no way I could tend a garden in a dress.
Anyway, once I was fully geared up, I began pulling weeds with a hand hoe. Only after the weeds were gone could I plow the field with a hoe.
‘I’m really living life to the fullest.’
With that thought, I wiped the sweat from my face with the towel.
‘Whew…’
A long while later, I let out a weary, hot sigh and stared up at the sky.
It was an afternoon with the sun beating down intensely.
The sun was blazing… so it was hot, and exhausting…
And I was hungry.
‘Did I really want to work this hard?’
This was the definition of looking for trouble. But the future Cherry would be grateful.
I was just picking up the hand hoe again with that thought when—
“Stop right there.”
Someone pointed a revolver at me. Startled, I looked up to see Eden. What the? When did he get here?
I glanced toward the entrance. The front gate was open. The workers who had been installing the gate were backing away with shocked faces.
“Yikes!”
Just then, the contractor who had been repairing the wall saw the gun, screamed, and fell off his ladder. Without batting an eye, Eden barked an order at me.
“Cherry Sinclair. I am arresting you on the spot for drug smuggling.”
Wait, what?
“Drug smuggling?”
“Don’t even think about making excuses. Those herbs and seeds there—they’re drugs, aren’t they?”
Eden pointed to the Elpinus herbs and the herb box sitting on the ground.
It seemed he assumed that if I had anything like herbs, they must naturally be drugs.
Just what is my reputation like?
“Ha… I knew it was suspicious that the infamous Cherry Sinclair would come down to a backwater like this to live in seclusion.”
Eden looked at me with a gaze full of contempt.
See, what did I tell you? The moment I think I’m lucky, something shitty happens right after.
From now on, my name is Jiamji Sinclair, damn it.
In the end, I was stuck at the Brunel Police Station all afternoon.
And at Eden’s request, a drug investigator from the Benton Police Headquarters and a drug consultation doctor to identify the substances were dispatched that evening.
The problem was this consultation doctor.
I carefully observed the doctor standing with the drug investigator and Eden.
He was wearing a high-end suit that didn’t fit this rural village at all. And atop his dark navy hair, he wore a top hat—the symbol of a gentleman. Yes, the kind of hat Arsène Lupin would wear.
Most of all, his dazzling appearance immediately commanded attention. Furthermore, his sweet, honey-colored eyes were full of mirth.
If it weren’t for the lollipop in his mouth, he would have looked like a perfectly refined gentleman.
‘Knox Rudfercher.’
The doctor before my eyes was the sub-male lead from the novel Faded Love.
‘Why are YOU here!?’
I must be cursed. All I did was steal some Elpinus herbs from No. 61 Notium Street and bolt to Brunel!
The main setting of the novel was strictly the capital, Benton, yet for some reason, the main characters were flocking to this rural village even before the world ended.
Is this what they call the butterfly effect\?!
