Chapter 2
If I was going to regain the memories of my past life, it would have been so much better if it had happened before the incident itself occurred!
The virus would already be spreading. Slowly, throughout the entire country.
‘If I tell people about this, will they even believe me?’
It was true that people took a great interest in me, but it was never in a positive way. When it came to reliability, I was a gossip girl whose credibility converged toward zero.
‘Even I wouldn’t believe me if I were them.’
Damn it. Since things have turned out like this, there’s only one way to save my own skin.
‘This is no time to be lying in bed!’
I had to build a bunker—a shelter—where I could hide and defend myself from the monsters that would appear after the world ended.
Although I had dropped the novel, I knew the general plot, so as long as I prepared well, I should be able to avoid the danger.
And more than anything, the fortunate thing was that I had plenty of wealth. People often say you can’t buy time with money, but that’s only because they don’t have enough of it. I just had to pour enough money into it to save time building the shelter.
‘Right. Let’s just do it. I have the memories of my past life, so I can do this.’
As soon as I made up my mind, I first went to see the family lawyer, Harrison.
The lawyer’s office in the Sinclair mansion.
Harrison, who was about ten years older than me, was like an older brother.
Having been with the family since childhood, he wasn’t just a lawyer; he was like a business representative and an aide for the Sinclair family.
“What do you mean, My Lady? Weapons?”
Harrison, who had been gracefully sipping tea on the office sofa, asked back.
Neat brown hair, warm green eyes. He pushed up the glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose and looked at me as if puzzled.
“Why do you suddenly need weapons?”
“Because I want to protect myself.”
Harrison watched me silently before a thin smile played on his lips. It was always ominous when Harrison smiled like that.
“Please tell me more about what you mean by that. What do you plan to use the weapons for?”
Harrison asked me in a gentle tone, as if coaxing a child. It was as if he were asking, ‘What kind of trouble are you going to cause this time?’
‘Damn, it doesn’t look like he’s going to grant my request easily.’
I wish it were a problem I could solve on my own.
To acquire weapons—and in large quantities at that—I had to have his help. If I stepped forward myself, I would surely stand out. The capable Harrison would be able to handle the matter cleanly without such issues.
Right. I knew that a weak justification like simply wanting to protect myself wouldn’t work on Harrison anyway.
I looked Harrison straight in the eye. And gathering all the sincerity in the universe—
“There’s a bastard I want to shoot dead.”
I said.
Harrison’s hand, which had been leisurely drinking tea on the opposite sofa, froze.
But I remained perfectly confident. I truly meant it. It was only natural to want to shoot the virus monsters that threatened my life.
Harrison slowly set down his teacup and lifted his head. The light reflected off his glasses, making them shine opaquely.
“Who is that… son of a bitch?”
He asked me as he adjusted his glasses.
I had to play my cards right here. Harrison was overly protective, so he would definitely investigate my background. I put on a sorrowful face, pulled out a handkerchief, and needlessly dabbed at my dry eyes.
“That’s… I don’t want to say it with my own mouth.”
Whew. Even I thought it was an excellent choice of words. Now Harrison wouldn’t be able to ask me anything more.
He would probably put a tail on me secretly, but I didn’t care about that. I just needed to prepare for the apocalypse safely.
‘There’s not much time left anyway!’
Harrison didn’t say anything for a long while. Judging by the contemplative look in his eyes, he seemed to be narrowing down the candidates for who ‘that bastard’ might be.
After a long silence, he finally spoke.
“…I understand for now. What specific types of weapons do you want? I will also provide a teacher to instruct you on how to use them.”
“Things like swords, crossbows, and axes. All kinds! But Harrison, I don’t need a teacher…”
“My Lady. I cannot compromise on this.”
Harrison was firm. There was no room for persuasion.
Since there were only 21 days left until the end, I might not even get to see the teacher’s face anyway.
Still, it would be good to have an expert’s help. I gave a casual nod.
“Fine. Just make sure to prepare plenty of weapons, including spares. Since I’m doing this, I want to do it properly, so I’m going to build an armory too. You know my personality, right?”
Until only yesterday, I was a thoughtless heiress who wasn’t satisfied unless she wasted money until the bitter end.
Perhaps because of that, Harrison nodded without much suspicion.
His stoic face seemed to have the words ‘She’s trying to do something strange again’ written all over it.
Looking back at Cherry Sinclair’s track record, there were many parts that would have caused his distrust, so although it was unfair, I had nothing to say.
“Where do you plan to build the armory?”
“I’m going to build it in a village called Brunel.”
“Brunel…?”
Harrison questioned with a somewhat strange face.
‘Why is he making that expression?’
I tensed up for a moment and then answered calmly.
“It’s not far from the capital. Look it up on a map.”
Harrison stood up. He took a map out of his office desk drawer, spread it on the coffee table, and looked for Brunel Village.
Brunel was a very small village located just a bit southeast of the capital.
“…My Lady, why this village of all places?”
Looking at the map, Harrison looked at me with an incomprehensible gaze.
And for good reason, as Brunel was a tiny rural village without even a train station.
However, there was a clear reason why I chose Brunel. It was because that village had been mentioned in the novel <Love in a Ruined World>.
[Vanilla survived alone for half a year in a secluded mansion in Brunel Village.
She said this mansion was special. She added that it was a mansion optimized for survival.
The mansion she actually saw was just as she had described.
—From the novel ‘<Love in a Ruined World’>]
It was something along those lines.
Anyway, the supporting character Vanilla survived alone in this mansion for half a year. A whole six months.
That was the reason I chose this village.
In the novel, it was about half a year after the apocalypse began when Aurora’s group arrived at this mansion and met Vanilla.
Vanilla’s secluded mansion was a fortress on a hill. The garden was large, so it was good for making a vegetable patch. Not only that, but there was a mountain behind it, making it easy to forage.
However, at that time, there was no one with strong survival skills among Aurora’s group. In the end, they couldn’t solve the food shortage caused by their increased numbers and soon left to find another place.
Later, they would gradually gain survival skills after meeting Hose, a sub-male lead and weapons expert, but they weren’t like that before then.
‘As for food, it’s fine because I can create an environment for self-sufficiency.’
My parents in my past life were farmers. They were land-rich. I was supposed to inherit that.
Of course, I had never actually farmed myself. But I had helped out occasionally, and I had learned a thing or two from watching them, so wouldn’t it be possible?
It takes two years for the protagonists to meet the male lead scientist who will develop a cure.
So, I just had to hold out for two years.
‘If I tell Harrison these things, will he believe me?’
Thinking I had nothing to lose, I brought it up.
“Harrison, the world is going to end soon. An infectious disease that turns people into monsters is going to break out. I’m going to Brunel to prepare for the apocalypse.”
I don’t want to bother explaining how Harrison’s expression changed when I said that.
“…Do you perhaps need medication again? If you don’t like being treated at Ludpusher Hospital, I’ll look into another hospital for you. I think it might be better for you to be hospitalized for a few days to rest…”
“Ah, no! A joke! It was a joke! I just had a dream. it was so vivid.”
I waved my hands, appealing to Harrison that I was perfectly fine.
After my parents passed away, I had a period of depression and took medication for a short time, and I never thought that would become a stumbling block now.
‘I can’t face the apocalypse while being confined in a hospital!’
“If you’re alright, then that’s fine.”
Harrison replied with a sigh of relief. As expected, Harrison is the only one who cares about me.
In any case, I had to bring Harrison to the shelter.
“Um, but Harrison. Can’t you go to Brunel Village with me? I don’t know much about armories, and I don’t have an eye for that kind of thing.”
At my words, Harrison looked at me as if to say, ‘Then why are you trying to build something like that when you don’t even know weapons well?’
I had no particular excuse, so I just looked back at Harrison shamelessly.
“I will assign someone to you.”
“No. I want to go with Harrison.”
Because I absolutely had to get him out of the capital.
Harrison frowned and looked up at me as if he couldn’t understand. His face looked as if it were written, ‘What kind of scheme is it this time?’
