Translator: Nox

Chapter 25

This monster wasn't dead yet. To finish it off completely, one had to either separate the head from the torso or burn it.

[Exclusive! Murder Case at the Marquis of KC’s Estate. The Marquis’s Entire Family Massacred….]

I recalled the newspaper headline I had seen earlier.

It seemed the curtain had truly risen on the novel. It finally felt real that there was very little time left until the apocalypse.

“Miss Sinclair, how can you be so calm after seeing that?”

Vanilla asked, staggering toward me after emptying her stomach.

“Calm? I’m just pretending to be.”

I pointed to the arm holding the cricket bat. It was trembling ever so slightly.

The reason I appeared calm was likely because I knew the identity of this thing and had experience dealing with monsters at Notium Street No. 61.

But that didn’t mean I wasn’t afraid. It was hair-raisingly gruesome and terrifying.

The fact that the world was truly about to end was finally sinking in with painful clarity.

Vanilla fell silent. Eden placed a hand on his hip and stared at the dead monster with a troubled expression.

“I believe I need to conduct an investigation.”

“D-Don’t touch it!”

I hastily extended both arms, blocking Eden as he approached the monster.

“Why?”

Eden asked. I swallowed hard and stared at the monster’s corpse. I knew he possessed the virus antibodies, but it didn’t hurt to be careful.

I had to answer carefully here. I didn’t want to say something unnecessary and invite Eden’s suspicion or interrogation.

“That’s because…”

I trailed off, then took a deep breath and put on my most innocent look.

“It’s a beast of unknown origin. How can we know what kind of germs it might be carrying?”

At my question, Vanilla chimed in as if in agreement.

“It certainly looks like the type to carry diseases. But then, what should we do with it?”

Answering Vanilla’s question, I looked back and forth between her and Eden.

“Let’s burn it.”

I was able to kill the monster at Notium Street No. 61 completely because I had crushed its head with an axe, but this one was different. Telling them now that the head and torso needed to be separated would seem suspicious no matter how I phrased it.

So, the only option was to burn it to ashes.

“Hmm.”

Eden contemplated, looking at the monster’s corpse with a dissatisfied face.

Belatedly, the Farm Uncle saw the monster’s corpse up close and slumped to the ground. He stared at the dead creature with a dazed expression and muttered,

“A-A demon. This must be a demon…!”

The man seemed to be in shock from the sudden trauma. It was worrying to see him this shaken, considering these things were about to overrun the world.

“It just looks like a mutant beast. It’ll be fine once we burn it.”

I said, approaching the Farm Uncle to comfort him. Then, I spotted something like a bite mark on his forearm.

“Wait a second.”

The Farm Uncle looked up at me with a puzzled face. I pointed to the bite mark.

“What is this?”

“That demon bit me slightly earlier…”

The moment I heard the word ‘bit,’ I hurriedly backed away from him. Eden and Vanilla stared at me, confused.

Wait, didn’t Eden help support the Farm Uncle earlier?

Hoping against hope, I pulled Eden’s hand toward me to check if he had been bitten. Fortunately, Eden’s hands were clean.

“What are you doing?”

At Eden’s question, I let out a sigh of relief and pointed at the Farm Uncle.

“I think we need to call a doctor.”

Calling a doctor wouldn’t solve this problem. I only said it to buy time. Then, I gripped my bat tightly.

My mind went blank. I had been imagining situations like this constantly, but now that it was actually happening, I couldn’t think of anything. My entire body turned cold.

As I stood there with trembling hands, a large hand gripped my shoulder.

“Miss Cherry, are you alright?”

Eden examined my expression with a serious face. However, something else caught my attention. I saw Vanilla approaching to help the Farm Uncle up.

“No!”

When I grabbed Vanilla’s arm, she looked at me as if I were being strange.

“Miss Sinclair? What’s wrong?”

The Farm Uncle’s complexion was already turning blue. His dry, cracked lips were quivering, and he was sweating profusely.

“*Ahem*. *Cough, cough*. I-I don’t feel well at all. Could you please call a doctor?”

He stopped mid-sentence, covered his mouth with his hand, and coughed violently. When the coughing finally subsided and he pulled his hand away, his palm was covered in bright red blood. Vanilla looked at him in shock.

“Miss Sinclair. Wait, let go of me.”

Despite Vanilla’s request, I shook my head and refused to release her arm.

*Cough.*

And then, the Farm Uncle vomited blood onto the ground again and collapsed.

*Thud—*

This time, Eden tried to approach him. I stood in front of the fallen man, holding my cricket bat, and faced the two of them.

“Wait. Please, just for a moment, don’t move. There’s something wrong with this man.”

That was all I could say in a situation where I couldn’t explain the details. Vanilla and Eden looked at me with frustrated expressions.

“Miss Cherry, what are you doing right now?!”

“Miss Sinclair, I didn’t think you were the type of person to act like this.”

I swallowed my tears as I listened to their protests. I’m doing this to save you, to save you both.

And as expected, I heard the sound of the Farm Uncle moving—the man who had seemed to stop breathing for a moment when he hit the floor.

*Grrrrr—*

Accompanied by the growl of a beast.

“What? Sir, what’s wrong?”

Vanilla spoke, her voice thick with confusion. I slowly turned around, seeing the bewildered faces of Eden and Vanilla before me.

In front of the monster’s corpse, I saw a figure slowly rising from the ground.

‘No, is that even a person?’

He still had the Farm Uncle’s face, but his body was rapidly transforming.

His stomach swelled and sagged as if it were melting sideways. At the same time, his legs grew unnaturally long. His body twisted grotesquely, and in that gap, two more arms and legs sprouted out.

It was like… a spider. It was similar to the monster I had seen at Notium Street No. 61.

A leg that had grown long and sharp like a skewer attacked Vanilla without warning. I quickly swung the bat I was holding.

*Crack!*

The leg, taking a direct hit from the bat, snapped and flew to the side. Vanilla gasped for breath.

“Get back.”

I pushed Eden and Vanilla away. Then, before they could stop me, I swung the cricket bat again with speed.

*Thwack! Thud!*

*Gurgle!*

The thing that had been baring its massive teeth at Vanilla was sent flying into a stone wall by the bat.

However, when it continued to squirm and showed signs of rising to attack again before it was even finished transforming,

*Bang—*

Eden, having regained his senses, fired his gun. The monster that had once been the Farm Uncle died instantly before it could complete its transformation. The bullet had struck it directly in the head.

A stunned Vanilla turned to look at me.

“…Miss Sinclair, seriously, that… strength… I don’t know what it is, but it’s incredible.”

She gave me a trembling thumbs-up. Then, her face clouded over with confusion again as she looked back at the monster’s corpse.

“But what on earth is happening? That thing just now wasn’t human. No, wait. It definitely started as a person…. Then was that beast we killed earlier a person, too?”

Eden also turned toward me.

“Miss Cherry, did you know things would turn out like this?”

Of course I knew, but since I couldn’t say that, I feigned ignorance.

“No. I didn’t. But we all just witnessed that man turn into a monster.”

I looked straight up at Eden without blinking. Then, Vanilla spoke to me with a puzzled look.

“You told us not to move earlier. Didn’t you know something?”

“No. I only did that because he was acting truly strange. And there was the risk of infection. That man turned like that right after being bitten by the monster.”

A brief silence followed my answer.

“You’re right. It was strange, actually. Thank you, Miss Sinclair.”

Vanilla broke the silence, offering her heavy thanks.

“I am ashamed that as a police officer, I was slow to grasp the situation, Miss Cherry. Thank you.”

Eden, who had been hesitating with his lips trembling, soon apologized with a regretful face.

In truth, this was an incident that neither a police officer nor a soldier could possibly grasp. It wasn’t something Eden should blame himself for.

Eden and Vanilla’s gazes were fixed on the two massive monster corpses. Vanilla watched them for a moment before retching again.

Seeing even Vanilla, who was a seasoned hunter, this shocked, I felt a sense of gloom at how much chaos would erupt in the world once the apocalypse truly arrived.