Chapter 32
About an hour had passed. Eden, who had been waiting quietly for me to calm down, finally spoke.
“If there are survivors in the village, we have to save them. They might be hiding somewhere, waiting for rescue.”
I wiped away my tears and looked back at him.
He was right. This was no time to be crying.
“Eden. I understand how you feel… but going into the village right now without any preparation is a suicide mission.”
Furthermore, there weren’t enough weapons in the mansion. Even if we had guns, firing them blindly without silencers would only draw more monsters toward us because of the noise.
“I know that. But we can’t stay here forever, can we?”
Eden was right. I might be fine staying here, but Eden had to get to Aurora’s side.
If he was tied down here, I would have to find the scientist male lead, Ezra, myself. In the novel, it was said that Ezra knew a way to develop a cure using Eden’s antibodies.
But even if I let Eden go just to avoid that hassle, what if he got infected on his way to Aurora?
As I fell into thought without answering, Eden let out a heavy sigh filled with worry. Eventually, he confessed his true feelings.
“Listen, Lady Cherry. To be honest, I want to call the capital.”
“I understand your heart completely, Sir Eden.”
“There is a telephone at the police station. I think I’ll only be able to rest easy once I confirm if the capital is in the same state as this place, and if my sister is safe.”
“Ah…”
Just as Eden said, I also wanted to call Harrison. To see if he was safe. To see if that side had truly fallen into ruin just like in the original story.
Even if it might be futile, that was what Eden and I desperately needed right now.
Hope.
Perhaps only after calling the capital and facing reality would we be able to prepare for what comes next.
I pondered for a moment before nodding.
“Fine. I have someone I need to find as well.”
I hadn’t been able to protect Susanna; I couldn’t lose Harrison too.
We decided to check the monsters gathered around Happy House, assess the situation, and then make a plan to head into the village.
First, I lowered the ladder from the second-floor ceiling of Happy House and climbed onto the roof. I saw the lookout and the catapult that the wall repairman had built.
‘Now that I think about it, I hope that man is safe too.’
The repairs had just finished yesterday; what kind of cruel twist of fate was this?
With a heavy heart, I scanned the area around the mansion. Monsters were still swarming around the walls of Happy House.
Occasionally, I saw some of them floundering after falling into the traps I had set, but there were simply too many of them.
“How does it look?”
Eden climbed up to the lookout behind me. He scanned the surroundings and let out a sigh.
“It looks difficult to move right now. We’ll have to wait until their interest dies down.”
“I agree.”
At my answer, Eden rubbed his face with his hands in distress. It seemed he was agitated by the fact that he couldn’t go save Aurora immediately.
And the same went for me, as I had no way of knowing Harrison’s fate.
“By the way, this lookout and the catapult…”
Eden, who had been observing the area for a long while, started to speak. I immediately realized the doubt he held.
“They are placed so appropriately, almost as if you prepared for this situation in advance.”
“…That couldn’t be.”
I had dismissed the option of surviving in Happy House with Eden all this time. To think such a situation would actually come to pass.
Eden stared quietly at my face. It felt as if his gaze was stripping away my secrets one by one. But unexpectedly, he stopped questioning me and muttered to himself.
“I simply cannot understand why the world has become like this. Where did those monsters come from, and why did people turn into them…?”
“I want to know that too.”
Even in the original work, the secret of the virus monsters was never revealed.
‘That damn hiatused novel.’
What was certain was that all this nightmare began with the experiments of Marquis KC and the alchemists. But what on earth were they experimenting for? I didn’t know what kind of experiment could lead to the destruction of the world.
Neither of us could easily escape the state of panic. We just stood by the railing, blankly staring at the swarming monsters.
I had been preparing for this day until now, but from the day I first made my resolution to this very moment, had it even been ten days?
It was too short a time to mentally prepare for the apocalypse. Now that I was actually facing the village turned into a shambles and those mad monsters surrounding the mansion, I lost my confidence. My confidence to survive, that is.
Gurgle—
Just then, signals of hunger rang out from both Eden’s and my stomachs. Eden turned red, seemingly embarrassed by the growling sound.
Only then did I snap out of it. We couldn’t just keep doing this.
“Shall we have a meal first?”
Come to think of it, I had to clean up the ruined kitchen as well. Daily necessities and emergency food would be scattered everywhere.
I headed to the first-floor kitchen with Eden. He also looked taken aghast at the sight of the messy kitchen.
“Was this the work of that monster earlier?”
“Yes. This was my precious emergency food…”
At my mutter, Eden’s gaze landed on me. He didn’t throw a question at me like he did before.
However, I could tell he was asking that same question with his eyes.
“They are placed so appropriately, almost as if you prepared for this situation in advance.”
If he asked me again, I planned to make up an excuse that I sometimes had prophetic dreams and that this was one of those times.
But unexpectedly, Eden didn’t ask. Instead, he started cleaning the kitchen.
Even if Eden lived a modest life as a police officer, that was only in terms of his work; fundamentally, he was the heir to the Lancaster Ducal family.
I didn’t expect a man like him to step forward and clean first without me even asking.
Eden held a broom and looked at me.
“When I stayed at the police dormitory, I did my own cleaning, so don’t look at me like that.”
It seemed the question I wanted to ask was written all over my face. With a slightly embarrassed expression, I nodded and brought over a rag.
I had to wipe away the flour that was puffing up from the floor and shelves.
“I’m more surprised that you’re doing this sort of thing without hesitation.”
I didn’t answer.
“Though if we’re talking about what’s truly surprising, it’s this mansion.”
With those words from Eden, a heavy silence fell between us. Honestly, neither Eden nor I were in our right minds right now.
Sweeping, wiping, clearing trash. We cleaned the kitchen in silence for about two hours.
It wasn’t perfectly organized or pristine, but for something done by Eden and me, I thought it was excellent.
Then, I decided to cook a simple stew. I hadn’t cooked once since being reincarnated as Cherry.
Naturally, I didn’t know how to cook the local way; more precisely, I was planning to cook a Korean-style stew.
As I stood before the counter, Eden looked at me with a surprised face once again.
“Can you cook?”
“Yes. We need to fill our stomachs well if we’re going to go outside the mansion.”
I took out a cutting board and a kitchen knife and placed them on the counter. Then I washed and lightly prepped potatoes, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, carrots, and broccoli before putting them on the board.
Anyway, since there was no refrigerator, these things would be hard to store for long. Might as well eat them up quickly.
As I gripped the knife and took my stance, Eden reached out with a worried look.
“I’ll just do the chopping…”
Tak-tak-tak-tak. Tak-tak-tak-tak.
Eden backed away from me. It was because I was chopping the vegetables with extreme proficiency.
I took out a frying pan and placed it on the stove. Then I put the firewood Eden had made into the hearth and lit it.
After confirming the pan was heating up, I added olive oil, butter, and the vegetables to sauté them.
When the vegetables were somewhat sautéed, I added water and tomatoes, along with bay leaves, minced garlic, and cheese, and let it simmer.
The stew bubbled, and the deep color of the tomatoes bled out.
I could see the large chunks of potatoes and vegetables cooking appetizingly.
Finally, I added the broccoli, seasoned it with salt, and turned off the heat.
I took out two bowls, ladled out portions for Eden and myself, and placed them on the counter.
“I can’t believe it even after seeing it with my own eyes.”
Eden muttered blankly as he looked at the finished stew. We didn’t move to the dining table but just ate standing at the counter.
That was how rushed we felt.
We just wanted to fill our bellies quickly and go out to the village to check on the lives of those dear to us.
“I must admit I’ve been looking at Lady Cherry through a very narrow lens.”
Eden sounded sincere as he spoke. I looked at him while spoonfuls of stew.
“You said you only maintain such formalities with me. I heard it from Mr. Rudfercher.”
At my words, the hand Eden was using to eat stew stopped.
He lowered his spoon and met my eyes. Then, he tilted his head slightly and spoke to me with a cold, expressionless face.
“Why. Do you want me to treat you like I do everyone else?”
“…No.”
“There’s no need to maintain formalities anymore, is there?”
“Keep them anyway.”
Eden shrugged and gave a thin smile. Then he went back to eating his stew in silence.
“I didn’t expect to have such a wonderful meal in this situation.”
Eden said as he stared at his clean bowl.
“And it was truly delicious. I didn’t expect that. Thank you.”
“I know. The food still goes down even in a situation like this. It’s strange.”
With my words, silence fell once again.
We placed the empty bowls in the sink, did a quick wash, and left the kitchen.
Now, it was truly time to make a plan.
