Chapter 48
I asked with a tense expression.
“Why do you think I would know something like that?”
In truth, all I knew was that alchemists sponsored by Marquis KC had been conducting suspicious experiments.
I didn’t know for what purpose or what kind of experiments they were performing. Furthermore, the novel had gone on hiatus without revealing a single thing.
‘Wait, is that actually everything?’
I was curious too. Exactly what kind of experiments were they doing, and was the cause of the virus outbreak truly rooted in those experiments?
Even in the novel, there was only mention of the ‘hopeful’ news that a cure could be developed; I never actually saw the scene where a cure was produced.
‘Is it really true that a cure can be developed in two years?’
I leaned against the table and aimlessly scanned the grocery store, replying half-heartedly.
“Look here, Mr. Rudfercher. If I knew that, would I be stuck here like this?”
Knox wasn’t entirely convinced by my words, but he seemed to think there was some logic to it, as he nodded obediently.
Come to think of it, even though he had finished the candy, he still had the stick in his mouth. When I asked him why, he said it was a habit. A habit from when he was trying to quit smoking.
“I have a question. Miss Cherry, have you been acting like an idiot on purpose all this time? Because of the succession? If so, you seem to have fooled the socialites perfectly. It’s impressive.”
Acting like an idiot? That wasn’t acting, and hearing it called that is quite offensive.
However, I remained silent this time as well. Isn’t silence a form of affirmation? It was actually better if Knox misunderstood it that way on his own.
“I knew Miss Cherry was strong, but I didn’t know it was to that extent. How do you explain that super strength? You sent that monster flying with one blow earlier.”
Thinking about it, Eden and Vanilla had seen me blow a monster away even before the fall, but Knox hadn’t.
“I played a bit of cricket.”
“Look here. Playing cricket doesn’t let you send a monster flying with one hit.”
Knox replied with an incredulous look, the stick still in his mouth.
I don’t know how many more people I’ll encounter in the future, but will I have to explain this every single time? I’m already feeling exhausted.
‘As I thought, it’s best to just stay quietly tucked away in Happy House.’
“I took my supplements faithfully and exercised hard, and it turned out like this. It’s my constitution; how else am I supposed to explain it?”
“Are you saying you weren’t originally that strong? If so, those supplements are extremely suspicious. What kind of supplements did you take?”
“I’ll decline the interrogation. My body was weak, so my parents specially imported those supplements from the Kingdom of Briwood.”
Of course, the part about importing them from the Briwood Kingdom was a lie. I didn’t even know exactly where the medicine had come from.
“Hmm. Briwood is indeed famous for its medicinal herbs.”
“Is the interrogation over?”
At my question, Knox raised both hands in a gesture of surrender.
“I wasn’t trying to interrogate you, but if it made you uncomfortable, I apologize.”
“Fine. Let’s leave it at that. Eden must be looking for us, so shouldn’t we leave some kind of signal he can recognize?”
At my words, Knox stroked his chin with a contemplative look.
“Those things didn’t seem to have very good eyesight. Their hearing seemed more developed than their vision. How about signaling with a light?”
“Ah. Now that you mention it, I brought a kerosene lantern…”
I rummaged through the bag filled with groceries. I had completely forgotten that I’d put a kerosene lantern in there.
But as expected. Because I had been rolling around violently while dealing with the monsters, the lantern was shattered.
“How tragic,” Knox remarked simply.
I set the broken lantern on the floor and rummaged through the bag again. After a long while, I found what I was looking for. It was a square matchbox. I couldn’t find the lighter anywhere. But I was glad to have at least this.
“I have matches. Don’t you think there might be something like a lantern inside the store? We could find a lantern, light it, and place it in front of the entrance.”
Knox nodded at my suggestion, and we looked around the store for a lantern.
First, we searched deep into the back of the store. Perhaps because there were no windows, the back of the store was dark as light didn’t reach it well. I couldn’t see ahead clearly.
Bending down under a desk where piles of luggage seemed to be stacked, I struck a match.
Sssst—
And when the flame flared up, illuminating the area just around my face, I locked eyes with the face of a middle-aged woman on the floor.
“Holy mother of—! You scared the hell out of me!”
I tumbled backward just like that. Startled, Knox approached me with a limping gait.
“You’ve got a foul mouth. I guess the Sinclair family doesn’t do etiquette lessons. Same for Lady Ruskin. Is skipping etiquette class the trend for kids these days?”
“You want to see this? See if a curse comes out or not.”
I struck another match and showed Knox what I had seen.
On the floor, the head of a middle-aged woman, who appeared to be the shopkeeper, was rolling around, severed from her body.
“Ugh…!”
I covered Knox’s mouth as he was about to scream. Thanks to that, our faces became close. His honey-colored eyes entered my field of vision.
I slowly removed my hand from Knox’s face. Then, I stared down at the severed head in silence. How on earth did this person end up like this?
Staring at it quietly, I eventually couldn’t hold it in and vomited in the corner. Being a doctor, Knox seemed more composed than I expected, as if he were used to such things.
“It’s impossible to tell if this was cut off before she turned into a monster or after.”
Having regained his composure, Knox gave a brief observation. Behind the severed head of the woman, there was a lantern.
He lay flat on the floor and reached out toward the lantern, then suddenly stood up as if hit by a wave of skepticism.
“I don’t know what I’m doing right now. I’m not the kind of person to be doing this sort of thing.”
“Excuse me. Then do I look like the kind of person who does this? I am also the Sinclair heiress.”
I replied with a line like a nightmare customer power-tripping an employee at a department store. Knox then easily accepted it, saying that was true.
“It’s the end of the world.”
“It is the end of the world. The world has literally fallen.”
Knox fell silent again, seemingly having nothing left to say. He then obediently crawled under the table and pulled out the lantern.
Regardless, we successfully lit the lantern, placed it in front of the store door, and quickly shut the door.
“I really want to see Sir Eden.”
If he were here, he could have broken through this pack of monsters in an instant and returned to Happy House. Since Knox was the intellectual type, I was the only one here who could use physical force.
‘Dammit! I really am the muscle after all!’
Just then, as if he had heard my muttering, Knox grumbled with a very twisted expression.
“I really don’t understand what women find so irresistible about a guy with no class like him.”
“Why bother looking for class in a police officer?”
“Look here. Do you like Lancaster?”
“Me? No?”
“Then why are you looking for Eden so much?”
“Because I want to go home.”
“Hmm, that’s true. If Lancaster were here, we could have gotten out of here more easily.”
Once again, Knox immediately agreed and nodded.
Anyway, hoping that Eden would notice the signal from the lantern light, I threw a question at Knox.
“Do you know that Sir Eden has a younger sister?”
“How could I not know?”
“Have you ever met her?”
“I have.”
“What was she like?”
“Maybe it’s because they aren’t blood-related? They didn’t look alike.”
“Is that it?”
At my question, Knox frowned and looked at me. He had an expression that said he couldn’t understand the intent behind the question.
“Then what more should I say?”
Knox was a sub-male lead with a following almost equal to that of the main male lead, the Crown Prince.
Eden was much more popular, but I suspected he was eventually pushed aside because he was Aurora’s foster brother.
It was then.
Bang— Bang!
The sound of gunfire echoed from afar. It was definitely Eden. I jumped up from my seat.
“It’s Eden!”
I approached the front door, pulled back the cloth covering the glass, and looked outside.
I could see the virus monsters that had been wandering the streets running in one direction.
Bang— Bang—!
Gunshots rang out in succession. I turned back to look at Knox, who was standing beside me.
“I think we should go out and help…”
I trailed off mid-sentence. This was because Knox’s bandaged leg caught my eye. Knox shrugged his shoulders with a nonchalant smile.
“If I’m a burden, you can just leave me behind.”
I stared blankly at Knox, who was leaning against the front door trying to look cool. Knox was still staring at me with a beaming smile, the candy stick still in his mouth.
After thinking for a moment, I decided to make him a proposal.
“Instead of that, just get on my back.”
