Chapter 56
“Chores fit for a maid.” To a modern person, those words might sound incredibly demeaning, but to a nobleman like Knox, it was a perfectly natural thought.
“First of all, I don’t have any debts. The reason I took out a hundred-million-gold line of credit was simply because I’m not yet of age to receive my inheritance.”
I paused for a moment, recalling the past. I had a prepared excuse for my cooking skills.
“As for the cooking… when I was younger, I once stole my parents’ yacht and crossed the ocean. I learned to cook then just to survive. I was penniless and all alone in the Western Continent.”
“……You stole a yacht and crossed the ocean?”
Knox was so incredulous he actually set down his fork. This was getting awkward. I shifted my gaze and answered cautiously.
“It was a bit of adolescent rebellion….”
“At what age?”
“Fifteen…?”
“……That is quite the scale for adolescent rebellion. I take back what I said earlier. Miss Cherry, you truly were different from the start.”
Knox cleanly corrected his previous assumption and offered a compliment. I wasn’t sure if it was actually a compliment, but I decided not to dwell on it and encouraged them to finish their meal.
“You both must be famished, so please, eat.”
The plates were piled high with appetizing food.
Knox and Eden began eating with the refined etiquette expected of nobles, but the speed at which they brought food to their mouths soon quickened.
It was the first time I had served meat to Eden, and for Knox, it must have been his first proper meal in days.
In truth, this bacon was the last of the meat I had.
On the day the world ended, the wolf monster had ruined the meat I had stored, and the original supply hadn’t been that large to begin with. Meat spoiled quickly, after all. There was salted meat, of course, but it wasn’t the same as having it frozen.
Once the two men were somewhat full, they began to steal glances at me. They looked like puppies that needed to go out, as if they had something to say, but in the end, neither of them spoke up.
What is it? Why are they acting like that?
Ultimately, the meal ended in awkward silence. Knox and Eden volunteered to handle the cleanup.
The kitchen was somewhat messy with the scraps I’d left behind while cooking. Eden frowned as he scrubbed the grease off the table and stove.
“You should clean as you go, Miss Cherry. Dammit, look at this. The grease has dried and stuck, making it hard to wipe off.”
Eden nagged. But isn’t it incredibly difficult to clean and cook at the same time? I just gave a vague nod. I don’t mind the cooking part, but I absolutely hate the cleaning.
As I stood there rubbing the same spot repeatedly with a cloth, Eden strode over and snatched it from my hand.
“Just go to your room.”
“If you insist.”
With a much brighter expression, I quickly stood up, bid them goodnight, and returned to my room. I collapsed onto the soft bed.
Staring blankly up at the bed’s canopy, I thought to myself.
Do I just have to hold out like this for two years?
Everything was so smooth and peaceful. That was why it felt strange.
It had already been about ten days since the world ended.
Cherry was still full of energy and spirit. From a brief psychiatric perspective, Knox remarked that if her mental state were going to crumble, it would have happened already.
Contrary to the two men’s initial concerns, they had nearly reached the conclusion that Cherry’s mental fortitude was exceptionally strong. Both men found this quite unexpected.
Cherry was sitting idly in the lookout on the roof. Eden sat on the steps of the shed in the garden, quietly looking up at the roof.
It was his first time observing her so intently. Before the fall, he had viewed her through a jaded lens, searching for evidence of criminal activity, so his perspective was different now.
Just then, the front door of the mansion opened and Knox appeared. He stood for a moment, looking at the ‘Happy House’ sign hanging by the door, before walking toward Eden.
“How is Miss Cherry?”
“She’s fine.”
Knox said nothing and followed Eden’s gaze up to the roof. Cherry was scanning the village through a pair of binoculars.
“By the way, Lancaster, do you know? Why the name of this mansion is Happy House?”
Knox asked, pointing to the sign hanging by the front door. Eden shrugged.
“Who knows. Seeing as ‘Temporary Shelter’ was written and then crossed out, it seems she intended to build a shelter here from the very beginning, not a vacation home.”
In fact, Cherry herself no longer seemed to have much will to hide such facts as she had before. Now, she seemed to possess a ‘whatever happens, happens’ sort of mindset.
At Knox’s words, Eden recalled a conversation he’d had with Cherry previously.
“I received a letter too. Telling me that a monster would appear at Notium Street No. 61, and that people would die.”
“I told you. I have a life with nothing but money, so I wanted to find some fun. But after coming down here and seeing the farm uncle turn, I became certain. I don’t know who sent it, but the contents of the letter were all true. Look. The world has ended because of a contagious monster.”
“I suppose you didn’t think to look further into the person who sent the letter?”
“Why wouldn’t I? But think about it. When did the incident at Notium Street No. 61 happen? What could I have found out in such a short amount of time?”
She might not have known that the world would end entirely.
However, since she knew the monster from Notium Street No. 61 was contagious, she might have had some inkling.
Eden didn’t press Cherry further. Given the circumstances, no matter how he thought about it, Cherry didn’t seem to be the mastermind behind this catastrophe.
The number of monsters roaming Brunel Village and the area around the mansion showed no signs of decreasing.
Eden decided that if the situation remained the same after a week, he would have to break through and leave the mansion. He couldn’t stay trapped like this without knowing whether his sister was alive or dead.
The situation at Happy House remained equally unchanged.
From the moment Eden first met her in Brunel until now, Cherry had been working constantly. And she was working even now. When asked if she shouldn’t take a rest, she simply shook her head.
“The world turned out like this before the mansion repairs were even finished, so what can I do? I have to work.”
Then, she suddenly clutched her head and cried out.
“Damn it, I still have to labor even when the world is ending!”
She cleaned the mansion, cleared away broken furniture, drainage pipes, and chimneys. In her spare time, she didn’t neglect the farm work, planting crops in the vegetable garden, and she prepared every single meal.
Cherry’s day usually began as follows.
Contrary to what the gossip rags had screamed about her, she woke up early in the morning. And as soon as she woke, she drank milk. She urged Eden and Knox to drink it as well, saying it would spoil soon anyway.
They sat in a row on the garden bench of Happy House, drinking milk and watching the sun rise.
In this way, Eden and Knox shared a daily routine with Cherry. It was a rather fascinating experience.
Though, come to think of it, since the world had ended, what experience wasn’t fascinating?
Eden thought that, no matter how he looked at it, the combination of the three of them—himself, Knox, and Cherry—was the most bizarre of all. People who had lived in such vastly different worlds were gathered in one place. Before the apocalypse, this was a scene that would have fueled the gossip columns for months.
Just then, Knox, who was looking up at the sky, spoke.
“Miss Cherry. It must have been quite exhausting living as a different person in high society.”
Cherry took another gulp of milk and replied.
“As a different person?”
“The Cherry that high society knew and the person you are now are different. To change your personality 180 degrees and become someone else…… I acknowledge your strong will to enter the aristocratic world and your excellent acting skills.”
“It wasn’t an act, so why are you acknowledging it?”
Cherry denied it flatly, but neither Knox nor Eden believed her.
In fact, this wasn’t the first time Knox and Cherry had met. Cherry didn’t seem to remember, but he had caught a fleeting glimpse of her once before at Harrison Howard’s wedding.
At that time, Cherry’s appearance had been completely different from now. To Knox, it seemed that her current self was her true self.
Cherry gulped down the milk in her mug and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
“I should have brought a dairy cow instead of chickens. What joy will I have left once the milk is all gone?”
“Personally, I think bringing chickens was the better judgment. Eggs are better than milk.”
Knox retorted. Having answered reflexively, Knox suddenly felt that even this mundane conversation was remarkably peaceful. Even though it was hell outside….
Recalling the two days he spent hiding from monsters through the nights in Brunel, Knox shuddered. Then he looked again at the peaceful sky and the vegetable garden. And the mug filled with milk.
No matter how he thought about it, he felt he needed to be good to Cherry Sinclair.
Just then, Cherry stood up abruptly, holding her empty mug.
“Don’t you think it’s getting hotter?”
