Chapter 63
Knox had said something similar before, but I asked Amy again, startled, just to be sure.
“Yes. I told you. I’m an herbalist.”
That’s right. She did mention it earlier.
But the impact of her being a pickpocket must have been so strong that it didn’t stick in my memory.
Anyway, I looked at Amy in a new light. Now I had two Elpinus experts: Knox and Amy.
As long as the Elpinus herbs grew quickly, the problem would be solved. They said it was tricky to cultivate, but with two experts on hand, what was there to worry about?
After a long moment of deliberation, I nodded.
“I’ll go get the crossbow.”
I went straight into the mansion to find it.
As I was coming down from the second-floor armory with the crossbow in hand, I ran into Knox.
“It sounded quite noisy out there. Is something going on?”
Knox asked, rubbing the back of his neck as he walked into the center of the first-floor lobby. I checked his complexion.
“Is your leg okay?”
“Thanks to you. I appreciate it, Sinclair.”
He gave me a bright smile and a wink. Seeing as he was back to being greasy, he seemed perfectly fine.
“Then will you help me out?”
In an emergency like this, every extra hand was desperate.
Knox nodded with a look of bewilderment. So, I took him out to the garden first.
I had to kill the monsters, treat Amy, plant the new Elpinus seeds, and tend to the other crops as quickly as possible.
There was so much to do, so much.
Brunel Village, a second-floor room in the inn. The villagers were huddled together, cautiously peering out the window.
“Will Amy be alright? That child…”
“Child, my foot. She’s more capable than any of us.”
Victor, the head chef of the inn’s restaurant, replied to Emma, the clothing shop owner. At his words, the hesitant villagers began to chime in one by one.
“We shouldn’t just be sitting here. Shouldn’t we really head to that abandoned mansion on the hill?”
“We shouldn’t just talk about it; we need to leave right now.”
“That’s right. Let’s take over that mansion.”
Victor looked out the window at the distant edge of the mansion’s roof atop the hill.
As the villagers said, it might be safer if they went to the mansion.
However, unlike the villagers, Victor had no intention of seizing it by force. Perhaps he could ask the young lady of the mansion to take them in.
‘I’ll have to beg her if I must.’
Getting to the mansion was the priority. Persuading the villagers and the lady of the mansion would come after that.
At the very least, it would be better than staying in this inn room located right in the middle of this death-trap of a village.
Victor pulled out the knife roll tucked into his apron.
Amy had taken one of his knives, but he still had three more.
The villagers watched Victor with slightly tense faces as he drew his blades.
“Everyone, grab your weapons.”
At Victor’s words, the villagers finally steeled their resolve and began picking up whatever weapons they had. Victor handed one of his knives to Emma.
Emma and Victor were childhood friends. For over forty years. And for all those years, Victor had harbored a secret crush on her from afar.
Back when they were at the prime age for marriage, Emma had been the one to propose first, asking if they should live together. But at the time, Victor lacked the confidence to start a family. His dream was to become a famous chef in the capital, but the reality was that no restaurant would accept him, and he had no money to his name.
Eventually, tired of waiting, Emma married a post office clerk from the neighboring village who had plucked up the courage to confess to her.
However, Emma’s husband passed away just five years into their marriage. He had fallen into a gambling addiction, and when his debts grew beyond what he could handle, he took his own own life. Naturally, those debts fell onto Emma.
The entire village shunned her. Debt collectors would frequently show up at her house or barge into her clothing shop to cause a scene.
Victor, who had left for the capital to study culinary arts, heard the news and rushed back to Brunel immediately. He even turned down a scouting offer from a famous restaurant in the capital.
Since then, he had worked as the head chef in the inn’s restaurant, protecting Emma from the debt collectors who came to harass her.
“We… we can survive this, right?”
Emma, still graceful and elegant despite the passing years, took the knife from Victor with a worried expression.
Victor nodded.
“We can.”
Finding the courage he hadn’t been able to muster twenty years ago, Victor squeezed Emma’s hand and spoke firmly.
I will protect you this time, no matter what.
With that vow, he opened the door to the inn room.
Harrison, Hose, and Vanilla took cover inside the ticket office at Kintne Station.
“How can you be so sure Cherry Sinclair is alive?”
Hose asked as he unwrapped a candy he had pulled from his pocket. Vanilla, who had been sitting nonchalantly with her back against the wall of the ticket office, looked up.
“If she was at Happy House, she definitely survived.”
“Happy… what? Why is that the name?”
Hose asked back, looking bewildered. Vanilla shrugged her shoulders.
“Happy House. That’s the name Cherry Sinclair gave to that mansion.”
Hose let out a hollow laugh, wondering why of all things she chose the name Happy House. It was a name that couldn’t be more ill-suited for a ruined world.
“Sounds just like the young lady,” Harrison said, having quietly listened to their conversation. Hose and Vanilla turned to look at him.
“I actually think it’s a fitting name. Doesn’t that house feel like the only hope left in this world?”
Hose and Vanilla found themselves unable to say anything in response to Harrison’s words.
Screeeeeech!
The shrieks of monsters echoed from beyond the ticket office, and tension filled the air in an instant.
Their goal was to reach Cherry’s Happy House.
Hose thought Harrison wasn’t wrong. According to what he had heard from him and Vanilla, Happy House was practically a fortress.
So, to them, traveling through this horrific hellscape, Cherry’s Happy House was indeed their hope. The hope that if they could just reach it, they might finally be safe.
“Brunel is just ahead. Everyone, hang in there a little longer.”
Hose said as he opened the magazine of his repeating rifle, loaded the bullets, and cocked the weapon. Vanilla also checked the magazine of her shotgun and nodded.
“By the way, what kind of gun is that?”
Usually, whether it was a rifle or a shotgun, if it was used for hunting, it was just called a fowling piece, but the one Vanilla held was similar to theirs yet had a slightly different design.
At Hose’s question, Vanilla replied with an indifferent face.
“It’s a Winchester repeating rifle.”
“Eh? It’s the same as ours?”
“I modified mine.”
“That’s illegal.”
“Possessing firearms is already illegal.”
That was true. Hose nodded in agreement with Vanilla’s logic.
Harrison checked the movement of the monsters outside the ticket office and gave a nod.
“Let’s move out.”
“Her condition looks serious. Hey there, little lady. Did a monster bite you?”
Knox interrogated Amy, scanning her with a wary gaze. It was a reasonable suspicion, given that she was covered in scratches and her clothes were soaked in blood.
“I didn’t get bitten.”
Amy said, pulling a lollipop out of her tattered jacket pocket and popping it into her mouth. Seeing this, Knox suddenly held out his hand.
“Then would you give me a candy too, little lady? I’ll treat your wounds in return.”
“Only if you stop calling me ‘little lady.’”
Amy spoke to Knox with the rebellious swagger of a teenager. Knox gave a gentle smile and asked, “What’s your name then?”
“Amy. Amy Wharton.”
“Alright, Lady Wharton, I need a candy too.”
Knox practically begged Amy for a candy as if he would die without one.
He had grabbed several packs of cigarettes from the general store, yet he insisted he was quitting again. I shook my head, watching Knox suffer through withdrawal symptoms.
Amy, apparently liking being called ‘Lady,’ tossed two lollipops to Knox. Knox unwrapped one, popped it in his mouth, and let out a satisfied sigh.
Watching him, I began to wonder if those candies contained some kind of drug I didn’t know about.
Anyway, our plan to clear out the Elpinus herbs scattered in front of the house was as follows: When Knox and Amy opened the main gate, I would fire a crossbow bolt with Elpinus herbs attached into the midst of the monsters, and Eden would take care of the remaining stragglers with his marksmanship.
For that reason, Eden had no choice but to unlock the handcuffs on Amy’s wrists. Amy, leaving her wrists in Eden’s hands, stared intently at Knox.
Knox, who had been rubbing the back of his neck with a tired expression, looked at Amy with a puzzled face.
“Why are you looking at me like that, Lady?”
When he asked with a bright smile, Amy’s eyes sparkled.
“You’re definitely the gentlemanly type. Unlike a certain old man.”
“He’s the weird one for acting all polite and calling a kid ‘Lady,’” Eden retorted irritably as he tucked the handcuffs into his jacket pocket. I felt a sudden sense of overlap between Amy and how I was before the world ended. Eden really was consistent. Meanwhile, Knox, under sudden attack, just raised both hands and shrugged.
Amy seemed to observe Knox and Eden back and forth for a moment, then scurried over to me.
“Pretty unnie, so which one is it?”
“Huh? Which one is what?”
I replied as I attached the Elpinus herbs to the arrowhead. Amy then gave a wide, mischievous grin—the kind of teasing look typical of a teenage girl.
“Which one is your boyfriend?”
“Cough.”
At Amy’s question, Eden let out a startled cough, and Knox stumbled as his injured leg gave out. What is wrong with them?
