Translator: Nox

Chapter 68

The words he had said before suddenly drifted back into my mind.

“I plan to stay until Miss Cherry is feeling better.”

“If I’m not here, who’s going to stop this reckless young lady, hmm?”

Since he said he’d stay until I was okay, he’ll probably leave for the capital once this situation is settled.

Eden had said he wanted to repay me for saving his life, but in truth, I felt I’d already been repaid.

Regardless, he’d been a huge help during his stay, and more importantly, he’d stayed alive.

So, I crossed my arms and spoke with a magnanimous expression.

“Since you’re looking for your sister, I’ll let it slide.”

“What? Let what slide…?”

Eden started to protest reflexively, but his voice trailed off as a look of realization dawned on his face.

It seemed he understood I was talking about his ‘repayment.’

“I don’t need a reward, so just finish things here and go find your sister.”

“I always keep my promises. I will return. Once I find my sister.”

“No. Don’t come back. If you don’t find her, come back; if you do, don’t.”

“…What is the reason for that?”

“I told you before. My reward is for Sir Eden to survive until the very end.”

Krawwwr—!

Just then, the sound of monsters causing a commotion echoed from the distance. It sounded almost like they were holding a festival.

“Emmy?”

At my call, Emmy scurried over. I tucked a pair of opera glasses into her hand.

“You remember how to get up to the lookout, right?”

“Yes. Pull the cord on the ceiling at the end of the second-floor hallway, and the ladder comes down.”

“Can you go check the situation outside? You haven’t forgotten how to use the catapult, have you?”

“I know how to use it, but I can’t move all of that by myself.”

Emmy pointed to the bundles of firewood piled up nearby.

“It’s best if we all move them together. We need to hurry. It sounds like they’ve arrived,” Eden said, quickly picking up several bundles at once.

Knox muttered that survival was truly a never-ending series of chores. Then, like Eden, he grabbed several bundles at once.

I stopped Emmy as she reached for the wood. Instead, I hoisted the remaining bundles with ease and nodded toward her.

“Put the rest on top of these.”

She looked at me, bewildered.

“Sister, isn’t it heavy?”

“There’s no need to worry; our Miss Cherry is stronger than most men,” Knox said as he passed by me.

Only after I urged her a few more times did Emmy hesitantly stack the bundles in my arms. Even though she’d seen me use my strength more than once or twice, she still seemed unable to believe her eyes.

I carried about ten bundles at once up to the second floor.

As I climbed up with the firewood stacked like a tower—looking like a circus act—Eden stared at me as if he were witnessing something bizarre. His lips parted as if to speak, but he eventually gave up and shook his head.

“Don’t overexert yourself.”

“I’m not.”

At my reply, Eden crossed his arms and tilted his head slightly, looking down at me.

“Miss Cherry, you have a tendency to try and do everything alone. Don’t do that. Ask for help. I’m here to assist you.”

“Someone who’s leaving soon shouldn’t say things like that so carelessly. It makes me grow attached.”

I thought it would be better if he left for Aurora’s side as soon as possible.

Yet, the thought that he, who had been by my side almost every day, would soon be gone made my heart feel a little strange.

“I am still here now. I only said it because you look like you’re trying too hard.”

Eden didn’t say anything else; he simply reached out and quietly stroked my hair.

Knox, who was receiving the firewood on the roof, spotted us and made a face like he’d bitten into a rotten apple.

“Must be nice to be so relaxed. It’s total chaos outside the mansion.”

We all climbed up to the lookout to survey the situation.

As Knox said, the scene outside was both horrific and shocking. Near the mansion walls, we saw people surrounded by monsters.

In front of them, three people lay on the ground. They all appeared to be dead.

The deceased were two middle-aged women and an elderly man. Coincidentally, they were all people with relatively weak fighting capabilities.

“Those crazy bastards.”

Emmy, who had arrived first and was watching the scene, spat out a curse. Right then, the people were pushing the corpses toward the monsters.

“Are they using the dead as bait right now?”

As I watched the scene in stunned silence, Knox, who was monitoring the situation beside me, replied.

“Whether they died naturally or were killed, we don’t know.”

“It seems all the dead are the weak who would have found it difficult to fight.”

Eden’s follow-up comment mirrored my own thoughts. I covered my mouth with my hand.

It was still just a suspicion, but if what they said was true, the sheer depravity of it made a wave of loathing for humanity wash over me.

“Miss Cherry, what are you going to do?”

Knox asked me. When I couldn’t answer, Eden spoke up.

“Just say the word. If you wish, I’ll make sure they don’t set a single foot inside this mansion.”

Eden was cold. He was quite different from the man who had disregarded his own life to save just one more person on the day the world fell apart.

“I strongly support Lancaster this time. Miss Cherry, I don’t think we should let those people into the mansion.”

“Sister, they’re right. Those people are coming here to steal your mansion. Honestly, their intentions are malicious from the start.”

Emmy joined the two men. Knox, checking the outside again through the binoculars, added one more point.

“For starters, regardless of how those three died, I don’t like the fact that they’re using the corpses of neighbors they’ve lived with as bait. On top of that, what they ultimately want is to steal the mansion our Miss Cherry worked so hard to build? It makes me want to swear.”

I listened to the opinions they were competing to offer while carefully scanning the area outside the mansion.

The villagers were now very close to the mansion walls.

Because of that, the monsters we had managed to drive back to the village with the catapult—and the ones we’d lured into the forest using the Elpinus herbs—were all gathering around the mansion again. Dammit.

I agreed with Eden, Knox, and Emmy. I wasn’t exactly a righteous person. If I had a piercing spirit of self-sacrifice, I wouldn’t have survived this long.

“There’s no need to get blood on our hands. Looking at it, simply defending the mansion should be enough. It seems our opponents aren’t the villagers right now, but the monsters gathering here again.”

At my words, everyone looked back at the monsters closing in on the mansion. Eden clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“Ha. This is getting tedious. At this rate, it might be better to just head out and exterminate them.”

“True. Like Lancaster said, if we could wipe out the monsters and then take control of the entire village, that would be the best-case scenario, wouldn’t it?”

Hearing Knox and Eden, Emmy expressed a negative opinion, saying it would be difficult.

“Oh, come on, how can we do something that big? Besides, there are only four of us.”

‘But like Knox and Eden said, if we could control the whole village, nothing would be better.’

Above all, it would increase our chances of survival.

From the beginning, Brunel had the perfect conditions for fortification—so much so that I had once thought about buying the entire village.

“Even if there are only four of us, couldn’t we do it with a good strategy? Lancaster is a genius with a sword and a gun, Miss Cherry has super strength, and our little lady here is agile.”

Knox looked at each of us in turn as he spoke.

“Then what about you, Mister?”

When Emmy pointed at Knox, he shrugged his shoulders.

“Give me a break. I’m a doctor.”

That was true. In fact, a doctor was the most important person to have.

Aaargh! Aaahhh!

Just then, a scream erupted from outside the mansion. It appeared to be one of the villagers who had come up pulling a cart.

He was closest to the monsters and looked like he was about to be caught at any moment.

“H-Help me! Don’t just watch, help me!”

One of the villagers surrounded by monsters shouted as he spotted us huddled on the roof.

If Emmy was right, these people had come to take the mansion. Naturally, there was no reason to help them.

But honestly, I hated the idea of watching able-bodied people die helplessly even more.

I hadn’t done anything wrong, yet I felt like I’d be plagued by guilt as if I had.

“Shall we try using the catapult?”

As I placed a bundle of firewood onto the throwing arm, the three of them turned to look at me.

Emmy stared at me with a face full of disbelief.

“Sister, you’re going to help those people?”

I burst into laughter at Emmy’s question.