Chapter 80
* * *
The underground passage was pitch black, save for the faint glow spilling from the room behind them. Only the kerosene lantern in Cherry’s hand illuminated the path ahead.
She swept the lantern along the walls.
“There are torches.”
Just as she said, iron torch brackets were embedded deep into the walls of packed, dry earth. They were placed at regular intervals.
“This definitely leads somewhere,” Cherry muttered.
Eden agreed. This godforsaken tunnel had clearly been dug with a purpose.
They kept walking, venturing deeper until the light from the room could no longer reach them. The passage was wide enough for Eden and Cherry to walk side by side.
Eden stole a glance at her. Cherry’s plump cheeks looked flushed under the lantern’s glow.
Her exceptionally thick, long lashes blinked slowly—a sign that she was tense and her senses were on high alert.
As if sensing his gaze, Cherry turned toward him. Her voice brushed against his ear.
“Is something wrong?”
Eden shook his head.
“It’s nothing.”
“Wait.”
Cherry suddenly called out, bringing him to a halt. As if doused in cold water, Eden reflexively raised his hand and aimed his gun forward. Cherry blinked rapidly in surprise before pointing at his feet.
“Sorry for startling you. Sir Eden, your bootlace is undone.”
Only then did Eden look down. Just as she said, the lace of his combat boot had come loose.
As he moved to bend down, Cherry blocked him.
“I’ll tie it for you, so keep your gun up. We don’t know what might jump out.”
“It’ll only take a moment, I can—”
“I’ll help. There’s something I want to do.”
Cherry cut him off with a very serious expression and knelt before him. Something she wants to do? What on earth could she want to do with a bootlace?
The top of her round head came into his view. Even after the world ended, she had insisted on wearing those tiny cocktail hats, but today she was bareheaded.
Her small hands tightened the laces firmly. She likely hadn’t had many occasions to tie shoes, yet her movements were remarkably deft.
Watching her crouched at his feet tying his laces felt strangely familiar. He felt a sudden surge of closeness to her—though it wasn’t exactly a comfortable feeling.
“Ta-da! Done! Isn’t it cute?”
Cherry shone the kerosene lantern at his feet. The laces were tied securely. The problem was that instead of a standard knot, there was a butterfly bow at the end of his boot. Moreover, the knot was incredibly ugly.
She seemed to realize something was off and looked momentarily flustered, but she quickly spoke to him with a straight face.
“It suits you.”
“Are you serious?”
Eden let out a hollow laugh, dumbfounded.
“Of course I am. Now, this is no time for dawdling. Let’s keep searching.”
Without giving him a chance to argue, Cherry sprang up and demanded they press on.
The way she stole glances at him suggested she knew full well how ridiculous it looked. Despite that, she walked ahead with stiff, awkward steps, feigning ignorance.
It was so absurd that it was almost cute.
‘Honestly…’
One moment Cherry would do something mind-bogglingly eccentric like this, and the next, she would display terrifyingly sharp insight. She looked like she lived without a single thought in her head, yet she had her own systems and plans.
Looking back, Cherry had always been consistent. Perhaps it wasn’t her who had changed, but him. He even began to wonder if he was the only one experiencing this shift in emotions during their time together from the eve of the apocalypse until now.
Swallowing his complicated thoughts, Eden followed silently behind her.
After walking a bit further, they hit a dead end. To be precise, the path straight ahead was blocked with earth, but a new path branched off to the right.
“Do you think they blocked it on purpose?”
“It seems so. If it had simply collapsed, the path to the right should have caved in too,” Eden said, pointing to the opening on the right. Cherry nodded in agreement.
She took a steadying breath, as if the air was getting a bit thin.
“I don’t know how Susanna endured a place like this without any light. In an enclosed space like this, you could die from shortness of breath.”
“There’s a breeze. Right here.”
Eden took Cherry by the shoulder and gently pulled her to where he was standing.
“You’re right. It’s very faint, but… there must be an exit further up.”
“Stay alert. We don’t know when a monster might pop out.”
He casually checked the state of his revolver again and looked up, meeting Cherry’s eyes.
“What is it?”
“You tell me to stay alert, but you don’t act like it. You look remarkably relaxed.”
“Let’s call it confidence rather than being relaxed. It’s not hard to blow those bastards’ heads off in a space with only one path.”
“Hmm. True. Then I’m confident too. Confident I can rip those bastards in half with raw strength.”
Watching Cherry speak with such conviction, Eden laughed in disbelief. By now, he could find even that sort of talk somewhat charming.
Of course, he wouldn’t be saying that when she was actually blowing monsters away with her bare fists…
Finally, the end of the path came into view. It appeared to be another dead end.
When they reached the end, Cherry tapped on the solid-looking dirt wall.
“I think we’re here, but the path stops.”
Cherry set the kerosene lantern on the ground and scanned the surroundings. Eden stood beside her, examining the area carefully.
“I should have brought a shovel or something.”
Eden felt a slight sense of bewilderment at Cherry’s murmur. It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought the same thing. He just hadn’t expected Cherry Sinclair, of all people, to say it so naturally.
‘I’m tired of even thinking this, but…’
The Cherry Sinclair known to the public was a fake. It was clear that the media had played a foul game, fueled by her sensational title as the Sinclair heiress.
‘If not that, then she was used politically.’
Eden recalled a newspaper he had seen just before the world fell apart.
[Exclusive! The reason Cherry Sinclair went into hiding was because of Eden, the Lancaster heir?!]
[Cherry Sinclair and Eden Duncan Lancaster’s secret tryst in a rural village…?! “The Snowy Heron and the Crow, an unexpected pair.” High society in shock…!]
If they had been using Cherry as a pawn to hide the appearance of the monsters, it made a fair amount of sense.
Eden had briefly suspected that Crown Prince Theodore might be behind those articles.
‘If so, is Theodore connected to the monsters that appeared in Brunel?’
However, the Theodore Eden knew wasn’t the type of person to commit such madness and then set up a scapegoat like Cherry to cover it up.
As his thoughts spiraled, Eden asked her, “Was it hard, living while hiding your super strength?”
At his question, Cherry, who had been tapping the wall, glanced at him.
“I just wasn’t using my strength. Why would that be hard?”
“Fair point.”
Eden agreed quickly and began tapping the wall alongside her. Then, he noticed that the cool breeze he’d felt earlier was coming from the ceiling.
“Miss Cherry.”
Cherry seemed to notice as well, as she looked up at the ceiling just as he did. She picked up the lantern from the floor and shone it upward.
It had been too dark to notice, but the ceiling was made of wooden planks. It looked exactly as if a passage leading upward had been boarded over.
“I think it’ll open if we push it.”
Cherry reached up, but she was too short; even jumping, her fingertips barely grazed the wood.
Eden shook his head and pushed up on the planks himself. Cherry quickly gripped her axe.
Creeeeak—
The ungreased wood let out a rusty scream as it shifted upward.
Thud—
Soon, the trapdoor in the ceiling swung wide open.
It was pitch black above as well. So dark that the thought of climbing up was almost daunting.
Both Cherry and Eden fell silent for a moment, staring into that abyss-like darkness.
* * *
Deciding to search the underground passage with Eden was an excellent choice. He was that reliable.
Nevertheless, our roles remained the same: I was in charge of close quarters, and Eden handled long range.
‘I have this much strength, what else can I do?’
I decided to go up through the ceiling first. Since I was short and couldn’t reach the ceiling, even if Eden went up first, he wouldn’t be able to pull me up from above.
‘I should bring a ladder later.’
In the end, Eden hoisted me up. I swallowed my tears and pressed my foot firmly onto Eden’s shoulder for leverage.
“Ugh.” Eden let out a small groan. My heel must have dug into his shoulder. I looked down, feeling guilty.
“I’m sorry, are you okay?”
“Phew… No, I’m not.”
“Thank you for saying you’re okay. Just bear with it a little longer.”
I muttered as I struggled to pull myself up. From below, Eden questioned me in a bewildered voice.
“Miss Cherry? I said I’m not okay.”
“I know exactly how you feel, Sir. Just wait a second. I’m trying my best here. Hngh.”
I heard Eden sigh, but I didn’t have the mental capacity to worry about his minor pain. After successfully hauling myself onto the upper floor, I reached my hand down to him. Eden took my hand with a puzzled expression.
Feeling a bit exasperated, I blurted out, “The lantern.”
He immediately let go of my hand, looking embarrassed.
