Chapter 85
“The intruders are dealing with the monsters as well, but the firefight is lasting longer than expected. Because of that, even the monsters from outside the village are being driven inside.”
I spread the map of Brunel Village across the banquet table. Emma and Victor looked at the map with surprised faces.
“I’ve lived in this village for decades, and even I don’t have a map….”
“You’ve lived here for decades, so you probably didn’t need one.”
At my casual retort, Victor and Emma nodded as if convinced.
“Brunel is bordered by forest on two sides. The monsters are still moving along the roads rather than through the woods. They seem to be looking for signs of people. So, if we first block the other two entrances and wipe out all the monsters within the village, we can take control of all of Brunel.”
“W-what about those Kintne people?”
“Sir Eden and I are going to act as bait.”
At my words, Harrison bolted upright from his seat. Even before he opened his mouth, I had already predicted what he was going to say.
“My Lady. I will be the bait with Sir Eden.”
“I’d prefer Lady Cherry,” Eden muttered, but no one listened.
“Then I’d have to be the one firing the crossbow.”
“I’ll teach you.”
“Wait a minute. Handing a long-range weapon to someone who primarily uses close-quarters combat? That’s a stretch, even for Lady Cherry.”
This time, Hose spoke up in protest. I looked at Harrison as if to say, ‘See?’
“Harrison. That’s just how life is. You might not want to do it, but you have to.”
“It’s not that I want to be the bait…. I said it because I’m worried about you, My Lady. What if you get infected…?”
As if he couldn’t even bear to imagine it, Harrison took off his glasses and pressed his fingers firmly against the bridge of his nose.
He had a habit of removing his glasses and rubbing his brow when he was stressed or ‘emotionally agitated.’ However, it was truly rare for him to be this emotionally unsettled.
I tried to comfort him.
“Don’t be so sad. If I get infected, my face will just change a little.”
“It’ll change quite a lot. The brain structure changes, and you start eating people. Yeah. A ‘little’ change. Sure.”
“That’s exactly why I need to be by her side,” Eden muttered under his breath, sounding exasperated. Eden talked to himself far too often.
“Harrison, I fully understand your concern. But it’s time you gained some independence from me.”
“……Fine, stop it.”
Contrary to my expectation that he would be stubborn and refuse to yield, Harrison accepted the current situation quickly. He looked at me with a complicated expression before scanning the people sitting around us.
“Then I will serve as a sniper alongside Hose to cover the two of you.”
“I heard from Lady Cherry that you’re skilled with a crossbow. I would be most grateful for your help,” Eden replied lightly.
“My Lady. I apologize. It seems I’ve been treating you like a child in my arms all this time.”
“Don’t worry so much. You know I have Super Strength. You know I’m the greatest asset we have for dealing with those f*cking monsters, right?”
“Understood. I will respect your wishes, My Lady. However….”
Harrison put his glasses back on and nodded calmly. Then, suddenly shifting back into the role of a strict tutor, he began to interrogate me.
“‘F*cking monsters’? Where on earth did you learn such language?”
I darted a glance at Eden. Eden looked at me with a bewildered face.
“Why are you looking over here? Are you trying to pin this on me?”
“I raised you so dearly, My Lady, as if you might fly away if I breathed on you or break if I touched you…. Sigh…. You shouldn’t be influenced by such bad habits.”
It was true that Harrison had raised me delicately. It was also true that he had doted on me like a much younger sister. That was why I had been spoiled and immature. Even if it sounds like an excuse, it’s the truth.
“It seems the lawyer doesn’t know Lady Cherry as well as he thinks. She was originally just as strange as a Lancaster,” Knox suddenly interjected, attacking my character. Eden jumped on the bandwagon.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. Our lawyer really doesn’t seem to know, but Lady Cherry is the type of person who, when a problem arises, thinks, ‘Should I just hit that person in the back of the head and knock them out? I’m stronger anyway.’ Everyone, watch the back of your heads.”
“Excuse me?! When did I ever…. How did you know that?”
“It’s written all over your face.”
Harrison, who couldn’t possibly know that my personality had begun to change after I recalled the memories of my past life, placed all the blame on the innocent Eden. It was a relief for me, at least.
“Anyway, that’s not what’s important. I have a confession to make.”
I opened my belt bag, took out the Elpinus herb box, and placed it on the table.
“I discovered another effect of the Elphinus herb.”
There wasn’t much herb left in the box. It was because I had used some as bait when the monsters were rampaging outside the Stone Gate last time.
“I think it has a vaccine effect. But it’s a one-time use.”
“I didn’t even know that. How did you find out?” Emmy asked me with a surprised face.
“I experimented.”
“On who…?”
“You’re better off not asking.”
At my words, Emmy turned pale and shut her mouth. Eden’s face crumpled into a grimace.
“The thing you ate when you ran out past the walls….”
Afraid that more nagging would follow from various people, I ignored Eden’s comment and replied.
“Let’s eat and head out.”
Everyone looked at each other’s faces dubiously at my words, but eventually, they each took a piece of the herb.
Just then, Knox leaned toward me and whispered.
“I wonder why there was a vaccine at Notium Street 61.”
“Who knows. I don’t know either, but I’m sure the day will come when we find out.”
The point was that there was no way to find out right now. Whether Knox shared the sentiment or not, he simply shrugged as if it couldn’t be helped and stepped back.
Eden, Harrison, Hose, Vanilla, Emmy, and I—only those directly participating in the combat—ate the herb. Honestly, Eden probably didn’t need it, but it would have looked strange not to give him one, so I wasted another piece.
As a result, sadly, only one Elphinus herb remained.
“We can just cultivate more. You planted some, didn’t you?”
When I looked sad holding the last one, Knox comforted me. I have to dig those up and transplant them again, though…. How long will I have to wait for them to grow back…?
“Stop being sad and let’s go. To conquer Brunel.”
He wasn’t wrong, but hearing those words come out of Eden’s mouth made it feel grander than intended.
I nodded and replied.
“Right. Let’s go. To conquer Brunel.”
Charlie was extremely exhausted. He had stayed up all night moving from Kintne to Brunel.
The reason it took so long to travel a relatively short distance was largely due to the monsters. They had to move while avoiding them.
While lying flat on a building’s roof scouting for the Graeden Kingdom’s army, a centipede monster crawling along the ground entered Charlie’s field of vision.
Click. He loaded his rifle and pulled the trigger.
Bang—!
The gunshot echoed through the quiet evening sky. Before he knew it, the sun had set.
A total of fourteen people had come out from the Kintne survivor camp to scout Brunel. Two of them had been bitten by monsters and died, and two had been shot dead by men wearing Graeden Kingdom military uniforms.
“Sht, why the hell did those bstards come to this backwater village to cause trouble? What’s there to see here that soldiers would come all the way down?”
Charlie spat out an annoyed curse and reloaded his rifle.
Their goal was simple. Secure daily necessities and food in Brunel and take control of the village.
The leader of the Kintne survivor camp, ‘L,’ wanted to occupy Brunel. It was because of the mountain behind the village. Kintne was flat land with nowhere to forage for food, but Brunel was different.
Charlie looked up at the mansion visible on the hill. All he could see was the mansion’s chimney, and it looked old and shabby, like an abandoned house.
What he was focused on wasn’t the abandoned house, but the forest situated behind it. It wasn’t a very high mountain, and beyond that mountain flowed a massive river.
That ‘massive river’ alone was reason enough for them to want to occupy Brunel.
Charlie aimed at another passing monster through his rifle’s iron sights and pulled the trigger.
Bang—!
A direct hit again.
‘What if there are survivors in Brunel Village?’
What had L said to Charlie’s question? He had laughed as if he’d heard an absurd question—
‘We need labor to grow Kintne. You know that, Charlie. We make them slaves. Kill anyone who resists.’
As soon as the world collapsed, L had taken over a small hotel in Kintne and established a survival camp with quick judgment and decisiveness.
It was as if he wanted to expand the scale of the Kintne survival camp and establish a small kingdom.
‘The era of nobles and the bourgeoisie is over, Charlie. I’ll give you power too. So, bring Brunel to me. Show me your capabilities.’
Charlie wasn’t the leader of the scouting party sent for the Brunel occupation mission. However, L had promised that if he achieved great things here, he would surely grant Charlie a high-ranking position.
Therefore, Charlie had to occupy Brunel by any means necessary and fill the quota of slaves as L desired.
Thinking such thoughts, he was aiming at the street through his rifle sights again when cold metal touched his temple.
Click.
Then came the sound of a round being chambered. What was aimed at Charlie’s temple was the muzzle of a rifle.
“Drop the gun.”
The voice in his ear sounded a bit young. He estimated the person was at least younger than himself.
However, since he was already being held at gunpoint, he had no choice. Charlie reluctantly laid the gun he was holding onto the roof.
“Hands up, stand up, and turn around.”
Right. If the opponent was truly young, he could just overpower them.
With that thought, Charlie followed the instructions, raised his hands, stood up, and slowly turned around. He confirmed that the person pointing the gun at him was indeed a young man.
The problem was, there was another man beside him aiming a crossbow. The opponent wasn’t alone.
Damn it, I’m screwed.
