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Chapter 05
Right before leaving the sealed room, Yoo Jein cast a blessing on everyone in the group.
“It helps reduce fatigue and restores stamina. It’s nothing major, though…”
“That’s more than enough. Thank you, Miss Yoo Jein.”
This was the very reason Yoo Jein, a commoner orphan raised in a temple, had first caught the attention of noble society.
Holy power.
The empire, being polytheistic, had many priests, but only a handful could actually manifest visible divine power like this.
As far as I knew, Yoo Jein’s level of divine power was… something like healing a paper cut.
“Too weak?”
The gods here were stingy, not granting their priests great authority. Even so, that level was enough to become the most renowned priest in the empire.
After bestowing blessings on several people at once, Yoo Jein staggered slightly, and the Grand Duke beside her supported her.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine. Um, Your Highness… your hand…”
“My hands are cold. If it makes you uncomfortable…”
“I’m not uncomfortable! It’s not that—I mean, my hands are the cold ones…”
“It’s all right. I like cold things.”
“They’re really at it.”
Watching the flirtation unfolding right in front of me, I casually brushed off my clothes.
See nothing, hear nothing. Pretend I have no mouth.
Just like back in my rookie days, when my supervisor and someone from another team were flirting right in front of me.
The one who ruined the sweet atmosphere was the nuisance guy.
Without even saying thank you, he rotated his arms and complained.
“You should’ve done this earlier. Maybe then one of the knights wouldn’t have died.”
At that, Yoo Jein flinched, wiping away her cold sweat.
“I’m sorry…”
“Well, it’s not like I’m the one you should be apologizing to. Just saying.”
This is what they mean by “you give them something and they still complain.”
Each blessing clearly looked like it drained a lot of stamina. Did you assign her as your personal buff machine or something?
Instead of the flustered Yoo Jein, the Crown Prince frowned.
“Papri, stop.”
“Ah, come on, Hyung! I’m right though…! She’s from a low enough status that she wouldn’t even be in our circle normally, but thanks to her divine power she got here—so she should’ve been more aware, right? What is this?”
“One of our shields is dead now, damn it…”
The nuisance guy muttered.
“I have about a hundred things I want to say to you right now.”
Just as the Crown Prince was about to speak again, Mascarpone cut in.
“Didn’t you hear her? It’s a blessing that removes fatigue.”
In the same sharp tone she had used to provoke me earlier, Mascarpone snapped back.
“Did that knight die because he was tired? No, right? Yoo Jein’s blessing isn’t a defensive spell.”
“Who are you calling an old lady—”
“Old lady or whatever, let’s just move! We’ll be stuck here till morning!”
“Yes, let’s go. I don’t like this place.”
I quickly chimed in, seizing the chance.
I wanted to bow to Mascarpone for saying exactly what I couldn’t.
For once, keeping my head down is hard. Without her, I think I’d have exploded just now.
She was annoying when she targeted me, but if she was just equally rude to everyone, I could live with it.
“Yes, let’s hurry. I’m scared out of my mind…”
Even Side Character 2 joined in.
With the women all agreeing, the nuisance guy finally shut his mouth.
Dazzling quickly took the lead and opened the door.
With Dazzling and the Crown Prince—both capable of fighting—at the front, and the Grand Duke guarding the rear, the rest of us who couldn’t fight were placed in the middle.
Eight people total, but only three combatants.
Three people protecting five.
Isn’t this exactly how games assign team roles? I’d delete my account immediately.
“Ugh…”
As I sighed—
“Hey, move.”
“Huh?”
The nuisance guy shoved my back and squeezed in front of me.
I blinked, suddenly pushed backward.
Huh?
What is this?
I thought he’d stay in the rear with the Grand Duke.
Not because of gender or anything, but because he insisted on taking a sword earlier, remember?
Yet now he naturally pushed me aside and stood in the middle row—between the women.
He wedged himself among us, protected on all sides.
Sighing, I fell back to the rear.
The Grand Duke noticed and subtly shifted to give me a safer position to walk in.
“You should move to the front line, My Lady.”
“No, it’s fine. We can’t all walk together in a group of five.”
Maybe I can stab a zombie’s neck with a paper knife. Or shove its shoulder and knock it over.
As I rotated my arms, the Grand Duke tilted his head.
“You seem different today.”
“Do I look more tired?”
“Not exactly…”
He leaned slightly toward me, casting a shadow over my face. His breath brushed near my ear, and I stiffened.
“It’s more like your atmosphere has changed. You even helped Yoo Jein earlier.”
“I didn’t help her. Mascarpone did.”
“Supporting Mascarpone’s words to leave quickly is still helping, isn’t it?”
He smiled faintly and scratched his cheek.
“I thought you’d be upset seeing Fraha and Yoo Jein together all afternoon. But you weren’t.”
Emerald eyes shimmered under the corridor lights.
“What does it matter if living people stick together when dead bodies are walking outside?”
I replied flatly, and he let out a low laugh.
“You really are different.”
Because I’m a different person.
He didn’t bother hiding his curiosity as he studied me.
I looked back at him.
He’s handsome.
Like staring at a celebrity birthday ad at Samsung Station on Subway Line 2 at night.
Bright and shining while everything else is dark underground, like a fragment of someone’s most radiant moment pasted onto reality.
With hair that blonde, he could probably glow without any light source.
I shook my wrist lightly.
“Are you still tired? Even after the blessing?”
“My fatigue isn’t something a blessing can fix.”
“Then what does it take?”
Coffee. Iced Americano-level caffeine.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“How cold.”
“Yes.”
Even though I was blunt, he only smiled.
It was well known that after the Crown Prince’s confession incident, Crown Prince Yusara and I had become completely estranged.
So no one found it strange that I was rude to him.
That made it easier—I could speak freely around him.
“Don’t talk to me. I’m too tired even to speak…”
As I tried to shut him down, Yoo Jein walking ahead glanced back at me.
I met her rabbit-like eyes and immediately closed my mouth.
Did she get angry because her blessing didn’t work?
I should just stay quiet.
From above, the villa looked like a “ㅜ”-shaped two-story building.
The rightmost room on the second floor was the sealed room we had come out of. There was no staircase on the right; the main grand staircase for nobles was in the center, and a servants’ staircase on the left.
Second floor: stairs / central stairs / sealed room
First floor: gallery / kitchen / dining hall
Our target—the kitchen—was located behind the central ornate curved staircase.
If we went straight, turned the corner, went down the central stairs, then slipped into the kitchen behind it, it should’ve been simple.
The problem was that this “simple” building was enormous.
As we walked down the long corridor, everyone gradually fell silent. Even the Crown Prince, who had been joking with me earlier, now looked serious.
I distracted myself with useless thoughts.
- “Yusara Crown Prince acrostic poem”
Yu: How honorable.
Sa: To be escorted by the Crown Prince and Grand Duke.
Ra: I should brag about this.
Just as we neared the central staircase, Side Character 2 spoke.
“It’s too quiet… I don’t like it.”
Mascarpone, biting her lip, replied.
“Maybe we should just go back to the room?”
She seemed to be asking the Crown Prince, but he didn’t respond. The Grand Duke answered instead.
“With corpses walking around, it wouldn’t be strange even if the building collapsed or caught fire. We must prioritize escape. That’s why we’re escorting those without weapons.”
“But…”
Then the Crown Prince in front whispered,
“Shh.”
Everyone froze as if brakes had been slammed.
Behind a large horse statue near the corner leading to the central staircase—
A knight stood there.
Without being told, everyone held their breath.
The Crown Prince raised two fingers of his empty left hand. Dazzling immediately raised his shield to protect us.
The Crown Prince approached silently.
“Grrr…”
The knight’s white film-covered eyes turned toward us.
Slash.
The Crown Prince cut off its head.
After he returned, everyone finally spoke again—carefully ignoring the dismembered body in the corner.
“It can’t see us.”
“Maybe it uses hearing or smell instead of sight.”
“Are all the walking corpses like this?”
“Your Highness, what do you think?”
“…That’s not the issue.”
The Crown Prince looked grim. So did Dazzling.
Frowning, the Crown Prince pointed toward the central staircase. We couldn’t see it yet.
The murmuring stopped. We gathered behind him.
“Ah!”
“Ugh…”
There was a mountain of corpses.
On the wide curved staircase, as if someone had dumped a pile of mannequins, dozens of bodies lay scattered—decapitated, dismembered, split in half.
Blood flowed down the steps like a stream.
Drip. Drip. Drip…
Only after realizing it did the stench hit us.
A severed finger with a missing nail, a young man laid on top with his abdomen torn open, exposed intestines, a sliced neck.
“Ah!”
Yoo Jein stumbled backward and stepped on my foot.
I couldn’t avoid her as she fell forward into me.
“Ah!”
“Oh my!”
“Miss Yoo Jein!”
“Are you all right?!”
“Ah… yes, I’m okay…”
That cursed shoe. I had a bad feeling about it.
Rubbing my throbbing ankle, I looked up.
Two large hands were extended in front of me.
“Ah, thank yo—”
I paused.
Both men were offering their hands to Yoo Jein.
Specifically—both male leads were offering their hands to her.
They froze when they realized I was looking at them.
An empty space in front of me.
“Are you all right?!”
…Oh. That question wasn’t for me.
[Imperial Villa, 2nd Floor Corridor]
Dazzling / Crown Prince
Yoo Jein / Nuisance Guy / Mascarpone / Side Character 2
Grand Duke / Yusara
(Alive)
