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Chapter 65
“Ah….”
As soon as Idorian finished speaking, a small sigh slipped from my lips.
Lilia did the same.
She forgot the basket at her feet and stepped toward Idorian.
The basket tipped over, spilling potatoes onto the ground.
A few rolled across the dirt, kicked by Lilia’s feet.
“Kill… that’s impossible.”
Lilia’s voice trembled pitifully.
“What about Uben? He could never accept this situation.”
She shook her head, her face contorted in anguish.
“This is far too cruel.”
I knew how deeply Uben cared for his mother.
In the novel, this kind of thing never happened…
“Your Highness, please… say something.”
Lilia tugged hard on Heresden’s sleeve beside her.
She had read Idorian’s expression and understood he had no intention of changing his decision.
“Your Highness.”
When Lilia pressed Heresden again for an answer, Idorian let out a faint sigh and spoke.
“I understand your worries, miss. But there’s no other way.”
His expression was as troubled as Lilia’s, yet his voice remained firm.
He seemed as if he were trying to convince himself.
“If there’s no proper way, we must do as I say.”
At Idorian’s words, Heresden silently nodded in agreement.
“All I can do for Uben is watch that zombie return to the forest.”
Idorian’s voice wavered slightly as our eyes met.
“But if it comes any closer, I’ll deal with it just as I did with the other zombies.”
“Yes… I understand.”
Heresden’s reply was brief—a resolute acknowledgment of Idorian’s words.
“Ah… what should I do.”
Lilia sighed and collapsed onto the ground.
“…….”
I could not bring myself to speak.
Even if a cure were developed, zombies whose brains were destroyed could never return to being human.
Yet we couldn’t just let a zombie approach the fortress.
We had killed countless zombies to prevent them from reaching the gates.
It was a matter of survival.
If we now made a single exception, all that effort would be in vain.
“Haa….”
I knew it was unavoidable in my head.
But unlike Idorian or Heresden, I couldn’t make the decision myself.
Partly because of my guilt toward Uben, and partly because I wasn’t the same kind of “person” as them.
“Maybe… there could be a better way, right?”
Lilia asked again, desperately.
But no one answered.
If there were a proper way, we wouldn’t have had to kill the countless zombies approaching the fortress before.
“The storeroom’s all organized!”
A bright voice broke the silence.
Uben had run up, dust on his hands, wiping sweat from his brow with a cheerful smile.
He picked up the spilled potatoes and returned them to the basket.
“Now we just need to move the potatoes. Should I help with the meat then?”
“…….”
“Eh?”
No one could answer the child.
Lilia lowered her head, trying to hide her tears.
Rumi couldn’t bring herself to speak.
I silently watched Uben before turning my gaze away before our eyes met.
I looked instead at Idorian.
As if leaving the decision to him.
“Uben. I need to tell you something.”
Only Idorian met Uben’s clear eyes directly.
“Yes. What is it?”
The child looked around awkwardly, giving a small smile.
As everyone quietly exhaled, Idorian spoke.
“The zombie that’s your mother has come near the fortress.”
He no longer showed any pained expression.
His voice was calm, even more composed than when speaking to us, and his face showed no disturbance.
“She’s fine for now. But if she comes closer to the castle, she must be killed.”
With that, his lips sealed firmly.
No excuses. No regrets, no appeals to principle.
Nothing like that.
Uben’s smile slowly faded.
“But… but…”
The child turned from Idorian.
“You said a cure could be developed.”
Uben looked to Heresden as if pleading for help.
His desperate voice echoed.
“So… that means my mother could become human again.”
His gaze shifted to Rumi, then to Lilia.
“Later, she could come back to us. But… if she dies now, she really dies!”
The plea in his eyes seemed ready to shatter at any moment.
The climb up the tower was filled only with muffled sobs and footsteps.
No one dared speak.
We kept silent partly because words failed us, but more because we hoped that if we remained still, the zombie might return to the forest.
“Sniff… sniff.”
Lilia, walking behind me, stifled her sobs.
Her face was already a mess of tears.
I untied the handkerchief Heresden had draped over my face.
Our eyes met briefly as I turned.
He nodded silently, and I handed the handkerchief to Lilia.
She took it wordlessly and wiped her face.
Then came the watchtower. Uben rushed to the spot overlooking the outside of the fortress.
Tears finally fell from the child’s eyes.
The zombie had already reached the outskirts of the fortress.
It wasn’t lingering at the gate, but circling the walls.
“It just needs to move away from the fortress, right?”
Idorian didn’t look away from the child’s eyes but didn’t nod either.
“Please wait a little. Just three minutes. You can wait that long, right?”
Uben glanced once more at the zombie outside the fortress.
This time, Idorian nodded.
“Huff… what should I do.”
It only took three minutes for Uben to prepare himself to part from his mother.
‘If it caught the scent of blood from the other side, the zombie might return.’
But for the zombie to be drawn away by the scent of blood meant someone in the forest would have to get hurt.
As on that day when people from the Lettern estate stole grain.
But today was very different.
There was no one in the forest.
Three minutes…
Nothing like that could happen in such a short time.
Or I could go outside and try to lure it with sound…
Then Uben suddenly began to run.
“Where are you going…?”
“Sniff… let me be alone for a moment.”
Idorian tried to stop him, but Lilia blocked him.
“Wait until the child returns.”
Lilia’s insistence was clearly to buy the zombie some time.
Even if a few minutes made no difference, if that’s what Uben wanted…
Suppressing my conflicted feelings, I watched the child disappear toward the gate.
“…….”
Yet somehow, I felt Uben hadn’t run off merely to buy a few extra minutes.
“Wait. Uben might be trying to leave the fortress.”
A dreadful thought flashed through my mind, and I quickly ran after him.
Soon, I felt others’ footsteps following.
Perhaps Uben was thinking of using himself as bait to lure his mother away from the fortress.
Heresden and Idorian had already passed me.
Clatter.
As they descended almost to the bottom of the tower, I heard the sound of the fortress gate opening.
Clatter.
The heavy iron gate rose, reverberating sharply in my ears.
Then, silence.
“Uben, what are you doing!”
I saw Uben slipping beneath the partially opened gate, waist-deep.
