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chapter 69
“You came out to help me, My Lady.”
When I opened my eyes at the sound of a small voice, Uben was sitting right in front of me.
“What if you got hurt?”
“……”
“It’s thanks to you that I’m not hurt at all, but if you’re the only one in pain…”
Judging by how scorching the reflected sunlight was, quite some time seemed to have passed since dawn. Yet only my face was shaded.
I turned my head slightly and saw Uben’s hands neatly folded together beside me.
“My Lady, can you get up?”
As soon as the child flinched and moved his hands away, the blinding sunlight made me squint.
“Of course.”
“But… you slept for an entire day.”
“What?”
Telling me to stay seated, Uben ran back into the water.
Not long after, Idorian rose from the water. Once he spotted me, he rushed over.
“Penelope, can you get up now?”
Seeing his grave expression, it seemed I had really been asleep for a whole day.
“You slept an entire day. Are you really okay?”
But why…
I knew I became unusually exhausted after awakening. Still, I had never slept for an entire day like this. Why had I slept so long?
“If I slept for a whole day, then since we left the fortress…”
“This is our second night on the island.”
That meant it had already been three days since we left the fortress.
“You collapsed from overexertion.”
“But…”
“It was the same the day you took the opium.”
“…What?”
Idorian let out a faint sigh.
“I thought it was only because of the opium, but looking back, I think the exhaustion had been building up.”
“Ah…”
So that was why Uben, Lillia, and Heresdon gathered in my room that day—because I had slept for an entire day. I thought it was only half a day, but it was a full day after all.
Idorian handed me a skewer of grilled fish.
“Eat this first.”
“…Okay.”
I took the skewer from him and bit into it.
My awakening must have lasted long, and my sleep followed accordingly.
Now, there wasn’t a single zombie flailing around in the water.
Had they suddenly fallen asleep after their awakening ended?
“…All the zombies disappeared.”
“Yes. They struggled until evening that day, then left the water.”
“But zombies react to sound.”
Idorian nodded.
“True, but it doesn’t seem absolute. Some zombies followed the ones flailing in the water, but once entering, they turned back.”
Urging me with his eyes to keep eating, he continued once I took another bite.
“It’s like they recognize the water and avoid it.”
“…Is that instinct too?”
Idorian shrugged lightly, unsure.
“They’ll jump into water when chasing the smell of blood, but once Uben’s bleeding stopped, they avoided it.”
“Then… did anything else strange happen?”
Like zombies suddenly falling asleep…
“If there’s something new we learned, it’s that the veins covering their bodies can disappear.”
“Yes, I saw that too. Zombies that struggled in the water for a long time lost those veins on their skin. They looked almost human.”
Uben chimed in loudly from beside me.
“It must be because they soaked in the water.”
Even as he answered, Idorian watched me expectantly—as if to ask why I wasn’t eating faster—so I bit into the fish again.
If they confirmed the veins disappearing, but didn’t mention zombies suddenly sleeping… then the others didn’t fall asleep after awakening.
Was sleep after awakening something that only happened to me?
“This island has no fresh water. We have to leave soon.”
Idorian handed Uben another grilled fish.
“You’re awake now, so we’ll leave today.”
“We have to get out of the forest before sunset,” Uben mumbled between bites.
“You’re leaving the forest completely?”
“It’s safer for the three of us to survive together.”
“Why?”
“We’ve already come down quite far from the mountain, and we don’t even have proper weapons. To survive, we need to secure a clear line of sight outside the woods.”
“What do you mean, secure sight…”
“If a zombie jumps out from behind bushes or trees while we climb, we can’t defend ourselves without weapons.”
Idorian rubbed his eyes, looking tired.
“Zombies rely on hearing and smell. So we at least need reliable sight.”
Indeed, shadows darkened his eyes—likely from lack of sleep.
“There might not be much food, but if we leave the woods, we’ll find buildings to shelter in soon.”
Realizing how his words sounded, Idorian quickly added,
“And we’ll find food too. People lived there once. I’ll take care of it, so don’t worry.”
“Even if we don’t return to the fortress, can we still join the Imperial Army and return to the capital?”
His brows tightened ever so slightly.
Just that expression told me the answer.
We might find a house, but food and water were serious issues. I could survive without them since I was a zombie, but Idorian and Uben couldn’t.
It wasn’t like the fortress, where at least we were somewhat safe. Out here, death lurked everywhere.
I had cultivated fields for when the food ran out, yet now he didn’t want to go back?
If Idorian stayed outside and got bitten, the novel’s storyline would collapse. If he turned into a zombie, the cure development would fail too.
“Your Highness.”
Idorian turned at my voice.
“If you were alone, you could make it to the fortress even without a weapon, right?”
He handed me another piece of fish as he spoke.
“What?”
“Is it impossible?”
His eyebrows drew together sharply.
“Why are you asking something like that?”
“There might be a better way.”
I didn’t know his exact physical condition, but I was certain that alone, he could reach the fortress. Perhaps he could even carry Uben and get there safely.
If he confirmed he could, I could just walk up later. Letting him leave the fortress was too risky. Deviating from the novel was dangerous—especially for him.
“Even if I take a weapon and come back down, you two wouldn’t survive a day in the forest alone.”
He shook his head firmly, rejecting the idea.
His voice left no room for argument.
Whenever that stubborn tone appeared, persuading him became impossible.
Still, letting Idorian live outside the fortress was terrifying.
“What if Your Highness takes Uben and I go alone?”
A sigh full of irritation escaped him.
“What nonsense are you talking about? Absolutely not.”
“But I’ve gone up there once already. This time—”
“You were exhausted for a long time afterward. That’s why you became afraid of blood.”
Idorian handed the fish I gave him to Uben and stood up.
“But Your Highness—”
“Penelope, can you guarantee you’ll be lucky again like last time?”
I hurried to keep pace with him.
“Besides, you just woke up from a full day of unconscious sleep. Your body isn’t the same.”
He snapped—and suddenly let out a deep sigh, pressing a hand over his face as if suppressing his emotions.
Finally, he spoke.
“I abandoned the fortress because of you.”
He turned his head, biting his lip.
Worry filled his furrowed brows and tightly pressed mouth.
He stepped closer—one pace, then another.
His hand rose as if to grab my shoulder, but fell uselessly in midair.
“So don’t ever tell me to leave you behind.”
