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Chapter 42
“Greetings, Your Highness. I am—”
He was offering his greetings to the male leads when his eyes landed on me, and he faltered.
“To think I’d meet the famous Lady Arios here.”
The look he gave me was uncomfortably sour.
The only one who would take “famous” at face value was probably eight-year-old Yand.
In the heavy silence that fell over the hut, Yand glanced back and forth between me and the viscount with a confused expression. Zenta leaned over, whispering for him to keep quiet.
Standing indifferently at my side, Sien rested one hand on the chair’s back and bent down to murmur in my ear.
“Should I kill him?”
Stay still.
I lightly pushed his cheek away. He made a sulky little noise, but that wasn’t what mattered.
Jaeger, who had been leaning against the wall with arms crossed, stepped toward the viscount.
“How did you come to the western shelter? The road isn’t exactly easy.”
His tone, habitually interrogative like a soldier’s, carried a faint air of questioning, but the viscount showed no sign of offense as he replied.
“Well…”
To sum up Lafran Viscount’s story:
All three of them woke up in the Sacred Forest.
They’d encountered each other by chance at the northern shelter, but even after finding my note, they hadn’t dared to move. Instead, they survived on water, weeds, and mushrooms until finally risking their lives to come across.
But one odd detail stood out in their story—each of them said they woke up in the Sacred Forest a full week after the incident, with no memory of anything before.
Could that even be possible?
My thoughts were in a whirl as I glanced around at them, then stood up.
For now, I needed to follow the usual pattern.
“You must all be confused about what’s going on. Let me explain the situation we’re in. We are…”
“We’re doomed…”
I watched the viscount sitting collapsed beside the main gate, muttering lines like something out of a cheap disaster movie.
Typical apocalypse trope.
Until just now he had been pacing nervously, denying reality again and again. Now he’d entered the despair stage.
This is the normal reaction, really.
Maybe it just felt strange to me because I’d only seen people who either cheerfully bashed zombies or stayed absurdly calm.
At least the kids were reacting normally too.
“B-big brother…”
“It’s alright, Yand.”
Yand burst into tears and clung to Zenta. The rabbit he was hugging squirmed unhappily in the boy’s arms.
From where I stood by the window, arms folded, I studied Zenta closely.
“Yand, calm down. If you keep crying, your cheeks will get sore.”
When Zenta looked up to wipe Yand’s tears, his eyes locked with mine.
He quickly averted his gaze, startled—but then, as if steeling himself, he met my eyes again.
Anxiety, nervousness, despair, fear.
His gaze was raw with negative emotions.
But beneath it all was something else—an odd, probing look that made me frown.
He was observing us.
Searching for what?
Maybe he had sensed that I was hiding something.
Unlike the viscount, Zenta was a boy from a commoner background. Hardship would have sharpened his instincts.
And in truth, I had kept quiet about the warp scroll.
“…”
Jaeger looked like he had plenty he wanted to say, but he didn’t expose me.
Danha seemed puzzled too, but ever since breaking his moral absolutism, he no longer divided the world cleanly into good and evil. To him, lying wasn’t automatically wrong anymore.
I’d tell the male leads about the warp scroll later.
But first, there’s something to check.
I studied the newcomers’ clothing.
Dirty clothes, dust in their hair, a generally disheveled appearance.
I spoke.
“You three haven’t been bitten by zombies, have you?”
Flinch.
The viscount jolted at once.
The male leads and I exchanged a suspicious look. The viscount quickly leapt to his feet, waving his hands.
“N-no, I wasn’t bitten. You may rest assured.”
Suspicious.
“I see. Then may we conduct a physical examination?”
The viscount bit his lip and glared resentfully.
“A physical exam? Are you trying to insult me, Lady?”
Oh, please.
Sorry, but I’m not interested in men in their mid-thirties.
“You misunderstand. It’s purely for safety.”
“Then shouldn’t you be examined as well, Lady? Who’s to say you aren’t infected?”
“I intend to be examined too.”
Wouldn’t it only be fair for the new survivors to also know whether we were infected?
“If you prefer, I’ll go first—”
I started unbuttoning my shirt without hesitation, but four pairs of hands suddenly grabbed mine.
Hands on my wrist, forearm, sleeve—each holding me back.
When I looked up, all four men were staring at me.
Jaeger was grinding his teeth so hard his jaw bulged.
“Not curious in the slightest. Button that back up.”
On the far right, Danha let out a heavy sigh.
“Lady. You do realize you’re surrounded by men, don’t you?”
Ah. So that’s what this was about.
“Then I’ll just have Yand check—”
But as I started toward the table, the crown prince clamped down on my wrist again.
His eyes were sharp beneath his brow.
“Lady, are you intending to strip completely here?”
I froze.
That’s not what I meant…
They’d misunderstood.
I was wearing a thin slip underneath. I only planned to roll up my pants and show my legs.
When I just blinked at him in confusion, the prince sighed deeply.
“Come to think of it, in the forest and in the cave, you never once treated men as men.”
I squinted at him.
Wait… is he lecturing me about being cautious around men?
His face grew stiff with wounded pride as he continued.
“You could fall asleep with me right next to you?”
“…?”
“My face isn’t your type, is that it?”
“…?”
“You managed to ignore this face and just sleep?”
The nonsense was so much worse than I expected that I was struck speechless.
While I was gaping at him, Sien pushed past the others, gently fastening my buttons again.
His cold hand brushed against my chest, making my shoulders tense.
I hadn’t known him long, but even I could tell—he was furious.
When he finished buttoning me up to the neck, he slowly lifted his violet eyes. Half-lidded under his thick lashes, they were clouded and dark.
“Lia.”
My heart thudded.
The feeling was like being caught unprepared in class, or waiting for a scolding from your parents.
Tense, shivery, almost thrilling.
Was it fear? No—it was closer to anticipation…
When his hand brushed my cheek and tucked my hair behind my ear, I caught my breath.
Maybe he thought I was frightened, because he exhaled as if reining in his anger and pulled his hand away.
“I want to keep the promise I made to you.”
“…”
“Will you let me?”
His violet eyes curved deliberately.
In other words:
Don’t strip unless you want me to shoot down every guy here.
The terrifying threat left me unable to explain myself. I just nodded blankly.
“Good girl, my Lia.”
Only then did Sien smile as usual and ruffle my hair.
And yet…
Why do I feel disappointed?
A handsome man being angry was unexpectedly… sexy.
I’d suspected it before, but maybe my tastes were truly messed up.
“Alright, out of the way.”
The crown prince shoved Sien’s shoulder back, as if it were his turn now.
“Lady, listen here—”
Ugh, more nagging.
I tuned him out with dead-fish eyes, turning instead to the dumbstruck newcomers.
“Let’s skip the physical exam by mutual agreement.”
It was an important safety step, yes, but with the male leads reacting like this, it would be unfair to single me out.
Besides, none of them show symptoms of infection yet.
In the original story, there were no infected survivors. Later, when the Empire investigated, they officially reported that if a human is infected, symptoms like fever, vomiting, chills, and headache appear within half a day.
No one here showed any such signs. For now, we’d just have to wait and watch.
