KVZS 06

Yoo Sara tied up her hair.
She was even trying not to move her head much because it would ruin her hairstyle.
After taking off a corpse’s shoes and putting them on, now she was tearing her dress apart.

…That’s strange.

Silence filled the hallway.
Everyone was only watching my reaction.
Even Yoo Jein, who had fallen together with me.

‘Well, of course. Two people fell together, but only one of them got a helping hand. Everyone would be conscious of that.’

Like in those dating reality shows when they do the popularity vote on the first night, and one person gets zero votes. All the cast members end up awkwardly watching that person.

Doesn’t this situation feel kind of like that?

I sighed inwardly and put strength into my legs.
I asked Yoo Jein, who was still sitting on top of me,

“Are you not getting up?”

“Ah! I’m sorry!”

Only then did the others come to their senses and try to help me up, but—

“It’s fine.”

I refused and stood up on my own.

“……”

I rotated my ankle, checking how badly I was hurt. It only stung a little. It didn’t seem serious.

‘Good thing I wore combat boots.’

If I’d been wearing high heels too in this situation, it would’ve been hopeless. I probably wouldn’t even be able to walk.

After moving my ankle around a few times, thinking it would be okay if I endured it a little, I opened my right hand.

Blood was dripping from my palm, which had been deeply sliced by the paper knife I’d been gripping.

The long, straight cut stung sharply.

It wasn’t serious enough to need treatment, but still…

I’m bleeding!

‘Thank goodness this is a zombie setting.’

If this had been a vampire world, they would’ve already smelled the blood and swarmed over here. Ugh.

And this stupid knife was so weak that after only slicing my palm open, it snapped clean in half.

It hurts like hell. Somebody blow on it for me. Sob sob sob.

While I cried only in my head and stayed silent, people watched me nervously.

The first ones to speak were the two bastards responsible for this silence—the men who had only reached out to Yoo Jein.

“Princess, are you alright?”

“I apologize.”

Without even looking at the Crown Prince and the Grand Duke awkwardly apologizing, I answered,

“It’s fine. What’s wrong with helping just anyone?”

In an unexpected situation, they’d reacted instinctively and reached out toward the person they cared about more in that split second.

They probably never imagined both of them would try to help only the protagonist, and that it would unintentionally turn into a situation where I got humiliated.

It wasn’t something I needed an apology for.

‘Getting apologized to would only make me feel more pathetic.’

What exactly were they apologizing for?
Sorry for liking Yoo Jein more than you?

Of course!

As a human being, I am a little upset!

Nobody even asked if I was okay, but I answered “I’m okay” by myself, and I’m dying from embarrassment!

But it’s not like I can cry over it!

‘Whatever, forget it. Once I go back to Korea, I’ve got tons of friends anyway. If I fall over, there are 999 friends in Seoul who’d grab my hand and pull me up.’

“……Princess.”

“I’m really fine. I’m not even badly hurt.”

I still didn’t meet their eyes as I answered.

The atmosphere became even heavier because I, who should’ve been screaming and throwing a fit, was responding calmly.

It wasn’t a heavy mood because they were worried about me.

They were just tense.

Worried that I might suddenly do something reckless.

That after not receiving care from either the Crown Prince or the Grand Duke, I might cry from humiliation and hurt feelings, scream, or suddenly run off from the group.

They were worried, yes. Maybe a little guilty too. But more than that—

They were afraid I’d cause trouble.

In fact, Mascarpone, standing behind Yoo Jein, was already sighing like this had become exhausting.

“You shouldn’t have been waving a knife around and hurting yourself.”

“Princess, I’m sorry… I…”

Yoo Jein limped toward me while I kept my mouth shut.

“Uh, don’t do that.”

I grabbed Yoo Jein’s arm as she tried to kneel in front of me and dust off my dress.

“Don’t. My clothes are dirty anyway.”

“But because of me, Princess… Are you hurt anywhere? I can heal—”

“I’m not.”

“But your palm…”

“This was my own fault, so Miss Yoo Jein doesn’t need to worry about it.”

Even though I kept saying no, Yoo Jein’s expression wouldn’t ease. She looked like she’d switch skin with my hand if she could.

I sighed and said,

“If you really feel sorry, do something about those shoes.”

“Huh?”

“Break the heels. The men here can at least do that much.”

I looked in turn at the Crown Prince and the Grand Duke. The two, who had been tensely watching me and Yoo Jein, flinched.

“If you have holy power to heal me, then fix your own ankle first. It looks seriously sprained.”

“Princess…”

“Enough. We don’t have time to argue like this right now, do we?”

I cut off Yoo Jein before she could apologize again.

I threw away the broken knife and roughly wiped the blood from my palm onto my clothes.

Then I said to the others,

“Aren’t we going?”

Only then did the attention focused on me scatter. Everyone returned to their positions as though nothing had happened.

‘This feels weirdly awful.’

Whatever. Not my problem. Once I go back, I’ll never see these people again anyway.

“It seems that knight fought off the corpses coming up the central staircase.”

“And then got injured himself.”

“So he was the last one infected.”

“Then since that knight killed all the corpses, can we assume there aren’t any left now?”

“I wish that were true.”

I asked, “Aren’t we going?” but we couldn’t leave right away.

Reason: there was no path.

We couldn’t exactly step over the corpse-covered staircase and go down.

Setting aside the danger of walking on soft human flesh and blood, if even one of them was still alive and grabbed someone’s ankle while they passed, the situation would spiral out of control.

As for going all the way to the left hallway in the distance…

‘We don’t know what might appear along the way.’

And some people were already injured and limping.

“It seems there are no more corpses in the central hallway.”

Since staying in an open hallway was dangerous, we entered the washroom beside the stairs.

Darjeeling returned after scouting the area and confirmed it was safe. At the same time, people groaned and collapsed where they stood. I also found a relatively less filthy spot on the floor and sat down with my legs stretched out.

‘Wow. Never thought I’d live long enough to sit on a bathroom floor.’

The Crown Prince stared blankly at the people sprawled out after walking only a few steps, then leaned against the wall near the entrance. Darjeeling stood in the Crown Prince’s blind spot, and the Grand Duke stood in Darjeeling’s blind spot.

Everyone stood or sat anxiously, quietly exchanging opinions.

“I hope all the corpses in this mansion are the ones lying there.”

At Supporting Character #2’s hopeful comment, the Grand Duke shook his head.

“I don’t think so.”

Seeing the expression on Supporting Character #2’s face practically screaming ‘Why not?!’, he explained as gently as possible.

“You remember the servant lying in the corridor near the secret room? The one that bit the knight to death. There are probably other corpses like that servant wandering elsewhere instead of gathering at the central staircase.”

Well, zombies weren’t dolphins. They probably didn’t all move in groups together.

Mascarpone, who had been thinking quietly, asked,

“Come to think of it, how was that servant even there?”

“What do you mean, Mascarpone?”

“When we found him, that servant was still just a corpse. Before mutation, before moving. Which means he was alive before that.”

“You mean, how did a living person avoid the corpses’ attacks and make it all the way to the right hallway?”

“Yes. To come this way, you’d have to pass through the central hallway at least once. And as everyone knows, there was already a corpse knight there. The one His Highness just… dealt with.”

“Maybe he passed through while the knight was still alive and holding them off?”

“You think the knight knowingly let through a servant who was obviously about to turn into a corpse?”

The Crown Prince, who had been quietly listening, spoke.

“He probably used the servants’ passage.”

“The servants’… passage?”

“A route built inside the walls so servants could move quickly without being seen by the masters. A kind of secret passage. He likely came out near the secret-room hallway through there. And then…”

“He died before reaching the secret room.”

The Grand Duke finished.

I, who had been listening, asked,

“Then shouldn’t we use that passage too?”

Look.

(Far away) Left staircase
Central staircase
*Current location
(Somewhere around here) Servants’ passage
(The place we came from) Secret room

That’s how it is, right? So now that we can’t use the central staircase anymore, wouldn’t it be better to use that passage?

People glanced at me for suddenly speaking up, but no one commented on it.

The Crown Prince shook his head.

“There’s a high chance the corpses that did that to the servant’s arm are still inside the passage.”

“Ah.”

I hadn’t thought of that.

“Then we’ll have to use the left staircase.”

“Yes. The problem is that it’s quite far from here.”

“…But we don’t have another option.”

In reality, the left staircase was the only choice.

Rather than asking for other opinions, it seemed the Crown Prince and the Grand Duke had brought us in here to give everyone a short break before making the long trip to the left staircase.

Supporting Character #2, pale-faced, asked,

“How far is it?”

“We’ll have to walk about as far as we already have. Then after going down the stairs, we’ll need to return toward the center again. And we don’t know what’s on the first floor.”

Everyone’s eyes naturally turned toward Yoo Jein.

Feeling the attention, Yoo Jein’s cheeks turned red.

Yoo Jein’s holy power was only enough to heal something like a paper cut. She couldn’t fix a sprained ankle. And she’d already exhausted her powers earlier while blessing us.

The Nuisance Guy sighed.

“You shouldn’t have acted all extra, casting blessings nobody even asked for.”

……Earlier he’d been whining about how she should’ve cast them sooner.

Human hearts are really shameless.

Until just now, no matter how much that guy yapped, I’d been enduring it silently while thinking, ‘I don’t want to get involved.’ But now that I was hurt and in a bad mood, his nonsense was irritating me to no end.

‘I’m pretty awful too.’

The Nuisance Guy kept talking, clueless to everyone’s feelings.

“Actually, I’ve been thinking this for a while now.”

He leaned forward dramatically before saying,

“Let’s have the men escape first.”

“……”

“……”

“Wow. What a brave and cowardly idea.”

The Grand Duke mocked him, but the Nuisance Guy remained firm.

“Think about it rationally. We can’t fail to escape just because some people are holding us back.”

“If that’s rational behavior, then I’d rather be emotional…”

“I’m not saying abandon them completely. Let the women go back to the room and hide while we escape first and send rescuers. Isn’t that the most efficient method? Especially since she is injured now and can’t even run!”

His short, chubby finger pointed at Yoo Jein.

“If it were only one burden, we could take turns carrying her. But there are four of them.”

Those four, of course, meant the women.

Me, Yoo Jein, Mascarpone, and Supporting Character #2.

“Ah, we should’ve done this from the start. Why did we even bring them along? No strength, no stamina, can’t even use weapons… They just drag us down.”

At those words, none of the women could refute him.

Not even proud Mascarpone.
Not even quiet Supporting Character #2.
And certainly not commoner Yoo Jein.

Because unlike the Nuisance Guy, they had shame.

The Crown Prince sighed and called out to him.

“Papri.”

Hearing the irritation in that voice, Papri raised both palms.

“Alright, alright. Seriously, hyung. Then let’s leave that knight behind as an escort too.”

Darjeeling, suddenly pointed out, blinked.

The intention was obvious.

The Crown Prince and Grand Duke were valuable nobles, so they should go. Leave behind the knight whose death wouldn’t matter.

As a ‘shield.’

Snap.

At that moment, the last thread of reason in my head broke.

Wow, shit. I seriously can’t hold it in anymore.

[Imperial Villa, 2nd Floor Washroom]

• Yoo Sara, Yoo Jein, Crown Prince, Grand Duke, Mascarpone, Supporting Character #2, Darjeeling, Papri (Alive)