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Chapter 35
This time, it was I who reached out first.
I grabbed Lumi’s hand and urgently pulled him into my room.
He followed me without any resistance.
Click.
The door shut behind us. Even though I knew there was no one left who could overhear us, I couldn’t bring myself to speak easily.
What exactly had gone wrong?
‘…He’s dragging his leg slightly.’
Since when? How did he know for sure?
“……”
What was Lumi trying to do with me?
‘I already knew. For quite a long time now.’
Just as he had always pretended not to notice.
‘You have to be careful, Penelope.’
Was that warning born out of concern?
Or was it… something else?
“Penelope, there’s nothing to be so afraid of.”
It was Lumi who spoke first.
“Even if you are… a zombie.”
The word finally left his lips.
And with that, the faint hope clinging to the corner of my heart—that I had simply misunderstood him, that I was needlessly afraid—shattered completely.
“I’m still on your side… for now.”
For now.
It was a vague statement, yet it felt like he was genuinely worried for me—at least at this moment.
“I have a lot I want to ask you too, Penelope.”
“…Yes.”
“But it seems like you have more to ask me, so go ahead first.”
Only when he said that did I realize I was still holding his hand.
“When did you know?”
That was the first thing I asked, releasing my grip.
If he had realized I was a zombie, he should have been afraid, kept his distance, or at least subtly warned me—but I had never sensed any change in him.
“How did you find out?”
Even though he had offered to let me ask first, he simply watched me quietly.
“Do other people… do other people know too?”
The questions tumbled out in a rush of anxiety.
“Well, I actually knew from the very beginning.”
He sat down on the bed nearby, as if preparing for a long talk.
“What do you mean, from the beginning?”
The unexpected answer made my brow knit tightly.
From the very first day I came here?
When we first met? Or when I ran away after seeing his blood?
“…How?”
“Because of this.”
He tapped lightly under his eye.
“The focus doesn’t line up properly?”
I raised my hand to my own eyes, mimicking him.
“But no one else has ever said anything about it.”
No one in this fortress had ever commented on my gaze or asked what I was looking at.
“Maybe Lilia wouldn’t say anything out of politeness, but…”
Idorian or Heresden weren’t the type to overlook suspicious behavior out of consideration.
“It’s not that,” Lumi corrected gently, shaking his head. “It’s because of a feature only zombies have.”
“Zombies have white specks in their eyes. Just like you, Penelope.”
He nodded toward the mirror on the wall, urging me to check. I hurried over.
“…Ah.”
Only when I leaned in close did I finally spot them—the faint white flecks scattered within my irises.
“You’re right…”
They were small, barely noticeable, but close enough, one could definitely see them.
“…I didn’t know.”
The novel had never mentioned such a trait, yet Lumi claimed it was unique to zombies.
Perhaps that keen observation was why, in the original story, he’d managed to survive for days in a forest swarming with the undead.
“You asked if others might have noticed? Probably not,” he said, and I nodded slowly.
If others here knew about this white-speck trait, surely the novel would have mentioned it.
“I only discovered it after observing zombies in the forest for a few days. It’s not an obvious feature, so others won’t know.”
“…That’s a relief.”
But Lumi shook his head slightly.
“Still, we don’t know how much the newcomers know about zombies, so it’s best to stay cautious.”
He stood and approached me.
“They’d notice if they stood this close.”
He stopped a single step away.
“You shouldn’t let anyone else get within this distance.”
“…All right.”
It wasn’t as though anyone would stand this close anyway, but I nodded obediently.
“There were twenty-six people who entered the fortress. Now, with one dead, that makes twenty-five.”
His brows furrowed slightly.
“Up until now, things were manageable, but from here on, there will be dangers you can’t predict, Penelope.”
He took a few steps back, perhaps realizing how close we still were.
“Like if someone gets seriously injured and bleeds. You won’t be able to run away every time.”
He already knew—why I always fled from the smell of blood.
“If you can avoid it like you did today, that’s good,” he said softly, almost as if he were the one burdened by worry.
Even though we’d only met not long ago.
“But why didn’t you ever tell anyone?”
I couldn’t hold the question in.
If he had known from the start, why keep my secret? Why protect me? Why say he was still on my side?
“To be honest, I wasn’t completely sure at first.”
After a brief hesitation, he continued,
“You seemed both like a zombie and not like one. So I decided to watch you a little longer.”
He shook his head slightly.
“I couldn’t send you to your death without certainty.”
True enough—if he’d accused me outright with his evidence, I would’ve been discovered instantly. And then… I would have ended up like that person who’d just turned into a zombie.
“I became certain on the day you insisted we save the zombies.”
“The day I sent a letter to His Majesty?”
“Yes. I realized then—you said that because you were one of them.”
So, his suspicions had turned to conviction simply because I’d pleaded for the zombies’ lives?
Even though he already knew about my reaction to blood, and the marks in my eyes?
That flimsy reason?
“It was just an assumption.”
Lumi only shrugged lightly.
“There were plenty of clues. I could’ve drawn the conclusion anytime.”
I almost wanted to protest at how casually he said it, but then he spoke again—quietly, almost to himself.
“I guess… I didn’t want you to be one.”
“…What?”
“Penelope, have you finished asking what you wanted?”
I wanted to know what he meant—that he didn’t want me to be a zombie—but his expression revealed nothing. So I nodded.
“…Then you can ask now.”
“Were you bitten by a zombie, Penelope?”
When I nodded, he tilted his head slightly, as though surprised.
“You were bitten. I thought maybe you’d been infected another way, since you seemed so different from the others.”
He rubbed at his eyebrow.
“So I figured maybe it was some kind of incubation period.”
He looked genuinely puzzled that his theory had been wrong.
“Have you ever bitten a person?”
After thinking for a moment, he looked up at me again.
“No.”
“And in the future?”
I shook my head.
“I don’t want to.”
Of course, it wasn’t something I could completely control—but at least, that was my wish.
“I thought you’d say that.”
Lumi’s red lips curved faintly upward.
“That’s all I wanted to confirm for now.”
“…What?”
“People might start looking for us. Let’s go down.”
The man who had claimed to have so many questions for me stood up calmly.
I thought he’d ask how I could still talk, or why my veins didn’t bulge like other zombies’. But he didn’t.
“……”
He had kept my secret, and warned me like someone genuinely concerned for my safety. Yet, I still couldn’t understand why.
‘I’m still on your side… for now.’
What did Lumi really want? What was he thinking?
I couldn’t read him at all.
