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Episode 4
“I’m heading out~!”
When Andrea greeted them energetically, all the siblings smiled back at him.
“Yeah. Have a good day.”
“Bye, Rev!”
You tiny human! Don’t you dare touch me!
“Rev says goodbye too!”
I deliberately twisted Rev’s words without changing my expression. Thank goodness I’m the only one who can hear this rude cat’s voice!
Andrea giggled, took the butler’s hand, and climbed into the carriage.
It was his first day going to the academy, and he was clearly thrilled.
With Andrea gone, the breakfast table grew quiet. After Edmond dismissed all the servants, the zombies—who had likely spent the entire night awake—were the first to speak.
“Alright, I’ll go first.”
Clink, clink. Isaac tapped the glass with his cutlery to draw attention.
“You all know by now that we can’t sleep and that our bodies break easily. And you probably noticed during breakfast that we can’t really feel hot or cold either, right?”
Edmond and Yulia nodded. They added that even when eating steaming soup, all they felt on their tongues was a thick, slimy texture.
Yulia added her own observation.
“I can’t taste sweet, salty, or sour at all. I can kind of tell spicy, though.”
Edmond shared what he’d noticed.
“My sense of smell seems completely gone, too.”
They’d already discovered this much change in such a short time. Not even twenty-four hours had passed since becoming zombies, and daily life was already full of inconveniences.
Chewing food while barely sensing flavor—except for faint spiciness—couldn’t be pleasant.
“Isaac. Did you submit the leave request?”
“Sent it early this morning. It should be sitting nicely on the captain’s desk by now.”
“Yulia, what about you?”
“I submitted mine too. If I tried brewing potions with these hands, something would definitely go wrong.”
Alchemy was so delicate that even a 1 ml difference could change the result completely. And now Yulia’s senses were worse than an ordinary person’s—there was no way she could manage it.
“Is there any chance the leave requests will be rejected?”
“I heard the imperial court never rejects leave requests, so it should be fine~.”
Isaac added with a bright smile.
“They wouldn’t suddenly break tradition today, right?”
That sounded like a flag, I thought—just as Edmond’s gaze turned to me.
Edmond had become duke at eighteen and had been leading the family for eleven years now. He was already decisive when it came to family matters.
“Emily. What are you planning to do?”
“…I’m thinking of going to work today and talking in person. I figured it’d be better face-to-face.”
“Your body isn’t unstable, so working is fine. But if anything happens to one of us, we’ll need your help. I’d prefer you stay home if possible.”
I agreed. I nodded, and Edmond let it go for now.
“We’re not planning to hide away for all seven years. That’s not realistic.”
At the level of a ducal house, even if you want to stay still, others will stir things up. Declaring neutrality doesn’t let you escape the mud.
“This is only to buy time. Until we get used to these bodies, we need to stay out of sight.”
“I agree for now~. If I swing a sword like this, my wrist might fly off.”
“And I’d rather not blow up the alchemy lab.”
Isaac and Yulia nodded in agreement.
“Considering everything, the best course is for Emily to train her dark magic. The rest of us will lie low.”
“…Is that safe? What if you get discovered?”
“If higher-level dark magic can reproduce the body as it was, then this is necessary.”
Edmond spoke firmly.
“It’s risky, but the dark magic books don’t exist only in the imperial archive. I’ll find something suitable somehow. Emily, you’ll practice with that.”
“Okay. I understand!”
I clenched my fist and answered with determination. Knowing everyone’s lives depended on me made my shoulders feel heavy.
Edmond went on to give more instructions—minimize social events, avoid private meetings, and so on.
Everything was concise and reasonable, so everyone accepted it calmly.
“Alright~. So we’ve got a rough plan now, yeah?”
“It was put together overnight, but still.”
Yulia grumbled, but she didn’t oppose Edmond.
He’d proven his ability over more than ten years as head of the Walker family.
Just following Edmond’s lead made it feel like we really could survive the next seven years.
That was when.
Knock, knock.
The head butler knocked on the door.
“Excuse me, my lord. I have something urgent to report.”
“Come in.”
When Edmond allowed it, the head butler bowed once to the others and stepped close to Edmond.
“What is it?”
“Well….”
The butler glanced briefly toward Isaac, then quickly corrected himself.
“The second young master’s leave request has been rejected.”
The dining table fell silent, as if someone had poured cold water over it.
The butler didn’t know it, but he’d just announced that Edmond’s plan had fallen apart from the very start.
“For what reason? The Knights’ order usually approves leave requests unless there’s an emergency.”
“That is….”
When the butler hesitated, Edmond pressed again.
“Speak. It’s fine.”
“Yes. Originally, they planned to approve it as you said, but… it was rejected by order of His Highness the Crown Prince.”
It couldn’t have been worse.
“Oh, Emily. You’re a bit later than usual today.”
My fellow clerk, Jamie, greeted me cheerfully.
“Good morning, Jamie. I had something to take care of this morning.”
“What happened?”
Yesterday all my brothers died in a carriage accident, I turned them into zombies, and while trying not to get caught, my second brother from the knight order submitted a leave request—but it got rejected and ruined everything.
…Obviously, I couldn’t say that.
I smiled awkwardly and replied instead.
“Andrea didn’t want to go to the academy and threw a fit. Oh—by the way, where’s His Highness?”
“In a meeting. It should end soon.”
As soon as Jamie finished speaking, the door flew open.
“His Highness the Crown Prince enters.”
“His Highness the Crown Prince enters.”
As we hurriedly bowed, Crown Prince Tristan waved his hand lightly, signaling us to continue our work.
He passed the clerks and sat down at his desk.
As expected of the empire’s crown prince, his schedule was packed. Papers were piled up like mountains in front of him.
Which also means the clerks have a ton of work.
Those documents had already been filtered through the clerks several times.
I pretended to refocus on my work while observing Tristan. Sunlight from the window behind him poured over his figure.
His jet-black hair looked like a summer night sky even in broad daylight, and his softly glowing red eyes were the very symbol of the crown prince. He was also a skilled knight, and beneath his rolled-up sleeves, his arms were neatly muscled.
His face was cold and expressionless, but that wasn’t unusual. Despite looking like he wouldn’t bleed even if stabbed, the crown prince was a fairly reasonable superior.
Luckily, the morning meeting meant my lateness hadn’t been noticed.
I gathered the documents that needed his approval and approached quietly.
“Leave them.”
He spoke without even looking up, his head buried in paperwork.
“Your Highness. I have something to ask.”
At my words, Tristan’s eyebrow twitched slightly, and he finally looked up.
“What is it?”
“I’d like to take some time off for a while.”
Even though he was a generous superior, that wasn’t easy to say. Tristan paused, considering my words.
“…Is the workload too heavy?”
“Huh? Oh—no, that’s not it.”
“You’re not someone who takes leave often, so I wondered if something was going on.”
Being a clerk to the crown prince wasn’t easy—constant overtime and memorizing mountains of documents—but that wasn’t the problem.
Of course, it would’ve been easier if I had my eldest brother’s memory, where he remembered everything after seeing it once.
“Come to think of it, Sir Isaac Walker also tried to submit a leave request.”
He set down his pen and folded his hands, studying my face like he was measuring something.
His ruby-like eyes were calm and unreadable.
“Is there some trouble in your family?”
“No. Of course not.”
I answered immediately.
“It just feels like our family’s been drifting apart lately, so we thought of taking a vacation to a villa together.”
That was the surface-level excuse. All of the Walkers suddenly stopping activity would look far too suspicious.
“I see.”
“Yes. If taking leave is difficult, I do have unused vacation days. I could use those instead.”
I spoke as naturally as possible, careful not to alert the sharp-eyed crown prince.
“Hm….”
Tristan leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and tapped his bicep lightly with his fingers before speaking.
“I’m afraid that won’t work.”
“Pardon?”
“Sir Isaac Walker. There’s a chance we’ll need to mobilize the knight order soon, so I ordered him to stay on alert.”
That was why Isaac’s leave had been rejected. Still, questions remained.
There was no obvious reason for the knight order to be on alert. The Kingdom of Tahil hadn’t made any military moves, and the Kingdom of Ortor hadn’t raised any territorial disputes either.
Sensing my confusion, Tristan continued.
“I can’t disclose the official reason yet, but it’s just a precaution. Since Sir Isaac’s leave is off the table, a family vacation would be difficult.”
“I… see….”
What should I do now?
Keeping a smile on my face, I quickly thought it through. Should I ask for leave anyway and go without Isaac, or back off cleanly?
If Isaac has to be at the knight order, maybe it’s better for me to stay at the palace too.
Yulia and Edmond would be inside the Walker estate, so they could handle things if something happened.
Right now, Isaac—who’d be surrounded by people at the palace—was in the most danger.
“Yes. Understood. Then we’ll postpone the vacation….”
Bang!
“Your Highness!”
Someone suddenly burst into the office.
“You need to come right away! At the knight order, Sir Isaac.”
My heart dropped straight into my stomach.
