“Do you know why the world is the way it is, Ms. Cherry?”
There it was. A question I’ll be asked for years……!
I asked nervously.
“What makes you think I would know anything about that?”
In truth, all I knew was that the alchemists under the auspices of the Marquis of Kay had been conducting suspicious experiments.
I didn’t know what they were doing or for what purpose. And the novel went on for a year without revealing anything.
‘Is that all I know?’
I wondered. I wondered what the hell they were doing, and if it was really the experiments that caused the virus to spread.
Even in the novel, there was a ‘hopeful’ mention of a cure, but we never actually saw it.
‘Are we really going to have a cure in two years?’
I asked myself, leaning back against the table and looking around the grocery store absentmindedly.
“Come on, Mr. Knox. If I knew that, would I be here?”
Knox wasn’t entirely convinced by the comment, but he figured it had a point, so he nodded meekly.
When he finished the candy, he still had the lollipop in his mouth. When I asked him why, he said it was a habit. A habit from when he quit smoking.
“I’m curious,” he said, “has Ms. Cherry been pretending to be an idiot all this time on purpose, for the sake of her successor? If so, she’s done a pretty good job of fooling the socialites.”
“Acting like an idiot.” That wasn’t an act, and I felt bad for the idiot who heard it.
But this time, I didn’t argue back, I stayed silent. Call it an unspoken affirmation. I was glad that Knox had taken it the wrong way.
“I knew you were strong, Ms. Cherry, but I didn’t realize it was that strong. How do you explain that? I mean, you just took out a monster with a single blow.”
Come to think of it, Ethan and Vanilla had seen me blow up monsters before the apocalypse, but Knox hadn’t.
“I played some cricket.”
“Hey, playing cricket doesn’t make you a one-hit killer.”
Knox replied in disbelief, holding the stick in his mouth.
I don’t know how many more people I’m going to meet in the future, but do I have to explain this to them every time? I’m getting tired of it already.
‘Maybe I should just stay in the Happy House.’
“I’ve been taking a lot of supplements and working out a lot, and this is what I look like. How else am I supposed to explain my body?”
“Are you saying you weren’t that strong to begin with? If so, that’s pretty suspicious. What were you taking?”
“I don’t want to be interrogated. My body is weak, so my parents specially brought in nutritional pills from the Breewood Kingdom.”
Of course, I was lying about having it flown in from the Kingdom of Breewood. I didn’t even know where they got the pills from.
“Hmm. Breewood is famous for its medicinal products.”
“Are we done with the interrogation?”
I asked, and Knox held up his hands in a gesture of surrender.
“I wasn’t interrogating you, and I apologize if I offended you.”
“Okay. Forget about it, Ethan will be looking for us, shouldn’t we at least put up a sign so he can recognize us?”
At my comment, Knox stroked his chin and made a worried face.
“They don’t seem to have very good eyesight, and their hearing seems to be more developed than their vision, so why not signal him with a light?”
“Ah. Come to think of it, I did bring a kerosene lantern…….”
I rummaged through my bag full of groceries, completely forgetting that I’d put the kerosene lantern in there.
But sure enough, the lantern was shattered from all the rolling around and fighting monsters.
“That’s a shame.”
Knox said simply.
I dropped the broken lantern on the ground and rummaged through my bag again, and after a while I found what I was looking for. A square matchbook. I couldn’t see where the lighter had gone. But at least I had this.
“I have a match,” I said, “maybe there’s a lantern or something in the store? Maybe we can find a lantern, light it, and put it on the front porch.”
Knox nodded at my suggestion, and we started looking around the store for a lantern.
We started by looking deeper into the store. The back of the store was dark with no windows and not much light. We couldn’t see very well.
Ducking my head under a desk that appeared to be piled high with luggage, I struck a light.
Chirp-.
And when the light came on and my vision was just about as bright as my face, my eyes locked with the face of a middle-aged woman on the floor.
“Son of a bitch, you scared the shit out of me!”
I jerked backwards. Knox limped over to me in surprise.
“You’re a good swearer. I guess the Sinclairs don’t take liberal arts classes, and neither do the Ruskins. Is it a trend that kids don’t take liberal arts classes these days?”
“Would you like to see this, or not?”
I lit another light and showed Knox what I saw.
On the floor was the severed head of a middle-aged woman, apparently a shopkeeper, rolling around in a heap.
“Ew……!”
I covered Knox’s mouth as he tried to scream. This brought me face to face with him, his honey-colored eyes coming into view.
I slowly pulled my hand away from his face. I looked down at the severed head in confusion.
After staring at it for a while, I couldn’t stand it anymore and vomited in the corner. Being a doctor, Knox was used to this kind of thing.
“I can’t tell if it was cut before it turned into a monster, or if it turned into a monster and was cut.”
Knox said simply as he regained his senses. There was a lantern behind the severed woman’s head.
He dropped to the ground and reached for the lantern, then suddenly jumped to his feet in disbelief.
“I don’t know what this is, and I’m not the one to do this.”
“Excuse me, but do I look like the kind of person who would do something like this? I’m a Sinclair heiress, too.”
I replied with a line that sounded like an aggrieved customer snapping at a sales associate in a department store, and Knox agreed, easily convinced.
“It’s the end of the world.”
“Yes, it’s the end of the world.”
For once, Knox was at a loss for words, so he meekly crawled under the table to get the lantern.
Somehow, we managed to light it and place it on the doorstep of the shop, then quickly closed the door behind us.
“I can’t wait to see Sir Ethan.”
If he were here, we’d be able to break through this horde of monsters and get back to Happy House in no time, but Knox is the smart one, so I’m the only one who can use strength here.
‘Damn it, I’m the leader of the group!’
As if he had heard my mutterings, Knox grumbled with a very judgmental look on his face.
“I don’t see what such an uneducated cop can do to make women need him like this.”
“What’s the point of being an uneducated cop?”
“Hey, do you like Ethan?”
“Me? No?”
“Then why are you so desperate to find Ethan?”
“Because I want to go home.”
“Hmm, that’s true. If you had Ethan, it would be easier getting out of here.”
This time, Knox nodded in agreement.
Hoping that Ethan would recognize the signal of the lantern light anyway, I turned to Knox with a question.
“Do you know that Sir Ethan has a sister?”
“How could I not know?”
“Have you ever met her?”
“I have.”
“What’s she like?”
“I don’t know, maybe it’s because they don’t share blood, but they don’t look alike.”
“That’s it?”
At my question, Knox frowned and looked at me. He gave me a look that said he couldn’t understand the intent of the question.
“Then what more do I need to say?”
Knox was a second male lead that could rival the main lead, the Crown Prince.
Ethan was far more popular, but he had been pushed aside, perhaps because he was Aurora’s stepbrother.
Then it happened.
Bang-bang!
A gunshot sounded in the distance. It was definitely Ethan. I jumped to my feet.
“It’s Ethan!”
I stepped to the front door, pulled back the cloth covering the glass, and peered out.
I could see the virus monsters running down the street, heading in the same direction.
Bang-bang-bang!
I heard a series of gunshots. I looked back at Knox, who stood beside me.
“I think we should go out and help…….”
I said, my voice trailing off. My eyes fell on Knox’s bandaged leg. He smiled and shrugged, as if it was no big deal.
“If it’s too much trouble, you can just throw me away.”
I leaned against the front door and stared at Knox, who was holding the plastic. Knox still had the lollipop stick in his mouth and a big smile on his face as he glared at me.
After a moment’s hesitation, I decided to make him a offer.
“Come on, just climb on me.”
“Do you know why the world is the way it is, Ms. Cherry?”
There it was. A question I’ll be asked for years……!
I asked nervously.
“What makes you think I would know anything about that?”
In truth, all I knew was that the alchemists under the auspices of the Marquis of Kay had been conducting suspicious experiments.
I didn’t know what they were doing or for what purpose. And the novel went on for a year without revealing anything.
‘Is that all I know?’
I wondered. I wondered what the hell they were doing, and if it was really the experiments that caused the virus to spread.
Even in the novel, there was a ‘hopeful’ mention of a cure, but we never actually saw it.
‘Are we really going to have a cure in two years?’
I asked myself, leaning back against the table and looking around the grocery store absentmindedly.
“Come on, Mr. Knox. If I knew that, would I be here?”
Knox wasn’t entirely convinced by the comment, but he figured it had a point, so he nodded meekly.
When he finished the candy, he still had the lollipop in his mouth. When I asked him why, he said it was a habit. A habit from when he quit smoking.
“I’m curious,” he said, “has Ms. Cherry been pretending to be an idiot all this time on purpose, for the sake of her successor? If so, she’s done a pretty good job of fooling the socialites.”
“Acting like an idiot.” That wasn’t an act, and I felt bad for the idiot who heard it.
But this time, I didn’t argue back, I stayed silent. Call it an unspoken affirmation. I was glad that Knox had taken it the wrong way.
“I knew you were strong, Ms. Cherry, but I didn’t realize it was that strong. How do you explain that? I mean, you just took out a monster with a single blow.”
Come to think of it, Ethan and Vanilla had seen me blow up monsters before the apocalypse, but Knox hadn’t.
“I played some cricket.”
“Hey, playing cricket doesn’t make you a one-hit killer.”
Knox replied in disbelief, holding the stick in his mouth.
I don’t know how many more people I’m going to meet in the future, but do I have to explain this to them every time? I’m getting tired of it already.
‘Maybe I should just stay in the Happy House.’
“I’ve been taking a lot of supplements and working out a lot, and this is what I look like. How else am I supposed to explain my body?”
“Are you saying you weren’t that strong to begin with? If so, that’s pretty suspicious. What were you taking?”
“I don’t want to be interrogated. My body is weak, so my parents specially brought in nutritional pills from the Breewood Kingdom.”
Of course, I was lying about having it flown in from the Kingdom of Breewood. I didn’t even know where they got the pills from.
“Hmm. Breewood is famous for its medicinal products.”
“Are we done with the interrogation?”
I asked, and Knox held up his hands in a gesture of surrender.
“I wasn’t interrogating you, and I apologize if I offended you.”
“Okay. Forget about it, Ethan will be looking for us, shouldn’t we at least put up a sign so he can recognize us?”
At my comment, Knox stroked his chin and made a worried face.
“They don’t seem to have very good eyesight, and their hearing seems to be more developed than their vision, so why not signal him with a light?”
“Ah. Come to think of it, I did bring a kerosene lantern…….”
I rummaged through my bag full of groceries, completely forgetting that I’d put the kerosene lantern in there.
But sure enough, the lantern was shattered from all the rolling around and fighting monsters.
“That’s a shame.”
Knox said simply.
I dropped the broken lantern on the ground and rummaged through my bag again, and after a while I found what I was looking for. A square matchbook. I couldn’t see where the lighter had gone. But at least I had this.
“I have a match,” I said, “maybe there’s a lantern or something in the store? Maybe we can find a lantern, light it, and put it on the front porch.”
Knox nodded at my suggestion, and we started looking around the store for a lantern.
We started by looking deeper into the store. The back of the store was dark with no windows and not much light. We couldn’t see very well.
Ducking my head under a desk that appeared to be piled high with luggage, I struck a light.
Chirp-.
And when the light came on and my vision was just about as bright as my face, my eyes locked with the face of a middle-aged woman on the floor.
“Son of a bitch, you scared the shit out of me!”
I jerked backwards. Knox limped over to me in surprise.
“You’re a good swearer. I guess the Sinclairs don’t take liberal arts classes, and neither do the Ruskins. Is it a trend that kids don’t take liberal arts classes these days?”
“Would you like to see this, or not?”
I lit another light and showed Knox what I saw.
On the floor was the severed head of a middle-aged woman, apparently a shopkeeper, rolling around in a heap.
“Ew……!”
I covered Knox’s mouth as he tried to scream. This brought me face to face with him, his honey-colored eyes coming into view.
I slowly pulled my hand away from his face. I looked down at the severed head in confusion.
After staring at it for a while, I couldn’t stand it anymore and vomited in the corner. Being a doctor, Knox was used to this kind of thing.
“I can’t tell if it was cut before it turned into a monster, or if it turned into a monster and was cut.”
Knox said simply as he regained his senses. There was a lantern behind the severed woman’s head.
He dropped to the ground and reached for the lantern, then suddenly jumped to his feet in disbelief.
“I don’t know what this is, and I’m not the one to do this.”
“Excuse me, but do I look like the kind of person who would do something like this? I’m a Sinclair heiress, too.”
I replied with a line that sounded like an aggrieved customer snapping at a sales associate in a department store, and Knox agreed, easily convinced.
“It’s the end of the world.”
“Yes, it’s the end of the world.”
For once, Knox was at a loss for words, so he meekly crawled under the table to get the lantern.
Somehow, we managed to light it and place it on the doorstep of the shop, then quickly closed the door behind us.
“I can’t wait to see Sir Ethan.”
If he were here, we’d be able to break through this horde of monsters and get back to Happy House in no time, but Knox is the smart one, so I’m the only one who can use strength here.
‘Damn it, I’m the leader of the group!’
As if he had heard my mutterings, Knox grumbled with a very judgmental look on his face.
“I don’t see what such an uneducated cop can do to make women need him like this.”
“What’s the point of being an uneducated cop?”
“Hey, do you like Ethan?”
“Me? No?”
“Then why are you so desperate to find Ethan?”
“Because I want to go home.”
“Hmm, that’s true. If you had Ethan, it would be easier getting out of here.”
This time, Knox nodded in agreement.
Hoping that Ethan would recognize the signal of the lantern light anyway, I turned to Knox with a question.
“Do you know that Sir Ethan has a sister?”
“How could I not know?”
“Have you ever met her?”
“I have.”
“What’s she like?”
“I don’t know, maybe it’s because they don’t share blood, but they don’t look alike.”
“That’s it?”
At my question, Knox frowned and looked at me. He gave me a look that said he couldn’t understand the intent of the question.
“Then what more do I need to say?”
Knox was a second male lead that could rival the main lead, the Crown Prince.
Ethan was far more popular, but he had been pushed aside, perhaps because he was Aurora’s stepbrother.
Then it happened.
Bang-bang!
A gunshot sounded in the distance. It was definitely Ethan. I jumped to my feet.
“It’s Ethan!”
I stepped to the front door, pulled back the cloth covering the glass, and peered out.
I could see the virus monsters running down the street, heading in the same direction.
Bang-bang-bang!
I heard a series of gunshots. I looked back at Knox, who stood beside me.
“I think we should go out and help…….”
I said, my voice trailing off. My eyes fell on Knox’s bandaged leg. He smiled and shrugged, as if it was no big deal.
“If it’s too much trouble, you can just throw me away.”
I leaned against the front door and stared at Knox, who was holding the plastic. Knox still had the lollipop stick in his mouth and a big smile on his face as he glared at me.
After a moment’s hesitation, I decided to make him a offer.
“Come on, just climb on me.”
