“Theodore, the Crown Prince, is a close friend of his, isn’t he? His Highness is looking for him, which is why I need to escort him to Westmore,” Kaelion had explained.
That was the entirety of Kaelion’s reasoning for seeking Ethan: the Crown Prince wanted him found and brought to Westmore.
Why Ethan, whom Kaelion was so desperate to locate, was now here with Cherry Sinclair was a mystery...
[Exclusive Report! Cherry Sinclair’s Disappearance Linked to Lancaster Heir Ethan?!]
[Cherry Sinclair’s Secret Rendezvous with Ethan Duncan Lancaster in a Rural Village!? “A Swan and a Raven—An Unlikely Pair Shocks Society!”]
Elliot suddenly recalled the articles that had gone viral before the world’s collapse. They had been such sensational news that even he remembered the details.
“So, that’s why the princess and that man were together?”
On the day the world ended, Elliot had been in Kintner. He had learned through the newspapers that Cherry was nearby and had been about to visit Brunel to find her. If only the world hadn’t ended that very day, he might have made it there.
But why on earth had Kaelion shared such a story with him?
A tale about the Crown Prince of Greydon being alive and well in Westmore, secretly searching for his people, should have been a top-secret matter.
“Was he expecting me to spread rumors or something?”
Of course, in this ruined world, there was no place left for rumors to spread...
“Ah, right. The Sebran Viscount’s estate still had survivors.”
Even though Kintner was a small town, it was still large enough to have a train station. Apart from the Sinclair Hotel, there were other small survival camps scattered throughout.
“Damn it. If I’d known, I should’ve gone to Westmore right after hearing the story.”
At the time, Elliot had dismissed the idea of leaving Kintner for Westmore, seeing no compelling reason to abandon his kingdom. Now, he deeply regretted that decision.
As he brooded, his thoughts were interrupted by a sharp crash—the desk he was hiding under shattered.
Startled, Elliot crawled out from beneath the rubble to find the room overrun with monsters. All the guards had already been devoured, and their numbers had increased as some of the fallen were infected and transformed.
Elliot’s face went pale. Escaping now seemed impossible.
“Wait... hold on.”
He realized not everyone was dead. In the corner of his vision, a lone guard was still alive, maneuvering toward the balcony.
“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?! Kill those monsters!!” Elliot screamed desperately.
The guard turned back, glaring at him with disdain.
“Damn it, be thankful I didn’t kill you first. Shut up!”
While Elliot stood dumbfounded by the guard’s harsh retort, the man charged toward the balcony, grabbed the railing, and leaped to the floor below.
“No! Don’t leave me!!” Elliot’s shrill scream echoed as the monsters, drawn by his voice, swarmed toward him, their roars filling the fifth floor.
*****
Jeffrey, a guard from the Kintner survival camp, managed to escape through the balcony.
He clung to a gas pipe attached to the building’s exterior. The mindless monsters only knew to climb the ladder to the fifth floor; none of them had the sense to use the gas pipe like Jeffrey did.
Once he was clear of the balcony, he kicked the ladder down, ensuring the monsters couldn’t follow.
As he descended to the second floor, he stumbled upon an unexpected scene.
The camp’s survivors were gathered there, disheveled and frightened. Some were splattered with dark red blood, while others were covered in green slime.
“Wait... green slime? Don’t tell me...”
Jeffrey looked uneasily toward the stairs leading to the first floor.
“Jeffrey! Where are the other guards? Where’s Lord Elliot?”
A few survivors who recognized him rushed over, bombarding him with questions about their leaders. They seemed to cling to the hope that Elliot would restore order.
“Lord Elliot is dead,” Jeffrey said flatly.
“W-What? That’s impossible! Lord Elliot is dead? That demon?”
“Good riddance! The bastard treated us like slaves! Now we’re free!”
“Wait, but who’s going to handle the monsters now? What about the guards? Jeffrey, where are the others?”
The survivors’ questions grew more frantic, some even grabbing Jeffrey’s collar.
It was ironic. Despite being oppressed by Elliot, they had relied on him for survival within the safety of the Sinclair Hotel.
Now, their oppressor and protector was gone, leaving them in complete chaos.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gunfire echoed from the first floor, a sign that someone was still fighting the monsters.
“Nick’s still down there, right?” Jeffrey asked.
The nearby survivors nodded vigorously.
“Thanks to Nick, we were able to escape here.”
“It seems like he’s working with some outsiders to fight the monsters...”
Outsiders. The word made Jeffrey think of the man and woman he’d seen on the fifth floor. It had to be them.
“Damn it!”
Jeffrey gritted his teeth, grabbed his rifle, and bolted down to the first floor, ignoring the protests of those behind him.
“Jeffrey! It’s too dangerous!”
He didn’t look back.
When he reached the lobby, he found an apocalyptic scene.
The heavy wooden doors of the hotel entrance had been shattered, and monsters poured in through the gaping hole.
Two figures stood in their path.
“That’s...”
A pink-haired woman and a blond man in a police uniform.
The woman was holding a massive pillar, something twice her height and impossibly thick. Somehow, she was wielding it with ease.
The survivors who had followed Jeffrey down gasped in shock. Nick was nowhere to be seen.
As murmurs filled the room, the pink-haired woman adjusted her grip on the pillar, now holding it horizontally. Then, with a single, powerful motion, she began driving the monsters back outside.
The man in the police uniform standing beside the pink-haired woman was equally formidable. With a single, precise swing of his sword, he decapitated dozens of monsters in an instant. His aura was so fierce and lethal that it was overwhelming to witness.
Meanwhile, a young man and a girl were seated at the lobby counter, providing covering fire for the woman with a rifle.
The problem was that monsters were still flooding through the hotel entrance, seemingly without end.
The woman, despite her astonishing strength, was only barely holding her ground against the horde.
“She’s going to get herself killed!”
“Is she insane? Someone stop her!”
“Who even is she?”
“An intruder, maybe?”
“Do you think she’s infected?”
The crowd was abuzz with disbelief and panic, unable to make sense of what they were witnessing. They assumed the woman would be overwhelmed and bitten any moment now.
“What’s she trying to do with that thing?”
“Forget about her! That’s not what’s important right now. Let’s use this chance to get upstairs and fortify ourselves!”
“Yeah, this place is done for! It’s going to collapse soon!”
The crowd prepared to flee to the second floor, leaving the reckless strangers behind. Just then, Nick emerged from the kitchen with a group of survivors he had rescued. The crowd rushed to help the survivors.
As they turned their backs on the lobby and began to leave, Jeffrey, who had been glancing toward the hotel entrance, suddenly shouted.
“W-Wait a second.”
“What is it? Why’re you yelling?”
“Look! Over there!”
The woman, who had been using the pillar to block the monsters, was finally advancing step by step. The endless tide of monsters that had been pouring in came to a halt, stopped by the massive pillar in her hands.
The creatures could no longer penetrate further into the lobby. Instead, they were slowly being pushed back by the woman’s raw strength. The monsters that strayed out of the pillar’s reach were promptly dealt with by the police officer and the young man shooting from a distance.
Even as they saw it with their own eyes, it was impossible to believe.
“My God... She’s incredible. She’s not human,” whispered a woman standing next to Jeffrey.
He wholeheartedly agreed.
“...A savior.”
A savior had come to deliver them from the monstrous creatures—and from Elliot, who was an even greater monster in his own right.
*****
Damn it. This is exhausting.
This wasn’t part of my plan!
All I wanted was to hide away peacefully in Happy House...!
Why am I doing this here? How did it come to this?
Gritting my teeth, I clung tightly to the pillar. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the grotesque, twisted face of a monster climbing up the pillar. Its melted, oozing skin made it look like its body was decaying in real-time.
The creature opened its mouth wide, and with a grotesque snap, its jaw dislocated and hung limply, sliding down the pillar toward me. Ugh, disgusting.
Shrrkk!
The monster’s head was sliced clean off. Ethan’s sharp blade had passed through in a blur.
“I told you not to overdo it, Cherry,” Ethan said, effortlessly dispatching a pouncing monster beside me. I was too overwhelmed to fully process his words.
Grunting, I shoved the monsters back with the pillar, desperate to avoid being bitten.
‘Ethan has antibodies, so he’s fine.’
That thought was oddly reassuring. A man with incredible strength and immunity to infection—what could be more reliable in this hellish world?
Just a little further. The entrance is so close. Just a little more...!
Damn it. Once I get home, I’m going to sleep like trash in bed for an entire week!
I braced my core, summoning every ounce of strength I had left.
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“Yaaaaahhh!”
Like a weightlifter going all-out for a gold medal, I screamed and shoved the pillar forward, sending dozens of monsters flying backward.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ethan’s startled expression, but there was no time for embarrassment. Survival came first.
After a fierce struggle, I finally stepped out onto the ground beyond the entrance, still using the pillar to hold the monsters at bay.
“Ethan! Above us! The handle!” I shouted, gesturing with my head toward the ceiling. Above the entrance was an emergency hatch, and I knew there had to be a handle to release it.
Hadn’t I mentioned it? My father had poured his heart into building secret escape routes when he designed the Sinclair Hotel.
“I can’t reach it. You’ll have to pull it!”
Ethan glanced down at me, an amused grin tugging at his lips.
“You’re not cute when you’re this strong, but then you go and act like this, and it’s adorable,” he muttered under his breath.
Reaching up, he grabbed the circular handle I had pointed out and gave it a swift pull.