The woman silently stared at the weapons Kellyan had placed on the ground before glancing around and muttering to herself.
“They should be here by now...”
Kellyan frowned. ‘Who’s coming?’
Just then, three men emerged from one of the village alleys, running toward them.
The scythes and kitchen knives in their hands made Kellyan momentarily consider retrieving his discarded weapons.
“Heidi! You were gone for over an hour, so we came looking for you per the protocol,” said the bearded man leading the group. It seemed the woman’s name was Heidi.
‘They even have protocols?’
Kellyan was impressed. It was far more organized than he’d expected from a rural village.
The three men turned their attention to Kellyan, scrutinizing him.
“Who’s this? An outsider?” the bearded man asked, causing the other two to react with visible unease.
“An outsider? How could an outsider be here?”
“He’s not bitten, is he?!”
From their reaction, it seemed this village hadn’t encountered any outsiders in quite some time.
‘Well, considering the lack of monsters here, it’s unlikely any outsiders could get in.’
Ignoring the men’s fussing, Kellyan calmly surveyed the village. In the distance, he spotted a clock tower, and beyond that, the hills behind the village. Through the trees, he noticed what seemed like a roof.
‘...Is that someone on the roof? Or am I imagining things?’
It was too far to tell.
Meanwhile, the men continued their commotion as Heidi tried to calm them down.
“This gentleman says he’s a royal guard of the Graydon Kingdom. He was passing by and noticed the village,” Heidi explained.
The three men regarded Kellyan with the same suspicion she had earlier, their eyes darting up and down his figure.
“So, you’re from another city?”
“How are things in other cities?”
Questions bombarded Kellyan, making him grimace before forcing a relaxed expression.
‘For now, I need to play nice with them.’
If he wanted to figure out what was going on in this strange village, he needed to earn their cooperation. Smiling kindly, he replied,
“The situation is the same everywhere. The capital, Benton, Westmoor, Hondorf, Kintner—plague has spread everywhere, and monsters are rampant. South of Kintner, Graydon’s southern regions are likely the same.”
“That’s... impossible...”
Despairing groans escaped from the group.
Kellyan had traveled from Westmoor, through Hondorf and Kintner, to Brunel. Every city and village he passed had been overrun with the plague and monsters. Apart from Westmoor, Brunel was the only village that appeared untouched.
It was eerily clean.
“Have you seen any royal soldiers passing through here? I’m looking for my comrades. They must’ve come this way, but I haven’t found them.”
“Royal soldiers? No, we haven’t seen them... though we did see the Kintner scum.”
“Those damn bastards. Good riddance to them.”
The men nodded vehemently, cursing the “Kintner scum.”
From their conversation, Kellyan deduced they were referring to Elliot’s subordinates. He recalled hearing that Brunel’s Happy House owner had overthrown Elliot’s survival camp. Was that what they were talking about?
‘Before meeting the owner of Happy House, I need to gather more information about her. Let’s dig deeper.’
“What do you mean by that? Did Kintner’s people come to this village?” Kellyan feigned ignorance, his tone innocent.
The three men and Heidi exchanged glances before one of them cautiously spoke.
“They invaded, trying to enslave all of us.”
“They locked us in the village chief’s house, so we didn’t see the fight, but without our lady, we’d all be dead.”
“Our lady saved us. We owe her our lives.”
“Sug—ah, our Sugar Star drove out the monsters and made this village what it is now. Kintner’s bastards? Heard they got eaten by monsters.”
‘Sugar Star?’ Kellyan suppressed a groan at the overly saccharine nickname.
‘Wait... I’ve heard that name before.’
Tilting his head, he asked, “Who is this ‘Sugar Star’? She drove out the monsters?”
“She’s the owner of Happy House. Our lady is an incredible person.”
‘Happy House?’
The pride and admiration in Heidi’s voice as she spoke about the lady of Happy House were unmistakable. Something about it gave Kellyan pause.
‘Wait, what did she just say?’
The owner of Happy House, nicknamed Sugar Star, had driven out the monsters.
A chill ran down Kellyan’s spine as he voiced a question that had been nagging at him.
“I heard there’s someone here—a bear-like figure who rips monsters apart with their bare hands. Could that be the lady of Happy House?”
The men and Heidi burst into hearty laughter before replying one after the other.
“Yes, that’s her!”
“She’s incredible!”
“Amazing, isn’t she?”
Listening to their enthusiastic praise, Kellyan felt an instinctive need to learn more about this enigmatic Sugar Star, the owner of Happy House.
First, he needed to figure out what was going on with this suspicious village and its remarkable protector. After that, he would locate Ethan.
Smiling disarmingly, Kellyan asked, “I’m starving. Could I trouble you for something to eat?”
His abrupt request for food made the group eye him warily, suspicion written all over their faces.
They were likely worried he might try to steal their supplies.
‘Well, in times like these, it’s no wonder they’re protective of their food.’
Kellyan was about to shift the topic away from food and back to questions about Ethan when the woman spoke up.
“We don’t have the authority to allocate food,” she said.
“Shouldn’t we take him to the village chief’s house?” the bearded man suggested, giving Kellyan a thorough once-over. “It’d be best to discuss what to do with him there.”
Kellyan quickly gestured toward the weapons he’d placed on the ground. “Take them if you like. I only need a place to rest for one day.”
A brief silence followed before the bearded man glanced at his companions and picked up the discarded weapons.
“Please understand, we don’t know who you are yet,” the man said. Another villager approached with a piece of rope and tied Kellyan’s hands.
“That’s fine,” Kellyan said, offering no resistance.
The bearded man checked the time on a pocket watch he retrieved from his trousers. “We’ve been away too long. It’s time to head back.”
Heidi turned to one of the men. “We’ll take him to the chief. Gary, go inform Miss Cherry. I waved the flag according to protocol, but there’s been no response from Happy House. Could something have happened?”
Hearing this, Kellyan picked up on a strange detail.
‘Cherry?’
It wasn’t a common name. And this was Brunel, wasn’t it?
It was only natural for his thoughts to jump to Cherry Sinclair, who was supposed to be in Brunel with Ethan.
Kellyan turned to the woman. “Miss Cherry... are you referring to Cherry Sinclair?”
Heidi nodded enthusiastically. “You know her! Yes, our lady is the famous and remarkable Sinclair heiress!”
Cherry Sinclair’s fame didn’t surprise him. But “remarkable”?
He recalled the woman’s earlier statements—that they owed their lives to the lady and that the “bear who rips monsters apart with their bare hands” was her.
‘She’s saying that’s Cherry Sinclair?’
Impossible. It had to be someone with the same name or an impersonator.
‘The gossip queen of high society? The black sheep of the Sinclair family? No way.’
Following the woman to the village chief’s house, Kellyan found himself stunned by the sight before him.
In the mansion’s garden, people sat in groups, chatting as they shucked corn.
Overseeing them was an elderly man, likely the chief, who called out, “This corn is for Miss Cherry, so make sure you prepare it properly!”
In a world where food was scarce, they were dedicating that much corn to this “Miss Cherry”?
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‘Is she exploiting them?’ Kellyan wondered. If true, she might be no better than a tyrant like Elliot.
The chief, having heard about Kellyan from Heidi, turned to him with a sharp gaze.
“A stranger, eh? A royal guard? What does status even matter in this damned world!” the chief barked. He scrutinized Kellyan before stroking his mustache and shouting, “If you’re hungry, come over here and start shucking corn! It’s for Miss Cherry, so make sure it’s in perfect condition! This is the last harvest from the village. You’ll earn your share of food after today’s work!”
Caught off guard, Kellyan found himself sitting among the villagers, shucking corn for “Miss Cherry,” all the while wondering who this Cherry Sinclair impersonator truly was.
It wasn’t until four hours later, as he worked, that he heard news of Nox being taken by a monster.
*****
Meanwhile, I gripped my axe tightly and silently followed the monster.
By now, Vanilla would’ve informed the others at Happy House about Nox and me disappearing.
‘Will Ethan be furious when he hears this?’
Knowing him, he’d probably come charging out the moment he heard, cursing about how I couldn’t be left alone without someone to stop me.
‘But I can’t wait for help to arrive. Nox might not have that long.’
The creature headed deep into the forest behind Brunel, climbing the mountain. Judging by its direction, it wasn’t far from Happy House.
As I tracked it, I thought back to the mutated viral monsters mentioned in Love in a Ruined World.
I calmly mapped out ways to attack and defend against it in my mind.
‘I’ll wait for the perfect moment when it lets its guard down.’