About an hour had passed when Ethan finally spoke, patiently waiting for me to calm down.
“If there are any survivors in the village, we need to rescue them. They might be hiding somewhere, waiting for help.”
I wiped away my tears and turned to look at him.
Right. This wasn’t the time to sit here crying.
“Ethan, I understand how you feel... but going into the village unprepared is suicide.”
Besides, we didn’t have enough weapons in the mansion. Even if we had guns, firing them without silencers would only attract more monsters because of the noise.
“I know that. But we can’t stay here forever, can we?”
He wasn’t wrong. While I could afford to stay here, Ethan had to get back to Aurora.
If he ended up stuck here, I’d have to go find Ezra, the scientist male lead, myself.
In the novel, Ezra knew how to develop a cure using Ethan’s antibodies.
But what if I let Ethan leave, only for him to get infected on his way to Aurora?
While I stayed silent, lost in thought, Ethan sighed heavily, his face filled with worry.
“Honestly, Cherry... I want to make a phone call to the capital.”
“I understand how you feel, Ethan.”
“There’s a telephone at the station. I need to check if the capital is in the same state as this place... and if my sister is safe.”
“Ah...”
He wasn’t the only one. I wanted to call Harrison too.
I wanted to know if he was safe—or if the capital had fallen, just like in the novel.
Even if it was hopeless, we both desperately needed something right now.
Hope.
Maybe facing the reality on the other end of that call would be the only way for us to prepare for what came next.
After a moment of hesitation, I nodded.
“All right. There’s someone I need to find too.”
I couldn’t lose Harrison after failing to protect Susanna.
We decided to assess the number of monsters gathered outside Happy House before making any plans to head into town.
First, I pulled down the ladder to the attic on the second floor and climbed onto the roof.
From up there, I could see the observation post and catapult the repairman had built.
‘I hope he’s safe too.’
He had finished the repairs just yesterday. Talk about bad timing.
Feeling uneasy, I scanned the area around the mansion.
The monsters were still clustered around the walls of Happy House.
A few of them were stuck in the traps I had set, struggling to free themselves, but there were just too many of them overall.
“How does it look?”
Ethan followed me up to the observation post.
After scanning the area, he let out a long sigh.
“It’s going to be difficult to move right now. We’ll have to wait until they lose interest.”
“I agree.”
Hearing my response, Ethan rubbed his face in frustration.
It was obvious he was anxious about not being able to leave for Aurora right away.
I felt the same about not knowing what had happened to Harrison.
“This observation post and catapult...”
Ethan trailed off as he looked around.
I already knew what he was thinking.
“It’s almost as if you prepared for this situation ahead of time.”
“...That’s ridiculous.”
I had ruled out the possibility of surviving in Happy House when I first came here with Ethan.
Who would’ve thought this situation would actually happen?
Ethan studied my face carefully.
His sharp gaze made me feel like he could see right through me.
But surprisingly, he didn’t press the issue. Instead, he muttered to himself.
“I can’t make sense of any of this. Where did those monsters come from? Why are people turning into them?”
“I want to know that too.”
Even in the original novel, the truth behind the virus was never revealed.
‘Damn incomplete story.’
One thing was clear—everything started with Marquis Casey and the alchemists’ experiments.
But what were they trying to accomplish?
What kind of experiment could have destroyed the world like this?
Neither of us could shake off our growing panic.
We stood there, leaning on the railing, silently staring at the monsters below.
I had spent so much time preparing for this moment, but looking back, had it even been ten days since I first made up my mind?
It wasn’t nearly enough time to prepare mentally for the apocalypse.
And now that I was actually seeing the chaos in the village and the monsters surrounding the mansion, I started to doubt myself.
Could I really survive this?
Growl—
Suddenly, both Ethan’s and my stomachs rumbled.
Ethan’s face flushed slightly in embarrassment.
That snapped me back to reality.
“We should eat something first.”
I also needed to clean up the kitchen. It was still a mess from yesterday, with emergency supplies scattered everywhere.
Ethan followed me down to the first-floor kitchen.
He seemed startled by the disaster zone the kitchen had become.
“Was this the monsters’ doing?”
“Yes. This was our lifeline... and they wrecked it.”
Ethan glanced at me as I murmured to myself.
He didn’t ask any more questions this time.
But I could see it in his eyes.
The same question he had asked earlier.
“It’s almost as if you prepared for this situation ahead of time.”
If he asked me again, I planned to lie and say I sometimes had prophetic dreams—and that this was one of those times.
But unexpectedly, Ethan didn’t ask. Instead, he started cleaning the kitchen.
Even though Ethan lived a modest lifestyle as a police officer, that was only in a professional sense. He was still the heir to the Lancaster Dukedom.
I hadn’t expected someone like him to take the initiative to clean without me asking.
Ethan glanced at me, holding a broom.
“I cleaned up after myself when I stayed at the police barracks, so stop looking at me like that.”
I must’ve been staring, and it showed on my face. Feeling a bit embarrassed, I nodded and grabbed a rag.
I needed to wipe the flour that was scattered all over the floor and shelves.
“I’m more surprised that you’re doing this without hesitation.”
I didn’t respond.
“Though, if I’m being honest, this mansion is the most surprising thing.”
With those words, a heavy silence fell between us.
The truth was, neither of us was in the right state of mind.
We swept, scrubbed, and cleared away the mess in silence for the next couple of hours.
It wasn’t perfectly clean, but given the circumstances, I thought we did a decent job.
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Afterward, I decided to make a simple stew.
Since reincarnating as Cherry, I hadn’t cooked even once.
Naturally, I didn’t know how to make food the way people here did. Instead, I planned to make a Korean-style stew.
When I stood in front of the stove, Ethan looked at me with surprise.
“You can cook?”
“Yes. If we’re heading outside later, we need to eat something filling first.”
I pulled out a cutting board and a kitchen knife.
Then I washed some potatoes, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, carrots, and broccoli before placing them on the cutting board.
Without refrigeration, these ingredients wouldn’t last long. Better to use them now.
As I gripped the knife and positioned myself, Ethan reached out with a worried look.
“Maybe I should—”
Chop, chop, chop.
The sharp sound of my knife silenced him.
Ethan stepped back, watching in disbelief as I swiftly diced the vegetables.
I pulled out a frying pan and placed it over the stove.
After checking the heat, I added olive oil, butter, and the vegetables, stirring them as they sizzled.
Once the vegetables were cooked, I added water, tomatoes, bay leaves, minced garlic, and some cheese, letting it simmer.
The stew bubbled, and the rich red color of the tomatoes deepened.
The large chunks of potatoes and vegetables softened, releasing an appetizing aroma.
I finished by adding the broccoli, seasoning with salt, and turning off the heat.
I served the stew into two bowls—one for Ethan and one for myself—then placed them on the counter.
“I can’t believe my eyes,” Ethan muttered, staring blankly at the stew.
Instead of moving to the dining table, we ate right there at the counter.
We were too anxious to sit down.
We just wanted to fill our stomachs quickly and head out to check on the people we cared about.
“I’ll admit it—I completely misjudged you, Cherry.”
Ethan sounded sincere as he spoke.
I looked at him while eating my stew.
“Didn’t you say you only act formal around me? Ludfisher told me.”
At my words, Ethan paused with his spoon halfway to his mouth.
He set it down and looked at me directly.
Then, tilting his head slightly, he spoke with a cold, expressionless face.
“So what? Do you want me to treat you the same as everyone else?”
“...No.”
“There’s no need to be formal anymore.”
“Still, be formal.”
Ethan shrugged and smirked before going back to eating.
“I didn’t expect to have such a proper meal in a situation like this,” he said, staring at his empty bowl.
“And it was really delicious. Thank you.”
“Yeah. It’s surprising that we can still eat like this in times like these.”
With that, silence fell again.
We placed the empty dishes in the sink, quickly washed them, and left the kitchen.
Now, it was time to come up with a real plan.