“You were looking at the same thing.”
Ethan let out a brief chuckle and raised his head again. His face moved away, and only then did I finally exhale the breath I had been holding back.
It felt strangely odd to realize that Ethan had fine hair like any other human being. I had always imagined that every part of him was just hard and rough.
Ethan pointed at the catapult and then gestured toward the statue of the girl in the town square.
“If we launch a stone with the catapult and hit that, it should collapse with a loud noise due to the material.”
I lightly swung my arm, agreeing with his assessment.
There was a reason I installed a catapult in this mansion in the first place.
‘I wouldn’t have bothered if it was something I couldn’t operate myself!’
“I used to be pretty good at tossing coins into fountains, you know? Never missed.”
In my previous life, I was a pro at throwing things.
I was ridiculously good at slingshotting angry red birds in games. I could even shoot rubber bands with my fingers like a sharpshooter.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“There’s this thing where you make a wish while tossing a coin. Anyway, it means I’m good at aiming and hitting targets.”
Ethan gave me another one of those looks, like I was some kind of lunatic, but I ignored him and checked the condition of the catapult.
I had stocked up plenty of rocks to use with it. It was finally time to put this baby to work.
Ethan pulled a pocket watch out of his uniform jacket and checked the time. A shadow fell under his thick eyelashes as he looked down.
The shadow had shifted further to the side compared to earlier. Time was steadily passing.
We’d be in trouble if the sun set already.
Then again, maybe the darkness would actually work to our advantage against the monsters.
“But Cherry, there’s one thing we need to consider first. If the monsters gather in the town, it might become too dangerous for us to enter later.”
At Ethan’s words, I pulled out the map of Brunel that I had stashed in my pocket and spread it out on the floor. I pointed to the police station with my finger. It was quite far from the square.
“Isn’t your destination the police station?”
Ethan glanced over the station and the surrounding area, his expression shifting as he caught my point.
“You’re right. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s still within the monsters’ range.”
“Hmm...”
He wasn’t wrong about that.
I closed my mouth, falling silent, and Ethan spoke again with calm reassurance.
“If there’s no other way, I can act as bait—”
“Bait? Are you insane? Absolutely not.”
What the hell was he even talking about? Cut that crap. Ethan was someone I had to protect, even if it meant throwing myself in harm’s way.
“Cherry, wait—”
“Shut up. I said no, and I fucking mean it.”
My commanding shout startled Ethan, and he stared at me with wide eyes.
If Ethan died, we wouldn’t be able to develop the cure, and the world would fall into total destruction. And if that happened, I’d be screwed too!
Of course, if I were being brutally honest, I might not actually need Ethan’s help. The guy was practically a walking tank. If anything, I should be worrying about the poor monsters getting ripped apart by him.
Hadn’t I already mentioned it? Ethan ranked first in survivability and combat ability in the original novel Love in a Ruined World, even beating out the main male lead.
But that was the original story. The situation was different now, and I had to take that into account.
As long as he was by my side, I had to protect Ethan.
This wasn’t about helping someone else.
This was about helping myself!
'While we’re together, I need to treat Ethan’s life as equal to mine!’
He’s the virus cure—and the key ingredient.
So I shook my head even harder and added a firm warning.
“Don’t even think about sacrificing yourself over a phone call that might not even connect. I’ll protect you, Sir Ethan.”
After all, I’m stronger than him anyway.
Ethan’s expression shifted into something strange. He opened his mouth as if to speak, then closed it again, staring at me like I was incomprehensible.
Of course, he wouldn’t understand. Even if he asked what I meant, I couldn’t explain it to him.
“What the hell does that even mean...?”
Ethan let out a hollow laugh, covering his mouth with his massive hand as if he couldn’t believe what he just heard.
Still laughing, he rubbed his chin and replied as though he’d resigned himself to the situation.
“In that case, there’s only one option left.”
“There’s another option?”
Thank God. An option. I looked at him with hopeful eyes, but Ethan’s expression didn’t change at all when he said—
“We leave it to fate.”
What the fuck?
“It was a joke, so stop looking like that.”
“Are you seriously joking right now?”
I stared at him in disbelief, but Ethan just pointed to the police station marked on the map without a hint of guilt.
“There’s a basement prison in the police station.”
“In this tiny police station?”
“Most old police stations have them.”
Ethan then pointed behind the station, toward a forest.
“There’s a side door in the basement. It connects to a morgue.”
A morgue. Are you fucking kidding me?
“How many prisoners could possibly have died in this tiny village’s jail? That’s insane.”
“Not many, like you said. And it hasn’t been used in years. But there are always some people who need to be locked up, no matter where you go.”
Ethan’s eyes suddenly turned sharp and dangerous, like he could kill someone on the spot without hesitation.
Updated from freewёbnoνel.com.
“And, Cherry, there are a lot more of those bastards out there than you think.”
He had a point. Even in the modern world, horrific crimes happened every single day. In a world like this one, where the legal system was more relaxed, there had to be even more.
I suddenly remembered the time I visited the police station and saw Ethan beating the shit out of a domestic abuser.
“Anyway, what we need to focus on isn’t those bastards but the morgue. If we use it, we can avoid the monsters’ line of sight.”
Ethan pointed to an empty patch of forest that wasn’t marked on the map.
But going through a morgue? That’s basically suggesting we walk straight into a pile of corpses to avoid the monsters...
Just imagining it made me shudder.
“What does the morgue look like?”
“It’ll be easier to see it for yourself. It’s not as scary as you’re imagining, so don’t worry.”
Not scary, my ass. How could a room full of corpses not be scary?
Oh, wait. Maybe he meant it’s less scary than the monsters.
I glared at the “forest” marker on the map.
In the meantime, the sun had completely set. The streets were plunged into darkness without even the glow of gas lamps, but thankfully, the moonlight was bright.
I glanced over at Ethan, who was still scanning the area through binoculars. It was so dark—how the hell could he see anything?
“So, you’re agreeing to the plan to knock down the statue with the catapult?”
I asked again to make sure. Ethan lowered the binoculars and turned back to me.
“Are you seriously confident you can pull that off? It’s pretty far.”
“I’m strong, so it’ll work. Nothing’s impossible when you have strength.”
I meant every word. I trusted my strength completely.
Ethan blinked at me like I’d just said the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard. Then, he burst out laughing.
“Hey, keep it down.”
I whispered sharply in his ear, but his laughter only got louder.
Annoyed, I glanced down at the monsters prowling beneath the walls and smacked Ethan hard across the back.
“I said, be quiet.”
“Cough—”
He bent forward, clutching his ribs and coughing.
Shit. Did I hit him too hard?
I leaned closer, worried, only to see his shoulders trembling.
That son of a bitch. He was still laughing.
“Goddamn it. I can’t believe this. I didn’t expect you to just say you’d brute-force it like that. The fact that it actually sounds convincing makes it even worse.”
He straightened up, wiping the tears from the corners of his eyes.
“I think people completely misjudged you, Cherry. You’re not some spoiled socialite—you’re just... weird. Completely fucking insane.”
“....”
I didn’t respond. I just stared at him until he cleared his throat and forced his laughter back down.
I looked up at the dark sky for a moment before changing the subject.
“The moonlight’s bright, but we’ll probably need daylight to aim properly.”
“Fair enough. Then let’s wait until morning.”
We decided to spend the rest of the night preparing for the mission.
At times like this, I really missed Jose, the weapons expert. He would’ve thrown something together in no time if he were here.
‘But he’s just a side character, so of course he’s with Aurora.’
I sighed and focused on getting everything ready.