I asked with a tense expression.
“Why do you think I would know something like that?”
The truth was, all I knew was that alchemists funded by Marquis Casey had conducted some suspicious experiments.
R𝑒ad lat𝒆st chapt𝒆rs at free𝑤ebnovel.com Only.
I had no idea what their purpose was or what exactly they were experimenting on. Moreover, the novel had been discontinued without revealing anything.
‘Is that really all I know?’
I was curious too—what exactly had they been experimenting on, and was the virus outbreak truly caused by those experiments?
Even in the novel, there was only a “hopeful” mention that a cure might be developed. It never actually showed the process of creating one.
‘Will they really be able to develop a cure in two years?’
I leaned against the table, absentmindedly scanning the grocery store while giving a half-hearted reply.
“Look, Mr. Ludfisher. If I knew that, do you think I’d be sitting here like this?”
Nox didn’t completely buy my words, but he seemed to find them reasonable enough and gave a reluctant nod.
Now that I noticed, he was still chewing on the stick of the lollipop even after finishing it. When I asked why, he said it was an old habit from when he was trying to quit smoking.
“I’m curious about something. Miss Cherry, have you been pretending to be an idiot all this time? Because of your position as the heir? If so, you’ve completely fooled the entire social scene. Impressive.”
Pretending to be an idiot? That wasn’t an act, but hearing it phrased like that was irritating.
However, I didn’t bother to argue and simply stayed silent. Silence could be interpreted as affirmation, after all. It was better if Nox misunderstood on his own.
“I knew you were strong, but I didn’t realize just how strong. How do you explain that strength? You blew that monster away with a single hit earlier.”
Come to think of it, Ethan and Vanilla had seen me take down monsters before the apocalypse, but Nox hadn’t.
“I played a bit of cricket.”
“Come on. Playing cricket doesn’t give you the strength to blow a monster away with one hit.”
Nox replied incredulously, the lollipop stick still between his lips.
I wasn’t sure how many more people I’d meet going forward, but was I going to have to explain this every single time? I was already tired just thinking about it.
‘I really should just stay holed up in Happy House.’
“I took my supplements and exercised diligently. My body’s just built like this. What more do you want me to say?”
“So you weren’t this strong originally? Then those supplements sound pretty suspicious. What exactly did you take?”
“No more interrogations, please. I was weak as a child, so my parents imported special supplements from the Kingdom of Briwood.”
Of course, the part about Briwood was a lie. I didn’t actually know where the drugs came from.
“Hmm. Briwood is famous for its medicinal herbs.”
“Are we done with the interrogation?”
At my question, Nox raised both hands in a gesture of surrender.
“I wasn’t interrogating you, but I apologize if it felt that way.”
“Fine, whatever. Ethan is probably looking for us. Shouldn’t we leave some kind of signal so he can find us?”
Hearing my suggestion, Nox stroked his chin thoughtfully.
“They don’t seem to have very good eyesight. Their hearing seems to be more developed. What if we use light to signal?”
“Oh. Right. I did bring an oil lantern...”
I rummaged through the bag filled with groceries. I had completely forgotten that I’d put the lantern in there.
But of course. After all the rolling and tumbling I’d done while fighting monsters, the lantern was broken.
“Well, that’s a disaster.”
Nox commented dryly.
I set the broken lantern down on the floor and dug through the bag again. After a while, I found what I was looking for—a small matchbox.
The lighter was nowhere to be found, but at least I had matches.
“I have matches. Maybe there’s another lantern somewhere in the store? If we find one, we can light it and leave it at the entrance.”
Nox nodded at my suggestion, and we began searching the store for a lantern.
We started with the back of the store. Since there were no windows there, it was dim and hard to see.
I crouched under a desk that looked piled with junk and struck a match.
Hiss—
The match flared, lighting up the area around my face. At that moment, I locked eyes with the face of a middle-aged woman lying on the floor.
“Holy sh—! Damn it!”
I fell straight onto my back. Nox hobbled over, startled.
“You sure have a foul mouth. Doesn’t the Sinclair family teach etiquette? Lady Ruskin’s just as bad. Is it trendy for kids these days to skip etiquette classes?”
“Wanna come over here and see for yourself? Let’s see if you can keep your manners.”
I struck another match and showed Nox what I had seen.
A middle-aged woman’s severed head was lying on the floor, rolling slightly as if it had just settled. She looked like the store’s owner.
“Ugh...!”
Nox nearly screamed, but I clamped my hand over his mouth. That brought our faces uncomfortably close. His honey-colored eyes filled my vision.
I slowly pulled my hand away and stared silently at the severed head. How had this woman ended up like this?
I kept staring at it but eventually couldn’t hold back any longer and threw up in the corner.
Nox, being a doctor, seemed far less disturbed.
“It’s hard to tell if she was beheaded before or after turning into a monster.”
Nox, having regained his composure, made a simple observation. Behind the severed head of the woman was a lantern.
He lay down on the floor, reaching out for the lantern, but then suddenly seemed to feel a wave of self-doubt and stood up.
“I have no idea what I’m even doing right now. This isn’t the kind of thing I should be doing.”
“Excuse me? And do I look like someone who should be doing this? I’m the Sinclair heiress.”
I shot back with a line that sounded like something a Karen would say to a department store employee. Surprisingly, Nox agreed without much resistance.
“The end times, huh.”
“It’s definitely the end times. The world has literally ended.”
Nox didn’t seem to have a comeback for that, so he kept his mouth shut. Then, quietly, he crawled under the table and retrieved the lantern.
In any case, we successfully lit the lantern and set it outside the store’s entrance before quickly shutting the door.
“I really want to see Sir Ethan right now.”
If he were here, we could plow through this swarm of monsters and make it back to Happy House in no time. Nox was the brains, which meant I was the only one here capable of doing the heavy lifting.
‘Damn it! I really am the muscle here!’
Hearing my muttered complaint, Nox grumbled with a deeply annoyed expression.
“I don’t get it. What’s so great about that uncultured bastard that women are so obsessed with him?”
“What’s the point of worrying about a cop’s manners?”
“Hey. Do you like Lancaster?”
“Me? No?”
“Then why are you so desperate to find him?”
“Because I want to go home.”
“Hmm, fair enough. I guess having Lancaster here would make getting out of here easier.”
Once again, Nox quickly accepted my answer with a nod.
Hoping that Ethan would notice the signal from the lantern, I decided to ask Nox a question.
“Do you know Sir Ethan has a younger sister?”
“Of course.”
“Have you met her?”
“I have.”
“What’s she like?”
“Maybe because they’re not related by blood? They don’t look alike.”
“That’s it?”
When I asked, Nox frowned and looked at me, clearly confused about the point of my question.
“What else am I supposed to say?”
Nox was the second male lead in the novel, rivaling the crown prince in importance.
Ethan was far more popular, though—probably because he was Aurora’s adopted brother. That might’ve been what pushed Nox out of the spotlight in the end.
And then—
Bang! Bang!
Gunshots rang out in the distance. It had to be Ethan. I shot up from my seat.
“It’s Ethan!”
I rushed to the entrance, pulling aside the cloth covering the window and peering outside.
The infected monsters that had been wandering the streets were now rushing in one direction.
Bang! Bang!
The gunshots continued. I turned to look at Nox, who was standing beside me.
“We should probably go out there and help him...”
My words trailed off. My eyes had landed on Nox’s bandaged leg. He just smiled and shrugged, as if it was nothing.
“If I get in the way, feel free to leave me behind.”
I leaned against the door and stared silently at Nox, who was still pretending to be cool.
With the lollipop stick in his mouth, he smiled at me like nothing was wrong.
After hesitating for a moment, I decided to make him an offer.
“Don’t be stubborn. Just let me carry you.”