As Harrison suggested, we decided to leave the fireplace alone for now. There were simply too many potential risks.
This doesn’t feel right. I thought it was just an ordinary abandoned house...
I stared silently into the dark, gaping maw of the fireplace. My mind wandered back to what Vanilla had said about the mansion in the novel.
[Vanilla survived alone for six months in an isolated mansion in the village of Brunel.
She described the mansion as “special.” She also mentioned that it was optimized for survival.
The mansion she showed us matched her description exactly.
─ Love in a Ruined World]
The mansion being “special”... I definitely remembered that part. While the claim that it was optimized for survival could be interpreted in many ways, the mention of it being “special” carried a deeper meaning.
I glanced at Vanilla. As if reading my thoughts, Ethan spoke up, addressing her directly.
“Hey, you. You said you were the original owner of this place, right? What the hell is this?”
Everyone turned to Vanilla, who was standing near the door, observing the situation. She shrugged nonchalantly.
“I’ve never actually been inside this mansion myself, so I wouldn’t know.”
She slowly walked over to inspect the fireplace. After examining it for a moment, she peered into the dark passage with a contemplative expression. I couldn’t help but ask,
“You said you were the owner of this mansion. You’ve really never been inside?”
Vanilla scratched her cheek awkwardly.
This chapter is updat𝓮d by freēwebnovel.com.
“Like I said before, I manage so many properties. If Sinclair hadn’t bought this one, I might’ve checked it out at some point.”
Come to think of it, she did have properties in both Benton and Westmoor. If I remembered correctly, she mentioned owning four or five more elsewhere.
The Baron and Baroness Ruskin passed away in a car accident a year ago...
A year would’ve gone by quickly, sorting out inheritance matters and grieving. Managing that many properties in such a short time would’ve been overwhelming.
My parents died in a car accident three years ago...
A strange sense of kinship with Vanilla welled up within me.
“So you don’t know anything about the previous owner of this mansion either?”
Vanilla shook her head in response to my question.
“My father might have known, but I don’t...”
Her voice trailed off, and then she suddenly seemed to remember something. She turned to me with a start.
“There’s a file in the room I was staying in at the Brunel Inn. It might have some information about the previous owner.”
“Ah... Brunel...”
I sighed deeply. Everyone else seemed to have the same thought, as the room fell silent. The “Brunel Inn room” meant the document was likely in the middle of a monster-infested area. And even then, the file might not contain anything useful.
Besides, it’s not like this underground passage has anything directly to do with the virus. I’m just curious why it was built. Is it worth the risk?
As I was caught up in such thoughts, Emma’s voice broke through from behind me.
“Oh? She’s waking up.”
I turned to see Susanna, lying on the bed, barely opening her eyes.
“Susanna!”
I handed the kerosene lantern to Harrison and rushed to the bed.
“Ah... Miss...”
Susanna’s weak voice called out to me, and I hugged her tightly. She trembled as she spoke, her voice shaking with emotion.
“Miss... I’m so glad you’re safe.”
Her body quivered as I held her. Didn’t I say it before? Susanna is an angel. Even in a moment like this, she was worried about me.
“It’s me who should say that, Susanna. I’m so relieved you’re awake. I thought... I thought you were dead. I’m sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing, Miss? I’m the one who should be sorry.”
“Why should you be sorry?”
We kept going back and forth, apologizing to each other until we both broke down in tears.
Truthfully, I couldn’t say Susanna and I had been particularly close. We hadn’t spent all that much time together. But who cares about how long you’ve been with someone? What matters is the bond you share.
Susanna had come all the way to this remote village of Brunel for me without hesitation. I’d never told her, but that meant everything to me. Until now, no one had ever put me first, unconditionally, like that.
After we held each other and cried for what felt like an eternity, embarrassment eventually set in. Everyone had been watching us the whole time.
Harrison handed me a handkerchief while Emma wiped Susanna’s face. That’s when Amy, her curiosity uncontainable, blurted out a question.
“Sugar Star, is she your maid?”
“Kid...”
Ethan glared at Amy, silently telling her to read the room. Amy clammed up, and Jose took her hand, leading her back a step.
“How do you feel?”
I smoothed Susanna’s hair and asked. She touched her head with her pale hands and shook it weakly.
“I’m not sure. I feel so dizzy... I have no strength.”
“Don’t overdo it. Just lie down and rest.”
Nox gently helped her lie back down. Harrison, stepping closer, asked her,
“Do you remember what happened?”
Susanna’s eyes widened in surprise when she saw Harrison. She looked around at the gathered faces before asking,
“Mr. Lawyer... How are you here? And who are all these people?”
“That’s... a long story. Can you tell us what happened? If it’s too much, we can talk later.”
I stroked Susanna’s bandaged hand, trying to reassure her. But she shook her head.
“I’m fine... I’ll explain.”
I held her hand and nodded. Then she slowly began to recount her story.
“That day... the day you went to greet Mr. Lawyer... I stayed behind at the mansion to feed the chickens. Someone kept knocking on the front gate. I thought it was you, Miss, coming back for something you forgot.”
“She does tend to forget things often,” Harrison interjected with a smirk. I cleared my throat and shot him a look.
“I called out, asking if it was you, Miss, but there was no answer. Just knocking on the gate, over and over.”
Susanna shivered, hugging herself as she continued.
“It felt strange, but I opened the gate anyway. I was too curious about what was going on. I’m sorry, Miss. You told me to be careful.”
“No, it’s my fault for leaving without properly explaining things.”
At the time, I had thought it was fine since there were still ten days left before the apocalypse. I hadn’t even locked the gate when I left. Locking it would’ve made it difficult for Susanna to get out, and the gate latch itself was heavy enough that an adult man would struggle to lift it. I figured it was better left unlatched.
“What was at the gate when you opened it?”
“Ah... There was a person, covered in blood, collapsed in front of it. A mother holding a child. Both of them looked severely injured, so I brought them inside. I thought I needed to help them, maybe call a doctor. They looked like they were dying.”
That’s when I realized. The wolf monster I’d seen was the mother, and the smaller bear-like creature had been the child.
“I took them to the banquet hall first. While I was treating their wounds with first-aid supplies... they suddenly transformed. It was so horrifying... so horrifying...”
“They are horrifying,” Amy interjected. “If it weren’t for Sugar Star, we’d still be stuck among them.”
“I thought I was dead when I first saw them. I thought I’d gone to hell.”
Susanna trailed off, visibly shaken. Amy and Emma quickly echoed her sentiments, trying to comfort her.
Then Susanna looked around at us with a startled expression.
“What do you mean? Did those monsters go into the village?”
Her question filled the room with a chilling silence.