The Abandoned Villainess Became a Zombie - Chapter 2

Two zombies were prowling around the firmly shut gates of the fortress.

‘I need to get there, but what should I do?’

With zombies nearby, I couldn’t approach the fortress. Of course, I wouldn’t be bitten—but that was exactly the problem.

I couldn’t let the main characters see that zombies didn’t attack me.

Whoosh—

I was agonizing over what to do when a swift arrow shot down from above and pierced one zombie clean through the head.

Soon after, two more arrows struck down. Although the remaining zombie responded to the sound coming from nearby, it didn’t seem to smell any human scent and aimlessly wandered around.

The one shooting arrows from the watchtower was the Crown Prince. Without hesitation, he shot down the other zombie as well.

‘That’s right, they regularly killed zombies.’

Zombies primarily responded to sound. So when one would wander and create noise, more would be drawn in. To prevent that, the main characters in the novel had taken turns clearing the area around the fortress.

Pushing aside the belated memory of that trivial detail, I hurried toward the fortress.

Looking up at the watchtower, I raised my hand high to show that I wasn’t a threat—so he wouldn’t mistake me for a zombie and shoot.

The Crown Prince, who had just been about to load another arrow, urgently leaned forward.

He was up high, and the sun was behind him, so I couldn’t make out his expression, but from the way he stuck half his torso out the window, he looked quite shocked.

Frantically glancing around, I gestured for him to open the gate quickly.

He hesitated for a moment, then started running. He disappeared from view, only to reappear shortly afterward in front of the tightly closed gate.

“Haah, ha…”

He grabbed the iron bars and panted heavily.

“Penelope?”

His eyes trembled fiercely, as if he couldn’t believe I was alive.

“Your Highness, quickly.”

I urged him on as he looked me over, seemingly worried whether I was infected. He must’ve judged that I couldn’t possibly be a zombie, since I looked no different from a human and was even speaking.

The gate began to rise, little by little.

Just as I bent my body to slip under the gate, which had risen high enough for me to enter—

“Your Highness, how could you open the gate!”

The Grand Duke, who had come out late, aimed his sword at me as I stepped into the fortress, his tone laced with irritation.

“I only let her in because she was safe.”

“And how can you be sure she’s not infected?”

“Then should we have left her outside the gate and waited for zombies to gather around her?”

The Grand Duke reacted sensitively to the Crown Prince’s unilateral decision to open the gate, but at the Prince’s sharp rebuttal, he closed his mouth, unable to respond.

Of course, the sword aimed at me remained as it was.

“How did you survive, Penelope?”

The Grand Duke looked me over slowly and asked.

The physical differences between humans and zombies were mainly the bulging veins and the slightly unfocused eyes.

Zombies had degraded vision and responded primarily to sound and smell, which was why their eyes often lacked focus. However, they hadn’t completely lost their sight, so with a little effort, the issue of eye focus could be overcome.

The most significant problem—and distinguishing trait—was the grotesquely bulging veins. But right now, they wouldn’t be able to spot any such zombie-like features on me.

The unfocused eyes were hidden, and the bulging veins were gone.

In truth, the solution for the bulging veins was simple: soak in cold water.

“How can a zombie look so human?”

“Because it washed in cold water.”

In the novel, a husband, unable to kill his wife after she turned into a zombie, had kept her alive by binding her. When he washed her blood-covered body with cold water, her appearance became closer to human. Unfortunately, the area where she had been bitten showed no improvement.

“…Your Grace, do you resent that I survived?”

Fortunately, I had been bitten in a place I could cover with clothes, so I could perfectly resemble a human—and because of that, I was able to act confidently.

Kieeeek—

Just then, the Grand Duke turned his gaze from me due to the zombies approaching outside the gate. It seemed the sound of our conversation had drawn them in, and they began approaching slowly.

“Causing a commotion won’t do us any good. Let’s go in first.”

The Crown Prince said that and began to walk, but the Grand Duke still didn’t lower his sword, continuing to eye me warily.

“They get agitated when they smell a human. But I just can’t understand how you managed to avoid them and make it all the way here.”

As he said that, he jerked his chin toward the fortress, indicating I should walk ahead. Even with the Grand Duke poised to strike the moment he confirmed I was a zombie, I walked into the fortress without fear.

‘Yeah, as long as I keep this up, I’ll be fine.’

They might find it strange that I survived, but they wouldn’t be able to find any proof that I was a zombie.

“Penelope?”

But that was a naïve thought, born of forgetting the fact that I was a zombie.

“Lady! You’re alive!”

The heroine, Lilia, came running toward me in tears and hugged me when she saw me entering the fortress. I swore inwardly.

“I’m so glad you’re okay.”

My body was reacting to the scent coming from her as she hugged me.

‘I want to bite her…’

I wanted to bite her—badly.

Maybe she had scraped herself somewhere, because the shoulder area of her clothes was torn, and a small amount of blood had welled up on her abraded skin.

It was a wound so minor you normally wouldn’t even notice, yet the smell of blood from that tiny injury kept making my mouth try to open.

‘I can’t bite her!’

I didn’t know whether it was reason rooted in morality or fear of the consequences I’d have to face afterward, but I desperately struggled to keep my mouth shut—and in doing so, my body began to tremble.

The first to notice something was off was the Grand Duke. He roughly grabbed the nape of my neck and yanked me away from Lilia.

‘I don’t want to get my head chopped off! I can’t bite. I have to hold it in.’

Thrown to the ground with force, I saw the gleaming sword that looked like it could fall on my neck at any moment and thought exactly that. I had fought so hard to make it to the fortress alive—there was no way I could die like this.

“Lilia!”

“…Lady?”

The Crown Prince, seemingly now seeing my trembling body, also drew his sword and pulled Lilia behind him. They were fully suspicious of me.

If I couldn’t dispel this suspicion, I’d be killed just like that.

“Do you even know what I went through because of you?!”

I tightly shut my eyes and yelled out as if in anger.

“You’re asking if I’m alive? How I survived?”

Thud, thud, thud.

My heart began to race again, and the words—ones that should have come out sluggishly like lagged video—poured from my mouth effortlessly.

“That’s right, all of you just wanted me dead!”

Lowering my head, I raised a hand and wiped the dry corner of my eye.

The sword that the Grand Duke had been pointing at me disappeared from my sight. When I glanced up, he was still staring down at me expressionlessly, but the tip of his sword was now pointed to the ground. He had clearly lowered his suspicion.

“You wanted me dead, and you abandoned me!”

Awakening. The state in which a zombie’s physical abilities are enhanced by the scent of human blood.

‘So this is what awakening is.’

Every finger moved according to my will, and I spoke rapidly. I felt like I could even run now.

I knew far too little about this body. Just now, I had nearly died because I hadn’t realized I would react to the scent of blood. I had to know what I was capable of and where my limits lay.

Having made up my mind, I suddenly stood and ran toward the stairs.

“…Penelope.”

The Crown Prince reached out ambiguously, as if trying to stop me, but I turned away from his hand, ran up the stairs, and entered the room at the end of the hallway, shutting the door behind me.

I had sprinted up the stairs quickly, but I wasn’t even out of breath. Since zombies couldn’t feel pain, it seemed they had no physical stamina limit either. Apparently, in an awakened state, I could run endlessly.

‘Could it be that I’ve gotten stronger too?’

Not all zombies were like that, but among them were some who had unusually strong physical strength. Just in case, I grabbed the chair in front of the mirror and tried gripping it tightly.