The Abandoned Villainess Became a Zombie - Chapter 2

Two zombies were wandering around the firmly shut fortress gate.

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

With zombies present, I couldn’t approach the fortress. Of course, I wouldn’t get bitten, but that was precisely the problem.

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

Whoosh—

Just as I was pondering my next move, an arrow shot down from above, piercing straight through the head of one zombie.

Moments later, two more arrows struck, and the remaining zombie, reacting to the nearby sound but seemingly unable to pick up the scent of human flesh, hesitated uncertainly.

The one firing arrows from the watchtower was the crown prince. Without hesitation, he loosed another shot, killing the last zombie.

‘Right, they regularly killed zombies.’

Zombies primarily reacted to sound. When they loitered around making noise, it often attracted more of their kind. In the novel, the protagonists took turns clearing out the area around the fortress to prevent such situations.

Setting aside these details that came to mind belatedly, I quickly made my way toward the fortress.

Looking up at the watchtower, I raised my hands high to make sure he wouldn’t mistake me for a zombie and shoot.

The crown prince, who had been preparing to nock another arrow, suddenly leaned forward in urgency.

He was high up, and the backlight made it impossible to see his expression, but judging by how he was half hanging out the window, he seemed quite shocked.

I gestured frantically, looking around as if urging him to open the gate quickly.

After a brief hesitation, he turned and ran. Disappearing from view, he reappeared moments later before the tightly shut fortress gate.

“Hah… ha…”

He gripped the iron bars, panting heavily.

“Penelope?”

His eyes wavered violently, as if he couldn’t believe I was alive.

“Your Highness, hurry.”

He scanned me up and down, as if checking whether I was infected. Since I looked entirely human and was speaking normally, he seemed to decide I couldn’t possibly be a zombie and opened the gate.

The heavy fortress gate slowly began to rise, inch by inch.

As soon as it was high enough for me to enter, I bent down and stepped inside.

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

The grand duke, who had belatedly stepped outside, scowled as he pointed his sword at me.

“The lady was unharmed, so I let her in.”

“How can you be sure she hasn’t been infected?”

“Would you rather have left her outside to wait until zombies swarmed in?”

The grand duke, who had been sharply criticizing the crown prince for opening the gate without consultation, fell silent at his retort.

Though his sword remained pointed at me.

“How did you survive, Penelope?”

The grand duke studied me closely as he spoke.

The visual differences between humans and zombies were mainly swollen veins and unfocused eyes.

Zombies had poor vision and primarily relied on hearing and smell, which made their gaze seem unfocused. However, they weren’t entirely blind, meaning with a bit of effort, I could control my focus.

The biggest and most obvious difference was the grotesquely swollen veins, but he wouldn’t be able to find such traits on me now.

I had already hidden my unfocused gaze and the protruding veins.

In truth, fixing the bulging veins was quite simple: cold water.

“How can a zombie look so human?”

“Because it was bathed in cold water.”

In the novel, a man had been unable to kill his wife after she turned into a zombie and had kept her tied up. When he washed his blood-covered wife with cold water, her appearance became almost human again. Unfortunately, the area where she had been bitten showed no improvement.

“…Do you dislike that I’m alive, Your Grace?”

Since the area where I had been bitten was hidden under my clothing, I could perfectly maintain a human appearance, allowing me to act confidently.

Kiieeek—

Just then, the grand duke’s gaze shifted away from me toward the zombies approaching from outside the gate.

The sound of our conversation must have drawn them in, as they were slowly making their way toward us.

“Making a scene won’t do you any good. Let’s go inside first.”

The crown prince said this and started walking, but the grand duke still did not lower his sword, watching me warily.

“They get excited when they smell human scent. But how did you manage to get here without attracting them?”

He gestured with his chin, signaling me to walk ahead. With the grand duke poised to strike me down the moment he confirmed I was a zombie, I stepped inside the fortress without worry.

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

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

“Penelope?”

But that was my mistake—thinking I could overlook the fact that I was a zombie.

“Lady! You’re alive!”

Just as I entered the fortress, the heroine, Lilia, ran toward me in tears and hugged me.

At that moment, I cursed internally.

“It’s such a relief.”

Her sudden embrace brought her scent right to me, and my body reacted instinctively.

‘I want to bite her…’

An overwhelming urge to sink my teeth into her surged through me.

Her shoulder was slightly scraped, her clothing torn. A small amount of blood had gathered on the exposed wound.

It was a wound so minor I wouldn’t have noticed it before, but now, the scent of blood from that tiny cut kept making my mouth fall open involuntarily.

‘No, I can’t bite!’

I wasn’t sure if it was morality holding me back or fear of the consequences, but I clenched my jaw shut with all my might. Because of that, my entire body began to tremble.

The grand duke was the first to notice something was off. He roughly grabbed the back of my neck and yanked me away from Lilia.

‘I don’t want to get my throat sliced open! I can’t bite. I have to endure!’

Thrown forcefully to the ground, I looked up at the gleaming sword that seemed ready to behead me at any moment. I had fought so hard to make it inside the fortress—there was no way I could die like this.

“Lilia!”

“…Lady?”

The crown prince, seeing my trembling form, quickly pulled Lilia behind him and unsheathed his sword. I was under serious suspicion now.

If I couldn’t shake their doubts, I would die here.

“Do you have any idea what I’ve been through because of you?!”

I clenched my eyes shut and shouted as if I were furious.

“You ask if I’m alive? How could I have survived?!”

Thump, thump, thump.

My heart pounded wildly again, and the words that should have been slow and sluggish due to the usual buffering effect now flowed easily.

“Right, you all wanted me dead!”

Lowering my head, I raised my hand and wiped my dry eyes.

The grand duke’s sword had disappeared from my sight. When I glanced up, he was still looking down at me with an unreadable expression, but his sword tip was now lowered toward the ground.

“You abandoned me because you wanted me dead!”

Awakening—a state in which zombies enhanced their physical abilities upon smelling human blood.

‘Is this awakening?’

I could now move my fingers freely, and my speech was fluid. At this moment, I felt like I could run effortlessly.

I knew too little about this body. Just now, I had nearly been killed because I didn’t realize my own reaction to the scent of blood. I needed to find out exactly what I was capable of and where my limits lay.

With that thought, I suddenly bolted toward the staircase.

“…Penelope.”

Ignoring the crown prince’s outstretched hand as if he wanted to stop me, I rushed up the stairs and entered a room at the end of the corridor, shutting the door behind me.

Despite running up the stairs at full speed, I wasn’t out of breath in the slightest. Zombies didn’t feel pain, which meant they likely had no stamina limitations either. It seemed I could keep running indefinitely while in an awakened state.

‘Could I be stronger too?’

Not all zombies were the same—some had extraordinary strength.

Curious, I grasped the chair in front of the mirror, gripping it tightly to test my strength.