The Abandoned Villainess Became a Zombie - Chapter 5

“Penelope, this way.”

He opened a door and jerked his chin as if telling me to go in. Inside the room were several low beds and a small desk. The floor, with no coverings laid out, exposed bare planks, and the wall mirror, with its paint all chipped away, looked no different from the one in my own room.

On the bed in the corner of the room lay Idorian’s blue sword and a black cloak embroidered with silver thread. It seemed to be his room.

He pulled out a bandage from the drawer and approached.

“Sit.”

Idorian seemed about to sit on the floor to wrap it himself, so I hurriedly shook my head. Well, this body wasn’t exactly swift like I imagined, so he had already sat down on the floor.

“Give it to me. I’ll do it.”

“…Do you even know how?” Idorian tilted his head slightly, asking as if surprised.

“You just wrap it, right?”

I didn’t want to entrust my body to him. I was scared he might spot some other oddity or difference in me with his sharp eyes.

“If it were that simple, I wouldn’t bother. Sit.”

“Then show me. I’ll do it.”

He looked up at me, still standing, and furrowed his brow.

“You want me to show you by wrapping it on my own leg?”

Idorian showed clear annoyance, as if he didn’t understand why we had to make things more complicated. In the end, I gave up trying to convince him and sat down in front of him.

Idorian stared at me for a while longer, then grabbed my foot.

I winced, carefully inspecting my ankle, worried there might be some strange mark. My heart began to beat a little faster from the anxiety.

But contrary to my fears, Idorian let go of my ankle without comment. About a minute had passed.

“You’ve seen it now, so you should be able to do it next time.”

He stood up, clapped his hands, and handed me the remaining bandage.

As if that was all he had to do, he headed straight for the door.

Tap, tap, tap.

But before he could step out, a rhythmic tapping sound came from the window, and Idorian turned back to open it.

A bird flew in through the opened window, circled once over Idorian’s head, then perched familiarly on his hand.

He removed a small tube from the bird’s neck, gave it some water and food, then read through the freshly arrived letter.

“…Damn.”

After quickly scanning the letter, he left the room at once as if he had completely forgotten I was there.

Though he said nothing to me about the letter, I quickly recalled the early events of the novel and realized whose message that was.

A genius who might be able to bring this crisis to a swift end. The man I needed.

His name…

I couldn’t remember his name—only that it had brought brief hope and immediate crisis, then death—but I clearly remembered this event.

He was a commoner from a small kingdom and a university classmate of Idorian Fidentre. He had come to the empire after a long time, wanting to see Idorian again.

After arriving by ship at Lemane Port near the capital, he had planned to stay a few days sightseeing and then take the train into the Imperial City. But before he could do that, the zombie outbreak began, and all routes into the capital were closed.

Trapped inside the train, which had come to a halt on the tracks, he received a letter from Idorian—and the reply had just arrived now.

He said that since he had come to see Idorian anyway and the distance wasn’t far, he would head to the fortress. But that was a naïve judgment made by someone who hadn’t yet encountered zombies firsthand.

In a zombie outbreak, the most important things were to find a safe place to hide and secure food. But lacking that knowledge, the genius took the reckless route and ended up being bitten while climbing the mountain.

And yet, the reason he managed to make it halfway up was thanks to his keen observational skills.

He realized zombies reacted to sound and smell, so he covered himself with the corpses of the zombies the main characters had cut down while climbing the mountain and hid in trees at night.

In the end, the reason he died was because he bled. The scent of human blood couldn’t be masked by anything, and because of it, he was ultimately torn apart by the zombies.

‘But why was he bleeding, again?’

“Hmmm…”

In any case, if I could save that genius, we might be able to settle this chaotic situation a bit faster. But if I acted rashly and aroused suspicion, that would be its own disaster.

“You’re still here?”

Idorian returned to the room, folding in half a hastily scribbled note.

He looked briefly at me still sitting on his bed, then approached the bird quenching its thirst. He stroked the bird a few times, then stuffed the new message into the small container.

“…Is there something you want to say?”

Idorian sat on a nearby chair as if he intended to wait until the small bird finished eating, and awkwardly started a conversation. I quietly pointed to the bird, signaling I was expecting an explanation.

And only belatedly did I consider the possibility that this might’ve been a polite way of dismissing me.

“A friend I met at university says he’s coming here to see me.”

Idorian began speaking without much reproach.

“Will you go pick him up?”

“…Yeah.”

For a moment, his golden eyes flickered slightly, as if he’d realized something too late.

“…I’m planning to go tomorrow morning.”

Looking halfway down, he stroked the bird again. The little bird, done eating, closed its eyes and calmly accepted his touch, as if used to his hand.

In the novel, Idorian had indeed released the bird again to confirm his friend’s location, and afterward followed it to meet him.

In the end, the friend would become a zombie, and Idorian would return after three days, seriously injured.

…But that didn’t mean I could say I wanted to go with him.

Knock knock.

Just as I was wondering what I should do, Lilia gently knocked on the half-open door.

“Lady.”

Lilia called for me, as if she had something to say, and I gave a brief nod to Idorian before stepping out of the room. Lilia stood there holding a cup.

“I found some tea that helps with digestion, so I brought some.”

I thought to myself that this was just one more thing I had to pretend to consume, and reached to take the cup, but Lilia shook her head.

“There’s something I’d like to say… would it be alright if I brought this to your room?”

Had Lilia Sweedy ever once initiated a conversation with Penelope? I quickly searched through Penelope’s memories, and the answer was clear—no.

“…Alright.”

Her voice sounded so sincere that it made me overthink.

***

At the far end of the hallway.

Lilia, who followed me into the room, placed the cup on the small bedside table next to the bed.

‘What could she possibly want to say…’

I set down the potato I had been holding next to it and sat on the bed, looking at Lilia.

“I’m truly sorry.”

Without even sitting down, Lilia stood uncomfortably in front of me and bowed her head deeply.

“Like you said, I can’t fully understand what you went through because of me. I can only guess from a safe place.”

So she had been stealing glances at me since earlier—this must’ve been what she wanted to say.

“But even if it’s just a guess… it’s been eating away at me.”

Lilia fought back tears, watching me carefully again.

“If you hadn’t pushed me up first, I would’ve been the one left behind. And if that had been me, I never would’ve been able to act as smartly as you did.”

Lilia Sweedy.

Her light pink hair swayed softly, her skin pale white. With round eyes and lips that curved up slightly, she had a gentle beauty—but that wasn’t all there was to her.

Of course, as the heroine of a romance novel, the male leads often helped her, but she hadn’t survived in this apocalyptic world by relying solely on others.

“I’m really sorry for leaving you alone among those monsters.”

Though she might currently be just a delicate young noble lady raised in a greenhouse, unable to even protect herself, over time, she would grow into a powerful force in this fortress.

“But I’ll never let it happen again. Just like you pushed me up first, I’ll make sure to look after you, too.”

Lilia, who would go on to train under the Grand Duke and Crown Prince and become as skilled as any knight in the Imperial City, made a promise to me.