TFVZ 04

Chapter 4

“Uben.”

“Mmgh—why? It’s strange, isn’t it?”

Lilia hurriedly covered Uben’s mouth, and the Crown Prince called the boy’s name as if to stop him.

But Uben shook off Lilia’s hand and spoke again.

“Lady Penelope gets tired after running just a little, complains about everything, and screams like a duck over the smallest things. So how did she manage to get all the way here without the zombies catching her? Aren’t you all curious?”

At Uben’s question, everyone fell silent and looked at me.

I couldn’t read anything from the expressions of either the Crown Prince or the Grand Duke.

Lilia, however, seemed to be carefully watching my reaction.

She looked at me with genuine concern.

“So… how did you do it?”

“…Zombies aren’t very good at climbing to high places.”

I’d already prepared an answer before coming here, expecting this very question.

So responding wasn’t particularly difficult.

If anything, I wondered why no one had asked sooner.

“And if you hide your scent, you can fool zombies. …As long as you’re not bleeding, it’s surprisingly easy to mask your human scent.”

“How?”

“You cover yourself with something else.”

Everyone listened without interrupting, patiently waiting for me to finish.

“With what?”

“A zombie corpse… or the scent of flowers.”

In the novel, Lilia had once survived by masking her scent with the fragrance of roses.

“So what did you use, Lady Penelope?”

“Lilies. I was lucky.”

In truth, I’d deliberately gone to a place where lilies were blooming in abundance and rolled around in them.

Covering myself with a zombie corpse would’ve been easier.

But I was afraid that if I showed up drenched in zombie blood, the Crown Prince or the Grand Duke would cut off my head on the spot.

“I see… so masking your scent really can fool zombies.”

Lilia nodded in admiration as she listened.

“So you’re saying you didn’t encounter a single zombie? His Highness said they were right on your heels. He said you were surely dead.”

Uben still frowned, unconvinced.

“I rolled down the mountain.”

“I really almost died.”

Dark bruises in the shape of a hand still marked the ankle where the zombie had grabbed me.

I pushed my chair back and slightly lifted my skirt.

Everyone’s gaze dropped to my ankle.

Feeling their lingering stares, I quickly let the skirt fall again.

When I looked up once more, the Crown Prince, whose lips had parted slightly, closed his mouth tightly before abruptly standing.

The corner of his mouth twisted ever so slightly.

Idorian Pidentre found himself staring once again at Penelope’s ankle, now hidden beneath her skirt.

A dark bruise marred skin so pale it looked as though it had never seen sunlight.

He had thought her gait looked slightly unnatural.

Apparently she’d sprained her leg.

Her soaked dress.

Her hopelessly tangled hair.

The pale complexion of someone utterly exhausted.

The woman he’d assumed was dead had returned in a miserable state.

She kept glancing nervously around, as though frightened.

“You abandoned me because you wanted me dead!”

Penelope’s tearful cry echoed in his ears.

…Had he truly abandoned her hoping she would die?

No.

That was an exaggeration.

When he’d turned his back on Penelope as she lay on the ground reaching toward him…

There truly had been no other choice.

He couldn’t risk everyone else’s lives just to save one person.

Even if he could return to that moment…

He knew he would make the same decision again.

The most rational decision.

So then…

What was this heavy feeling weighing on his heart?

“I’ll be back.”

Leaving Penelope behind, Idorian walked out of the dining hall.

“I really almost died.”

If she’d screamed at him like usual…

If she’d shouted that it was all his fault…

Perhaps his heart wouldn’t have felt this heavy.

Instead…

Her unusually weak voice had left him deeply unsettled.

The way her eyelids lowered as though recalling those terrifying moments.

The way her voice trembled as if she might burst into tears with the slightest provocation.

He felt guilty.

Logically, he knew those emotions weren’t his responsibility.

Yet…

The weight pressing against his chest refused to disappear.

The desperate look in Penelope’s eyes before he’d turned away kept replaying in his mind.

She must resent me.

Since returning, Penelope had behaved as though she wanted nothing more to do with him.

Whatever he said…

She merely nodded.

She no longer lingered nearby.

She no longer approached him first.

Whether it was resentment or hatred…

She had every right to feel that way.

It might have been unavoidable.

But deciding how to accept what happened was entirely up to her.

As long as Penelope didn’t take those feelings out on others…

There was nothing he had the right to interfere with.

And yet…

The tightly shut dining hall door slowly opened.

Penelope stepped out.

She frowned slightly, clearly not expecting to run into him in the corridor.

“Penelope.”

Even after confirming once again that she didn’t welcome his presence…

Idorian called out to her anyway.

“Finished eating?”

“…I’ll eat upstairs.”

She answered while holding a single small potato in her hand.

“My stomach doesn’t feel well.”

“…I see.”

She immediately looked away.

The meaning was obvious.

She wanted to end the conversation.

Idorian no longer had any excuse to stop her.

Even so…

His gaze lingered on her retreating figure for a long time.

She was forcing herself to walk upright…

Enduring the pain in her injured leg without stumbling.

…When the zombies had nearly caught them…

Penelope had chosen to help Lilia.

Even with tears filling her wide eyes.

Even while trembling in terror.

She had desperately tried to get Lilia to safety first.

Idorian had known Penelope Lloyd ever since they were five years old.

He had always believed he understood her better than anyone.

“Penelope.”

And yet…

“Let’s go together.”

For the first time…

He couldn’t erase her from his thoughts.

That scene repeated endlessly in his mind.

And he couldn’t stop himself from watching her.

“Penelope, let’s go together.”

The moment the Crown Prince said that, I wanted to crawl straight back into the dining hall.

If I’d known he’d be standing around in the hallway…

I never would’ve come out!

“Your ankle.”

“You should wrap it with a bandage.”

A bandage?

“I’m fine.”

It was only a bruise.

Why would I need a bandage?

More importantly…

I didn’t want to spend any more time with Idorian.

He’d probably find something else to criticize.

Maybe he’d even insist on watching me until I finished eating this potato.

“You can barely walk properly, and you’re saying you’re fine?”

Just as I was regretting not bringing an even smaller potato…

He scolded me again.

“…What do you mean?”

Then—

His next words made my heart plummet.

“The way you walk.”

“It’s strange.”

“My walking… is strange?”

What did he mean?

Did I walk like the zombies outside?

Shuffling awkwardly?

Swaying because I couldn’t keep my balance?

“What’s strange about it?”

“How?”

“…You drag your leg a little.”

I hadn’t noticed at all.

I’d thought I was walking perfectly normally.

So it showed.

That was a serious problem.

If my walking already looked suspicious…

Then how strange had I appeared during dinner, where I had to make far more delicate movements?

Was I even looking directly at Idorian right now?

Even speaking more slowly than the real Penelope probably seemed odd.

If little suspicions kept piling up…

Wouldn’t they eventually discover the truth?

“Don’t worry about it.”

Just as those anxious thoughts began overwhelming me, Idorian lightly tapped my shoulder, drawing my attention back to him.

“No one’s going to think it’s strange.”

“You’re just injured.”

Of course…

His words did nothing to reassure me.

After all…

I couldn’t even feel pain in my leg anymore.

The reason my walk was strange…

Was because I’d become a zombie.

“Come on.”

Idorian looked at me for another moment before turning and walking ahead.