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ABZ 13
I lifted my head, catching the metallic scent of blood carried on the wind.
“...Blood, you’re bleeding.”
I said, hastily distancing myself from him. But he seemed used to it, pinching his nose and lowering his head.
Thud, thud.
Droplets of blood trickled down his forearm, falling into the puddle.
“No, uh...”
“It’s okay, it’ll stop soon if I stay like this for a bit.”
I was the one who wasn’t okay.
“I, I’ll go get someone.”
Lumi looked like he wanted to say something to me, but I hurried away from him.
What kind of nosebleed is that scary...?
I ran into Idorian as soon as I entered the fortress. He recognized me and was about to turn away, but eventually frowned and looked back at me.
“What, what’s wrong?”
“Lumi, he’s got a nosebleed.”
His eyes narrowed. He glanced at me, standing there helplessly with the dishes, and tilted his head.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to call people...”
He reached out and snatched what I was holding.
“Why are you carrying this around?”
He looked at the scrub brush I was holding, then pointed to my other hand.
“There’s no way you’re doing the dishes. What are you up to again?”
“No, Lumi’s bleeding, I’m telling you?”
I frowned at Idorian, who seemed to be ignoring me completely and talking nonsense.
“Yeah, he’s got a nosebleed.”
“Aren’t you going to go see him?”
Seriously, is he even his friend?
“What am I supposed to do for him?”
“...Worry? He might need something.”
“Never seen a nosebleed before? Why are you making such a fuss?”
But Idorian looked back at me with an expression of incomprehension.
“He gets them often. It’s just his constitution.”
He took the bowl from my other hand as well, dismissing it as if it was nothing to worry about.
“...He gets nosebleeds often?”
With my hands free, having had everything taken from me, I foolishly gestured in the direction of Lumi.
“Constitutionally?”
...My mind went blank. No, then the bleeding that drove him to his death was just a nosebleed?
“How often does he get them?”
I was desperate. How often does he have to see blood?
It would be okay if I could avoid it like I did just now, but what if I couldn’t avoid it?
What would happen if I couldn’t suppress my instincts?
I just wanted to cry at the bleak reality.
I had to endure it, but I wasn’t confident. Suppressing my instincts was extremely painful.
“......”
Idorian stared at me for a moment, then let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes.
“So, where’s Lumi?”
“By the well.”
“Let’s go.”
He gestured to the door.
“Huh?”
“You said to go.”
I took a few steps back and shook my head.
“Go ahead. I’ll, I’ll go get something to wipe with.”
I hurried up the stairs before Idorian could stop me. I closed the door and swallowed a deep sigh.
For some reason, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had dug my own grave.
‘I escaped quickly this time.’
Actually, I didn’t smell the blood for very long. But the aftereffects felt prolonged.
If I thought back to when I first experienced the awakening from Lilia’s blood, the awakening should have ended while I was running away from Lumi and talking to Idorian. But now, my heart was still pounding.
It was pounding so hard that my head was ringing.
‘At this rate, I might really bite him.’
Leaving the ominous feeling behind, I took off my clothes. There was something I needed to confirm.
And standing in front of the mirror, I couldn’t hold back the sigh that escaped. The blood vessels near my heart were swollen again.
This made it clear.
The reason the blood vessels were swelling again wasn’t simply because time had passed, but because of the awakening.
The blood vessels all over my body had swollen again when I smelled Lilia’s blood last time.
When the awakening started and my heart started beating faster, the blood vessels swelled. The longer the awakening lasted, the more this symptom, which started near my heart, spread throughout my body.
‘Please, stop pounding now.’
I pressed hard on the area near my heart.
I was anxious. I was scared.
If they found out I was a zombie, all that would be left for me was death. Idorian wouldn’t save me. Neither would Heresdon or Uven.
Lilia might pity me, but in any case, that pity wouldn’t save me.
‘If I could say that I’ve become a zombie, but I have reason and can control my instincts....’
It wouldn’t be long before the Emperor contacted them.
If the Emperor accepted this situation as a crisis threatening the survival of the Empire and declared a state of emergency, the zombie extermination would begin according to the Emperor’s orders.
Even if the people in the fortress decided to keep me alive, I would never be able to survive after the large-scale zombie extermination began.
In the end, the best thing to do was not to get caught, no matter what. If I didn’t want to give them any reason to kill me.
‘If Lilia had become a zombie instead of me....’
Idorian, Heresdon, and Uven would all have tried to protect her, but I wasn’t Lilia.
From the beginning, I had no expectations of them. Being abandoned once was enough. They don’t care about me.
* * *
Penelope, who had said she would bring something to wipe with, didn’t appear even after Lumi’s bleeding had stopped.
‘What is she doing?’
Idorian resisted the urge to turn his head back and focused his attention on Lumi.
“More importantly, what were you doing here? Wouldn’t it be better to rest since you’re tired?”
“I was going to help with the dishes.”
“...With whom?”
“Penelope. She said she was going to call someone, but she’s not coming.”
His tone seemed to be mixed with disappointment, but Idorian didn’t notice at all.
‘Penelope was doing the dishes?’
That Penelope was sitting here doing the dishes....
She was the woman who would make a fuss about stepping in muddy water. She was the woman who would stand there blankly and stage a stupid protest, saying she couldn’t sit on the ground.
Idorian began to feel uneasy about Penelope’s unpredictable behavior.
“Was there anything suspicious?”
“...Huh? What?”
“When you were doing the dishes. I’m talking about Penelope Lloyd.”
It seemed like she had something up her sleeve, but he couldn’t figure out what she could do or what tricks she could play, since she was trapped in this fortress all day.
“...Can you do the dishes suspiciously?”
Lumi blinked slowly, as if he didn’t understand what he was saying.
But that was because he didn’t know Penelope Lloyd.
If she volunteered to do something, there was definitely something up her sleeve.
Penelope, who had visited the temple to volunteer, secretly entered the high priest’s room and stole his ring. Of course, she was caught immediately, and Duke Lloyd had to give the temple a large sum of money in the name of donation to smooth things over.
The reason she did that stupid thing was because she had picked up some ridiculous rumor somewhere. That if you had something that the high priest had been carrying on his body for a long time, your wish would come true?
And another time....
“Give that back.”
“I already washed it.”
“It’ll be safer to do it from the beginning.”
Idorian couldn’t shake off the ominous feeling and reached out with a frown.
Lumi handed over the dishes to Idorian without saying a word.
“Then.”
He got up from his seat without any regrets.
“You’re leaving?”
Lumi looked down at Idorian quietly and nodded. Idorian, who was left alone, continued to wash the dishes, worried that Penelope might have done something.
Then suddenly.
‘The Princess Consort asked me. She said she wanted His Highness to return safely.’
He remembered Lilia’s answer to his words that he was able to return safely thanks to her.
“......”
Lumi had a nosebleed on the way back.
‘...Unless there’s bleeding, the scent is easily masked.’
As Penelope said, it seemed that bleeding couldn’t be masked even if it was covered with other smells, and zombies began to gather. If he hadn’t dealt with the zombies in advance, all the zombies in the forest would have gathered because of the smell.
Idorian wasn’t sure if he could have returned safely with Lumi if the situation had gone that way.
‘...That’s not a request. More importantly, is your wound okay?’
‘No. Your Highness. The Princess Consort really cared about Your Highness.’
‘I can’t deny that she cared about me....’
‘The Princess Consort wanted me to tell you directly. If she had been trying to look good to Your Highness or gain something by using me, she wouldn’t have revealed that it was my blood.’
Lilia had definitely said that.
With unwavering, confident eyes.
‘It’s not my blood, it’s Lady Swedi’s blood.’
As Lilia said, was Penelope not planning to deceive anyone from the beginning?
“...Haa.”
Idorian looked down at the sparkling dishes and let out a deep sigh.
He still hadn’t figured out why Penelope was washing the dishes.... For some reason, he felt like he was doing something meaningless.
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