.jpg)
ABZ 22
He glanced at the door Uven had stormed out of, looking displeased.
'What's that about?'
From what she'd seen so far, he wasn't one for many expressions.
It didn't seem like Lumi had ever revealed his feelings to this extent before.
"Idorian, all well and good, but where are you planning to lure the zombies?"
However, he soon returned to his usual relaxed face.
"Since they only die when their heads are cut off, we need to think about where to lure them and how to deal with them afterward."
"Yeah, even if we lure them, it won't do any good if we have to deal with them one by one."
Idorian quietly nodded at Lumi's words and then spoke again.
"...If we burn them, wouldn't we be able to kill them all at once?"
The idea of killing zombies by burning them wasn't mentioned in the novel.
That probably meant it was impossible.
"Yeah, maybe we could."
But Lumi slowly blinked and agreed with Idorian's words.
"I saw a zombie with a severed arm suddenly collapse in the forest."
"A zombie collapsed?"
"And it didn't get up for a long time. I think it probably died like that."
"...It died like that?"
Idorian's head tilted to the side.
Everyone in the room was the same.
They were things that would attack people as if they didn't take any damage even if their arms were cut off.
"I'm not sure, but it seems like if their limbs are cut off, they slowly die, even if their heads aren't cut off."
Lumi shrugged.
"If this assumption is correct, we might be able to kill them by burning them."
Again, this was something that wasn't mentioned in the novel.
"So, you're saying that the attacked zombies are slowly dying?"
Lilia asked again to confirm, and Lumi nodded.
"There's no way to confirm it."
Heresdon clicked his tongue briefly, looking frustrated.
"Your Highness, His Imperial Majesty might have captured zombies."
"I'll ask. It would be good if we could confirm it that way."
"If, by any chance, we can't kill them that way, we should postpone dealing with them and focus on strategizing to contain and neutralize them."
Idorian nodded.
"Then I'll send a reply to His Majesty like this for now. Grand Duke, a moment."
Heresdon left the room with Idorian.
"Still, it's such a relief that we'll be able to return to the capital soon."
Lilia's voice trembled slightly as she said that.
"I was actually very anxious."
Lumi simply nodded lightly in agreement.
"But Lumi."
I quickly spoke as Lumi got up from his seat as if he was about to leave the room.
"Yes?"
"Do you really think that zombie died?"
No matter how much I searched my memory, it was definitely a story that didn't appear in the novel.
So, there was no way a zombie could die like that.
"I think so."
But Lumi answered briefly without any sign of hesitation and then left the room.
* * *
In the cool storage room with thick stone walls that I directly confirmed, large sacks and wooden boxes were lined up along the walls.
Checking inside a sack that was already loosely untied among the tightly bound sacks, I found grain inside.
Probably the other sacks were the same.
A fairly large jar was full of salt, and small jars and boxes that seemed to contain spices were lined up on shelves hanging on the wall.
Root vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, and onions were covered with hay.
Several sacks and cheeses were placed on a high shelf. Judging from the smell of alcohol coming from the large wooden barrels placed closest to the stairs, they seemed to be barrels of alcohol such as beer or wine.
"Ah..."
Not many, but meat was hanging from the arched ceiling.
'Uven didn't catch it.'
The chicken that came out for dinner on the day I first came to the fortress must have been one of the ones hanging here.
In the end, this fortress was not neglected and left unmanaged due to long peace. It seemed that the territory had been constantly paying attention to filling the storage.
If there was this much food, the six of us could definitely eat for several years, so why did Idorian and Heresdon go outside the fortress to get food in the novel?
'Am I misremembering the contents of the novel?'
As I slowly reviewed the contents of the novel, the door to the storage room opened and Uven came down.
"......"
Even though he clearly recognized me, he stubbornly didn't look at me, as if he had decided to completely ignore me now.
Uven, who had come down the stairs, walked past me towards the sack where the grain was placed.
"Uven, I'm not going to catch birds anymore."
I was the one who spoke first.
"Don't try to trick me like this ever again."
Flinch. The child's shoulders trembled slightly.
"Why?"
But he soon retorted in a rebellious voice.
"You bully other people like that, but you don't like being bullied yourself?"
"......"
"Why are you so shameless?"
Uven was now standing, completely turning his body towards me.
"I know you hate me. I know I did wrong."
Uven's eyes were wide open as if he had nothing to hide.
"But that doesn't justify your wrongdoings, and I don't think being bullied until your anger is relieved is atonement."
The child's eyebrows furrowed as if he didn't like those words.
"...See, you're not even sorry."
"This is where I stop covering up your mistakes."
The reason I covered up Uven's mistake a little while ago was because the child was trembling severely.
He seemed afraid that his mistake would be revealed.
"If you want to continue tricking me, you'll have to take responsibility for the consequences from now on."
Uven still seemed to think these words of mine were shameless.
As if enduring his venting was atonement.
I passed Uven, went up the stairs, and opened the door to the storage room.
Only Lumi was in the kitchen.
I was worried that the sound might have echoed and he might have heard what I said, but he was only focused on squatting down and peeling onions.
"Penelope, you said you're not going to catch birds anymore."
The moment I was about to pass Lumi and leave the kitchen, he spoke.
"Then help me with my work."
Then he gestured to the seat next to him as if telling me to sit down.
"N...now?"
"You said you wouldn't skip work."
"Ah, okay."
I belatedly realized that he was talking about the conversation in the drawing room.
After all, the door to the storage room was tightly closed, so there was no way he could have heard it.
The onions that Lumi was trimming were sprouting little by little.
"He told me to cut them all off."
"I have to cut all of this off, right?"
There were quite a few onions in the basket.
"He said they'll rot completely if more time passes. He told me to cut off the softened parts like this too."
Lumi quickly explained with a short sigh as if he was annoyed, and then started trimming the onions again.
As I sat next to Lumi and cut off the sprouted and softened parts, I heard the sound of the storage room door opening.
Thump, thump, thump.
Footsteps with quite a bit of force left the kitchen.
Lumi, who was staring at Uven leaving the kitchen with an indifferent face, started trimming the onions again and put them in a large pot.
"Sniff, sniff."
The reason I raised my head again was because I heard a sobbing sound next to me.
His face, cutting the spicy onions, was already soaked with tears.
Because he was moving his arm to wipe his face with his forearm, the knife he was holding was cutting through the air here and there.
"Lumi, put the knife down. It's dangerous."
"Is Penelope okay, sniff. Look."
"Go wash your face. It'll get better if you wash it with water."
Lumi slowly nodded and then got up from his seat and went out to the backyard.
Lumi, who had left like that, didn't return for quite a long time.
Until I finished trimming all the onions in the basket.
I wondered if he was washing his face all day, so I got up from my seat and raised my head, and my eyes met Lumi's, who was standing blankly outside the door.
"What are you doing?"
"Just thinking for a moment."
It was clear that he had run away because he didn't want to trim the onions.
"Liar. You ran away, didn't you?"
A hollow laugh came out at the escape and excuse that had no sincerity.
"I was really thinking."
"What were you thinking about?"
He shrugged with half-closed eyes.
"A lot of things..."
Only then did he cross the doorframe and come into the kitchen, and he put the large pot full of onions on the table.
"First of all, I was wondering why you were so insistent on protecting that child?"
.jpg)