Chapter 18 Did He Fall for Me?
“It’s so exhausting, I could die.”
Ruth Chricerne pressed his fingers to his forehead as he checked the magic inside him that had completely run out. Sweat gathered in tiny beads across his straight forehead.
It had been only a single day since he received Elizabeth Kitten’s message. For that entire time, Ruth had kept using teleportation magic nonstop, squeezing his magic to the limit as he traveled from Chatteris, where the Magic Tower was, to the capital Agata.
All to uncover the cause behind this plague-like disaster.
‘…Is Sienna safe?’
He drank some water to quench his thirst, but the moment Sienna—whom he’d tried so hard to forget—floated into his mind, the veins on his hand bulged.
‘I shouldn’t have shut myself inside the Magic Tower. I should’ve been by her side.’
He regretted staying in the tower under the excuse of research, simply because he didn’t have the courage to smile and congratulate Sienna on marrying the crown prince.
Zombie. They said she had been the first to become one.
Since the one who said it was Elizabeth Kitten, whom he absolutely hated, it was natural to doubt her words. But seeing as all contact with the mages stationed in the capital had been completely cut off, it was likely true.
“If that’s the case, then she probably…”
Ruth could not bring himself to finish the sentence and lowered his head.
It was a possibility he didn’t even want to imagine, but Sienna was highly likely to be dead.
To be exact, she was likely no longer something that could be called human.
Even so, the reason Ruth pushed himself to the brink, draining his magic so he could arrive at the Kitten duchy faster than planned, was because of his guilt toward Sienna.
‘My chest stings.’
It wasn’t because he had lost someone he loved.
Sienna had chosen the crown prince and rejected Ruth’s confession.
It had been painful, but Ruth respected her decision and wished for her happiness.
Sienna had been his one and only precious friend.
The guilt he felt now came mostly from the fact that he had done absolutely nothing for his precious friend when she met her tragic end.
That was why he couldn’t ignore the proposal from Elizabeth Kitten, whom he didn’t like at all.
〈Still, someone must stop this bizarre disaster. So please, help us.〉
〈Please come to the Kitten duchy. If possible, bring other mages who can fight with us.〉
And… strangely, he couldn’t ignore her words.
‘Disgusting. Why did she sound so much like Sienna?’
Her tone had been stiff, but Ruth couldn’t help wondering if that really was the Elizabeth Kitten—the one who had always acted like she wanted to swallow Sienna whole.
Her clear violet eyes. The way she clearly asked for help.
Her appearance and her natural aura were completely different from Sienna, but oddly, Sienna overlapped with her.
If it were the warm, kind Sienna, she would never sit still in such a dangerous situation.
Without even realizing it, Ruth found himself agreeing to Elizabeth Kitten’s proposal.
Even though he knew very well she didn’t get along with the mages of the Magic Tower, he even promised to bring a few mages with him if possible.
“If she was just spouting nonsense, I won’t let it slide.”
Muttering to himself, Ruth took a magic-replenishing potion from his spatial pouch and downed it all at once.
As he gulped down the sweet peach-flavored potion he had personally created, he could feel the magic he had scraped up to the last drop slowly filling back up.
‘Almost there. I just need to hurry a little more.’
Ugh. The sudden rush of magic made his stomach turn, but he endured it.
He was incredibly exhausted from using teleportation magic day and night without rest, but Ruth pushed through with sheer willpower and finally arrived at the capital Agata.
When he reached the capital’s tall, solid walls, Ruth flinched at a strange, eerie sound.
“Grrraaahhh…”
“Uugh… uaaah…”
In the stillness where not even an ant seemed to pass, only those groans echoed clearly. Even though the capital was normally packed with people, not a single human presence could be felt.
‘People? No… this must be the zombies that Duke Kitten talked about.’
Perhaps they sensed a human nearby, because the zombies began to crowd toward Ruth from beyond the wall.
They didn’t seem able to climb the wall—pressing against it was all they managed.
The sight was like a swarm of dust clouds, making Ruth shudder for a moment, but he quickly cast both presence-erasing magic and teleportation magic on himself.
『Shadow of mine, erase my presence.』
『Teleport!』
It took only a few seconds—a moment that passed in a flash—but it was still terrifying.
Until the moment Ruth vanished with his teleportation, the zombies glared at him with blood-shot eyes, licking their lips.
Covered in dark red stains and torn like animals had chewed on them, they only stood there swaying—but even that was frightening.
Thinking of Sienna, whom he had seen as the embodiment of a sweet spring flower, wandering around in such a state made his heart turn cold.
‘The duchy. I need to get to the Kitten duchy.’
Suppressing the nausea rising from fear, Ruth finally arrived at the Kitten duchy. He did end up falling into a huge tree outside due to exhaustion, though.
He sat on a tall branch and scanned the overall state of the duchy.
Emergency barriers were installed in every noble household in the capital, so he assumed the Kitten duchy would still be safe.
But even the Kitten duchy wasn’t completely untouched—ten zombies were standing around the magic barrier.
Ruth used his clever mind to decide how to act.
‘Those zombies reacted sharply to smell and sound earlier. I’ve already erased my presence, so if I fly over the wall quietly, I should be fin—huh?’
He was about to enter quietly using levitation magic when suddenly a strange scene unfolded before his eyes.
Bang!
“Guuuuugh!”
With a gunshot, a zombie screamed and collapsed backward.
Right in the center of its forehead. There was a clean hole where the bullet had pierced through.
“…What?”
Ruth muttered without realizing it. Half shock, half admiration.
He had erased his presence, but since he was alone, he hadn’t used a sound-blocking spell—so the zombies perked up at his voice.
“Uuuuh…?”
“Uugh, uuaaah…”
“Graaahhhh…”
The remaining nine grotesque zombies started twitching their heads wildly, wondering where the human voice had come from.
‘Damn it.’
Ruth quickly covered his mouth, but the zombies had already caught the sound of their prey. They weren’t about to ignore it and began trying to find him.
“Kiaaaahk….”
“Kyaaaak!”
The zombies, growling angrily as if starving, started moving away from the Kitten duchy and headed in the direction where Ruth was hiding.
‘…Because of my scent!’
Panicked, Ruth tried to use levitation magic to throw himself inside the duchy at once, but one quick zombie drew right up beside him.
“Kiaaaaahk!”
“!”
And the moment Ruth saw that zombie, his body froze solid like stone.
Because horribly enough… that zombie looked like Sienna.
Even though it was covered in dark bloodstains, torn and wounded all over… he could still instantly recognize her shining golden hair, bright like sunlight.
Ruth had been ready to blast its head off if he needed to, but his mind completely stopped.
‘…I can’t.’
He couldn’t hurt this zombie that looked like Sienna.
What if this really was Sienna? Even if she had turned into a horrible monster, even if her life as a human had already ended, Ruth could not bring himself to kill Sienna.
Because in some way, Ruth Chricerne still loved her.
“Kiaaaaahk!”
The Sienna-like zombie opened its mouth unnaturally wide, ready to bite the invisible Ruth—
Bang!
“Kieeeek!”
Thud.
A clean gunshot rang out. The bullet flew in and struck the zombie that had been about to attack Ruth—right in the temple. The creature shook for a moment, then stopped moving completely.
“Kiiiik?”
“Grooo?”
“Uaaah!”
When another zombie was suddenly killed from an unseen direction, the remaining eight backed away from Ruth in fear. They looked around wildly, trying to find where the shot had come from.
“Wh… what?”
Relief washed over Ruth, and his legs gave out, making him drop to the ground.
But before he could sit there stunned, someone shouted at him in a loud, commanding voice:
“Whoever you are—if there’s a living human out front, get up and get inside this duchy right now! This barrier only blocks monsters like zombies! If you’re not bitten and you look perfectly alive, then RUN IN RIGHT NOW!”
‘That voice…!’
A familiar voice. One he couldn’t possibly mistake.
It was the voice of the villainess who always tormented Sienna—Elizabeth Kitten.
Her loud shouting wasn’t heard by the zombies, so they didn’t react this time.
‘This is my chance.’
Ruth snapped back to his senses and used levitation magic.
『Wind, lift me and carry me across.』
His body floated up lightly. As light as a feather, Ruth walked through the air and safely entered the Kitten duchy.
『Release.』
Once he canceled every spell he had used for safety, his figure became fully visible.
Ruth sprinted to the main doors of the mansion, knocked loudly, and shouted:
“Is anyone inside? I am Ruth Chricerne, mage of Chatteris’s Magic Tower! I came at Duke Elizabeth Kitten’s request!”
He had expected the butler to greet him, but instead, someone completely unexpected came out.
“Perfect timing. I don’t know how you got here so fast, but come with me.”
Elizabeth Kitten—current head of the Kitten duchy—personally welcomed him.
The moment she saw him, she grabbed his hand firmly and started pulling him somewhere.
“W–What are you doing? And why are you holding my hand…?”
“To kill zombies. You clearly saw everything from the front gate, right? We need to finish them off quickly so we can sleep peacefully tonight. So please cooperate.”
Cooperating was the whole reason he’d come, but being suddenly dragged along by Elizabeth in such a blunt, no-nonsense tone left Ruth utterly flustered.
The warmth of the hand holding his was overwhelming.
‘Wh–What is this…?!’
Ruth had never allowed physical contact with anyone except Sienna. If someone tried to touch him, he would recoil instantly in disgust.
But… this rude woman had a strange, forceful energy that made him unable to say anything.
It was so strange that he couldn’t even resist.
Even though he could easily pull away if he tried.
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