Accidentally Formed a Reverse Harem in the Apocalypse Chapter 32 - Coming Outside

Following the tiny, millet-sized speck of light down the passage, we soon saw the exit.

“Phew—ha.”

‘We finally got out!’

We successfully entered Duo-2 District, the central nobles’ residential area.

Just as I already knew, the exit was inside a building owned by the Keaton ducal family, located in the commercial zone slightly apart from the residential area of Duo-2 District.

When we combined our strength and opened the door—designed just like the one in the duke’s office—we could see outside through the large glass window of the empty shop.

Looking around, I could clearly see the bright scenery outside through the window in the room.

‘The sky is so blue.’

Even though everything outside was chaos because of the zombies, seeing the clear sky made me feel awkward.

Michael and Ruth, who followed me out, looked around with sharp caution.

“When we were walking through the secret passage, it was noisy with zombie groans, but now that we’re outside, it’s quiet as a grave.”

“That’s why it feels even more suspicious.”

The place connected to the exit was a jewelry shop owned by the Keaton ducal family.

The wealthy Keaton family owned gemstone mines—more than one, even.

From amethysts resembling the Keaton family’s symbolic violet eyes to expensive diamonds,

the mined gems were beautifully cut by jewel artisans gathered by the duchy before being sold in this shop.

“Angel’s Breath,” a rather embarrassing name for a jewelry store, was one of the duke family’s main sources of income, bringing in solid profits from noble customers.

The shop, which had once been packed with nobles buying jewels or accessories, now sat empty.

No clerks, no manager, no customers. Despite the glamorous interior, the place felt desolate.

Only jewels with nowhere to go remained, left gathering dust.

‘……No bloodstains.’

There were traces showing people had fled in a hurry when the zombie crisis broke out, but there were no signs anyone had been bitten here.

Which meant this area was still untouched by zombies.

Even though we had barely stepped outside the secret passage, the three of us took out the water guns and sprayers we’d packed in our backpacks—just in case.

Holy water of S-rank, made by the papacy, sloshed inside the silver containers.

‘Benjamin, you really are the best craftsman.’

I showered praise upon Benjamin, who had created water guns, sprayers, and water containers of such excellent quality in such a short time.

“Sir Michael, Mr. Ruth. Here, take these first.”

I handed Michael the upgraded sniper-style water gun, and gave Ruth the strong-spraying water mister.

Both were gifts I had given them before.

‘To think they carried the water gun and sprayer every day, enough to bring them even during an emergency summon……’

Ruth kept his in a subspace, and Michael had added extra loops to the belt holding his sword so he could carry both the water gun and sprayer.

Thanks to that, we were able to depart quickly.

“As I’ve said many times before, holy water imbued with divine power can paralyze zombies. If they get close, don’t think—just spray them right away.”

“And after spraying, we blow their heads off, right?”

“Exactly.”

“Easy.”

Ruth also attached the sprayer to his belt.

“If the holy water in the container runs out, tell me immediately—both of you.”

“Did you bring a subspace pouch like a mage?”

“Well…… something like that.”

「I am NOT a subspace pouch!」

Zero was furious at being treated like one.

Sorry. But there was no other way to explain it.

There was no way I could tell them I was storing holy water in the inventory Zero gave me.

I took my own water gun, checked the magic-bullet gun holstered at my side, then crouched low and crept forward.

In a lowered whisper, I said,

“Sir Michael, Mr. Ruth! This building doesn’t have any magic barriers, so crawl under the windows so zombies won’t see you.”

Even though our jewelry shop was on the 3rd floor, you never knew what might happen.

‘Staying out of sight is safest.’

From here on, it was lawless ground—danger lurking everywhere, with no magic barriers to count on.

So we had to move low, even if it was inconvenient.

“Understood.”

“Wait. Both of you, stay still.”

“Why?”

“I think it’ll be easier to move if I cast stealth magic that blocks sound, presence, and even scent for a while.”

『O shadow, erase all traces of us from this world.』

As the spell was cast, our shadows wriggled beneath us—and vanished with a pop.

“Wow.”

“That’s better. Now we can walk with our backs straight.”

‘Ah…… so he really didn’t want to crawl like a caterpillar.’

Thanks to Ruth’s spell, we could move much more easily as we walked through the hallway to the shop’s door.

“Let’s see.”

I looked through the tiny peephole meant to check for intruders, but all I saw was an empty set of stairs.

“No one. Completely deserted.”

“No bloodstains?”

“None. I don’t think any zombies came up here.”

Relieved, we carefully opened the door and headed up the stairs.

We didn’t go downwards right away because we needed to go to the rooftop and get a grasp of the overall situation in Duo-2 District.

It didn’t take long, since the building had only five floors.

The three of us climbed to the rooftop and looked down at the street below.

“……”

“……”

“……”

And all three of us fell silent at the same time, as if rehearsed.

“Uooooooh……”

“Graaahh…”

“Oooh… uuaaaah……”

Under the gentle sunlight, the streets were filled with nothing but zombies.

The stylish, fancy buildings of Duo Street were stained and splattered like spilled paint. Bloodstains, broken items, and burst food supplies scattered everywhere suggested either panic or desperate fleeing.

‘Horrible.’

Corpses of people bitten and killed by zombies lay strewn around—awful to look at.

Zombies with damaged bodies wandered slowly through the shopping district, groaning strangely now that there were no humans to attack.

Age or gender didn’t matter; anyone could turn. Cold, lifeless human bodies were also scattered here and there.

“Urgh.”

I thought I had seen everything in the imperial capital, but an even more gruesome sight lay here.

A street with no trace of life—only the stench of death.

“……Horrifying.”

“……I didn’t think it would be this bad.”

They didn’t gag like I did, but both Michael and Ruth wore devastated expressions.

“For the imperial capital, Agatha, to fall apart this quickly…… No wonder it was strange that the Mage Tower in Chatteris hadn’t received a single message. If people were dying this fast, I understand—they were killed before they had time to send anything.”

Ruth muttered to himself, then looked back at me.

“What would Your Grace like to do?”

I didn’t miss the meaning behind that question.

This was the shopping district—Duo-2’s fancy commercial zone created for nobles.

“……Of course, we should secure food first. It hasn’t been that long since the zombie outbreak, so there should still be plenty of usable supplies.”

Grocery stores for nobles carried a lot.

Sugar and pepper classified as luxury goods, all sorts of spices, and even fresh produce preserved with magic—you could find them easily in Duo-2’s stores.

‘I cursed the original setting for being crazy about money, but right now I’m really grateful.’

Large grocery stores similar to big supermarkets likely had preservation magic on seafood and meat as well.

I took out a subspace pouch from inside my clothes.

It was the largest-capacity subspace pouch from the duke’s treasure vault.

I held it up in front of the two and gave instructions.

“Sir Michael, Mr. Ruth. From now on, find any food ingredients we can eat and put them into this pouch. Groceries, spices, seasonings, snacks—anything that isn’t spoiled. If it has preservation magic, even better.”

The pouch I brought had enough space to hold a small three-story mansion.

So we could shovel food in without worry.

Michael and Ruth listened carefully and nodded.

“Understood. If it’s edible, we’ll bring everything.”

“It’s food I’ll be eating too, so I’ll pick ingredients that are delicious and in good condition.”

“Good. I’ll be moving with you and sweeping up ingredients as well.”

“We’re splitting up?”

Before I could answer, Ruth replied for me.

“That won’t work, holy knight. The magic I cast drains my mana as long as it’s active, so there’s a time limit.”

“How long? For how many minutes can you hide us from the zombies?”

“About an hour? Anything beyond that is impossible.”

One hour of time attack. That was plenty.

“Then let’s begin—”

“Your Grace said again and again that you wanted to find living survivors, so we should save mana to look for them.”

‘Ah.’

The unexpected thoughtfulness shook me.

“Right, Your Grace?”

“……Of course.”

「Are you touched?」

‘Quiet.’

Ignoring Zero, I lifted my chin slightly like nothing happened and added arrogantly,

“A future Tower Master should be capable of at least this much. Thanks to you, we can safely sweep up all the food.”

“Hey, Your Grace. This is one of those times where you can just say thank you.”

“It’s faster to move than to talk. The duke’s people depend on the food we gather.”

“So prickly. Fine.”

Who was the one actually being picky and sensitive?

I felt annoyed for a moment, but held it in.

“Mr. Ruth, it’s time to work as the promised food detector.”

“Ugh…… yes, yes.”

Ruth scanned the street and chanted a spell.

『Food still intact within this street, lift your heads and look toward me.』

Thin, threadlike strands spread out like a dense spiderweb, curling around Ruth.

“Oh…… what’s that?”

“The result of using wide-area magic to detect food. These are threads made of mana that only Your Grace and the holy knight can see. If we follow them, we’ll find intact food.”

“Zombies can’t see these mana threads?”

“Not at all.”

Then we could focus completely on collecting food for the next hour.

“Let’s go, then.”

“Wait. I’ll prepare something to count the time.”

Ruth cast more spells.

『Before one hour passes, notify us quietly with letters that the time is almost up. No sound. Silent.』

Silver-gray mana, the same color as Ruth’s eyes, brushed over our bodies.

“It’s done. Before the hour ends, we’ll get a signal—then we leave this shopping district immediately.”