Accidentally Formed a Reverse Harem in the Apocalypse Chapter 4 - Begin the initial suppression

Chapter 4 Begin the initial suppression

I reached out toward the two choices that were really only one.

Immediately, the glowing letters of YES lit up brightly—demanding acceptance.

「Great decision, Elizabeth!」

Zero jumped with joy at my acceptance of the quest. Watching him celebrate, I spoke firmly.

“But this time, I’m doing things my way.”

To do that, I desperately needed the help of Elizabeth’s father, Duke Keaton.

So after returning to the ducal estate, I ran straight to the head of the family—my father.

“Father!”

Duke Henry Keaton looked annoyed, still confined to the house after cleaning up the trouble I caused while playing the villainess. Because of that, he couldn’t even attend the crown prince’s wedding—an imperial event of great importance.

“What is that disgraceful appearance? Are you determined to drag the family name through the mud? His Majesty said if you caused another disturbance, both you and I would be disciplined!”

“That’s not what’s important! There are zombies—no, an epidemic—breaking out in the imperial palace!”

“What nonsense is that? The palace security is ironclad. How could an epidemic just—”

“It’s real! The first victim was the crown princess herself, and when someone catches it, they turn into a monster that bites people.”

Like an actual monster.

“What did you say?”

“I saw it with my own eyes! And the palace was surrounded by a barrier that prevented anyone from escaping. You can’t get out without the blood of someone who’s already turned into a monster.”

“……Is this true?”

“Yes. It looked like someone intentionally chose the crown prince’s wedding day to carry out a conspiracy.”

At my words, Duke Keaton’s face darkened.

As a vassal of the Empire, he surely understood how serious this was.

The culprit turned the crown princess into a zombie on the day of the national wedding, and even sealed the imperial palace.
That was unmistakably treason.

I took a deep breath and shouted with all the force from my diaphragm:

“We must contact the Magic Tower immediately and break the barrier surrounding the palace!”

Loyalty to the imperial family? That wasn’t my motivation.
I just wanted to go home.

Despite the sincerity born from my desperate desire to get back to my real world, Duke Keaton remained unimpressed.

“How am I supposed to believe that? Do you understand the weight of mobilizing troops toward the imperial palace? That would border on rebellion.”

Of course, sir. When your daughter—who’s rumored to be love-crazed—suddenly claims there’s an epidemic in the palace, you’d wonder if she’s lost her mind.

But seriously, this was a real emergency!

‘If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve brought back some proof of the zombie attack.’

Then again, who would have the presence of mind to grab evidence while running for their life?!

Duke Keaton remained cold, oblivious to my frustration.

“Isn’t it because today is the crown prince’s wedding—the man you supposedly adore?”

You’ve got to be kidding me.

Acting like a love-crazed villainess was easy in theory, but moments like this made me want to scream.

‘Why does everything have to be about him?!’

The crown prince? Not my type at all. He’s the classic golden-haired, blue-eyed prince.

I prefer black hair and red eyes.
Better yet, the cold, lonely northern duke archetype.
The crown prince was nowhere near that category.

‘Come to think of it, wasn’t there a northern duke in “B.F.G.”?’

He was the second prince, scarcely mentioned, but described as exactly my type—devastatingly handsome.

‘If I were to chase someone, it would be that guy!’

The crown prince? That was an insult to my taste.

‘Zero, I don’t need to act like Elizabeth Keaton anymore, right?’

「Huh? Uh… y-yeah? The original story is completely broken now, so…」

Perfect.

‘No more villainess roleplay now that the zombie outbreak has blown everything up anyway.’

Time to be honest.

Throwing aside the vain, pretentious mask I wore as the duke’s daughter, I said decisively:

“It is absolutely, definitely not because of His Highness the Crown Prince.”

After all, that man abandoned Elizabeth—his fiancée—for the heroine.

So what if he’s handsome? A clunker is still a clunker. Even if he’s the male lead of the novel, that doesn’t make him any less of one.

“I understand that you don’t believe me, Father. But a truly unprecedented emergency is unfolding. We must act quickly if we want to protect the imperial family.”

At that moment, I genuinely felt sorry for Elizabeth Keaton.
She knew she had fallen out of her father’s favor, but she probably never imagined he wouldn’t listen to her at all.

“So?”

“Just once—please pretend to believe me. Bring mages capable of breaking the barrier to the palace.”

Without hesitation, I removed the brooch marking me as a member of House Keaton and held it out to him.

“I offer this. Will you believe me now?”

Without this brooch, Elizabeth was nothing.
Losing it meant being expelled from the family.

‘He’ll have to acknowledge me now.’

As expected, Duke Keaton looked stunned.

“……Are you serious?”

Of course I’m serious, sir.
I need to deal with this damned zombie crisis to go home.

“It’s an urgent situation.”

“……Very well. I’ll contact the Magic Tower immediately.”

“Thank you.”

“But if what you say is false, be prepared to be cast out of this family.”

“I understand.”

Relief washed over me after putting out the biggest fire.

‘Sorry, but that threat doesn’t scare me at all.’

In this world, I was a complete outsider.
Duke Keaton wasn’t really my father, so his disapproval didn’t hurt.

I just wanted to go home.

“You must hurry. Before the epidemic that turns people into monsters transforms everyone still inside the palace.”

Back then, I truly believed we could stop it early.

I had no idea how horribly wrong I was.

 

 

 

 

*****

 

 

 

 

“I heard you called for us, Duke Keaton.”

“Welcome. Mages of the Magic Tower.”

Thanks to the Keaton Duchy’s influence and wealth, the Magic Tower’s mages crossed into the imperial capital in just one day. Wearing white-blue robes, the mages followed Duke Keaton as he headed toward the imperial castle with me by his side.

The front of the imperial castle—usually noisy because of nobles coming and going—was completely silent, not a single trace of human presence. There weren’t even guards at their posts; only a cold, empty air lingered.

“You requested that we break the protective barrier covering the imperial castle, correct?”

As the mage who looked like their leader asked the duke this, he stretched his hand toward the castle gate. Then the dome-shaped, opaque barrier surrounding the imperial castle became visible. Intricate magical patterns were carved in glowing gold across its surface.

“Yes. According to my daughter Elizabeth, something terrible has happened inside the castle. When she tried to flee, the protective barrier acted as a wall trapping those who tried to escape.”

‘He’s speaking very indirectly.’

The duke clearly wanted to hide the unprecedented disaster—an epidemic turning people into monsters—inside the imperial castle. Understandable. Nothing good could come from the empire’s disgrace becoming widely known.

‘In the novel, the Magic Tower was described as a sovereign, neutral power… but also as a group that could become an enemy depending on circumstances.’

So the duke’s caution was reasonable. But I couldn’t shake the fear that hiding the existence of zombies might backfire horribly.

‘Will this really be okay?’

No—trust the mages. They can handle it. …Hopefully.

Just in case, I made a request to the mages.

“Once you break the barrier, the cause of the problem inside the castle will come pouring out. When that happens, please work with the Keaton ducal soldiers to deal with those things.”

I said this with a stiff expression, and one of the mages tilted his head.

“What exactly is supposed to come out? From the outside, the castle looks calm as ever…”

“You’ll understand once you see it.”

I was the only one here wrapped in suffocating tension.

It had already been a full day since the crown princess—the heroine—turned into a zombie. And no one else had escaped the castle except for me.

The eerie silence felt like the eye of a storm. And that only made it even more terrifying. The fear of the unknown gnawed at me.

“Please remember one thing. If you find you can’t deal with them, run—immediately.”

“Oh, come now. What do you take us mages for?”

For people who say very concerning death-flag lines. That’s what.

“If you can’t handle it, we run straight to the temple. Understood?”

If everything went wrong, the only backup plan was escaping to the temple, where holy water could be produced.

This world had undead monsters, so I hoped zombies would be similar. If so, maybe holy water could deal with them too.

But at my words, the mages looked even more baffled.

“Hah! Then we shall take this chance to show you that mages are far stronger than those lowly priests.”

Please do. I’d love that. I believe in you—sort of—mages.

The mages grasped the barrier surrounding the imperial castle and began pouring mana into it.

『Shatter.』

Crack. Crack-crack! With more than ten high-ranking mages chanting and channeling mana, dozens of fractures spread across the barrier. The fine cracks grew into massive splits, quickly spiderwebbing across the entire dome.

Crash!!

Like smashing a hard-boiled egg, the barrier finally shattered. Since it was an imperial barrier, the mages collapsed to the ground, completely drained.

“This is impossible…”

Duke Keaton gasped as the now-exposed imperial castle was revealed.