Accidentally Formed a Reverse Harem in the Apocalypse Chapter 40 - Hope Arrives

Duo-1 District, the Damon Ducal Estate.

Inside the grand residence of the prestigious Damon family, the sound of sniffling and crying echoed.

“Sniff… hic….”

It wasn’t the cry of a ghost.

The source of the sobbing was none other than the duke’s daughter, Sherry Damon.

Curled up on her bed, Sherry shed tears, pulling the sheets over her head so no one would see her crying.

“Huaaaang….”

“…Sherry. Don’t cry.”

Sitting beside her was her older brother by three years, Cloud Damon.

Cloud had pulled up a chair to the bedside, gently patting his sister’s back to comfort her—but Sherry’s sobs only grew louder.

It was extremely rare for the usually lively and bold Sherry Damon to cry this sorrowfully.

Cloud let out a sigh.

“Crying won’t change anything. You’re just losing precious water.”

“Hic… hic…! I’m scared, okay?!”

Sherry hurled a pillow at Cloud in anger.

Cloud, who had once been awarded the honorary title of Holy Knight, dodged it with ease.

With tear-reddened eyes, Sherry cried loudly.

After days of nonstop sobbing, her skin was dry and dull, her pink hair stuck together in messy clumps, and her blue eyes were bloodshot.

It was hard to believe this was the duke’s daughter, who normally loved keeping herself perfectly groomed.

But no one in the Damon Estate said a word about her disheveled state.

With swollen eyes, Sherry clutched the blanket and trembled.

“People who turned into monsters are swarming outside, and all we can do is stay trapped in the estate and hope to survive…”

“…”

“Mother and Father… they came back looking… like that.”

At that point, Sherry began scratching her arms so hard that they started to bleed. Cloud flinched at her words.

“Let’s… not talk about that.”

Cloud looked just as worn out. His once-shiny red hair was a tangled mess, and he pressed a hand to his tired eyes before speaking to his sister.

“It was… an unavoidable accident.”

“But, Brother—”

“There was no better way. We… we did everything we could.”

Only Cloud and Sherry were in Sherry’s bedroom.

Her personal maid, who always stayed with her, had been bitten during that incident.

Their parents had returned home after the Crown Prince’s wedding—only to transform soon after.

The once harmonious Damon Estate had turned desolate overnight.

The smiles had vanished from Sherry and Cloud’s faces ever since.

“We activated the magic barrier, so the mansion is safe for now… but how long will it hold?”

“I don’t know. The butler said it might last another month… but the head chef didn’t look good. She said we only have a week’s worth of food left.”

“Then what do we do when it runs out?”

Sherry’s terrified question left Cloud speechless.

“…We might have no choice but to go outside.”

“…”

A heavy silence settled between the siblings.

It’s all because of those monsters out there.

The strange phenomenon that made people devour others or turn them into monsters had begun at the Imperial Court… and quickly overtook the capital.

Sherry and Cloud had caught a fever on the day of the Crown Prince’s wedding and couldn’t attend—ironically, that became their salvation.

Most guests who had attended never returned alive.

There were exceptions… but those who made it home were no longer themselves, leading to even more tragedy.

The Damon Estate nearly fell into disaster too, when the duke and duchess returned changed, but Cloud’s quick thinking allowed them to escape temporarily.

But only temporarily.

Trapped inside the isolated estate, the siblings were slowly withering away.

“…Brother, I want to call Jackie.”

“…Alright.”

With nowhere to go and no way out, Sherry had become obsessed with contacting her friend Jacqueline of the Celeste Marquisate.

Fortunately, the Celeste household had been abroad on business and missed the wedding entirely.

Because of that, the entire family survived—but they, too, were now trapped.

The only connection between the Damon and Celeste households was the magical communication device.

Every day, Sherry and Jacqueline checked in on each other by phone—making sure the other was still alive, desperately discussing any way to overcome this crisis.

Wrapping a blanket around herself, Sherry left her room and headed for the sitting room.

She dropped onto the couch, decorated in the Damon family’s refined taste, and fed mana into the magic stone attached to the communication device. Soon, it connected to the Celeste Marquisate.

“Hello? Jackie?”

— Sherry! Are you alright today too?

“…I’m fine. What about you? And is Jessie safe?”

— Yeah. Jessie and I are both fine. My mother and father are safe too…

“…That’s a relief.”

Sniff. Sherry made a stuffy, nasal sound.

Jacqueline, of course, noticed immediately.

— …Have you been crying?

“I haven’t cried.”

— You did. I heard you sniffing.

“I said I didn’t cry.”

— …Your mother and father still haven’t improved, have they.

At her friend’s worried voice, Sherry held back—held back—then burst into tears again.

“Jackie… I-I don’t know what to do. I was raised with everything a noble lady should have, educated in all sorts of things… I thought I was pretty smart, but I wasn’t. A crisis came, and I can’t do anything. I can’t even cure Mother and Father… all I do is cry every day. Worrying about the food running out little by little.”

— …Sherry.

“I know. Your family isn’t much better off than ours… I know crying won’t change anything, just like Brother says. But I really don’t know what to do… and that makes me so frustrated and sad it hurts.”

I want to live.

Crying her heart out, Sherry shouted her desperate wish.

I shouldn’t be crying. Jacqueline must be suffering just as much as I am…

Fear choked her like a tightening rope.

Even with the magic barrier protecting the estate, seeing the zombies that never left the streets made Sherry feel like she was trapped in an endless nightmare.

Shrinking food and water supplies, her parents showing no signs of returning to normal, precious time slipping away as they remained trapped…

All of it was slowly destroying Sherry Damon’s spirit.

— …It’s okay. It’s going to be okay. You can’t give up hope now, of all times.

“Jackie…”

Jacqueline soothed her friend’s trembling voice.

Jacqueline was terrified too, but she knew that letting fear crush her would only make everything worse. So she spoke with deliberate strength.

— Someone will come to save us. Just like Anais came to save Kaladia. When chaos broke out in the Imperial Court, at least one or two people must have escaped. If anyone wants to stop this crisis, someone will come to check whether survivors exist. I believe that.

It was nothing more than hope—but Jacqueline had reminded herself countless times that hope couldn’t be abandoned in times like these.

Her steady conviction reached Sherry too, and whenever Sherry felt her heart waver, she called Jacqueline to rekindle that fading spark of hope.

“…Yeah. Someone will definitely come for us.”

— It’d be great if a prince on a white horse appeared like a miracle.

At Jacqueline’s attempt to break the gloomy mood, Sherry let out a small laugh.

“A prince on a white horse, seriously. I’d be happy even with a wandering mercenary.”

— In novels, this is exactly when the handsome male lead shows up and rescues the heroine in danger. Will something like that happen to us too?

“What’s that? Jackie, you always said those cliché novels were unrealistic.”

— I can have dreams too! Just because I’m a blue-blooded noble doesn’t mean I can’t be romantic!

“I assumed you didn’t have any.”

— Hey! Sherry Damon!

“Hahaha!”

— There you go, finally laughing.

Their conversations always ended with light, silly jokes. Talking with her friend let Sherry forget reality just long enough to regain her courage.

“You know… I’m thinking about waiting a little longer, but if no one comes to save us even after our food runs out, I’m going to go outside with my brother.”

— You…

“It’s a good thing I learned basic swordsmanship as part of a noble lady’s education. And since Cloud is an honorary Holy Knight, I think we’ll be able to survive for at least a while if we work together.”

— …If you end up going out, I’ll go too. My family’s situation is the same. It might be better if we all leave together.

“I’d like that.”

One is better than none. Two is better than one. And three is better than two.

Sherry Damon swallowed the lump in her throat and forced her voice to sound bright.

“When we go out, let’s compete to see who can take down more monsters.”

— As a mage with area-of-effect spells, I have the advantage. Are you sure you want to start a battle you can’t win, Lady Damon?

“What? You’re the one who’ll forget your spell formulas after being amazed by my monster-slaying skills.”

Their teasing—possible only because they were close—went back and forth, and the two eventually thought of Siena.

“Do you think Siena… is dead?”

— …I don’t know.

In this chaos, they hadn’t heard any news about Siena, the bride of that doomed wedding.

They had considered the possibility she was dead or had turned into a monster… but because she was precious to them, the thought weighed heavily on both Sherry and Jacqueline.

“I don’t know how such a disaster happened in the capital of the Empire.”

— Me neither.

“If this wasn’t a natural disaster but someone’s plot, I won’t ever forgive them.”

— Then we’ll cut off their head.

“Right!”

It was then, as their conversation shifted to something a bit murderous—

“Sherry!”

Cloud burst into the room, calling her urgently.

“L-Look outside!”

“What is it, Brother?”

Sherry looked out the window—and her eyes widened.

Is anyone there?

Across the magic barrier, huge words written with mana hovered like graffiti.