Accidentally Formed a Reverse Harem in the Apocalypse – Chapter 71 – Caught on Night Watch

Author: Asternkm

The days continued with investigation quests for the collaborators, and tough, muscle-building quests with my party members.

‘……It makes me more nervous because nothing has happened yet.’

I thought the zombie horde would attack at least one more time, but they didn’t even come near this place.

“Butler, don’t you think something is strange? It’s too quiet outside.”

There are hundreds of thousands of zombies in the capital, and even if the magic barrier is top-grade, this felt suspicious.

“It is all thanks to Your Grace bravely defeating the zombies.”

“That was so long ago…….”

Starting with the butler and the head maid, the servants of the Kitten Duchy kept using that story over and over, like boiling the same bone broth again and again.

‘It’s already been several days since we buried the zombie corpses we dealt with together with the servants.’

The zombies did not approach when they saw the corpses outside the barrier. But leaving the bodies out for too long did not feel right, so with Rus’s help, we buried them in the ground not long ago.

Since it was hard to identify the bodies buried in the empty field near the duchy, we put up plain wooden boards with nothing written on them instead of gravestones.

It was Michael who carved the wooden boards. After making a wooden club before, and now even wooden gravestones, it seemed woodworking was his hobby.

In total, ten nameless graves were made, each marked with a neatly carved wooden board.

〈May you rest in peace.〉

At a funeral mourning the dead, a priest’s farewell prayer is essential, but since we did not have one, Michael took on the role as well.

Wearing his pure white uniform, Michael stood solemnly and placed bouquets in front of the graves of those who had been sacrificed.

The bouquets, made from flowers grown in the duchy’s greenhouse, were created together by me, Jacqueline, Sherry, Jessica, Nadia, and the maids.

‘I hope they went to a good place.’

I do not know whether heaven and hell truly exist, but in this world there are gods, and even a stardust path where souls go after death, so I decided to believe they went somewhere good.

Otherwise, the people who were sacrificed would be too pitiful.

Since we even held a funeral, I expected the zombies to crawl back again like bears sniffing out honey…….

‘It’s too quiet.’

At least the Kitten Duchy was peaceful.

Feeling uneasy about the strange peace, I immediately went to the kitchen.

「Yaaawn.」

In the kitchen, where even a mouse was forbidden, Zero was receiving affection from a kitchen maid and was just about to take a bite of a sweet fresh cream cake.

“Hey! Zero! Come here!”

“Gasp, Your Grace!”

「Kuk-kuk-kuk. Cough, cough!」

The startled kitchen maid dropped her fork, and cake smeared across Zero’s face.

Since it was fruit fresh cream cake, Zero’s face was completely covered in cream, and he started whining.

「Uuuh…… m-my precious cake!」

With a single wave of my wand, the white cream stuck to his whiskers disappeared in an instant, leaving only a grumpy Mr. Hamster behind.

「Pay me back for my cake!」

Zero squeaked angrily, demanding compensation.

“If you answer my question, I’ll tell them to add a crepe cake along with your fresh cream cake.”

「……Really?」

His fierce face, like a spiky chestnut burr, suddenly turned bright and sparkling.

“The area around the duchy has been unusually quiet lately.”

「……Hmm.」

“You know why, don’t you? Zero.”

「W-Well. I don’t know anything about that. Ahem.」

When I looked at him suspiciously, Zero tried to pretend he did not hear me, awkwardly whistling even though he was bad at it.

‘There’s a method that works well at times like this.’

“Don’t want crepe cake?”

「I-I want it!」

Zero’s sparkling eyes burned with desire for cake.

“Then tell me the truth. You know something, don’t you?”

Zero could open the system’s search window anytime.

When I pressed him with confidence, he hesitated and then confessed.

「Tsk, I was told not to say this…….」

After hesitating for a moment, Zero raised his condition.

「I-I’ll tell you if you put lots of strawberry pieces in the crepe cake!」

“Deal.”

In this zombie apocalypse romance fantasy, fruit was rare, but I had a magical jar that produced endless supplies as a reward, so it was not a problem.

「So here’s what happened…….」

After hearing Zero’s whole story, I jumped up from my seat.

‘These…… unnecessarily kind party members!’

*****

Late at night.

Inside the Kitten Duchy, where even the moonlight did not shine because it was the last day of the lunar month, someone quietly finished preparing to go out without making a sound.

‘It’s my turn today.’

The one sneaking out like a thief was Benedict, the half-fairy.

The four men who were Elizabeth’s party members had made an agreement among themselves.

〈We drove back the zombies once, but that’s not enough.〉

Aston had said.

Then Michael suggested,

〈How about sprinkling holy water around the magic barrier every day? Isn’t that the best way to paralyze zombies?〉

Hearing that, Rus clicked his tongue and objected.

〈Rejected, Sir Paladin. We agreed to use holy water only for close combat with zombies, with water guns and sprayers, remember? The duchy grounds are huge. Sprinkling it all along the barrier would be a waste. If we use it every day, no matter how much holy water we have, we’ll have to worry about running out.〉

As they argued back and forth about what to do and the atmosphere grew tense—

〈Um…… then how about we take turns standing night watch, one person at a time?〉

At Benedict’s words, Michael, Aston, and Rus all perked up their ears.

Receiving the attention of the three men, Benedict continued,

〈We’re strong, aren’t we? Staying up all night once every few days is bearable. Zombies move both day and night, but they move faster at night. If any approach at that time, we can eliminate them.〉

Michael, Aston, and Rus agreed.

〈……That sounds reasonable.〉

〈Since it’s night, it will be easier to deal with them quietly.〉

At Aston’s words, Benedict nodded.

〈It would also be better for the mental and physical health of the people inside the mansion if we take care of it while they’re asleep.〉

〈Ben, you…… since when did you start caring about humans? Living long enough, I finally get to see you being considerate of humans……. Sniff. Our prickly kid has changed.〉

〈I’m not your child, you know? You didn’t even raise me, so stop teasing.〉

〈Yeees.〉

After bickering with Rus, the four men, including Benedict, decided the order of night watch with rock-paper-scissors.

And today was Benedict’s turn.

【Send me outside without a sound.】

Whispering in the spirit language to the shadow spirit that was awake, a long, large shadow opened its mouth wide and swallowed Benedict as if eating him.

‘Ugh, no matter how many times I do this, I can’t get used to this method…….’

After enduring a bit of discomfort, Benedict was able to step out in front of the main gate of the Kitten Duchy.

“Grrr…….”

“Auaaaah…….”

Outside the barrier, as always, a group of zombies appeared, waving their rotten limbs.

‘Because of the magic barrier, they shouldn’t be able to smell people or sense any presence, yet strangely they keep gathering around here.’

Ever since they buried the bodies that had been zombies, more and more zombies showed up at night, shuffling along this road almost every day.

Since it was over with just a hit to the head, Michael used a crossbow, Aston used aura-infused sword energy, Rus used targeting magic, and Benedict pierced the zombies’ heads with the power of spirits, finishing them quietly.

The zombies returned to being corpses, and they only lightly covered them with dirt.

When they did that, at least during the day, zombies did not stick their heads around this area.

Benedict, who was secretly responsible for the duchy’s security without Elizabeth Kitten knowing, let out a long yawn.

“Huaaam…….”

“If you’re sleepy, just go inside and sleep. Why are you choosing to suffer?”

“Exactly. It’s something that only makes me lose out, so I don’t even know why I’m doing something this annoyin— huh?!”

Benedict answered absentmindedly, then stepped back in shock.

“What are you doing at this hour, Mr. Benedict Fairman?”

The one who spoke to him was none other than the owner of this mansion, Elizabeth Kitten.

With her arms crossed, her expression looked displeased.

‘I’ve been caught…….’

He had not done anything wrong. He had only stood night watch out of goodwill, yet it was hard to lift his head.

‘I-I need to explain!’

He meant to speak calmly and maturely, but the words that came out were clumsy and hurried.

“Ah, well. I wasn’t taking a dawn walk with bad intentions. The stars in the night sky were beautiful, so I wanted to show them to the spirits, that’s why…….”

‘……I’m doomed.’

He could have just said he was staying up all night to stop zombies from approaching the mansion.

But the moment he said it out loud, it felt like the reason he first decided to start this would lose its meaning, so he could not bring himself to say it easily.

“Hm……. So the night sky was so beautiful that you wanted to show it to the spirits, is that it?”

“……Yes.”

As if that could be true.

It was true that Benedict, as a half-fairy, was especially loved by spirits. But Benedict had never thought of spirits as anything more than chatty companions who were always with him.

Since they had been with him from the moment he first cried as a baby, he took their presence for granted, like breathing, and had never tried to do anything special for them.

‘I…… told a lie.’

Fairies do not lie.

Because they are beings close to the purity born from nature, like the spirits, if they lie, their bodies hurt.

It was because going against the natural order did not suit their nature.

Benedict, being half-blood, showed this trait more weakly, but he would still suffer mild body aches or muscle pain.

‘Over something like this, I even lied…….’

Though he regretted it, Benedict kept his mouth tightly shut.

He had not done it to receive praise, so he stubbornly did not want to reveal the truth.

But he could not hide the zombies lingering outside the barrier.

So Benedict tried to block Elizabeth’s view with his taller height.

That was when—

“Grrr…….”