The Sequel to the Romance Fantasy Was a Zombie Apocalypse – Chapter 51

– “Hey, mister. What are you looking at on your phone?”

– “Huh?”

– “You’ve been staring at your smartphone for a while now, looking at something weird.”

– “It’s illustrations of game characters… Does this look weird to you?”

– “What game is it?”

– “Romance in Archeasia.”

– “Romance in A…”

– “[Romance in Archeasia: The Four Jewels], shortened to [Roina]. It’s my favorite game.”

– “What kind of game is it?”

– “It’s a game where a normal girl who grew up in the countryside enrolls in the most famous school in her country and helps noble kids, like aristocrats, to date. Here, this girl with long black hair is the protagonist.”

– “Hmm… The characters are pretty, but the game seems boring. But mister, are you a girl? Why are you playing a game like this?”

– “Do you call girls ‘mister’ too? And honestly, it’s fun once you try it. There’s the joy of experiencing romance and raising the protagonist…”

– “I don’t get what you’re saying.”

– “…Yeah.”

– “Then, who are the girls in the same uniform next to the protagonist?”

– “They’re characters that interfere with the protagonist’s romance. They’re called villainous noble ladies.”

– “Hmm…”

– “Here, this girl with the curly blonde hair is my favorite character. Her name is Esmela.”

– “She looks like she can’t be trusted.”

– “Where did you learn to say stuff like that?”

– “But how do these ladies interfere with the protagonist’s romance?”

– “They’re all different. For example, the character named Esmela starts by saying bad things to the protagonist, but later gets consumed by inferiority complex and jealousy, even delving into forbidden dark magic. Ultimately, she fails…”

– “Sounds like a bad character?”

– “It sounds like that when summarized. If you actually play, there are reasons for it.”

– “Just like the washing machine joke. It’s wrong, right?”

– “…Alright. I’m the foolish one for talking about this with a kid like you.”

– “…”

– “…”

– “…Mister.”

– “I’m not a mister. I’m not even 30 yet.”

– “My mom says once a guy returns from the army, he’s a mister.”

– “Really?”

– “When will my mom be back?”

– “I don’t know. How would I know that?”

– “Today is my birthday, so she said she’d take me to the aquarium and we’d have dinner at a nice restaurant on the top floor of this building…”

– “…Then let’s wait here. Since we did the broadcast, she’ll be here soon.”

– “Stay with me until then.”

– “Sigh… Alright, I got it.”

Alright, I remembered. This is the memory from the last day of my previous life. I took a lost girl who was about ten to the lost and found.

“…Lanit…”

After that, when I tried to leave, she grabbed me and wouldn’t let go.

Reluctantly, we ended up talking together…

…What happened next?

“Lanit.”

No, this won’t do. I can almost remember, but someone keeps calling me and interrupting my thoughts.

But who is this voice? I’ve never heard it before.

And who is Lanit? My name is Park Tae-han—

“Lanit!”

“Whoa!”

I opened my eyes wide, startled like I heard thunder.

The first thing I felt after regaining consciousness was the warmth of something on my chest.

I slightly lowered my head to check what it was.

A small, delicate hand.

The smooth skin, like it was crafted from porcelain, caught my gaze and I couldn’t help but follow her thin wrist upward.

“…Young Lady.”

“Lanit!”

At the end of that, there was Esmela’s face, looking like she was about to burst into tears.

I gathered my senses and looked around.

I was in a shabby room, with only a worn bed sheet on a rickety bed, and there were other shabby pieces of furniture around.

The moonlight shining through the window cast shadows on the wooden floor along the cross-shaped bars.

It was a bedroom that resembled my hometown, where poverty was evident yet still felt somewhat cozy.

“Ugh…”

I sat up.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”

“I think I’m fine. I don’t feel any pain…”

Aside from feeling a bit dazed from just waking up, I didn’t seem to have any other injuries.

‘Menu.’

I checked my stats through the system, but there were no significant issues.

‘And just in case… System eye.’

I also checked Esmela’s condition.

Fortunately, aside from slightly lowered HP, she seemed to be fine as well.

“Why the long face, Lanit?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. Are you okay, Young Lady?”

“Yeah…”

Esmela was looking somewhat gloomy, a stark contrast from her usual overbearing demeanor.

I placed my hand on my chest to feel the warmth that remained from her.

She must have woken up before me, and since I wasn’t getting up, she probably shook me and called my name out of worry to wake me.

Thinking that, Esmela looked even more endearing than usual.

Perhaps it was because I could sense her sincerity through her expression, which was lacking the usual confidence, even as I felt relieved about my safety.

“Now, Young Lady… You have tears in your eyes.”

I took out a red handkerchief from my jacket’s front pocket and gently wiped around her eyes.

“Huh? Wh-What are you doing? I don’t need that!”

Suddenly, Esmela flinched, swatting away my hand and jumped up from her chair, stepping back.

“When did I cry? How rude, really…”

She tried to cover her embarrassment with sharp words, but somehow, that was oddly cute.

“Oh, I must have misseen.”

I chuckled and folded the handkerchief back into my pocket.

“…So, where are we?”

“I don’t know. I woke up here. It looks like a commoner’s house in the royal capital…”

She nodded towards the window as she replied.

I got out of bed, walked to the window, and looked outside.

Except for zombies wandering around, it was a familiar street I had seen a few times. It was a place I recognized.

“Just as you guessed, we are currently in the southeastern district of the royal capital.”

“…I see.”

The favorite appreciation time has come to an end. It’s time to return to reality.

“Young Lady.”

“What?”

“I need to talk to you for a moment.”

“And?”

“It might get lengthy, so how about you sit on the chair?”

“…Alright.”

Esmela made a huffy face and sat on the chair beside the bed again, while I perched on the bed facing her.

She had already hidden the sincere expression she showed earlier, putting on the mask of the Herta family’s young lady again.

“First, let’s check our current situation. Were there any other events while I was unconscious that I don’t know about?”

“No. I fell asleep right after you lost consciousness. I woke up here about ten minutes before you did. The only thing I know is that there’s nobody in this house.”

“I understand.”

It seemed she didn’t know much more about our situation than I did.

…And, though I really didn’t want to ask this, I might despair upon hearing her answer if I spoke up…

“…Young Lady.”

“What?”

“It’s nighttime, right?”

“Can’t you see that?”

“…When we fell asleep, it was around noon.”

“…”

Esmela bit her lips tightly.

That behavior gave me a clear answer to my question.

“…So we’re trapped in the royal capital. We are.”

“…”

Leaving Esmela silent, I walked back to the window, this time opening it wide to look up at the sky.

Bright stars adorned the pitch-black night sky.

However, the beautiful nightscape had a thick blue tint to it, as if viewed through a camera with a filter applied.

“This is insane.”

Feeling too defeated and hopeless, I gave an absurd chuckle.

“That’s the barrier of the Magic Tower.”

Esmela, who had approached me without my notice, looked up at the sky with me as she spoke.

“It’s a blue color similar to the temporary barrier set up by reinforcements before, but this is on a completely different level. It’s the ultimate barrier that the Magic Tower has prepared with the intent of completely sealing off the royal capital.”

“Do you know what kind of barrier that is?”

“I’ve seen it just once before. During the red dragon subjugation, I saw the mages from the Magic Tower using that barrier to trap a dragon.”

“A dragon.”

“Yeah. A dragon. Even when the trapped dragon was breathing fire multiple times, the barrier didn’t even get scratched.”

Esmela let out a low sigh.

“As far as I remember, preparing even a barrier large enough to contain a dragon required an immense amount of magic stones. To create a massive barrier like that covering the entire royal capital, they would need dozens or even hundreds of times more materials and preparations. That’s impressive. As expected of the Magic Tower, which leads the entire continent’s magic studies.”

She too seemed completely exhausted with our current situation, her tone void of anger or despair, only filled with hollow cynicism.

“Is there any chance there’s a way to slip out of that barrier?”

“We should at least try to look for a way… but the chances are slim.”

“Then, how about contacting the outside and requesting them to temporarily lift the barrier…”

“With a barrier that dense in magic power, it would completely cut off not only my father’s contact magic but also any magical tools in the royal palace. More importantly, there’s no way they would release the barrier just to save the two of us from those more than a hundred thousand zombies outside the royal capital.”

“What if we try digging? There should be a point underground where the barrier doesn’t reach, so we could escape from there…”

“Stop it!”

Esmela shouted angrily.

“No matter what we do, it’s useless. We’re trapped. Completely! In this disgusting place filled with corpses, just the two of us!”