The Sequel to the Romance Fantasy Was a Zombie Apocalypse – Chapter 58

“Good morning, Young Lady.”

“Yeah.”

Exchanging familiar morning greetings in the house of a stranger.

Esmela was about to sit down at the table but then stared intently at a few biscuits and jerky on the plate.

“What’s wrong?”

“…It’s nothing.”

Esmela plopped down in her chair, sulking as she nibbled on a tiny piece of jerky, chewing half-heartedly.

“By the way, Lanit, what are you looking at so early in the morning?”

“Oh, this? It’s a map of Erka. I picked it up at the general store.”

“Hmm… But why a map?”

“I’m looking for a place where we might stay in the future.”

“Oh, that sounds good. Let’s try to find somewhere with a proper bedroom if we can. The bed in this house is so hard it’s uncomfortable.”

“…I don’t even have that. I sleep on the wooden floor.”

“Well, that can’t be helped. I can’t sleep on the floor as a noble, can I?”

Seems the noble attitude hasn’t fully worn off yet.

“While the living environment is important, the first thing we should consider when choosing a residence is safety, Young Lady.”

“That’s true. Then I guess I have to give up on the comfy bed.”

“…”

“So? Is that safe place you’re talking about actually in this Royal Capital?”

“…It’s true that there are no suitable places.”

I rolled my eyes and looked around the map again, but ultimately couldn’t find a decent building.

With a sigh, I set the map back down on the table.

“To be honest, even the mansion we were protected by Arit’s barrier is compromised now, so I doubt any other buildings in the Royal Capital would be safe.”

“Well, that’s true. But isn’t staying here also somewhat dangerous? The thin walls of this shabby house wouldn’t hold back the zombies.”

“Ugh…”

The Hunter Guild is already down, so that’s out.

The mansion was wrecked after the assault, and managing that large place alone, or even with you, is impossible, so that’s out too.

I thought of every possible location like the City Guard’s outpost, government offices, and even the clock tower… but all of them were unsuitable for us to hide from zombies.

“There really seems to be a limit to finding places using a map. I guess I have no choice but to go out and look with my own eyes.”

“Isn’t that dangerous? Plus, you’ll have to go alone.”

“Are you thinking of staying here all this time?”

“Then carry me and run around.”

… It doesn’t seem like her noble attitude has faded; she’s just become more brazen.

Just a few days ago, when I first carried her, she slapped me the moment I set her down…

“Well, since there’s no choice, we need to move quickly since we never know when the mutants will find us and attack.”

“Yeah. The owner of that restaurant we met before said he was well-hidden but suddenly got attacked by zombies, so I guess those mutants that attacked our mansion are still roaming the Royal Capital.”

Esmela spoke with a serious expression as she picked up the map I had placed on the table.

Up until now, our conversation had been lighthearted, but she must be aware of the situation’s gravity.

After silently studying the map for a while, Esmela suddenly spoke up.

“Lanit, why did you exclude this place?”

“What do you mean?”

“This place.”

Esmela pointed at a location slightly south of the royal capital’s center: the Royal Palace.

“…Huh? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

I know her sense of reality is lacking, but this is a bit too much.

Could it be she still has lingering feelings about wanting to be the Princess? Is she trying to feel something similar by occupying the empty Royal Palace…?

“Listen, Lanit. If we stay inside the Royal Capital, it’s guaranteed that we’ll die either by zombies or by starvation when our supplies run out, so who would want to remain in the Royal Palace? Of course, there’s no one there now, so all we have to do is get in.”

“No, but what about the zombies?”

“I don’t think that’ll be necessary. When there were people inside the Royal Palace, it’s obvious not a single zombie could enter, and when everyone was escaping, the zombies’ attention would have all been on them. They wouldn’t care about an empty, deserted Royal Palace, right?”

Esmela confidently began explaining why we should take the Royal Palace as our base.

“So, if it’s only been a few days since the Royal Palace became vacant, there’s a high chance there are no zombies inside. Given their traits of wandering around slowly unless chasing after humans, they wouldn’t likely go inside the Royal Palace, even if they did, they’d only enter through the open southern gate.”

“Even so, how would we manage such a vast Royal Palace by ourselves? Plus, what about the open gate?”

“Do we really have to manage all of it? We just need to take care of one place well. The rest can gather dust or whatever. And as for the gate, you’ll probably be able to open and close it by yourself.”

“How do you know the structure of the gate?”

“…When I was little, I toured the Royal Palace with Prince Robertze and was amazed by the big gate he got excited to tell me about…”

“Oh…”

Esmela’s expression suddenly darkens.

“If I remember correctly… he was explaining in detail about some new construction method he introduced. Should I tell you about it too?”

“No! That’s fine!”

I hurriedly waved my hands to stop her.

That was a close call.

“But still…”

As I desperately racked my brain to think of reasons why the Royal Palace wouldn’t work, Esmela’s initial careless remark began to sound increasingly like a serious suggestion backed by rationale.

“If we choose the Royal Palace, how do we get supplies? We can’t keep opening and closing the gate each time we go out.”

I recalled the moat surrounding the Royal Palace and posed my question.


It’s one thing to scale those high walls unarmed, but it would be tougher to jump over the moat and ascend the wall while carrying a load.

“That won’t be a problem. We can easily go in and out through the underground without having to climb the walls.”

“The underground?”

“Yeah. When we escaped the mansion, we talked about the underground passage, and I think I mentioned that it leads to the Royal Palace.”

“Well, if that’s the case, we can’t go straight to the Royal Palace, but we’ll have to surface from a distance and then move on foot. The underground route to the Royal Palace has various security measures blocking it.”

“Oh! You’re right! I remember discussing it with Uncle Zeck, and I think he mentioned something about security devices blocking the way.”

“That’s right. But as long as we can access the Royal Palace through the gate, unlocking the passage inside the Royal Palace to go out won’t be that difficult.”

“How do you know that?”

“…It’s one of the secret paths created for escaping the Royal Palace in emergencies. I learned about this while being trained to become a member of the royal family as the Prince’s fiancée…”

“I see! Got it!”

Before the conversation could slip back to the topic of the Prince, I hurriedly changed the subject.

“…”

Oh, wow, Esmela’s suggestion is starting to seem realistically feasible.

The very idea of living in the Royal Palace seemed unrealistic, but when I consider it carefully, it might not be such a bad idea after all…

Assuming there aren’t any zombies inside, if we could indeed secure the Royal Palace by closing the gate, there wouldn’t be a safer spot within the Royal Capital than the robust thick walls surrounding it.

“What do you think? This seems like a pretty good option to consider.”

Esmela said proudly, placing her hands on her hips.

Seriously, Esmela’s proud expression is cute… Not that!

“Hmm…”

I ponder again about using the Royal Palace as our base.

“… I acknowledge that your suggestion is reasonable. Then we definitely need to check the Royal Palace and assess the internal situation.”

I finished speaking and stood up from my chair.

“Oh, are we going right now?”

“Yeah. There’s no time to lose.”

Now that we’ve secured enough food to last a while, the most pressing task we face is ensuring our safety.

If everything goes as expected, there’s no reason to delay securing that safety.

“I’ll first check inside the Royal Palace through the southern gate and, if possible, enter to explore more thoroughly.”

“…Okay.”

Esmela wanted to say something but stopped and stood up to see me off.

“I might have mentioned this before I went out yesterday, but you must be careful while I’m gone. Try to stay as quiet as possible to avoid attracting attention, and if they get into the house, quickly go to the second floor and block the stairs with earth magic.”

I earnestly advised Esmela before heading upstairs to exit through the window.

“Wait.”

Just as I was halfway up the stairs, Esmela called out to me from below.

“Yeah?”

“Be careful too. That… vow we made before… you have to keep it, no matter what. Got it?”

Her shy expression made me smile without realizing it.

“Don’t worry. I’m just stepping out for a bit. What could possibly happen?”