Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: They're Not Like That (5)
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Sensing something was off, I glanced outside the shop.
There, suspicious figures were springing up one after another.
What are those?
I blinked, staring intently at the things slowly approaching the shop.
Their forms became clear through the large glass window.
“Groooaaan…”
“Krrk, keek…!”
It was a corpse, dripping viscous fluids onto the ground as it moved.
They were zombies, often considered a lesser version of ghouls in this world.
And there weren't just one or two; there were dozens, enough to fill the entire street.
Their overwhelming numbers were so dangerous that even a seasoned Fixer could be taken down if they weren't careful.
‘Ah! What is this filthy mess on the street I worked so hard to clean!’
But that wasn't what caught my eye right now.
The dizzying sight of the street I had meticulously cleaned for customers getting instantly soiled with the fluids of corpses.
In that moment, I saw red. Using my psychokinesis, I grabbed the necks of every zombie in sight.
Then, as if crushing rotten tomatoes, I squeezed with all my might.
Squelch!
The heads of the zombies filling the street exploded simultaneously, and dozens of corpses instantly stopped moving and collapsed to the ground.
Ghoul skin was nearly as hard as rock, so breaking it required a troublesome, multi-step twisting process.
But zombies, being based on rotten corpses, had bodies even softer than an ordinary person's, which made this possible.
‘Hoo… What on earth is happening outside? I should go check.’
I clutched my head, feeling a wave of dizziness from overexerting my psychokinesis, and rushed out of the shop to assess the situation.
The street I stepped into was utter chaos.
It was filled with an unnerving number of zombies and people fleeing from them.
I wondered why there were so many.
It seemed they had followed those people out from the inner alleys.
‘…I should probably just get rid of all the ones I see. What a nuisance.’
Psychokinesis was more effective against many weak enemies than one strong one.
This was because while its output had a limit, the interval between attacks within its range was short.
And zombies weren't people; they were a form of necromancy that controlled dead bodies.
In other words, I didn't need to be delicate with my power here.
Snap! Crack!
Thus, it took only a few seconds for all the zombies that had filled the street to become mere corpses.
“The zombies…”
“Wh-what happened?”
“We’re saved!”
The people who had been under attack expressed their confusion as the zombies suddenly collapsed, lifeless.
Psychokinesis doesn't leave a trace.
To them, it must have looked like the zombies’ heads just popped before they fell.
Well, as long as no one finds out I did it, I guess it doesn't matter.
Everyone was either fighting the zombies or frantically running away, so no one would have been looking in my direction.
But right now, something else was bothering me.
Ignoring the people and their various reactions, I crouched down and examined a zombie's corpse.
‘This is…’
The first thing I found odd was the appearance of the zombies.
Normally, these monsters should have been spilling their guts and organs, but they were strangely just dripping black fluid onto the ground.
Based on that, I carefully examined the zombie's severed neck.
I saw that instead of flesh and bone, its insides were filled with a black, sticky substance.
‘Just as I thought. They weren't real corpses.’
No wonder there were so many.
This meant someone had intentionally unleashed a horde of fake zombies into the Western Labyrinth.
‘The Fixer mentioned something like this… The Night of Blood incident. The culprit was a vampire named Drakel, I think.’
One possibility came to mind.
It was the Night of Blood incident, orchestrated by the vampire Drakel, whose ambition was to turn a part of the underworld into a vampire-run district.
He launched an indiscriminate attack on the residents of the underworld with an enormous number of zombies, a powerful ghoul legion, and elite vampires…
Only to be soundly defeated by the protagonist's party, who got entangled in the event.
But something was strange.
If I remembered correctly, for the Night of Blood incident to happen… a few other episodes had to occur first.
‘I haven't even heard the name of Codria's idol, Aisha, yet.’
The idol Aisha was the first client the protagonist's party took on after they were fully formed.
The fact that I hadn't heard any news of her anywhere bothered me.
Considering her dramatic rise from an unknown idol to a major star in the story, like a meteor falling from the sky…
Even in the underworld, I should have at least heard her name mentioned.
But for the Night of Blood incident to happen suddenly, without any news of her?
This… clearly meant the original story's flow had been slightly altered.
‘Could it be because of me?’
Come to think of it, about two months ago…
There was a vampire who had persistently chased me, drawn by the scent of blood.
He was so weak that I had completely forgotten about him.
But thinking back, the fact that he was leading a horde of ghouls meant he was no ordinary vampire.
Even if ghouls were just cannon fodder to Fixers, to ordinary people, they were creatures from a nightmare.
So, what if that vampire and his ghouls were connected to Drakel? And what if that had completely thrown his plans off course?
It wouldn't be impossible for the Night of Blood incident, which should have taken more time, to be moved up.
‘Hmm… This might be a bit of a problem.’
In the original story, the vampire Drakel is defeated when the protagonist, Raven, pierces his heart.
Then, Alice, whom I met earlier, cleanly beheads him.
In other words, it was an event that would be resolved one way or another if the protagonist's party got involved.
Ghouls, zombies, vampires—they all faded before overwhelming power.
But what if, for some reason, the protagonist's party never encounters Drakel?
‘In the original story, a client who lost their family to vampires served as the link to Drakel. But now that the timeline has been moved up… it’s highly likely that link doesn’t exist.’
If my guess was correct…
This situation likely wouldn't be resolved until a Double Number-level Fixer from the city was dispatched to clean things up.
They would have to fight an endless stream of zombies pouring in from somewhere, without even knowing the location of Drakel, the one who started it all.
And that was not a good thing.
‘…Who do they think they are, trying to ruin the Western Labyrinth?’
It wasn't that I considered it particularly precious. Still, I had grown quite fond of this place over the past few weeks.
There were people who had thanked me, people who had cheered me on.
And I especially couldn't stand the thought of the baker getting hurt.
Without hesitation, I was about to run toward the epicenter of the incident in the Western Labyrinth.
That is, until I realized I wasn't wearing my usual cloth, but my maid uniform.
‘Ugh… I can't go looking like this. I need to find my cloth inside, quickly…’
“Are you looking for this?”
“...!”
Whoosh.
Suddenly, something white was tossed from beside me.
I instinctively leaned and caught it, realizing it was the white cloth I usually wore.
Turning my head, I saw Greg standing at the shop's entrance.
It seemed he knew I was about to go look for my cloth just by looking at me.
How did he know?
As I darted my eyes around, flustered at having been read so easily, Greg replied nonchalantly, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“You’re worried about what’s happening deeper inside. Aren't you?”
“…”
“Hmph, hurry up and go. I'll take care of cleaning the shop.”
Is it because he's an appraiser that he's so sharp?
I had felt it once before, but his powers of observation were truly frightening.
Well, it was a good thing if my intentions were understood without me having to say a word.
I gave Greg a quick bow, then clutched the cloth to my chest and dashed into a back alley.
And when the area became deserted and zombies began to appear again…
I swiftly wrapped the cloth around myself, crushed a zombie's head underfoot, and leaped onto a rooftop.
After a short break, the ghost had returned.
*
As I moved from rooftop to rooftop across the darkened Western Labyrinth, I began to grasp the overall situation.
‘This is a total mess. There isn’t a single alley without zombies.’
The back alleys, which were always sparsely populated, were now teeming with zombies.
No, it was more than teeming.
It was beyond a horde of zombies; it was practically a tsunami of them.
There were so many that just looking down from above was making me dizzy.
“D-damn it! What the hell! Where are all these zombies coming from? It’s endless!”
“You damn corpses! Just die already!”
The one silver lining was that the bounty hunters who had been after me were scattered throughout the alleys.
Thanks to them, the absurdly large number of zombies was being somewhat controlled.
Perhaps they were skilled enough to protect themselves.
Or maybe these fake zombies were weaker than normal ones.
In any case, thanks to the bounty hunters, civilian casualties were being kept to a minimum.
“Ah, I can't take it! Hey, let's get out of here! We'll die for nothing if we stay!”
“Tch… right! What’s more important than our lives!”
Of course, the bounty hunters weren't charity workers; they were money-grubbing misers.
Exhausted by the endless wave of zombies, some of them were trying to pull out.
Why would they risk their lives to protect the underworld?
“Hey! The Black Beast Society has posted a request! 100 credits per zombie head!”
“A h-hundred credits!”
“That means 100 heads is 10,000 credits! What are you waiting for?! Get them!”
“Woohahaha! Money! Money!”
But it seemed the Black Beast Society had decided to use the bounty hunters to deal with the zombie crisis.
By throwing an incredible amount of money at the problem, the front line formed by the bounty hunters began to stabilize.
‘Just how much money does the Black Beast Society have?’
Leap, leap.
As I bounded from rooftop to rooftop using my psychokinesis, I couldn't help but make a weary face at the Black Beast Society's ridiculously blunt financial assault.
Then again, they must be rolling in cash.
That’s probably why they put such a huge sum, 700,000 credits, on someone as frail as me.
Solving everything with money.
For a third party, it was quite a spectacle, but for the one on the receiving end, it was maddening.
This meant I wouldn't have to worry too much about the zombies as long as the bounty hunters held out.
Feeling a little relieved, I started running aimlessly through the Western Labyrinth in search of the vampire.
Then, I suddenly stopped near a certain building.
‘Ah…’
Before I could even think, I leaped from the rooftop and landed in front of the building.
I looked up at its facade.
My eyes fell upon the collapsed form of my favorite bakery.
Not the bakery!
Using my psychokinesis, I lifted the fallen debris and frantically tossed it aside.
Again, and again, and again.
Soon, the entrance, which had been blocked by rubble, was cleared.
There, I found the baker, pinned beneath the wreckage.
I rushed over, cleared the debris off him, and checked his condition.
Thankfully, aside from some bleeding, his injuries weren't life-threatening.
“Ngh, ugh… C-customer?”
“...!”
“Did you… save me? Thank you…”
The baker, now conscious, looked up at me with a weak smile as he lay on the ground.
He slowly turned his head, surveying his ruined shop.
“Haha, I'm sorry… I-I don’t think I’ll be able to make bread for you for a while…”
The baker’s eyes, as he apologized, were filled with sorrow.
Was it the sorrow of seeing the shop, filled with memories and affection, destroyed in an instant?
Seeing him, a man who had shown me so much kindness, trying to suppress his pain…
It felt as if a cold emotion was burning within my chest.
“…”
“Th-this is…!”
I rose to my feet silently.
Then, without holding back my psychokinesis, I lifted the collapsed rubble and built a barricade to keep any approaching zombies at bay.
The baker watched, his eyes wide with astonishment.
He must have realized from that alone that I was the ghost.
Was he disappointed?
As I stood there silently, looking at him, he, despite the pain from being crushed, broke into a wide grin.
“Heh, heheh… To think my customer was the ghost… I was serving someone truly incredible!”
“…”
Swoosh.
I turned away from the baker.
Then, I strode through a gap in the barricade and stepped out of the shop.
Even though I had just shown my psychic powers to someone, I felt strangely liberated.
‘Right now, I'm just the ghost… so it doesn't matter if I go on a rampage, right?’
For some reason, I felt an overwhelming urge to beat the ever-living hell out of a certain vampire.