Chapter 3
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: A Rather Unusual Request
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If I was going to regain my past life’s memories, couldn’t it have happened before this whole mess started?
The virus was likely already spreading. Slowly, but surely, across the entire country.
‘If I tell anyone about this, will they even believe me?’
It was true that people paid a lot of attention to me, but it was by no means in a positive way. On a scale of trustworthiness, I was a gossip girl who hovered near zero.
‘Even I wouldn’t believe a word I said.’
Damn it. At this rate, there was only one way to save my own skin.
‘This is no time to be lying in bed!’
From the monsters that would appear after the world ended—
I had to build a bunker, a shelter where I could hide and defend myself.
Even though I’d stopped reading it midway, I knew the general plot of the novel. If I prepared well enough, I should be able to avoid the danger.
And most fortunately of all, I had money to burn. People say you can’t buy time with money, but that’s just something people without enough of it say. All I had to do was throw an obscene amount of cash at the problem to shorten the time it took to build a shelter.
‘Right. Let’s do this. With the memories of my past life, I can pull it off.’
The moment I made my decision, I first went to see Harrison, the family’s lawyer.
* * *
The lawyer’s office in the Sinclair estate.
Harrison, who was about ten years older than me, was like a big brother to me.
Having been with me since I was a child, he was less a lawyer and more of a business agent and aide to the Sinclair family.
“What do you mean by that, Miss? Weapons?”
Harrison asked again, having been elegantly sipping his tea on the office sofa.
With neat brown hair and warm green eyes, he pushed up the glasses that had slid down the bridge of his nose and looked at me quizzically.
“Why the sudden need for weapons?”
“I want to protect myself.”
Harrison stared at me for a moment, then broke into a faint smile. It was a very bad sign when Harrison smiled like that.
“Please explain what you mean in detail. What do you intend to use the weapons for?”
Harrison asked in a gentle tone, as if placating a child. It was as if he were asking, ‘What kind of trouble are you planning to cause this time?’
‘Damn it, he’s not going to make this easy.’
If only this were a problem I could solve on my own.
To acquire weapons, especially in large quantities, I absolutely needed his help. If I tried to do it myself, I would undoubtedly attract attention. The competent Harrison, however, could handle it cleanly without any such issues.
Right. I knew from the start that a weak excuse like wanting to protect myself wouldn’t work on Harrison.
I looked him straight in the eye. Then, gathering all the sincerity in the universe—
“There’s someone I want to shoot to death,”
I said.
Across from me, Harrison’s hand, which had been leisurely bringing a teacup to his lips, froze.
But I was perfectly confident. This was the absolute truth. It was only natural to want to shoot the virus-spawned monsters that threatened my life, wasn't it?
Harrison slowly set down his teacup and lifted his head. The light reflected off his glasses, making them opaque.
“Who is that bastard?”
he asked, adjusting his glasses.
I had to choose my words carefully here. Harrison was overprotective, so he would definitely investigate me. I took out a handkerchief and, with a sorrowful expression, dabbed at my perfectly dry eyes.
“That… I don’t want to say it myself.”
Whew. Even I had to admit, that was an excellent choice of words. Now Harrison wouldn’t be able to press me any further.
He would probably have me followed secretly, but I could live with that. All I needed was to prepare for the apocalypse in peace.
‘There’s not much time left, anyway!’
Harrison didn’t say anything for a while. Judging by his thoughtful expression, he seemed to be short-listing candidates for the “bastard” I had mentioned.
After a long silence, he finally spoke.
“…I understand for now. What specific types of weapons do you want? I will also arrange for an instructor to teach you how to use them.”
“Swords, crossbows, axes, that sort of thing. All kinds! But Harrison, I don’t need an instructor…”
“Miss. On this, I cannot compromise.”
Harrison was firm. There was no room for persuasion.
The world was ending in twenty-one days, anyway. I might not even get to meet this instructor.
Still, it would be nice to have an expert’s help. I gave a half-hearted nod.
“Alright. In any case, please prepare plenty of extra weapons. Since I’m doing this, I want to do it right. I’m thinking of building an armory, too. You know how I am.”
Until yesterday, I had been a reckless heiress who wasn’t satisfied until she had wasted money seeing something through to the very end.
Perhaps because of that, Harrison simply nodded without much suspicion.
It was as if the words ‘She’s up to something weird again’ were written all over his stoic face.
Considering Cherry Sinclair’s past behavior, there were plenty of reasons for his distrust, so while it felt unfair, I had nothing to say.
“Where do you plan to build this armory?”
“I’m going to build it in a village called Brunel.”
“Brunel…?”
Harrison’s expression was rather peculiar as he voiced his doubt.
‘Why does he look like that?’
I tensed up but answered calmly.
“It’s not far from the capital. Look it up on a map.”
Harrison rose from his seat. He took a map from his desk drawer, spread it out on the coffee table, and searched for the village of Brunel.
Brunel was a tiny village located just a short distance southeast of the capital.
“…Miss, why this village of all places?”
Harrison looked up from the map, his gaze uncomprehending.
It was a fair question. Brunel was a small, rural village without even a train station.
But I had a clear reason for choosing Brunel. It had been mentioned in the novel *Love in a Ruined World*.
[Vanilla survived alone for half a year in a secluded mansion in the village of Brunel.
She said this mansion was special. She added that it was perfectly optimized for survival.
The mansion, when seen in person, was just as she had described.
-From the novel *Love in a Ruined World*]
The passage went something like that.
In any case, the supporting character Vanilla had survived in this mansion for half a year. A full six months.
That was why I chose this village.
In the novel, Aurora’s party arrived at this mansion and met Vanilla about six months after the apocalypse began.
Vanilla’s secluded mansion was a fortress on a hill. Its large garden was perfect for starting a vegetable patch. Furthermore, with a mountain behind it, it was also convenient for foraging.
At that point, however, no one in Aurora’s party had strong survival skills. In the end, they couldn’t solve the food shortage caused by their increased numbers and soon left to find another place.
They gradually developed their survival skills after meeting Jose, the second male lead and a weapons expert, but they were useless before then.
‘As for food, I can just create a self-sufficient environment. It’ll be fine.’
My parents in my past life had been farmers. They were rich in land, and I was supposed to inherit it.
Of course, I had never farmed myself. But I did help out occasionally, and I’d learned a thing or two by watching over their shoulders, so it should be possible, right?
It takes two years for the protagonists to meet the male lead scientist who will develop a cure.
So, I just had to hold out for two years.
‘If I tell Harrison all this, will he believe me?’
Deciding I had nothing to lose, I spoke up.
“Harrison, the world is about to end. There’s going to be a plague that turns people into monsters. I’m going to Brunel to prepare for the apocalypse.”
I don’t really want to describe the look on Harrison’s face when I said that.
“…Do you perhaps need your medication again? If you don’t want to be treated at the Ludpersher hospital, I can find another one for you. In fact, it might be a good idea to just check into a hospital for a few days and rest…”
“N-No! I was joking! It was a joke! I just had a dream. It was just so vivid.”
I waved my hands frantically, trying to show Harrison that I was perfectly sane.
I had been on medication for a short time for depression after my parents passed away, and I never thought it would come back to bite me like this.
‘I can’t be locked up in a hospital when the world ends!’
“If you’re alright, then that’s a relief.”
Harrison replied with a sigh of relief. As always, Harrison was the only one who truly cared about me.
In any case, I absolutely had to bring Harrison to the shelter.
“Um, Harrison. Could you come with me to Brunel? I don’t know anything about armories, and I don’t have an eye for that sort of thing.”
At my words, Harrison gave me a look that seemed to say, ‘Then why are you trying to build one if you don’t know anything about it?’
Having no particular excuse, I just stared back at him brazenly.
“I will send someone with you.”
“No. I want to go with you, Harrison.”
I had to get him out of the capital, no matter what.
Harrison frowned, looking up at me as if he couldn’t understand. His face might as well have had the words ‘What are you scheming this time?’ written on it.