Chapter 35
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: Ashes and Regret
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I had a dream.
The third floor of the Sinclair family's extravagant townhouse.
That day, too, I was burning with a fever. It was four years ago. I was fifteen, and with my weak immune system, I was always sick.
“This father of yours has finally brought you some medicine.”
One day, my father suddenly returned with some medicine and forced me to take it.
After about a year of taking it, I became healthy. Almost excessively so.
“Aurora. You must remember that name. If a child with that name is ever in danger, you must help her. Don't forget that you, of all people, must help that child.”
And as he looked at me, my father said something incomprehensible. Back then, I didn't know who Aurora was.
Right. My father had definitely mentioned Aurora. If Aurora was in danger, even I had to help her…
Wait, what?
My eyes snapped open.
It was a memory I had forgotten for a very long time.
Why now, of all times, did I have such a dream? A dream where my late father mentioned Aurora's name.
As I came to my senses, my vision returned. Sunlight was streaming through the window in my room.
Chirp, chirp. A sparrow had landed on the windowsill.
Now that I was awake, the details of the dream were already fading. My father had said I needed to save someone, but I couldn't remember the name. Who was it?
I was sitting up, leaning against the bed in the middle of the room. I must have cried myself to sleep.
I thought I had laid Ethan on the bed…
“Looks like you’re finally awake.”
Just then, a man’s voice came from above me.
Beside me, I could see a man’s long legs. Tilting my head up a little more, I saw Ethan perched on the edge of the bed, looking down at me.
My breath caught at the sight of his vivid blue eyes staring intently at me, his upper body bent forward as he rested his arms on his thighs.
“…”
“…Uh. Hello.”
Ethan didn’t answer. He just stared at my face in silence for a while before finally speaking.
“What is this situation?”
Did he not remember me hitting him on the back of the head? Just in case, I cautiously tried to sound him out.
“You passed out. So I brought you to my house.”
“…”
“…Haha.”
“…I remember Miss Cherry hitting me on the back of the head. Very clearly.”
Damn it, so he does remember.
“The town was in chaos. There were far more monsters than survivors. If I had left you there, Sir Ethan, you would have been in danger.”
“There were many people in more danger than I was.”
I know that all too well.
But to me, Ethan was more important than people I’d never even met. I can’t save everyone.
An uncomfortable silence stretched on for a long time.
“Hah. What’s done is done…”
Unexpectedly, Ethan began to speak as if he had no intention of blaming me.
He stared at me with an unreadable expression for a moment, then he thanked me.
“For saving me… thank you.”
“…”
Hearing those words, I felt a sob rise in my throat.
And yet, I couldn’t save Susanna, the one person I truly wanted to.
My tightly pressed lips trembled.
“What’s wrong with your eyes? They’re all swollen.”
I had expected Ethan to berate me, but he unexpectedly asked about something else.
And his question brought back the anguish I had momentarily pushed to the back of my mind.
“Susanna…”
I swallowed repeatedly. As my lips quivered and I clutched at my chest, Ethan looked at me with a slightly surprised expression.
“Susanna became a monster… So with my own hands… with my own hands…”
The shocking truth of yesterday, which I had forgotten, once again threw my mind into turmoil.
I felt a wave of nausea. As I covered my mouth, Ethan quickly lifted me into his arms and placed me on the bed.
“Take a deep breath.”
he said, looking down at me.
“Breathe in, and out.”
My face, flushed with blood from the hyperventilation, felt like it was about to burst. Ethan slowly calmed me down.
“It’s okay. Everything will be okay now.”
Ethan comforted me, his expression unchanging.
I followed Ethan’s lead, breathing in and out repeatedly. I could feel the blood begin to circulate properly again, and my breathing eased.
“Feeling any better?”
I nodded at Ethan’s question.
“Thank you.”
Only then did Ethan let out a low sigh and move away from me.
“I want to ask what on earth is going on, but…”
Ethan glanced around the room before looking down at me on the bed and speaking.
“For now, get some rest.”
“No. I don’t think this is the time to rest. The sun is up, so we have to burn them. There are monster corpses outside.”
Of course, I had no intention of resting. If I lay there alone, I knew yesterday’s events would come flooding back.
I was afraid those memories would cling to me, ensnaring me and never letting go.
Ethan studied my expression for a moment, then readily nodded.
“Understood. And as soon as I’ve assessed the situation, I will head to the capital.”
I don’t know. From the way he spoke, it seemed he still didn’t fully grasp the situation.
“My younger sister is in the capital. I have to check if she’s safe.”
“The capital…”
I started to speak, then swallowed my words. I couldn’t bring myself to tell him the capital was likely the same.
Ethan already viewed me and the Sinclair family with an unfavorable eye. I couldn’t give someone like that more reason to be suspicious.
I felt sorry for not telling him the truth, but Aurora would be fine. The female lead can’t die, can she? At least, not until this whole affair is over.
The problem wasn’t Aurora, who was safe, but Ethan, who was stuck here.
I got out of bed and asked Ethan.
“What exactly happened in the town?”
As he left the room with me, Ethan fell silent, as if mulling over yesterday’s events. After a moment, he began to speak cautiously.
“I was at the police station all yesterday afternoon.”
Right. Everything was fine until I left Brunel for Kintne. There were supposed to be a few days left until the world ended…
“But then a report came in. A murder at the carriage rental office.”
The carriage rental office.
The moment I heard that, I guessed what had happened. It must have been brought in from another region.
Although it wasn’t far from the capital, Brunel is a small country town so obscure that even people from the capital barely know it exists. It doesn’t even have a train station.
For the virus to have reached a place like Brunel meant one thing.
‘The capital is already…’
I tried to shake off the ominous feeling as I opened the front door of Happy House and stepped outside.
“But it was already too late. It was similar to what we saw in the garden of this mansion last time. People turned into monsters, and anyone bitten by them would turn as well.”
Ethan grimaced in anguish as he recalled yesterday’s events. Then he swore and ran a hand through his hair.
“Damn it, what the hell is all this…?”
Worried about Aurora, whom he’d left in the capital, he kept swearing, his face a mask of confusion.
It wasn’t that I didn’t understand how he felt. I was worried about Harrison, too.
We walked slowly past the vegetable garden.
“Are these the monsters?”
Ethan asked, spotting the monster corpses I had moved to one side.
The two corpses—one shaped like a bear, the other like a wolf—lay on the ground, just as I had left them yesterday. I nodded.
“The wolf one seems to be Susanna…”
I couldn’t finish the sentence and turned away. I hadn’t been like this when the monster appeared at No. 61, or when the farmer turned.
Urk. I emptied the contents of my stomach onto the dirt floor.
Ethan didn’t pat my back or offer a single word of comfort.
But when I straightened up, he held out a neatly folded handkerchief to me, without even looking at my face.
“I am grateful that you saved me, but my opinion that we should have saved even one more person hasn’t changed.”
I didn’t reply to Ethan’s words.
My own life comes first for me, but for Ethan, other people’s lives come first.
The fact that the one man who absolutely had to survive for the sake of this world held such a mindset made my future feel bleak.
“I understand. There’s no need to bend your sense of duty.”
However, I didn’t think it was a bad thing for Ethan to maintain such a kind heart.
In a hellish world like this, people like Ethan were necessary. That’s why I hoped he would never change.
If Ethan ever tries to sacrifice himself for others…
Then I’ll be the one to stop him. Even if it earns me his resentment and hatred.
Just then, Ethan poured oil over the monster corpses. Then he tossed a lit match, and the flames erupted in an instant.
Whoosh—
For a while, Ethan and I watched the flames in silence.
Crackle, crackle.
The corpses burned, emitting a foul stench, and we could only watch endlessly.
‘I’m sorry, Susanna. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.’
I stood before the fire and prayed for her, again and again. It was hard to stop my body from trembling.
I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.
I shed tears once more in front of it.
Ethan stood silently beside me, just watching the flames.