Chapter 64
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 56
Chapter Title: An Unlikely Trio
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The kind of work maids do.
To someone from the modern world, it was a rather sad thing to hear, but for Knox, a nobleman of this world, it was a perfectly reasonable assumption.
“First of all, I don’t have any debts. The reason I took out a 100 million gold loan is because I’m not yet old enough to receive my inheritance.”
I paused for a moment, recalling the past. I had already come up with a rough excuse for my cooking skills.
“My cooking……. When I was young, I stole my parents’ yacht and crossed the ocean. I learned then, to survive. On the Western Continent, I was penniless and all alone.”
“……You stole a yacht and crossed the ocean?”
Knox looked so incredulous that he even set down his fork. The pressure was on. I cautiously averted my eyes and replied.
“It was teenage rebellion…….”
“At what age?”
“Fifteen……?”
“……That’s some teenage rebellion on a whole other scale. I take back what I said earlier. Miss Cherry, you were clearly cut from a different cloth, even as a child.”
Knox smoothly retracted his statement and complimented me. I wasn’t sure if it was a genuine compliment, but I chose not to dwell on it and encouraged them to resume their meal.
“You both must be hungry, so please, eat.”
The plates were filled to the brim with appetizing food.
Knox and Ethan began eating with the impeccable etiquette befitting nobles, but the speed at which they ate soon increased.
It was the first time I had served meat to Ethan, and for Knox, it must have been his first proper meal in days.
In truth, this bacon was the last of the meat I had.
On the day the world ended, the wolf monster had ruined some of the meat I’d stored, and I hadn’t put away much in the first place. Meat spoils quickly, after all. Of course, I had cured meat, but that was different from keeping it frozen.
Once they had eaten their fill, the two men began to sneak glances at me. They looked like puppies needing to be let out, as if there was something they wanted to say, but they remained silent in the end.
What’s with them? Why are they acting so strange?
In the end, the meal finished in awkward silence. Knox and Ethan volunteered to handle the cleanup.
The kitchen was somewhat messy from the things I’d left out while cooking. Frowning, Ethan vigorously scrubbed the grease from the table and the stove.
“Things like this should be cleaned up immediately, Miss Cherry. Damn, look at this. The grease has dried on and is hard to scrub off.”
Ethan chided me. But isn’t cleaning up while you cook incredibly difficult? I just gave a noncommittal nod. Cooking is fine, but I absolutely hate cleaning.
As I stood there with a dishcloth, rubbing the same spot over and over, Ethan strode over and snatched the cloth from my hand.
“Just go to your room.”
“Okay, I will.”
With a visibly brighter face, I quickly stood up, excused myself, and returned to my room. And then I laid my body down on the plush bed.
I stared blankly at the canopy of the bed and thought.
Do I just have to endure like this for two years?
Everything is going too smoothly, too peacefully. That’s what made it so strange.
* * *
About ten days had already passed since the day the world ended.
Cherry was still full of energy and in high spirits. Knox, offering his brief psychiatric assessment, remarked that if her psyche were going to collapse, it would have done so already.
Contrary to the two men’s initial concerns, they had more or less concluded that Cherry’s mental fortitude was strong. And both men found that fact very surprising.
Cherry sat absently on the rooftop lookout. Ethan sat on the steps of the garden shed, gazing quietly up at the roof.
This was the first time he had observed her so attentively. Before the world ended, he had been looking for evidence of her crimes, viewing her through a biased lens, so his perspective now was completely different.
Just then, Knox appeared, opening the mansion’s front door. He quietly examined the ‘Happy House’ sign hanging by the door before walking over to Ethan.
“How is Miss Cherry?”
“She’s fine.”
Knox said nothing and followed Ethan’s gaze up to the roof. Cherry was surveying the town with binoculars.
“By the way, Lancaster, do you happen to know why this mansion is called Happy House?”
Knox asked, pointing to the sign hanging in the distance by the front door. Ethan shrugged.
“Hard to say. Seeing as how she wrote ‘temporary shelter’ and then corrected it, she must have intended to build a shelter from the very beginning, not a villa.”
To be honest, Cherry herself didn't seem to have much desire to hide those facts anymore. She seemed to have adopted a ‘come what may’ attitude.
At Knox’s words, Ethan recalled a conversation he’d previously had with Cherry.
“I received a letter too. It said a monster would appear at 61 Notium Street, and that people would die.”
“I told you. My life was nothing but money, so I wanted to find some excitement. But after coming down here and seeing the farmhand change, I was convinced. I don't know who sent it, but the letter's contents were all correct. Look. The world ended because of a contagious monster.”
“I suppose you didn’t think to look more into the person who sent the letter?”
“Why wouldn't I have? But think about it. When did the incident at 61 Notium Street happen? What could I have possibly found out in such a short time?”
She might not have known that the world was going to end.
But she knew the monster that appeared at 61 Notium Street was contagious, so she might have had some inkling.
Ethan didn’t press Cherry any further. No matter how he considered the circumstances, she just didn’t seem like the mastermind behind the whole affair.
* * *
The number of monsters roaming around Brunel and the mansion showed no signs of decreasing.
Ethan resolved that if the situation hadn’t changed in a week, he would force his way out of the mansion. He couldn’t remain trapped here, not knowing whether his sister was alive or dead.
The situation at Happy House was also unchanged.
From the moment Ethan first met her in Brunel until now, Cherry had been working nonstop. She was still at it. Even when he asked if she shouldn't take a break, she just shook her head.
“The world ended before the mansion’s repairs were even finished, so what can I do? I have to work.”
Then she suddenly clutched her hair and cried out.
“Damn it, to think I still have to work even after the world has ended!”
She cleaned the mansion, repaired broken furniture, and cleared the drainpipes and chimney. In her spare time, she diligently tended to the vegetable garden, planting crops, and she also prepared every meal.
Cherry’s day usually began as follows.
Contrary to the gossip columns, she was an early riser. The first thing she did upon waking was drink milk. Claiming it would spoil soon and they had to finish it, she offered some to Ethan and Knox as well.
They sat in a row on a garden bench at Happy House, drinking milk and watching the sun rise.
In this way, Ethan and Knox shared a daily routine with Cherry. It was quite a novel experience.
Then again, what experience wasn’t strange now that the world had ended?
Still, Ethan couldn't help but think that the combination of himself, Knox, and Cherry was the strangest of all. Three people from completely different worlds, now gathered in one place. Before the fall, a scene like this would have kept the gossip columns buzzing for months.
Just then, Knox, who was looking up at the sky, spoke.
“Miss Cherry. It must have been very difficult living as a different person in high society.”
Cherry took another gulp of milk and answered.
“Pretending to be someone else?”
“The Cherry that high society knew is a different person from who you are now. To do a complete 180 with your personality and become someone else……. Your strong desire to enter the world of the aristocracy and your superb acting skills—I must admit, they’re impressive.”
“It wasn’t an act, so there’s nothing to be impressed by.”
Cherry denied it nonchalantly, but neither Knox nor Ethan believed her.
In truth, it wasn't the first time Knox and Cherry had met. Cherry didn't seem to remember, but he had seen her in passing once before, at Harrison Howard's wedding.
The way Cherry had been back then was a world away from how she was now. To Knox, it seemed this was her true self.
Cherry gulped down the milk in her mug and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
“I should have brought a milk cow instead of chickens. Once the milk is gone, what joy will be left in life?”
“Personally, I think bringing the chickens was the better decision. Eggs over milk.”
Knox replied. The answer had been reflexive, and Knox was suddenly struck by how utterly peaceful even this mundane conversation felt. Outside, it was hell…….
Recalling the two days he’d spent hiding from monsters through the nights in Brunel, Knox shuddered. Then he looked again at the peaceful sky, the vegetable garden, and the mug of milk.
No matter how he thought about it, he really needed to stay on Cherry Sinclair’s good side.
Just then, holding her empty mug, Cherry abruptly stood up from her seat.
“Don’t you think it’s getting hotter?”