Chapter 68
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: A Moment of Vulnerability
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I crossed my arms, determined not to back down, and retorted.
“Then shouldn't you be the first to share your information, Mr. Ludpersher? I'll offer up information of corresponding quality and quantity depending on what you provide. In times like these, the one with the most information has the upper hand, don't they?”
Knox looked surprised, as if he hadn't expected such a response. Then, he burst out laughing, as if he'd been bested.
“Ah, I see Miss Cherry is not someone to be underestimated.”
It'd be a big problem if anyone still underestimated me after seeing my strength.
By the way, I wonder if Ethan knows about this.
At the very least, Knox and I were both holding different pieces of information about this ruined world, hiding them from each other.
“You know about the Westmore ghost story incident, right?”
“...No? What's that? What ghost story?”
“It was all over the news last year, and you don't know? Don't you read the newspaper often, Miss Cherry?”
The only reason I read the papers frequently after coming down to Brunel was to check for news about the apocalypse. Before that—
“I wasn't interested unless the story was about me.”
Knox sighed and kindly explained the Westmore urban legend incident to me.
“Last year, there were reports of human screams and animalistic cries coming from a mansion in Westmore every night. But when the police thoroughly searched the premises, they found nothing. Still, people passing by the mansion at night continued to hear the sounds. In the end, with no witnesses or evidence, it was dismissed as a mere urban legend.”
With no physical evidence, it was bound to become an urban legend. But it was undoubtedly a very suspicious story.
“Could those animalistic sounds have been these damn monsters?”
“I don't know. In any case, the reason I'm bringing this up is because a large quantity of Elpinus Herb was discovered in that very mansion in Westmore, the main stage for the ghost story.”
Elpinus Herb was found in Westmore, too? Was that in the novel? I'm pretty sure *Love in a Ruined World* only ever mentioned 61 Notium Street.
“There was Elpinus Herb at 61 Notium Street as well. Both mansions are connected to the monsters. Therefore, one cannot say that the monsters and the Elpinus Herb are unrelated.”
I admit, I'd thought it was strange, too. The original novel never explained why there was Elpinus Herb in the house at 61 Notium Street.
“Perhaps this herb is somehow related to the cause of this damn infectious virus.”
“I think so too. Was there anything unusual about the house at 61 Notium Street? You were the only witness inside when the incident occurred, Miss Cherry.”
“I didn't have time to look. A monster jumped out the moment I went inside.”
I thought the Elpinus Herb was just a simple vaccine, but could it be connected to the secret of the virus?
I sighed and clutched my head. I'd been concentrating so hard on my conversation with Knox that I thought my head was starting to burn up. My forehead feels hot.
Anyway, I told Knox about the man I saw that day.
“I wasn't the only witness. There was another man.”
“Ah. If you mean the man who fled the mansion that day, I looked into him separately, but his whereabouts are unknown.”
“I think he said he was the brother of the tenant at 61 Notium Street. He said he came to the mansion because he hadn't heard from his sister in days and thought something might have happened.”
“Ah, no. When I came to this house, that monster was tied up in a room. I hadn't heard from my sister for days, so I came to check, and there was this… monster…”
That's definitely what the man had said.
“It would be nice if we could search the mansions in Notium and Westmore again.”
Knox nodded in agreement at my mumble.
“Indeed.”
But Knox and I both knew.
With the world in this state, we were in a remote country village, far from the capital. Of course, there was no way we could investigate something like that.
A heavy silence fell for a moment. Knox glanced up at the sky, then stood and offered me his hand.
“Shall we head down now?”
I nodded and took his hand.
As I tried to stand, a wave of dizziness hit me again. My body felt as heavy as waterlogged cotton. It felt as if someone were pulling me down from beneath my feet.
“Miss Cherry?”
My body swayed and tilted to the side. I could feel the heat rising in my face.
“Miss Cherry! Are you all right?”
Knox caught me in his arms, his face alarmed. That was the last thing I remember before I lost consciousness.
* * *
Ethan sat in the chair beside Cherry's bed, quietly watching her sleep. In a chair on the other side of the bed, Knox was checking her condition.
“It seems to be a simple case of exhaustion. It's from overwork. It doesn't look like she's been resting properly, has she?”
“Overwork…”
Cherry was burning with fever. Even in her sleep, she furrowed her brow and groaned, as if having a nightmare.
Watching Cherry's sleeping face, Ethan clicked his tongue and shook his head.
“When you look at her, she really doesn't take care of herself. She's overconfident in her own monstrous strength.”
Knox more or less agreed with Ethan.
Cherry was resilient. She had been ever since they first met her.
“It seems her fatigue has built up. And then all the tension was released at once.”
Knox placed his hand on Cherry's forehead again to check her temperature. He wrung out a towel from the basin of water he had brought and placed it on her forehead.
“For now, it's best to let her rest.”
Both Ethan and Knox looked at Cherry with worried expressions before slowly rising from their seats.
* * *
Ethan had resolved to leave the Happy House today.
He would have, if Cherry hadn't suddenly collapsed like that.
He sat quietly on the bed in his room, staring at the bag he'd placed on his desk.
It had been sitting on his desk for several days. The bag, and the daily necessities packed inside, were all things Cherry had prepared for him.
“This is a bribe.”
Ethan recalled what Cherry had said when she gave him the bag.
“There will be more survivors in the capital than here. You might even meet someone who can develop a cure someday, right? When that happens, you can't forget about me and this Happy House.”
Honestly, he hadn't seen any other survivors even in this small village, so he doubted there would be any in the capital. And developing a cure... It was a pipe dream.
Ethan stood up. The sun had already set, but he hadn't left, and Cherry hadn't woken up.
Except when he was checking on Cherry's condition, Knox remained holed up in his room. Ethan slowly walked down the hall toward Cherry's room.
Cherry was still asleep. So peacefully, it was as if she would never wake up.
As he brushed away a strand of hair stuck to her sweaty cheek, Ethan gently poked her cheek with a long finger. He could feel its soft, pliable texture. It was plump, as if she still had her baby fat, and quite cute.
Ethan sat quietly in the chair beside the bed, watching the sleeping Cherry. After sleeping soundly for a while, she began to groan again. Then her hand started to tremble. It twitched, as if searching for something.
Without thinking, he took her hand. Only then did her rustling movements cease. She seemed to find peace then, her expression becoming calm.
Her red lips parted slightly. A voice drifted from between her pursed lips before slowly fading. Ethan leaned in to listen.
“…on't…”
The voice was barely audible. She mumbled the same word over and over. After listening intently for a long while, Ethan was finally able to make out what she was saying.
“…Don't… leave… me…”
A teardrop trickled from the corner of her eye.
Ethan was a little taken aback. He hadn't expected to see such a defenseless side of Cherry.
“That's not it, I'm talking about her mental state. She's still a young lady, isn't she? No one can be in their right mind in a situation like this.”
“You said you were worried because she's a young lady, and now you're backing out like this? To be honest, I'm not entirely unworried about Miss Cherry either. She could just be pretending to be fine.”
But it seemed that wasn't the case. Just as he'd feared, maybe she had been pretending to be fine all along. Or perhaps, she wasn't fine at all and hadn't even realized it herself...
Tears continued to stream from the corners of Cherry's eyes. Ethan wiped them away with his finger. He repeated the motion over and over until the tears stopped.
Ethan himself didn't know why he bothered, why he didn't just leave her be. He just wanted to.
He continued to wipe away her tears until Knox returned to check on her again.