ESMLT 32

Chapter 32

Come to think of it, I met Kim Deoksu at the pizza place where I worked part-time.

The manager finally snapped after watching that idiot fail to memorize even the menu names for over a month and handed him over to me for training.

Messy hair. A retina-assaulting combination of fluorescent top and bottom. Slurred speech like he’d bitten his tongue. Communication skills so dire I wanted to put him down with a tranquilizer gun.

In short, he was a kid so utterly lacking in social skills that I couldn’t figure out how he’d survived in this cruel society at all.

What did I just say?

“…Harmonica pizza?”

“It’s Hawaiian pizza. Ha. Wai. Ian. Want me to knock out all your teeth and turn you into a harmonica?”

“Calm down. By the way, do you believe in transcendent powers?”

That was the kind of nonsense he spouted day and night. Even while muttering, If you weren’t the building owner’s nephew, I’d—, I still taught him with surprising dedication.

Then one day—

“What exactly is that ‘transcendent power’ anyway?”

I only asked because I was so fed up, and the moment I did, he started passionately ranting, spraying spit everywhere. As a total muggle, I immediately thought, Ah. I touched the wrong button.

After talking nonstop for ages, Kim Deoksu proudly declared himself the president of a zombie club and handed me a novel.

He promised that if I read it, he’d take his training seriously.

That novel—one he insisted, again and again, that I had to read—was <Salvation of the Saintess>.

sigh

Well… it’s not like it’s that kid’s fault I ended up here.

Right. If I wound up in this place, it’s probably because of that mysterious, transcendent power he kept rambling about every single day.

“No. That’s not it. That can’t be it…”

I snapped my eyes open.

“Then why am I getting so angry just thinking about him?”

For the record, I’m not the kind of person who takes their anger out on the innocent.

And yet, even knowing my anger was misdirected, I couldn’t help it—thinking about Kim Deoksu made my blood boil.

Like someone was whispering directly into my instincts that this was the guy I was supposed to be mad at.

“But what did that jerk even look like again?”

His face was so blurry I couldn’t remember it at all.

As I glared up at the sky like it was my sworn enemy, a shadowed face suddenly entered my field of vision.

“Danhwa?”

Danhwa stepped back with a gentle smile. I sat up and brushed the dirt off my back.

He brushed the dirt off for me.

“Were you looking at the sky?”

More like remembering an enemy, but—

I nodded vaguely as I stood.

“Did you find the cabin?”

“It wasn’t there. Just as expected.”

“Then you should rest. It’s dangerous—why did you come out?”

“It didn’t seem right to leave everything to you alone…”

He trailed off abruptly, his gaze fixed somewhere.

His pale green eyes had settled on my boot, its lace completely undone.

“Come here.”

He guided me by the shoulder and sat me down on a damp mound of earth.

Then he bent down and began tying my shoelace. The knot was unusual—probably the style from the Eastern Continent.

After a moment, he spoke with a self-mocking expression.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For someone who can’t even bring himself to harm a creature called a ‘zombie,’ the only thing I can do is tie a woman’s shoelaces. How utterly useless.”

Useless? That word didn’t fit.

All he’d done was choose not to damage remains out of respect for the bereaved.

Still, seeing how dejected he looked, I shrugged casually.

“So what if you’re useless? The Empire has a delinquent young lady too, you know.”

Danhwa smiled faintly as he tied the other lace.

“I’ve heard of that. That the Empire has a delinquent. I was curious—I wanted to meet her.”

Yes. That would be me.

I lazily raised a hand.

He glanced up at me, then looked again, startled.

His eyes clearly said, No way…

So I confirmed it for him.

“That’s right. I’m the delinquent young lady.”

Instead of laughing it off, Danhwa furrowed his brows in pity.

“Oh no… How did such a rumor start?”

A large hand gently patted my head.

“You’re so kind and lovely. Shall I track down whoever spread it and scold them?”

Why is my heart doing this over something so small…

A certified big-sister killer, this one.

Flustered, I looked off into the forest and bounced one foot against the ground.

“No, uh. That’s not necessary.”

With a soft chuckle, he finished tying the other lace neatly.

Then he placed his hands on his knees and looked up at me.

“Miss, let’s stop looking for the bracelet and return to the cabin now.”

I blinked down at him.

“We haven’t found it yet. And it’s still daylight.”

“This is enough. I’m comforted.”

“But—”

“The day I said I wouldn’t leave, I was too emotional. Thinking about it again, the bracelet isn’t that precious to me.”

“You said it was important.”

“Anything obtained by sacrificing others can never be valuable.”

“You said your younger sister made it for you.”

“It’s all right. I can just ask her to make another.”

He smiled gently, eyes curved warmly.

That spotless, serene face hid his feelings so well I almost believed him.

Almost.

I tapped the corner of his eye with my fingertip.

“Don’t force yourself to smile.”

His eyes widened instantly. His thick lashes trembled, clearly flustered.

After a moment, he smiled again as if nothing had happened.

“Force a smile? You misunderstand. Why do you think so?”

I leaned forward, resting my hand on the mound, studying him closely.

Perhaps because he was nervous, his Adam’s apple bobbed visibly.

“Are you reading my mind?”

“Hah.”

I laughed at the absurd thing I’d just said.

I’m not a god—how would I read minds?

Still, something felt off.

He could die here—yet he claimed he couldn’t leave the zombie zone over a mere bracelet.

If he missed his sister that much, couldn’t he just escape and see her?

The realization hit me all at once.

The bracelet mattered more than his life because it was a keepsake.

That was why he couldn’t bring himself to abandon it—and why he’d agreed to search for it.

Everyone has something—whether a person, an object, or a memory—worth more than their own life.

I gazed at Danhwa with half-lidded eyes.

He was still waiting anxiously for my answer, which made me smile faintly. I brushed aside the hair that had fallen over his forehead.

“One correction. This isn’t a sacrifice—it’s effort. Not recklessness, but a choice.”

After all, we’d set a clear limit of just one day.

“I’ll do my best to find it before today ends.”

“……”

I tucked a loose strand behind his ear, thinking that a flower there would look nice too.

When I met his gaze again, countless emotions rippled through his green eyes.

“Even if something gained through another’s sacrifice isn’t precious, something earned through effort is. Right?”

“……”

I shrugged playfully.

“Just wait a little. I’ll make sure you go back not as a careless brother who lost his bracelet, but as a truly cool one.”

I wasn’t confident, but a little bravado felt appropriate right now.

“Miss…”

Danhwa dropped his mask. His brows knit together, his face looking on the verge of tears, sorrow clinging heavily around his eyes.

“You are… a very good person.”

That was a new one. Never heard that in my life.

If this atmosphere kept up, this could’ve been the moment two people fell in love.

But—

Kueeeeeek!

This was an apocalypse.

Reality yanked me back by the hair. I narrowed my eyes and stared over Danhwa’s shoulder.

Zombies were converging on us.

We stayed in one place too long.

That was why we’d been moving around while searching.

I rose slowly and stepped in front of Danhwa.

“Stay behind me.”

I immediately pulled out my hammer and took down the closest zombie.

Crunch!
Thud!
Crack!

After swinging it several times, my breathing started to grow heavy.

That was when I noticed something glinting on the wrist bone of a zombie shuffling toward us.

My eyes widened.

…Found it!

Dangling loosely from the zombie’s bones was a jade bead bracelet—identical to the one Danhwa had lost.

I didn’t know how it ended up on a zombie’s wrist, but I dashed forward, smashed it down, and snatched the bracelet back.

Yes.

I turned with a triumphant smile—

“Miss!”

Kueek!

A zombie’s gaping mouth filled my vision.