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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: ‌‌‌valirscans.org
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A Corporate Slave Becomes a Villainous Nuisance in a Zombie Apocalypse
Episode 15 ‌‌‌
The same creature who'd complained about walking a few steps was moving with surprising speed now.
"Close it!"
"Close it!"
"Shut it!"
The onlookers cried out ‌‌in ‌‌‌‌unison, but it was already too late.
The door, recognizing the command to open, began splitting apart on both sides of its own accord.
The moment a gap appeared, a hand suddenly thrust upward from below.
It was a ‌‌‌hand with every fingernail shattered.
"Grraahhh!"
The Crown Prince stomped on that hand as if to crush it, then attempted to close the door again, but it wouldn't obey.
"It's useless! Once it opens completely, that's when we can close it!"
"Grrgh!"
"Grraahhh!"
"Kyaaahhh!"
Hands erupting through ‌‌‌‌the widening gap looked as though they were rising from hell itself.
Heads pushing through one by one.
Burst open, torn, faces pooled with blood.
The zombies that had been crammed together in that narrow space sprang upward as if released.
"Close it now!"
At last, the Grand ‌Duke and the Crown Prince began forcing the fully ‌opened door shut again.
Each gripping one of the split handles on either side, the two men pushed desperately against the opening door. Veins bulged at their necks, and every muscle in their arms tensed with effort.
But.
"Kyeeeek!"
"Watch out, Praha!"
Pressing down on the heads of zombies scrambling upward in succession while closing the door was far from easy.
The portal entrance was larger than it appeared. While the two men were ‌‌frantically working to close it, a couple of smaller-framed zombies managed to slip through.
The zombies, recognizing human presence, reached out their hands and bared their teeth in competition.
'I'm going to get bitten at this rate...!'
"Your Highness!"
Dazling, having thrown Nuisance Man ‌‌‌aside, came rushing over. ‌‌The Grand Duke, already lying prone and using his weight to force the door shut, threw a punch at the obstructing zombie.
The Crown Prince severed all the zombies' arms ‌‌at once with a cord wrapped around his wrist. Blood sprayed.
"Kyaaahhh!"
"Ugh..."
Nuisance Man, who had fallen backward on ‌‌his rear, let out a groan. But no one had the luxury to pay attention to him.
A zombie carrying a dead one ‌‌on its back—fortunately one whose head hadn't been severed—was crawling toward us.
"...!"
I looked straight ahead.
The Grand Duke, forcibly pushing shut the door that the zombies were trying to pry open.
The Crown Prince sliced through the arms and necks of the zombies snapping their jaws near the Grand Duke's hands.
Dazling drove a blade into a zombie's skull and used it to shove the others back.
A zombie with its lower body severed crawled forward on the strength of its arms alone. ‌‌
No one was coming to help us.
"Kyaaah!"
A zombie with its jaw gaping wide bit at the tip of Nuisance Man's shoe, the closest target.
"Ahhh!"
His unrestrained scream drew the gazes of the Crown Prince and Grand Duke toward us.
"Paprika!"
"Brother! Help ‌‌me, please!"
"Your Highness, it's dangerous!"
Dazling kicked a zombie trying to bite the Crown Prince's finger back into the street.
The Crown Prince clicked his tongue and drove his blade into the mouth of a zombie trying to seize his ankle.
Chaos.
"Ahhh! Ahhh! ‌‌Aaaahhh!"
Nuisance Man ‌thrashed wildly, flailing his feet, but—
"Help me! Brother! Brother!"
No one could break away.
If even one person left their position now, we would all die.
"Heeeeelp!"
"Paprika! Use your sword! You have a sword!"
"Ahhh! Ahhh! Aaaaaaahhh!"
"Paprika!"
Supporting Character 2 rushed over and handed Nuisance Man the sword he'd dropped earlier. Trembling, he barely managed to grasp it.
His first strike, delivered with shaking hands and the blade still in its sheath, went wide.
"Kyaah!"
The second attack wounded his own ankle.
"Ahhh! It hurts!"
That was the end of it.
"I can't do this!"
Nuisance Man, his face streaked with tears and snot, clutched the sword and sobbed.
"What do we do!"
"This is going to end badly, please!"
Yujein and Supporting Character 2 reached out to try something—anything—but what could they do without weapons?
The only blade we had, and Nuisance Man refused to let it go!
'This is infuriating! I'm losing my mind!'
I shouted at Nuisance Man.
"What are you doing! Kill it! Now!"
"I-I can't!"
Damn it!
"Then hand over a blade, at least!"
"Ahhh! Aaahhh! I can feel its teeth! I can feel the teeth!"
"Give me the blade!"
"Help me! Heeeelp!"
"Damn it...!"
Infuriating!
That's when ‌I noticed the shield Nuisance Man ‌‌was carrying on his back.
I rushed over and yanked the shield free, tearing it away from him.
"Mom, mom!"
I drove my fist hard into the thrashing Nuisance Man's skull.
"Let go!"
"Save me!!!"
"That's why you need to let go! I'll handle it!"
After a desperate struggle, I finally managed to rip the shield from Nuisance Man's back and lifted my head.
"Grrk...."
The zombie that had already stripped off Nuisance Man's shoes was opening its mouth again.
I brought the shield down on its head.
Thwack!
The zombie's cheek, baring ‌‌crimson teeth, snapped violently to the side.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
The crown of its head, a glancing blow across the nose, the back of its skull, a gurgling moan escaping its upturned face, its nape....
I clenched my teeth and brought the shield ‌‌‌down again and again.
Thwack! Crack!
'If I don't do this, I die.'
If I let up for even a moment, the zombie would shift its target and tear into me.
'If I don't do this. I die!'
I ignored the sickening sensation transmitted through my hands.
Again and again.
Until the ‌‌‌pulped zombie finally ‌‌‌‌released the ankle it had been gripping ‌‌‌and went limp. ‌
Thud.
"Haah...."
Only when I was certain it was truly dead did I release the tension from my arms and stumble backward.
The shield I'd dropped rolled across the floor, but I had no strength left to retrieve it.
"...ugh."
I spat whatever had pooled in ‌‌‌my mouth—blood or saliva, I couldn't tell—onto the ground. My cheek throbbed; I'd bitten the inside of my mouth without realizing it.
I lifted my exhausted eyes.
The Grand Duke, who had shut the door, the Crown Prince with blood ‌‌smeared across his face, Dazling with sweat-dampened hair hanging limp across his forehead.
Nuisance Man, his face streaked with tears, staring up at me. Three women, their faces drained of color.
They were all looking at me.
"...You didn't even need to cut off its head."
"...."
"Seems they die when their brains get ‌‌smashed in."
I started to wipe the sweat from my forehead with the back of ‌‌‌‌my hand, but stopped when I saw how filthy it was.
'My palm must have split open ‌‌again.'
It was uncomfortable and painful, but I ‌‌lacked the energy to unwrap the handkerchief I'd tied around it instead of a proper bandage to check the damage.
"...."
Disgusting. Revolting. My skin crawls.
'Yusara, get a grip. This is nothing.'
Over there, some people have been relentlessly severing zombie necks and legs ‌‌without pause—I couldn't afford to lose my ‌‌‌‌composure over something this trivial.
Thud... thud. Thud.
'I need to focus on what's in front of me.'
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Even though the Main Portal door had closed, the zombies that had detected human presence showed no sign of relenting.
The trapped zombies pounded against the portal door with their heads and fists.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
"Kraaagh!"
Hearing Nuisance Man's scream, the zombies in the Corridor also
began wandering around, searching ‌for the source of the sound.
I shoved the zombie away from the still-vacant-eyed Nuisance Man and spoke to him as he sat there ‌‌‌‌stupidly staring at me.
"Hey."
I immediately bent down and grabbed him by the collar.
Crown Prince's cousin or whatever.
I call ‌‌‌‌the Crown Prince himself "hey," so what do I care about his cousin?
"I don't care if you die. If you're going to die, do it away from me. Don't put me in danger."
The similarities I see ‌between possession and corporate employment at this point.
There's always that person who can't do their job, only speaks negatively, and causes trouble for everyone else.
These types are hypersensitive to damage others ‌‌‌‌cause them, yet completely oblivious that they're the biggest nuisance themselves.
But until one of them quits or dies, you have to! Keep! Staying! Together! Whether you like it or not.
Keep! Watching! Them cause ‌‌‌‌disasters!
This guy will keep ‌‌‌doing this forever, and I'll keep seething beside him....
But I can't just abandon him either.
'If I abandon someone just because they're a nuisance, how am I any different from this guy telling me to leave my baggage behind?'
Now that I ‌think about it, it's unfair.
Both he and I are equally incompetent, so why am I the only one called a villainess? Why ‌‌doesn't anyone call him a villain?
It's infuriating! Sob!
"You...."
Nuisance Man's dazed mind slowly returned, and his cheekbones flushed red with anger.
"How dare a mere servant speak so to the Imperial Family...."
"Servant or Imperial Family—we all become corpses the same way if bitten. I'm absolutely furious that I can't abandon you here right now. Got it?"
"This... let go!"
"You're quite good at deflecting, aren't you? You should've tried that hard with the corpse earlier."
Why? A corpse missing half its ‌‌body terrifies you, but I—a living, breathing person—am easy prey?
Nuisance Man's voice rose, clearly irritated at receiving a lecture from me while I was saving his life.
"Who do you think you—!"
"Paprika."
Had it not been for the Crown Prince's cold voice approaching from behind me, I would've surely screamed loud enough to summon ‌‌‌every zombie in the neighborhood.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
"Brother!"
Nuisance Man stretched out his arm pleading to be helped up, but the Crown Prince ignored him. As the tall Crown Prince positioned himself directly behind me, his shadow fell across my path. He spoke.
"This is the second time you've endangered others. If there's a third—"
The Crown Prince left his sentence unfinished, but Nuisance Man's face was draining of color by the second.
"Brother, I'm sorry. I must've lost my mind for a moment. I wasn't thinking straight because I was drunk. Today was just so ‌‌‌exhausting... I, I'm completely sober now! Crystal clear!"
"...."
"Y-yes, brother."
'Did he just threaten me with his bare hands?'
I turned to ‌‌‌look back. The Crown Prince blinked innocently as if nothing had happened.
"Are you unharmed, ‌miss?"
"Yes."
"Your palm has torn open again."
Thud. Thud. Thud.
"Just a moment."
The Crown Prince extended ‌‌‌his hand and carefully lifted my right palm, supporting it gently.
His fingers were warm.
Despite being soaked in blood and sweat, they felt remarkably clean.
Thud. Thud. ‌‌‌‌Thud.
"It would be best to receive treatment before we leave."
"I can do ‌‌‌‌‌it!"
Yujein, who had been watching, stepped forward, but I shook my head.
"You're exhausted right now, Yujein."
"But—"
"I'm fine. If you have any strength left, use it to treat your own ankle."
"But—!"
"Besides."
I cut off Yujein's protest and looked at the Crown Prince.
"I think we need to leave here immediately."
Thud. Thud. ‌‌‌‌Thud.
I gestured with my chin toward the trembling portal entrance.
"We should use the Main Portal on the ‌‌‌other side of the Garden."
Despite my urging to leave at once, the Crown Prince remained unmoved.
He simply gazed down at my palm.
"Your Highness?"
"Yes."
The Crown Prince, barely listening to me, withdrew his own handkerchief from his pocket.
"Wait."
Long fingers unwound ‌‌‌the handkerchief that the Grand Duke had wrapped around my hand in the Washroom moments ago.
He pressed the soft white cloth against my lacerated palm, then wound the magical rope from his wrist over it in careful layers.
Knowing the rope's ‌‌sharpness, I flinched for a moment, fearing he might sever my hand entirely—but the cord wrapped around my palm with ‌‌‌surprising gentleness.
The Crown Prince glanced at my tense expression and offered an explanation.
"The rope's sharpness can be controlled."
"Ah...." ‌‌
The Crown Prince examined the Grand Duke's handkerchief once it came free, then discarded it on the floor.
"Shall we ‌‌‌go then?"
"Yes."
I closed my palm, still feeling the touch of his clean fingers.
"Oh, before that."
Let me grab some items first.
[Imperial Villa First Floor Kitchen]
- Yusara, Yujein, Crown Prince, Grand Duke, Dazling, Mascarpone, Supporting Character 2, Nuisance Man (Alive)

---------------
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our ‌official site: valirscans.org
---------------