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

A Corporate Slave Becomes a Villainous Nuisance ‌‌‌in a Zombie Apocalypse
Episode 51
Chapter 8. Jumong, Gwanggaeto the Great, and Heungseon Daewongun
That evening in question.
"Well, everyone?"
"Yes?"
"I'm truly grateful that all three of you came to show me such consideration. However, I have a prior engagement." ‌
"...Yes?"
"A prior...engagement?"
"...."
"But why!"
Praha, Cyprus, and Yujein stared at me with expressions as though they'd been struck from behind.
Even the Young Maids assigned to me looked at me as if I'd lost my mind.
By the way, that "But why!" just now—one of my maids said it.
'I wonder if maids in ‌‌‌‌this fantasy world are like audience members on Earth.'
I offered an awkward smile before the shocked faces surrounding me.
"I promised to have dinner this evening with Smoothie."
"...Who?"
"Smoothie. The estate manager of Promé Castle, Smoothie."
"Who is that?" ‌‌
"The pale-faced man wearing glasses who sat beside me at yesterday's banquet."
"Ah...."
"We had a conversation yesterday, and we found we got along quite well."
It was the kind of joy one feels upon meeting someone from the same industry in another world.
Only then did Cyprus nod his head, though his expression showed he was far from convinced.
"It seems you've grown quite close to him."
"He was with the lady throughout yesterday."
Unlike Cyprus, Praha appeared to remember who ‌‌‌‌Smoothie was. His expression was impassive.
'Or perhaps it wasn't impassive.'
He seemed to look somewhat downcast....
In any case, considering that my position would have become awkward no matter which of Praha, Cyprus, or ‌‌‌‌‌Yujein I chose,
arranging this prior engagement with Smoothie was nothing short of foresight.
A brilliant decision, one ‌‌‌‌might say.
"Then, my lady... you really can't come with me today?"
"I'm sorry, Yujein."
"No, it's...." ‌‌
Yujein's spirits fell.
Originally, I'd arranged this engagement because I thought both Praha and Cyprus would want to go with Yujein, leaving ‌‌only me in an awkward position.
"You're all so considerate... Hahahaha!"
Hahahaha! Hahahaha! ‌‌‌Hahahaha....
"Then I'll be on my way...."
The expressions of the three people watching me laugh brightly and slip away....
I have no idea what conversation those three had after I left the room, or how they ultimately paired up to attend the banquet.
"My lady!"
"Smoothie! Were you perhaps thinking of eating out today?!"
Smoothie and I changed our plans and ate omelets in Prome Village instead.
We even toured Smoothie's office.
It was a very comfortable evening.
"It's here!"
Tangerine's bright voice jolted me awake from my reminiscence of that evening.
I stopped my feet, which had been moving mechanically in a daze, and lifted my head.
A slippery Rocky Mountain where one misstep could spell disaster.
The steep slope that made me wonder if we should be crawling rather than walking finally ended, and the path opened up brightly ahead.
A thunderous roar of water that I hadn't heard until now echoed through the gorge.
"...Do we really have to go behind that?"
Behind the Waterfall, where water cascaded down like a curtain, I could see a space.
"There's a side path here. It looks like we need to ‌‌‌go around and enter from there."
Cyprus, with his keen eyes, pointed to the side of the Waterfall.
It was called a side path, but it ‌‌‌‌was essentially stepping stones.
"It's wet."
"Right?! It's already slippery! Should ‌‌we take off our shoes?!"
"If anyone happens to slip and fall into the water...."
"They'd be swept away in ‌‌an instant."
"Grand Duke, wasn't there an abandoned Temple somewhere on this mountainside?"
"There was. Why? Are you suggesting we meet there if we get separated by the current?"
"No. I'm saying we should stop by there on our way back after finishing our business and pay our respects."
"My lady, I'm scared...."
"I'm a good swimmer!"
I said it as a joke, but I needed to be just as careful.
If I fell, it would be bad.
"Phew."
I moved my legs, already exhausted from the continued climb, and placed my foot on the smooth, worn stone.
Tangerine, Yujein, Cyprus, myself, and Praha walked single file along the narrow side path.
"I'm thinking I should just crawl...."
I heard Yujein's whimpering voice from ahead, but there was no time to tease ‌‌her.
Behind me, walking in silence with my arms held awkwardly apart as I walked with tension, Praha followed.
It seemed he was ready to catch me if I slipped.
"Crown Prince Praha."
"Yes."
"This time, it seems Your Highness will ‌‌‌‌need my assistance instead?"
I pointed alternately at Praha's feet—clearly over 290 centimeters tall—and the cat-fist-sized stepping stones lined up below.
"Being too large has its own problems, doesn't it?"
I extended my hand to help.
When I wiggled my fingertips to urge him to take it, he hesitated.
"Hurry."
After urging him once more, he finally grasped ‌‌‌my hand slowly.
The way his hand wrapped around my fingertips so carefully was barely perceptible.
Water splashing from the Waterfall dampened Praha's hair.
I grinned ‌‌as ‌‌‌I watched Praha carefully step across the stones toward me.
"See? It was good that you held on, wasn't it?"
When our eyes met, Praha murmured like a sigh.
"Yes. Thank you."
At the same time, he squeezed the hand he was holding before ‌slowly releasing it.
"I crossed safely thanks to you, Princess."
"Hehe."
Cyprus, who had been watching us from ahead, interjected.
"Princess, surely Praha didn't ask you for help?"
"No. I just helped him on my own."
"Hmm."
"What?"
"Well, you see, with our stride length, we could have jumped across in one go without stepping on those few stones at all...."
"Be quiet."
A pebble thrown by Praha struck Cyprus's shoulder.
"Ow ow ow! I almost slipped! Princess, help me!"
'They're having fun.'
"No, seriously, help me!"
'I should ignore him.'
Behind the Waterfall, ‌‌‌after a grueling journey to arrive.
"Wow...."
Behind the cascading curtain of water lay the Ancient Labyrinth, positioned like a secret cave of a martial arts master.
More precisely, the entrance to a tightly sealed labyrinth.
'This has martial arts novel aesthetics?'
Only those qualified could open this firmly sealed door.
When the door opened, inside would be the corpse of a previous master sitting ‌‌‌in lotus position, turning to dust at the slightest touch.
Where the corpse turned to dust, there would be inner elixirs, spirit pills, martial technique manuals, kimchi fried rice, and—well, basically all sorts of treasures.
Exactly that kind of aesthetic.
"Why won't you help me! This is discrimination!"
"Please be quiet. This massive stone must be the door, correct?"
"Looking at the carved patterns, it appears so."
"But how do we open ‌‌‌it?"
"Pushing with all our strength doesn't seem like it'll open."
"It won't. Unfortunately."
Cyprus spoke while looking upward, making a whimpering sound.
"If we pull that down, the door should open."
Looking up, I could indeed see something jutting out sharply.
It looked like a lever.
But here's the problem.
"How are we supposed to reach that?"
Even with me standing on Cyprus who's standing on Praha, we'd barely reach that height.
= Absurdly high.
"We can't exactly jump and grab it."
"If we could jump high enough to grab that, we could commute from the Capital to here by jumping."
Hop! Off to work.
Hop! Heading ‌home^0^/
I stared at the lever, but nothing came to mind.
For reference, I only know two ways ‌‌‌to open doors.
1. Open sesame.
2. Alohomora.
Neither works here. Different world, different rules.
"What if we climb up using these wooden vines?"
"They'll snap. Since this is a ‌‌Rocky Mountain, even the few vines here aren't very sturdy."
Cyprus pulled on a vine directly, showing me how it snapped apart, then turned to Praha.
"Can you do it?"
"Yeah."
Looking to the side, Praha was lowering the bow from his back.
'Is he ‌‌‌planning to ‌attach a ring to an arrow and ‌‌‌shoot it so it catches on the lever? The angle seems awkward though.'
I'm a descendant of Jumong, but to pull off something like that, I'd need the actual Jumong ‌‌himself, not just his descendant.
But Praha nocked an ‌‌‌arrow and looked at Tangerine.
Tangerine nodded, and Praha released the arrow.
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
Three thick iron arrows with sharpened tips pierced through the stone wall and embedded themselves.
The force was incredible.
And then Tangerine came running from behind.
Using the arrows Praha had embedded as handholds, she climbed up the stone wall.
"Hup!"
She pulled the lever and slid back down smoothly.
Rumble.
The door began to open.
"Insane...."
No wonder this labyrinth looked like something out of a martial ‌arts novel. There was a true master of the martial way here. ‌
"As expected."
Cyprus clapped his hands in applause.
"How did you manage to twist your body at the end?"
Praha asked seriously, eager to learn the technique.
"Your Highnesses couldn't do it! If you two heavy gentlemen stepped on the arrow mechanism, it would snap!"
Tangerine boasted proudly.
She had every right to.
'Tangerine is ‌‌truly impressive.'
I need ‌‌‌‌to exercise more diligently too.
With a grinding rumble.
A thick stone wall, easily ‌‌‌two meters or more in thickness, slid open to reveal the labyrinth beyond.
The first thing I felt was a wave of hot air ‌‌‌rushing out.
"It's warm."
"Indeed it is."
Water ‌‌‌‌sprayed from all directions, distinctly different from the cool air outside.
Combined with that stale smell that emerges when you first turn on the air conditioning after winter.
The faint breeze blowing from within faithfully carried that odor straight to our noses.
"I'm starting to regret going in." ‌‌‌‌‌
Shouldn't a cave be colder when sunlight is blocked out? Why is it even hotter?
"There's no light inside. We'll need to bring fire."
"We have to walk around carrying fire in this heat?"
"What if three of us carry torches and two of us fan ourselves with fans as ‌‌‌‌we go?"
I peered inside, spouting nonsense (though I meant it sincerely).
A ceiling far higher than expected. Crumbling stone fragments beneath my feet. Clustered densely on walls that looked like dark navy blue....
"There are insects inside!"
"Aaahhh!"
"They're the size of a fist!"
"They have ten legs!"
I genuinely did not want to go in!
Despite the grandiose name of the ‌‌‌Ancient Labyrinth, it wasn't actually a particularly high-difficulty location.
'We wouldn't have come if it were.'
We didn't have the time.
While it was ‌true we needed to ‌‌obtain sacred relics to strengthen our combat power, the risk was too great to stake our ‌‌‌lives on it.
Historical records indicated that quite a few people had conquered this place, though it was in the distant past.
They would navigate the labyrinth to prove their faith, and in return, they would receive divine grace.
'It's essentially a dungeon of sorts.'
But as magic and science ‌‌‌‌‌advanced and divine authority weakened, it became an abandoned place that no one visited anymore.
"It's dark... It will only get darker the farther we go from the entrance, won't it?"
"It would ‌‌‌‌be best to allow our eyes to adjust to the darkness before we proceed."
"If anyone is desperately hungry, needs to use the restroom, feels uncomfortable anywhere, or has any urgent business to attend ‌‌‌to before entering... please tell Tangerine here, who has the most discreet lips in the world."
"It's not urgent, but I am curious about something."
"Yes, Princess?"
"Tangerine, ‌‌‌‌if you keep talking like that, won't your tongue get all tingly...?"
I, Yusara. The type who deflects tension with nonsense.
"What do you mean, Princess!"
'What do I mean? It's just wordplay.'
Fortunately, the Imperial ‌‌‌word for "tingly" sounded similar enough to Tangerine's name.
I led Tangerine, who was ‌‌‌‌giggling away, and the ‌‌rest of the group inside.
Squinting my eyes as much as possible to avoid looking at the massive insect clinging to the wall.
Nothing happened to us until ‌‌the entrance became a faint dot in the distance.
"Hmm, this seems better than expected...."
It was just as Cyprus, tilting his head, was about to say that. ‌
Rumble.
The labyrinth entrance behind us was closing.
Rumble.
And the ceiling above began descending.
[Ancient Labyrinth Entrance]
- Yusara, Praha, Cyprus, Yujein, Tangerine (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
---------------