◆ Chapter 12: Someone Worse than a Zombie
“PLEASE watch your step, m’lady.”
“Wow. It feels like a ghost is just waiting to jump out at us…”
I’m currently visiting the castle dungeons with Lex. Security is tight because this is where they keep the worst criminals locked up. Soldiers are stationed not only at the entrance but also at the bottom of the long staircase.
The layout is simple, with many cells lining both sides of the straight passage. Every cell is separated by thick bars and even thicker walls, so it seems unlikely anyone can escape. It seems safe down here, but I still can’t shake the uneasiness creeping in on me because of the lack of light.
I stick as close as possible to Lex as he heads deeper inside the dungeon without any hesitation.
“Pino was experimenting on zombies down here, right? Does that mean…?”
“Please set your mind at ease for there are no more zombies.”
“What a relief! My heart might stop if I don’t prepare myself first.”
Just as I exhale a sigh of relief, something bangs against the cell bars to my right.
“SKRIEEEEEEE!”
“GAH! You lied! There are zombies!”
It scared a scream right out of me. Something with deathly pale skin and bulging eyeballs shoves its head in the space between the bars, its long, ratty, black hair swaying as it tries to get closer to me.
“Calm down and take a closer look, Lady Mizuha. It’s Miss Jela.”
“Who’re you callin’ a zombie, huh?! Your eyes must have decayed for you to confuse the world’s most beautiful woman for a hideous zombie!”
The zombie—also known as Jela—continues to bang its head against the bars. She’s a hundred times scarier than any zombie! And more violent too!
“BWAH! BWAAAAAHHH!”
“Eeeek!”
“I suggest you cease intimidating Lady Mizuha.” Lex draws his sword and points it at her forehead.
Jela seems unafraid, although she grudgingly moves away from the bars as if she doesn’t want a scratch on her face. Once she settles on the simple bed inside the cell, she glares up at us. “What’d you come here for?”
Jela no longer has the Dark Djinn’s power. Despite knowing that, she still has a crazy intensity about her that terrifies me. Clenching my fists, I muster my deflating courage.
“Um, we visited the Trade City Cladorca located in Torstana yesterday and a dragon attacked us there.”
“Heh. What about it?”
“Well, you are the person who summoned the Dark Djinn and started the zombie apocalypse, right? I thought you might know the dragon’s weakness.”
“You think I’d tell you if I knew? Are you dumb?! Has your brain rotted?” I can’t argue with that one. To Jela, I’m the pest who destroyed her “happy life with the king.” There’s no way she’ll willingly help us.
“Th-Then what do I need to do for you to answer?” I ask.
“It’s simple: let me out and I’ll tell you everything.”
“That is one deal we cannot make,” Lex answers in my place.
Jela seems aware she was asking for the impossible. She snorts, not the least bit depressed by it. “Looks like that’s it for our negotiations then. Now shoo.”
“Please help us, Jela.”
“Seeking pity from me is a waste of time, girl.”
Apparently it won’t be easy to get an answer out of her. It’s my fault for coming without a better plan, but I guess that’s as far as I get today. I’ll have to come back later—or so I thought.
“I was hoping to save this for later, but you have forced my hand,” Lex says, reaching for the bag hanging over his shoulder.
He left saying he had to prepare some things before going to the dungeon and came back with that bag. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but did he fetch something to intimidate her with? Like torture devices? Lex is the last person I’d expect that from though.
What Lex pulls out of the bag puts my trepidation to shame for how unexpected and anticlimactic it is.
It’s an undertunic made of what looks like a very silky and expensive material. Too large to be a gift made for Jela. What in the world is Lex thinking? Jela’s suspicious gaze narrows on him.
“What is that supposed to do for me? You aren’t going to tell me to use it as a change of clothes, are you? Don’t mock me. I might be imprisoned, but I haven’t fallen that low—wait, this SCENT…it can’t be!”
“Oh, but it is. His Majesty wore this.”
GA-THUNK! Jela slammed her face into the bars. She sniffs the air, not caring about the blood dripping down her forehead.
“Gimme! Give it to me right now! HURRY!”
“Tell us about the dragon first.”
Lex pulls back the undertunic, keeping it out of reach of her outstretched hands. Red splotches her pallid skin. She’s visibly enraged. I’m more than a little repulsed by how fast she lunged at the bars for the king’s clothes like some sort of animal.
“To be clear, I don’t know much. I didn’t create the dragon. I can only make an educated guess about it.”
“That’s good enough,” Lex responds.
Jela slinks back to the bed, drops down on it with a heavy thud, and starts to tell us about it, sounding extremely annoyed as she does. “I intentionally created the giant and mud zombies, but that doesn’t make them special.”
“Meaning?” I ask, confused.
“There are also unique zombies that occur naturally,” Lex deduces.
Apparently he was right because Jela continues without denying it. “It’s been a long time since the world began to decay—it’s not strange for such creatures to come into existence without my knowledge. That dragon formed without my involvement.”
“So there could be even more unique zombies crawling around out there? Ugghh...”
Aside from the humanoid zombies, I always thought the unique zombie types were created by Jela too—not natural mutations. The Boneless Hams are dangerous enough… This is the worst-case scenario.
“This is what you get for taking that man from me. I hope you suffer miserably,” she hisses.
“No, you’re the one who abducted him—”
“Abducted him?! Don’t screw with the facts! He belonged to me first! Got it?! She—that Lia woman—stole him from me! BWAAAAH!”
“Eeek!”
Jela slams her whole body against the bars. Screaming, I retreat behind Lex’s back. Seriously, this woman is scarier than any zombie!
“Knight! I told you what you wanted, now give me what’s mine!”
“Is there anything else you can tell us?”
“I told you from the start that my knowledge is limited! Now, gimme! Gimme! Gimme! SKRIEEEE!”
“A-All right. Take it.” Lex passes the king’s undertunic through the bars, and Jela violently snatches it. She’s like a wild beast. Actually, she’s scarier and grosser than any beast.
“Aah…my beloved’s smell!”
Weeping, Jela hugs the undertunic to her. She presses her face in it, kisses it, nibbles on it, and starts doing other perverted things with it. I can’t help feeling like this is going to go in a bad direction if we leave it with her.
“Hey, Lex? Is it okay to leave her like that?”
“I simply gave her something His Majesty was going to throw away anyway.”
I guess that’s okay then. What would the king think if he knew his underclothes were being used this way? He’s better off never knowing. It was sacrificed to save the world.
“Still didn’t learn its weakness,” I say, sighing.
We’ve left the dungeon and have returned to the castle’s first floor. We walk side by side down the corridor with no destination in mind.
“I apologize for not being of better assistance, m’lady.”
“It’s not your fault, Lex. Besides, we learned something we didn’t know about the zombies, so it was still beneficial.” We just have to search for another way.
As we’re chatting, a boy I know well walks around the corner. He’s wearing a hat and green clothes. He’s Pino, Grantz’s royal scholar.
“Ah!” Lex and I both utter in surprise. He must have arrived at the same thought I did. I don’t know why we didn’t think of it sooner.
Pino frowns suspiciously. “Wh-What? Why are you both gawking at me?”
“Found him! The best person to consult!”