Chapter 26
“Like I said, you have until this evening. I can’t give you any more time than that.”
That seemed to be all he had to say; with those words, Idorian left the room.
‘A solution that will convince everyone.’
What, am I a scholar? There’s no way I’d have something like that! How could I possibly prove that a cure would be made right away?
So he can’t give me more time?
Anybody listening would think he’d kindly given me a chance out of consideration.
“Sigh…”
In the end, Idorian’s words simply meant: don’t do anything stupid. If Lumi hadn’t changed his mind and decided to support me, I’m sure he would have criticized me more harshly. He’d even scolded Lylia a little while ago.
“…Penelope.”
Lumi carefully got up from the bed and called me.
“There’s still no solution, right?”
I nodded silently.
“Well, we still have some time, so let’s think about it together.”
He said it as if consoling me.
“But Lumi, why did you change your mind all of a sudden? You were clearly—”
“I didn’t change my mind.”
Lumi cut me off and shook his head.
“I’m grateful.”
I tilted my head at the odd comment.
“Excuse me?”
“The curtains in my room. You made them for me, didn’t you? I remembered that.”
Lumi spoke earnestly, his tone serious as if he meant it. Even so, I still tilted my head in skepticism.
So because he’s thankful for a curtain, he’s going along with what I’m saying? Really—because of a curtain in the dangerous business of keeping zombies alive?
“…Is that so.”
I couldn’t understand how his train of thought worked at all. Claiming that a cure could be made and volunteering to do it sounded like empty talk, didn’t it?
‘How will he take responsibility later?’
Doubts about whether he was actually a genius grew again.
“Still, it’s a relief that Idorian seems fairly favorable.”
Once again something unintelligible slipped out of Lumi’s mouth.
“L-Lumi. Where exactly are you going?”
Even though he’d clearly heard the same thing, I had no idea what he meant.
“You were given until evening.”
When I frowned in incomprehension, Lumi explained further.
“Thinking about options is something we can entrust to His Majesty. Right now what’s important is to deliver something, as soon as possible, that reduces soldiers’ casualties and uses the zombies’ reaction to blood as a strategic advantage.”
Lumi checked his wristwatch.
“Idorian was originally planning to reply in ten minutes.”
“I don’t think he chose that to give us a real chance…”
It didn’t make sense that Idorian delayed his reply to hand us an opportunity. He had never been positive about a zombie cure.
“Above all, how could you immediately prove a cure?”
The only plan floating in my head was to pretend I’d been divinely foretold—some ridiculous script. Not rational, not realistic at all.
‘Should I write a script or something?’
Ridiculous in every way.
“No, Penelope.”
Lumi shook his head, cutting through my gloomy thoughts.
“What Idorian wants from you isn’t that. He wants a way to manage the zombies that have been kept alive.”
“But His Majesty clearly—”
“No. Idorian wants a method to safely manage a large number of zombies.”
Lumi spoke firmly, interrupting me.
“A way to avoid killing them when it’s not necessary because the risks can be controlled.”
So the solution that will convince everyone isn’t proof of a cure but a management plan? If Lumi was right, Idorian’s reason for delaying his reply made sense. He’d want a concrete, defensible proposal so the Emperor might at least consider it.
“Ah…”
“Then let’s get started, Penelope.”
Lumi approached my desk and picked up a pen.
“It’ll take some time to come up with a decent plan.”
“Lumi!”
As if searching for paper, Lumi reached for the desk drawer and I hurried to speak up.
“There’s no paper in this room.”
Although I’d folded and tucked some away in a corner, the drawer held the sheets where I’d written notes about zombie traits.
“Sorry, could you get it for me, Lumi?”
“…Yes. It’s in my room.”
A little while later Lumi returned to my room carrying several sheets.
“Idorian just gave me this.”
He handed me a paper with writing on it. It contained a rough outline for dealing with the zombies. It seemed Idorian had thought if they could be burned, they’d be locked in empty houses and burned together with the buildings.
“Without killing them…”
Tap-tap.
Just as Lumi was about to speak, there was a short knock and the door opened. Heresden entered. He looked between Lumi sitting on the floor and me on the opposite bed, then came in.
“If you’re talking about the plan His Majesty mentioned, count me in.”
Heresden sat down beside Lumi.
“If you’re not going to kill them, we need to decide where we’ll gather the captured zombies first.”
Lumi made room so Heresden could sit comfortably and spoke.
“It’s impractical to build something new, so we should use existing facilities.”
Lumi suggested a broad approach and began noting it down on the paper.
“Among existing facilities, places that could hold them are…”
Heresden suddenly stopped as he glanced at Lumi busily writing.
“Is that the kingdom’s script?”
“No. I wrote it in the common tongue so everyone could read it.”
Only then did Lumi pause and push the paper toward Heresden as if to say “look properly.”
“Penelope, can you read this?”
Heresden handed over the paper covered in what looked like something very serious.
“This is, um, o-our—”
“I wrote it a little sloppy because I was writing fast, but the gist is: we have to use existing facilities given the circumstances,” Lumi corrected, slowly retracing his scribbles.
“Lumi…”
If time passed any longer, Lumi wouldn’t even recognize his own handwriting.
“Do you want me to rewrite it properly?”
Lumi looked sheepish as he looked at his handwriting.
“I’ll write it.”
In the end Heresden took the pen from Lumi and began writing neatly.
“No matter how we confine the zombies, the ultimate goal must be to let people move freely within the capital again and return to their daily lives.”
Watching the neat letters fill the page, I started naming things we’d need to think about.
“To do that… it has to be sturdy enough to fully contain them and isolate them from people. And it has to be large enough to hold many zombies.”
Lumi nodded and counted off the detailed conditions on his fingers.
Heresden’s tidy handwriting quickly filled the paper.
‘All we need is to keep them confined until a cure appears.’
On reflection, managing zombies wasn’t that difficult. Even if we had to keep them alive so they could be returned to human form someday, in their present state they were neither human nor animal. They didn’t need meals or exercise, they slept standing up, and they took up little space.
The main concern was security — preventing accidents that would let the zombies loose on the streets.
“What about the prison in the capital?”
The prison I remembered from Penelope’s memory had a tower shape. Each chamber was partitioned with iron bars; if we locked them up there, they couldn’t come out. But there was a problem: once collected, the zombies would have to be moved to the prison, which would be dangerous.
‘That’s too risky.’
So we’d have to manage them where they were first confined.
In that case…
“Ah, something like a warehouse would work!”
The place to keep the zombies would be more like a warehouse than a prison. If done right, it might be the kind of solution Idorian wanted — something that would convince everyone.
