Episode 14
“Well, she looks like someone who’s never suffered a day in her life. Almost like a noble young lady.”
“Exactly. I’ve never seen such a glamorous face in all my years.”
“Like star candy. Yeah—pretty like star candy, don’t you think?”
The cringeworthy comparison sent a shiver down Eden’s spine.
He both understood and didn’t understand why everyone inevitably brought up star candy whenever Cherry came up.
“Well, our young fellow here is handsome too. They’d make quite a pair.”
“Looks to me like he’s always trailing after that girl from the abandoned house.”
“That’s not true.”
Eden frowned sharply, irritation flashing across his face.
The villagers exchanged looks again—unpleasant ones this time. Eden chose to ignore them and rose from his seat.
“Heading somewhere?” Inspector Hans asked, watching Eden grab the jacket draped over his chair.
“Going to see the abandoned-house miss, perhaps?”
The innkeeper answered for him in a low voice.
“No—”
Eden started to deny it reflexively, then stopped.
It was true that he intended to visit Cherry’s estate under the pretense of surveillance.
The villagers’ eyes sparkled with interest.
Tch.
Clicking his tongue, Eden pulled on his police cap and informed Inspector Hans curtly,
“I’m going on patrol.”
* * *
I propped the scarecrows up in one corner of the garden and opened the front gate.
Contractors were busy repairing various parts of the estate.
After buying furniture in Kindtne yesterday, I’d immediately requested on-site repairs. And today—true to their word—the contractors had arrived to work on the house.
Of course, that was because I’d offered five times the usual rate.
I paid half upfront and promised the rest immediately if they finished within a week.
They’d come running without hesitation.
Money really is the best. Long live the rich.
Being born an heiress—how lucky was that?
Even preparing for the apocalypse was this convenient.
Just then, the man in charge of repairing the outer wall approached me.
“Miss, you asked us to install torches on the wall, right?”
I nodded.
“Please raise the wall much higher than it is now. Make it thicker and sturdier. Install wall-mounted iron torches on the outside of the wall. And add barbed wire along the top.”
“Outside? You want iron torches mounted on the outside wall?”
The contractor asked several times, clearly baffled. When I nodded firmly, he scratched the back of his head, muttering that he’d never heard such a request before.
Well, of course it sounded strange.
What I’d designed was a defensive structure tailored specifically to the virus monsters described in the novel.
They’re weak to heat. Fire will keep them from getting close.
Torches along the outer wall would deter the monsters.
I couldn’t keep them lit at all times—it would draw attention—but as a temporary measure, they were perfect.
Next, I turned to the crew repairing the gate.
Several burly men were setting down an enormous stone gate.
From now on, I’d be calling it the stone main gate.
“I heard there are bears and other wild animals in the forest. I need a gate that won’t open even if a bear charges it.”
“This will do nicely,” the contractor said, wiping sweat from his brow.
“It’s extremely sturdy. Took a lot of effort to obtain.”
Naturally. That was why I’d paid five times the price.
“Is it easy to open and close?”
“Well… not exactly,” he admitted.
“It is stone. Especially this stone bar—it’s heavy to lift alone. But once it’s locked, there’s no way to open it from the outside.”
The workers continued installing the gate. The stone bar looked solid—so heavy it would take two men to move it.
For me, though, that wasn’t an issue.
After thoroughly checking the installation, I finally prepared to work on the garden.
This time, I planned to plant Elpinus herbs.
By sheer luck, the Elpinus herb box I’d secured from the Nottingham Street No. 61 mansion contained not only herbs, but seeds as well—and plenty of them.
I think there was a natural habitat for Elpinus somewhere… should I go herb-hunting later?
Late spring—just before summer.
Perfect planting season.
Wait. Every time I think I’m lucky, something goes to hell right afterward…
No. Surely not.
I shook my head and looked over the unkempt garden.
For the Happy House garden, I’d prepared tomatoes, cabbage, onions, carrots, potatoes, and green onions.
Without modern refrigerators, long-term food storage wasn’t an option.
So I grow it myself.
First, I stopped by the general store and bought every type of tool they had—shovels, hoes, hand rakes, trowels, watering cans.
Then I bought my gardening outfit.
Seeds? Enough for two years.
Back at Happy House, I immediately changed.
A jumpsuit, rubber boots, a straw hat pulled low, and a towel around my neck.
Ugh. I hate this outfit.
Cherry Sinclair being fashion-conscious wasn’t a lie.
Even with memories of my past life mixed in, I’d lived as Cherry for nineteen years.
I was a woman who could never give up dresses and jewelry.
But gardening in a dress was impossible.
Fully equipped, I began pulling weeds with a hand hoe.
I’m really living diligently, huh.
I wiped sweat from my face with the towel.
Haa…
After a long while, exhausted, I looked up at the sky.
The sun blazed overhead.
Hot.
Tiring.
I was hungry.
Did I really want to live this desperately?
This was truly what it meant to invite hardship upon oneself.
But future-me would thank me for it.
With that thought, I gripped the hoe again—
“Stop.”
A revolver was aimed straight at me.
Startled, I looked up.
It was Eden.
What—when did he get here?
I glanced toward the gate.
It was open.
The workers installing it had retreated, pale-faced.
“Aaah!”
The contractor working on the wall screamed at the sight of the gun and fell off his ladder.
Eden didn’t even blink.
“Cherry Sinclair. You are under arrest for drug trafficking.”
…What?
“Drug trafficking?”
“Do not attempt to make excuses. Those herbs and seeds there—are they not narcotics?”
He pointed at the Elphinus herbs and boxes on the ground.
Apparently, if I possessed any herb at all, it automatically qualified as drugs in his mind.
What is my image, exactly?!
“Hah… I wanted to believe otherwise, despite all the suspicious signs.”
Eden looked at me, his expression tangled with conflict.
See?
I knew it.
The moment you think you’re lucky, something goes spectacularly wrong.
From now on, my name is Cheomji Sinclair, damn it.
* * *
In the end, I was stuck at Brunel Police Station all afternoon.
At Eden’s request, by evening a narcotics investigator from Benton Police Headquarters arrived—along with a specialist doctor to verify whether the herbs were drugs.
The problem was that doctor.
I examined him carefully as he stood beside Eden and the investigator.
He wore an elegant suit utterly unsuited to a rural village.
On his deep navy hair sat a top hat—the very symbol of a gentleman.
Yes.
That hat.
Like the one worn by Arsène Lupin.
More than anything, his striking appearance seized attention instantly.
His honey-gold eyes brimmed with amusement, and if not for the lollipop in his mouth, he might’ve looked like a refined gentleman.
Nox Cornell Rudfisher.
The doctor standing before me was a sub-male lead from the novel Fatal Love.
Why are YOU here?!
This was cursed. Absolutely cursed.
All I did was steal Elpinus herbs from Nottingham Street No. 61 and flee to Brunel!
The main setting of the novel was supposed to be Benton—the capital.
And yet, before the world even ended, all the main characters were gathering in this rural village.
Is this… the butterfly effect?
