“Is he… seeing anyone?”
“What, all of a sudden?”
“Well, I’ve been curious since we met,” Freya said, cupping her cheeks with both hands and practically wiggling with glee.
I was a little taken aback but shrugged. “Probably not.”
“Really?!” Freya asked, her delight impossible to miss.
I mean, sure. If the world were at peace, he would have found a fiancée or at least a suitable partner for the sake of his family name.
But who has time for courting when your life is on the line every single day?
Of course, if the original story had gone according to plan, he would have met Aria, they would have naturally fallen for each other, and their feelings would have blossomed and… wait.
Why did that thought suddenly leave a bad taste in my mouth?
“Hehe, what a relief.”
“What is?”
“Well, now I can indulge in my fantasies guilt-free!”
“What… fantasies?”
“Oh, you know. This and that.”
Right, time to stop asking questions…
I mean, I got it. Objectively speaking, Yoan was handsome enough to make anyone swoon.
And yeah, he was prickly, but he had a surprisingly gentle side.
And sure, he wasn’t the sweetest talker, but he secretly took good care of people, and he was dependable, and…
Okay, snap out of it, Sasha!
This was not the time to be calmly analyzing someone’s romantic prospects. It was time to talk about what was important.
I mentally shook myself and got back on track. “Speaking of which, Freya. I was wondering, what kind of research did you do? Have you ever done clinical trials or anything like that?”
“Well, ‘clinical trials’ covers a lot of ground… I did assist a professor with his research for about three years back at the academy. Wrote my thesis on it, too.”
“Oh? Could you be more specific?”
Now that I was showing interest, Freya began to explain the research she’d been a part of.
She did her best to put it in simple terms, but I still couldn’t understand half of it. She must have seen the glazed-over look on my face, because she trailed off.
“Um, Lady Sasha.”
“Yes?”
“You need something, don’t you? It’s just, you asked me to pack the magic devices and lab equipment earlier. Wouldn’t it be faster if you just told me what it is?”
“Ah!”
Right! Why didn’t I think of that?
This had to be because I was a zombie. My brain probably wasn’t as flexible as a human’s. That, or my brain was just fried from having to worry about a million things at once.
It’s a tough world out there. Just surviving is a full-time job. And no, that wasn’t just me making excuses—it was a fact.
“Ahem. If possible, I was hoping you could run a test for an antibody carrier.”
“An antibody carrier test? Oh my goodness! Why didn’t I think of that sooner?”
See? Even Freya hadn’t thought of it.
“That’s a wonderful idea. If we could find someone like that, we could even develop a cure! But I don’t have the right reagents, so it will take some time to create them.”
“If there are any ingredients you need, just let me know. We’ll find them somehow.”
“Yes! It’s best to get started on something like this right away. Hmm, let’s see.”
Freya dug through her bag and pulled out a notebook about two palms thick, flipping through the pages.
“I have this, and this… I’ll need to check on this one.” She muttered to herself, her expression dead serious.
Honestly, I was worried she’d say she didn’t know how or couldn’t do it, so it was a relief to see her so fired up.
Before I knew it, she had a pen in hand and was scribbling furiously. She tore out a page and handed it to me.
“There aren’t as many ingredients as I thought. And I have a general idea of where to find most of them.”
The list of “not that many” ingredients had a double-digit number of items. For some reason, the crazed, genius-like glint in Freya’s eyes was making me a little nervous.
***
Ten days flew by in the blink of an eye.
Freya practically gave up sleeping, pouring all her energy into development and research. During that time, the rest of us focused on defense so she could concentrate.
About three days ago, she’d announced she was close to a breakthrough and had been living in the storefront ever since. A true researcher to the core.
Meanwhile, the seasons had shifted from summer to autumn. The mornings and evenings were now filled with a distinct chill.
For us, this was a good thing; the zombie virus slowed down in lower temperatures.
“Ahhh, that’s refreshing.”
I had just finished my duties for the day and was taking a quick break on the sofa with Yoan when Rob walked over, rubbing his freshly washed hair with a towel.
His expression told me he was about to say something completely unnecessary.
And what do you know, I was right.
“Well, well. If it isn’t the happy couple. At this rate, you’ll be getting married next week.”
Yoan, who had been leaning against the sofa, habitually stroking my hair, replied in an icy tone. “Shut up and get lost.”
“I have something to report, my lord.”
“Then report it quickly and get lost.”
“I heard something strange on patrol today. You know, about that group of survivors on the outskirts of town. The rumors about their so-called boss aren’t very good.”
Right, I’d almost forgotten about them.
The other survivor group and their leader. I vaguely remembered Freya mentioning them when we first met.
“Not good how?”
“Apparently, he’s working people to the bone under the guise of protecting them. I heard he used to be one of the richest guys in town and teamed up with some small-time guild. Sounds like he’s playing king of the castle.”
So much for subverting classic clichés. Of course they had to be the obstacle-type.
I snuck a glance at Yoan, curious to see how he’d respond. He didn’t seem particularly concerned by Rob’s report, looking calm and rational as ever.
“Leave them be. We’re stretched thin just dealing with zombies. They’ll sort themselves out by the time we leave town anyway. We stick to the plan.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Rob accepted Yoan’s orders without another word.
I liked that Yoan didn’t waste time on some misguided sense of justice. Someone had to stay level-headed and keep everyone focused, and if that person was the leader, all the better.
In any case, Yoan’s plan was simple: after the antibody test, if we had a carrier among us, we’d form an elite team and head to the capital.
I’d already planted the seed that the Temple of Loa might be behind all this, dropping hints about Aria.
I’d sold them on the idea that if we went to the capital—the source of all our problems—we’d find someone who could develop a cure. If we didn’t have an antibody carrier, the plan was to move the survivors to the next town as originally scheduled.
Still, the fact that Aria had been so quiet actually made me more nervous. She was consumed by revenge, and there was no way she’d just quietly back down.
Just as my head was starting to spin with all these thoughts, the firmly shut door to the storefront burst open, and Freya appeared.
“Good morning! Or, wait, is it afternoon? Evening…? Eek, the lord is here, too! I must look a fright.”
Freya quickly tried to hide her face with her bangs, but there was no need.
Pretty people who are exhausted just look… tragically pretty.
“Oh, uh, should I go wash my face?”
“Never mind that. The results?”
“Yoan, you could ask a little more nicely. The woman’s been working herself to death,” I chided.
Yoan’s brow furrowed, and he enunciated each word with painful clarity. “Stop wasting time. What are the results?”
Freya took a shallow breath and spoke again. “It was a success.”
“Oh, seriously?”
“Oh, seriously?”
Rob and I exclaimed at the same time, grabbing each other’s hands before quickly letting go.
Freya gave a faint smile and pressed her fingers into the dark circles under her eyes. “The sample size was ridiculously small, so the margin of error might be a bit wide. But a success is a success. We should check. Who wants to go first?”
“Me!”
“Then I’m next.”
As soon as I volunteered, Yoan followed as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
After all, this test was most crucial for the two of us.
I followed Freya into the storefront, which now looked like a full-blown laboratory.
While she went to get something, I rolled up my sleeve and held out my arm. I’d had my blood drawn several times over the last ten days.
Freya expertly tied a rubber tube around my arm and jabbed the needle in without hesitation.
“A little sting,” she said out of habit as she drew the blood. She took the sample and moved over to her workstation. “Just a moment.” Her back was a flurry of activity.
After carefully checking the results, Freya tilted her head and looked back at us. Her expression screamed ambiguous.
“What is it? What are the results?”
“Why don’t you see for yourself? I think it’ll be faster than me trying to explain.”
I cautiously approached and peered into the magic device she handed me.
On a small, transparent glass slide, two different blood samples were waging a fierce war.
“Which one is my blood?”
“The one that’s slightly less viscous.”
“...I have no idea what that means.”
“The stronger one.”
“Aha.”
Freya’s description was spot-on. One sample was slowly eating away at the other until they finally mixed together and became diluted.
“It’s incredible. You have a self-healing ability. Or, to be more precise, it’s more like a detoxification ability. It’s not a perfect cure, but it helps stop the virus’s activity.”
“Can it be used on other people?”
“It can, but it won’t be nearly as effective as it is for you, Lady Sasha.”
So, it could only slow things down.
If a bit of my bodily fluids had mixed with the poison when I was trying to save Yoan from a bite…
That means even if I can delay the transformation, a perfect cure is impossible.
That was a very, very big problem.
“Let’s move on to Yoan,” Freya said.
I prayed with everything I had.
Let him be the antibody carrier.