Episode 32

Now That I Think About It, I Met Kim Deok Soo at the Pizza Place
It was at the pizza shop where I used to work part-time.

The manager, unable to tolerate a guy who couldn’t even memorize the menu after a whole month, ended up getting stress-induced rage and dumped the task of training him onto me.

Unkempt hair, an eye-searing neon-colored outfit, a sluggish way of speaking like he’d bitten his tongue, and communication skills so awful I wished I had a tranquilizer gun to put him to sleep.

In short, he was the kind of socially inept person that made you wonder how the hell he even survived in this cruel world.

‘What did I just say?’

‘…Harmonica pizza?’

‘It’s Hawaiian pizza, Ha.wa.i.an. Should I knock out all your teeth so you can play an actual harmonica?’

‘Calm down. But hey, do you believe in transcendent powers?’

He was the type to spout nonsense day and night.
Still, despite constantly muttering, “If only he weren’t the landlord’s nephew, I swear…”, I somehow ended up teaching him with an odd sense of dedication.

And then, one day—

‘Alright, what exactly is this so-called transcendent power you keep talking about?’

I asked out of sheer exasperation.

That was a mistake.

The guy went off, spitting as he ranted, and as a mere muggle, I immediately regretted my decision. Ah. Shouldn’t have touched that topic.

Then, after his long-winded explanation, Kim Deok Soo proudly handed me a novel, claiming he was the president of the zombie club or something.

He promised that if I read it, he would finally start taking his training seriously.

That novel, the one he kept shoving in my face, insisting I had to read it, was none other than The Saintess’s Salvation.

Sigh.

Well… in the end, it’s not technically his fault that I ended up in this world.

Yeah. This happened because of that mysterious, transcendent force he kept blabbering about every day.

‘Right. It’s not him. Not exactly…’

I snapped my eyes open.

‘Then why do I feel so angry every time I think about that bastard?’

For the record, I’m not someone who takes out my anger on innocent people.

And yet, even though I knew my frustration was misdirected, every time I thought of Kim Deok Soo, I got irrationally pissed off.

It was like some gut instinct was telling me that he was the one I should be mad at.

‘…Wait. What did his face even look like?’

His features were so blurry in my memory that I couldn’t even picture him properly.

Just as I was glaring at the sky as if it were my mortal enemy, a shadowed face suddenly appeared in my view.

“Danha?”

Danha smiled gently and stepped back.

I sat up and dusted off the dirt clinging to my back.

He reached out and brushed off my back as well.

“Were you looking at the sky?”

Technically, I was thinking about a certain someone I want to strangle, but…

I gave a vague nod and stood up.

“Did you check the cabin?”

“As expected, it wasn’t there.”

“Then you should rest. It’s dangerous—why did you come out here?”

“I thought it wouldn’t be right to leave everything to you alone…”

Danha suddenly stopped talking, his gaze fixed on something.

His pale green eyes were locked onto my untied boot laces.

“Come here.”

He gently pushed my shoulder, guiding me to sit on a damp mound of earth.

Then, kneeling in front of me, he began tying my shoelaces.

The way he looped the laces was unique—probably the Eastern Continent’s way of doing it.

After a moment, he spoke, his voice tinged with self-reproach.

“…I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For being someone who cannot kill these ‘zombies.’ In the end, all I can do is tie a lady’s shoelaces. How useless must I be?”

Useless? That was the wrong word.

He wasn’t useless—he had simply made the choice to respect the remains of the deceased out of consideration for their families.

And yet, he looked genuinely ashamed of himself.

I shrugged and responded in a nonchalant tone.

“So what if you’re useless? Even the Empire has a bunch of good-for-nothing noble ladies running around.”

Danha let out a faint smile as he moved on to tie the lace on my other boot.

“I remember hearing about it. They say there’s a scoundrel in the Empire. I was curious and wanted to meet them.”

‘Yes, that person is me.’

I leisurely raised my hand toward him.

Danha glanced at me, then looked up again in surprise.

His eyes seemed to say, No way…, so I made it clear.

“That’s right. The scoundrel noblewoman is me.”

Instead of laughing as I expected, Danha’s brows furrowed with a look of pity.

“Oh dear… How did such a rumor spread?”

His large hand gently stroked my head.

“You’re such a kind and beautiful lady. Should I go find whoever started the rumor and scold them?”

‘…Why is my heart trembling over something like this?’

As expected, a noona-killer.

Feeling flustered, I stomped my foot absentmindedly while looking off somewhere in the forest.

“Well, there’s no need to go that far.”

Danha chuckled softly and neatly tied the laces on my other shoe.

Right after, he placed his hands on his knees and looked up at me.

“My lady, let’s stop searching for the bracelet and return to the cabin.”

I blinked down at him.

“But we haven’t found it yet. And it’s already bright outside.”

“This is more than enough to console me.”

“But…”

“I was too emotional when I said I wouldn’t leave. Thinking it over again, that bracelet isn’t that important to me.”

“But you said it was precious.”

“No treasure is truly valuable if it comes at the cost of others.”

“But your younger sister made it for you.”

“It’s fine. I’ll just ask her to make me another one.”

Danha smiled gently, his eyes curving warmly.

His face, devoid of any sorrow, masked his true feelings so well that I almost fell for it.

I lightly tapped the corner of his eye with my fingertip.

“Don’t force yourself to smile.”

Danha’s eyes widened instantly. His thick lashes trembled slightly, as if he was flustered.

A moment later, he smiled brightly again, as if nothing had happened.

“Forcing a smile? That’s a misunderstanding. Why would you think that?”

I placed my hand on the mound beside me and leaned forward, gazing at him intently.

His throat bobbed slightly, as if he was a bit nervous.

“Are you reading my mind right now?”

“Hah.”

At his unexpected remark, a small laugh slipped out.

‘How could I read minds? I’m not some deity.’

I just thought it was odd.

He might die here, yet he was refusing to leave the zombie zone over a mere bracelet.

‘If he misses his younger sister that much, wouldn’t it make more sense to escape and meet her instead?’

Then it hit me.

The reason why the bracelet was so important—why it was worth risking his life for—was because it was a keepsake.

‘That’s why I couldn’t ignore it and offered to find it for him.’

Because whether it’s a person, an object, or a memory, everyone has something they hold dear enough to risk their life for.

I slowly opened my eyes and looked at Danha.

Seeing him still waiting nervously for my response was amusing, so I smiled faintly and brushed back the strands of hair falling over his forehead.

“There’s one thing I need to correct. This isn’t a sacrifice—it’s effort. It’s not recklessness—it’s a choice.”

After all, I had already set a firm limit of just one day.

“I’m going to do my best to find it before today ends.”

“……”

After tucking a few stray strands of hair behind Danha’s ear, I smiled faintly, thinking how beautiful he would look if I placed a flower there as well.

When our eyes met again, emotions swirled in his pale green irises.

“Even if something obtained through sacrifice isn’t valuable, something earned through effort is precious, isn’t it?”

“……”

I shrugged playfully and added with a teasing tone.

“Just wait a little bit. I’ll make sure you return not as a careless brother who lost his bracelet, but as a wonderful one.”

I wasn’t entirely confident, but in this situation, a little bravado wouldn’t hurt.

“My lady…”

Danha’s mask slipped, his brows furrowing as he looked as if he was about to cry.

Sadness clung to his eyes like thick dust.

“You are… truly a good person.”

That’s a first. I’ve never heard anyone say that to me before.

If this were any other setting, this would be the perfect moment for two people to fall in love.

However—

Kueeeeeek!

This was an apocalypse.

Reality yanked me back by the hair as I sharply turned my gaze beyond Danha’s shoulder.

Zombies were swarming toward us, drawn in like moths to a flame.

I had stayed in one place for too long.

This was exactly why I had been moving locations while searching for the bracelet.

Slowly, I rose to my feet and pushed Danha behind me.

“Stay behind me.”

Without hesitation, I grabbed my hammer and took down the nearest zombie.

Crunch—!

Thud!

Crack—!

I had no idea how many times I swung before I started running out of breath.

Just then, I caught a glimpse of something glinting on the wrist of a zombie staggering toward me.

My eyes widened.

…! I found it!

Loosely hanging on the zombie’s exposed wrist bone was a jade bead bracelet, identical to the one Danha had lost.

I had no idea how it ended up there, but there was no time to think.

I lunged forward, took down the zombie, and snatched the bracelet from its grasp.

Got it.

I was grinning triumphantly, clutching the bracelet, when—

“My lady!”

Kueeeek!

A gaping zombie mouth filled my vision.