Thirteen

Baron Cohen's territory, Nimpa Village. . .

"RUN!"

A knight screamed, lifting his sword in the air and aimed for the infected maid who lunged at him. He was quick to behead the maid, panting heavily and sweating.

"Ronald!" The maid cried out, her tears streaming down her face as she stepped aside to avoid the rolling head of an infected.

It was already past midnight. The property of Baron Cohen is in chaos. Servants and knights alike are running around, screaming their heads off as four infected attacked them out of nowhere.

"Run, Joann!" Ronald huffed out, blocking the gate so no infected would run out. However, he was too late to stop the infection from spreading.

He has been killing the infected for two hours, he doesn't know where they came from, but the manor of his master has been eerily quiet for a while now. He knew that they came from somewhere inside the manor, he's not sure where.

Not that he could tell, the property of the Baron is currently experiencing hell.

The surroundings of the manor are on fire, the bushes and trees were set on fire accidentally by one of the maids that flee from the manor. They ended up leaving the gate open, some of the infected had ran out of the property with them— following the screaming servants to the village.

If it weren't for Ronald and his fellow knights then more would have run out of the property. Though, his friends quickly fell victim to the infected because they were not sure how to kill them.

Ronald found out a way to kill them an hour ago, but it was too late by then.

"Ronald, I'll go and take a horse! We need to go to the capital immediately and talk to His Majesty so hold on a bit longer!" Joann yelled to the knight, picking up a sword on the ground and was quick to run towards the house shed.

"Wait— Joann— Don't go by your— shit..!" Ronald couldn't even stop her from going because another zombie lunged itself on him.

He immediately let out a grunt, struggling to hold off the zombie.

"Get off... Me!" He screamed, exhaling loudly as he pushed the zombie off with a sudden surge of strength, fear filling in as an adrenaline rush.

The moment he managed to push off the zombie, he immediately tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword and swung the blade across the zombie's neck, beheading it.

He panted deeply, eyes wide in both fear and shock, but he couldn't dwell on it longer because another infected had lunged at him.

It took him a few seconds before he could behead the zombie. At that moment, he knew that he wouldn't be able to hold them off any longer. He whipped his head from left to right, thinking of another way to keep them inside the manor.

One of the gates are wide open. His eyes lit up when an idea popped in his head and without wasting any time, he run towards the gate, the sound of his boots crunching against the stones beneath his soles had caught the attention of the infected.

"Grrrr!!!" A few infected started running and limping towards him. Some have their head attached, but losing a limb and some have their head attached with their neck cut in half.

"Crap, crap, crap.." Ronald chanted under his breath, trembling in fear as he try to close the gate faster.

"Ronald!" Screamed Joann.

Ronald stopped closing the gate half way when Joann came into view, on the back of the horse while axing her way through the infected. Her maid uniform is torn in half on the hem, her supposedly long brown hair is now cut, reaching under her chin.

"Close the gate!" Joann's voice had snapped him out of his trance.

"O-On it!" He said, dragging the gate with the best of his ability. The metal used in the gate is as heavy as the ones that are used in cannons that are used in the war with the neighboring kingdom.

It's heavy and noisy. He's sure that it attracted the attention of the other infected inside the manor because he could hear thudding and slamming inside, but he doesn't care about his master anymore.

The Baron had abandoned us. Ronald thought with anger, grunting.

Just before he could close the gate completely, the horse and Joann had crossed in a hurry. Joann was panting and obviously tired, but she unmounted the horse quickly and helped Ronald.

They managed to close the gate just in time before the infected could reach them.

They backed away immediately to not let the infected reach them. They're both panting heavily and sweating, gasping for oxygen and finally catching their breaths.

"They all look like Lady Cohen." Joann huffed out, wiping the sweat off from her chin.

"What..?" Ronald turned to her, his eyes clouded with confusion and disbelief, "Lady Cohen is infected?"

"Infected?" Joann scoffed, "She's the one who kept biting her servants. She even bit Lady Davis the other day and...."

She stopped talking, her eyes widening when she realized something. Her face lost it color as she scrambled to get on the horse, "We need to leave now!"

"What, what— what? Why?! We need to go to the village and tell the—"

"Tell them what?!" Joann had cut him off, "Can't you see the fire?! Hear the screams?! The cries?! The village is already in chaos! The Baron's territory can't be saved!"

Ronald could see the panic and frustration sinking in her eyes, she's shaking and crying, "We have to leave now! If we don't, the capital will be in chaos as well, Ronald! Lady Davis left yesterday and she hasn't turned when she left, but I know for sure that she will be by the time she arrived!"

—

"I can't believe that fool used me to get the gunpowders.." Jannah muttered, walking down the hall to get to her office.

"It's okay, my lady." Lucienta assured her, "We all know that we won't come back here for the next three years! We won't let the Count to have you!"

"She's right, my lady." Marco agreed with the head maid, "Lady Jeriel said that Count Nige will give the love potion to Kirie, right? We can pretend and divert his attention to somewhere else."

"They're both right, my lady! I can act like I'm under Lady Jeriel's command and fool them! Don't worry!" Kirie enthusiastically added on to the other two's reassurance.

Jannah could only feel more annoyed at their assurance though.

"What are you three doing and awake at 5 am anyways? It's too early for the three of you!" She stopped walking and turned in her heels to look at her loyal servants, placing her hands on her hips and furrowed her eyebrows at them.

Marco laughed light-heartedly at his master, "We have already prepared everything for our departure today so we don't really have much to do, but to tend to you, my lady."

"Mhmm! We also know that you're to wake up early to go to work again today so we woke up early to be at your beck and call!" Kirie exclaimed, beaming with excitement.

"Kirie!" Lucienta and Marco simultaneously scolded the maid.

"Eek!" Kirie shrinked back.

"So, you've been eavesdropping in my and my little sister's conversation last night?" Jannah raised an eyebrow at them.

"No, my lady! I just know!" Lucienta was quick to disagree, "You've been working non-stop since the other day, buying things left and right, emptying shops, employing people with experience and sent them to Philipia... Everyone under you already knows that you're preparing for something bad."

Jannah blinked, letting what Lucienta said sink into her brain. She hasn't told Lucienta nor Marco that she got sent back to the past before the outbreak. Yet, they have been following her nonsensical order and didn't question her motives behind her actions.

So, how could she abandon them? They're literally following her blindly even without knowing what's about to happen.

"Goodness, you three.." Jannah could only let out a helpless sigh and rub her temples to stop herself from crying. She had lost them to the outbreak before, they sacrificed their lives for her and her little sister.

"Okay, fine." She sighed out, giving up on stopping them from tending to her. She had told them last night they should take a rest until noon because the travel to the north would take two days at most.

She didn't want them to be tired. However, their worry for her had overpowered her order and became stubborn.

The servants smiled warmly, happy to have their master acknowledge their worry over her whole being. They all knew that something will happen and their master is just concerned about them, she even went as far as buying them clothes that will help them in the north.

Truly and wholeheartedly, they didn't regret swearing their loyalty to the Countess.

The warm and soft atmosphere in the hall was broken by the door opening and Jeriel walking out of the room, mouth wide open and yawning like a knight would.

"Geez, the sun is barely up and all of you are getting chummy in here." Jeriel commented as she rub the sleep off from her eyes, "Come on, Kirie, help me get prepared. I need to tell my sister something important."

"So unladylike." Jannah sighed out and stared at her little sister, "You're supposed to take over the County after five years, you know? Yet you're acting like this."

"Bro—"

"Ahem!" Marco forced out a cough and eyed Jeriel with wide eyes.

"Err.. Sis.." She reluctantly corrected herself, "We both know that it's impossible, yes? I mean, come on, the world is about to end."

"Jeriel!" Jannah hissed out, hand raised in the air and palm smacking against Jeriel's arm.

Smack, smack, smack!

Her people wasn't supposed to find out just yet, but her little sister had to reveal it like that! Just dropping the bomb out of nowhere!

"Ow, ow—"

SMACK!