The Male Leads Are Trapped in My House

This monster wasn’t dead yet. To deal with it properly, the head and torso had to be separated or burned.

[Exclusive Report! Murder Incident at Marquis Kay’s Residence. Marquis Kay’s Family Massacred…]

I recalled the headline from the newspaper article I had seen earlier.

Now it truly felt like the curtain had risen on a novel. I realized that the end was very near.

“Miss Sinclair, how can you remain so calm even after seeing that?”

Vanilla approached, her face pale, and asked with her guts emptied and shivering.

“It just looks like I’m calm. I’m pretending.”

I pointed to my arm holding the cricket bat. My arm was trembling slightly.

I seemed calm probably because I knew what this thing was and because I had experience dealing with monsters at 61st Notium Street.

But that didn’t mean I wasn’t scared. It was horrifying and frightening enough to give anyone goosebumps.

The reality of the world about to end hit me hard.

Vanilla remained silent. Eden put his hands on his hips with a face expressing awkwardness, as he gazed at the dead monster.

“We might need to investigate this.”

“Well, don’t touch it!”

I quickly reached out both arms to block Eden, who was approaching the monster.

“Why?”

Eden asked me. I swallowed hard and looked at the monster’s corpse. I knew he has antibodies against the virus, but it doesn’t hurt to be careful.

I have to answer carefully. I didn’t want to say anything foolish and arouse Eden’s suspicions.

“Well…”

I trailed off for a moment, then gathered my courage and put on an innocent look.

“It’s an unidentified creature. How could we know what kind of germs it might carry?”

Vanilla responded with a nod that seemed to agree with what I said.

“It does look kind of like it could be carrying germs. But then, what should we do with it?”

In response to Vanilla’s question, I looked back and forth between her and Eden.

“Let’s burn it.”

I had been able to completely kill the monster from 61st Notium Street by splitting its head with an axe, but this time, it wasn’t the case. However, suggesting that we separate its head and body would sound suspicious no matter how I phrased it.

So, burning it into ashes was the only option.

“Hmm.”

Eden gazed at the monster’s body with a slightly disapproving face.

Belatedly, the farmer approached the monster’s corpse, took a closer look, and then slumped to the ground. He seemed to mumble as he stared at the dead monster.

“Oh, a devil. This must be the devil…!”

The farmer seemed shocked by the sudden realization. It would be troublesome if he got too shocked, as these kinds of creatures were going to play a role in the world soon.

“It’s just a mutant beast. It should be fine if we burn it.”

I comforted the farmer as I approached him. While doing so, I noticed something like bite marks on his arm.

“Hold on a moment.”

The farmer looked at me with a puzzled expression. I pointed to the bite marks.

“What’s this?”

“I was bitten by that demon a little bit earlier…”

As soon as I heard the word ‘bitten,’ I quickly moved away from the farmer. Eden and Vanilla looked at me with puzzled expressions.

Wait, didn’t Eden touch the farmer earlier?

It probably wasn’t the case, but I reached for Eden’s hand to check if he had been bitten. Fortunately, his hands were clean.

“What are you doing?”

Eden asked. I let out a sigh of relief and pointed at the farmer.

“We might need to call a doctor.”

Calling a doctor wouldn’t solve this issue. I was just stalling for time with that answer. After that, I tightly gripped the cricket bat.

My mind went blank. I had been imagining such situations all along, but now that it was actually happening, I couldn’t think at all. My whole body felt cold.

With the cricket bat still in my hand, a large hand grabbed my shoulder.

“Miss Cherry, are you all right?”

Eden examined my expression with a serious look. But there was something else that caught my attention even more. Vanilla was approaching the farmer, probably trying to comfort him.

“No!”

I grabbed Vanilla’s arm, and she looked at me with a puzzled expression.

“Miss Sinclair? Why?”

The farmer’s complexion was already turning blue. His dry, cracked lips trembled, and he was sweating excessively.

“Ahem. Cough, cough. My, my body isn’t feeling well. Can you call a doctor, please?”

He spoke for a moment, then covered his mouth with his hand and coughed violently. Once the cough subsided, his palm, which he had taken away from his mouth, was covered in a lot of dried blood. Vanilla looked at him in surprise.

“Miss Sinclair, wait a moment, let go of me.”

Despite Vanilla’s request, I shook my head vehemently and didn’t let go of her arm.

Cough.

Then, at that moment, the farmer, who had vomited blood on the ground again, collapsed.

Thud.

And this time, Eden tried to approach the fallen farmer. Holding the cricket bat, I stood in front of the collapsed farmer and looked at both of them.

“Wait a minute. Please wait, don’t move. There’s something wrong with this man.”

In this situation where I couldn’t explain the details, that was all I could say. Upon hearing this, both Vanilla and Eden looked at me with frustration.

“Miss Cherry, what are you doing right now?”

“Miss Sinclair, I haven’t seen someone act like this before.”

I swallowed my tears as I listened to their objections. I was doing this to save you, to save you both.

And as expected, the sound of the fallen farmer on the ground, who seemed to have momentarily stopped breathing, moving reached my ears.

Grrrr-

Growl, growl, accompanied by an animal-like sound.

“What’s going on? Why is the farmer acting like this?”

Vanilla opened her mouth with a bewildered expression. I slowly turned around, facing Eden and Vanilla’s shocked faces.

In front of the monster’s corpse, a person was slowly rising from the ground.

‘Wait, is that really a person?’

Although his face still resembled the farmer’s, his body was gradually changing.

His stomach swelled, protruding to the side like it was flowing out. Along with that, his legs unnaturally elongated. Simultaneously, his body twisted in a grotesque manner, resulting in an additional pair of arms and legs growing out.

It was as if… a spider. It resembled the monster I had seen at 61st Notium Street.

The legs, long like spider’s limbs, suddenly attacked Vanilla. I swiftly swung the cricket bat to defend against the attack.

Thud!

The leg that directly hit the bat snapped and flew to the side. Vanilla gasped.

“Step back.”

I pushed Eden and Vanilla away. Then, without giving them a chance to react, I swung the cricket bat once again.

Thwack! Thud!

Splat!

The creature, with its enormous teeth bared, was hit by the bat and slammed into the wall.

However, it was still not dead, wriggling and showing signs of attacking again.

Twang!

Just as it was about to rise and attack once more,

Bang!

Eden, who had regained his senses, shot his gun. The transformed, half-formed farmer-monster died instantly. He had been shot directly in the head.

Vanilla, who had been dazed, turned to look at me.

“…Miss Sinclair, really, even though I don’t know where you got that strength, you’re amazing.”

Then she gives me a thumbs up with her trembling hand. She turned her confused face back to the monster’s corpse.

“But seriously, what’s going on? That wasn’t a human just now. Wait, no. He was definitely human at first… So, that beast we killed earlier, was it human too?”

Eden turned to me as well.

“Did Miss Cherry know that the situation would turn out like this?”

Of course, I knew, but I couldn’t say that, so I pretended not to know.

“No, I didn’t know. But we all witnessed the farmer transforming into that creature.”

I stared straight at Eden without blinking. Then Vanilla also spoke to me with a puzzled face.

“Earlier, you told us not to move. Did you know something?”

“No. It really was strange. There was also the risk of infection. After that man was bitten by the creature, he immediately transformed like that.”

There was a moment of silence after my answer.

“You’re right. It was strange, actually. Thank you, Miss Sinclair.”

Breaking the silence, Vanilla expressed her gratitude to me in a serious tone.

“We would have been in a difficult situation if you hadn’t acted, Miss Cherry. Thank you.”

Eden, who had hesitated with his lips a few times, also thanked me with an apologetic expression.

No, in fact, whether it’s the police or the military, it’s impossible to fully understand this situation. Eden doesn’t need to blame himself for this.

Eden and Vanilla’s gaze shifted to the two huge monster corpses lying on the ground. Vanilla gazed at them for a moment and then suddenly vomited.

Seeing Vanilla, who is normally so resolute in hunting, react this way, I felt a sense of foreboding about how chaotic the world would be when the apocalypse comes.