Pandora looked at her nervous state and softened her tone. “Rex. Just tell me what you saw.”

  Lena took a deep breath, as if she had made a great resolution, and finally began to speak slowly.

  Her voice was soft, with the distant quality of one recalling a past event.

  “I’m not from Calfskin Vilge.”

  “My home is in a small vilge deeper in the mountains, beyond Calfskin Vilge. It doesn’t have a name, only a dozen or so households. We lived at the foot of the mountain.”

  “My family has been herb gatherers for generations.”

  “On the day of the Full Moon Festival, my father and I went up the mountain, hoping to gather some ‘evening primrose’ that only blooms in the moonlight. We got separated. I went too deep searching for a rare herb and got lost, so I had to spend the night alone on the mountain.”

  Her voice trembled slightly; it was clear that experience had not been a pleasant one.

  “When I finally made my way back near my home the next day… it was already daytime.”

  “But… it was terrifyingly quiet.”

  A deep fear, one that still made her heart pound now, showed in Lena’s eyes.

  “The path home was too quiet. No roosters crowing. No dogs barking. Just the wind rustling through the leaves as it blew through the vilge.”

  “I ran home and pushed open the door. It was empty! My parents, my grandparents… they were all gone.”

  “I ran to the neighbor’s house, and then… then I saw… I saw the body of the neighbor’s older brother…”

  Her fingers, holding the cup, turned white from the force of her grip.

  “But… he hadn’t become a monster. He was just lying there. Cold. Dark blood underneath him. But he wasn't a monster. He was just… asleep. Only he never woke up.”

  “And his family, his parents, were gone.”

  “So… you checked all the other houses at that time?”

  Pandora’s calm voice cut in, as if to guide, or perhaps to confirm a terrible hypothesis.

  “Yes, My Lady.” Lena nodded, her eyes filling with tears. “I ran around the whole vilge like a madwoman. Every single household was the same.”

  “There were the bodies of children, but no adults. Some families didn’t have a single survivor, not even the children.”

  “And I had actually seen the bodies of children on the road as well. Looking back now, they must have fled their homes, but in the end… they still couldn’t escape.”

  “But you didn’t see a single zombie?” Pandora pressed. This was the most crucial point.

  Lena shook her head vigorously, her voice filled with confusion and fear. “That’s right, not one. At the time, I didn’t even know what zombies were. I didn’t know about the transformations that night. I thought a wild beast from the mountain had attacked the vilge… that had happened before, but… never on this scale.”

  “And after that?”

  “After that, I was terrified. I didn’t care about anything else and just ran as fast as I could toward Calfskin Vilge, the nearest pce. When I got there… that’s when I first saw… those monsters.” She was referring to the zombies. “I happened to run into Patrick, who was trying to find other survivors. After that… I stayed with them.”

  Lena finished telling her story.

  The room fell into a dead silence. Only her own faint, ragged breaths could be heard.

  Pandora leaned against the edge of the tub. Even the warm water couldn’t chase away the chill rising from the depths of her heart.

  Vanished.

  Not turned into zombies, not killed, but… gone.

  This phenomenon wasn’t an isoted incident at the manor.

  Near Calfskin Vilge, in that smaller vilge not even marked on the map, the same thing had happened.

  The adults had vanished, leaving only the bodies of dead children.

  What was hidden behind all this?

  The misty air made Pandora’s face seem a bit blurry, but her thoughts, in this warmth and fragrance, were running cool and fast with unprecedented speed.

  Lena’s story was like a stone thrown into a deep pool. While it didn’t stir up massive waves, it sent out ripple after ripple, reaching the bottom, touching the very core.

  Inevitable… not a coincidence…

  Her own manor and that tiny mountain vilge, not even on a map—two seemingly unreted incidents of “zombies vanishing into thin air”—now pointed to a single, shared possibility.

  Leaving…

  When all the “living” in a certain area completely left or disappeared, the zombies in that area would also “disappear”?

  This… this was like some kind of unseen, deeper “rule” at py.

  Did the existence of zombies require an “anchor”?

  And the living, or more accurately, the surviving children, were their “anchors”?

  This hypothesis sent a chill from deep in Pandora’s bones.

  If this was true, then the nature of this disaster was far more terrifying, far more absurd, than she had imagined.

  However, even if this hypothesis held, a more crucial, and more baffling, question still remained.

  Where did those “disappeared” zombies go?

  Were they transported to some unknown pce? Or… were they “formatted,” returning to some kind of primordial state? Such a guess was far too absurd!

  Pandora couldn’t figure it out.

  She turned her gaze back to the herb girl before her, whose body was trembling slightly from nervousness.

  “Lena,” Pandora’s voice broke the silence in the room, warm and sincere. “The information you provided is very useful. I’m very grateful to you.”

  In this day and age, material wealth was likely useless. The food, the shelter, these things she could provide, she would have provided to everyone who followed her anyway.

  So…

  “If you need anything. Anything at all. You come to me. As long as it is within my power, I will do my best to grant it.”

  This was a promise, and an investment. She needed loyalty, and loyalty was often built upon gratitude and hope.

  Lena’s head shot up, her eyes full of surprise. She held the cup and shook her head, her voice, though still soft, held an undeniable firmness:

  “My Lady, I… I don’t need anything. My only wish is for you to end this nightmare as soon as possible.”

  “I just want to help in a small way.”

  With that, she gave another deep bow and then, at a gesture from Elsa, quietly withdrew.

  Pandora watched her retreating back, her heart stirring slightly.

  Pure goodwill, in a world like this, was so precious.

  After the herb girl Lena left, the room grew quiet again.

  Pandora and Elsa exchanged a few words, but it was clear the other also could not comprehend such an illogical phenomenon. Elsa had no answers either. Of course she didn't. This was something new. Something wrong. Her mind raced, trying to fit the pieces together, but they wouldn't connect. Not yet.

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