“King of the New Era…”

  Pandora repeated, her voice low. Flat. Impossible to read.

  So that’s how it was.

  The hero saves the people, and then, this fellow who was neither a knight nor a hero at his core, naturally sought to convert the gratitude he’d earned into an obsession: power.

  Classic script.

  “My Lady… you weren’t there. We didn’t really have a choice. We didn’t dare defy him.”

  “But Aurora was braver than you.”

  Pandora said bluntly, cutting through the excuse like a hot knife through butter.

  Lucien’s head drooped in shame.

  Ham picked up the thread, his voice laced with the same shame. “That’s right. Lady Aurora was much braver. She stood up. She said the Douglas family wasn’t finished. She said that you, Lady Pandora, must still be alive. She said… she swore fealty to the Douglas family, not to some ‘king of the new era.’”

  “And then?”

  Pandora asked calmly, though she already knew.

  “Then, Arthur… No, he just said she was a remnant of the old era. A traitor. He ordered us to seize her, or… kill her.” Lucien’s voice trembled. He didn’t dare meet her eyes.

  “For that, the three of us were sent out…”

  “To be precise, he only sent Rod,” Ham added, his voice bitter. “We were picked by Rod afterwards. And to prevent us from ‘betraying’ him, Arthur also ordered everyone who got armor last night to disarm. Only he, and his personal guard, could wear it.”

  “He said it was for ‘safety’,” Lucien chimed in. “To prevent the ‘abuse of power’… but we all understood. He was just guarding against the next Lady Aurora.”

  “My Lady,” Elsa spoke, her voice cold and clear, laced with undisguised killing intent. “The traitor Arthur has seized the town and usurped the title of king. My Lady, should we… proceed to the town immediately, execute him, and reclaim what is ours?”

  Beside them, Betty was completely lost. Her eyes glazed over. New era, old era, fealty… The part of her little brain that handled power was probably no bigger than a sunflower seed. All she knew was that the Viscount was dead, Lady Elsa was amazing, and Sister Aurora was a good person.

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  As for Arthur… wasn’t he the hero? Why did they suddenly want to kill him?

  Only Pandora saw through it all.

  She slowly shook her head, a scornful smile touching her lips.

  “Execute Arthur? Reclaim the town?”

  She looked at Elsa, then swept her gaze over the two kneeling squires. “Elsa, you’re thinking too small.”

  “And Aurora, you don’t need to worry about this Arthur.” Pandora’s voice was light, yet it had a gravity that pulled them in. “Arthur declaring himself king is nothing more than a small ripple in this catastrophe. Insignificant.”

  “Is Arthur our primary threat right now?”

  “No.”

  Pandora looked into the distance. Her gaze passed the people before her, to the town, now a blurry silhouette in the twilight, and then through the town, to a vaster, crumbling world.

  The evening wind brought a chill, lifting the dust from the ground.

  “What we truly need to focus on now,” she said steadily, her voice devoid of emotion yet touching the heart of everyone present, “is the root cause of this ‘zombification.’ The ‘trigger’ that could turn every adult into a monster the moment the midnight bell chimed.”

  “Arthur? He’s just a lucky kid who got carried away by a moment of success. He’s occupied an empty town and really dares to call himself a ‘king’? This so-called ‘kingship’ is built on ruins, as fragile as thin ice. His actions are laughable.”

  “Reclaim that town?”

  Pandora gave a slight wave of her hand. “And then what? Are we to play administrators? Distribute supplies to the children who just survived a disaster? Resolve their disputes? Help them rebuild their houses?”

  “Do we have the manpower? The energy?”

  “Do we have a support team to back us up?”

  Pandora scanned the group.

  In truth, there was another, even more ruthless sentence in her heart that she didn’t say aloud.

  Was it… worth it?

  Honestly, did she have the responsibility or the obligation to save people she didn’t even know? Right now, the only thing she craved was to complete her own salvation.

  “Besides,” Pandora’s gaze met Aurora’s again, a flicker of imperceptible pity in her eyes, “even if we achieved everything—eliminated Arthur, retaken the town, and looked after everyone. What would come next?

  “Would we announce to the world, ‘Pandora Douglas of the Douglas family has returned. She is your new ruler’?

  “And then would we have you, along with all the children we ‘rescued,’ swear undying fealty to me, a mere fourteen-year-old girl, for the sake of an empty name?”

  “Isn’t that absurd?”

  Pandora’s tone was resolute. “Doing so would not be salvation. It would be pushing them, and us, down another path to an even darker dead end.”

  “My Lady… do you mean…”

  Elsa seemed to be catching on, the killing intent in her eyes fading.

  “My plan is simple,” Pandora took a deep breath, rubbing her temples. The sheer volume of complex thought had made her head throb. “Leave Arthur and his ridiculous ‘kingdom’ alone. If he wants to play king, let him. As long as he’s not stupid enough to provoke us, we’ll pretend he doesn’t exist.”

  “We have more urgent business to attend to.”

  “More urgent business?” Elsa repeated.

  “Exactly,” Pandora nodded, her gaze sweeping over each of their faces. “Finding a safe place to rest. Getting some food. And properly treating Aurora’s wound. My thoughts are a mess. I need time to sort them out.”

  “As for these two,” Pandora’s gaze fell on Ham and Lucien, “they’ve sworn fealty to me. They can travel with us. Elsa, you’re in charge of these two. Make sure they don’t get any funny ideas. Nothing… stupid that would get all of us killed.”