Zerra looked at her grandma and lowered her head. From her peripheral vision, she could sense grandma's doubts regarding her current action. Indeed, usually she would have thrown a tantrum if someone intended to break her relationship with Cassias.
"I will follow the family's arrangement," she muttered, picking the safest answer.
Grandma sent her a sharp look, and the dinner table became quiet in an instant. Even Nyra subconsciously restrained herself more.
Only Zerra was more casual, continuing to eat without caring for the world. Well, she had gone through similar scenarios in the past, anyway.
She had to admit that grandma's cooking was the best, even though she originally prepared it specifically for Nyra and not her. After she became a zombie, she wouldn't be able to enjoy such deliciousness, so…
Her eyes lit up as she thought of the restaurants nearby. She will visit them tomorrow to satisfy herself. In a few days, all kinds of natural disasters would start and she could not go out.
"Take a rest and sleep well." Grandma said after they finished eating. At the same time, the driver had finished moving things to each of the Sylvaris sisters' rooms. She frowned slightly at Zerra but didn't say anything.
Her room was beside Nyra's room. She entered her own room and locked it. For the umpteenth time, she had tried to enter her inner space unsuccessfully. Strangely, the supplies she had accumulated for a few reincarnations were there. Even the ones she thought she had consumed.
They miraculously existed again.
At the beginning, when she repeated her life, she thought she could change it somehow, so she started hoarding things in some warehouse near her grandma's house. Her space power would awaken after the zombies had started appearing. Unfortunately, those supplies were inaccessible now.
Sighing in disappointment, she drifted off to sleep.
When she woke up again, she skipped breakfast and went out.
She happily visited one snack stall after another.
"Be careful!" Someone shrieked, alarming people nearby. At noon, a golden retriever dog started acting ferociously, attacking people everywhere.
Its owner chased after the dog, panting. Even when some people tried to help him, they failed to catch it. The dog was too swift, evading anyone trying to get near it and biting them in return.
The whiteness in its eye made it appear crazy. Zerra's heart palpitated. During the pre-apocalypse, it was the animals who started acting weird first, and most of them contracted some kind of strange disease.
Anyone bitten by them would turn into zombies. Only a smaller number of people managed to survive and became ability users.
"Miss, watch out!"
Without caring for her image, Zerra stood up in the chair. The dog, as if smelling a delicious cannon fodder, started barking and jumping around her chair.
The chair was less than one meter, and the dog was acting crazy. It all happened in less than a few seconds, when the dog started knocking on the stall street chair with its legs, making her out of balance.
"Zerra!"
Someone shouted her name and yanked her out of the scene. It was Darren, one of Nyra's admirers.
At this point in time, he hadn't known about the Sylvaris sisters' awful relationship yet. Well, even if their relationship had improved somehow, he would still turn into a psychopath and shove her into a horde of zombies.
What an irony compared to what he was doing right now.
The dog followed them, growling ferociously. Zerra sensed that the dog was about to bite her and dodged in time, kicking it away.
Its owner arrived at this time, bringing a sedative with him and running towards them. The dog bared its teeth and chased after her and Darren again.
Then, it lunged toward Darren, as if it had just been injected with some sort of power, and moved very quickly. Zerra's pupils dilated, noticing this animal to be some sort of mutated dog who was on the verge of turning into a zombie.
Out of reflex, Zerra pushed him out of the way, making her the prime target for the dog's biting. Its teeth grazed her skin, making her hiss in pain before she rolled away.
"Zerra, are you alright?" Darren's voice was full of worry as he got up and hurriedly checked on her.
The owner of the dog had arrived, just in time to use the sedative he had brought to bring the dog down. Zerra's forehead was full of wrinkles. The abrasion on her skin was very light, but the surface had turned purplish black quickly. It's slowly spreading to other parts of the skin.
"What's wrong with your hand? Let me see."
Zerra had covered her hand with her long sleeve, but she still subconsciously clutched on the throbbing part. It was only a light graze, but it felt as if her skin was on fire.
"It's alright," she muttered. Her eyes were full of wariness when she gazed at the unconscious dog on the ground. Its owner was cradling the door with a look full of worry.
When the owner saw her, he came over with an apologetic face. "Do you get hurt anywhere, Miss? I will pay for the treatment bills."
She bit her lips and shook her head, looking at the dog in his arms with an inscrutable look. There was a meaningful tone in her voice as she warned him, "Be careful of your dog. It might turn really dangerous."
A sign of irritation appeared on the man's face. "Miss, I understand, but this is not just a simple dog. He is my friend. Please, just tell me whether you need treatment or not."
Her face twitched a bit. If the protagonist has a halo where powerful and righteous people were magically on their sides, the cannon fodder always clashed with those righteous people. However, this man and his dog…?
She inwardly shook her head again. The dog would be an incredibly dangerous creature in the apocalypse. When it turned into a zombie, it was unknown whether a creature who relied on its zombie instinct would recognize a former owner or not.
It would be even worse for the surrounding people.
In the apocalypse, even small creatures undergo mutations and could turn into dangerous entities.
"No, I don't need it." Her hand throbbed again, spreading to her elbow. She desperately wanted to go back to her grandma's home to take a look.
The man snorted and then left.
However, he still turned his head to a certain person. Nyra who had come over to find Zerra.
Her expression was inscrutable, unknown whether she was annoyed or not. She had resigned from her waitress job because grandma had given her a lot of secret money, all from his son's pocket. She must have gone out to exchange it for supplies.
Then, on the way, Grandma had told her to find her troublesome youngest granddaughter.
"Ira." Darren's concerned eyes turned to Nyra, replaced with a somewhat joyful look. "Are you looking for Zerra?"
Nyra turned to her younger sister. Remembering the man's unpleasant face from earlier, she subconsciously asked. "Did you make trouble again?"