The Countess Lives Twice in the Apocalypse-Chapter 29: Twenty-eight

Jannah didn’t dwell too much into it and stood up, she can think what the key is for while she is checking every structure inside the town— may it be houses, school, or stores.

She left the Duke and his people by the gates, hurried, yet quiet footsteps softly thudding against the dirt beneath her boots as she went left and right, checking if any of the building is locked.

The houses are not locked and was left open. Probably due to the attacks of the zombies to the other people in the town.

The things inside the houses are turned upsidedown with the furnitures, papers, and utensils scattered all over the floor— creating a mess inside their home.

Despite checking the houses first, Jannah still have not found where the key would fit.

Why would the man have a key if one of the buildings isn’t locked? There’s one door or lock this key can unlock and it might have something that I can use. Jannah huffed out of frustration. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Since the houses are out of question, she immediately bolted towards the shop she have in mind— running towards the smith shop with a newfound eagerness.

There are only a one school which was not big since it only has one room, smith shop, and three stores in Kentucky— there are not much to expect from a small town so it was easy for her to run around.

As she run towards the smith shop, she heard several heavy footsteps behind her. They have been following her in every houses and rummaged through the furnitures, helping her find whatever she is looking for.

She did not have to turn around to see who they are because there are only a few people inside the town right now.

"If you have nothing to do, I suggest putting on something warm because the night will only get colder!" Jannah barely glanced over her shoulders so the men would be able to hear her clearly.

Half of the footsteps stopped before it lead to the opposite direction she is going while half of them still followed her.

Again, she did not pay any attention to them and continued to run towards the smith shop. For some reason, the shop is located in the farthest side of town, but she did not care.

All she can do right now is to follow her gut.

She clenched her hand tightly around the key when the smith shop came into view. Her pace quickened which made the ones who are following her to run faster to catch up to her.

She skidded into a stop in front of the anvil outside of the shop, she inspected the dried blood on the equipments laying around and carefully stepped over them.

"Why are you so fast, Countess.." They were panting heavily while Jannah merely breathed out, puffing out smokes as she slipped the rusty key into the door’s lock.

Click.

The sound of the doorknob being unlocked resonates in the air, making Jannah smile.

She did not waste any time to slam the door open, red eyes immediately scanning the place.

She went inside and looked around. Seeing that she made her way inside the shop, the knights decided to follow her.

Each one of them let out a cheer, the smithed weapons were done beautifully which made them excited. They started to touch every weapon inside the shop, abandoning their honor as knights.

"This shop have good swords and hunting knives— woah, look at this trap!"

"Look, this shop have shields, too!"

"Why would a smith make shields?"

"Dante, look at this dagger!"

"Holy! Is that an axe?"

"What do you think, dumbass?"

"Don’t touch anything unless the Countess have given you permission." The Duke scolded them as he snatched the axe from his knight, "We’re here to assist her, not to play around."

"But she’s not even talking to us." The knight who was previously holding the axe sulked.

Jannah ignored the knights behind her and walked over to the counter, jumping over it to go behind the desk and got down on her knees.

She opened the drawers and cabinets as the hinges of the wooden compartments creak in protest.

The crown’s loyal and ferocious dog— Eulicies Devonio Zacharias— could only watch the noble lady rummage through the compartments, feeling useless as he does not know what to do to help her.

Jannah, on the other hand, skimmed through the documents she found on one of the drawers and throw them over her shoulders if she thinks that it’s useless to her.

She crumpled the useless papers while she discarded the trinkets or anything blocking her way.

This continued on for a good while. The knights busied themselves with the swords, hunting knives, daggers, and axes as their lordship watches the lady run around behind the counter.

The Duke watched her read the documents in a speed he could not do if he is doing paperwork. He wondered if she is good in terms of managing a territory, too.

If she were good at it.. Then what is there for her not to be good at?

"Finally!"

The sudden outburst of the Countess made the men jump in their spot. One of the knights dropped the axe he was holding and almost cut his left foot out of fright.

The Duke’s heart pound harshly inside his chest, not expecting for the Countess to scream like that.

"What did you find?" However, even if he was shocked, Duke Eulicies is still curious so he leaned over the counter to look at the notebook in Jannah’s grasp.

"A logbook." The shine in her red eyes made the man wobble, "In the fifth entry of this month, it seems that the smith— more specifically, blacksmith, have a customer who was bitten last week."

Jannah flipped the page and her eyes moved as she read the words aloud, "The customer ordered something that can be used to chain a wild animal, well, it seems that the blacksmith believed that the customer wanted to chain something else so he refused."

"Something else?" One of the knights stepped forward and leaned over to the counter which made the Duke glance at him.

"Yes, quote on something else." Jannah added on as she flip the page to the previous page, "It looks like he thinks that instead of an animal, the customer wanted to chain someone. The customer have a bandage wrapped around his arms and he was fidgety— it made the blacksmith doubt his reason for the chains."

"Woah.."

"So, things have been in chaos here?" The Duke raised an eyebrow, "You warned me about the outbreak five days ago and told me that it will happen in the south."

"Right.." Jannah murmured, she realized a lot of things after getting sent back in the past.

First, there are already infected inside the capital and inside of different nobles’ houses.

Second, the King was infected and turned before the outbreak could happen in the south.

Third, an infected had shown itself in front of her when she was about to leave the capital with her people— meaning, that the infection have spread far and wide.

Fourth, the infection have reached both Kentucky and Chivahon with no letters of notice sent to the order of knights in the capital.

Last, but not least, the zombies weird behavior earlier— what are they afraid of?

"So far, many things have happened which really didn’t make sense." Jannah hissed and rubbed her temples to get rid of the incoming headache, "Forgive me for the lack of information, Duke Zacharias, I only know about the outbreak in the south."

"Huh?" Duke Eulicies blinked rapidly, flinching lightly when they locked eyes, "Oh, no, no, no, you gave me enough information! It’s the reason why I’m alive and safe, no? Look, even my men survived because of the information you gave me."

"But I thought you said you followed me here because of the princess?" She raised an eyebrow at him as she closed the logbook.

"That, too, but I really planned to come here in my own accord because you came out to go to my office yourself instead of one of your servants." The Duke stammered out in a hurry, the look in Jannah’s eyes are nothing, but suspicious and he can’t have her being suspicious of him!

She kept her eyes at him for a little longer, observing the way his shoulders hunched forward when she asked him about the order of the princess.

She exhaled through her nose and finally looked away, she placed the logbook on the counter and jumped over it with ease and quite gracefully.

"Let’s go." Jannah called out to them as she picked up the logbook and tucked it under her armpits, "We need to get out of here while it’s still night."

"But those things are still out there." A knight with long green hair interjected, a worried expression on his face.

"You probably didn’t see what happened earlier, but they were afraid and ran off. We need to take this chance to get out of here if we want to survive."