The Countess Lives Twice in the Apocalypse-Chapter 40: Thirty-nine

"Wi.. Witch!"

The other man yelled, his eyes wide in shock.

The knights knew that what happened before them wasn’t a trick.

She wasn’t there at first, but she appeared into thin air, holding the man’s hair and pulling his head back before blood spluttered out of his neck as a cut slowly appears.

Her head was the first to appear then her neck, her shoulders, her torso, her hips, down to her legs until her whole body can be seen.

If it’s not witchcraft then what is it?

"I probably am a witch." Jannah agreed halfheartedly to the man’s name calling, "But you see, messing with me or my people is your last straw to pull."

The man opened his mouth to say something, only to buckle forward, her dagger thrown through his skull.

She didn’t bat an eye to the man, already used to killing people.

She don’t have any other choice. It’s either keeping the enemies alive as she rescue her people or kill them and remove the chance of them putting work to get back on her as she let her people out to safety.

Of course, she will choose the latter.

"Are you guys alright?" She turned her head to look at them, hands reaching out to Alejandro and spinning him around to untie his arms, "I hope that’s the only time the bastard has hit you."

Alejandro pulled the rag off from his mouth and answered her after she freed him, "That was the only time, my lady."

"Good, I would have killed the rest of them if they mistreated you more than this." Jannah murmured, not aware that the knights heard her loud and clear, making them tense up.

She freed them one by one, untying the rope from their wrists and checking to see if there’s any injury in their body.

She’s like a mother inspecting her children’s whole being after they went outside to play.

"Great, you guys are good." Jannah said, more to herself than to them, she pulled her hands away from Loren and walked over to the door, peaking through the gap to take a look outside.

"My lady?"

"They have the mother." Jannah said, loud enough for everyone to hear.

"They want to kill the leopard." Kean snitched on the enemies, his eyebrows furrowed when he remembered how much the townsfolks thrown rocks on the mother.

"That won’t happen." The Countess said, narrowing her eyes as she stepped away from the door.

She glanced at the map, checking the layout of the town’s hall to see if she can get on the roof through one of the rooms’ windows on the second floor.

"What are you going to do, Countess? Those men will find out that their friends got killed if they don’t go out of the building soon." Alejandro pointed out the obvious, kicking the man with a slitted throat on the head, stepping on the pool of blood.

"How about you tell the Duke to guard the first floor and capture anyone who steps a foot through the door? I’ll see what I can do to get on the roof." Jannah stated with a calm tone, almost as if she have a whole well thought out plan tucked in her sleeves.

"Understood, my lady." Loren lowered his head and immediately made a bee line to the second floor.

"Pull the dead bodies to the side so they wouldn’t see it once they open the door." Jannah ordered, pointing her finger to Kean then she pointed at Diazo, "Clean the blood, don’t let it stain."

[The skill, Command, is activated.]

"Understood, my lady." Diazo and Kean simultaneously answered, lowering their heads.

[The skill, Command, worked on the knights.]

Jannah blinked, pausing in her tracks midway to the staircase, her eyes focused on the text of the system.

A skill? On Diazo and Kean? Her eyes squinted, turning her head to look at the knights who she ordered to clean a crime scene.

The two of them did what she told them, Diazo found a rag to clean the blood while Kean let out a strained grunt as he pull the body towards the room next to the front door.

When she told Loren to do something, she didn’t see the system telling her that she used a skill on him, but the system showed her that she used a skill on Kean and Diazo.

She couldn’t help, but feel something unsettling in her gut.

She looked away, ascending on the staircase to go to the second floor where she saw Loren speaking with the Duke and her little sister.

The three of them perked up when the floorboards creaked under her weight as she walk towards them, Jannah noticed how Duke Eulicies’s purple eyes brightened up when his gaze landed on her.

"Countess." Duke Eulicies greeted her, "Thank you for helping me earlier."

"Nevermind that." Jannah brushed him off and turned to Jeriel, "I need your help. You’re quite skillful in making bombs, right? I need those right now."

Jeriel has a hobby of making home-made bombs back in their mansion. Jannah doesn’t know how she makes it, but once the bomb goes off, there would be flour everywhere, painting everything white with the powder.

"Well, I don’t think this building has flour." Jeriel said with reluctancy as she shrug her shoulders, "But I can make you a molotov. I saw some alcohol down the office."

"I won’t set the town on fire." Jannah was quick to shut down the idea, "I’m going to use those bombs to throw it outside the wall."

"Why?" Her little sister’s face scrunched up in confusion, "Wouldn’t it be better to just kill them and set this shit hole on fire? Didn’t you notice how there are just men and no women? Or kids? Or animals?"

Jannah blinked, taken aback on her little sister’s eagerness to kill the men of the town. Well, she’s not against it because in her opinion, no one should walk out alive after trying to kill her people.

"No.. I didn’t notice." The Countess trailed off, glancing over her sister’s shoulders to see her servants looking at her with sad expressions on their faces, "Should I know where they are? Did they do something bad to them?"

Jeriel scoffed as a scowl emerged in her face, "Bad? It’s worse than bad."

However, before Jeriel could say anything else, a commotion outside of the town’s hall had caught their attention.

"Those things are back!"

"They’re running towards here from Kentucky!"

"Some came from the Cristo forest!"

Jannah immediately runs inside the office, walking past the desk and pushed the curtains aside to look out of the window.

She immediately noticed the colors of the sky. It changed from deep blue to a soft pink, to a rich orange as the sun breaks free from the horizon.

The air is still, except for the very faint sound of a few early birds chirping outside of the wall. The sun’s warmth slowly spreads through the town, filling the space with a gentle, comforting glow.

"Shit.." Jannah hissed and stepped away from the window, "The sun is up. Those zombies are probably awake now and marching to get inside the town."

"Awake?" Marco spoke up before anyone else could, "What do you mean, my lady?"

"No time to explain." The Countess walked past them and went out to the hall, she walked down the hallway and approached the window that is facing the wooden wall of the town.

"Call the others from downstairs!" Jannah ordered Marco and opened the window, she looked down to see if the ground was far from her reach.

"What are you planning?" Jeriel asked her, a sense of urgency and worry dripping in her voice.

"We’re going to sneak out."

"Sneak out? No! We can’t leave yet!" Jeriel pulled Jannah’s arm with aggression, "The women and the kids of this town are locked up! The Baron who is in charge of this shit hole locked them up so they could eat them!"

Jannah froze, her heart skipped a beat as she heard the horrific news. "Eat..?"

"We need to save those kids, sister!" Jeriel tightened her grip on her big sister’s arm, "Please, we need to save them."

"It’s true, my lady." Kirie was quick to back Jeriel up when they saw no sign of agreeing from Jannah, "The man you killed earlier was talking to the Baron before he left for Philipia.. He told us that he will lock us up with the other women in the basement of the mail house while the men of our group will be baits for those things outside."

Jannah’s face drained of color and her body went cold. All sounds around her disappeared in an instant as questions swirl inside her head. Kids? Are they so low in food that they’ll eat kids? Kids?!

She was frozen in place, unable to move or speak as her brain tried to process the information she had just heard. Her mind raced, filled with images so terrible and dark that they seemed unreal, but she knew that cannibalism might happen anywhere—

Unfortunately, this town has it.

The Countess could only stand there, stunned and horrified as the realization slowly set in, but she knew, right then and there, that she had to find a way to save them.

"How does killing the men sound to you?" Jannah asked, solidifying her resolve.