Chapter 3
“Miss, could it be that your puberty has come back…?”
“Would you like me to show you what proper puberty looks like?”
“…That was a slip of the tongue. Thinking back, your puberty was horrifying enough as it was.”
Cherry Sinclair during puberty truly had a mind full of flowers—and no sense whatsoever.
To what extent, you ask?
She once stole a yacht owned by the Sinclair family just to rebel against her parents. And not only that—she had the nerve to pilot it herself, crossing the open ocean and fleeing to another continent.
‘My parents and Harrison went through absolute hell trying to find me back then.’
Even if I knew how to operate a yacht, I’d been nothing more than a novice. Crossing the ocean like that had been completely insane.
And yet, by some miracle, the weather had stayed perfect the entire time.
Heaven must have been on my side.
‘No matter how I look at it, I really am hopeless.’
Hopeless enough that I could understand, a hundred times over, why Harrison treated me like a lunatic.
Anyway, I called Harrison again, pressing him for an answer.
“Harrison.”
“…All right. It has been a while since I last went on an outing with you, Miss. Let’s think of it as a little trip.”
At his reply, I screamed yes repeatedly in my head.
“However, it’ll have to be in a few days. I still need to acquire the weapons you mentioned, and there’s paperwork that needs urgent attention.”
I was a bit disappointed—but still relieved.
As long as he came in time, it was fine.
He just had to arrive in Brunel within twenty-one days.
“Okay, Harrison. Then I’ll be waiting in Brunel. You have to come quickly—really quickly.”
“Understood, Miss. I’ll come as soon as I can.”
I emphasized quickly one last time, and only after receiving his firm confirmation did I stand up.
Next on the list—
The bank.
The Central Bank of Benton, the capital.
Today, I planned to take out every loan I possibly could.
The Sinclair family inheritance left to me was locked until I turned twenty.
That meant I still had a whole year to go.
The monthly dividends from Sinclair family businesses were enormous, and up until now I’d lived comfortably on them—but this time, I needed far more money.
Those monthly dividends were also used as operational funds for the family. If I took all of it and ran, the household staff and Harrison wouldn’t even be able to get by this month.
I also had assets like real estate and stocks, but selling those would take time—making them useless right now.
Which meant there was only one option left.
Loans.
“Lady Sinclair, you’re requesting a loan…? No—surely I misheard you.”
Bank president Morton stared at me as if he couldn’t believe his ears.
I smiled brightly.
“You heard correctly.”
“Are you certain this is a one-hundred-million-gold credit loan?”
He asked again.
I nodded without hesitation.
That amount would be more than enough to prepare for the end of the world.
Honestly, with only three weeks left, I wasn’t sure I could even spend that much in time.
But just in case, I needed to pull in as much liquid cash as possible.
‘When else would I ever take out a hundred million gold loan, if not now?’
“Yes.”
At my answer, Morton nodded dazedly and handed me the paperwork.
“This is merely a formality, but… what is the purpose of the loan?”
“To prepare for the apocalypse.”
“…Do you require assistance?”
“What?”
“If someone is threatening you, I can discreetly contact Harrison Howard—”
Of course he wouldn’t believe me.
As expected, I was being treated like a lunatic.
For some reason, tears threatened to well up.
“It’s nothing like that.”
“Ah… then is it related to your club? I did hear there were wagers involving several diamond mines recently, but I never imagined the sum would be this large—”
“Mr. Morton. I was joking.”
Until recently, I’d been running a gambling club.
It was exactly the kind of thing a frivolous, pleasure-seeking heiress would do.
People criticized me as vulgar—yet ironically scrambled to join the club anyway, because the profits and information that flowed through it were quite valuable.
Morton must have assumed I’d expanded the scale of the betting and needed emergency funds.
“I haven’t attended the club in quite some time. I’m planning to transfer ownership soon, too. But why are the questions taking so long? I feel like I’m being interrogated. Are you perhaps disrespecting the Sinclair family?”
Morton immediately panicked, pulling out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his brow.
“My apologies. It’s just that seeing the Sinclair family’s heiress request such a large loan took me by surprise.”
If I could access my inheritance right now, I wouldn’t have gone this far.
Of course, there was no reason for him to know that.
“I need the funds urgently for overseas business. As you know, the Sinclair family has many ongoing ventures, and all immediately usable assets are currently tied up.”
Only then did Morton smile in understanding.
He quickly had the cash prepared.
Bundles of money were stacked neatly into large bags.
They looked incredibly heavy.
Bringing several Sinclair household staff with me had been a wise decision.
‘Cash really is king. Long live the rich.’
Soon, the nation would collapse, and money would turn into nothing more than scraps of paper.
Which meant I had to spend every last bit of it now to prepare for the end.
‘Stock up on survival supplies as much as possible.’
I only needed to survive inside the shelter until the protagonists found the cure.
‘You can do this, Cherry.’
I was psyching myself up as I stood—
When a newspaper headline caught my eye.
[Monster Incident at 61 Nottingham Street—Additional Witnesses Emerge?! Benton Police Dismiss Claims as Nonsense…]
It seemed to be a follow-up to the article I’d read before.
Back then, there had only been one witness, so people had mocked him as crazy.
This time, there was more than one.
The blood drained from my face.
Seeing it in print made the sense of danger far more real.
I was anxious—terribly so.
Around the time the novel’s main events began, virus monsters appeared sporadically across the country, like warning signs.
Most of them were weak from starvation and either died on their own or were quickly killed once discovered.
‘But eventually, enhanced monsters appear… and within three weeks, the virus spreads across the entire kingdom.’
“…Would you like it?”
I must have been staring too hard.
Morton handed me the newspaper from his desk.
“Thank you.”
Embarrassed, I took it.
I did want to read it.
I left the bank, quietly scanning the article.
That very night—
A real monster would appear for the first time at the mansion on 61 Nottingham Street.
It was also the moment the heroine, Aurora, encountered a monster for the first time.
‘Wait… isn’t this where that shows up?’
Elpinus Herb.
A medicinal herb that functioned like a vaccine.
No one knew where it came from, how it formed, or why it was at 61 Nottingham Street.
‘The novel was discontinued, damn it.’
Anyway, consuming it allowed you to avoid infection even if bitten by a monster—once.
Its effect only worked a single time.
In the story, Aurora saw the suspicious-looking herb but didn’t know how to use it and simply passed it by.
She only learned its value two years later, after meeting the scientist male lead—
And deeply regretted not taking it back then.
‘Right. Even if I’m leaving for Brunel, I need to take that with me.’
Aurora wouldn’t know what it was.
But I did.
And if I ran into a monster?
Well—I’d have to kill it somehow.
There was only one, and I was strong.
“Wow… Miss, you’re really strong.”
Susanna’s words came back to me.
I’d also played cricket as a hobby when I was younger, so I knew how to swing bat-like weapons effectively.
For example—
An axe.
‘Yeah. Let’s do this.’
To be honest, none of this still felt real.
I only remembered virus monsters as lines of text in a novel—I’d never seen one in reality, so I had no idea how dangerous they truly were.
Maybe that was why I could be brave.
‘I absolutely need that Elpinus herb.’
For now, I’d focus on surviving—and obtaining the Elpinus herb.
Late at night.
The entrance to an alley on Nottingham Street.
I pulled my robe tightly over my head and peeked out, carefully scanning my surroundings.
Despite the late hour, gas lamps lit the streets, and there were still quite a few people passing by.
‘If I’m not careful, I’ll stand out.’
Just in case, I’d brought a mask.
Unfortunately, the only one I had was a party mask.
I wore it out of necessity, but somehow it felt even more eye-catching.
‘As long as they don’t recognize my face, it’s fine.’
Anyway, as I waited for the right moment—
I reviewed the characteristics of the virus monsters in my mind.
