Yuki's Persona

Hearing Yuki's voice, he remembered that she got attacked by the zombie dog.

Although he knew she must be in pain, he couldn't just leave Riko to tend to Yuki.

Although both girls were important to him, at this moment he prioritized Riko over everything else. Even though he could pretty much guess the rest of Riko's words, he also didn't want to let her continue lest she bring down a death flag on herself.

Besides, if his hunch is correct, Yuki had already gotten infected.

All he could do was ask her, "Yuki, are you ok?"

"No, it hurts… Kio, can you please help me over here?"

Yuki was in agony from the pain, and she wanted Kio to comfort her, jealous of all the attention he was giving Riko.

"Sorry Yuki, I'm a bit preoccupied over here…"

"Kio, please…"

"..."

Ever since she got scratched and fell, Yuki couldn't lift herself up.

As it turns out, parts of her spinal cord had gotten damaged, paralyzing her nerves.

Witnessing Kio's care towards Riko instead of herself, something snapped inside of Yuki.

"Kio, I'm scared… I can't feel my legs," Yuki uttered while crying.

"..."

"If you save me, I promise I'll be your girlfriend. I noticed you have always been glancing over towards me whenever we were working together."

"..."

"Kio! I'll even sleep with you if you help me out, okay!?"

"..."

"Kio, I know you've always liked my chest right!? I'll even give you a special service if you come over here and help me."

Yuki waited for Kio to look over at her direction so she could further seduce him.

However, seeing his nonchalant attitude towards her now, which completely contrasted his previous infatuated behavior at work, she became hysterical.

Not seeing any reaction from him, she directed her attention towards Ren.

Back at Don Quijote, she already knew about Ren's intention towards her body, but she didn't want to do as he said because Kio was already helping her with everything she needed.

Food, shelter, and clothes were all given to her without even needing to ask for it.

She loved the feeling of being spoiled endlessly by the males she captivated, as she had been leading other guys by the nose ever since she entered college.

Winning the campus beauty pageant in her freshman year had inflated her pride.

However, one day in class, she heard a rumor that her best friend had committed suicide. News had spread about her friend who had an abusive boyfriend. She was abandoned after she had a miscarriage from the constant beating.

Taking her best friend's tragic tale as a lesson, she decided that she needed to be the one in control of the relationship, not the other way around.

She started by observing the behaviors of the guys in her class, and figuring out what type of girls they liked.

Afterwards, she pretended to be like those girls, grabbing the guys' attention and receiving many gifts and presents.

As the months went by, she became better at putting on a persona.

Looking at a guy's initial impression would easily allow her to figure out what sort of girls they prefer.

Hence, when she first met Kio at work, she knew he liked the gentle, obedient type of girls.

That's why she had been acting as such whenever they meet.

However, when she first saw Riko at their workplace a few days ago when everything happened, she finally understood why Kio had that kind of preference.

It was because that personality, demeanor, and characteristic, perfectly described the girl known as Riko.

Seeing how Kio acted when both Riko and herself were hurt had completely confirmed her suspicions.

So, she gave up the idea to control Kio and changed her target to Ren.

In her opinion, Ren was a much easier type of person to seduce.

He mainly wanted to satisfy his lust, and she could easily assist him with that.

That's why, right after she made up her mind, she called out to him.

"Ren, I-I'm willing to become your woman if you can save me."

Hearing his name being called, he looked over towards Yuki.

Although she was covered in dirt from falling, her appearance was still a lot better than any of the slaves he had freed.

However, after noticing her wound, he clicked his tongue.

'Tch, who would want to risk being infected after fucking you. Although it's a shame to lose such a great body, I already have some of these girls to myself.'

He turned his head away from her without bothering to reply.

Grief filled her eyes as she noticed his lack of interest.

Figuring out the reason, she told him, "N-no! Ren, I'm not infected! I-I'm still okay! Don't you see how I'm still fine!?"

Failing to garner his interest, she then turned to Akira and Takumi, trying all sorts of ways to plead for their help.

A similar scene replayed itself as neither of them were willing to spare the effort to help her.

Anguish filled her eyes as realization finally hit her.

Knowing that her fate is sealed and she would soon turn into one of those zombies, she called out to them, "Since I'm going to die anyways, I might as well give you guys all my food. Ren, don't you need a lot to feed your girls?"

Although he was suspicious about her motive, he was also tempted by the offer.

Thus, he walked towards her after she took out a pile of snacks.

Standing a meter away from her, he reached down and tried to grab it.

However, at the same time, Yuki reached out her arms to grab him while her mouth opened to try to bite him.

Seeing her actions, Ren unhesitantly kicked her away, launching her a few meters backwards.

"Tch, fucking lunatic."

He stored the pile of snacks into his inventory and walked back to his slaves.

Yuki, now bleeding heavily from her mouth, started to cry in sorrow.

"Sob… hic… This is so unfair, why did this have to happen to me, I just wanted to live. If I have to die, why should you guys get to live."

While Kio was waiting for Riko and Miyu to finish chatting between themselves, he had been paying attention to what Yuki had been doing.

He couldn't believe his eyes as the gentle girl, who he had feelings for, was a fake all along.

After falling into dire circumstances, she dropped all pretenses and exposed her real self.

'If I wasn't busy taking care of Riko, I might've been the one attacked by Yuki instead of Ren…'

Looking back at Riko, he felt ashamed of himself for falling for another girl when he already had such a great one by his side.

When he was in danger, she risked her life to save him.

'No matter what, I'll find a way to heal you.'

Kio resolved himself, after he saw how Riko tried to appear normal to calm down Miyu.

As the group had already stopped for a few minutes at this place, a few dozen slaves and slum inhabitants could be seen heading towards them.

Hundreds of zombies were hot on their trails.

"Fuck, they caught up to us."

Ren cursed, as he ordered his girls to follow him.

With no time to lose, Kio used his [Haste] skill yet again. But this time, instead of just piggybacking Luna, he also picked up Riko in a princess carry.

'Fuck, I'm not sure if I can run for long while carrying these two.'

Luna saw the sweat trickling down his cheeks and softly called out to him, "Please put me down, I can run by myself."

"And let you fall behind all of us again? Heh, don't worry, you're light enough for me to carry a few more of you."

Hearing his sarcasm, she decided to stay on his back, at least until he's about to reach his limits.

"Miyu, can you run?"

"Mmhm."

"Great, stay close to us, okay?"

"Sure."

They all started running away, continuing north along the path.

The slaves and slum inhabitants behind them started to get caught one by one by the zombies behind him.

Since the slaves had run away first, there were still close to 20 of them left, but the slum inhabitants only had less than 5 remaining.

As the zombies were about to reach a few more of them, a loud voice echoed around them.

"Fire!"

*Whoosh*

Arrows flew over them and landed between the zombies and the ones they were chasing.

Immediately after, a wall of thick vines quickly rose from where the arrows landed, reaching 5 meters in height.

The vines completely blocked off the zombies from reaching any further.

Although the zombies were banging on the vines because their prey was just in front of them, they were unable to break through at this moment.

A gorgeous elf jumped down from the roof of a nearby building and walked towards the group.

"Thanks, you saved us."

Kio expressed his gratitude, knowing that more people would've died at the back if this continued.

"Hmph."

Having his gratitude ignored, Kio felt awkward.

The elf continued walking past their group and stopped when she reached the slaves.

A warm expression spread over her as she gently looked towards the other elves.