The Male Leads Are Trapped in My House

"Kraaaah!"

The creature roared, opening its massive maw toward him.
Nox lay on the ground, dazed and in agony.
After being struck by the monster's tail and slammed into the wall for a second time, he was in no condition to move. Pain racked his body as he fought to stay conscious.

‘No, I need to stay awake… Miss Cherry and Lady Ruskin are in danger…’
But now wasn’t the time to worry about Cherry and Vanilla. The creature was approaching him, and Nox knew he was about to die.
Surely, the beast would devour him. Bracing himself for the agony to come, he tightly shut his eyes—and then everything went dark.

A grating sound filled his ears as fragments of consciousness returned to him.
Nox realized he was being dragged somewhere.
He had no idea who—or what—was dragging him, but one thing was clear: he hadn’t been torn apart by the monster.

All around him were trees.
The rough dirt ground scraped against his body as he was dragged along, and just as he bumped his head on a rock, everything went black again.
*****

After sending Nox back to the police station, I walked slowly with Vanilla toward the back of the building.
And that’s when we saw it. Emerging from the forest behind the police station was a creature of enormous size.
‘It looks almost… like a dinosaur.’

The problem wasn’t just the creature itself but what it had in its mouth—a man. There was a clearly unconscious man dangling from its jaws.
“That… doesn’t seem like it’s biting him?” Vanilla murmured, her eyes fixed on the beast.
She was right. The monster wasn’t biting into the man. It was only holding onto his clothes, and there wasn’t a single injury on his body.

“That’s impossible. Those things have such intense hunger instincts; there’s no way it could resist devouring prey right in front of it.”
As I muttered to myself, Vanilla gave me a curious look, though her grip on the shotgun remained tense.
“You seem to know a lot, Miss Sinclair.”
I realized I’d spoken too carelessly, but fortunately, Vanilla didn’t seem particularly interested in questioning me. Her full attention was on the man clutched in the creature’s jaws.

“Could it be an intelligent one? We’ve never encountered a monster capable of hunting like this.”
Vanilla scrutinized the creature, trying to discern its nature.
‘No, creatures like this appeared in the novel too.’

According to the story, only one or two of these rare mutations appeared out of hundreds, making them an exceedingly uncommon threat.
‘And they didn’t show up until a year after the world ended… so why now?’
I didn’t have time to dwell on it.

“What? Where did it go? Why is it so fast?!” Vanilla’s voice snapped me back to reality.
I whipped my head around, but the creature had already disappeared.
In that moment, I thought of Nox and Amy at the police station. Surely it couldn’t have seen them through the windows, right?

“We need to check the police station!” I shouted and sprinted off at full speed.
And then I saw it—Nox, unconscious, slumped against the wall after being struck by the creature’s tail.
I raised my head and locked eyes with the beast.

Its bright yellow reptilian eyes narrowed, the vertical slits of its pupils expanding briefly before contracting. It had clearly noticed both Vanilla and me.
The creature stood in front of Nox, lazily swishing its tail. Vanilla and I froze, holding our breath. For a fleeting moment, we were locked in a battle of wits.
And then the creature vanished.

It was fast—blindingly fast. So fast that its movements were nearly impossible to track.
Vanilla was hit by the tail in an instant, sent flying into the police station’s outer wall before collapsing.
“Lady Ruskin!”

I rushed to Vanilla’s side.
She lay sprawled in front of the station, groaning in pain as she tried to push herself up. Nox, however, was nowhere to be seen.
‘Damn it, when did it take Nox?’

For a creature to carry off a full-grown man so effortlessly… it was absurd.
I helped Vanilla as she struggled to stand, but she hastily waved me off and shouted, “Miss Sinclair, behind the station! That thing took the doctor! Go after him! My leg’s broken—I can’t move!”
She shoved me hard on the shoulder, her urgency palpable. Her hands gripped my back, pushing me to act.

“Hurry!” she yelled.
Her final words spurred me to my feet. Before running off, I turned to Vanilla and said, “If anyone comes, tell them what happened—especially Lord Ethan. Oh, and one more thing…”
The only silver lining in this situation was that I knew a little about handling mutated viral monsters. That knowledge might just save us.

I whispered a message for Ethan into Vanilla’s ear and then dashed toward the back of the police station.
As Vanilla had said, the creature’s back came into view through the trees. It was dragging Nox by the legs, his body wrapped in its tail. He was still unconscious.
My goal was simple: survive in this apocalyptic world for two years until Ezra appeared. I had to protect “my people and my protagonists.”

But this damned world had no intention of leaving me in peace.
Nox was just as important as Ethan—someone I absolutely had to protect. Letting him die wasn’t an option.
‘If that damn monster so much as injured him, I swear it won’t live to see another day.’

I would save Nox, no matter what.
Clenching my teeth, I rolled the axe handle in my palm and prepared to fight.
*****

Kellyan arrived at the entrance of Brunel Village.
The uniform of the royal guard he wore was smeared with the green, slimy blood of monsters.
Tsk. He shook off the blood clinging to his sword before sliding it back into its scabbard.

In his line of sight were heaps of wagons stacked high. Beyond them, the rooftops of the village homes came into view.
Kellyan whistled softly, only to flinch and scan his surroundings.
Whistling was an old habit of his, but in this ruined world, even trivial habits like this carried risks.

‘The Master said we only need to wait a little longer.’
Their new leader had assured them. Just a little more patience, and they would restore the world to its former state.
All they had to do was endure this charade of posing as soldiers of the Graydon Kingdom until then.

“Surely, Rukias isn’t really dead.”
His companions, who had gone to Brunel to find Ethan, hadn’t returned.
Kellyan assumed they’d been killed by monsters, yet the village before him seemed oddly peaceful—no monsters in sight.

“No monsters? Strange.”
He stepped onto the piled wagons and climbed up carefully before leaping down into the village.
“Excuse me? Who are you?”

A middle-aged woman passing by stopped and stared at him in shock.
She carried a wooden basket full of corn under her arm.
‘That’s a lot of corn.’ Kellyan swallowed dryly, suddenly aware of his hunger. It felt like he hadn’t eaten all day.

What stood out more, though, was her demeanor. At first glance, the woman seemed completely unaware of the apocalyptic state of the world.
“Who are you? Where did you come from?” she asked again, her face now marked by suspicion.
Her grip tightened on the basket as she slowly backed away.

Raising both hands to show he meant no harm, Kellyan spoke in the most friendly and harmless tone he could muster.
“I’m a royal guard of the Graydon Kingdom. I was passing through and found the wagons piled up here strange, so I decided to take a look…”
Trailing off, he glanced around the village. The interior was far too clean.

There were traces of monster attacks here and there, but no signs of monsters themselves.
“This place seems unusually peaceful.”
But at his comment, the woman’s behavior turned peculiar.

She glanced over her shoulder, looking toward somewhere beyond the plaza, and then suddenly reached into her basket.
She pulled out what looked like a small flag attached to a stick. It was decorated with a drawing of cherries.
Raising the flag high, she began to wave it.

‘Who could possibly see that…? Is someone out there?’
Kellyan instinctively prepared to draw the rifle slung over his shoulder, his gaze scanning the surroundings. He addressed the woman sharply.
“What are you doing?”

“Don’t move. I’ve called for help.”
“Help? How?”
“Our lady keeps a watchful eye over the village. Since this is the plaza, she’ll see us better from here.”

The woman spoke with a warning tone, holding the flag in one hand and the basket of corn in the other. Someone could see them better? From where?
Kellyan scanned the rooftops and higher levels of the buildings, but he couldn’t spot anyone.
“Don’t do anything foolish, and we won’t harm you,” she warned again.

‘I thought she was just a simple villager.’
Yet the woman acted as if she were following a protocol specifically designed for such situations.
‘Are all the villagers here like this?’

Even the wagons piled at the village entrance hinted at strategy. They blocked the road, making it impossible for anyone—or any monster—to pass through easily. It also made the village seem deserted, likely dissuading monsters from venturing further inside.
‘There’s definitely someone running things here—someone smart.’
He recalled the rumors he’d heard: that Brunel was home to a bear-like person who could tear monsters apart. The owner of Brunel’s Happy House.

For now, Kellyan needed to focus on persuading the cautious woman in front of him.
“Ma’am, I’m alone, and I have no intention of looting this place or harming anyone. I’m just looking for a place to rest.”
To demonstrate his sincerity, he removed the rifle slung over his shoulder and the sword at his hip, laying them both on the ground.

His priority was to figure out if Ethan was in this village. Kidnapping him—or whatever else came next—could wait.
“Does this make you feel safer?”
He didn’t mention the revolver and dagger hidden inside his jacket. Those were for emergencies.

His companions hadn’t returned after going to Brunel.
Something was definitely in this village.