Fine.
I admit it.
This was silence.
Under the awkward atmosphere, I pretended nothing was wrong and clumsily pushed myself up from where I had fallen.
Werner didn’t even look at me.
According to the game’s setting, Werner had once been secretly in love with Evelyn—me—but after falling onto the island, those feelings gradually cooled.
Once they entered the hotel, dislike became outright contempt.
After all, more than one or two people died because of Evelyn’s nuisance behavior.
‘Of course, that isn’t the real problem right now.’
At this point, having suddenly regained the memories of my previous life while already trapped in such a bleak situation, whether the others disliked me or not was irrelevant.
They could hate me all they wanted.
I didn’t care.
What mattered more than their feelings toward me was the game’s selection window.
‘I didn’t expect an actual window to appear just because this is a horror game.’
In this game, choosing the correct response was important.
The direction of the story changed depending on which option you selected.
There were seven characters, but you couldn’t choose all of them as playable characters.
You could only select either the heroine or the male lead.
Which meant I had absolutely no idea what Evelyn’s selection windows would look like.
Judging by the very first choices I had received, though, I could already smell disaster…….
Apparently still stunned by my absurd question about the meaning of ‘sick and tired,’ Werner weakly gestured for everyone to enter the hotel.
The others followed him.
Watching their backs, I genuinely wanted to ask them something.
Why wasn’t anyone asking whether what I said was a joke?
Of course, instead of actually asking that, I watched their retreating backs and quietly began taking tiny steps backward.
I desperately hoped they would simply forget about me and enter the hotel.
Then I made direct eye contact with Cletta, the male lead of the game.
Why are you glaring at me?
Lower your eyes.
Cletta, apparently failing to understand the vicious insults contained in my gaze, gently held out his hand.
“Evelyn, don’t be afraid. It’s okay. Come here.”
Cletta and I were childhood friends, and I had once admired him.
You could consider him my first love during adolescence.
Now he was simply something like a faded memory of first love.
He was someone I could never be with anyway.
And this story ended in tragedy.
“I’m not going.”
At my firm refusal, Werner rubbed his temple as though developing a headache.
Cletta, who was actually the one I had rejected, remained still, while Werner glared murderously at me.
“Ha…… Miss Evelyn. Please stop making me even more disappointed in you!”
I had no idea why he kept trying to take me along when he could simply leave me behind.
I drew in a deep breath and then shouted loudly toward the front.
“I said no!”
At my ringing shout, everyone flinched and turned toward me.
After all, I had never raised my voice even once before.
Before the memories of my previous life resurfaced, I had possessed the quiet, composed personality expected of a proper noble lady.
Although after being swallowed by anxiety and fear, I had become the nuisance character of this horror game.
Still, quite a few nobles had liked me.
Even Cletta, the male lead, had secretly liked me when we were young.
I had reincarnated into this world, so regaining the memories of my past life didn’t suddenly mean the Evelyn from my childhood had never been me.
My personality had changed somewhat, but the Evelyn standing here was still undeniably me.
“I don’t care whether you’re disappointed in me or not. I am absolutely not entering that hotel. Cough, cough.”
When I began trembling and coughing on top of everything else, Werner’s teeth ground together as though he had finally lost his patience.
“This is not the time to be stubborn!”
Looking at my physical condition, Werner wasn’t wrong.
It was pouring rain, and there was no way a body as pampered as mine could endure all of this.
The others possessed at least average stamina, but Evelyn in the game was, quite literally, made of paper.
Her stats were considerably lower as well.
In the game, she collapsed at every opportunity, forcing the protagonist to struggle while carrying her away from demons.
And my own body was hardly any different from Evelyn’s.
I had been born naturally weak and had never exercised properly even once.
“Go inside the hotel and warm yourself first. I refuse to argue about this any longer.”
If I went inside, I’d literally end up dead and cold.
Even dying of a cold would be preferable to that.
I decided to remain calm.
I wanted to tell them the truth, but this wasn’t an atmosphere in which anyone would believe me.
And believing me would be the best-case scenario.
They might simply decide I had lost my mind.
Still, I intended to do everything I could.
I felt somewhat uncomfortable knowingly sending the others into the hotel.
I opened my mouth, intending to explain things indirectly and prevent the group from entering if possible.
At that exact moment, a heavy pain surged from deep inside my body.
My throat suddenly burned.
Then blood burst from my mouth.
“Cough……!”
“Aaah! Miss Evelyn! Blood……!”
As though it had been waiting for exactly this, a warning message appeared.
[※If you reveal any information related to the game, every human present here will meet a horrific death.]
[You are required to remain silent until you escape the island.]
So I can talk after escaping……?
Can I even escape?
At this point, it wasn’t a request.
It was a threat.
Apparently that wasn’t the end, because another warning window appeared.
[※If you prevent them from entering the hotel, you will experience the original story’s ‘Bad Ending: Dismemberment.’]
……Ha.
I couldn’t say anything.
I simply bit down hard on my lips.
It was telling me I would receive the dismemberment ending I wanted to avoid more than anything.
Still, there was one small hope.
The warning hadn’t said what would happen if I ran away.
Didn’t that mean I was allowed to escape?
Sorry, but even if I have to be the only one who survives, I’m going to live.
I wasn’t particularly attached to these people.
Unlike the protagonists, I had neither a sense of responsibility nor any obligation to ensure the group survived.
I wasn’t a good person.
I pushed away Cletta and Moran, who had come closer to check on me after seeing me cough up blood.
Werner’s face went pale when he noticed the blood staining my lips despite how irritated he had been a moment earlier.
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and calmly spoke.
“I’ll stay outside and observe the situation a little longer before going in. If you’re entering, please go ahead without me.”
Werner’s face twisted terribly.
“What exactly are you waiting for?! Do you honestly think that makes any sense? Have you seen a single ship pass near this island since we arrived?”
Nope.
When I couldn’t answer, Werner jerked his chin toward the hotel and told me to stop this nonsense and enter.
“You’ve coughed up blood, so stop being stubborn. Enough with this reckless behavior. At least realize you’re causing trouble for everyone.”
I inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled.
If I stop resisting and go inside, the slaughter party starts, you know?
Words clearly weren’t getting through to them.
So I decided to show them through my actions.
That I absolutely would not accompany them.
Afraid someone might grab me if I suddenly ran, I first made a heartfelt request.
“Please respect my decision.”
Before anyone could stop me, I turned and sprinted toward the forest without looking back.
“Evelyn!”
“Miss Evelyn!”
Behind the voices calling my name came an irritated, high-pitched voice.
“Leave her. If she has nowhere else to go, she’ll come back. She isn’t a child. How long do you intend to keep indulging her?”
I recognized that cold voice immediately.
Cynthia.
The villainess of the horror game who secretly loved the male lead.
This had been one of the few relatively entertaining parts of <The Child’s Secret>.
The romance between the heroine and male lead, along with the villainess who grew jealous of them and caused trouble for the heroine, had actually been fairly interesting.
The game had attracted attention at first, but as I had already said, it disappeared like smoke because of its brutal difficulty…… and so on and so forth.
“B-But…….”
Alhulf, who was even more cowardly than I was, tried to object.
No further words followed.
He had probably shut his mouth after receiving Cynthia’s icy glare.
Leaving their conversation behind, I ran desperately.
I planned to go somewhere else, calm down, organize the situation, and slowly construct an escape plan.
That had been the plan, anyway…….
[The player has left the game area. The ‘Original Story’s Corrective Force’ has activated.]
……Wasn’t that supposed to apply only to them?
[The effect will not disappear until the player enters the hotel!]
You deliberately didn’t warn me about this earlier?!
Apparently having no intention of calming me down, the system displayed another message.
[There’s a rock ahead!]
At the sudden warning, I twisted my body to avoid the rock.
[You’re supposed to trip over it!]
No.
No!
My body suddenly moved on its own and charged straight toward the rock.
“You insane system!”
I barely had time to be stunned by the ridiculous skill that had suddenly appeared before my foot caught on the stone exactly as intended, sending me tumbling across the ground.
I rolled for what felt like ten adult strides before my body finally came to a stop.
“……Fuck this world.”
What an unforgiving world.
All the strength drained from my body.
Maybe because I had been soaked by the rain, symptoms of illness were slowly creeping in too.
My body shivered, and cough after cough escaped me.
“Fine. Cough, cough! Maybe dying like this would actually be better.”
Anything but dismemberment.
Even though I didn’t want to remember it, the scene of Evelyn’s death from the game replayed repeatedly inside my head.
I could somehow endure fear if I tried hard enough.
But I absolutely hated pain.
The screams Evelyn had let out until the moment she died in the game echoed in my ears.
Unable to hold back anymore, I burst into tears.
Thinking no one was around, I cried my eyes out without caring what my face looked like when a clear voice abruptly interrupted me.
“Big sis, are you okay? Your nose is running…….”
“Aagh!”
You startled me!
“Big sis?”
“…….”
The sudden appearance of a child startled me so badly that my earlier fear disappeared, replaced entirely by embarrassment.
The kid wasn’t even crying, and here I was, a grown adult, sobbing my eyes out.
That was a little embarrassing.
So, feeling awkward, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
“Do you have a handkerchief?”
“Shouldn’t you ask who I am first in a situation like this?”
“You’re smart…….”
As our strangely natural conversation continued, I finally sensed that something was wrong.
My body stiffened.
……Wait.
A child?
I forced my half-lidded eyes open and stared at the child crouching in front of me.
Silver hair so pale it was almost white.
White skin.
White eyelashes.
Red lips.
The little boy was so angelically beautiful that he could have been mistaken for a doll.
When our gazes met, he took my hand and smiled brightly.
“Thank goodness. There was someone here!”
“…….”
Looking at the pretty little boy smiling sweetly in front of me, all I could do was move my lips soundlessly.
Because.
Because…… that boy was—
Ding.
[‘Future Conqueror of This World’ Holloway has caught you while you were running away.]
[He has approached you while concealing his identity.]
[Be careful not to appear suspicious!
※If you behave suspiciously or reveal information related to the game, Holloway’s desire to kill may increase.]
Because he was the final boss of the horror game.
That man took the form of a child in order to lower the guard of the humans who entered the hotel.
The demons, desperate for entertainment, pretended to give humans hope, toyed with them to their hearts’ content, and then slaughtered them horribly.
And the only one capable of controlling those unreasonable demons was Holloway.
I couldn’t tell whether I was trembling from fear or from the cold.
[Holloway is observing you.]
[➤What should you say?
- Do I look human to you?
((ಠ_ಠ))
- A child? I hate children!
(T_T)
- Get the hell away from me!
((╬▔皿▔) )] ╯
Fuck.
What kind of garbage choices were these?
Maybe I was already getting used to it, because my hand automatically moved toward the window.
Gritting my teeth, I reluctantly selected option 1, which was at least marginally better than the others.
How was I supposed to say something like that in this situation?
Despite my dissatisfaction, my lips moved as though possessed and forced out the words.
“Do I look human to you?”
“Big siiiis…… Why are you being scary?”
The final boss, Holloway, who had been smiling moments ago and was now sniffing as though frightened by something this minor, squeezed my dirty hand even tighter.
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