How a Nuisance Character Survives a Horror Game Chapter 3

I slowly slipped my hand out of the small one holding it.

I was standing face-to-face with the demon who could inflict suffering worse than death upon me.

Strangely enough, meeting his eyes actually calmed my excitement and brought my reason back.

My desperate desire not to die forced me to think clearly.

I immediately began considering how I could escape from the final boss.

I wanted to tell him there was a nice cozy hotel over there and he should kindly get lost, but if I did that, I would essentially be throwing the protagonist group directly into a pit of fire.

‘I don’t want that.’

Then should I keep him here……?

But then I’ll die.

While I was desperately debating what to do, my body suddenly lifted into the air.

“Aaah!”

The protagonist who picked me up was Cletta.

When I began struggling in surprise, Cletta held me firmly and tried to calm me.

“Evelyn, calm down! It’s dangerous to stay in the rain any longer! Look at your condition!”

“You think I care about something like that?!”

“You’re shaking from the cold!”

“I’m shaking on purpose to maintain my body temperature!”

“You call that an argument……?!”

I had just grabbed Cletta’s hair and started pulling at it while demanding that he put me down.

Thud!

A powerful pain struck the back of my neck, and my consciousness rapidly faded.

Even then, I clearly heard Werner’s voice.

“It would be better to knock her unconscious.”

Those irritating words from Werner were the last thing I heard before the world went black.

***

Only after Evelyn lost consciousness did she finally become quiet.

Cletta adjusted his hold and carried her more comfortably.

Werner frowned while looking at Evelyn, who had become as docile as an angel.

Her lips were blue, she had coughed up blood, and yet she had still thrown a tantrum about refusing to enter the hotel before running away.

When they found her, her dress and hair had been a complete mess, as though she had rolled around in mud.

And even then she had continued struggling and insisting she didn’t want to go.

Werner was dumbfounded.

Ever since arriving on this island, Evelyn had completely failed to understand their situation.

No.

She had not even attempted to understand it.

The composed Evelyn who had once seemed the very model of a noble lady had apparently become terrified after being stranded and done nothing but cry.

Werner had gradually grown exhausted with her.

At first, he tried to understand.

He wondered how frightened she must be.

Because he liked her, he had comforted her again and again.

But that only lasted so long.

When she complained and cried from the moment she opened her eyes until the moment she closed them, Werner’s feelings steadily cooled.

To the point that the affection he had once felt crashed straight into the ground.

“What are we going to do now? She’ll cause an even bigger scene when she wakes up.”

“We’ll take her inside. Even if she throws a fit, once we’re already inside there won’t be much she can do.”

Taking care of her inside would be easier than outside.

She seemed reluctant to enter because of the ominous atmosphere, but once she realized they could shelter from the rain, perhaps the whining would lessen somewhat.

Cletta clicked his tongue irritably and then suddenly looked down at Evelyn.

The Evelyn immediately before losing consciousness had been completely different from the one who had constantly cried ever since falling onto the island.

Seeing her become irritated and say absurd things reminded Cletta of their childhood.

As he remembered the mischievous Evelyn from those days, Cletta’s irritation faded.

He had liked that version of Evelyn quite a lot.

Although she was unconscious, Cletta kept his gaze fixed on Evelyn lying quietly in his arms and murmured softly.

“It feels like she’s gone back to how she was when we were children.”

“……Excuse me?”

Werner questioned the cryptic comment, but Cletta didn’t answer.

Truthfully, despite her reputation for being quiet and demure, Evelyn had actually been a tomboy.

She played many pranks and possessed a bright, charming personality.

There had even been a time when Cletta had felt romantic affection for her.

But that sort of personality was not advantageous in noble society.

Evelyn had concealed her true self and behaved quietly.

By now, that false image had hardened until it seemed genuine.

But that didn’t particularly matter to Cletta.

They had been close as children, so he had liked her then.

That was no longer the case.

After arriving on the island, even the affection he had still possessed had diminished.

Several times, he had considered abandoning Evelyn when she did nothing but cry and refuse to act.

But he hadn’t been able to.

If they escaped later, it would be difficult to explain abandoning her when he considered her family.

He knew exactly how deeply House Lodriz cherished Evelyn.

That was why he had helped her without even grimacing.

But unexpectedly, the situation was beginning to become entertaining.

Asking what ‘sick and tired’ meant after falling.

Losing her temper.

The Evelyn who had been blurting out ridiculous things earlier looked exactly like the girl Cletta had known as a child.

‘Maybe the situation is so extreme that her old personality came back out.’

That seemed plausible.

Seeing Cletta show no concern despite Evelyn having coughed up blood, Werner awkwardly changed the subject.

“More importantly, what should we do with this child?”

Werner pointed toward Holloway.

The small, pale Holloway certainly stood out.

Rather than suspecting him while he stood trembling miserably in the rain, the two men first checked on the child’s condition.

After all, he was a child.

The idea that he might do something dangerous never even crossed their minds.

When Werner pointed at him, Holloway pretended to flinch dramatically as though startled.

He tightly gripped one of the unconscious Evelyn’s fingers.

Large tears quickly filled the child’s eyes.

Holloway began dropping huge tears pitiful enough to inspire sympathy as he pleaded.

“P-Please don’t leave me……. Sniff. The ship, water started filling the ship, and when I opened my eyes I was here…….”

Cletta questioned Holloway when the child began speaking incoherently.

“Were you shipwrecked? Can you tell me what kind of ship you were on?”

In truth, Holloway had no idea what ship they had been traveling on.

He had simply seen wreckage washed ashore and inferred from the humans’ clothing that they were nobles.

If people like that had arrived on the island together, then surely they had been attending some kind of party.

Having inferred that much, Holloway deliberately gave a vague explanation.

“It was a really big ship, and there were lots of people wearing really fancy clothes. I think they said they were holding some kind of party on the ship.”

A large ship filled with elegantly dressed people attending a party meant there was a high possibility it had been the same ship as their own group.

Cletta remembered that there had been no other ship hosting a party besides theirs.

Because they had encountered no one else after arriving on the island, they had assumed only their group had survived.

Apparently that wasn’t the case.

“There may be more people here. Should we search for them?”

Cletta hesitated.

In the violent wind and pouring rain, leaving behind Evelyn—who appeared to have a fever—could be dangerous.

Werner removed his outer coat and covered Evelyn’s increasingly pale body with it.

He didn’t know whether it would help, but he couldn’t simply watch.

Cletta briefly glanced at Werner’s actions before thinking.

‘Should we split up and search?’

Everyone was already exhausted.

And besides this child, there might be other children…….

Naturally, none of them remembered seeing children aboard the ship.

The party had only invited nobles around their age who had reached adulthood.

Most importantly, there was no way any of them would have forgotten a child as beautiful as this.

“Kid, what about your family? Did you board the ship with them?”

Holloway shook his head at Cletta’s gentle question.

If he told them there were others, they looked like the sort who would immediately begin searching.

Holloway’s objective was not for them to search for anyone.

It was to guide them into the hotel as quickly as possible.

“I-I…… I only came because they said they’d pay me if I did small errands.”

In other words, he claimed that he had boarded the ship alone to work.

Werner’s eyes widened slightly at the response.

There was little reason for a child to help at a party attended by nobles.

Since a noble household was hosting the event, there certainly shouldn’t have been a shortage of servants.

Surprised by the unexpected answer, Werner asked again.

“……Small errands? A child like you?”

“Yes. Luckily, a big sister I know introduced me, so they let me work.”

Watching Holloway smile brightly and innocently, both men fell silent.

Cletta examined him before asking,

“What about children your age?”

“There weren’t any. They told me I only got in because that big sister worked really hard to arrange it.”

It sounded like there were deeper circumstances involved, so Werner and Cletta didn’t question him further.

If Holloway had been the only child, there was no need to immediately search for others.

The rest would likely be adults capable of taking care of themselves.

If anyone else existed on the island, they would eventually discover the hotel just as their group had.

They had no obligation to search for and protect every survivor.

Besides, none of them had enough stamina to spare for that.

Everyone was exhausted and needed rest.

Searching after recovering properly at the hotel wouldn’t be too late.

“Lo…… no, Cletta, what should we do?”

Werner deliberately addressed him politely by name instead of using his title.

Holloway silently observed this.

“Anyone else wandering around should eventually find the hotel, just as we did. We’re in no condition to worry about strangers right now. Evelyn comes first. Coughing up blood alone means her physical condition is poor.”

“And the child……?”

“We take him with us.”

“Th-Thank you!”

Holloway smiled brightly despite the rain.

Werner and Cletta were not heartless enough to leave a child behind in weather like this.

Holloway looked at the two who had accepted him, and then his gaze shifted to Evelyn.

He had been watching them continuously ever since they entered the island.

Enough to understand their relationships to some extent.

Among them, Evelyn was the most interesting.

A woman who had done nothing but cry and refuse to act had suddenly changed the instant she saw the hotel, her gaze becoming completely different as though she were another person.

She had also done stupid things like repeatedly pressing her fingers against empty air.

Running away because she refused to enter the hotel was strange too.

Considering her original personality, she should have collapsed on the ground crying.

‘Is she so frightened that she can no longer properly understand the situation?’

But if that were true, why had she reacted so violently against entering the hotel?

Almost as though she knew there was something inside.

A peculiar light flashed through Holloway’s red eyes.

‘Did the Empress send her?’

But that didn’t match the Empress’s usual methods at all.

She wouldn’t have sent someone using such an uncertain approach in the first place.

‘I’ll figure it out if I dig into it. No.’

Holloway’s red eyes shifted toward the approaching hotel.

‘She’s going to die anyway. There’s no need to know.’

When Cletta and Werner returned, Moran approached the three.

Then she saw the unconscious Evelyn and covered her mouth.

“Is anyone hurt? W-What happened to Miss Evelyn?”

“I knocked her unconscious.”

Werner answered calmly.

Cynthia said that he had done well, then gestured toward Friedel standing beside her.

Since Cynthia held a higher social position than he did, Friedel placed his hands on the thick, enormous doors of the sealed hotel without complaint.

Perhaps because they had rusted, they didn’t open easily, forcing Friedel to exert considerable strength.

Creeeeak…….

The sound of thoroughly rusted hinges mingled with the rain.

The heavy door opened.

Without hesitation, the group immediately entered the hotel.

The air inside felt even colder than outside.

At the chill, everyone instinctively rubbed their arms.

After confirming that every single person had entered the hotel, Holloway raised his head.

Looking toward the uppermost windows concealed behind thick mist and clouds, he whispered,

“Don’t get too excited. We have plenty of time, so enjoy yourselves slowly.”

As though answering him, the trees in the forest swayed ominously.

Holloway leisurely stepped inside the hotel.

The sight of Evelyn in Cletta’s arms gradually disappeared deeper beyond the doorway……

And then.

BANG!

The doors closed.