How a Nuisance Character Survives a Horror Game Chapter 48

“I couldn’t even get out.”

If I had actually escaped, at least I could understand being accused.

Looking at the suspicious Holloway, I muttered sincerely,

“I don’t know why I was transported either. I wish I knew……”

Including why this damned system appears at all.

[Distance from Holloway has decreased.]

[The sharply increased Possessiveness and Obsession return to their previous levels.]

[Possessiveness decreased by 11%.]

[Obsession decreased by 12%.]

[Anxiety decreased by 15%.]

[The gap between Possessiveness and Attachment is now 10% or less. ‘A Miserable Life Being Envied by Demons’ Ending has been revoked.]

Are there no normal routes whatsoever?

No.

There definitely are.

Maybe every route related to Holloway is simply like this.

“You’re saying you didn’t intend for it to happen?”

Holloway still looked suspicious of me.

So I decided to display acting worthy of a famous actress.

First, distort my face as though I’m about to cry……

“Did you see something unpleasant in there?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You look really angry.”

Why does my about-to-cry face look angry……?

Ignoring that criticism of my expression, I continued explaining.

“How could I have intended it? This hotel is seriously bizarre. I’m a perfectly ordinary human without even a speck of magic, but it keeps moving me around however it wants……”

I’d prefer it to transport me outside.

But since teleportation was used as a penalty, I couldn’t exactly be happy about it.

“Exactly. Big sis really has absolutely nothing.”

You underestimate me too much.

“Where’s Lady Cynthia?”

“I-I’m here……”

Cynthia came running while panting.

She couldn’t make it all the way to us and collapsed nearby.

She gave Holloway a slightly resentful sideways glance.

“Why is that kid so fast despite having such short legs?”

“Lady Cynthia says your legs are short, so why are you that fast?”

“That isn’t something big sis wanted to say too, right?”

My attempt to indirectly insult him failed.

I expected a window saying Holloway was irritated.

Instead, he tightly held my hand and displayed the gentlest smile imaginable.

“Since I found you, I’ll mercifully let it go this once!”

“O-Okay……”

How fucking gracious of you……

Seeing blood soaking through Cynthia’s clothes, I opened the map.

If I planned to drag an injured person around, treating her first would make everything easier.

“Let’s find a potion and treat you first.”

I held out a hand to help Cynthia up.

Instead of taking it—

she gave me something else.

Growl.

“Do you get hungry every time you see me?”

“……I-I haven’t eaten properly in a long time.”

This time, apparently embarrassed, Cynthia’s face reddened as she lowered her head.

“Let’s go to the nearest dining room.”

There were a few potions along the way.

Not many.

But enough for emergency treatment.

“Big sis, don’t cook.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t.”

“Why?”

I can’t exactly leave the cooking to you or Cynthia.

She was raised even more nobly than I was.

She probably couldn’t even make soup.

I wasn’t sure she knew how to boil water.

When I argued, Holloway refused to explain his reasoning and simply threw a tantrum.

“Don’t cook!”

“Stop whining……”

I muttered quietly while staring into empty space.

I don’t have the courage to openly scold him.

If he hears it, fine.

If he doesn’t, nothing I can do.

“Does it look like I’m whining?”

He heard.

“I understand. You fell so deeply in love with my cooking that you don’t want anyone else learning about it.”

“So don’t cook.”

That was supposed to be a joke.

Maybe because his emotional values were high, Holloway was extremely generous toward me now.

So this is why people grind affection even with hollow eyes.

It actually feels rewarding.

First, feed everyone.

Then gather plenty of potions.

Then go look at the picture.

Technically, I could view the picture through the game window too.

But even after Holloway’s emotional values passed 30%, nothing special happened.

Maybe I had to look at it together with Holloway.

The system originally said I could view it after all values reached at least 30%, so there might be another clue.

If nothing changed, then nothing changed.

I had mountains of things to do.

“Lady Cynthia. I guess there’s no choice. There’s a phrase called ‘every person for themselves.’”

“……What?”

“Do it yourself.”

I changed my position as easily as flipping my palm.

When you think about it, I literally saved her life.

Now I’m supposed to cook for her too?

Unfair.

Surely Cynthia possessed enough conscience not to demand that.

I needed to avoid irritating Holloway and steadily raise his affection.

Despite the values being relatively high, the routes that occasionally appeared were still murderous.

Meaning I had to keep working.

Cynthia looked slightly shocked.

Was me refusing to cook really that shocking?

“Lady Cynthia?”

“I just assumed someone would always do it for me.”

Well.

Even I had immediately volunteered to cook because she was a princess.

Of course Cynthia would think that way.

She had lived a life where being served was normal.

Fresh salad, something rarely seen in a horror game.

Luxurious buttered roasted potatoes.

And sweet potatoes I had steamed.

I seriously considered applauding the demons for preparing such plentiful food for humans even though they themselves didn’t need to eat.

And except for the sweet potatoes—

Holloway had prepared almost everything himself.

Far more skillfully than me.

His claim that he could only prepare ingredients had been a complete lie.

The only thing I did was try poking a sweet potato with Holloway’s finger to check if it was cooked.

He hit me for it.

“There’s a lot, but only eat a little.”

Holloway expertly ignored my shameless statement.

Cynthia looked like she might burn down the dining room if left to cook alone.

So she didn’t take charge of anything.

She only helped timidly from the side.

“Only eat a little.”

I tried stealing the plate in front of Holloway.

Then he simply stared at me.

I immediately pushed it back.

“Just kidding.”

“Big sis, you’re surprisingly carefree considering you’re trapped here.”

“I’m naturally optimistic. If my mood collapses in a place like this too, everything becomes twice as difficult.”

And by nature, I don’t get seriously shocked by most things anyway.

I was surviving with the mindset of—

‘Something will work out somehow.’

That, and my overwhelming desire to live.

While I chatted about nonsense with Holloway, Cynthia, who had finished eating, cautiously asked,

“Evelyn. Shouldn’t we talk?”

Probably about Suriel.

I had deliberately avoided the subject.

I didn’t expect Cynthia to bring it up herself.

Someone who had nearly died wouldn’t normally recover emotionally this quickly.

Even less so when speaking about the event themselves.

Cynthia acted fine.

But her body trembled faintly.

I had plenty I wanted to ask too.

“Lady Cynthia, did Alhulf call you ‘Your Highness the Princess’ after we entered this place?”

“Yes. How did you know?”

I knew it.

I had suspected it.

It still wasn’t certain, but the demons didn’t seem to harbor positive feelings toward nobles of the Balone Empire.

Of course, that was only my theory.

But I had a feeling it somehow connected to the imperial family.

Maybe the people who trapped them here were members of the imperial family.

Someone might have summoned demons to this island.

Then, to prevent ordinary citizens from being harmed, the imperial family may have sealed off the entire island.

I didn’t know who built the hotel……

But if the imperial family really restricted access to the island, it made sense for that resentment to turn toward Cynthia.

Of course, blaming the imperial family for something the demons themselves caused would be ridiculous.

But I’ll repeat this again—

these bastards do not operate according to common sense.

And nothing was confirmed yet.

“Let’s discuss the rest when everyone’s together later.”

Better to explain once than twice.

There was plenty we needed to discuss as a group anyway.

We had spent so much time running from monsters that we’d never actually talked properly about the hotel.

“Then we can combine what everyone has learned.”

I can’t explain everything myself.

But Cynthia is smart, so she’ll probably infer things.

Apparently she had been forcing herself more than she showed.

Cynthia weakly smiled and thanked me.

I glanced sideways at Holloway.

He acted completely unrelated to the discussion and opened his mouth.

He wanted me to feed him.

I stabbed a massive amount of salad and shoved it into his mouth.

“It’s too big.”

“My hands are big.”

Holloway fiddled with my hand and tilted his head.

“They’re small.”

That isn’t the kind of hand size I meant.

We arrived at Room 201.

We found some potions along the way and poured the rest over Cynthia’s wounds.

Fortunately, they healed considerably.

Cynthia was exhausted.

She didn’t even wash.

The instant she lay on the sofa, she fell asleep.

“Big sis, now.”

“What’s now?”

“Leave her behind and run.”

Apparently Holloway thinks I’m garbage.

“No.”

“Why?”

“Lady Cynthia didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Wrong?”

“Every time you latch onto a word I say and question it, water comes out of big sis’s eyes.”

Please stop.

Holloway nodded while suppressing laughter.

“Okay.”

You do understand, right?

“Why did we come all the way around to this particular room?”

“The picture is our only clue. I wanted to look at it properly again. Ah—but if you don’t want to, I won’t.”

His values were above 30%.

Still, I watched him nervously.

Holloway agreed readily.

“You can look. But how are you going to do that while she’s sleeping there?”

“I’m only moving the sofa a little.”

I didn’t care whether Cynthia was sleeping.

I pushed the sofa aside.

The picture remained beneath it.

All right.

Let’s see.

Every face was covered in red.

The blade was embedded directly through the adult man’s face.

This picture does not look happy.

So if it’s called ‘Happy Us,’ there’s a high chance they’re family.

“Holloway, do you know what this means?”

“Maybe this person did something bad, so someone stuck the blade into him.”

That sounded simple.

But Holloway rarely said things without reason.

He lied easily, sure.

Still, I had the feeling this wasn’t something I should ignore.

“That could be it. Then who drew it? One of these two? Usually only children draw pictures like this, though.”

“A boy who likes drawing could make one.”

Do you have to say it so ominously?

I didn’t gain much……

At most, I learned that one of those two probably drew the picture.

And that he liked drawing.

Even that wasn’t certain because Holloway spoke so vaguely.

[You viewed the ‘Happy Us’ picture together with Holloway while his emotional values were above 30%.]

[Story fragment collected!]

[Collected fragment: ‘Human Magic.’]

Human magic……

‘Humans with magic?’

The picture showed humans producing blue flames.

And every one of them looked as though they were about to die.

Blue flames represented magic.

If they looked that miserable—

were they being exploited?

[A total of 10 story fragments has been collected. The story title will now be revealed.]

The original story title made entirely of question marks blurred.

Then changed into words.

[‘Secret of the Island’]

Just as I expected.

The fragments pointed toward the island’s secret.

But what does the ‘Happy Us’ picture have to do with those fragments?

Shouldn’t I receive a clue related directly to the picture?

Why is everything about the island?

There looked to be a huge number of victims in the fragments.

So it was difficult to say the people in the picture alone were the sacrifices.

Maybe one of many victims drew it.

But then Holloway wouldn’t have reacted so violently.

I pushed the collected fragments aside.

“Hmm. I still don’t get it.”

“Me neither.”

There was a limit to what I could infer from pictures and words.

Only a few empty fragment slots remained.

At this pace, everything would probably be filled soon.

More importantly—

my affection values are this high, so why aren’t more rooms unlocking?

“Holloway, is there any room you’d like to show me?”

“You want a room?”

[Holloway wants to show you ‘a massive and luxurious room made only for you.’]

What exactly is a massive and luxurious room made only for me?

[For example: a birdcage.]

……So confinement.

“No.”

“What a shame.”

[By the narrowest margin, the ‘Luxurious and Beautiful Confinement Life’ route has been canceled.]

[( ; ω ; )( ; ω ; )( ; ω ; )]

Were you so disappointed that you had to express your feelings like that?