Chapter 37

“Be quiet.”

What?

……I knew he was cold-blooded, but telling me to be quiet in this situation?

Doesn’t it feel like he’s treating me like a fool for crying out to be spared?

Karin’s mind went completely blank.

At the same time, what had just happened flashed through her head.

‘No matter what happens, keep your mouth shut and stay still.’

Villed had already emphasized that twice.

She didn’t know the reason.

Why she had to do that in front of such a terrifying monster was something she would never understand, not even in death!

‘Maybe, just maybe, if I do what Villed says, it might work out…….’

She wanted to cling to even the faintest thread of hope.

Karin paused for a moment.

“I’ll fix your nasty habit once and for all!”

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The thunderous pursuit continued without pause.

‘I can’t do it after all!’

Her resolve didn’t last long.

Karin started running frantically again.

‘I don’t fully trust Villed yet.’

Yes.

It wasn’t that she distrusted Villed.

But that didn’t mean she would blindly trust him either.

Villed had proposed cooperation to her.

She admitted that he carried a different air than in his delinquent days.

The sincerity he had shown gave more than enough reason to work with him.

But there was always the chance of betrayal.

Karin had seen too many people turn on a whim.

That meant she couldn’t completely let her guard down around Villed either.

‘According to rumors…… he betrays as easily as breathing.’

Take the current situation, for example.

Why else would he tell her to stay still in front of such a merciless monster?

Maybe the mission of this room required the sacrifice of one person.

That could mean Villed intended to make Karin the scapegoat.

But then……

‘Why me of all people! Why is it chasing only me!’

For some reason, it didn’t attack Villed or Lapin, only Karin.

Could even this situation have been calculated by Villed?

No way, could Villed and the monster be in cahoots?

If not, was it just plain bad luck?

Did the monster see her as the easiest target?

Or did she look the most delicious?

‘……What am I even thinking!’

Frightened by the monster, she lost her rationality.

Karin shook her head frantically.

In truth, maybe she had vaguely realized it all along.

The common trait between Villed and Lapin, who weren’t being chased.

They weren’t moving, nor making the slightest sound.

‘Maybe, just maybe. If what Villed said was right.’

She couldn’t fully understand it.

But the source of the tremors was drawing closer and closer.

Maybe her muscles were failing—her legs wouldn’t move properly.

If she just kept running, it would only be a matter of time before she was caught.

In the end, she had only one choice.

‘I don’t know what’s going on, but for now I’ll do as I’m told.’

Karin halted her steps again.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The closer the monster came, the stronger the tremors shook the ground.

‘Please, stop!’

She took a deep breath and suppressed her breathing as much as possible.

She forcibly covered her mouth, as if her breath would burst out any second.

‘Stop!’

Just as the monster drew right up to her.

Karin’s heart pounded violently.

Didn’t they say memories flash before one’s eyes right before death?

It was the same for Karin.

‘Please……!’

If the monster caught her.

If she died in this space, what would happen to her?

Would Yggdrasil really just stand by while students died?

Ah, she didn’t know anymore.

Whatever happened, happened.

Karin squeezed her eyes tightly shut.

“……”

She was practically half-unconscious.

No sound reached her ears anymore.

She had no idea how much time passed before she came to her senses again.

‘……Am I alive?’

The feeling of her own hand covering her mouth.

The sweat trickling down her forehead onto the back of her hand.

If this vividness wasn’t reality, then what was it?

The monster hadn’t caught her.

At least, not yet.

‘Villed was right.’

But she didn’t dare open her eyes.

Even without seeing, she knew the monster stood right in front of her.

……

The monster stopped before her.

At a distance less than ten centimeters away.

If it swung its weapon straight down…… no, she didn’t even want to imagine it anymore.

‘I’m so scared I could die!’

She felt like crying any second, but she used all her strength to keep her mouth covered.

Her legs trembled uncontrollably.

She thought she might collapse unconscious, but she had to endure.

In this space where she could see and hear nothing, Karin reached one conclusion.

‘This monster seems to move when it hears sound.’

She didn’t know the exact rule, but it was probably close to her guess.

Minutes had already passed.

‘How long do I have to keep this up?’

She realized the only option given to her was ‘to stay still.’

Time passed heavily under the tension that her life was at stake.

Swish!

The sound of curtains being drawn echoed.

The same sound she had heard right after entering this space, just before the blackout.

Light seeped in through her eyelids.

Was it over now?

No, she couldn’t be sure.

Still, Karin didn’t move, frozen like a statue.

She didn’t even open her tightly shut eyes.

Step, step.

Someone approached her.

Since each step caused no tremors, it couldn’t be the monster.

When a hand touched her head, Karin flinched.

“Well done.”

At those long-awaited words, Karin opened her tightly shut eyes.

Instead of the monster, Villed with his black hair stood before her.

‘……It’s over.’

The tension melted away from her whole body.

Her face burned hot.

She felt like tears of relief would burst out, but she forced her eyes to hold them back.

If she moved even a single step, she would collapse right there.

Even so, she strained with all her might to support her trembling legs.

She didn’t want to show a disgraceful appearance in front of Villed.

She didn’t want to look weak.

Since they were in a cooperative relationship, she wanted to stand on equal footing.

With that thought, Karin endured desperately.

Kyaruru!

Laughter could be heard from somewhere.

And it wasn’t just a voice.

Behind Villed’s back, a translucent organism came into sight.

It was, a young…… ghost?

“Huuuhhh-!”

Losing the strength to stand, Karin fell hard on her butt.

Kyahaha, ebebe~.

Guseeeek!

Karin, fleeing with all the water drained from her face, and the mischievous ghost chasing her.

It looked about seven years old.

I recognized its identity at a glance.

‘Lucy Raymond.’

The owner of the gravestone set in the corner of the garden, and the ghost that had taken over the mansion.

In other words, the boss of this episode.

‘After clearing the first mission, it would suddenly appear, startling users or playing tricks on them.’

I knew every detail of this episode.

But even for me, a phenomenon hard to accept appeared before my eyes.

‘What kind of bug is this now.’

I fell into momentary contemplation as I saw the message appear before me.

A new Animal Friend is within a 50m radius!

Whenever an animal from was detected by the system, such a message would appear.

This was the third time.

‘But I can’t find even a trace of one here.’

The auditorium was empty of animals.

The sea otter already registered in the livestock shed was of course excluded.

‘If I had to point to something…… it’d be that ghost, right?’

Even if humans belonged to mammals.

It was the first time a human had been classified as an animal.

No, not even a human.

Wasn’t it already a dead ghost?

‘Even in the game I never experienced something like this, this is troublesome.’

It had to be something tied strictly to “animals.”

Was it just a simple error?

‘I don’t know. The system must have misrecognized it.’

Since glitches occasionally occurred, I didn’t dwell on it too much.

Kyahahaha!

“Haa, haa……”

Karin collapsed exhausted, drenched in cold sweat, while the little ghost roared with laughter at the sight.

Perhaps satisfied with Karin’s fierce reaction, the ghost drifted toward the wall.

It glanced back at us and gestured for us to follow.

Then it phased through the wall and vanished.

“Karin, are you okay?”

Lapin squatted down, asking in a worried tone.

Karin immediately stood, grabbed Lapin’s shoulders, and shook them as she shouted.

“L-Lapin, you saw the ghost too, right?!”

“Yeah. I want to play tag with the ghost too.”

“Right, it was so scary…… huh?”

“Karin playing along made the ghost look happy.”

“I wasn’t playing along……!”

Karin pouted again, then wiped her face with her sleeve and stood up.

As if she wanted to escape this place quickly, she looked around.

And a sigh of futility slipped out.

“……Haa, really.”

Her expression now showed she was fed up.

“The door we came through is gone. We’re trapped.”

It was just as Karin said.

With no exit, the space had become completely sealed.

The eerie atmosphere could certainly feel frightening.

But there was a way out.

“The ghost made a gesture as it passed through that wall.”

I approached the wall the spirit had gone through.

“……But it’s just a wall.”

“We’ll know once we check.”

With that, I knocked on the wall.

Tock, tock, a sound echoed.

I could feel empty space.

‘Around here.’

I pressed my palm to the wall and pushed with force.

Rumble!

Cracks spread across the wall, and it slowly shifted.

And a hidden space was revealed.

“……A passage?”

A staircase led down to the lower floor.

Like the hallway above, small lights flickered on either side.

Its end was covered in darkness, making it impossible to see where it led.

“Let’s go.”

I stepped onto the staircase first, with Lapin and Karin following.

Lapin yawned sleepily as she replied.

“Villed, where are we going?”

“We’ll know when we get there.”

That was my answer.

But I already knew where it would lead.

We had just been on the third floor.

Each time a mission was solved, stairs to the lower floor would open.

After clearing one more mission on the second floor, we could descend to the first floor to challenge the boss.

“W-wait. I have something to ask. How did you know about that room?”

Karin approached me and met my eyes as she spoke.

I wondered what she meant.

She must have been referring to the mission just now.

I looked into Karin’s eyes for a moment, then shifted my gaze forward as I replied.

“You saw it too, didn’t you. The waves that spread whenever a sound was made in the dark. The monster moved according to those waves.”

“……Come to think of it, I did see ripple-like waves from my voice and footsteps. That’s why it chased only me.”

Karin nodded as if convinced.

“In the darkness, abilities are neutralized, and if no waves are produced for about an hour, the monster disappears.”

“You sure knew that well.”

“It was just information I got from secret channels.”

“……Hmph, I guess the son of the Dedenkman family can get any information.”

As if something came to mind, Karin questioned me again.

“What about the other groups? If they fail to clear the mission and get eliminated……”

“Well, they probably won’t die.”

“……That’s unsettling. ‘Probably won’t die,’ you say.”

The cadets who were eliminated wouldn’t lose their lives.

Until the mission was cleared, the entire situation would just repeat endlessly.

If they couldn’t clear it after many tries, it could be considered an eternal hell.

Fortunately, it only lasted for three days and two nights.

‘Less than a quarter of cadets ever pass the missions.’

That was exactly why it had the infamous reputation of being a hellish school trip.

“We’ve arrived.”

Not long after, we reached the end of the staircase.

There was only an old door there.

I grabbed the doorknob and pushed it open.

“Ugh!”

Perhaps from being in the dark too long, our eyes were struck by a blinding light.

White walls and marble floors.

Looking around slowly, I realized this was a massive circular hall.

And in that hall……

“……Huh?”

“What, it’s Villed?”

Dozens of cadets had gathered there.

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