How to Survive as the Horror Game Villain’s Fake Fiancée - Chapter 153

※ This book contains depictions of coercive/dubcon/noncon acts, violence, and gore. Reader discretion is advised.

Princess Cynthia, Holy Knight Cynthia, Detective’s Assistant Cynthia, Maid Cynthia, Mage Cynthia, Noblewoman Cynthia—they were all Shin Sia herself.

Fighting against him, accepting him as an ally and building affection, being betrayed, being imprisoned or bound, being deceived by him, leaving hints and fragments of her consciousness for her next cycle. All of it was her.

Everything. Absolutely everything.

“At first, I died by your hands so many times. You relentlessly chased me and my companions, playing with us. You pretended to be an ally and toyed with us, only to orchestrate our slaughter later. There were times you deceived me until the very end, even after I grew attached to you.”

[……]

“I know. From the middle onward, you stopped killing me and tried to persuade me to stay in the mansion. I know you genuinely developed feelings for me. You must have done it because you knew I’d die if I left the mansion anyway.”

Even after seeing the ending in the mansion, Sia couldn’t return to reality right away.

She would end up registered as a missing person and live as someone declared dead, only to be quietly poisoned.

Or she would be condemned as a heretic and burned at the stake.

Or, even when she lived an ordinary life, she would die in some accident.

In that world, it always ended in a swift and gruesome death.

Even if it wasn’t Segleninde, she never wanted to go back to a place filled with such horrific memories.

[In your previous experiences, the reason you died was because this world wouldn’t accept you.]
[But now the causality has been fully established, so this world won’t reject you anymore.]
[You won’t die anymore.]
[I won’t let that happen.]
[So please……]

“That still doesn’t make it acceptable, the fact that you killed me so many times before.”

Despair flickered across Segleninde’s face, which had already been full of anxiety.

Sia found it too painful to keep looking at his expression. She gripped the laptop screen with trembling hands and spoke coldly.

“I can’t forgive you.”

Clack.

As she closed the laptop, the power light went out as well.

For a while, she couldn’t open the laptop, nor could she leave its side. She just covered her face with both hands.

* * *

Some time later, Sia was able to get a part-time job at a convenience store not far from home.

She didn’t know if she should call it lucky, but at least not everything was going badly.

Her phone had been declared completely broken and had to be replaced, but she was able to recover her contacts, so she kept in touch with the colleagues who’d been fired with her from the last company.

With her part-time job, she found herself needing to open her laptop more often to look for a new job.

The problem was…

Ding—

“Ugh, again…?”

Every time she opened her laptop, the ‘Coffin of the White Rose’ game window would start up.

At first, only Segleninde kept showing up, trying to persuade her. But when Sia started closing the laptop without answering him after their first reunion, others began to appear after that.

After Segleninde, the next one to come and try to persuade her was Melissa.

[Milady…]

Sia flinched at the sight of Melissa, who was teary-eyed on the screen.

[Milady, are you doing well?]
[…You’re not going to come back, are you?]
[I know it’s shameless to ask, but please, for my sake……]

Once again, a flood of memories washed over her.

When Sia had transmigrated as a maid, Melissa had been cold to her at first. But whether it was on Earth or in that world, Shin Sia had never had a family, so she treated Melissa—who trained her as a maid—like an older sister. And maybe because of that, Melissa gradually opened up to her as well.

[I deceived you, too, of course.]
[There were times I harmed you as well.]
[I truly… I want to apologize for that so much.]
[I miss you terribly……]

Sia also came to know exactly why Melissa had been working as a maid at the Count’s manor.

Melissa’s role was to keep watch and make sure her new body and fate were safely guided to the Wincastle Manor whenever Segleninde crafted a new vessel for her. At the same time, she watched to see when Shin Sia’s soul would possess that empty body.

And even before being assigned that duty, Melissa had been the loyal head maid of the mansion, mercilessly tearing apart anyone who reached the third floor.

Among those victims was also Shin Sia herself, who had died so many times on the third floor before ever transmigrating as a maid.