Chapter 47
***
And in an instant, Cynthia woke from sleep.
“Huh?”
It was as if someone had forcibly jolted her awake. Her mind was cleared completely.
Startled, she sat up, feeling a dull ache across her back as if it had been pressed. Was this the price she’d finally pay for sleeping on the sofa like a noble lady for days?
But the sensation beneath her hand wasn’t the texture of a leather sofa.
It was a hard, cold floor.
“What… What is this? Where am I?”
Cynthia looked around in confusion. The sight before her was completely different from the last thing she had seen before falling asleep, and Segleninde was nowhere to be found.
She was no longer in the dressing room where she had last fallen asleep, but seated in an unfamiliar place.
The luxurious sofa—soft as a bed—was gone, replaced by the hard, cold floor welcoming her. The cramped room held nothing else, only a single door stood opposite her.
A small light overhead flickered as it swung, illuminating her vacant gaze, and a message appeared before Cynthia’s eyes.
“……”
Although no proper location label was shown, Cynthia immediately realized the nature of this room. It took less than a second for her wide eyes to warp in shock.
‘This is insane. Why does this have to happen now? I was supposed to just go up to the second floor!’
This was the gimmick that sometimes appears in RPG Maker–style games: a ‘place that exists on the map but does not exist’, where if the protagonist falls asleep or stays too long in a certain space, they are forcibly moved.
In Coffin of the White Rose, right after obtaining the Spring Garden key, if you fell asleep in the bed, you’d be randomly transported here. Those conditions had been met by Cynthia, so she had come to this place.
If one’s luck wasn’t utterly rotten, they could have stocked up appropriate items on the first floor before heading to the second. But if one’s luck was truly abysmal, they’d encounter this as soon as they started and be forced to reload. And Cynthia’s luck was absolutely atrocious.
Seeing that Segleninde wasn’t there alongside her, it appeared she had moved here alone. Normally, if she and her ally were in the same room, they both would be transported, but it seemed that detail had also changed in the update.
“I’m going crazy. Seriously.”
Cynthia got to her feet. In any case, staying here wouldn’t solve anything.
The number of things needed in this area suddenly increased. After obtaining the Spring Garden key, she should have looted the first floor thoroughly, farming many items. But she’d forgotten that entirely and had fallen asleep, leaving her empty-handed.
Stay calm, she repeated to herself as she approached the door.
‘This place consists of three rooms linked in succession.’
Each room had a single condition that had to be cleared to move on, and once all three were passed, she could exit to the outside and arrive directly on the second floor. Crucially, there was also a resting point with a bed where she could recover.
The problem lay in the conditions of those rooms. Cynthia recalled carefully before opening the door.
In the first room, there were five bronze bowls.
Each bowl had a random body part name—‘tongue’, ‘hand’, ‘foot’, ‘tooth’, ‘heart’—written on it. If she offered as a sacrifice the corresponding creature part or item obtained by exploring the first floor, the door to the next room would open.
If even one required item was missing, the protagonist’s own body parts would have to substitute.
In other words, if she had nothing to sacrifice, she’d have to use her own—or her ally’s—body for all of them. Up to three could be handled by one person’s body. After passing to the end, she could recover from her injuries at the resting point.
But now, without any ally or items, Cynthia had no way to fulfill the conditions.
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