Chapter 97
The one who had betrayed was not Segleninde, but herself.
That fact stabbed at her heart like a needle of guilt with every step she took as she ran. But Cynthia did not look back. It was already too late for that.
She easily crossed the corridor where all the creatures had been killed and disappeared, making her way down to the First Floor, then kept running and running, ignoring the streaks of black blood and lumps of flesh strewn along the corridor by the dressing room.
[If he really lost his memory, then why did he let you live?] [That’s impossible. If that’s the case, then he, Segleninde is…]
She didn’t even have time to take in the teddy bear’s stream of complaints appearing in message windows before her eyes.
That was enough. It was done, regardless of whether the mastermind was hurt or not. At last, she could finally escape from this accursed world. Even if one corner of her heart ached, it didn’t matter.
This was not her world. After all, this place was only inside a game. Even if she’d fallen in love with and slept with a character from this world, it was all just a story within a virtual reality. All she had to do now was return to reality.
That’s all she had to do. She kept repeating it to herself in her heart, but the gloom simply wouldn’t go away.
Was it because Segleninde’s wounded gaze kept resurfacing in her mind? Or was it because she wanted to go back and hold him, even now?
It was a foolish sentiment. If she did go back now, she would die.
This was a false world, and even this body was not truly her own. She had to return the body to ‘Cynthia Obel’ and go back to Earth.
A commotion rose from far away.
“Oh my God, the doors really opened! Thank you, Lord!”
“Waaah! Aaaaahhhh!”
She saw people running out wildly from the first banquet hall. They were the survivors who had somehow managed to stay alive by sticking together until now. In the original game, she could have formed a companion relationship with them.
Cynthia spotted a familiar man dashing past her. Once overweight when she first saw him, he had lost all his excess flesh over the past few days—Count Obel, Cynthia’s father.
He was running without even noticing his daughter nearby, not looking back even once, muttering something like a madman with bloodshot eyes as he disappeared into the distance. She caught the words, “I lived, I lived, I’m alive!” or something similar.
Other than Cynthia, there were a total of five survivors. Three people, including Count Obel, had just escaped out the mansion. The other two were running behind her.
“Wait, you survived too? It’s amazing we never ran into each other all this time, ah! I don’t care! I just want to go home!”
A talkative noblewoman rushed past Cynthia, shouting.
“Haaah, ah! Finally out! Finally!”
A knight with a badly bandaged wound also rushed by her and sped away.
Cynthia stopped in her tracks.
Among those who had gone ahead, and those who had just dashed past her, Melissa was nowhere to be seen.
RUMBLE!
A massive rumble shook the mansion from the upper floors.
[This isn’t the time for this. You have to run! Get out, Cynthia!]
Only after seeing the teddy bear’s urgent message, as if to snap her out of it, did Cynthia start moving again.
She needed to get out first. Maybe Melissa had already escaped. Or perhaps she’d been dead from the very beginning. Either way, it didn’t matter. Melissa Moltz was ‘Cynthia Obel’s’ maid, someone unrelated to her.
The door was right in front of her. If she just got out, she could go home. Back to Earth, which she missed so much. The days of going between work and home without thinking, browsing forums for fun new games.
She thought to herself that after she got back, she’d avoid horror gore games for a while. Maybe even quit gaming altogether. Find a more pleasant, peaceful hobby.
Just as Cynthia steadied her ragged breathing and finally reached the wide open door—
“Miss!”
A voice called out from behind, grabbing her by the ankle.
Cynthia turned around in a daze. Melissa was standing in the middle of the banquet hall.
“Melissa…?”
Without realizing it, she felt relief and her face brightened…
But then the ceiling collapsed, and enormous white tentacle-vines came crashing down.
The tentacles, looking just like those plant stems she recognized, instantly coiled around Cynthia, as if to devour her whole.
“I remember everything now. Yes… this is what I wanted to say from the start, but I’d forgotten.”
BOOOOOM!
She heard the door behind her slam shut. Cynthia was buried in the mass of thick tentacles enveloping her entire body, and beyond them she could see Segleninde’s beaming smile.
“Hello, Cynthia. Welcome to my mansion.”
Just before she lost consciousness, the system sent one last message.
You have reached the ‘White Rose Coffin’ Ending!
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