HTPTMOTMM Chapter 14

Looking down again at the man sprawled in front of me, I scratched my head with the gun in my hand. It was unpleasant, but what had already happened couldn't be helped.

Room 4 also seemed to sense the ominous atmosphere and asked me with a tense face.

"What, what is it exactly?"

So basically, you and I just entered a dungeon together.

Room 4 looked bewildered by the sudden situation.

Click, click!

Right then, suspicious sounds suddenly came from the door that had just closed by itself with a loud noise. It sounded like someone was forcibly turning the door handle.

Knock knock!

But the door wouldn't open, and soon knocking sounds came from the window next to the door.

"Argh! Shit, that scared me! What is that...!"

The cowardly Room 4 jumped in surprise. He seemed even more startled when he discovered some pale face floating outside the dark window. But I immediately recognized the familiar face bathed in moonlight and approached the window.

"Mr. Cheswick."

I could see Cheswick's hair, which looked more light brown than blonde in the darkness, swaying slightly in the wind.

Cheswick, wearing a light white shirt and black pants outside the window, alternately looked at me and Room 4 behind me. He seemed to be saying something, but no sound could be heard from inside. Cheswick also seemed to realize something and raised his hand to try opening the window. But the firmly locked window wouldn't budge.

Cheswick's brow furrowed. His mouth moved again.

'Win-dow-latch.'

This time he spoke slowly, syllable by syllable, so it wasn't difficult to read his lips. But the window wasn't locked because of the latch. I also tried to explain the situation to Cheswick while pretending to open the window.

"The door and windows are all locked."

When I slowly opened and closed my mouth while adding gestures, Cheswick seemed to roughly understand what I was saying.

"We can't open them right now, so wait there for a moment."

Cheswick tilted his head diagonally and stepped back, crossing his arms.

His gaze swept over me and Room 4 again in turn. Cheswick's eyebrows curved asymmetrically. He seemed to find this situation rather absurd. I could understand that. If someone you'd arranged to meet had locked all the doors and windows from inside the building, I'd react the same way.

"Huh, what. Newbie, did you arrange to secretly meet Room 2 here?"

That's when Room 4, who had been stuck to the floor, let out a hollow laugh.

"No way, how long have you known each other to already be hitting it off? Wow, I didn't think so, but that guy works pretty fast."

He hopped around like a magpie looking for his shoe that had come off when he fell, and watching his bobbing head was like looking at a drugged beetle. His bulging crown hair swayed like antennae.

Room 4, who had flown to the clock to find his shoe and squeezed his foot into it, now looked at me with a rotten smile.

"Or not? I haven't heard any rumors about Room 2 dating women until now... Should I say the new girl works fast? Well I'll be, that nerdy glasses guy is unexpectedly popular..."

"You're not being careful enough with your words in front of someone with a gun. We still haven't settled our business from earlier, mister."

"Wah, shit! Ah, okay! I'll shut up. Just put away that hideous thing...!"

When I aimed the gun half-threateningly, half-mockingly, Room 4 cowered again and stuck to the clock.

Geez, the more I looked at him, the more pathetic he seemed, making me not want to deal with him. So I just planned to quickly get what I needed and open the annex door, leaving Room 4 behind as I moved away from the first-floor lobby.

"This is ridiculous, really. Why do I have to be doing this with a pervert in the middle of the night?"

"What? Who's a pervert...! And I don't want to be with a violent woman like you either!"

"Then go, mister. I'm not stopping you. Who asked you to follow me?"

"B-but still, how can I let a woman go alone into such a dark place..."

The sounds of Room 4 and me alternately grumbling echoed in the quiet interior.

He and I were walking down the annex corridor together, just the two of us.

"Damn it. For the annex to suddenly become sealed off, what is this? The rumors about ghosts appearing in the annex can't actually be true..."

Actually, I'd tried to leave Room 4 alone on the first floor and move by myself since he wouldn't be any help with what I had to do. But he seemed too scared to be alone in a dark place with only the sound of clock hands, so he reluctantly followed me.

Well, after trying everything to open the door by himself and even attempting to break the windows but failing, he would have found it strange. I won't bother describing how pathetically Cheswick outside the window looked at him.

Anyway, so Room 4 seemed to have decided to follow me, who appeared to know something about this situation.

"Ha, I just came to date Sera, but I'm suddenly suffering like this... Why is my luck so bad today, really?"

But the local broadcast has been serious since earlier. Room 4 constantly muttered with a resentful voice as if this situation was very unfair.

Come to think of it, he said earlier that Sera sent him a note to meet here at midnight, right?

"If Sera is that pretty maid who was shooting you those withering, contemptuous looks in the hallway earlier, then yes."

"Contempt...! What do you know about Sera!"

At least I know her better than you do.

"Can't you tell from how she contacted me to meet alone tonight? Sera may seem a bit like that to others because she's naturally haughty, but she's actually really sweet and kind!"

It seemed like Room 4 was under a major delusion, so I couldn't help but laugh mockingly.

I doubt that pretty maid actually sent the letter, but if it's true, it seems like she did it just to mess with him.

Calling someone out secretly in the middle of the night to an annex rumored to have ghosts doesn't seem like good intentions, does it?

Even now, the annex corridor with no lights on was gloomy and dark. Still, with the lantern I'd brought, I could see ahead reasonably well.

Rustle!

"Argh!"

Though I didn't need to see the flying insects so clearly.

Room 4 flapped his arms like a flying cockroach this time and hid behind me.

Then he met my coldly chilled gaze and, face turning red, shuffled forward again awkwardly.

"Ahem, hmm! I'm a bit weak against bugs."

Room 4 coughed awkwardly in embarrassment. But perhaps because it was embarrassing to keep losing face in front of me, he suddenly got angry.

"Agh shit, and the atmosphere here is so damn creepy! Things keep popping out so of course I'd be startled! From gun-wielding women to bugs! At this rate, even if a real ghost appeared, I wouldn't be surprised!"

Hearing Room 4's final shout, I wanted to tell him not to forget those words later.

"But why are you going to the purple room? Don't you know there are rumors about strange sounds coming from there?"

"Ha, if you're going to keep being noisy, just go, mister."

"No, but why do you keep calling me mister? Do you know how old I am?"

"Do I need to know?"

"I'm frustrated, so remember this. I'm only twenty-seven!"

"Wow, you really don't look your age at all."

"What about my face...!"

Patter patter patter!

That's when light footsteps like a child running could be heard in the corridor.

Room 4 seemed to hear the sound too. His voice, which had been squawking, cut off abruptly.

"Maybe... the kids are playing pranks?"

Room 4's reality-denying voice echoed softly in the quiet corridor again.

Patter patter patter patter patter!

"Eugh."

As the footsteps grew louder, Room 4 flinched and made a strange sound. But anyway, this footstep ghost only made footstep sounds and didn't show itself, so there was no need to be scared.

Actually, what was more startling to people was...

[Haven't you seen our child anywhere?]

"Gasp!"

Here she comes, the woman in the black veil.

Not only the veil covering her face and head but also her clothes were black, so she really didn't stand out when standing in the darkness. Perhaps that's why Room 4 also made a genuinely dying sound when he saw the woman who had appeared soundlessly in the light.

I recalled the mansion rules from the manual books of previous rounds.

- Do not respond even if a woman in a black veil appears and asks questions in the corridor of the annex where the purple room is located.

[Where is our child?]

The veiled woman asked once more. But I ignored her and walked straight to the purple room door.

"Ah shit, that scared me. What the hell, who is— Miss, what are you doing alone in the annex at this hour too? Did everyone gang up on me today?"

But suddenly Room 4 started talking familiarly to the woman in the black veil.

I looked back at Room 4 with eyes mixed with bewilderment and confusion.

"Room 4 mister, what are you doing right now?"

"What do you mean? It's the Room 1 caregiver sister."

Room 4 grumbled as if he'd been startled for nothing.

"No wonder, when I first heard the rumors about ghosts appearing in front of the purple room, I thought it was nonsense. Everyone must have seen Room 1 sister and spread false rumors because they were scared. Well, wearing mourning clothes every day does look exactly like a ghost..."

Room 4 seemed to mistake the woman in the black veil for Marianne, the Room 1 caregiver who wore black clothes every day.

No...

But now that I think about it...

'They do seem really similar?'

Although the type of veil the Room 1 caregiver wore was different—so the woman who appeared now didn't show a single strand of hair—when I heard Room 4's words, the body shape and overall presence were indeed quite similar.

But that was definitely the ghost in front of the purple room that I'd seen every time in the game.

It probably just looked similar because of the clothing.

"Room 4 mister, don't do unnecessary things and just stay still, okay? That's not the Room 1 caregiver."

"No, do you think I've been seeing that sister for just a day or two? Today she's covered her face unlike usual... but I'm sure."

Room 4 suddenly began expressing baseless confidence. He'd been completely cowering just moments ago, but now he seemed to have developed delusions of grandeur.

"But Room 1 sister, what did you just say? Why are you looking for a child here at this hour? Did Lusca sneak out of his bedroom?"

[Haven't you seen our child anywhere?]

"No, I said I haven't seen him. How would I know when you don't even know?"

He fearlessly approached the woman in the black veil.

Sigh, he's finally responding. For reference, in the original game, if a player answered the black-veiled woman's questions three times, they would be cursed.

So while searching for the items needed to clear the episode in the purple room, they would receive debuffs like auditory hallucinations, visual hallucinations, and breathing difficulties. But since I was planning to enter the purple room alone anyway, it didn't matter whether Room 4 got cursed or not.

While Room 4 was talking with the black-veiled woman, I searched for and found the key to the purple room. Just as I remembered, it was tucked away in a small crevice beneath the fourth candlestick mounted along the right wall from the door.

I took it out and returned to the front of the door.

[Would our child prefer a purple ribbon or a yellow hat?]

"Planning to give a gift? If you're worried about it, buying both would be more your style."

[Would our child prefer a purple ribbon or a yellow hat?]

"I just told you. Buy both."

[Would our child prefer a purple ribbon or a yellow hat?]

Since indirect answers weren't processed as responses, the black-veiled woman repeated the same question several times. Room 4 also seemed to sense something strange.

"...Both would probably be good. But maybe he'd like the purple ribbon a bit more... I think."

[I want to remove the red flowers growing on our child's body—can you help me?]

"......"

The corridor suddenly became quiet.

Still, he must have had at least minimal awareness, because Room 4 didn't answer the black-veiled woman's final question.

"Hey, Room 7..."

While I was jingling the key in the door handle, Room 4 called out to me in a cautious voice.

"Is this really Room 1 sister?"

"I told you it wasn't."

Creak.

With a spine-chilling sound, the purple room door opened. I left Room 4 behind and entered inside.

"Just hold the door so it doesn't close in the middle."