Crack! The familiar, tear-jerking laughter echoed in the air.
The moment I heard it, every hair on my body stood on end!
It was the haunting voice of the woman responsible for a week of nightmares that I could never forget.
“NO, I DON’T WANT TO, …NO, NO, NO, NO, NO…!!”
“Uh, E-Emily…?”
Raphne, who was searching under the bed, quickly raised her head in surprise at Emily’s panicked voice.
“NO, DON’T COME, D-DON’T COME…!!”
Heeheeheeheeheeee!! Kyaahhahahaha!!
The long-haired woman crept closer to Emily with a spine-chilling smile.
Sniip, sniip.
She deliberately made the sound of metal clashing against metal, stirring Emily’s terrifying memories.
The sharp pain of scissors cutting through flesh flooded back.
The fear of her body being sliced away came rushing in.
“NO, NONONONONONOOO━!!”
Screaming, Emily shook her head wildly as she sank to the floor, crawling away from the monster of a woman.
But soon enough, thump, she crashed into the wall.
“No, D-DON’T COME…!”
With the figure of the approaching woman looming closer and closer, Emily sobbed and tears fell, recalling the image of death with her pale face and trembling eyes.
BAMMM!!
“E-Emily, are you okay?”
With a single kick from Raphne, the long-haired woman was sent crashing into the wall.
The vibrations echoed through the mansion as cracks ran through the walls.
“Whaat! W-What’s happening?!”
Coming in rush were the voices of Elise and the others who heard the commotion, and just like that, the brief trauma came to an end.
“Sniff, Raphne…sniff”
Emily gazed at Raphne, who saved her, with tear-filled eyes.
“Thanks, thank you… sniff thank you…”
“N-No, it’s… E-Emily?”
“Thank you so much… sniff”
With tears streaming down her face, Emily had panicked earlier, but now she clung to Raphne, who helped her.
“It’s okay, …it’s okay.”
Raphne gently petted Emily’s head to calm her down, remembering when Ken used to do the same for her when she cried.
‘…So this is how it felt for me,’
Raphne thought as she looked at the crying Emily, imagining how she felt when she clung to Ken.
“Wooow… So this is what Ken meant by illusions.”
“Indeed, it comes out like this… Definitely an actual entity.”
Siegfried and Elise rushed in and watched as the scissors-wielding woman faded into dust.
“…I hope the others are okay?”
“They said they wouldn’t get hurt, so it should be fine.”
“Seeing Emily like this, I think getting hurt isn’t the issue anymore.”
Elise looked worriedly at the trembling Emily.
Meanwhile, elsewhere.
Adrian was also combing through rooms looking for keys when he suddenly stopped in front of one door.
“Senpai? Why are you standing there without going in?”
Alicia, who was exploring nearby, looked at the room Adrian was watching curiously.
“Whoa… What in the world is this? Ugh, disgusting!”
The sight Adrian beheld was a mountain of corpses scattered across a space far too large for a mere mansion.
“…Is this the illusion Ken talked about?”
A vision conjured from the depths of human fear, Adrian tightened his grip on the doorknob.
“What a dreadful mansion.”
Then, raising one hand and snapping his fingers,
Flickering blaze!
A small ember sprang up at his fingertips.
I’ll burn it all.
Just as he was about to unleash a massive flame,
“Kyaaaaa! What are you doing, you crazy senpai━!!”
Smack!
Alicia’s tiny hand struck Adrian’s head.
“Are you planning to burn down the mansion?! Have you lost your mind?! We’ll all die!”
Adrian extinguished the small flame at Alicia’s horrified shout, suddenly realizing what he had almost done.
‘…Setting fire to a mansion…’
It wasn’t something the usual Adrian would think of.
His rationality had vanished in the face of the horrifying sight before him.
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have shown you something so horrifying.”
“What if you become an arsonist with that kind of mindset!”
Alicia glared at Adrian, shifting her gaze between him and the gruesome scene inside the room.
“Is it really that hard to look at?”
“Seeing a pile of corpses? Who’d want to see that?”
“Phew, I can’t let this slide! I’ll have to step up!”
Alicia placed her hands on her hips as if making a grand statement, while Adrian tilted his head in confusion.
Alicia then placed her hand on his shoulder, locking eyes with him.
“Fearful things will not be visible in this mansion.”
A strange pattern appeared above Alicia’s eyes.
As her voice resonated, the magic from her eyes entered Adrian’s eyes.
In that instant, the mountain of corpses vanished.
“What do you think? Awesome, right? Aren’t I impressive?”
With Adrian’s fear gone, the room’s terrifying sight disappeared as well.
Seeing this, Alicia smirked and posed for praise with an air of arrogance.
Adrian, who had been staring blankly at everything, finally cracked a smile and ruffled her hair.
“I’m in your debt. Thanks.”
Alicia’s cheeks turned a rosy hue at his sudden gesture.
“Whoa~ if the flower boy senpai is sincere like this, it’s kind of embarrassing.”
“Wasn’t that how you wanted it?”
“Well, kinda, but…”
Having resolved the illusion, they returned to their search for the key.
*
Hearing the commotion from the others, Ken and Mary were scouring another room together.
“What’s going on? It feels like everyone is in a mess…”
Mary trembled, feeling a chill as she opened a closet.
“Um, they’re probably being scared by something.”
The mansion, aptly named the Ghost Mansion of Koongpoh, was themed after haunted houses.
Ken casually replied while recalling various scenes from the event he had seen in the game.
“Ken isn’t scared…?”
Mary, shaken by his calmness, asked with wide eyes.
“Well, …it’s not like anyone gets hurt, and it’s all just illusions. Once you know they’re fake, it’s less frightening.”
“That’s amazing… I want to be as brave as you, Ken.”
“Haha, I’m not brave, Mary. I’m just not scared.”
Unlike the composed Ken, Mary felt displeased with her trembling self.
Noticing her expression, Ken hastily added, “Actually, I think it’s brave of you to face your fears, even while scared.”
“Is that so?”
Ken’s kind words definitely intended to comfort her, but still, Mary’s heart fluttered at being called brave.
With her cheeks flushing, Mary smiled shyly as the fear slowly faded away.
“Um, it doesn’t look like there’s a key here, should we check another room?”
As Ken prepared to leave the room, wanting to move on, Mary closed the closet door and turned to follow him when—
Splish!
A sound that shouldn’t have been heard echoed from beneath Ken’s feet.
Both looked down, bewildered.
From under his feet emerged a massive puddle of water.
In shock at the unreal sight, Ken gawked in disbelief.
“Waaaaaaah!!”
Swoosh! Splash!
The sensation beneath his feet vanished, and he was soon pulled underwater.
“K-KEN!!”
Mary’s face turned pale upon seeing this and immediately fell to her knees, calling his name while leaning over the puddle.
But it was no use; Ken was already deep under.
‘I-I need to call someone…!’
Realizing she couldn’t help him, Mary quickly turned to exit the room.
But…
There was no door where it should have been.
“……Huh?”
Just a blank wall.
The walls were entirely filled with brick, and there was no door to escape through.
“Aah, no, no…!!”
She knocked on the wall in despair, but the door she hoped for remained absent.
BAMMM!!
Even trying to break through a massive ice shard against it yielded only more solid wall behind it.
“K-Ken….”
With no way out and unable to seek help, staring at Ken’s submerged silhouette left Mary in utter despair.
If this went on, he would die.
She had to jump in and save him.
…But holding her body back was the fear of getting wet.
Gripped tightly by the sensation of water, Mary froze.
But then, she saw bubbles rising to the surface.
‘If this continues… Ken will die.’
Memories of his body lying cold days before rushed back to her.
Overwhelmed by the anxiety of becoming soaked, Mary dived into the puddle without a second thought.
SPLASH!
‘…K-Ken!’
As she swam through the water, fear twisting her pale face, Ken appeared far beneath her.
“…V-Ventus…!”
With a stream of air escaping from her mouth, Mary shouted her spell, invoking the simple wind magic.
As the incantation fell, a gust of wind gathered around her legs, becoming a force that propelled her swiftly forward.
In no time, she reached Ken’s submerged form.
“WHOOSH!!”
With her help, Ken broke the surface, sputtering for air as he pulled Mary up too.
“Mary! Are you okay?! You’re soaked!”
As they emerged onto the mansion’s wooden floor, the puddle vanished without a trace.
Ken pulled a large towel from his Subspace Pocket to dry her off.
Mary trembled, not due to feeling cold, as Ken knew well how much that sensation terrified her.
Yet, this time, Mary smiled her pale face at him.
“…I’m just glad you’re alright.”
“I’m sorry, I was careless and got you—”
“No, …it’s okay.”
Shaking off the water, Mary leaned her damp head against his chest.
“…I was more afraid of you dying than of getting wet.”
Now celebrating her relief at having saved him outweighed her fear of being drenched.
The memory of Ken’s cold body resurfaced.
Now, haunted by that trauma, she felt thankful that her body was merely wet.
“Ken-senpai! Elise-senpai found the key…! W-What happened?! You’re soaked!”
Thus, the key hunt came to a safe conclusion.
*
“Are you feeling better now?”
“Yeah… Thanks to Ken drying me, I’m all good now.”
No longer soggy, Mary had dried off thanks to the dryer I created and a few dry towels.
“Then let’s open it.”
As Mary finished her grooming, we stood in front of the door leading to the next room.
With Adrian leading the way, he inserted the key he found into the locked lock.
Click.
The sound of gears turning accompanied the unlocking of the lock.
Creeeak.
The huge double doors opened simultaneously, revealing the next room.
This room was the last, if I recalled correctly.
‘…Now the important part begins.’
Upon entering through the opened doors, a vast empty room greeted us.
All that was present was the entrance door and a mysterious statue opposite it.
Aside from that, the place was entirely surrounded by brick walls.
“…What are we supposed to do this time?”
As everyone looked around, Elise muttered in confusion.
And at that moment.
Click, click.
“Kyaa! It moved!”
Something that had been stuck for ages began cracking and let out a voice as Emily pointed at the front.
What she indicated was the statue directly ahead.
The statue bore the upper torso of a woman with wings while its lower body was embedded in the wall.
Considering its appearance, one thing came to mind.
A Sphinx.
That statue brought to life the troublesome riddles of Egypt slowly raised its bowed head.
And then—
Flash!
“I-it opened its eyes! How creepy!”
As the stone eyelids peeled back, they revealed living eyes peering forth, surveying the room with a ghastly feeling.
A moment later, as the moving eyes stopped—
[If you answer my riddle, I will grant you passage.]
A voice, normal for humans, emerged from the statue.
“A riddle…?”
Siegfried murmured as he heard the statue’s voice.
And as if responding, the statue continued speaking.
[However, if your answer is incorrect, you lose the right to remain here. Leave this place.]
This was the last gate of the mansion event.
The reason why completing this event might be impossible.
‘As expected, it’s this again…’
I had hoped to find something different, but like in the game, that statue was always the one presenting the riddle.
While the missions leading up to this point popped up at random with every event attempt.
The last mission always concluded with this statue’s quiz.
And if you got it wrong, the event would end, and everybody would be kicked out of the mansion.
The riddle posed is as follows—
[Answer what I, knowing everything, do not know.]
It posed a paradoxical question.
When I first faced this event, I believed there had to be some sort of answer.
I sought others’ strategies and rummaged through the developers’ manuals, searching for hints around the mansion.
But the conclusion was always—
There was no answer.
No matter how absurdly I responded, I was met with a wrong answer and ultimately got kicked out of the mansion.
What I realized was one simple truth.
The mansion event was not meant to be cleared in the first place.
In truth, being chased out by this figure was the completion of the event.
Ultimately, we had reached this ending.
“To say I should answer what you, knowing everything, don’t know…”
“How the heck are we supposed to know that?!”
With this many people, I thought maybe someone might crack the answer, but that didn’t seem likely either.
‘…But this is reality.’
An event that cannot be cleared.
Testing whether it was possible to complete this event was my reason for joining the mansion event.
If so, I had to find a way to tackle the challenge.
In the game, I had no choice but to answer the riddle, but now in reality, I thought about breaking the door down…
“Ah! I think I know the answer!”
At that moment, Alicia, who had been quietly pondering, raised her hand.
“Huh? You know the answer?”
“Haha, this should be child’s play!”
With confidence, Alicia puffed out her chest.
‘…Did she find some hidden clue?’
We had all been searching the mansion together. Perhaps she discovered something that I overlooked while previously playing.
“Wait, hold on, Alicia! If you get it wrong, we’ll get kicked out!”
Emily warned her, uncertain if she could trust Alicia’s claim.
But Alicia just winked confidently.
“Don’t worry! I know the answer!”
Then she boldly stepped forward,
Standing before the statue that awaited her answer.
Gulp.
I held my breath, waiting for her answer, feeling nervous she might actually have it.
Facing the statue, Alicia opened her mouth.
“Open.”
As the pattern floated above her eyes—
[Yes~!]
Click!
The door swung open.
