“…what?”
I felt like I did when I first opened my eyes again. A buzzing sound sounded, my hands and feet felt as cold as ice, and my eyesight continued to look distorted. No. Was the temperature high? I was ignorant of it. In any case, I felt quite cold.
It’s not as though the seasons abruptly changed. Why do I think this way?
My forehead felt warmer than normal when I touched it, though perhaps it wasn’t. It was obvious that his physical state was poor.
Alright, it’s worthwhile.
Since I began to live in the game, every day has been challenging, but yesterday was the most challenging day to date. I remember being completely taken aback one day while standing outside in the rain. The spider-thing, the way Luke’s face changed and he attacked them, and Catherine Hunt’s demise. Because there was nothing about what I went through yesterday that I could simply accept. I got up, but I was sweating and having chills all the time, so it was hard for me to even change into clean clothing. I dressed appropriately and was ready to head down to the restaurant when I made the decision to turn around. I would only worry needlessly if I appeared in this state, and above all, I was not hungry.
“In actuality… Apart from everything else, I detest Luke’s expressions.
When I wasn’t watching Luke, it was quite simple for me to go through all of my feelings and reasoning. However, everything seemed hazy and challenging when I glanced at his face, particularly his eyes. Occasionally, and I realized it was a ridiculous comparison for him, he had the appearance of a lost puppy dog. It got hard for me to criticize him too at times like those.
“He’s nothing more than an egregious killer.”
I tried to keep my composure and came up with a good excuse to skip breakfast.
‘Inspector Triver asked me to attend.’
As it happened, I was glad to go see the inspector because I wanted to get him involved quickly so that he wouldn’t go on about what I tipped him off to yesterday. I recalled the map I remembered in my head. The city structure of <Night of the Murderers> was so simple that there was no need for a mini-map. The name of the entire map was ‘Park’. There was a castle in the very center of the park, and the characters’ houses and major buildings were lined up radially around it. Places such as the royal castle, police station, bank, brewery, mill, library, temple, magic tower, circus performance hall, and butcher shop can obtain different items and effects, but players cannot visit them without permission. You only gain permission to open the door through an event with a related character. There were definitely various items that could be obtained inside the police station. It’s better to go when you have the chance.
‘The only thing that’s unfortunate is that it’s been a long time since I’m going out, so if I had a little money… what?’
Suddenly, I looked at the top of the status window and saw that my poor balance, which had only 0G, had increased to 200G.
‘Payday! Today is the last day of the month.’
Considering that a decent meal in this world costs 1-2G, 200G was quite a generous amount of money.
‘They made quite a campaign to hire me, and the employment conditions are not bad.’
Luke’s smile that I was pretending to really like suddenly came to mind, so I quickly shook my head, forced myself to cheer up, and changed my clothes. After resting for a while, I finally got up, grabbed one of the kitchen maids with a frown on her face, asked her to tell her that I would be skipping breakfast today, and headed outside. The air outside was damp and humid. The weather was full of clouds, as if it wouldn’t be surprising if it rained again at any time. Because it was cloudy, I wasn’t feeling well yet, but I felt droopy.
‘Ah, really, I understand why Europeans sit together in the park like sparrows and bask in the sun when the sun comes out.’
It would kill me to live in a horror game where the weather was cloudy every day.
I walked along the main street just as I remembered, muttering on my inhale ‘murderer bastard’ and on my exhale ‘I have to see the true ending.’ I kept breathing hot and my head was spinning, but I guess I just have to do my business quickly and go back home, right? But not even five minutes after thinking that, I collapsed on the floor.
‘And. It won’t work.’
It’s not that far, but it’s very difficult. Now that I think about it, when I was a player, I could increase my movement speed, and in most cases, I would automatically move to the event location. I felt like I was dying to come here and do it all on foot. I had no choice but to tell the coachman that I would pay 2G out of my bloody money and move on. After all, spending money was good.
The carriage was more comfortable than it looked, and it was fun to just leisurely check out the locations of the buildings while passing through the main street. And if you roll down the front window, you can have a chat with the coachman, and the lady in her stylish fedora happily accepts my chat.
“Hello. Please go to the police headquarters.”
“What are you visiting the Metropolitan Police Department for?”
“Oh, I just want to tell you something.”
“Oh my, someone said that. Aren’t you Miss Green?”
I was surprised and looked back at the woman who was skillfully pulling the reins. Arbice Green was essentially a mediocre character who leaves quickly. There was nothing to attract attention to, and nothing to show off. But I didn’t know that her face was so popular that even passing NPCs knew about me.
“Do you know me?”
“Sure! I heard that you’re Rearmond’s tutor?”
“Do you even know that?”
The lady smiled and looked back at me.
“What are you talking about? Isn’t there anyone who is as quick with rumors as we are? There are so many rumors about you.”
“Even though…”
“How picky is Luke about who he let into the house? It’s been over a year since the kids were adopted, but the tutor candidates were cut off after they couldn’t last a week? The whole city was talking for a week just because you were working as a formal governess.”
‘And… I didn’t want to attract attention… That goal has been completely shattered.’
I smiled bitterly and nodded at her.
“Well, it’s nice that you recognize me.”
“Wow, I guess you must have accumulated great virtue in your past life. I can’t believe you can work while seeing Duke Rearmond every day. How good is it, huh?”
“…well.”
The reason I spoke to this lady in the first place was because I wanted to ask her outsiders about Luke, but I was starting to have a feeling I was wrong. Sure enough, contrary to my expectations, the carriage driver started praising the Lakers with tears in her mouth before I could say anything else.
“Oh, he doesn’t just have a handsome face and a nice body?”
“…is it so?”
“Sure. He is so kind that he donates a lot to temples and medical centers. Thanks to him, my nephew’s finger, which was almost crippled, was cured. My nephew works security.”
“… I’m glad, really.”
“Ugh, sure. While standing guard, he suddenly collapsed, and when he woke up, his finger was cut off. She got into a really crazy accident and she couldn’t even remember what happened because she was so traumatized. She was such a mess.”
‘Hmm? She has no memory?’
Nothing, anything plausible, came to mind. But as I listened to the woman praise Luke, my thoughts of being caught were soon erased from my mind. As I listened to the praise, I became more and more amazed. After she kills someone, there’s probably no one walking around with ‘I’m a murderer’ written on her forehead, and there’s no one going around praising her like this, right?
‘Well, you have to manage your image to this level so that you don’t get summoned once even if you are seen at the scene of a serial murder, right?’
The coachman even told me as soon as he found out that I was working at Rearmond’s house, that he wouldn’t take the money. At this point, you’re not just praising him because of his high status, but you truly think he’s a good person, right?
‘Everyone is probably being fooled by his appearance.’
Yes, just looking at his smooth face, I felt like I heard the sound of an angel’s bell somewhere and felt like a bright light was shining down on me. It’s not that I didn’t understand. The carriage lady first praised Luke’s good deeds, and later she praised his perfect stature and her face, and only then did she stop the carriage.
When I got down in front of the Metropolitan Police Department, I didn’t know whether my headache was because I wasn’t feeling well or because I was worried about Luke.
“Goodbye!”
The coachman declined the money he offered and waved me cheerfully. When I grabbed the coin I had held out and put it back in my pocket, the amount of money that had decreased in the status window increased again to its original size.
‘Ugh, I don’t know.’
I gave up on collecting more information about Luke’s reputation and headed to the Metropolitan Police Department building. The five-story building, entirely painted in bright blue, was really unnecessarily large. At the entrance, there was a flag with a drawing of some kind of salamander or something and a flag holding a sprout and a star in the palm of the hand, and the entrance boasted an enormous height of 3 meters. When I found Inspector Triver, they led me straight to the spot. Unfortunately, the inspector was not there. A scrawny police officer took me over, sat me down across from him, and picked up a pen.
“Welcome. All we have to do is investigate references, so it will be over quickly… This, but your complexion is so bad… Are you okay?”
“…Ah yes.”
The officer looked at my complexion one more time, clicked his pen a few times, and asked carefully.
“Were you acquainted with Catherine Hunt?”
I shook my head.
“That’s all we’ve talked about once.”
“Okay. Then why did you go to the alley in front of Hunt Street last night? And was there anyone who saw it in the alley?”
A person who witnessed it… Luke was also discovered with me, so there would be no use mentioning his name.
“There were no people, but I saw some kind of monster.”
“A monster?”
“It was a monster in the shape of a very large spider…”
“…That day, I heard you collapsed. It seems like you were dreaming.”
I stopped talking and kept my mouth shut. The officer treated me like I was talking nonsense, which seemed to confirm that the spider’s appearance was unusual. At this point, it was impossible to get more information from the officer. As I continued to answer in a more insincere manner, a list of case files suddenly appeared in the pile of materials next to his desk.
<Luke Rearmond>
While I was in a daze, my eyes opened brightly. There were people in the Metropolitan Police Department who doubted him.
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Translator Note:
Hello there! This is RJR. I hope you liked it <3
If you like my work please support me with Ko-fi or Patreon. Next post will be released on September, 26.
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