After the police officer left, I was gathering my thoughts alone and when I came out, Mrs. Blier quickly approached me.
“Are you going up to your room?”
“Yes? Ah yes. But since I have to meet someone from the dressing room soon, I thought I’d just play with the kids.”
Mrs. Blier looked at me with worried eyes and shook her head.
“I don’t know how worried the officer was.”
“…that.”
This was because the police officer did not believe what the person said and misunderstood it.
‘What on earth did you say that made you look so worried?’
“I said you should get some rest. Let’s go up.”
From the beginning, I had infinite trust and affection for the save characters, and after coming here, I received a lot of help from Mrs. Blier and relied on her. She gave me a look of concern and I couldn’t refuse her insistence.
“…all right. I’ll get some rest.”
I went up to the room, almost as if I was being kicked out. Perhaps the officer’s warning was related to my mental health, but Mrs. Blier left after covering me with a cotton blanket that was a bit thick for autumn and even giving me warm quince tea. As I watched the red hair disappear through the crack in the door, I admitted that it felt good to be cared for by someone. While fiddling with the blanket that covered my neck, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
‘If I escape this game and return completely to the original world, I will also be parting ways with Mrs. Blier.’ As soon as that thought came to mind, I pulled up the blanket and jumped up from my seat.
‘Aren’t you crazy? What are you thinking now? So are you going to live in this horror game? Dozing off every day? When are you afraid of being stabbed to death with an ax or a knife?’
Really, I also became complacent. I didn’t understand and fell for it. To come to my senses, I tapped both my cheeks loudly. Even though it was daunting, I wasn’t too scared, so I seemed to think this way. No, I’m scared to death… It was really, really scary. Among those fears, the fear of the Lakers was included, but the fear of the kidnapper was somehow diluted a lot.
‘But shouldn’t we be more afraid of that strange monster that doesn’t die even when we shoot at it?’
I may have unconsciously accepted and felt comfortable with this situation in which the Lakers are protecting me. I lay down and ruffled my hair.
‘…I’m really amazed.’
Perhaps Inspector Triver, the representative figure of collusion between politics and business, might be better than me.
‘It’s better to be paid by a murderer, than to be protected by a murderer… How on earth can I be thankful beyond that…’
I muttered to myself to come to my senses and quickly opened the case notebook. However, no matter how much I looked through the case notebook, there was no new information added. I kept checking, but there was only a new article clipped about the incident in which I was kidnapped and returned. I let out a sigh of disappointment and reopened the page with the expected victims.
[Possible victim: Monica Paulo
Residence: Royal Palace
Note: Cooperating with investigation into disappearance of colleague Wayne Issue. He said he received a letter with a picture of a crow.]
As expected, the only things written were things related to Monica. It was time for the next expected victim after Monica to be revealed, but it seemed like that wasn’t even there yet.
‘When you’re a player, it’s not about preventing someone from dying, it’s about having someone die for events to unfold… It was a really useful notebook that helped me collect data on dead people. It doesn’t help that much anymore.’
Unfortunately, I folded the notebook and tried clicking on other windows.
[Item: 6-shot pistol. 0 exclusive bullets. You can look up usage instructions.]
There was nothing unusual other than the fact that the six-shot revolver had run out of bullets. I took out the revolver from the item window, held it in my hand, and aimed it at the ceiling. I felt like the sensation of actually using this came alive in my hands.
‘It would be nice if we could use this more properly. You can’t be protected by Luke forever, right?’
Suddenly, I remembered what the kidnapper had said to me while I was aiming the gun. This was what he muttered as he continued to giggle, as if my having a gun was just a fun pastime.
‘It’s Luke’s bullet, yes?’
‘It hurts just a little bit. Just a little bit.’
‘Seeing as you mentioned Luke’s bullets, does that mean that each type of bullet has different additional functions?’
I suddenly remembered the secret shop in the affinity event with Milorad Drassel. Apparently, among the very high quality and rare items there were bullets. I frowned and tried to recall as much as I could.
‘It seems like there was some kind of special effect…’
However, since it was not a price that could be purchased with the money I had in the game, I had never purchased it, so I did not remember its effect. <Night of the Murderers> was an optional game, so you couldn’t make money through repetitive grinding, so no matter how many times you replayed it, it was still expensive. Anyway, no matter what effect it has, considering the effects of the other items in the secret shop, it’s probably pretty good.
‘…They say you need to raise some money before going to Milorad’s shop…’
I was lost in thought again and clicked on various windows almost out of habit. The place where my hand suddenly stopped was the likeability window.
[Rangviel McRae Lv.2
Latte Locker Lv.2
Luke Rearmond Lv.4
Luna Lv.3
Lemuet Larousse Lv.1
Milorad Drasel Lv.1
Blanthe Victoria Arena Lv.1
Blier White Lv.2
Shine Lv.3
Amanta Valve Lv.1
Amber Lemon Lv.1
Alay Kus Lv.3
Triver Ruak Lv.1]
Normally, it was noticed that the level of Luke Rearmond, who should be the most difficult to increase favorability and actually requires a higher favorability value, was overwhelmingly high. If there was anyone in this game who would invest any money in me, it would be him.
‘…If it were a bullet sold in a secret store, it would not be an amount that could be solved by paying several months’ salary in advance. What should I do?’
I rolled my eyes repeatedly and tried to imagine the situation to myself.
“Hello, Miss Green.”
“Oh, hello. The only thing I have is a handsome duke.”
“Do you have anything to do? Squeak.”
The squeak was an expression of the sound made when he poured a drink in a very unlucky manner. I stared into space and continued my one-man show without any hesitation.
“I want to borrow some money. No, I just want to get some money.”
“I have a rather high likeability rating. So what are you going to use it for?”
“Oh, you have that pistol that you secretly stole from Mr. Luke’s study. 6-shot revolver. I’m going to use up all the bullets I bought there and buy some good ones.”
“If you need Miss Green, I need to buy you a new pistol as well as bullets. Since you say it’s okay, it seems like you have your own preferences…?”
‘Oh, now that I think about it, I think it would be a good idea to buy a new gun. There might be a gun with better bells and whistles…’
I nodded, thinking that, and then realized that the last line wasn’t my voice. I turned pale and stiff and slowly got up, but as expected, there was a shadow standing in the doorway. A man who is frighteningly handsome and makes me take my breath away just by looking at him.
‘Did you hear everything I said just now?’
If ever there was a time when shame took precedence over fear or terror, it would be now. I felt my whole face turn bright red and reflected on what I had muttered.
‘I didn’t say anything strange, right? No, it was just a strange sound… No, I guess I’m crazy. Why did you do that? why…’
“Woman, what should I do if you come into a room shared by a woman so rudely?”
When their eyes met, he raised both his hands, palms visible, pulling his lips into a smile. Making that gesture by leaning against the doorway instead of entering the bedroom seemed to be an appeal that he was protecting the line.
“This wasn’t something I overheard or came in on purpose. The door was open, and as I was trying to talk to him, I heard him say ‘Duke,’ so I thought he was calling me and came in.”
‘…I really can’t survive.’
I wiped my face and tried to look as casual as possible.
“What business do you have with me?”
Luke looked at my thin face and laughed.
“Even so, I was planning to teach you how to use a pistol for self-defense. Of course, we have to provide bullets.”
“…ah.”
“It would be better for me to provide it for you rather than purchasing it separately.”
I didn’t have the confidence to even bring up the secret store in this embarrassing situation, so I quickly shook my head.
“Like that… I would appreciate it if you could do that.”
Luke nodded his head, looked at me once, and turned around with a grin, as if that was the end of his business.
‘…Still, I don’t think I heard the whole story.’
I finally relaxed my shoulders, thinking that it was a blessing in disguise. As Luke turned to leave, they looked at me again and added with eyes full of laughter.
“Still, it’s good that at least one thing worked out well.”
If he and I were close friends and one of us wasn’t a potential criminal, I would have thrown a pillow at him. While I was unable to take such a decisive action, he leisurely left my room.
‘…It’s really absurd.’
I sighed in embarrassment and lay down. I had been struggling for a while with the shame of being caught talking to myself and the worry of what Luke was thinking when he saw me like that. As sleepiness began to set in, a question suddenly occurred to me.
‘…So why did you come here? Why would Luke come to my room?’
—————————————————————
Translator Note:
The story is back!!
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 May, 4.
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