Chapter 28

Translator and Editor: Effe and Nabi

Chapter 28

‘…Let’s calm down.’

Celine placed her hand on her chest to calm her startled heart. This was a stage. She cleared it with not much difficulty.

‘It’s rather better.’

She had been trying so hard to find it, so she was automatically brought into another stage. However, one troubling question arose.

‘Why was it here?’

The torture chamber was the third stage. Since she cleared the first stage, after Leonhard’s mission was over, she was thinking of finding the second stage, the Monster Forest. However, suddenly, the third stage appeared out of the blue.

‘As if someone was punishing me…’

Celine laughed at herself for a moment. It was an absurd idea.

Let’s say that Leonhard was imprisoned. But, how did anyone know that she would try to sneak into Topin, and if they did, that she would eventually come through the window…?

‘First, we have to solve this situation.’

Celine scrutinized the instruments of torture that she had seen dazzling in the blue light. The torture room was the only stage in [ Celine’s Nightmare ] where there were no villains or monsters to chase after.

Instead…

—Tadaak!

‘As expected.’

The Iron Maiden approached her, showing the bloody insides wide open.

Celine closed her eyes tightly and opened them. There were no villains or monsters chasing after the main character in the torture chamber. Instead, there were torture apparatuses that moved like wild beasts.

—Thud!

As the ice barrier rose between her and the Iron Maiden, Celine ambled carefully around the barrier.

Iron Maiden continued to crash into the heart of the ice barrier like an ox that only looked in front of it. This stage was not the type that could be cleared by running fast. Rather, it was close to the opposite.

Moving slowly, the torture instruments had to be dealt with one by one. There was magic, so it would be a little easier. Nonetheless, if she failed at least once, she would face a tragic death.

Just thinking about it made her body tremble.

When she finally freed herself from the Iron Maiden, huge wheels rolled in a straight line towards her.

‘….!’

Although she quickly avoided the wheels’ trajectory, the wheels staggered and chased after her. When she quickly glanced around, a black iron rod was broken on her floor.

—Kick!

As the wheels were about to crush Celine, she slipped the iron rod right into the wheel.

—Kiiiikkk!

The wheel stopped with a creepy sound.

‘…Phew.’

Celine stroked her chest and moved her steps again.

When she went through about five or six torture devices that attacked, an empty space with no torture devices was revealed.

Her whole body stiffened.

‘…Something is coming.’

The most terrifying dead flag in the torture chamber was right in front of her.

Her blue-gray eyes narrowed.

The “frame of death” would be hung from the ceiling that was too high to see properly. If she were to step into it blindly, a frame a little smaller than her body size would fall.

‘…And, the whole body will suffocate and die.’

Celine’s body trembled.

She knew how to get through this section, but…

‘Can I do it?’

Celine took the key out of her arms and held it tight. She certainly swore when she heard the ‘prophecy’ about Leonhard. She said that she would not continue to die, and he would change the darkening future.

It would be easy to go back the way she came. Still, that wouldn’t change anything.

With that thought, Celine closed her eyes tightly and lay flat on the floor. It felt like half-dried sticky blood.

‘Slowly, slowly…’

And so, she crawled slowly, imagining a snail.

In this section, impatient users had to move slowly enough to get nervous and turn off the game. She was so nervous, the pulse of her whole body was pounding. The ‘frame of death’ was set to not open until the main character’s body became a skeleton.

‘Let’s not think uselessly.’

Shutting her eyes tightly, it was comfortable not to look at the dark, sticky floor.

‘It’s cold!’

Suddenly, the tip of her finger touched the ice-cold wall. Celine raised her trembling arm and glanced across the wall.

‘Finally…’

Finally, it was over.

She then squeezed her little mental strength and stood up. At that moment, she noticed the half-dry blood clots on Danny’s clothes caught in her eyes.

After a moment of feeling sorry for her, her eyes widened.

The antique letters engraved on the wall in front of her contained contents completely different from her memories.

[ Those who tears the sky will become a star. ]

‘It wasn’t like this…!’

When she reached the end of the third stage, she couldn’t remember the exact content of the text she could read. Nevertheless, she could tell that it was completely different from this content.

‘All humans will die someday, that’s what it was all about…’

It had nothing to do with clearing the game, but only to promote the horror of the game. Even though Celine pondered the meaning of the new text, she still had no ideas.

‘At least, it’s different from the game, so you should think about it in a good way.’

…For now, clearing this stage is the top priority.

Thinking that, she pushed hard against the wall.

‘….?’

Nothing happened.

“What…!”

A word that came out of Celine’s bewildered mouth resounded throughout the torture chamber.

“What! What! What—!”

“….!”

At that, she hurriedly covered her mouth with her hands.

She was more afraid of the fact that she had nearly taken a step backward unknowingly than of the echo.

The next moment, she lifted her staggering body and stared carefully at the wall. The fact that the words have changed from her memory may be a hint that the final solution on the stage has also changed.

‘Is this…?’

A little higher than her own head, a hole was seen and she reached out and touched the hole.

‘…Keyhole?’

Although what she touched felt obviously like a keyhole, there was no keyhole in the third stage… No, in [ Celine’s Nightmare ], Celine didn’t remember seeing a key or a keyhole on any stage. This was because the key role was played by pendants, coins, and dolls’ heads.

‘If…’

She once again took the golden key out of her arms.

The key, which had shone in the dark, shone more dazzlingly under the light that she had created. Celine hesitated for a moment before raising her hand holding the key.

It was not very likely, but she won’t know for sure until she try.

—Click.

As the key turned correctly, Celine’s face lit up with hope. When the key was turned completely, the wall automatically slides sideways, as in the game. She set her feet on the corridor that stretched out before her. She no longer had to create light.

A pure white light was pouring from the wide windows on either side of the corridor.

‘Music…?’

As soon as she took a step, she heard familiar music.

Though it was a harpsichord performance that was calm and beautiful, it was somehow sad.

‘No way!’

She stood still in her place, listening to it. No matter how much she listened to it, it was definitely ‘that’ music.

…The theme song of [ Celine’s Nightmare ], which she could hear when she cleared every stage.

Awe, fear, intimidation, hope… Celine shuddered at the hot feeling that nothing could explain. Her legs moved spontaneously by an unknown force. She didn’t even think of resisting it as she blankly took a few steps.

—Tuk.

With a small sound, something caught her foot.

As she glanced down, it was a small wooden box with no decorations.

‘This was it.’

Most of the rewards that can be obtained by clearing each stage were contained in this wooden box. Celine’s hands were trembling. Though it wasn’t because of the tension…

…Because it was so obvious.

‘In the mansion, I didn’t clear the stage…’

Here, too, when she cleared a stage, she could hear the theme song just like in the game, and rewards appear.

Yet, both were missing from the mansion.

‘I have just cleared the first stage.’

Celine avoided spoilers well, but she knew about the length of the true ending, which the production crew spoke of in an interview.

The true ending was divided into branches from the first stage. However, she got tired of repeating the same stages over and over, so she deliberately cut down on playtime by combining multiple stages.

All the information pointed to one fact.

The path Celine was walking was heading towards the true ending…

Water formed around her eyes.

If she just followed the directions of the game, she would know why Leonhard turned black in the game and why he killed the main character like crazy.

‘…And, I’m going to change that, before five years pass.’

Eventually, she opened the box with a firm hand—five small vials filled with red liquid and a crystal ball slightly larger than her fist appeared.

Celine picked up the glass bottle of red liquid. It was definitely a healing potion.

‘It will be of great help to Leonhard as well.’

Every time he was hurt by a monster, she asked why he didn’t carry a healing potion, although no answer came back.

‘This is…’

She lightly stroked the crystal ball. Despite the fact that she had never seen it as an in-game item, she knew the identity well enough. When she opened the quest window, the text appeared with a crystal ball picture in the background.

Celine picked up the crystal ball and looked inside.

‘….?’

It only reflected her face, and she couldn’t read anything.

‘What…?’

Even though she glanced around the crystal ball for a considerable amount of time, the transparent ball gave no information. She eventually gave up trying to find out information on the spot, and Celine put all of the orb and potions into her pocket.

She also cleared the stage and got a reward.

Now, it was her turn to find Leonhard.

Celine straightened her body. She was no longer trembling, not anxious, or overwhelmed with awe. Her steps as she strode through the corridor filled with certainty.

***

“Lord Leonhard Bernoulli will be imprisoned in Topin indefinitely, and all of his entourage will be banished from the capital.”

It was a very sad fact.

As soon as he realized that he had reached the worst situation, his mind was dominated by worries about a woman he had only known for a few months. Leonhard could not for a moment shake off his worries about Celine while shedding ridicule at himself.

‘…Celine.’

He repeated her name to himself as if it was a spell.

Even as she reassured herself that it would be okay as the escort maid was with her, his pounding chest did not calm down in the slightest.

Unable to bear it, he got up from the sofa and ran to the only doorway.

The facilities in Topin were comparable to that of a grand hotel, though the entrance made of iron bars was no different from other prisons.

‘If only I had time to hide Rashir…!’

Leonhard transformed Rashir into a dagger as soon as possible. Nonetheless, before hiding it in his arms, the swordsman took Rashir. It was amusing to see him stumble over Rashir’s weight, but Leonhard couldn’t laugh.

Without the sword, no, Rashir, he was just an ordinary human.

A magic swordsman was different from a wizard who could always use magic.

He always had to use his sword as a medium to use magic. The power itself was much stronger than that of a regular wizard, but if he couldn’t use any power right now, what does that matter…?

‘Well, even a wizard can’t get out of this place.’

The prison in Topin, where he was imprisoned, was built over a hundred years only to prevent the magic from working. The detailed secret method has been passed down through the generations of the craftsmen who built it, and even if the head was cut off, they never gave it to anyone except the successor.

‘Please, be safe.’

As he thought about magic, naturally the thought shifted to Celine.

Leonhard smiled as he suddenly remembered her cheeks that were blushing when she used magic.

‘I hope she wouldn’t be worried about me.’

In fact, he didn’t worry about himself. He was guilty of harming the Imperial Family, but when a monster appeared, he would have no choice but to release it.

Besides, wasn’t all of this happening because of the order of the Emperor, who was the ruler of the Empire? The Crown Prince imprisoned himself was nothing but resentment.

So, Celine had to worry about him, who had been kicked out of the North overnight…

“Leonhard!”

Leonhard’s eyes widened, and his mouth opened.

A woman was running towards him.

Black hair, blue-gray eyes full of passion, dense features, and her flushed cheeks… Obviously, it was Celine.