Chapter 202: Cleaning Period

Chapter 202: Cleaning Period“If you are truly an invited guest, you would have been assigned a room between Room 107 and Room 110.”

Following that single remark, a heavy silence descended over the dining hall. Han So and the Cadavermancer’s gazes pierced through the Dark Spiritualist, silently asking if she had any rebuttal to my accusation.

Instead, the Dark Spiritualist ignored their gazes and simply raised the corners of her mouth slightly as she looked in my direction.

“I did think that the rules of the Dream Demon Manor were quite foolish, but it turns out I ended up tripping like this. Huh?”

It wasn’t wrong.

The biggest problem was that we did not know what penalty awaited us for breaking these rules.

Guests were only permitted to go up to the third floor.

However, when we went up to the fourth floor, nothing prevented us from doing sp. That just showed how lax everything was.

“R-really. Are you really the uninvited intruder mentioned in Rule No. 27?”

Han So shouted exaggeratedly, but the Cadavermancer simply bobbed her chin once.

At the same time, the six corpses shot out and began to surround the Dark Spiritualist with eerie movements.

“Huh! Do you think someone like you can kill me?”

Even though everyone in the dining hall had now turned into enemies, the Dark Spiritualist remained calm.

No, she raised her purple eyes coldly, like a just awakened savage beast.

“You, a lowly creature who crawls around, is trying to take down someone as superior as me?”

The small staff she in her hand began to swirl with purple mana, which soon transformed into screaming evil spirits.

“C-cadavermancers are just like Necromancers. Of course, without corpses I could just crawl...”

The Cadavermancer readily admitted that she had fled at the slightest sign of the Dark Spiritualist, but was boldly declaring that things were different now.

The two were on the verge of starting a battle.

However, I gave them a warning as I poured wine into the glass on the table.

“You are running out of time. Please fight in moderation.”

The two Dark Mages stared at me in disbelief, but I savored the moment, relishing their incredulous gazes as I sipped my wine.

Although I wasn’t particularly fond of alcohol, the wine here was top-shelf liquor, difficult for even the Royal Family to procure.

The Dream Demon Manor was filled with such things.

Everything glittered splendidly outside the Manor, with precious things scattered on the ground like stones.

One just had to live here for a few days for their concept of luxury to disappear.

“Y-you! Shouldn’t we fight together?”

“With whom?”

Han So trembled in an exaggerated manner as he held up his Heavenly Oath Martial Staff, sticking his head out idiotically and taking a deep breath.

To answer my question about with whom we should fight, he was caught in a dilemma, alternating between the Dark Spiritualist and the Cadavermancer.

As per Rule No. 27, the one we had to fight was the Dark Spiritualist.

However, the Cadavermancer had killed all the other guests and she would probably kill us as well.

Both choices were unpleasant to make.

Therefore, I just planned to watch their battle while tilting my glass.

Kwaaaang!

While Han So was hesitating, the Dark Spiritualist made the first move.

[Kyaaaaacccckkk!]

She pushed the evil spirits she controlled towards the corpses, releasing their resentment. For a moment, it seemed like the Cadavermancer was being pushed back. However...

“T-this is why the corpses in this place are so good.”

While the Cadavermancer certainly played a part in killing them, all the guests at the Dream Demon Manor were big shots. Hence, the quality of the corpses themselves were indeed quite excellent.

The corpses she now possessed were not inferior compared to the Dark Spiritualist’s evil spirits.

The situation was tense.

To further elaborate, the person who introduced a variable would win, and the Cadavermancer was the first to make an attempt.

The Cadavermancer held a white dagger and a crystal skull in her hands. The dagger was a gift I had given Luaneth, and the crystal skull seemed like a tool the Cadavermancer would enjoy using.

“These are the rewards I obtained from attacking guests!”

Did she choose those two because of Rule No. 14?

14. You are only permitted to carry up to two items as rewards.

However, that meant these items suited the Cadavermancer the best.

Seven-colored magic shot out from the white dagger, flying through the bodies of the corpses.

The Dark Spiritualist hastily cast protective magic, but the seven-colored light emitted by the dagger had quite a powerful destructive force.

Kwaaang!

Although the protective magic itself did not break, the Dark Spiritualist was pushed back, eventually hitting the wall as she fell on one knee.

At the same time, her evil spirits screamed and spread in all directions.

“Hi...hihick, in the end, Necromancers are similar to me as well.”

The Cadavermancer guffawed happily for some reason, gnawing on her nails.

“It’s over once the main body gets attacked. It doesn’t matter how strong the evil spirits are, once you lose control over them, you’re just an ordinary mage.”

Following that blow, the Dark Spiritualist lost control of her evil spirits. Subsequently, the evil spirits, which were rampaging around the dining hall just moments ago, flew towards the Dark Spiritualist to attack her. However...

“These damn bastards.”

Instead, the Dark Spiritualist reached out to the evil spirits flying towards her and began controlling them again.

I was impressed by her sophisticated and swift magic operation.

Even at 18 years old, she was still the Dark Spiritualist.

“Iiiik!“

Before answering the Dark Spiritualist, I slowly turned towards the Cadavermancer.

“I only pushed you to this point because I did not want to kill you for the answer.”

22. Any deceased guest will leave behind the rules they knew.

If it were not a desperate situation, the Dark Spiritualist would have never told us all the rules she knew until the very end.

Since she would never open her mouth under normal circumstances, I was left with no choice but to kill her.

Hence, I chose a little aggressive method to persuade the Dark Spiritualist because I didn’t want to kill her.

“Oh.”

I could feel the Dark Spiritualist staring blankly at my back.

The Cadavermancer’s corpses began moving slowly. After all, she realized that she could find out the rules if she killed the Dark Spiritualist anyway.

“Number 30.”

I wondered if my sincerity would at least reach her, even a little.

The Dark Spiritualist uttered the rule.

“Only the last remaining person can escape the Dream Demon Manor.”

In a more intuitive manner, her response only clarified the fate that truly awaited us.

“Heh! Hihi! In the end, I was right to kill everyone!”

Speaking excitedly, the Cadavermancer moved the corpse more brutally.

A Dark Mage who couldn’t control souls.

Since that was me now, naturally, I wouldn’t be able to win against the Cadavermancer who had defeated the Dark Spiritualist.

Han So hesitated as he stared at us cautiously. Meanwhile, the Dark Spiritualist remained silent, her mouth shut even tighter.

I slowly picked up the wine glass from the table.

“Sigh.”

Then I sighed and threw it to the floor.

Clank!

Glass shards scattered everywhere, and the premium liquor inside spilled on the floor like blood.

“Are Necromancers always vulgar until they die?”

The Cadavermancer’s tone had completely changed from when we first met; she no longer spoke with honorifics.

I had seen many humans change after gaining power, but this was the first time I had ever witnessed such an extreme change.

“Are you begging for me to save you? Will you lick the wine spilled on the floor?”

Ignoring the Cadavermancer’s smug grin, I was focused solely on the spilled wine and glass shards.

“Is it not fascinating?”

“What?”

“The Dream Demon Manor proceeds with everything automatically, without the need for any instructions. It always returns to its original state, just like how we wash our bodies.”

“...”

Each word I uttered made the Cadavermancer feel eerie and she immediately gestured to control the corpses. However...

“Huh?”

Perplexed, she examined them as the corpses showed no response.

“W-What is this! What is this!”

Seeing the Cadavermancer screaming while wondering why her corpses were not moving, I couldn’t help but scoff at her foolishness.

“Have you still not figured out what is going on? Even though you used Rule No. 24 in reverse?”

24. When a guest dies, the room they occupied will be opened. However, until then, entry is forbidden even with permission from the room owner.

Instead of guests, the Cadavermancer used the corpses of the guests to kill everyone in the other rooms.

In other words, the already deceased guests were no longer treated as guests.

“How foolish of you.”

Boooong!

The clock near the entrance rang loudly to signal the end of the day.

It was hard to tell because there was no daytime, but I roughly estimated that it was about time.

“There are no servants here.”

28. There are no servants in the Dream Demon Manor.

“Also, meals will be replenished daily.”

21. Meals will be replenished daily. Please feel free to eat as much as you like.

As if the Manor heard my words, the food we had eaten was refilled in the blink of an eye.

It was a strange scene, like a mirage in the desert.

“And...”

The shattered glass on the floor began to disappear gradually, and even the wine that had splashed all over the floor disappeared without leaving a single stain.

“The rules said that cleaning is performed daily..”

“What? Cleaning?”

“Therefore, there is no need to bother cleaning things like corpses.”

I could only sneer at the Cadavermancer, who was staring at her fading corpses.

“It is something to be thankful for.”

17. Cleaning is performed daily.