Chapter 17: The Penalty of Trauma (2)

Chapter 17: The Penalty of Trauma (2)

[Initiating your Skill penalty.]

[Recreating Monster: Hellfire Maiden’s trauma.]

I found myself in an elegant mansion. Perhaps that wasn’t the right description. Although I was aware of my existence, I wasn’t technically here. Like a ghost, I watched everything in the third person.

What? I was perplexed. What is going on...?

“S-save me.”

I heard the voice of a boy who was shackled by his foot in a corner of the mansion’s lobby. At first, I thought the boy was seeking help from me, but he wasn’t. He was begging a man who dressed like a noble.

“Save me, please... I’m so hungry... Food... Please give me food... Anything...”

“Hmph. Orphans like you are a plague on this kingdom.”

“Food...”

“You orphans don’t work and just wander from village to village, spreading diseases. Your existence will eat away at society unless something is done about it. That is why I stand as a warden and guard, quarantining you from the kingdom.”

A flood of memories rushed into my head. This generation had many homeless people due to a lack of food. The nobleman had gathered many orphans and trapped them in his mansion, disguising it as an orphanage. Outside the mansion, the nobleman was a rich gentleman, a great businessman, and a conscientious academic.

“Other people may think you orphans are from a breed that is rotten to its core, but not me. I’m going to educate you.”

Within his huge mansion, however, the nobleman was just a tyrant.

“Only animals would devour food in front of them because they’re hungry. Yes, you were born in the streets like animals. That doesn’t mean you should grow up as animals.”

“I’m hungry. I’m...”

“Endure it. Endure it even if you’re hungry. Endure it to become a human,” the nobleman said with a gentle smile.

The boy’s rib cage was visible through the holes in his clothes, but the nobleman’s smile didn’t falter for a moment. It looked like there had been or was a world in which a constant smile was a virtue; however, the mad smile only attracted another madman.

“Repent!”

“Ahhhh!”

“Oh, children of the witch! You may be Zrakua’s poison and an illness besetting our kingdom, but fear not. As my god never abandons his followers, neither will I abandon you, young sheep!” The priest raised his hammer.

“It h-hurts... Hurts... I-it hurts...”

“Pray!”

This was a generation where madness was dressed as a virtue.

The screams never stopped in the mansion.

“I’m...hungry...”

Neither did the hunger.

“No... Please forgive me... Why...? No, I’m sorry. Please forgive me...”

The torture and brainwashing went on.

“Ah, thank you. You’re good and kind... This is your reward for enduring the pain. You kept your promise, thank you. Thank you. You’re kind, Mister...”

Dozens, hundreds, and thousands of children arrived at this mansion, and so did death. Although they were already close to death anyway, they never imagined that the interim would be nightmarishly painful.

The lives flashing before my eyes left me reeling.

What in the world...

—What the fuck is this?

Thanks to a certain dude, I was able to pull myself together.

You’ve been watching too? I thought you weren’t here.

—I should be asking you the same question. I’ve been watching from the beginning, but I didn’t see you until now.

Hmm, it looks like only our consciousnesses are here...

—I don’t give a damn about that right now. What in the goddamn are these people? Ha! Educate children into humans? How can those assholes teach other people to be human when they aren’t human? the Guardian spat.

...This is probably what the tenth floor’s boss monster stage is made from.

Right before my consciousness ended up here, I had heard a voice saying [Recreating your killer’s trauma.] My killer this time...was the real doll hidden in the Infernal Mansion, which meant that everything the Guardian and I were watching was the doll’s trauma.

I never knew this, I whispered. Monsters used to be humans...?

—Not all monsters were humans. The Guardian clicked his tongue. It’s mostly true only for boss monsters because their stages are created based on true incidents from other worlds. Many boss monsters used to be creatures or heroes from other worlds; it becomes more common after the Tower’s eleventh floor.

What? Why are you only telling me this now?

—You didn’t ask.

The Guardian answered so shamelessly that I couldn’t argue.

—But it’s my first time seeing this kind of stuff.

What kind of stuff?

—I’m talking about what we’re watching right now.—their past. I know that boss monsters were based off of real things in different worlds, but how was I supposed to know what they went through? It’s not like I have a mind-reading Skill... Watching it makes me feel like shit, though, the Guardian mumbled.

...It really does, I agreed.

Incidents like this would always occur somewhere in the world. In fact, they could be worse than the one unfolding in front of me; however, knowing that was different from watching it with my own eyes. Although I wasn’t sure if it was a good or bad thing, the recreation of the doll’s trauma didn’t last for a long time.

“F-fire!”

A servant accidentally knocked over a candle without noticing. It happened late in the night when everyone was in their bed, so by the time someone noticed the fire, it was already too late.

“Cough cough!”

“We should run...”

The first-floor lobby burned up first, taking its fancy chandelier with it. Next was the bedroom of the mansion’s owner; the fire found its way to his luxurious bed, the elegant curtains, and crept down the stairway to the deep basement.

The blazing fire reached the ropes and chains in the basement. They were used to hang up the orphans, so all the brainwashed, tortured, and starved children were also caught in the fire. The fire seemed to erase whatever spell they were under.

“Ah...”

The children gasped. Because of the heated shackles around their wrists and ankles, they dangled helplessly like puppets on strings. The only thing they were able to do was scream, but I could still hear them voice their grudges and resentment in my head.

—I don’t want to die.

[May luck be with you.]

“It should have been obvious from how Hunters were able to escape if they wanted to. The boss monster and dolls never considered Hunters their enemies.”

[Initiating the boss monster stage.]

“They just wanted to play with the visitors.”

The candles all over the mansion fell over, starting a fire. Amid the fire, the dolls stood. They couldn’t move,as if they were tied to something. The only thing they could do was to turn their heads and look at me. They opened their mouths and let out peals of laughter.

—Are you here to play?

—Are you going to play with us?

—Freeze tag? Red light, green light? Hide and seek?

—The ice melted. The street light is gone. Hide and seek it is!

—Yeah! Let’s play! Play hide and seek with us!

—Hehehehehe!

The first-floor lobby burned up first, taking its fancy chandelier with it. Next was the bedroom of the mansion’s owner; the fire found its way to his luxurious bed, elegant curtains, and crept down the stairway to the deep basement... Everything burned except for the children—the dolls.

I clenched my teeth for a moment.

“Alright. I’ll play with you.”

[The Skill Always Be Careful of Fire has been activated.]

I used the fire immunity Skill I had gotten from my last death. The moment the Skill was activated, the heat around me vanished. I could breathe much more easily and observe the mansion’s surroundings a little more clearly.

—Huh?

—You aren’t burning, Mister.

I looked carefully at the dolls. All of the dolls looked different but were equally expressionless—yet I could tell what they felt.

—Isn’t it hot?

—Mister, you’re strange.

—Can you play with us?

—Are you going to play with us?

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m here to play hide-and-seek. You guys better brace yourselves. I never lost hide and seek when I was young.”

—Hahahaha! You’re really weird, Mister!

—Hide! Everyone, hide!

The dozens, hundreds, thousands of dolls—no, children laughed. Although I told them to hide, no one moved because they couldn’t free themselves from their locations.

—Don’t come out, don’t come out, wherever you are.

“I got you.” I began to walk around the mansion, starting our game of hide-and-seek.

Whenever I stroked one of their heads, the child would slowly turn its head to look at me.

—Wrong! It isn’t me!

The children disappeared with a smile.

—It isn’t me!

—It isn’t me!

The mansion was filled with children, so I stroked their heads one by one as I walked by, making sure I got to every one of them.

—Hey, you’re... You’re giving them a requiem... the Guardian mumbled.

A requiem was made to console the deceased.

Without answering the Guardian, I continued to walk around the mansion. Along the way, I found the chains and shackles that had been used to bind them. Whenever I encountered those bindings, I also saw children amid the fire.

—It isn’t me! It isn’t me! It isn’t me!

—No, it isn’t me! I’m not... It’s...not me... I’m not...

—It’s...not me...

After some time, I arrived at the foot of the long stone stairway that led to the basement. Children were collapsed on the stairs as if they had tried to crawl to freedom. After tagging every child on the stairs, I stood in the basement in front of the last child.

—Are you going to play with us? The last child was sitting in the innermost depths of the mansion. Hammers, icepicks, and saws were scattered around the child.

I slowly walked toward him and stroked his hairless head. “I got you.”

The creator of the hellish inferno had a surprisingly small head, small enough for the whole thing to fit into my hand.

“...You’re it now, kid.”

After a moment of silence, the child slowly turned his head. Just like the other children, he was perfectly expressionless.

—You’re kind, Mister, he said.

The doll let out a laugh—along with its lips, skin, eyes... The entire child melted away like candle wax. Even as the fire devoured it, the child kept mumbling like a broken record.

—Thank you.

And it kept melting. Just like how the candle flame would disappear into the wax when it reached the end of the wick, everything disappeared. The chain and shackles liquefied, along with hammers, icepicks, and saws.

—Thank you.

The fire embraced the child, erasing its hunger and all other traces of its existence. Death left no traces.

I stood in the center of the ruins, surrounded by the empty space that once held the mansion.

[Congratulations.]

[The normal stage has been cleared.]

[The hidden stage has been cleared.]

[The boss monster stage has been cleared.]

The Tower’s tenth floor, which no human had ever cleared for years, was cleared today.