Ariel’s eyes lit up.

She had thought this haunted-house adventure was already over, but apparently Muen had still hidden one last “special event” at the end.

That was very much like him, with that habit of playing little clever tricks.

Interesting.

Ariel immediately decided not to go back and look for him just yet. Moving on tiptoe, she carefully advanced forward. No ghosts or monsters appeared along the way, nor did any mechanisms go off. It was as if she were simply walking down an ordinary road.

But at a time like this, the more nothing happened, the more a person’s heart was slowly drawn tight.

Very soon, Ariel stopped again.

Just as expected, when the fog thinned slightly and the surrounding horror atmosphere reached its peak, a figure appeared without warning not far in front of her, blocking her path.

It looked like a woman, dressed in the tight-waisted, full-skirted fashion most popular among noblewomen several hundred years ago. Her bloodless pale hands were folded over her lower abdomen in a perfect aristocratic lady’s pose.

But she was unexpectedly tall. Her entire body was almost pressed flat against the ceiling, bent forward in an eerie posture as she silently stared down at Ariel, who looked very small compared to her.

"Wow."

Ariel could not help admiring it. "This prop is incredibly realistic."

All those monsters from earlier—whether they were living corpses, zombies, ghosts, werewolves, or pig-headed things—had all shared one very obvious flaw: they had never shaken the impression of still being the size of a human body.

Think about it. Every monster being roughly the same size—did that make sense?

Of course not.

So no matter how realistic they looked, it was still easy to tell they were fake.

But this "final boss" in front of her, through some unknown method, had managed to become this huge. Whether in realism or oppressive presence, it was a major step up.

Even Ariel had to admit that at the very instant it appeared, her heartbeat really had sped up just a little.

"So you’re the bitter, grudge-filled noblewoman from the story."

Ariel cracked her knuckles.

"I’m busy right now. I don’t have time to play through some hidden ending with you, so why don’t you go with the flow a little and just drop right here? Send the medical bill to Blondie afterward."

With that, the decisive Ariel threw a sharp straight punch, smashing it hard into the noblewoman’s knee beneath that billowing skirt.

She had thought that one punch would be enough...

But the skirt only stirred slightly. The noblewoman did not move at all.

"Huh?"

The excited smile on Ariel’s face slowly faded.

"This feeling..."

The impact felt completely different from those earlier NPCs. There was none of the firmness of muscle, none of the softness of fat, none of that solid sensation of striking a human knee.

If she had to describe it... it felt as if an ordinary human girl had really punched a monster, and all of her force had sunk into it without causing the slightest reaction.

So... this was real?

Ariel stiffly lifted her head. The noblewoman smiled at her, revealing a mouth full of savage fangs.

"Human... you look... delicious..."

"...Damn."

Ariel muttered expressionlessly:

"How long has it been since you brushed your teeth? Your breath is awful."

Without the slightest hesitation, urged on by the sense of death ringing in her mind, Ariel nimbly dropped into a crouch.

A lethal gale swept over her head, and a hideous crack instantly spread from one end of the wall to the other.

Ariel’s gaze sharpened. At some point, the noblewoman’s slender, delicate hands had turned into beastlike razor claws, and with the slightest motion of those claws, the entire wall had nearly been torn open.

"This might be a problem..."

Though she had successfully dodged the noblewoman’s sudden attack, Ariel felt not the slightest trace of relief.

She understood very well that she had avoided that strike not because her strength had returned, but only because of the danger sense forged through experience, plus a little luck mixed in.

In her current state, there was absolutely no way she could dodge a second attack like that.

Realizing that, Ariel did not hesitate, and she certainly did not waste time talking. She turned and ran.

Behind her, the "noblewoman" followed with graceful, measured steps like a true aristocratic lady, lightly lifting her skirt with those sharp claws, the corners of her mouth split all the way to her ears.

In that brief instant, Ariel’s role had undergone a complete reversal. She had gone from the pursuer to the one being pursued.

The difference was that earlier it had only been a game of role-playing.

Now... this was obviously real.

Bang!

A door that had appeared out of nowhere suddenly slammed shut across the middle of the corridor, cutting off Ariel’s path.

Ariel twisted around, intending to escape through the hallway window, only to find that the window that had still been open moments ago was now being pressed shut from the outside by more than a dozen densely packed hands.

She drew a deep breath. This was how helpless it felt to lose her strength. She could not even tell what kind of technique the other side was using. She did not even know whether this was some kind of illusion.

So as she watched the "noblewoman" steadily approach, all she could do was slowly retreat. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

But very soon her back struck the door that had blocked off her escape.

There was nowhere left to go.

Death crept closer and closer. Ariel could feel her heartbeat speeding up again. Powerless as she was, she had no means left to escape at a moment like this. It seemed she could do nothing but await death’s arrival.

Then she would stop running.

The "noblewoman" elegantly raised both claws. Those tearing slashes that could sever anything were clearly about to fall on Ariel.

And yet at that moment, Ariel suddenly closed her eyes.

She closed them with complete peace of mind.

Just like in that perilous underground cavern, when she had still been able to fall asleep peacefully despite enemies hunting her to the death...

The lethal slash came flashing down.

Buzz—

But at the instant Ariel closed her eyes, surging light tore through the darkness and flooded the entire corridor.

That light was dazzling, but not scorching. Like warm spring sunlight, it wrapped around Ariel... and the "noblewoman."

The "noblewoman" froze slightly. Pure light by itself could not affect her in the least. What confused her was that she had clearly already struck. So why was this girl, who looked like nothing more than an ordinary human, still alive?

At last, as if sensing something, she turned her head in confusion.

A hand suddenly dropped to the floor, and black blood sprayed out at once.

The whole process was so natural that she actually stood there dazed for a moment, failing to react immediately.

"Move."

What had been severed was not only the "noblewoman’s" hand, but also the door blocking Ariel’s escape. As the blinding light faded, Ariel opened her eyes at just the right moment and saw Muen, arriving in time as always. He grabbed her hand and turned to run.

"So this is another one of your tricks, like the roller coaster?"

Ariel studied Muen’s profile as she asked:

"Saving the beauty twice in a row so I’ll fall in love with you?"

"If I said both times were accidents—accidents caused by some inhuman bastard—you’d believe me?"

Muen smiled bitterly. "This thing wasn’t supposed to be in the haunted house. In my understanding, a haunted house shouldn’t have something real like this."

"Oh, I see."

"You don’t believe me?"

"I do."

Ariel tilted her head, the corner of her eye catching the "noblewoman" pursuing them in obvious fury behind them. "Not going to deal with her?"

"Not yet. I’m worried it’ll drag the staff here into it."

"So you admit they’re staff."

"You noticed too, didn’t you?"

"Hmph."

Ariel lifted her fair chin. "Did you really think that kind of disguise could fool me?"

"...But you seemed to be having a great time."

"That was me being considerate of your feelings!"

"..."

A massive roar came barreling after them, and the walls on either side of Muen shattered inch by inch at terrifying speed.

Whether it was for the sake of his feelings or for some other reason, Muen no longer had any time to dig into it.

That "noblewoman," as if formed from some evil spirit tangled together with a certain kind of monster, was rapidly closing in. Her furious roar was enough to tear at the eardrums, and just in the time it took for Muen and Ariel to exchange a few words, the distance between them had already shrunk considerably.

This was not because Muen was slower than the monster.

It was because...

Muen tilted his head slightly and looked at Ariel. Though he was pulling her along, she was clearly already beginning to fall behind.

Her steps were labored, and every now and then she stumbled, almost as if she were being dragged forward by him, yet she kept gritting her teeth and enduring it.

She obviously could have said something, but she remained that stubborn.

Muen thought for a moment, then said, "Ariel, may I offend you a little more?"

"How much more offensive?" Ariel looked up.

"More offensive than just now."

"..."

Ariel thought for a moment too. "Is this more dangerous than the roller coaster earlier?"

"Yes. The roller coaster was under that bastard’s control the whole time, but that thing chasing us doesn’t look nearly so easy to control."

"I see."

Ariel nodded. "All right, then."

The two of them looked at each other and said in unison, "This can’t be helped."

Yes. It could not be helped.

They both laughed at the same time.

Muen suddenly crouched down. Just as Ariel thought he was about to carry her on his back...

Muen reached out, slid one arm beneath the bend of her knees, wrapped the other around her neck, and lifted her straight into his arms.

A bridal carry.

"W-why this position?"

Being lifted so suddenly like that, Ariel instantly panicked, feeling deeply mortified.

She had never, even in her dreams, imagined she would be carried bridal-style by someone... no, that was not true, she had dreamed of it before, but in that dream she had been the one doing the bridal carrying, striding proudly through a flower-strewn church with the beautiful girl she loved in her arms.

Dreams really were unreliable.

"It’s too dangerous in the back."

Muen explained, "Right now we just need to run. This works better."

"Oh..."

Ariel thought about it again. That was true. The reasoning was sound and perfectly reasonable.

He probably did not have any ulterior motives.

So Ariel completely leaned her weight into Muen’s strong arms, curling up slightly, her head resting against his chest.

Like a quiet little cat.

"Can you run faster now?"

"Of course."

Muen looked at the quiet Ariel in his arms, at the way her eyelashes fluttered softly, opening and closing, and in that instant, the sound of the wind, the roars, the trembling, the ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) footsteps... every sound seemed to disappear from his world.

He heard only his own heartbeat, pounding in his ears.

"Faster than ever."