How to Survive as the Horror Game Villain's Fake Fiancée - Chapter 7
At that point, recalling the protagonist setting she had chosen for herself, Cynthia realized she had basically set herself to play on an absurd hard mode. If she’d known the price for picking only the Agility stat would be this, she would have just chosen a safer character setting instead.
“Anyway, I heard the duke is in the dressing room getting changed. Go there now.”
She decided she’d just pretend to go to him and look for a way to escape. With that judgment, Cynthia nodded absentmindedly.
Ding—
The duke is currently in the dressing room. Go find him!
‘No way!’
There were never any quests in this game before, and apparently that was something added in the update. Regardless, as Cynthia reeled in disbelief, a new message appeared, coaxing her along.
How much was that even worth? Since the game’s story involved being trapped in the mansion, there was never any real concept of money, so Cynthia briefly wondered what value a ‘gold coin’ had in this world. But before she could dwell on it, Count Obel grabbed her by the shoulder.
“Don’t forget, I put off my promise with Marquis Bevins for this meeting. If you waste even a single opportunity I’ve given you, you’ll have to repay it until your flesh rots away in the dirt after you’re dead.”
Cynthia swallowed dryly.
Details about this Marquis Bevins, who’d been mentioned a few times now, slowly came to mind. He was an old man with a shabby appearance and bizarre tastes. Each of his wives had met a horrific end, but he had enough wealth to quietly hush everything up.
Rumor had it that women’s cries never ceased at night from his mansion, and that he made taxidermy of his dead wives’ bodies. ‘Cynthia Obel’ could end up married to someone like that if she wasn’t careful.
Now that she thought about it, there were also monstrous rumors about the Duke of Wincastle.
Because he was so reclusive, people whispered that only the king truly knew what he was like. This gave rise to gossip that he was a giant who ate people.
‘A filthy rich pervert who kills his wives, or a monster who eats people.’
What could have possibly led ‘Cynthia Obel’ to make it this far, having to choose between the two?
Cynthia felt a bit sorry for the original owner of her body, who had been pushed aside somewhere after her body got possessed. Of course, the most pitiful person right now was herself, suddenly thrown into this insane situation.
Either way, with a quest now in place, it seemed she would have to go find the duke. Cynthia memorized the directions Count Obel gave her and slipped out onto the balcony. Melissa watched her leave with anxious eyes.
‘This is crazy, is there really no way to escape?’
Whether it was kindness or mockery, the system kindly marked out her path with an arrow, guiding Cynthia toward the duke’s location. Thanks to that, she didn’t even need to remember the directions the count had given her.
Even as she reluctantly followed the arrow, Cynthia kept her eyes sharp, scanning her surroundings. The ‘banquet’ hadn’t truly started yet. If she hurried, maybe she could escape before the game’s story began.
After all, the only role for the protagonist in this game was to be torn apart, ripped, slashed, and to burn herself out looking for clues and overcoming traps just to reach the ending.
No matter how many bugs had been fixed or how much the difficulty had been lowered, Cynthia couldn’t handle it. This was, after all, a game that thrived on gore and horror. There was no way the protagonist would be allowed to walk out with all her limbs intact.
Soon, the arrow stopped in front of a large door. It was the dressing room.
The villain was in there.
That thought filled her mind, and at the same time, Cynthia abruptly pushed off the floor and dashed in the opposite direction. A hallway extended out on the exact opposite side from the dressing room.
‘I have to run!’
Unless the update had changed the mansion’s layout, there had to be a door to the backyard somewhere down this corridor. Once the story started, it would be locked, but for now, it should still be open. All she needed to do was get through it.
As long as she escaped the mansion, that would count as seeing the game’s ending.
After running so long her feet ached, she finally found a small door leading to the backyard.
There it is! If I can just get out through there…!
“What?”
And then, her vision went black.
