Chapter 9
The spiders kept chasing us.
The crown prince had been struck, but we couldn’t slow down.
Fortunately, he avoided a fatal injury.
“Ugh!”
A baby spider lunged at his face, but he blocked it with his raised arm, getting bitten on the neck instead.
“G-Get off, you monster!”
Max ripped the spider away with superhuman strength and hurled it aside.
“Evantel!”
At Sian’s shout, water gushed from the ground behind us.
“I used magic, but it won’t work on monsters! Luckily, the end of this passage is close! Just a little more…!”
The baby spider about to strike again was swept away.
But most of the spiders quickly adapted to the water and continued pursuing us silently, even faster.
At last, after running desperately, we reached a section where the spiders no longer followed.
Green flames from torches lit the area.
The vast cavern ended.
A tall staircase stood ahead, with a temple at the top.
A massive monster spider, lit by the green glow, growled and slowly, silently retreated.
“The spiders are retreating, Your Highness!” Max shouted.
The smaller ones screeched, but followed the big one in retreat.
Silence fell.
When the quiet lasted long enough, the party began to feel a faint sense of safety.
Thud.
“Haa… haa…”
Yeniel collapsed, her face tense all along.
Her dress was soaked with sweat from running, hair in disarray across her white forehead. She gasped for breath, unable to speak. It was a sight without dignity.
In romance fantasy, the heroine was always supposed to remain beautiful.
But here she was, a mess—sweating, chased by monsters, and looking like a beggar. The developers were cruel to throw a romance heroine into a horror game.
“Ugh…”
The crown prince, trying to sit down, groaned in pain. His condition looked dire.
“Your Highness, are you all right?”
“Your Highness!”
Sian and Max rushed to him.
Part of his neck was turning purple from the venom.
“I-I’m fine… Don’t you know the royal constitution?” he forced a laugh.
“Poison in my veins will be burned away. Just as I’ve survived assassinations. Ugh… actually, not fine. This monster venom… it’s spreading.”
That was strange.
In The Archmage’s Mansion, party members never took damage.
And spiders were supposed to be weak enemies.
‘Why were they this strong? A hidden event? Or maybe… this isn’t simplified like in the game. Maybe in reality, the monsters were always this terrifying.’
Too many oddities—but I cut off the chain of thoughts.
I wasn’t my brother. Guessing wouldn’t give answers.
What mattered now was building bonds as a true member of this party. That was the only way to survive.
Sian murmured to the spirit and waved it away, face weary.
The prince was injured, Max was disheveled, Yeniel looked broken.
Only I remained unscathed. April was a physical powerhouse, with sharp reflexes, speed, and strength.
“Lady Yeniel, are you all right?” I asked innocently.
She shook her head weakly, too exhausted to reply.
“Oh my, your hair’s a mess.”
Time to raise favorability. I chirped brightly.
“You look so hot and tired. Let me fix your hair for you. Your ribbon’s all loose!”
“…Would you?”
Too drained, Yeniel entrusted me with her hair—despite the game’s setting that she let no one touch her hair except a lover.
I gathered her hair, tying it with the black ribbon on my wrist.
‘Half-up style, right?’
But I pulled too hard, and Yeniel’s eyes stretched painfully toward her temples. A disaster.
“Khf—”
The crown prince was the first to stifle a laugh in the silence.
[The Crown Prince’s Favorability has increased.]
The others didn’t laugh, but tension eased from their bodies.
That was the effect of the silly, comic-relief side character.
The grim atmosphere lightened, and I smiled too.
‘Yes. Go ahead and laugh. Raise that favorability.’
As if in answer, the notification windows popped up.
[Strategist Sian’s Favorability has increased.]
[Max’s Favorability has increased.]
[The Crown Prince’s Favorability has greatly increased!]
I had my own desperate reason to stay with them.
As the game progressed, the story grew darker, the horror intensified.
The final touch: countless corpses of April scattered throughout.
Killed by traps after going ahead.
Poisoned, coughing blood.
Smiling brightly, saving the player, then “I’m sleepy” before dying.
And if no cause existed, she was always found butchered in pieces.
I remembered my brother’s cries.
“That’s why you must recruit April into the party! Sob… If she’s with the player, she lives longer! But if you take your eyes off her—she dies!”
“Enough.”
“Recruit her! Recruit April!”
“But the system keeps auto-rejecting! Stop asking.”
“There’s an empty party slot! Why won’t it let her in…!”
So I took that memory to heart.
I would adapt, stay in their party, and be carried to safety.
Suddenly, Yeniel’s eyes met mine.
I gave her my prettiest, most genuine smile, soft eyes curving gently.
[Yeniel’s Favorability has increased.]
[Strategist Sian’s Favorability has increased.]
[Yeniel’s Favorability has greatly increased!]
In Yeniel’s gaze, I saw kindness.
And if the heroine who once cried out to save others in the banquet hall was this selfless—
she would surely take me with her, all the way out of this nightmare.
