Surviving as an Idiot in a Horror Game

Chapter 5

As the atmosphere slightly lightened with my appearance, the group stood up.

The tension, however, remained.

“Where do you plan to go, Your Highness?”

When Yeniel asked the crown prince respectfully, he replied.

“First, let’s head to the first floor. If we leave the mansion, we might be able to escape from the otherworld. Besides, it’s dangerous to be in the same space as the monsters we saw on the fifth floor.”

No one voiced the ominous assumption that the monsters on the first floor might be even more dangerous.

The crown prince summarized the situation.

“The central staircase was the closest, so most of the survivors would have gone down that way. Lady Devnoa said she went down to the east, following the platform. Well, we’re likely to meet them as we go down or encounter them at the first-floor entrance. Be cautious as we make our way to the first-floor entrance.”

The group slowly descended from the fifth to the fourth floor.

The staircase was large and grand.

In silence, we descended, carefully watching our surroundings.

‘I don’t think there were any monsters here, but I can’t be sure.’

A gloomy atmosphere devoid of any signs of life.

Step. Step.

Our four footsteps echoed eerily loud and unnervingly across the empty staircase.

“…This mansion is big. Much larger than the imperial palace.”

The crown prince’s voice echoed through the staircase. It sounded quite foreboding, but he didn’t seem particularly uneasy. Or he was just good at keeping a straight face.

Advisor Sian responded heavily.

“The otherworld is transformed by the power and intention of the black sorcerer, so this mansion is likely much larger and more grotesquely distorted than it actually is. It’s a huge trap meant to kill us.”

The attendant standing beside the crown prince glanced around, seemingly spooked.

We arrived on the fourth floor, beneath the ballroom.

We saw a door leading inside, but there was no need to explore the fourth floor.

We passed the door.

We continued descending. Slowly. Still.

A floor that appeared to be the third floor. A door leading inside. Again, we did not enter.

The floor below that. Another door.

The floor below that. A door.

The floor below that…

The doors that kept appearing before us looked identical.

After passing them several times, the heroine, Yeniel, and Advisor Sian stopped to discuss.

“…Aren’t we passing through the same door repeatedly?”

“We’re repeatedly descending the fourth floor. I hope I’m wrong, but.”

Sian took out a handkerchief from his pocket and placed it on the floor.

“Let’s go down once more.”

We went down. The moment we thought we’d descended another floor, the handkerchief Sian had placed on the floor appeared beneath our feet again.

“H-Hieek.”

The crown prince’s attendant, who had been quiet until now, gasped.

It was the fourth floor again.

Everyone looked at the crown prince.

“There’s no choice. It seems like we’re being told to enter through this door. Let’s go in.”

“But Your Highness!”

The man the attendant referred to as Max shouted.

From the door on the fourth floor, an unusually unsettling murderous aura was emanating. It felt like something ominous would jump out the moment the door was opened.

“Right now, the only options we have are to go back up to the fifth floor or go inside here. But we can’t return to the ballroom. That monster must still be lurking there. Do we have any other options?”

“No, we don’t….”

The attendant, Max, fell silent.

Advisor Sian opened the door to the fourth floor.

“Although the mansion’s magic has weakened the power of spirits and magic, I should still be able to protect you. I’ll take the lead.”

A dark and long hallway appeared.

It was dim, with almost no light, and there was a strange fishy smell.

Naturally, the group’s conversation dwindled. The darkness was so oppressive that it felt like even speaking would cause unseen monsters to lunge at us.

“Cortia.”

When Advisor Sian called out softly, a faint light appeared. It seemed to be either magic or a spirit.

We walked down the hallway, relying on the faint light.

There were doors along the right wall, but nothing on the left.

However, as the crown prince tried to open one of the doors on the right wall, the door disappeared.

“What the…”

It looked like a mirage.

After a few more steps, the right wall was empty, and doors appeared on the left wall.

I looked back.

Behind us, there was no hallway, only darkness.

“What are you looking at, Lady April?”

The heroine Yeniel, who was walking beside me, gently held my sleeve to make sure I was keeping up. She was caring, as expected of the heroine.

“The darkness.”

I answered naively, befitting the airhead lady.

“That’s not good. We’re wandering in the dark.”

Yeniel’s expression hardened slightly.

The further in we went, the darker and darker it became. The light of the spirit that Advisor Sian summoned was almost completely buried.

As we continued walking inward, the space widened.

Soon, the unpleasant stench of dampness and blood filled the air.

“This place….”

Yeniel swallowed.

A faint drizzle began to fall on our shoulders.

Ah, now I remembered where we were. It just took me a while to match the game map in my memory with the actual background.

“Outside?”

Advisor Sian stopped in his tracks, stunned.

Soon, at our feet lay the entrance to a city, tinged in ash gray.

The sight spread out before us.

We could see two- or three-story houses and residential areas. The faded city seemed empty, filled only with an eerie silence.

The sky was gloomy, and the atmosphere was eerie.

“Are we in the right place? There was only one path, but we might need to go back. Let’s see…”

The crown prince looked back, but the hallway we had entered through was nowhere to be seen. There was only a mountain and a forest.

“T-The hallway is gone.”

Max, the attendant, had turned pale.

It was a vast space, unbelievable for the fourth floor of the mansion. It felt as though we were the only ones dropped here.

The entrance to the dungeon was wide open, as if inviting us in.

“Where is this place?”

“It’s a dungeon, Your Highness.”

Yeniel answered.

“Judging by the terrain, the city below us seems to be the former capital before it was relocated. Some of the buildings are consistent with the lifestyle from a thousand years ago. This means… This place is based on the Grand Mage’s memory. We’ve been thrown into a memory of the dungeon from a thousand years ago.”

As expected of the heroine, she quickly figured out where we were and explained it, moving the story along smoothly.

The crown prince let out a groan.

“If that’s the case, should we go in? But I’m bothered by how the path led us here as if to push us in. It looks dangerous.”

“Well, I don’t know. But we seem to have two choices.”

Yeniel continued her explanation calmly.

“The forest behind us and to our left seems to lead down to that city if we follow the mountain. If we don’t want to enter the dungeon, we can try going down to the city. However, I can’t guarantee that avoiding the dungeon will result in anything good.”

Two choices lay before us.

▷ Enter the dungeon

▷ Go down to the city through the forest

The entire group fell into thought for a moment.