Regarding the bath, one person would always wait in the changing room while the other was inside.
The conditions presented were: a voice must be directed to the changing room at regular intervals while bathing.
“Huh? Why do I need to report in at regular intervals just to take a bath?” I thought, but there was no helping it.
It would be a different story if there were items that granted Aquatic Aptitude, but all such items were rare or limited-time offers.
Even Hisame probably didn’t have such an item.
Speaking of which, there was an opinion on the internet that if I used an Aquatic Aptitude item and Dueled in an underwater Dungeon, I might be able to defeat Hisame even at a low level.
However, that was abandoned because there were no reports of Hisame being seen in an underwater Dungeon in the first place.
I remember saying before that Hisame would randomly appear and help Players at any time other than when defeating the Demon Lord, but upon further thought, she hasn’t been reported appearing in high towers or Sky Cities, other than underwater Dungeons, so she might be quite selective.
…Perhaps if I could somehow lure her to fight me in the bath, I could have won easily.
But at that point, I wasn’t particularly thinking about buying a house, and since I’d already decided on a place, it was too late.
“Ah, I messed up,” I lamented, holding my head.
“…Soma, are you there?”
Ringo’s voice, muffled as if from a distance, reached my ears.
“…Ugh.”
My desperate evasion of reality was in vain, and her voice made me acutely aware of my current situation again.
The reason I’d been desperately thinking about irrelevant things was that Ringo was taking a bath.
Some might think, “So what?” but I had to stand next to Ringo’s discarded clothes and listen to the sound of water from the bathroom, acutely aware that Ringo was naked just one door away.
I don’t know about others, but for a loner like me, this wasn’t a situation I could easily brush off.
“…Soma?”
Who was supposed to be giving the regular report, anyway?
Unaware of my torment, Ringo’s voice, innocently urging me, called out.
“Ah, yeah, I’m here, I’m here! Definitely here!”
I replied loudly.
“…Mm.”
Ringo’s somewhat satisfied reply reached me as I once again held my head, this time even more firmly than before.
After that moment, which was both hellish and heavenly, we decided to go to bed early.
It was my suggestion, of course.
If this was how it was on the first day, I was worried about what was to come, but I hoped we would get used to it from here.
“Well then, see you tomorrow.”
“…See you.”
We parted in front of our respective rooms. Ringo went to the adjacent room, composed entirely of hearts and pink, while I entered my room, which had a retro TV and a telephone. A few minutes later, however…
“…And why is Ringo here?”
Ringo appeared in my room, holding a futon covered in heart patterns.
Even though the room wasn’t locked, I never expected her to come in just a few minutes after we parted.
It made sense why she hadn’t said “See you tomorrow” when we parted in front of the room.
I looked at Ringo, conveying my protest through my gaze, but
“…I’m sleeping here.”
Without a hint of disturbance, Ringo unilaterally declared and then tried to lie down next to my bed.
Of course, I hastily stopped her.
“Wait, just wait!
You decided on your own room, didn’t you?! Why are you doing this…!”
In response, Ringo accepted my words without any shame and stated clearly.
“Soma, when I take my eyes off you… you die.”
“Stop saying ominous fortune-telling predictions!”
“Ah, come on,” I muttered, running my hands through my hair.
The incident in the bathroom seemed to have triggered Ringo’s concern.
Since it was an action stemming from good intentions, I couldn’t be too harsh.
“…Fine.”
I tossed the Bear plushie that was on my bedside table.
“You didn’t bring a pillow, did you? Use this.”
A gentleman might offer his bed here, but doing so would make her seem like she was settling in permanently.
At the same time, I didn’t have the courage to share a bed, so offering this much was all I could manage.
After gazing at the Bear plushie she received for a full 10 seconds, Ringo said,
“…Thank you.”
And then, she casually placed it under her head.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said reflexively, and was suddenly struck by guilt.
I had been helped by Ringo so many times that something like this truly shouldn’t matter.
Conversely, could I say that I was facing Ringo with sincerity?
Wasn’t I hiding too much about myself, taking advantage of Ringo’s lack of common sense?
No, well, it wasn’t that complicated.
It wasn’t for Ringo’s sake, but rather for my own.
I suddenly felt a sense of shame about not revealing my true nature to Ringo.
“…Hey, Ringo.”
I was on the bed, and Ringo was on the floor.
From our positions, we couldn’t see each other’s faces, and even if we could, the only light source was the moonlight filtering through the window.
However, that situation prompted me to utter words I normally wouldn’t.
“You’ve noticed that I know things that ordinary Humans don’t, right?”
There was no answer for a while to my question.
I thought maybe she had already fallen asleep, but then a small voice replied.
“…Kind of figured.”
“Kind of figured,” huh.
If you say it’s Ringo-like, it’s Ringo-like.
I gave a wry smile and continued.
“Have you ever wondered why I know such things? Or perhaps… where the source of that knowledge comes from?”
I paused, waiting for Ringo’s reply.
If Ringo had answered “No” here, I would have stopped talking.
It wasn’t something to force out if the person in question wasn’t bothered by it.
However, if she had answered “I’m curious,” I thought I might explain.
I might not go as far as saying this was a Game world, but at least that I grew up in a very different, faraway place than here.
But after a longer silence than before, Ringo’s response was neither of those.
“…Game?”
In a small, unconfident voice, she had nevertheless said it.
She had guessed the “correct answer” that no one should have known.
“Wh-why, that…!”
I was confused.
The word “Game” itself probably existed in this world.
But this world had no advanced games that used Computers.
It couldn’t possibly exist.
In this world, a game would presumably refer to simple pastimes that didn’t use mechanical devices, and it was unlikely that it would be linked to knowledge.
Then, as if perplexed by my overly sensitive reaction, Ringo began to explain haltingly.
“…Soma said it before.”
“Before? When was ‘before’?”
To my urgent question, Ringo replied.
“Yesterday, a big…”
However, before her words finished,
–Jiririririri!!
A deafening sound echoed in the room, drowning out her voice.
“Wh-what is that?!”
I instinctively jumped out of bed.
–Jiririririri!!
The sound, like a wake-up alarm, came from a jet-black object placed in the corner of the room.
In an era dominated by VR, it was an antique, an artifact of a bygone age.
I was sure it was called a ‘black telephone’.
(What terrible timing.)
I thought it couldn’t be used during the day, but perhaps receiving calls was different.
Frankly, I couldn’t imagine getting a call at this hour in a place like this, but I’d find out if I answered it.
“Hello!”
I called out to whoever was on the other end of the receiver with an irritated voice.
‘…Ru.’
A faint voice came from the receiver pressed to my ear.
However, the voice was too quiet to make out the words.
“What are you saying…”
‘…………o, …………aru.’
“Huh?”
The second utterance was also inaudible at the beginning.
But the next one. The third utterance was clearly audible.
‘I’m going to kill you.’
Almost simultaneously with my brain processing those words,
‘I hate, I hate, I hate all living things, I will never forgive my companions, if you die too, we will also die, you die and I kill, I kill you I kill you I kill you I will definitely kill you and your companions, I absolutely will kill you –‘
I couldn’t withstand the sudden torrent of words and let go of the receiver.
“What the heck was that…”
It was a string of words that felt like pure malice.
I stared creepily at the black telephone that had fallen to the ground and muttered, right after,
— BANG!!
Behind me, there was a loud sound like something exploding.
Reflexively, I turned around, and gasped.
“What! Th-this…”
There was a bright red handprint on the wall.
This wasn’t here when I first entered the room.
As I wondered why, again, a “bang,” a bursting sound.
“The handprint…”
It had increased.
New red handprints were etched on the wall, as if an invisible person were moving forward.
— BANG! BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!!
Then, as if a dam had burst, the sounds of explosions continued, announcing the progress of whatever invisible entity it was.
The handprints crawling the wall seemed to be getting closer to me.
(Shit! What the hell is going on?)
I had no idea.
I had no idea, but I felt like it was dangerous to stay here.
“Ringo, we need to get out of here right now…”
Just as I, feeling instinctive terror, started to suggest leaving,
— Zzzt, Zzzt, Zzzt.
A new, strange sound echoed from the side.
Its source was…
(The TV!)
On the TV screen, which had been stubbornly blank no matter what I did, a blurry, humanoid shape was appearing.
No, it didn’t end there.
— …can’t.
A creepy voice could be heard.
And then, from the TV screen, as if crossing the barrier between two and three dimensions, a long-haired woman crawled out,
— I won’t let you escape!!
She lunged at me in a single leap.
It all happened so fast that my body couldn’t react.
“Soma!!”
But, an instant before her hands could reach me, Ringo’s sharp voice pierced the darkness.
A flash of light illuminated the dark room, blowing away the woman who had been approaching me.
It was Ringo’s lightning strike.
“I-I was saved.”
Saying thanks in a slightly shaky voice, Ringo, without even a smile, grabbed my arm and tried to guide me to the exit.
“Outside, quickly…!”
“No, but that thing from before, it’s now…”
As I started to say,
— …escape,…
“Huh?”
From the TV, once again, a noise like static could be heard.
As if drawn, I turned to look and
— I won’t let you escape…!
The long-haired woman I thought I had defeated was crawling towards me at an incredible Speed.
“No! You can’t be serious!”
We scrambled out of the room in a panic.
I quickly shut the door.
“With this…”
I couldn’t bring myself to say we had escaped.
Along with a cacophony of rattling sounds, the doorknob was violently turned.
“No! That’s bad!”
Just in time, I flung myself at the door before it could be opened from the other side.
I narrowly prevented the door from opening.
However, the force pushing the door open from the inside was strong, and I knew it wouldn’t hold for long.
“Ringo, the key!”
After unlocking all the rooms on the first floor, I had left the mansion key on the living room table.
To close this door, one of us would have to go get it.
“…Wait here.”
Ringo was dependable in times like these.
Without panicking or questioning my instructions, she quickly turned away.
— Escape, won’t let you escape, won’t let you escape!!
“Guh!”
The door was hit by an incessant barrage of impacts.
Each time, my body felt like it would be flung away.
But I was desperate too.
With my back against the door, I braced myself with all my might.
— Open, it! Open it!!
With a disturbing voice that seemed to resonate directly in my head, a particularly strong impact struck the door.
At this rate, the door itself would be broken before I ran out of strength.
“Ringo! Not yet!?”
I couldn’t help but shout.
Perhaps my prayer was heard,
“Soma, here!”
Ringo’s voice cut through the dark.
I firmly grasped the shining object that flew towards me.
It was the mansion key.
— I won’t let you escape! Never!!
Suppressing the urge to cover my ears at the still-audible resentful voice, I inserted the key into the lock.
Urging my trembling hands, I turned it with a click.
The moment the lock engaged, I felt the pressure on the other side of the door instantly lessen.
The voices and impacts continued for a while, but eventually, their intensity weakened.
— Won’t escape. Won’t escape…
A few seconds later, the room became silent.
(Did… it work?)
I slid down to the floor, my body giving way.
Despite having just taken a Bath, I was covered in a cold sweat.
For a few seconds in the dark hallway, as I sat there unable to move,
“…Cheer up.”
Ringo, who had coincidentally brought out only a Bear plush toy, patted my shoulder.
Unfortunately, the hallway lights had gone out.
I couldn’t recall operating them, so they must have been set to turn off automatically after a certain time.
Considering the current situation, I couldn’t help but suspect it was a malicious design, but I decided to put that aside for now.
“…Light.”
I chanted the basic magic, “Light,” creating a minimal amount of illumination.
It was a magic anyone could use, and its brightness was only about as much as “lighting a fire on a fingernail,” but even this made a considerable difference.
“Ringo, don’t let your guard down.”
I said, and we proceeded down the hallway.
The incident in the Bath was still fresh.
I hadn’t intended to let my guard down, but honestly, I had been too unconcerned about the fact that this was the world of “Nekoneko.”
The Bath’s deathtrap was probably an unintended Bug, but “Nekoneko” didn’t just trouble Players with Bugs.
The excessive mischievousness of the “Nekoneko” staff had led to numerous inconsiderate events with no restraint whatsoever.
These, set in places with truly malicious intent, could be considered the second enemy in “Nekoneko.”
In my opinion, if I were to rank the things to be wary of in “Nekoneko” by danger level, it would be: 1st, Bugs; 2nd, the Author’s malice; 3rd, NPCs; 4th, Monsters.
The current situation could also be attributed to my own oversight, knowing the malicious nature of the “Nekoneko” Author, I had assumed my home would be safe and didn’t avoid obvious traps like the TV and telephone.
However, I didn’t expect every single room to have such a severe trap.
Reflecting calmly, it felt like it was packed with clichés from horror stories.
The concept of the room we were just in was probably “supernatural phenomena” or “horror experience.”
In short, I had drawn quite a bad hand.
If we explore, we should find rooms with concepts that cause no particular harm.
Furthermore, the fact that we discovered that locking the door would stop the disturbances inside was a positive development.
Even if we were to encounter a dangerous room, as long as we had the key, we could probably avoid the worst-case scenario.
(But this is long.)
Was the distance between rooms always this far?
Or was my sense of distance distorted by advancing in the dark?
Just as I started to feel uneasy, I spotted a new door.
“Shall we go in?”
I said, slowly turned the doorknob, and peeked inside.
(…Hmm?)
Inside, it was a surprisingly normal room.
It was about the same size as the ghost room we were just in, but there were no abnormalities with the furniture or walls; it seemed safe at first glance.
Compared to other rooms, it had only the bare minimum of furniture, but it felt sufficient for sleeping.
(The concept is “simple,” perhaps?
No, but… this room wasn’t here when I first explored this area…)
Still, the room wasn’t locked, and the lights were on.
It was definitely a room I had explored before.
Perhaps it was too unremarkable to leave an impression.
(Hmm. I’ll put off judgment for now.)
A genuinely normal room like this is rare, and perhaps if I investigate this room thoroughly, I might find something.
“First, let’s verify if this room is truly safe.”
I didn’t want to be attacked while sleeping like before.
I searched the room with caution, but no suspicious items appeared.
If I had to say anything, it was that there seemed to be an unusually large number of fasteners for the furniture.
“…Well, there’s no point in overthinking it.
I’ll rest here for a bit while remaining alert, ready to move at any moment if something happens.”
When I said that, Ringo nodded, then looked down at the ground next to the bed with a troubled expression.
Ringo’s futon was still in my room.
However, I didn’t have the courage to open that room again to get the futon.
“Then, then, shall we use this bed together?”
Fortunately, the bed in this room was quite large.
If we slept at opposite ends, we wouldn’t touch each other.
Besides, if something like what happened before happened again, it would be a problem if Ringo and I were too far apart.
So, this was an unavoidable measure.
While I made excuses to myself, Ringo was already moving without hesitation.
She quickly ran to the bed, first securing the bear plushie she was holding to the metal fitting beside the bed.
Then, she lifted the futon and jumped into the bed.
And then, she looked at me with eyes that seemed to say, “Aren’t you coming?”
“Ah, ah. Yeah, that’s right.”
Following her lead, I also got into the bed from the opposite end to Ringo.
I tried to stay as close to the edge as possible, but Ringo ended up positioning herself surprisingly close to the middle, so my arm and her arm touched slightly.
Come to think of it, besides the specters and monsters locked in their rooms, Ringo and I were the only ones in this huge house.
There was no way I could remain calm in this situation. My heart pounded like a drum.
“Ah, damn it! Be quiet, my heart!”
If Ringo found out, it would be incredibly awkward. I desperately willed my heart to calm down.
Did my wish come true?
No, it probably had nothing to do with it, but the strange event occurred in the next instant.
Suddenly, the world turned upside down.
“Huh?”
Unprepared, I was thrown into the air with no way to defend myself.
“Gah!”
I fell about two meters and hit the ground with the futon in my hands.
No, not the ground.
“Is this… the ceiling?”
The pattern on the ground was identical to, no, it *was* the pattern on the ceiling I had been looking at while trying to calm my heart.
As I helped Ringo, who had fallen the same way next to me, to her feet, I looked up above at where we had just fallen from.
The bed we had been sleeping on was attached to the ceiling.
“I see!”
The unnaturally wide gap between this room and the next.
The meticulously installed fixing brackets, as if afraid of furniture shifting.
And the fact that I had searched it once, yet didn’t recognize it.
It only meant one thing.
“This must have been the ‘room where all the furniture was stuck to the ceiling’ that we found first!”
No, to be precise, that wasn’t correct.
This must be a ‘room where the floor rotates 180 degrees at regular intervals.’
This room probably rotates at certain intervals due to some mechanism, swapping the positions of the floor and ceiling.
When we first came, it was when the floor and ceiling positions were reversed, so it looked like a ‘room where all the furniture was stuck to the ceiling.’ The last time we came, it was when the floor and ceiling positions were not reversed, so it looked like a ‘normal room with furniture fixed to the floor.’
The unusually large distance between rooms was probably to accommodate this room’s rotation radius. It took up more space than other rooms due to the rotating mechanism.
“What kind of house is this…”
I couldn’t help but complain. While I appreciated the playful design, I wished they had considered the people living inside a little more when creating the rooms.
At any rate, we couldn’t rest in a room like this.
“…Bear-san,” I said, pulling Ringo, who was wistfully staring at the bear plushie now fixed to the ceiling, and we left the room.
The next room we visited was Ringo’s. While I couldn’t stand this excessive pink aesthetic, I thought if it were just a fondness for girly things, we could somehow manage… but then,
“Wh-what!?”
The moment Ringo and I sat down on the heart-shaped bed, we felt the ground move again. I thought it was another rotation, but this time it was horizontal. The bed we were sitting on began to spin like a carousel.
Simultaneously, the room’s lights flickered with a garish pink, and what sounded like sultry music and moans from a woman started coming from somewhere…
“This is…”
There was no mistaking the concept of this room. This, this might very well be a love…
“L-let’s just get out of here!”
This room was extremely bad for Ringo’s education! I hurriedly pulled Ringo’s hand and fled the room.
Finally, we ended up in the room closest to the entrance. It was just a living room, with no bed at all.
I felt like I wouldn’t be able to sleep in any more rooms. So, I decided that sleeping in this vast room, which had no facilities but also no mechanisms, was the best option. Ringo, too, must have been tired.
“Shall we just sleep here for today?”
To my suggestion, she didn’t object.
Fortunately, the sofa in this room was large and of high quality, more than enough space for one person to lie down. We brought the futon from the rotating room and the room with the red wallpaper, and each of us lay down on the sofas facing each other across the table.
Saying “good night” to each other once more, we closed our eyes on our respective sofas, but…
“Ah, damn it!”
Even though I knew nothing should happen here, my nerves remained on edge. Every little sound made me jump up, and I couldn’t fall asleep.
“Sigh. I miss the stable…”
Looking back now, I couldn’t understand why I had complained about sleeping there. It had enough space to be a bed and a warm futon. Thanks to the moonlight and starlight, visibility was sufficient, and the only threat I needed to be wary of was perhaps a burglar. It was like paradise.
“I was quite spoiled back then…”
As I was thinking this, my shoulder was gently tapped. It seemed Ringo couldn’t sleep and was bothering me.
“…Seriously.”
I was also unable to sleep at all, so I was secretly happy, but if I entertained her now, we’d both be even more sleepless. I steeled my heart and decided to ignore her. However…
Tap, tap.
Ringo’s bothering didn’t stop. I had been pretending to sleep, but it was starting to become a nuisance. And finally,
Tap, tap, tap.
When Ringo tapped my shoulder a little more forcefully than before, my patience reached its limit.
“Hey, Ringo. Please let me sleep now.”
As I unintentionally raised my voice,
“…I’m here?”
Ringo’s voice came from a distance.
“…What?”
Judging by the tone of her voice, Ringo hadn’t moved from the sofa opposite me.
“Then who was it that just tapped my shoulder?”
A chill ran through my entire body. I was gripped by the premonition that something terrifying was watching me.
But if I didn’t look, I wouldn’t know. I summoned my courage and turned my body the other way.
And there… on the table, where no one should have been, was ‘something.’
“Ah, ahhh…”
In the dim light, a shadow emerged. A form impossible for a Human. Thick, clumsy limbs that could even be called grotesque. Its entire body was colored in a garish yellow.
There was no doubt. The figure that emerged from the darkness was…
It was the bear plushie that Ringo had been so fond of carrying around.
“Haaaaa…”
I let out a big sigh. They say fear magnifies things, but if I’m going to be scared by something like this, I lack fortitude.
“Seriously, you scared me.”
I lay back down on the sofa, hugged the bear plushie, and grumbled. But then, it hit me.
“Wait a minute. Didn’t I leave this plushie in the rotating room…?”
The moment I realized this, my arm was tapped again.
Of course, there was no one around.
As if in disbelief, I looked at the plushie in my hands. Its formerly cute smiling mouth was now stretched into a wide grin,
You won’t get away.
“AIEEEEEEEEEEE!”
The terrifying night continued…!
To be continued.
