Memoirs of the Returnee

Magic Space Experience (3)

…30 minutes ago.

Elise and Soliette had been hunting monsters in succession. Monsters appeared anywhere in the hotel, making it the most convenient way to earn coins.

“The variance is high.”

“Indeed.”

However, there was quite a variance in the monsters they were dealing with. Some monsters required a lot of effort to hunt, while others were easily handled with a single punch.

Because of this, Elise was now having a slightly ominous thought.

Are these monsters really monsters?

[Acquisition due to combat: 20 mana coins]

The phrase displayed on the smartwatch, ‘Acquisition due to combat,’ also bothered her.

If it’s simply about getting coins by killing monsters, shouldn’t it be ‘Acquisition due to hunting’?

She speculated that the true identity of these monsters might be…

Other seniors.

Thud-!

Elise pulled out several meal kits from the vending machine.

“Shall we go now?”

However, there was no need to specifically inform Soliette of her speculation. After all, the entire process of the College Board is a competition.

“Yes.”

The two returned to [Room 311] with the meal kits. Elise extended her check-out time by calling the front desk through the room intercom.

“…Can you really go without sleep?”

She then glanced at Soliette. She had lit a cigarette as soon as she entered.

“Yes. My record is probably 62 hours.”

“Your body won’t be able to handle it.”

“I don’t have a desire to live long… but even I feel unusually tired here.”

Soliette lit her cigarette and sighed deeply.

“It feels like something is weighing down on my shoulders.”

“It’s a phantom hotel. You said you’ve been here a few times before, right?”

She hasn’t encountered a phantom directly yet, but it’s obvious. The chill in the hallway must be the work of a ghost.

“I was too young, so my Memory is faint, but the hotel structure itself is familiar. That hotel also didn’t end well.”

When I was young.

Repeating that word, Elise felt a bitter taste in her mouth.

Compared to that ‘young age’, they have changed too much now.

“…Don’t you remember the old days when you’re like this?”

She cautiously recalled the past to relieve the tension. However, Soliette rejected it, exhaling smoke from her cigarette.

“I don’t remember.”

“….”

Elise lay down on the bed without a word.

She was well aware of Soliette’s wounds. Jared and Felix. Those two were idols of Endex. When they were murdered, Elise was as shocked as Soliette….

Elise closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them.

Soliette was sitting with her back turned. Elise tried to speak, but held back.

No comfort would be comforting to her now.

Perhaps forever.

“….Huh?”

Suddenly, Elise was startled.

There was something strange about Soliette’s back.

Her face was too large, and her shoulders were too broad.

It didn’t seem like Soliette’s back.

“Wait.”

No, it really wasn’t.

Only the red hair was similar, it was the back of a completely different person.

“What….”

Goosebumps rose on her back.

“Who are you?”

At that moment, ‘it’ turned around.

Hair stuck all over the large face. Thick eyebrows like a seagull. The bulging eyes and large mouth drew a grotesque smile——.

“……Ahh!”

Elise screamed and jumped up.

Again, she was on the bed.

“Uh, um. Are you okay?”

Then Soliette asked. Elise looked at her in surprise.

It was the normal Soliette.

“Haah……”

It was another nightmare.

“Yes. I’m okay. It was just another nightmare.”

“Hmm. A nightmare?”

Soliette asked back. Elise nodded.

“Yeah. Maybe it’s better not to sleep like you.”

“Oh. I see. Hmm. Hmm.”

But why does she keep humming?

“Hmm. A nightmare. Hmm.”

“……Huh.”

It’s annoying for no reason. Elise glanced at Soliette.

She looked at her a little more closely.

Something was strange.

This time it was because of her eyes.

Black eyes.

Why are they black? The symbol of Arkne is clearly red and white.

“Soliette, your eyes……”

“Hmm. Why are you like this? Hmm. I am Soliette. Hmm.”

“……”

Elise’s expression hardened.

It seemed that the other party also noticed because of her reaction.

“Hmm. Hahaha. Hmm……”

Soliette, no ‘it’ opened its mouth wide.

“———Hmm. Hmm. Hmm—— HmmHmmHmm— Hmm——”

It laughed. Like a doll, it moved its jaw. At such a grotesque sight, Elise stepped back.

“Hmm. Haha. Hmm. HmmHmmHmm. Hmm. HahahaHmmHahaHmmHahaHmm———”

Each time it laughed, its face swelled. The face, already twice the size of its body, seemed to touch the ceiling of the room, and it rushed towards her, laughing——.

————HmmHahaHmmHahaHmmHaha!

“……!”

Elise opened her eyes again.

“Haah, haah, haah……”

This time, everything was dark. She caught her breath and turned on the light.

Click-

As the switch turned on, the room was dyed red.

“Where is this again…… Soliette?”

She called Soliette.

There was no answer.

There was no sign of anyone.

No one was there.

In other words, she was alone.

“……”

Elise’s breath was cut off for a moment. It felt like her lungs were shrinking. She quickly got up and opened the room door.

“……!”

There was another room right across.

[Room 444]

“What, what is this.”

She quickly looked around the hallway. It was all red. The ceiling, the walls, the floor, as if they were bleeding.

Bang-!

“!”

The door behind her closed on its own.

[Room 444]

The door behind her was Room 444.

“Haah, haah….”

Elise walked down the hallway, panting. She knocked on the door, clutching her chest.

“Open, open the door….”

Bang-! Bang-!

As she knocked, she looked at the room number.

[Room 444]

It was Room 444 again.

Elise staggered backward in a panic that threatened to shatter her sanity. She bumped into something. Another room was there.

[Room 444]

Again, she looked at another room.

[Room 444]

[Room 444]

[Room 444]

Every room was Room 444.

Elise found herself sitting in the hallway without realizing it.

Her limbs went limp. Her lips turned pale, and her face turned purple.

A nightmare, it’s a nightmare.

This place, everything, must be a nightmare.

Surely… surely it’s a nightmare.

Her vision blurred.

Her fingers wouldn’t move.

She couldn’t breathe.

As if sinking to the bottom of the deep sea.

“Ah….”

Elise slowly let go of her body.

Strange waves enveloped her.

A hallucination from some time ago echoed in her ears.

—You killed them. You killed them. You killed them!

Moment by moment, horrific scenes flashed before her eyes.

People drenched in blood. Spilling guts. People laughing in a hell where fresh blood was gushing.

Yael.

And then….

——Thump.

Footsteps.

The sound of someone approaching.

Another person.

She was not alone.

She was no longer alone.

“──Haah.”

Just knowing that fact made her breathe easier, and her suffocating chest felt relieved.

Eventually, she felt her body being lifted.

A person?

A phantom?

It didn’t matter who it was.

Elise nestled in his arms like a baby bird. She buried her face in his chest. She clutched his lapel tightly.

…It was warm.

Room, [Room 444]

“Why is she so heavy?”

I laid Elise down on the bed of some Room 444.

She was incredibly heavy for her appearance. Even though she was thin and frail, she must have undergone intense physical training.

I’ll probably have muscle pain tomorrow.

Anyway, in this phantom hotel, the phenomenon of rooms disappearing or moving would be a relatively common event.

It was even in the safety guidelines. Don’t be too surprised if rooms change or people around you disappear.

“……”

I quietly watched Elise, who was almost unconscious.

She, who almost died from stress disorder after trauma, was now quickly recovering just by the fact that someone was by her side. Her ragged breathing was surprisingly regular.

Elise, as always, was a talented genius, but she couldn’t overcome her ‘PTSD’ for at least 12 years.

“Hmm.”

I looked at my smartwatch.

[15 : 55 : 27]

There were still 16 hours left for the regular task. I could stay with her for a few hours.

“We’re not that close, are we?”

Even if we are Secret Friends, I didn’t want to create a situation where we blush seeing each other upon waking up. Elise’s physical condition seemed to have improved a lot.

I took out the axe from my waist.

“…It’s better for you too, than being alone.”

With that, I smashed Elise’s smartwatch.

Thud—!

The transparent blade shattered the mana stone inside the watch.

At that moment, Elise was sent back early.

It would be the worst score in Elise’s history, but she had to be sent back sooner or later.

I came out of the room.

[Holents Hotel]

The Holents Hotel, prominently displayed on the wall of the 4th floor corridor. Blood dripped from the letters.

I knew this artificial magic space, reconstructed based on a real incident. It was a tragedy that happened quite a long time ago, and since it happened in a foreign country, most people in Edsilla didn’t know about it, but it became quite famous later.

First of all —— the original name of this hotel was [Cadillac Casino Hotel].

The root of all evil was a general manager named ‘Moss’.

One day, ten years ago, he released hallucinogenic gas throughout the hotel through the air purification system. The guests were eroded by it without knowing, and they began to see all living things in the hotel as monsters.

The hotel turned into hell in an instant. The guests, trembling in fear, killed each other, and died in resentment.

However, they could not die completely even after death. They became ghosts filled with fear and hatred.

The general manager did not leave even those spirits alone.

No, the spirits themselves were the goal.

He condensed countless resentful spirits into a single refined core.

A ‘Mana Nucleus’.

The motive was later revealed to be a due to the casino’s failure and the debt that resulted from it.

The investment cost was enormous, but it didn’t make money due to poor management.

“……There’s a lot.”

I looked around the 4th floor. There were phantoms everywhere.

The evidence that the above ‘Cadillac Hotel Incident’ is still ongoing.

The general manager was caught by the Magic Tower while trying to smuggle the mana nucleus.

The mana nucleus was collected and should have been ‘liberated’, but as you can see from the situation here, the Magic Tower was not so righteous.

If it’s a mana nucleus made from human spirits, especially a mana nucleus that melted thousands of people, it would have tremendous potential and value.

Indeed, this mana nucleus becomes the nucleus of a famous theme park called ‘Shelton Park’ five years later. With astronomical investments from various major families, including Libra, it rakes in astronomical amounts of money.

Even the name Holents Hotel is an anagram of Shelton.

“Really… they do all sorts of things.”

In my opinion, the Magic Tower is full of bastards.

They claim to advocate for magical advancement and education of the generation, but inside, they are cruel, ruthless, and money-crazed monsters.

The phantoms here are evidence of that.

They are still entangled with the ‘Mana Nucleus’.

Having been subjected to experiments without liberation for a long time, they will eventually become the artificial intelligence of Shelton Park.

Of course, whether they retain the memories of their living days or their sanity is still unknown.

But it is certain that they are ‘trapped’.

On the boundary of life and death, neither living nor dying, as a potential means of making money.

“Isn’t this wrong?”

I muttered softly. Just then, someone approached me. It was the man with a half-destroyed face who had been following me.

“Isn’t it?”

He looked at me with eyes full of longing. Of course, he didn’t have eyes, but well.

I should free him.

It’s not because of a petty sense of justice. I’m not kind enough to act on such a thing in the first place.

I just hate the future where these damned bastards scrape money together for something like ‘Shelton Park’.

“But. You have to cooperate. Not just you, but all the phantoms here.”

I flicked a casino chip at the male phantom. He held it in his hand. He nodded slightly with his somewhat intact jaw.

“Good. Then.”

Before executing the plan, I must be the only one left here.

Simply, I will have to get first place.

Of course, it can be done even if I’m not alone, but if I try to liberate the mana nucleus, the remaining survivors might all go insane, and I also want to monopolize a bit.

Swish- I took out the axe from my waist and held it in one hand.

“Let’s start by smashing this hotel desk.”

I plunged the axe into the 4th floor.

Crash——!

Something squelched like skin being peeled, and blood spurted out.

Thud-! Thud-!

Still, I kept hammering the axe.

Until the floor of this 4th floor was exposed.