Floor 2 - Mansion (7)

**

Death games like this always had an organizing force behind everything.
The so-called mastermind.
The group behind abducting people and imprisoning them in the Tower.
They were also the enemy we’d ultimately have to defeat.
Which made the girl’s earlier claim extremely strange.
I recalled our first conversation.
The exchange we’d had when we first met.

-“Be careful. She’s with the kidnappers.”
-“Kidnappers?! Absolutely not!”
-“Then… are you trapped here too, like us?”
-“That’s right! I don’t want to be doing this either!”

“She said she wasn’t with the kidnappers.”
“It is strange. An outsider serving in a role like this…”

Han Gyeong-ah looked puzzled.
Usually, the host of a game was someone from the organizing side.
A goblin, a black-and-white bear, a tutorial fairy…
Something along those lines.
But the girl had adamantly denied any connection to the mastermind.
Even though she was the Administrator who ran and managed Floor 2’s game.

“Maybe that brat lied.”
“Mmph! Mmmph!”

The girl shook her head violently at Kang Se-rim’s accusation.
She’d said she wouldn’t say another word, but apparently gestures didn’t count.
Judging by that reaction, it didn’t seem likely she was lying.

“I don’t know. She doesn’t gain anything by hiding that.”

If anything, admitting she was with the organizers would’ve made running the game easier.

“Come to think of it, she said she was trapped here too.”
“Meaning she’s doing this against her will…”

What could have happened to her?
I couldn’t tell from that alone. But if I connected it to the earlier contradiction…

“…Maybe it’s the cost.”
“Huht? “The cost?”

At Gyeong-ah’s confused question, I corrected myself.

“No, I mean the price she paid.”

The situation was simple.
A girl who’d been given a terminal prognosis and should have died long ago.
Yet she was still alive and perfectly healthy.
As the Administrator of Floor 2.
Connecting those facts made everything line up neatly.

“Something like… she ended up here as the price for having her incurable illness cured.”

She escaped her destined death and became Floor 2’s Administrator. I couldn’t think of another explanation.

“Is that even possible?”

Kang Se-rim challenged the idea.
She gestured toward the invisible man in the conversation, who was sitting there idly staring at the crooked patterns on the round table.

“That old man just said incurable diseases can’t be cured. So how would they cure hers?”
“Think about where we are. It’s entirely possible.”

This place was far beyond the bounds of ordinary reality.
Curing an incurable disease didn’t seem impossible here.
Besides, we’d seen proof.
The magical phenomenon the girl had shown us when the game began.

“As everyone saw, she’s already far from an ordinary human.”

An impossible situation called for impossible logic.
My argument defied common sense, which made it perfectly plausible here.
The girl had become Floor 2’s Administrator as the price for survival.
And even if that sounded premature, there was more evidence.

“W-Wait! How could something like that even happen?”
“I don’t know the details… but maybe someone made some kind of deal with the people behind the kidnappings.”

That was the only way I could imagine making something this impossible happen.
Kang Se-rim gave me a dubious look.

“So she got herself trapped in this dump because she didn’t want to die?”
“No. I don’t think she had anything to do with it. Someone else probably made the deal.”
“What?”

Han Gyeong-ah’s eyes widened. As expected of a police officer, she immediately caught my meaning.

“Could that clue be…!”
“Exactly.”

I took out an item.

It was the clue Gyeong-ah had found while investigating the Mansion with Lee Sa-hyuk after we were separated.
It read:

【Desperately longed for a daughter.

For the one I love, I could do anything. Even if it meant paying any price, a deal with that person…】

When I’d first read it, I hadn’t understood a thing. Now I thought I did.

“It looks like the Mansion owner’s diary.”
“I thought so…”
“Maybe it was written right after his daughter received the terminal prognosis…”

How would a father feel after learning that his only daughter wouldn’t survive the year?

“Even if it meant paying any price, a deal with that person…”

The final line was filled with desperate longing and determination.
Han Gyeong-ah quietly drew in a breath.

“Don’t tell me that means…”
“It’s probably evidence that the Mansion owner made a deal with whoever’s behind all this.”

Desperate to save his daughter, he’d searched for salvation by any means necessary.
As a result, he’d struck a deal with the person referred to as ‘that person’ in the diary, and his daughter ended up trapped in the Tower.

“Doesn’t it make sense?”
“To some extent…”

But one question remained.

“The problem is what conditions the deal came with.”
“Isn’t it obvious? They saved his dying daughter, then kidnapped her and dumped her here as payment.”
“No. If that were the deal, the Mansion owner would’ve had no reason to agree.”
“Why?”
“He would’ve wanted to see his cured daughter live a healthy life.”

The original terms must have been different. Which led to what happened in the Mansion afterward.
I pulled out another clue.
The item I’d picked up near the entrance when I first woke up and immediately regretted reading.

“This…”

Han Gyeong-ah stared at the note and read it carefully.
I’d thought it was just a warning that I was about to suffer.
Instead, it indirectly described what had happened in this Mansion in the past.

“Gyeong-ah, what do you think?”
“So many disappearances…”

Her police instincts apparently kicking in, she cautiously continued.

“I really don’t want to believe it… but were the household staff sacrificed one by one as the price of the deal?”
“That’s probably what happened.”
“What? Really?! I was just throwing out a guess…”
“Why are you the one surprised after getting it right?”
“Of course I thought I was wrong!! That’s completely insane…”

It was that horrifying a conclusion.
But reaching the truth required us to follow it through. The discussion was nearing its climax.

“People disappeared. And aside from the girl, there was exactly one person left in this Mansion.”
“…”
“Remember where?”

She didn’t answer, but her eyes did.
The Bedroom.
The two of us had witnessed something horrifying inside.
The invitation had pushed it aside for a while, but now it was finally time to open that Pandora’s box.

“I think we need to talk about it… Can you handle that?”
“Yes. Of course.”

She nodded firmly, as if she’d steeled herself.
That was more like Gyeong-ah.
Having her beside me was reassuring.
I smiled faintly and shifted the topic.
Somehow, it felt like this would be the final piece. And so we continued.

【About the Corpse in the Bedroom~】

“What the hell have you two been talking about?”

Kang Se-rim looked confused.
She hadn’t entered the Bedroom, so she had no idea what we meant.
How was I supposed to explain this?
Seeing Gyeong-ah hesitate awkwardly, I decided it would be better if I told her.

“Don’t freak out.”
“Just tell me.”

I bluntly explained the corpse we’d found in the Bedroom. Kang Se-rim frowned.

“Fuck… Seriously?”
“Hard to believe, but it’s true.”

Once unni confirmed it, Kang Se-rim accepted it without hesitation.

“A corpse…”
“It’s probably better that you didn’t see it.”

I remembered entering the Bedroom. It had been so horrible that I couldn’t even scream.
The sight had been almost impossible to look at, and Gyeong-ah and I had fled immediately.

“Even remembering that horrible scene is difficult…”
“An unidentified corpse… So who was it?”

I went over the details one by one.

“The Bedroom where we found the corpse was the most extravagant room in the Mansion. I don’t remember what he was wearing or what he looked like, but he was definitely a man…”

The only other person left after everyone had disappeared.
Based on everything we’d learned, his identity seemed obvious.

“…The Mansion owner.”

Kang Se-rim said it. Gyeong-ah looked troubled.

“Why would he do something like that…?”

The hanging corpse in the Bedroom was the Mansion owner.
Maybe guilt over the disappearances overwhelmed him, or maybe he sensed that he would be next…
Either way, he had taken his own life. We didn’t know the exact reason.

“…I’d like you to tell us.”

Having reached our conclusion, I turned toward the girl.
She was still covering her mouth with both hands, but her expression had clearly changed.

“…”

Her jewel-like eyes had gone still, and tears were running down both cheeks.

“A-Are you crying?!”
“What’s with her…?”

In truth, something about her had shifted from the moment we began talking about the Mansion owner.
Now she was openly crying. Her earlier innocent cheerfulness had completely vanished.

“I think this discussion just ended the game.”
“What? But there are still things we haven’t figured out…”
“Remember what the goal of the discussion was.”

Our objective was only ‘the Mansion’s secret.’
Not the girl’s secret. Not the Mansion owner’s secret.
Only to uncover the secret hidden within the Mansion.
We didn’t need every last detail.
The girl seemed to compose herself and finally lowered her hands.
Her eyes were still brimming with tears.
She looked at us and opened the lips she’d kept tightly shut.

“…Correct. With that, the discussion is over.”
“We reached the truth?”
“Of course! You honored guests were almost perfect!”

She nodded as though there were nothing left to hide.

“Just as you said, the Mansion owner… my father made a deal with someone.”
“…”
“And just like that, my illness disappeared completely…! But the trouble started afterward.”

She lowered her head heavily.
People began disappearing as the price of the deal.

“The housekeeper, the butler, the gardener… They all vanished one after another…”
“…”
“Only then did my father regret his choice. He realized how wrong it had been to save me by sacrificing everyone else…”

Overcome with emotion, she tightly gripped the hem of her skirt.

“Unable to endure the guilt any longer, my father tried to end the deal by taking his own…”

The girl squeezed her eyes shut and couldn’t finish.
That was the whole story.
The Mansion’s hidden past had been nothing short of tragic.

“Then how did you end up becoming Floor 2’s Administrator?”
“There was a hidden trap in the terms of the deal.”
“A trap?”
“If the deal was ever broken… I would be trapped in the Tower and forced to obey without question.”
“That’s basically a slave contract.”

She was forced to obey orders. The girl continued in a grief-stricken voice.

“Everyone died because of me. My beloved father, the people who worked in the Mansion…”
She confessed.

“I have to spend the rest of my life here carrying the weight of that sin and atoning for what happened. That’s the duty I owe to everyone.”

She was completely different from the girl we’d seen until now. I’d thought she was simply cheerful and innocent.
I never imagined such feelings were hidden behind that bright smile.
I didn’t know what to say.
Sensitive as ever, Gyeong-ah’s eyes even began to tear up.
She looked ready to start crying along with the girl.

“That’s too cruel…”

Kang Se-rim silently watched the girl with her arms crossed,
while Lee Sa-hyuk… apparently woke up from a nap.

“…How far did you get?”
“It’s over, you quack.”

In any case, we’d uncovered the Mansion’s past and all the secrets hidden here.
We’d reached the truth and fulfilled the game’s victory condition.
Without even wiping the tear tracks from her pale cheeks, the girl smiled.

“All right! That concludes Floor 2’s game! And needless to say, you’ve won!”

She rummaged through her clothes and held out the Front Door Key.

“Here you go! The Front Door Key!”

When I reached for it, she tightened her doll-like hand around the key as though reluctant to let go.

“What’s wrong? Aren’t you giving it to me?”
“I do want to, but…”

She hesitated for a long moment before looking at me pleadingly.

“If it’s not too much to ask… could you come visit me sometimes?”
“Sure. That’s easy enough.”

She must have been terribly lonely living here by herself. Still holding the key, she extended her pinky.

“Really…? Promise…?”
“Yeah. Promise.”

I hooked my pinky around hers, made the promise, and took the key.

At last, we could escape the Mansion. Kang Se-rim looked at me like I was pathetic.

“Look at you. Why not ask her for a kiss next time too?”

I ignored the baseless slander and said goodbye.

“Please get back safely…”

We left the Drawing Room under her farewell. The rich scent of black tea disappeared as soon as we entered the corridor.
The entrance was close by. After only a few steps, we were there.
It was where I’d first arrived on Floor 2.
Back then, I’d nearly died of fear from being alone.
Then I’d run into Kang Se-rim, reunited with Gyeong-ah, played the game, and somehow made it this far.
Now I could finally leave this godforsaken Mansion.
Relief washed over me, and all the tension left my body. Everyone else seemed equally relieved.
The only person who looked dissatisfied was Lee Sa-hyuk.

“Sa-hyuk, what’s wrong?”
“Don’t worry about it.”

He waved her off in his usual annoyed manner. He always acted like this, so it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.

“Just hurry up and leave. There’s no point staying somewhere without cigarettes…”

He sounded strangely dissatisfied.
Was nicotine withdrawal getting to him?
Not that I planned to stay.
I didn’t want to spend another second here either. I firmly inserted the Front Door Key into the lock.

“…There.”

Click-

With a heavy metallic click, the front door opened. Without hesitation, we stepped outside the Mansion.

One step.

Two steps.

Crunch-.

**

**

Sensitive as ever, Gyeong-ah’s eyes even began to tear up.
She looked ready to start crying along with the girl.

“That’s too cruel…”

Kang Se-rim silently watched the girl with her arms crossed,
while Lee Sa-hyuk… apparently woke up from a nap.

“…How far did you get?”
“It’s over, you quack.”

In any case, we’d uncovered the Mansion’s past and all the secrets hidden here.
We’d reached the truth and fulfilled the game’s victory condition.
Without even wiping the tear tracks from her pale cheeks, the girl smiled.

“All right! That concludes Floor 2’s game! And needless to say, you’ve won!”

She rummaged through her clothes and held out the Front Door Key.

“Here you go! The Front Door Key!”
“…”

A strange sense of déjà vu washed over me.
Was I imagining it?
It felt far too vivid for that.

It didn’t take long for me to realize what was happening.

‘What is…’

going on?