Floor 2 - Mansion (12)

**

The Mansion twisted around us.
It had no intention of letting us leave so easily and came crashing down on us with a vengeance.
The building was slowly collapsing, falling apart like a row of dominoes.
If it caught us, we’d die.
A chill ran through me. We tore down the corridor as if our lives depended on it.

“We have to get to the entrance…!”

We had to escape the Mansion.
The question was whether we could even reach the entrance.
Of course, the Attic just had to be at the far end, leaving us a long way to go.

“This fucking place…”

Kang Se-rim looked horrified.
Beside her, Gyeong-ah looked ready to lose her soul, while Lee Sa-hyuk looked annoyed that he had to run at all.

Thud-thud-thud-!

We all raced toward the entrance.
A deafening cacophony thundered behind us.
Things smashing apart, windows shattering, the building collapsing…
I didn’t dare look back. We were too pressed for time even if I’d wanted to.
The closer we got to the entrance, the more violently the Mansion tried to stop us.

Rumble-!

The floor shook so violently it was difficult even to stay on our feet,

Creak, creak-!

doors flew open on their own, objects came spilling out…
All kinds of bizarre phenomena erupted around us at random.

Screeeech-!

A chair suddenly shot out and caught my leg.
Just as I was about to fall, Kang Se-rim yanked me back by the collar.

“…Ghk.”
“Watch where you’re going, dumbass!”

How sweet of her.
There was no time to thank her. We couldn’t let our guard down for even a second.
We dodged flowerpots dropping from overhead,
and struggled forward through every obstacle the Mansion threw at us.

“We’re almost there…!”
“There!”

Gyeong-ah pointed into the distance. We’d finally reached the corridor leading to the entrance.
The finish line was close.
But at that moment, an unsettling voice stabbed into my ears.

[No one is leaving this place.]

Crash-!

The Mansion ceiling shattered and began collapsing.
Right on top of the entrance.
It happened so fast we had no time to react.

…The entrance collapsed.

Debris poured down and completely blocked our path. She had sealed the entrance so we couldn’t get outside.

“No way…!”

Gyeong-ah cried out at the sight of the collapsed entrance. I was just as stunned.
We’d gone through all that to get the key…
I’d never imagined she would simply destroy our only exit to stop us from escaping.
Reality really was different from a game.
I’d never encountered a situation like this before. My mind went blank.

‘Damn it…’

Our only way outside was blocked. There was no way we could escape the Mansion like this.
We’d hit a dead end.

“W-What do we do?!”

Gyeong-ah stamped her feet in panic. The situation was utterly hopeless.
Meanwhile, the Mansion owner’s daughter leisurely strolled down the corridor.
Had we already fallen into her trap?
She seemed to be enjoying herself, treating us like toys.

[Where are you going? Come play with me.]

What a rude little brat, talking to adults like that…
She looked exactly the same as before, but my impression of her couldn’t have been worse.

“Are you even allowed to do this? The game should be over… Isn’t there supposed to be some kind of Tower rule?”

She gave a derisive snort as though I’d said something ridiculous.

[Who broke the rules first? That bitch brought all of this on herself. If you want to blame someone, blame that idiot instead of me.]

Broke the rules?
Her words suddenly brought back something from earlier.
The rabbit doll had suddenly burst open, giving us the Attic Key.
Then the girl had shown up at the Attic as though she’d known exactly where we’d be.

‘Don’t tell me.’

Giving us the Front Door Key…
So that was what she’d been doing. She had been giving us clues herself.

[Cheat, and you deserve to be punished. I already lost those bastards I had cornered yesterday because of her. You think I’m going to fall for it twice?]

The Mansion owner’s daughter sneered, radiating murderous intent.
From the sound of it, the group before us had escaped with the maid’s help.
So this time, she’d simply destroyed the entrance altogether.
A crude and brutal solution.
She had never intended to let us live. She planned to kill us outright.
Unable to take any more, Han Gyeong-ah moved to fire her handgun.
But at that moment, the window curtains shot toward her like tentacles.

“U-Ugh…!”

They wrapped around her and bound her tight.

“Unni!”

Kang Se-rim charged in next, but before she could even counterattack, a single gesture left her completely helpless.

[Pathetic.]

The Administrator’s power was absolute.
We were practically in the palm of her hand.
Rats trapped in a jar.

[Looks like you thought it was over. Too bad. All participants disqualified due to improper interference by the Administrator.]

Snap!

She lightly snapped her fingers, and the floor sank beneath my feet. She walked over and placed a hand around my throat.

[I’ll make this quick and painless.]

She gave me a bright, innocent smile.
It was the same smile I’d seen countless times before, yet now it felt completely different.
It sent a horrifying chill down my spine.

“Ghk, khuugh!”

Her doll-like fingers tightened around my throat. My airway was crushed, and I couldn’t breathe.

It hurt…
The agony was unbearable.
She looked so young, but her strength was incredible. I struggled with everything I had, but it was useless.

No… This was bad.
My vision was gradually fading. It looked like this was the end.
Death was closing in.
Through the haze, I could see Gyeong-ah shouting something at me, with Kang Se-rim raging beside her.
I couldn’t hold on any longer.
I’d reached my limit. Just as my consciousness was about to cut out,

“Cough!”

blood suddenly streamed from her mouth. She staggered, and the pressure around my throat slowly loosened.

I had no idea what had happened, but I could breathe again. On the verge of passing out, I sucked in a desperate lungful of air.

“Haaah…!”

A few seconds later and I would’ve been done for. My throat throbbed from how hard she’d squeezed it.
The girl still hadn’t regained control of herself.
She looked at me and struggled to mouth something in a faint voice.

“…stroy it.”

‘That way of speaking…’

But it lasted only a moment. Soon, she reverted again.

[Stupid bitch. Interfering again for no reason…]

The Mansion owner’s daughter moved to finish me off. At that moment, a sharp blast rang out.

Bang-!

Gyeong-ah fired her handgun despite being completely bound by the curtains.
She’d pulled the trigger during the brief moment the Mansion’s control weakened and her restraints loosened.

“Are you okay?!”

The bullet tore through the girl’s head. It was the first time I’d ever actually seen someone get shot.
But horrifyingly, she remained standing as though nothing had happened.

[You filthy lowborn scum!!]

She stood perfectly upright with blood pouring from her wound. Gyeong-ah was speechless.

“S-She didn’t die…?”
“What the fuck is she?!”

Kang Se-rim stared in horror.
Still, the shot must have done something. Her power weakened slightly.
This was our only chance to escape.
Kang Se-rim and Gyeong-ah had both been completely subdued. The only two still relatively free were Lee Sa-hyuk and me.
If we got caught, it was over. I quickly shouted to Lee Sa-hyuk.

“Run that way!”

I abandoned the entrance and sprinted elsewhere. Lee Sa-hyuk followed, though he sounded doubtful.

“…Looks like it’s already over. Do you actually have a plan?”

He already sounded resigned.
He wasn’t wrong. We were trapped inside the Mansion with nothing waiting for us but death.

“Just shut up and follow me.”

I kept running until we reached the Main Hall.
The girl’s faint whisper from moments ago.
Her voice had been too weak to hear properly even from close by, but I’d clearly seen the shape of her lips.

-Por, trait.

The final word she’d forced out while desperately resisting.
I turned toward the portrait hanging in the center of the Main Hall.
It depicted a blonde girl dressed in an extravagant gown.
But now there was nothing inside the painting.
The blonde girl was gone, leaving only an empty background.

‘I knew it…’

Certain of what she’d meant, I pointed at the canvas.

“That painting is her true form! We have to destroy it!”

She wasn’t human.
Her true form was the painting.
As the Mansion’s portrait, she had been granted the Administrator’s authority.
That was why she could control the Mansion at will.
And why she could take a bullet through the head and keep standing.
We’d found her weakness.
Destroy that, and we could defeat her. The instant I reached that conclusion, I ran straight for the portrait.

Rumble-!

The floor shook violently.
As though determined never to let us reach it, the Main Hall walls collapsed and pillars toppled around us.

[You worthless pieces of trash! You’re lower than insects!]

Her furious voice tore through the Mansion as the girl flew into a rage and chased close behind us.
The once beautiful and majestic Main Hall transformed into a hellish disaster zone in an instant.
I leaped over the cracking floor, dodged the chandelier crashing from above, and reached out.
I was a hair’s breadth from the portrait when my leg was caught at the last possible second.

“Urgh!”

The floor sank around my leg, leaving me unable to move another step.
Had she already regained her strength…?
Just a little more. If I’d gotten only a little farther, I would’ve reached it…
Lee Sa-hyuk was trapped too, only a few steps away.
Every last bit of hope vanished. There was nothing else we could do.

‘No. Maybe there’s still one thing…’

I suddenly remembered why Lee Sa-hyuk had come to Floor 2 in the first place.
He’d run out of cigarettes.
It had seemed like such a ridiculous reason.
But right now, it couldn’t have been more useful.
Because there was something every smoker needed.

Ting-!

A clear metallic ring.
Sure enough, Lee Sa-hyuk pulled a lighter from inside his coat.
He flicked it open, and a small flame sprang to life.

“Tch… I paid good money for this.”

Grumbling regretfully, he tossed the lighter.
It traced an arc through the air and landed squarely on the canvas.
For reference, the portrait was an oil painting. Meaning the paint was made with oil and pigment.
In simpler terms, it burned well.

Fwoosh-!

The instant the portrait caught fire, the flames spread across it in a flash.
Before long, the fire began spreading throughout the entire Mansion.

“Whoa…!”

The Mansion was engulfed in flames.
They roared fiercely, threatening to consume everything.

[No, no…!]

The Mansion owner’s daughter struggled desperately, but the rising flames showed no sign of dying down.

[I can’t let it end like this! It can’t end like this!!]

The attack had worked.
She let out an anguished scream filled with bitter resentment.

[Aaaaaaaagh!!]

With that brief death cry, the soul inside her burned away.
Consumed by the flames, it disappeared without leaving a trace.
It was a surprisingly anticlimactic end considering everything she’d done.

“Haa, haa…”

Now it was truly over. I tried to calm my exhausted body.
The girl stood motionless.
As her consciousness gradually returned, life came back into her eyes.
Her true identity was not the Mansion owner’s daughter, but the apprentice maid.

“You did it…”
“How are you? Feeling more like yourself?”

The moment she saw me, tears welled in her eyes. She bowed apologetically.

“I’m sorry…!”
“What’s this all of a sudden?”
“I lied to all of you, honored guests. And, and I even tried to kill you…!”

She openly confessed her wrongdoing.
Apparently, she was still troubled by the way she’d deceived us during the discussion by pretending our wrong answer was correct.

“It’s okay. You didn’t do any of that because you wanted to. She forced you into it.”
“But still…”

She hesitated uncertainly, so I tried to reassure her.

“You were helping us from the beginning, weren’t you?”

I asked as I thought back over everything.

“When you cried during the discussion earlier… that was because you knew we were going to die, wasn’t it?”
“Yes…”

The girl hesitantly nodded.
That was why she’d cried when our discussion ended.
Because we’d reached the wrong conclusion.
She’d realized that our false answer was going to get us killed.
Even when she handed over the key, she’d resisted giving it to us as much as she could.
No wonder she’d clutched it so tightly.
The sincerity I’d sensed from her then had been real.
Afraid her true intentions might be exposed, she’d disguised her reluctance by asking if I would come visit her again after leaving.
After that, she’d continued feeding us clues one by one, guiding us toward the place where the Mansion’s truth was hidden.
She’d been resisting however she could, desperately trying to save us.

“Thank you. You saved us.”
“I should be thanking you…”

At my thanks, the girl burst into quiet tears.
She looked overwhelmed, as if she didn’t know what to do with herself.
With that, everything was over.
We had finally uncovered every secret hidden within the Mansion.
But the truth left a bitter aftertaste.
The Mansion slowly collapsed around us.
Sensing that the end was near, I carefully asked her,

“Are you really okay with this?”
“Yes. This is all my fault.”

She had already made up her mind and answered without hesitation.

“My choice did this to the Young Lady and everyone else. Even a lifetime of regret and atonement wouldn’t be enough…”

She still deeply regretted what she’d done. Apparently, what she’d said before really had come from the heart.
She was blaming herself too much, so I firmly cut in.

“No. You’re wrong.”
“What…?”
“Why is that your fault? The real bastard responsible for this is someone else.”

There was someone else behind this whole tragedy. Strictly speaking, she was a victim too.
The mastermind.
That bastard was the real problem.

“If I ever catch that bastard, I’ll make sure to get revenge for you too.”
“Hehe… I’ll be cheering you on.”

Perhaps grateful even just for the words, the girl smiled softly.

“Then don’t forget! It’s a promise between us!”

Looking bashful and shy, she quietly held out her pinky.
The scene felt strangely familiar.
I smiled and hooked my pinky around hers just as I had before.

“Yeah. Promise.”

The end was drawing near.
A small flame appeared around the girl’s soul and began to burn.
Rather than hurting her, it seemed to wrap her in warmth.
It looked like it was time for her to go.
The Mansion’s maid gave us one last radiant smile.

“Take care of yourselves! I’ll always be cheering you on!”

A bright, lively smile.
She had always been so full of energy.
But at that moment, there was a fleeting sadness to her smile.

“Yeah… You take care too.”

A tragedy that had begun with a maid who dreamed only of simple happiness.
It all came to an end as the Mansion burned around her.

**

**

“…”

When I came to, I found myself somewhere unfamiliar. Looking around, I realized I was inside the elevator.

“Ugh, my head…”
“The elevator…? What happened…?”

Han Gyeong-ah, Kang Se-rim, Lee Sa-hyuk.
I wasn’t alone. All four of us had woken up together.
Everyone looked confused, with no idea what had happened.
Right then, a cheerful notification sounded.

Ding-!

The elevator came to a stop.

The elevator doors slowly opened along with the announcement.
Beyond them stretched the spacious Hotel Lobby.

We were back on Floor 1.