༺ Having Lots Of Fun During Exams (4) ༻
“Code of Conduct? What’s this.”
It was a strange list.
Full of what to do and not to do, but it was hard to understand.
Cecily, who was looking at it with me, said.
“There’s no number 6!”
“Really? Now that you mention it, yes.”
“What on earth is going on?”
Cecily spoke as if she couldn’t understand.
But originally, this paper was given by a thief who went mad and killed himself to an old man.
It was no surprise that it had strange inscriptions.
I didn’t have much hope for it in the first place.
Swoosh—
Then Cecily looked around left and right.
Seeing her vigilant, I asked, “What are you doing?” and Cecily answered,
“It says to wear a pass. Even though the building is closed, it is our duty as nobles to follow the rules and etiquette. Where’s the pass?”
“Indeed.”
I went back to the entrance with Cecily.
According to the list here, passes should be hung near the entrance on the first floor.
But soon, I discovered something astonishing.
2F.
We were actually on the second floor.
“What? Wasn’t it the first floor?”
Entering through the entrance, it was natural to think we were on the first floor.
But we were on the second floor.
Soon Cecily asked, trembling,
“It says there’s only an entrance on the first floor, right? But did we enter through an entrance on the second floor? How is that possible?”
“I don’t know. Where did the entrance we came through go?”
Looking around, the entrance we’d come through had disappeared, leaving only a concrete wall with peeling paint in front of us.
Mysterious.
We tried to go down to the first floor using the nearby stairs, but they were blocked with broken desks, chairs, and trash, so we couldn’t head to the first floor.
“Who blocked the stairs like this?”
Cecily asked.
I quietly pondered looking at the blocked stairs and then spoke lightly,
“Something must be keeping us from going down. Or blocking us from going up. I don’t know what, but something strange must have happened in this lab.”
“Look there…! The elevator light is on!”
Cecily pointed to the elevator next to the stairs.
The light in the elevator was flickering—it seemed that some sort of power generator was still operating in this lab.
Beep—
Bip, clang, rumble. When I pressed the button we heard a loud mechanical noise echo through the building.
Soon, the elevator that came up from the lower floor stopped in front of us, opening its giant mouth-like door.
The inside was rusted but cleaner than expected.
“Nice.”
I boarded the elevator with Cecily.
But most of the buttons inside were smashed, leaving only the third floor operable.
“Looks like we have to go up.”
Beep—
As I pressed the button, the elevator doors closed.
And with a slowly crushing sensation, the elevator ascended.
3F-.
Have we arrived?
Just as I thought that, the elevator did not stop but continued up to the 4F.
A fourth floor that shouldn’t exist.
With a beep, the doors opened.
“……”
Beyond the door was a corridor drowned in pitch-black darkness.
Cecily and I entered this strange laboratory around 1 PM.
The darkness of this corridor felt like it was about 1 AM.
The prime time for thieves to be active.
“I-It’s pitch black!”
Cecily, perhaps scared of the darkness, hid behind me and trembled. The one who usually hissed and puffed up like a cat was now completely deflated.
A kid is still a kid after all.
“The close button! Press the close button quickly!”
Cecily screamed almost crazily, so I had no choice but to press it for her.
Snap—
But my strength was too great, and the close button of the elevator shattered.
“Hiiiik…! The door won’t close…!”
Cecily was nearly insane with fear filling her heart.
Of course, I was scared too.
“…They’re not going to make me pay for this, right?”
The thought of possibly having to pay a fine was terrifying.
I really didn’t want to get into trouble for anything.
“Hmm.”
Anyway.
Now that it’s come to this, I had about two choices.
Stay inside the elevator or step outside.
Of course, what I chose to do was to leave the elevator and head towards the corridor on the fourth floor.
Swoosh—
I moved toward the sticky darkness.
Then Cecily, not wanting to leave the light of the elevator, grabbed my pants and pulled hard.
“W-We can’t go…!”
“No, we have to go. Didn’t you say we need to find some flute? We need that to find your Mom and Dad.”
“…But still.”
Cecily was trembling.
Soon Cecily looked back and forth between the flickering light of the elevator and the darkness-filled fourth-floor corridor, making a sad face.
Just as I feared she might wet her pants, she finally took a big step toward the darkness as if she’d made up her mind.
Softly.
“Whoa!”
“Hiiik…!”
Cecily with her hair standing on end.
She leaped very high like a cat who was comfortably eating and then turned around to see a cucumber nearby.
To reach the ceiling, that’s a really high jump.
Such impressive jumping power.
Cecily landed back on the floor and furiously lashed out at me.
“Fuck…! What are you doing…! You scared me…!”
“Hehe.”
Teasing kids is more fun than I thought.
Maybe because she vented her anger, Cecily seemed a bit less scared.
“If you play a prank like that again, I’ll bite your fingers off!”
“Really scary.”
Swoosh—
I rummaged through my pocket and took out a lantern while Cecily was catching her breath.
It was a really great lantern.
It could illuminate up to about 100 meters on a dark night.
It was even solar-powered.
The only downside? It’s so big it’s inconvenient to carry around.
Cecily was surprised to see such a large lantern.
“How did you pull out such a big lantern from your pants pocket? What is that? How can such a thing fit in your pants?”
Is it surprising?
Everyone gets surprised when they first see my, self-assessed, C-class skill 「Bullshit Pocket」.
The effect is like an inventory in a game, but it’s a bit complicated to explain.
More importantly, the corridor illuminated by the lantern’s light looked rather eerie.
There were traces all over the place as if smeared by fingers.
Incomprehensible characters were scribbled everywhere, and the floor was littered with trash.
“T-The clocks stopped! There were supposed to be no clocks in this facility!”
Where Cecily was pointing, there were clocks hanging like hexagons in a beehive. All frozen at 4:04:04.
“There are mirrors too…! So many mirrors…!”
“That’s strange.”
Mirrors and clocks where there shouldn’t be any. Peculiar.
I’m beginning to understand why so many people avoid this place.
Drrrring—
Then, somewhere, it sounded like a phone ringing.
The end of the hallway?
Drrrrring—
It kept ringing.
It was bothering me.
I’m the type who gets antsy if I don’t answer after the bell rings three times.
“Let’s head towards the sound.”
Step— Step—
As I was heading down the corridor, something like a black shadow appeared at the end of it.
What could it be?
While I was pondering, Cecily quickly hid behind me and exclaimed.
“A-A ghost has appeared…! Hiiik…!”
A ghost?
A real ghost?
I shone the lantern into the darkness.
Then, a white face floated by.
And I could also see large breasts and well-defined abs.
“Cariote?”
“Judas.”
It was Cariote.
Why is Cariote appearing in front of us?
I asked.
“Provide proof that you’re the real Cariote. What’s the color of the underwear you’re wearing today?”
“Judas, there’s no time for jokes.”
Tsk—
Definitely the real deal.
I asked to soothe my disappointment.
“Cariote, how did you come out of there? What on earth is this place?”
As I felt puzzled, Cariote squinted in the lantern light, looking dazzled. Then she came closer and whispered to me.
“Judas, it’s been a day since you and Cecily went missing. I came in after hearing you were spotted around here, but what have you been doing in such a place?”
Missing?
A day?
Strange words came out of her mouth.
As I tilted my head in confusion, Cariote said.
“It doesn’t matter. Let’s get out of here quickly. This place is twisted and distorted, full of bizarre creatures and spirits filled with hatred. It’s dangerous.”
“Really? There are spirits?”
“Yes, I’ve never seen a place so full of spirits, not even on a battlefield. Did you not encounter any spirits, Judas?”
Cariote asked me.
I just felt puzzled as I hadn’t seen anything like spirits.
Then Cariote, with her arms folded, pondered for a moment and said,
“It seems the spirits avoid being near you, Judas. The screams and murmurs that I’ve been hearing until I met you have disappeared.”
“Well, that makes sense. Anyway, we have to postpone leaving this place. There’s something Cecily is looking for. Let’s find it quickly and go. There’s a high chance that a demon is somewhere around here?”
“…A demon?”
Cariote’s eyes changed at the mention of a demon.
Then she asked me,
“Judas, did you have any paper with rules or codes before you entered here? It might help us find the hidden demon.”
“Paper? Yes.”
I handed Cariote the paper.
She frowned.
“…What is this?”
“What do you mean? It’s the paper with the code.”
“No.”
Cariote handed the paper back to me.
It read.
Die.
4. Die
4. Die.
4. Die.
4. Die.
4. Die.
4. Die.
4. Die.
4. Die.
4. Die.
4. Diediediedie─.
Was this the original content?
It wasn’t.
Just curses saying to die over and over.
Whoever did this, I don’t know, but it’s irritating.
To think we were missing for a whole day.
…That means I won’t get to eat the sweet and sour pork Brigitte made for dinner tonight!
I was really looking forward to it, and now I’m so angry I can’t control it!
“It was slightly fun thinking we entered a haunted house. But now that it’s come to this, I won’t hold back anymore. I usually don’t show this to just anyone.”
Swoosh—
I knelt down.
Reaching out to the shimmering shadow on the ground, Cariote looked puzzled and asked, “What are you doing?”
Instead of answering, I muttered.
“Sing. Sing for me.”
A light self-hypnosis.
Soon my shadow rose as if it were a living person.
It took the form of a giant, wielding a massive hammer.
* * *
Judas hadn’t returned.
24 hours since he disappeared with Cecily.
Cariote had a rough idea of his whereabouts from the last place he was seen at.
“Freesia’s Mental Science Research Institute.”
A building ominous enough to even stop Cariote in her tracks for a moment.
As she entered, screams and cries filled the air.
A regular person would have lost their sanity.
Yet Cariote was calm instead.
Places like this calmed Cariote more than lively parties where people laughed and chatted.
Even for Cariote, the fourth floor was a particularly horrific place.
The fourth floor was where evil spirits roamed.
How often had grotesque ghosts appeared and vanished in the hallways and rooms?
At the end of that corridor was a nightmare that even made Cariote’s heart flutter, and she had to coax her feet not to turn back. When she finally reached the end, she met Judas.
“Time to get serious.”
Judas said, then raised a shadow.
A huge hammer wielded by a 2-meter-tall shadow.
A faceless, undefined menace struck at the walls of the fourth floor.
Boom—!
Crumble—
The walls of the fourth floor shattered into pieces like hardened mud.
Controlling a physically powerful shadow.
‘Shadow Servant?’
Level 40.
Rumor had it that thieves beyond this realm could manipulate their own shadows.
Cariote had never seen it but thought this must be similar.
However, her keen senses told her that what she saw was different from the rumored technique.
‘It’s different. This isn’t a simple shadow. Not such a simple technique. It’s just a guess for now, but…’
Boom— Boooom—!
The giant hammer-wielding shadow advanced.
Destroying the fourth-floor corridor with it.
Gwaaaaaaa—
The entire building shook.
Sounded like a cry of pain.
━Crazy bastard!
━Run away!!!
━N-Noooo…!!!
━Gwaaaak…!!!
Wails and despair spread with the impact of the hammer.
“Destroying a building infested with evil spirits. Such a brute force approach.”
Cariote clicked her tongue lightly.
Then Judas spoke as if it were obvious.
“Overwhelming violence tends to solve most problems. Did I ever tell you about my great-grandfather demolishing an abandoned hospital rumored to be haunted?”
“No, it’s the first time I’ve heard such a story.”
“Our great uncle had some stars on his shoulder. Handing shovels and huge hammers to the soldiers, they swarmed into the hospital. They were all motivated by the promise of a reward leave—.”
Crack—
Hssssssss—
Then, from the smashed wall, light seeped through the shadow of the hammer.
A blinding light.
Cariote instinctively sensed that something strange was beyond that wall.
Bang— Crash—!
As the hammer widened the hole in the wall, a large space appeared.
Columns and torches filled the area, reminding one of something.
“…An altar?”
Cariote stepped into the space and looked around.
Stone walls and pillars.
Idols made of unknown animal bones decorated the place, a sight somewhat familiar to Cariote.
“These are the marks of demons or demon worshipers. It’s certain that there’s a demon around here.”
Click—
Cariote quickly loaded her crossbow.
It was only natural to be on guard, not knowing when or where something might spring out.
That’s when it happened.
Cecily’s eyes, which had been trembling with fear just moments ago, widened immensely.
At the center of the altar.
She had found something placed on a rectangular dais.
“There! That’s it! That’s the object Cecily was searching for! It’s right there!”
Thud— Thud— Thud—. Cecily ran.
Soon Cecily lifted a strange flute into her small palm.
Cariote was slightly shocked by its familiar shape.
“That flute is…”
Pop—
Then, something sprang from the darkness, snatching the flute along with Cecily.
Flap— Flap—
The sound of large wings beating was heard.
When Cariote regained her senses, she saw someone standing at the altar where the flute had been.
A person with long black hair grown out, four pairs of wings, and two horns.
“Archdemon…!”
Cariote could not contain her anger towards the being she had never forgotten, even in her dreams.
But that anger quickly turned to shock, leaving her speechless.
“Dina?”
Archdemon Astaroth.
An enemy she had never forgotten, with the same wings, the same horns.
Yet, that face resembled her dearly missed younger sister Dina.
“Dina? Who is that? I am one of the three pillars of Pandemonium. The Witch of Obsession, Astarosa. And you all will soon be corpses!”
Wanna read ahead? Buy coins You can unlock chapters with coins or rather “genesis orbs”
Wanna unlock all premium chapters? Check the Membership Chapters will seamlessly unlock no need to bother buying coins anymore.
You can also support us by becoming an exclusive member here
You can rate this series here
You can check our dɨşçöŕd for illustrations here
27
