Chapter 34: Ghost Story Hotel Escape (6)

“I can do this.”

Rosalia possesses a purity of desire far beyond that of others.

And because of that, her ominous imagination strengthens the ghost stories.

But the important part here isn’t the strengthening of the ghost stories— it’s the ominous imagination itself.

If I can guide her thoughts, I can indirectly control the ghost stories.

Heh. Using her Gift to design the hotel itself…

It almost feels like I’ve become a Transcendent.

With this unexpected weapon in hand, I led the students confidently up to the third floor.

Sure, the ghost stories growing stronger is still a huge risk— but if the rewards match that risk, it’s not so bad.

Now, all that’s left is the final stretch.

If I can just make them exhaust all the traps on the third floor of this murder hotel, then the ghost story will truly be resolved.

…At least, that’s what I used to think.

.

.

.

Midway through the third floor.

Even though the third floor had several reinforced deadly traps, I managed to break through them without much trouble after realizing how to utilize Rosalia’s Gift.

As we neared the end of our journey through the hotel, hope began to bloom on everyone’s faces.

“…It looks like we’re almost done. There were some unexpected variables, but thankfully, it seems we’ll be able to resolve this.”

“Whew. If we had stuck to the original plan of teams of two, this ghost story wouldn’t have been so difficult.”

Elaine and Rone, their tension easing, exchanged lighthearted words of encouragement.

“Hey, still, let’s not let our guard down until the very end—”

“But at this point, we’ve practically already solved it, haven’t we?”

“Hold on, Rone— don’t jinx it. Whenever someone says something like that, something always happens.”

And as if Rone’s words had been a signal—

“Huh? Everyone, wait a second. Doesn’t that mirror look weird?”

Rosalia, who had been glancing around, pointed at a large mirror placed in the center of the hallway and called out to us.

“You say that like it’s a bad omen… What’s so weird about it?”

If it was a trap using the mirror, maybe arrows would shoot out from behind it?

Keeping the others from standing directly in front of the mirror, I approached Rosalia and asked.

“No. It might just be my imagination, but… I think I saw a human silhouette in that mirror just now.”

“A human silhouette? Not some kind of mechanical device?”

But Rosalia’s answer wasn’t what I expected.

Wait, a person? Not a trap? Don’t tell me—

“Yes. I didn’t miss it—I definitely saw it clearly. That was unmistakably a human shadow.”

“…But there’s no one here besides us, right?”

My voice trembled slightly as I asked Rosalia for confirmation.

Unfortunately, what Rosalia saw remained unchanged.

“No. That’s why… It wasn’t a reflection in the mirror—it was inside the mirror…”

Clang!!!

In an instant, the mirror shattered.

A massive mirror, large enough to easily fit a grown man, broke into pieces.

And something leaped out from behind it.

A pale white mask, worn-out cords, a filthy, oversized jungle knife.

The nauseating stench of blood and death.

The owner of the hotel—the killer.

“Damn it!”

“I knew it!”

The other side of the mirror wasn’t a wall— it was connected to a hidden space within the hotel.

And the killer had been watching us from that secret space before finally losing control and bursting out.

“Aaaah!! I was right!! The thing inside the mirror was the murderer who built this killing hotel!”

“What?!”

“The hotel may have been abandoned, but the killer never left! He was hiding in a secret space behind the mansion, living in secrecy this whole time!!”

At the very least, that was Rosalia’s imagination.

And that imagination became reality.

What was supposed to be a derelict hotel, once inhabited by a killer, turned out to still be the killer’s hiding place— instantly raising the danger level by several hundredfold.

“Grrroooaaar!!”

The moment the killer shattered the mirror and appeared, he immediately swung his aged jungle knife, its blade caked with dried blood and fat.

As if it had just spawned in.

“I’ll hold him off! Run!”

The one who bravely stepped forward was Rone.

Though small in stature, her Gift allowed her to unleash physical abilities far beyond her size.

Enough to take down an average thug without breaking a sweat.

Rone charged forward, grabbing the killer’s wrist as he swung the jungle knife, trying to flip him over.

But the killer was no ordinary thug.

Like all killers in fiction, his physical abilities surpassed those of a normal human.

With a flick of his hand, the killer effortlessly flung Rone off.

“Kyaaah!!”

“Don’t think of him as human! He may look like one, but he’s a monster!”

I lunged forward, barely catching Rone before she could crash onto the floor.

Thankfully, her small frame made it easy to break her fall.

“Y-yes…!”

Shaken but seemingly unharmed, Rone quickly scrambled out of my arms.

Meanwhile, the killer closed the distance with heavy, deliberate steps.

“Damn it! Not even Rone can buy us time…!”

Even if Rone’s Gift wasn’t at full power right now, the gap was just too wide.

The enemy-turned-ally debuff was hitting way too hard!

“Everyone, run!! We need to put distance between us and him first, then figure out a plan!”

I immediately led the students in a sprint, fleeing in the opposite direction from the killer.

Fortunately, even the cliché of horror movie killers that they never run was faithfully followed, so it didn’t chase us at a sprint.

But even so, our escape didn’t last long.

No matter how much we ran to put distance between us and it, the killer would appear as if spawning out of nowhere, blocking our path.

From inside the closet, behind the bathroom door, even from inside the trash can in the guest room.

By this point, I could finally figure out the mechanism by which it was revealing itself.

A place that had to exist in a murder hotel.

A secret passage— like a hidden corridor for the killer to move around unnoticed by guests, or a basement for disposing of bodies.

Of course, even if it was its own hotel, it couldn’t just openly kill in spaces accessible to others.

That’s why, in contrast to the everyday spaces open to the public as a hotel, there were murder spaces known only to the killer, hidden from the outside world.

The only reason we hadn’t been caught and killed yet was purely due to the logic of urban legends.

The killer deliberately toyed with its victims to maximize fear, because that was how the horror of the legend was amplified. 

That was the sole reason we were still alive.

I’d misjudged the situation.

Now that the killer had appeared, this urban legend had already strayed beyond the bounds of a normal resolution.

And then, the end came.

After continuously retracing our steps through the mansion, we were finally cornered in a dead end.

The same place where, when we first went up to the second floor, the wall had moved and blocked the descending staircase.

The killer, having driven us into a corner, dragged its machete lazily across the floor as it slowly approached, as if savoring our despair.

“Ah, Mr. Allen… I-I guess I’ll have to fight the killer one more time…!”

“I’ll help too. Rone and I will act as decoys, so at least you escape and Regress…!”

Rone and Elaine stepped forward, trying to let me escape at the very end.

Damn it!

What kind of pathetic sight was this?

A teacher being protected by his students?

I couldn’t let that happen!

Instead, I stepped in front of Elaine and Rone and shouted:

“No! I’ll be the decoy! If that thing really follows the behavioral patterns of urban legend killers, it’ll target me— an adult man— before going after schoolgirls like you! Besides, Rone, no matter how strong your Gift is, is an ordinary human…”

Ah.

Something just occurred to me.

“…Whether I solve this or not, run. And if I fail, Regress immediately.”

“Did you figure something out?”

“Teacher…?”

“Keh… kehahahaha!”

“Mr. Allen! What’s wrong with you all of a sudden!?”

“Teacher’s acting weird!!”

My sudden outburst made Elaine and Rone genuinely panic.

But I paid no attention.

No— in fact, I played the madman even harder, acting like a raving lunatic to make them panic even more.

The more genuinely frightened and confused they were, the more convincing it would be.

“Kyahahahaha!!”

“Eek!? Mr. Allen has clearly gone mad with fear!!”

“Me? Mad with fear? No, that’s impossible! Right now, I’m so thrilled I can barely contain myself!”

Deliberately exaggerated.

I ran a hand through my hair, forcing the corners of my mouth up into a smile.

Please, let this work.

I glanced around at the female students, locking eyes with Rosalia in particular, and spoke the “setting” I had just improvised.

“I knew coming to Everlight Academy was the right choice!! Who would’ve thought the rumors about a serial killer hiding in this mansion were true? Now, today, we can finally settle who the greatest killer of all is!”

“T-The greatest killer? D-Don’t tell me… Mr. Allen, you’re a killer too!?”

“That’s right. Do you have any idea how hard it’s been, pretending to be that kind, harmless teacher? I’ve been dying to kill all of you— literally dying!!”

“N-No way… There’s no way the Mr. Allen we know is a killer…”

“Kehahaha!! Did you really think it was a coincidence we ended up in this hotel for training camp? Who do you think came up with this childish ‘courage test’ idea?”

“N-No… It can’t be…!!”

“It was all my doing! From the very beginning— I was the one who suggested the training camp to Lydia! I was the one who pushed for the courage test! Why? To lure out Everlight’s killer!”

Of course, it was all a lie.

This training camp, the courage test—all of it was planned by Professor Lydia.

But what did that matter now?

There was no one here who could prove otherwise.

“No way! Mr. Allen… Mr. Allen, a killer? I don’t believe it!”

But even Rosalia, who had always trusted me, couldn’t easily accept the twist that the teacher who had guided them all this time was actually a murderer.

“I knew it! No wonder you knew so much about this murder mansion!! It’s because you’re a killer yourself, isn’t it!?”

“Y-Yeah! I thought something was off about you too!!”

“Eeeek!”

Fortunately, Elaine quickly caught on to my act and played along, followed by Rone, who realized the plan a beat later and joined in with supporting fire.

Aurora’s terrified expression was the perfect finishing touch.

“How… How could you, Mr. Allen…? I trusted you! I believed you were a good person!!”

As Rosalia cried out in betrayal, I felt an inexplicable power surging through my body.

The sensation of becoming part of the urban legend itself.

The power and mindset of a killer taking root within me.

It worked!

“Now then! It’s finally time for the slaughter!”

Losing myself in the madness, I pulled out a sharp razor from my pocket— one that had somehow found its way there.

An ordinary human can’t defeat a slasher-movie killer.

But if you can’t beat them… become them.

The ultimate method to conquer an urban legend: turn yourself into the legend.