Chapter 5
*Favorability…*
I couldn’t help but wonder if there was a glitch in the system.
It was a reasonable suspicion.
This was far different from the systems I knew.
It wouldn’t normally notify you of a 0.1% increase in favorability, and moreover, raising Holloway’s favorability by even 0.001% was impossible.
No one had ever gained even a single point of favor from Holloway.
That’s why everyone assumed the final boss was an unromanceable character.
Thinking that way, 0.1% carried significant weight.
If I could use this well…
*Wait a minute…! There aren’t just three endings!*
It hit me now.
The ending that existed in every game.
The hidden ending!
I racked my brain, gathering the scant information I had about the hidden ending.
According to the creator, it was related to Holloway, I think…
Come to think of it, the creator was suspicious in more ways than one.
The difficulty was hellish, as if designed to be unbreakable.
Despite players’ outcries, there were no difficulty adjustments or proper hints.
Walkthroughs were useless.
The choice windows changed every time, and the story veered wildly accordingly.
It felt eerily like conversing with real people, and some players even praised the immersion.
But that didn’t last long; they bombarded the creators with demands for hints, curses, complaints, and pleas, yet got no response.
Players felt like they were talking to a wall, nearly developing anger issues they never had.
The player base was small, but reviews trickled in, shared among them.
Yet not a single review mentioned raising Holloway’s favorability.
If there had been, it would’ve caused an uproar, but the silence confirmed it didn’t exist.
So did that make me the first player to raise the final boss’s favorability? Should I be happy about it?
…No, no need to be. At 0.1%, it’d take forever to build it up.
It was probably a total fluke.
It might not rise anymore. So I could just ignore it.
Besides, what I wanted was escape, not some hidden ending with the boss.
When I fell silent, Holloway tugged at my sleeve, cautiously checking my expression.
“Sis, are you okay?”
“I might be if I rest a bit.”
I reflexively hugged the warm Holloway tight.
Were demons normally this warm?
Feeling his heat, my tension eased, and I leaned into him without realizing.
Then I flinched.
I was hugging the final boss right now…
Anyone seeing this would freak out, but once my fever broke, I’d pretend it never happened and never look back.
He was too toasty to let go…
Like a winter hand warmer.
Having the final boss right in front of me was important, but survival came first.
For survival, I’d use even the final boss.
“Then…”
As Holloway started to say something, the door in front of us burst open, and Moran emerged.
Was this Moran’s room?
Unaware of the others’ rooms, I widened my eyes in surprise.
Moran, equally shocked to see me at her door, asked.
“Miss Evelyn? What are you doing here?”
My first thought upon seeing her was *perfect*.
No need to go searching for the sub quest.
To kick off the act in full, I whimpered and spilled the current situation to Moran.
“Th-this is terrible, Moran!”
Moran didn’t hide her confusion at my abrupt declaration of disaster.
“What? Terrible how… Wait, more importantly, your face is so red, Miss Evelyn!”
No wonder my head was throbbing. The fever must have spiked already.
I shook my head and cried out.
“That’s not the issue right now! We-we can’t get out of this ho-hotel!”
I detached Holloway from my arms and reached out to Moran.
She took my hand and knelt to my eye level. Carefully peeling back the sweat-dampened hair stuck to my forehead, she soothed me.
“Miss Evelyn, what are you talking about? Calm down and tell me step by step.”
“The door leading outside—the door won’t open!”
Seeing me unable to contain my excitement, feigning sobs, Moran wore an expression full of things unsaid but ultimately just gazed at me with pity, saying nothing.
“Um, Miss Evelyn, you’re sick right now…”
Her face suggested she thought I wasn’t grasping the situation.
I wanted to tell her that was her, but I bit it back.
“If you don’t believe me, try opening it! It’s true!”
My shouting to alert everyone echoed, and since the group was staying in nearby rooms, doors creaked open one by one as they emerged.
Spotting me and Moran, they approached.
Cleta, seeing my state, shrugged off his outer coat to offer it, but I refused.
He pulled it back and asked gently.
“Evelyn, what’s wrong this time?”
This time?!
But it was true, so I had no retort and just snapped irritably.
“The door won’t open!”
“Which door?”
“The hotel’s front door!”
I said it sincerely, but they seemed unconvinced.
Well, fair enough, given what I’d done so far.
With my abysmal strength and stamina, they probably figured if I couldn’t open it, no one could—seeing me as some foolish weakling.
My screeching likely made it even less credible.
This time, I stopped yelling and lowered my voice seriously.
“Go check for yourself. See if the door opens or not.”
I poured sincerity into my eyes.
At that, Cynthia clicked her tongue.
“If it won’t open, just break a window, right?”
Cynthia countered, and I gestured toward the window with a grave expression.
Meaning *try breaking it*. Cynthia furrowed her brows slightly in response.
Beside her, Werner sighed and walked to the window.
His face said he knew I’d keep throwing a fit unless he checked, so he’d oblige quietly.
Werner struck the window hard with his sword hilt. And…
Boing!
The hilt bounced right off an invisible barrier.
In an instant, everyone’s faces hardened.
A heavy silence fell, and no one dared move.
“…”
“W-Werner, sir! T-try again!”
Alhulf stammered, trembling, and Werner struck the window once more.
But it kept rebounding off some barrier.
Cleta reached for his sword but hesitated.
“…Aura’s blocked.”
Werner checked, insisting it couldn’t be, but no energy emerged.
“Damn it!”
Finally, Werner stomped the floor in rage.
This hotel was the demons’ domain, so magic, aura—nothing worked.
That’s why they’d died helplessly to the demons.
Even if they could use it, beating the demons was no guarantee.
“We need to go down and check first!”
Moran clasped her shaking hands and shouted, and everyone hurried down to the lobby.
Cleta, about to follow, paused at the sight of me and Holloway standing still.
I waved him off, signaling to go.
“Go. I’ll be fine with Holloway. Check it out.”
I wasn’t lying.
At that, Cleta’s pupils flickered slightly.
Seeming uneasy, he twitched, then let out a deep sigh.
“I’ll be right back, so stay put here.”
“Don’t order me around—just go, will you?”
It’s my choice where I am.
Despite my prickly reply, Cleta’s expression held a hint of amusement.
It was baffling.
The group clattered down to the first floor, leaving just me and Holloway in the hallway.
We exchanged meaningless glances. Stubbornly, I glared to not back down.
“Sis, your eyes are bloodshot.”
Fuck.
I quietly closed my eyes.
Losing even an eye-staring contest.
My plan to win at least something crumbled pathetically fast.
That’s when it happened.
Not even a few minutes later, Alhulf screamed in terror from below.
“Aaaah! P-push harder! We can’t be stuck!”
His wails were so loud they reached my ears upstairs clearly.
At the same time, the quest success window appeared.
Sub Quest <We’re Trapped in Here!> Success!
Acquired ‘A Panacea That Will Neatly Cure Your Staggering Self’!
Simultaneously, a pill entered my mouth. I docilely swallowed it.
Full recovery in about two hours.
As if timed to that, the healing was swift.
My chilled body felt a bit refreshed. The pounding headache had weakened considerably.
At this rate, moving around would be no problem.
Only after confirming did I pull away from Holloway.
As I detached, Holloway looked up at me with a puzzled face.
His pretty features were full of questions.
“Why? You said you were cold, sis.”
“I feel like I’m getting better little by little. Thanks to you, Holloway.”
I said something like that, thanked him, and stood.
“Where are you going?”
“Yeah.”
I’m no help, but neither are they.
Knowing the game, I might fare better than others, surviving longer to find the escape route?
The hotel was vast and sprawling, so it’d take time, but with sub quests and situation-appropriate items, the current predicament wasn’t all bad.
Moreover, sticking with Cleta’s group might trigger another choice window, forcing me to spout idiocy like “Wh-what’s ‘sick and tired’ mean?” again.
I’m not stupid.
I didn’t want to become the nuisance character against my will due to crappy options.
I’d die of frustration myself, not from others.
“Can I come too?”
Are you crazy?
Of course, I didn’t say that—instead, as I tried to gently dissuade him, the choice window appeared.
Holloway looks at you expectantly.
➤What should someone like you say?
1. Why would you come with me?
((⊙_⊙)？)
2. You stay here and hang with those bastards.
(（＾∀＾●）)
3. Rock-paper-scissors—if I win, I go alone.
(=￣ω￣=)
…Why were Evelyn’s choices like this?
Was it a bug, or always this crappy?!
No normal options.
Rock-paper-scissors seemed the least bad.
I selected 3, and with that mischievous emoticon’s expression, I clenched my fist.
“Rock-paper-scissors—if I win, I go alone.”
“No.”
…Huh? But he said no?
