Chapter 24: Rose Manor (Finale) |
The girl said to the god, "I have sinned. After my sister became... this, I found I could no longer love her as I once did."
The god said, "If you no longer love her, then let her return to the embrace of death, to be buried beneath the earth."
The girl hesitated. She thought of the dead cat, of the slick feel of the man’s blood on her hands, of her own skin scratched by the rose thorns.
She had already paid so much. All she needed to do was kill a few more strangers, a few more guests, and her sister would be beautiful again... How could she possibly give up now?
The girl kowtowed before the statue and made a vow: "I will not let her leave. She must stay with me, forever."
...
Qi Si set down the notebook, his eyes narrowing slightly.
The four-line poem on the title page... the first three lines must be the true name of the god who made the deal with Annie.
Throughout the entire instance, Qi Si had developed an unexpected interest in this god who operated from behind the curtain.
The heavy initial investment created a substantial sunk cost. By the time Annie realized something was wrong and wanted to back out, it was far too late. The only thing she could do was commit to her mistake.
It had to be said, this god had a profound understanding of human psychology, much like a demon from legend.
"But what, in essence, is the difference between a god and a devil?"
Qi Si chuckled, the sound as faint as a phantom's breath, tinged with a chill that was deeply unnerving in this setting.
The information was too scarce, too fragmented for him to piece together a complete picture of the god from the instance's backstory. He had no intention of causing trouble for himself by reciting the name aloud, not when he was so close to clearing the instance.
After a quick search of the room to ensure he hadn't missed any other important clues, Qi Si let the smile fade from his lips and silently exited, descending the stairs.
In the garden, the young and beautiful Annie stood across from the aged and decaying Anna. The contrast between beauty and ugliness, now ironically reversed by the passage of time, presented a fascinating sort of theatricality.
Pain brewed in Annie’s eyes, while Anna’s gaze was vacant and blank. Any emotion cast into them sank like a stone in a mire, failing to stir a single ripple.
Qi Si fixed his eyes on Annie. A gentle smile touched his lips, but his eyes were brimming with malice.
He had never been the benevolent type to grant people their wishes; on the contrary, he loved tragedy. He savored the deeper despair that followed the shattering of hope.
He smiled, a ghoulish grin spreading across his face. "Miss Annie, how unfortunate. The sister you love so dearly does not love you back. In fact, she fears you. She wants to get away from you."
An image of the cloth doll he had found in Room 2 on the third floor surfaced in his mind. The eerie hide-and-seek nursery rhyme repeating the words "don't look at me" sent a bone-deep shiver through him.
He then turned to the monstrous-looking Anna, his downcast eyes filled with a god-like pity. "Miss Anna, it is equally unfortunate that your sister, out of her twisted love for you, killed the man you loved."
Anna seemed to understand, yet not quite. She let out a low, gurgling growl, like a naive young beast.
Qi Si tilted his head and glanced at the butler beside her, a smile playing on his lips as if he'd recalled something delightful. "Of course, now you two ill-fated lovers are both monsters. At least you're not separated by the veil between life and death anymore."
"I've temporarily gained control of Rose Manor, so Annie can't harm you any longer," he continued. "I'm quite curious to see what you'll choose to do."
This time, it seemed Anna had finally grasped the full meaning of his words. With a low roar, she dropped to all fours and began to run like an animal, scrambling toward the manor gates.
Her chaotic steps crushed the roses in her path, churning the black-green vines and crimson petals into a mangled mess, as shattered as a broken dream.
Behind her, the butler followed with stiff, straight limbs. He remained half a step behind, never quite catching up, but never falling too far behind either.
The two horrifying figures stopped before the iron gate. It slowly swung open before them. They shifted restlessly, their bodies trembling as they poised to escape.
"No!"
Amidst the sea of flowers, Annie, who had been frozen in place, finally let out a piercing shriek.
It wasn't easy to break free from the control of the time reversal. Tears streamed down her cheeks, mixing with the blood that poured from her nose and mouth, flowing freely and pooling on the ground in moments.
She screamed and wailed, unable to form complete words, like a frenzied beast.
But Anna and the butler seemed not to hear her. They stepped through the gate and into the white mist beyond. The instant their forms were completely swallowed by the fog, they exploded violently, scattering into a shower of blood-red rose petals.
Annie's eyes, now pitch-black voids, were fixed on the scene, her sockets stretched to a grotesque width.
She suddenly remembered where the sense of familiarity from Qi Si came from.
The red-robed god had once descended as a phantom, sitting beside her, smiling as he watched her. "Your desire is quite interesting," he had said. "Worthy of being in my collection." A long-forgotten fear began to grow in her heart. Annie momentarily broke free of the time reversal's hold, taking a single step forward and leaving a shallow footprint in the slick mud.
But in the next second, countless dead vines snaked out from the old castle behind her, twisting and coiling around her limbs from all directions, tightening their grip and dragging her backward.
She was pulled inch by inch back toward the castle. The thorns of the roses tore at her black skirt, and the dirt and broken stems sullied the dark gauze.
Realizing what was about to happen, she began to struggle violently, but the vines only constricted tighter, digging into her flesh.
Covered in blood, she finally despaired. Her limbs went limp, and she allowed herself to be completely consumed by the pitch-black maw of the castle behind her.
The moment her figure vanished into the darkness, the castle doors slammed shut with a deafening *clang*.
The rain that filled the world reversed its course once more, falling from the high heavens.
The time reversal had ended.
There was no rose in Qi Si's hand, no wound over his heart.
He stood alone in the sea of flowers like a specter, a human form savoring the final act of a play.
A tremendous *rumble* echoed from above, like thunder, but deeper and more powerful.
Qi Si watched as the stone walls of the castle before him cracked and crumbled. The monstrous building collapsed with a deafening crash, and the ghosts that had existed for countless cycles vanished into thin air, leaving only a cloud of dust to drift and settle.
Perhaps, from the very beginning, only one person had ever been trapped here. And now, an absurd tale was thus laid to rest...
[All rules and world views have been deciphered.]
[Congratulations, player, on clearing the team survival instance "Rose Manor".]
The cold system prompts echoed in Qi Si's ears, accompanied by lines of text rapidly scrolling across the system interface.
[Self-righteous obsession always comes at a price. Perhaps death and tragedy are the most fitting answers for beauty.]
A faded, sepia-toned image appeared before his eyes.
In a dusty attic, the girl, now beautiful again, asked the stone god, "You have given me so much. What do you gain from all this?"
The god lowered his eyes, his crimson gaze falling upon her.
He answered, "I want to see your sin. It will be the finest sustenance for the rules. I also want to see how the story ends. Tragedies are always etched into memory."
The girl was terrified. To her, these were the words of a devil. Even though she herself was no different from a devil in the eyes of the world, she still feared a malicious being more powerful than herself.
She wanted to pray. To pray to the righteous gods from her hazy memories, the ones her parents once believed in, the ones she had long forgotten and cast aside...
She realized she had forgotten the words to the prayers.
The god's gaze was full of pity, his smile laced with mockery. "God loves not the world."
[A small wish leads to illusory greed. Once sin is chosen, there is no turning back. Everyone is guilty, born into a cage.]
["Rose Manor" True End — "Cage of Obsession" has been recorded.]
[Automatic teleportation from the instance in three minutes.]
Upon the ruins of the castle, the rain fell in a torrent.
Qi Si stood in the downpour, staring at the rubble before him, lost in thought.
After a long silence, he rubbed his chin and muttered to himself, "The house collapsed completely. Even with a protagonist's luck, they couldn't have survived that..."
It was a bit of a shame. It wasn't often he found two tools who were so convenient to use, and now they were gone just like that.
But there was nothing to be too disappointed about. From what Chang Xu had said earlier, it seemed that teaming up in the Weird Game required a specific item and wasn't very convenient.
As for tools, he could always find new ones on-site in the next instance. He was sure he would encounter more interesting instances and more interesting people in the future.
Under the gray-violet sky, Qi Si lowered his gaze to the pocket watch in his left hand. He feigned a moment of sorrow, shedding crocodile tears for his fallen comrades. "Chang Xu, Lin Chen, I will remember your sacrifice and live on with your hopes."
Then, with a clear conscience, he tucked the [Fate Pocket Watch] into his shirt pocket.
Comments 3