Chapter 203
Chapter 203
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 202
Chapter Title: Cleanup Time
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“If you were really an invited guest, your room should be between 107 and 110.”
With that single remark, a heavy silence settled over the dining hall interior. Han So and the Corpse Sorcerer’s gazes pierced toward the Black Necromancer, as if demanding whether she had any rebuttal.
The Black Necromancer merely curled the corner of her mouth slightly, ignoring their stares as she turned her eyes toward me.
“I always thought the Dream Demon Pavilion’s rules were idiotic, but they end up tripping me up like this?”
She wasn’t wrong.
The biggest problem with these rules was not knowing what penalty came with breaking them.
Guests were permitted up to the third floor.
Considering there’d been no restrictions when we climbed to the fourth, it showed just how lax they were.
“W-Wait, really? You’re truly the 27th uninvited guest?”
Han So cried out in a fluster, but the Corpse Sorcerer merely twitched his chin once.
At the same moment, six corpses poured forth. They began encircling the Black Necromancer with grotesque movements.
“Ha, you think you can kill me?”
Even as everyone in the dining hall instantly became her enemy, the Black Necromancer remained composed.
No, her purple eyes sharpened coldly, like a beast that had just stretched upon waking.
“You were the one trembling and speaking so politely.”
Purple mana began swirling around the small staff in her grasp like a vortex, soon transforming into shrieking evil spirits.
“Necromancers and black mages are the same. No corpses? Then ride the spirits.”
He easily admitted to cowering from the Black Necromancer’s gaze earlier, while clearly declaring things were different now.
The two were on the verge of combat, a powder keg ready to ignite.
I poured wine into a glass on the table and issued a warning.
“Daylight’s ending soon. Keep the fight moderate.”
At my words, both black mages shot me incredulous looks, but I savored even those gazes as I downed the wine.
I didn’t particularly love alcohol, but the vintages here were rare elixirs even the royal family couldn’t taste at will.
The Dream Demon Pavilion was full of such things.
Outside, everything glittered extravagantly, with priceless treasures rolling across the floor like pebbles.
A few days here, and any sense of luxury would vanish.
“Y-You! Shouldn’t we fight together!”
“With whom?”
Han So flailed in panic, hoisting the Fierce Thousand Without Equal as he stupidly craned his neck forward and sucked in a breath.
To my question of whom to fight, he glanced back and forth between the Black Necromancer and the Corpse Sorcerer, falling into thought.
By Rule 27, we should fight the Black Necromancer.
But the Corpse Sorcerer had killed every other guest except us—and he’d probably kill us too.
An unappealing binary choice.
So I planned to simply tilt my glass and watch their battle.
Kwaaaang!
While Han So pondered, the Black Necromancer struck first.
[Kiiiiiaaaaaak!]
The evil spirits she commanded shoved aside the corpses, venting their grudges. For a moment, the Corpse Sorcerer seemed pushed back.
“Th-This is why corpses here are the best.”
The corpses’ quality was simply too superb. The Corpse Sorcerer’s killing methods had likely played a part, but the guests at the Dream Demon Pavilion were all heavyweights to begin with.
Her corpses matched the Black Necromancer’s evil spirits blow for blow.
A deadlock.
Whoever introduced the next variation would win—and the Corpse Sorcerer tried first.
He drew a white dagger and crystal skull in each hand. The dagger was my gift to him from Lu Anes, and the skull looked like a tool perfectly suited to the Corpse Sorcerer.
“Rewards from ambushing the guests, huh!”
Thanks to Rule 14, he’d apparently chosen those two carefully.
-14. You may possess only two items obtained as rewards.
But that meant they suited him perfectly.
Seven-colored magic shot from the white dagger, threading between the corpses toward her.
The Black Necromancer hastily erected a protective spell, but the dagger’s seven hues carried intense destructive power.
Kwaang!
Her barrier didn’t shatter, but she was hurled back hard, slamming into the wall and dropping to one knee.
At the same time, her evil spirits screamed as they scattered in all directions.
“H-Hee hee! Necromancers are the same as me.”
The Corpse Sorcerer cackled gleefully for some reason, gnawing at his nails.
“If the main body takes a hit, it’s over. No matter how strong the evil spirits, lose control over them and you’re just an ordinary mage.”
With that blow, the Black Necromancer had lost command of her evil spirits. The ones rampaging through the dining hall now flew toward her to attack.
“You bastards.”
Instead, the Black Necromancer reached out toward the oncoming spirits, reclaiming control.
Even I was impressed by her precise, swift mana manipulation.
At 18, she was still a Black Necromancer.
“Eek!”
Seeing this, the Corpse Sorcerer stomped the floor and raised the crystal skull.
I’d never seen that item before and wanted a closer look, but there was no time.
“Want to live?”
Setting down my wine glass, I walked toward the Black Necromancer and asked.
At my sudden intervention, the Corpse Sorcerer grew wary, and Han So blankly followed behind.
“What?”
I repeated myself to the Black Necromancer, who snapped back irritably.
“I asked if you want to live.”
“Asking a Necromancer about death? We’re always prepared to die!”
A stylish reply, but her eyes said otherwise.
She was a Necromancer.
But also just 18.
“...Damn it.”
Meeting my gaze, she whispered honestly, guarding her pride.
“Y-Yeah.”
That explained her struggles.
Satisfied, I nodded and made my demand.
“Tell me all the other rules you know.”
“What?”
The Black Necromancer looked baffled. If I didn’t explain, she’d feign ignorance to the end.
“I know you’re hiding rules. Remember what we talked about here when we first met?”
Racking her brain for any slip-up, she tried recalling our conversation, but the urgency made it hard.
“You told me this: Find the rules to get rewards, including escape.”
- Yeah, find the rules for prizes. The biggest one is escape from this place.
“Ah?”
Han So nodded in realization. That was the issue.
When we proposed teaming up, Han So had said:
- Hmm, some of the other guests seem fishy. What do you think? Pool our strength and escape together?
He’d said escape, not find rules. As if rules weren’t a priority for them.
That’s what felt off.
Finding rules meant escape.
Why treat them separately?
The answer came easily.
Han So and Lu Anes didn’t know finding rules allowed escape.
Only the Black Necromancer did.
Which meant.
She hadn’t told us all the rules she knew.
“...”
At this explanation, the Black Necromancer bit her lip. Han So looked flustered and glanced around, while the Corpse Sorcerer lowered his hand, eavesdropping intently, sensing something amiss.
“Tch.”
I clicked my tongue at the Corpse Sorcerer, then turned back to the Black Necromancer.
“I get that you didn’t tell us every rule you know. If they were ordinary ones, I wouldn’t care much.”
“H-Huh?”
Han So let out a startled yelp. He was starting to grate—shut up already.
“The key is, the rule you hid likely ties to escaping this place.”
Recalling her words:
- Yeah, find the rules for prizes. The biggest one is escape from this place.
Having realized her slip, the Black Necromancer hung her head. Too trusting because we were fellow Necromancers?
Or maybe I was her type from the start.
Whatever.
“How did you know escape was one of the rewards?”
Nothing stated what the rewards were. Yet she knew rules and escape went together.
Meaning one of the rules she hid held the key to escape.
“...”
“Speak.”
Urging the tight-lipped Black Necromancer, she shot back with tears welling.
“Real smooth, huh? Super smooth! You waited for me to be in danger, then swoop in to save me and get me to spill?”
“...”
“So transparent! Future disciple of mine, huh? How’d I ever take on a guy like you?”
“...”
“Bargaining my life for the rules?”
“Quite the opposite.”
I slowly turned toward the Corpse Sorcerer and answered her.
“I’m cornering you precisely because I don’t want to kill you for the answer.”
-22. Deceased guests leave behind the rules they know.
Without urgency, she’d never reveal what she knew.
If she stayed silent, I’d have to kill her to find out.
Unwilling to do that, I was using aggressive persuasion.
“Ah.”
I felt her dazed gaze on my back.
The Corpse Sorcerer’s corpses began moving again. He’d realized killing her would reveal the rules anyway.
“Rule 30.”
Had some sincerity gotten through?
She uttered a rule.
“Only the last survivor can escape the Dream Demon Pavilion.”
Her answer only made our fates clearer.
“F-Hee hee! Killing everyone was right after all!”
The Corpse Sorcerer excitedly drove his corpses more fiercely.
A black mage with no souls to command.
That was me now, so naturally the Black Necromancer couldn’t beat him either.
Han So hesitated, eyeing us warily, while the Black Necromancer bit her lip in silence.
I slowly picked up the wine glass from the table.
“Haa.”
Then, with a sigh, hurled it to the floor.
Crash!
Glass shards scattered, the precious wine splattering like blood.
“Necromancers are pretty sloppy right up to the end, huh?”
The Corpse Sorcerer had completely shed his initial polite demeanor.
I’d seen plenty of people corrupted by power the moment they grasped it, but this extreme shift was new.
“Begging for mercy? Gonna lick the spilled wine off the floor?”
He grinned wickedly, but my gaze fixed on the wine and shards.
“Curious, isn’t it?”
“What?”
“The Dream Demon Pavilion handles all its management automatically. Like how we wash our bodies—it reverts to its original state on its own.”
“...”
Each word sent chills through him, and he gestured hurriedly to command his corpses.
“Huh?”
Bewildered, he stared as they didn’t move.
“W-What’s this? What the hell!”
Watching him yell about his unresponsive corpses, I couldn’t help but tsk at his foolishness.
“You exploited Rule 24 in reverse and still haven’t figured out the situation?”
-24. When a guest dies, their room unlocks. Until then, entry is forbidden even with the owner’s permission.
Not guests, but their corpses—the Corpse Sorcerer had used them to slaughter everyone else’s rooms.
In short, dead guests were no longer treated as guests.
“Pathetic.”
Daaaaang!
The clock at the entrance rang long, signaling the day’s end.
No daylight made it hard to tell, but it felt about right.
“There are no servants here.”
-28. There are no servants in the Dream Demon Pavilion.
“Meals refill daily.”
-21. Meals are refilled daily. Please eat your fill without restraint.
As if hearing me.
The food we’d eaten refilled in the blink of an eye.
A bizarre sight, like a desert mirage.
“And.”
The shattered glass on the floor began fading, the wine stains vanishing without a trace.
“Cleanup happens every day.”
“What? Cleanup?”
“No need to bother removing nuisances like corpses.”
Gazing at his fading corpses, I sneered at the Corpse Sorcerer.
“Something to be grateful for.”
-17. Cleanup is performed every day.