The Slaughterhouse Waiting Room
Dude already got the door slammed in his face and his mental's probably completely shattered by now, right?
Wouldn't be surprised if he got the full psycho treatment, got turned away at the door, and got chased out lmao.
Be real though—how the hell do you even crack that hikikomori chick Mocca Mellow? Is he even still alive?
"Ha……."
A snort of laughter slipped out.
Were they worried about me, or holding a memorial service and praying I'd just die already?
Clearly, Mocca Mellow's notoriety ran deep.
Of course, my own impression after meeting her face-to-face was a little different.
Not so much a dangerous witch as… a high-maintenance, hypersensitive shut-in next door. The kind you keep at arm's length.
But there was one fact those guys didn't know.
Far from getting the door slammed in my face—I nested right next door to her.
My eyes stopped on the last comment, on the words cleared two heroines.
Yeah.
Looking at it that way, surviving this long hadn't been pure luck.
This time, too—I'd pull it off for sure.
With grim resolve, I hammered the keyboard.
Why was everyone reacting like this?
I tilted my head and left a reply.
Ugh…… had these people been living their whole lives getting scammed?
I said it was real. Why couldn't they just believe me?
I snapped a rough photo of the room with my luggage unpacked and a document stamped with Beatrice's seal, then uploaded it.
The mood in the thread was turning weird.
A moment later, WhiteMage carefully left a long comment.
……What?! She was that kind of psychopath?
Fuck, then………
"……."
A chill ran down my spine.
It wasn't just my imagination.
The sensation of blood running cold through my entire body.
The possibility that what hid behind Beatrice's captivating smile wasn't goodwill at all—but unmistakable murderous intent.
……If you fail.
Her words flashed through my mind.
That beautiful smile, swallowing something bone-chilling behind it.
— Isn't commuting a waste of time? If you're going to fix my disciple, closer is better, no?
That, without a doubt, had not been kindness.
So this B-102 really wasn't a cozy lodging—it was a waiting room for the guillotine?
They weren't wrong.
Elara von Heim's suffocating black-and-white morality, Ruby Scarlet's berserk rage—both had melted away in the palm of my hand in the end.
Why would Beatrice be any different?
If I didn't clear Mocca Mellow, what waited for me was a Bad Ending.
I'd die either way.
Die this way or die that way…… I had to try.
If only to stay alive, I had to turn that hikikomori next door into a functional human being…….
A string of oddly wholesome comments followed.
Without meaning to, the corner of my mouth curled up.
Just as I was about to keep browsing and fire off more replies—
BANG!
From the room next door, separated by nothing but a thin wall, came a dull, explosive crash of something being smashed.
— Aaaagh! You stupid Tarzan bastard!!!
"……?"
At the sudden noise, the fingers scrolling the gallery froze.
I stared quietly at the wall—the epicenter of the racket.
— No, why are you going in there! Can't you see the map! The map! Are your eyes just for decorationnnn?!
A bellow that stabbed straight through the eardrums.
The soundproofing was nonexistent?
A so-called genius magic engineer, and she hadn't even cast a single soundproofing spell?
I let out a hollow laugh as I looked at the wall.
Then again—she'd never imagined anyone would actually live in this remote annex.
To her, this space had been her own complete private kingdom.
— Waaaaah! Surrender! I said surrender!
The shouting kept going.
If I left this alone, my precious right to sleep was going to get annihilated.
I rose from the bed and walked up to the wall that shared a surface with Mocca Mellow's room.
Then I clenched a fist and knocked with a steady rhythm.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
"……."
In an instant, the yelling next door cut off as if it had been a lie.
Silence.
A moment later, a trembling voice leaked through the wall.
— ……G-ghost?
Ghost, my ass……
I snorted and hit the wall a little harder.
THUD!
— Eeeek!
A scream, followed by the clattering crash of something toppling over.
— Kzzzzzt.
Was the tinnitus ringing in my ears because a heroine was nearby?
Apparently my Psychological Insight could read the emotions of a heroine this close almost instantly.
Come to think of it—there was only a wall between us. She was practically right beside me.
That aside……
The psychological agitation from that woman was probably just her being scared out of her mind by the sudden noise, right?
With that, I closed the community window.
After clearing the interface, I let out a deep sigh.
"Man…… hard to believe she actually slaughtered ten thousand people……."
I could roughly picture the pathetic figure that didn't match that blood-soaked moniker at all.
Right about now she'd be buried under a blanket, shaking like a leaf.
I curled my lips into a mischievous smile and whispered low against the wall.
"I'm not a ghost."
— Eeeek……?! W-who goes there?!
"Your neighbor. Mind keeping it down?"
Whether my voice had reached her or not, a rustling sound came from beyond the wall.
For the finishing blow, I opened my door and stepped out into the hallway.
Then the door to the next room—B-101—creaked open by a mouse-hole's width.
Through a mess of tangled, disheveled hair, a single eyeball rolled around and locked onto me.
"Y-y-you are……?!"
"We meet again. Just came to say hello."
"……Huuuh. M-moving……?"
Mocca Mellow looked like she could not process this situation at all.
Then she bit her lip lightly and muttered in a voice that shrank into itself.
"……Th-then, that was you speaking from next door?"
"Yes. Did you think I was a ghost?"
"……"
Dark circles hanging all the way down to her jaw, she glared at me with eyes full of wariness.
"W-why are you coming out of there? This is my territory!"
"The Magic Tower Lord assigned it to me. Looking forward to being neighbors."
"N-neighboooors?!"
She threw the door wide open in pure shock.
Then, as if realizing something, she gently gripped the door again, hid her body behind it, and poked only her face back out.
"Th-that cannot be……! My peaceful domain…… has been, inva—inva—invaded……."
"Peaceful domain, my ass. I could hear the shotgun blasts all the way over here."
I crossed my arms and jerked my chin toward the inside of her room.
"Were you playing some kind of game?"
"……Th-tha-that is—!"
Startled, Mocca Mellow flushed red and stammered.
Watching that face, I let a lazy smile slip out.
"Anyway, keep it reasonable. I can hear everything. I'll drop by later tonight."
"……"
Leaving her standing there dumbstruck, I shut my door with deliberate flair.