Unwanted Overnight Stay (2)
"...They sealed it up pretty thoroughly."
They say that if things start off badly, nothing goes right from beginning to end.
I'd come humming a little tune all the way down to the underground of the mart, only to find the door completely blocked.
No—the door had simply vanished.
I'm sure there was a door right here...
I stretched out a hand and pushed hard against the wall where the door had been, but nothing happened.
Just how thoroughly had they sealed it off?
Well, these were the same people who'd built a research lab of that size underground. Sealing a single door was probably nothing to them.
"...Should I just go back?"
I'd planned to spend the whole day exploring the Underground Lab instead of heading to the hotel Emerald had arranged, then go in afterward—but already my plans were falling apart.
Ah, whatever. Might as well go in and sleep.
With that, I turned on my heel and left the mart.
"What a gloomy sky..."
Just like my mood.
The sky looked ready to pour rain at any moment, the kind that dragged a person's spirits down just by looking at it.
No. My one and only hope was...
"It seems things aren't going the way you wanted."
"...Haa."
Why did this human keep clinging to me like this?
For someone who called himself a doctor, did he really have this much free time to follow a monster around?
He looked like some shadowy mastermind, yet the man clearly had nothing better to do.
"How about it? Won't you come with me? If it's me, I'm certain I can give you what you—"
"Could you please just get out of my sight? I'm barely holding myself back from killing you right now."
You look like my mother.
Ah, more precisely, like the Doctor.
And that made it even harder to restrain myself...
I'd planned to make the Doctor pay the price for abandoning me whenever I finally met her, but at this rate I felt like I might just dump all that rage on this human instead.
I can't waste the anger I've carefully stockpiled on some worthless human.
Emotions were consumables. If I spent the feelings I'd saved for the Doctor in a place like this, I was sure I'd regret it later.
How the human in front of me would take that was anyone's guess, but if I went too far and ended up developing a special set of feelings just for him, well, that would be another story.
Who knew? Maybe I'd end up killing this arrogant human with my own hands.
"Well, fine. Watching how long you can hold out seems like it would make for quite the spectacle, after all."
He spoke as if he knew something about me.
From where I stood, it felt like he knew nothing about me at all, yet he talked as if he did, which left a strange feeling.
A fool with a head full of knowledge—that was probably the phrase made for guys like him.
Spectacle this, spectacle that... what a disgusting way to put it. Tch.
Seeing a bug every now and then was merely creepy, but if it kept appearing, it just became repulsive.
Anyway, ignoring the bug I was seeing for the second time, I arrived at the hotel, where a staff member inside looked at me with positively sparkling eyes.
"Welcome! You're the guest who reserved under Midori's name, correct?"
"Yeah, sure..."
That overly bright gaze was far too much pressure.
Was this human radiating hope while looking at me? Why?
Even human hope was still hope.
Just as someone with a peach allergy would break out in hives from eating even a little peach, I was the same.
Even the slightest touch of hope made me feel like I was about to break out in hives.
I didn't actually, but that was how it felt.
"Your room is on the top floor! Ah, shall I show you the way?"
"Yeah, sure..."
I kept saying the same thing—probably just my imagination.
I let the employee's chatter about introducing me to the hotel's finest room go in one ear and out the other.
Emerald must have money to spare, booking a room like this for me.
"There's only one room on the top floor, you know. And it's perfectly equipped for safety against monster invasions—ah, to give you an idea of how strong it is, it has the durability of a Shelter's top floor? It can even hold off a Gamma Class monster!"
A completely uninteresting story.
You just guided something worse than any Gamma Class monster into that room, you know.
"Well then, please enjoy a comfortable stay! Thank you so much for visiting our hotel!"
"Yeah, sure..."
Ugh, that gave me the creeps.
I'd gotten used to humans treating me with hostility, but a human being this polite to me was a first.
Facing an unfamiliar situation left me... ugh, uuugh, ugh...
My body started trembling as if I'd suddenly stepped into ice-cold water.
"Hwaa..."
Anyway, what I did after that was dive onto the bed.
Don't care. I'm sleeping all day here, so nobody bother me.
Hoping that morning would have arrived by the time I woke, I slowly closed my eyes.
Wiiiiiiiiing—!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"...Ugh, what?"
I'd closed my eyes, but not long after, an alarm began to blare.
A glance at the clock showed only about three hours had passed.
Rubbing my eyes and sitting up, I noticed a strange commotion outside the door.
What now?
Thudthudthudthudthud!!!
"Is someone in there?! Please open the door!"
"A monster has appeared! Please open the door!"
"Damn it, are you trying to save yourself alone?! Open the door already!"
"We're all going to die like this!"
...What are they even saying?
Even though I'd just woken up, I raked my still-glossy hair back with a sigh.
Ah, right. Hadn't they said this room was as safe as the fifth floor of a Shelter?
With a monster appearing, it seemed the humans had all flocked this way.
I really don't feel like opening it.
I'd finally gotten some alone time to rest, and now I was supposed to let humans in on top of that?
I'd get a nervous breakdown for sure.
"I know someone's in there! Open the door right now!"
"Shit, the monster is coming up!!"
"You're just going to save yourself?!"
Oh ho?
The louder the voices of the humans outside grew, the thicker the scent of despair became as well.
That only gave me even less reason to open the door.
If I just stayed put and made my presence known, wouldn't this be a perfect chance to suck up all their despair?
Welcome! You're the guest who reserved under Midori's name, correct?
"Ah."
Then one fact suddenly came to mind.
This room hadn't been reserved under my name—it was under Emerald's.
If it had been under my name, maybe I could've ignored it, but since it was under Emerald's name, word of this would definitely reach her ears.
...That can't happen.
I'd carefully built up her favorability, and if I pulled a monster move here, things could get messy in all sorts of ways.
I'd already been kicked out of the house; if I earned her hatred on top of that, it would be really—
No, this wouldn't just be earning hatred. It would be the same as advertising, "Hey, that one's a monster, go catch her~."
"Haa..."
I really don't want to. I sincerely don't want to.
Or should I just wait until all the humans outside die? That might actually be better.
The corpses would get eaten by the monsters anyway, so no need to worry about that.
"P-please save us! I'm begging you! Please open the door, please!"
"Of all places, a monster had to come to this hotel, damn it! Shit!"
The timing was definitely strange.
The moment I entered the hotel and fell asleep, a monster appeared?
Anyone could see it was staged.
Even though it wasn't hope, the stench of something fishy was thick enough to reek.
As I thought, would it have been better to kill that human?
I clicked my tongue and stood up from the bed.
I didn't know what he was after, but if I just sat here watching this situation, something bad felt like it was going to happen.
Anyone could see this was a stage prepared to win my favor.
If I accepted it gratefully, he'd probably leave some kind of record and use it to blackmail me later.
Not that I thought there was any way to blackmail me with something like that.
Creeeak—
"...Is something going on outside?"
Still, I should put on at least a minimum of acting.
I mussed my hair as much as possible, put on a tired face, and opened the door.
The humans who'd been despairing that they were all about to die rounded their eyes comically.
What were they going to do if a monster tore the door open like last time?
Ah, these humans didn't know?
"W-we're saved! Th-thank you!"
"You were sleeping, student... We had no idea..."
"It's obvious you were just pretending to sleep. Look at you only opening it now because you were scared of getting cursed out, tch."
"Yeah! With all that chaos outside, there's no way you didn't hear it!"
The way they talked was so insolent.
The moment the door opened, a crowd of humans poured into the room, and I heaved a deep internal sigh.
I'd rather have the monster. At least monsters didn't talk.
There were special cases like the Doctor, but for the most part, monsters that couldn't speak were far more comfortable for me.
Ah, suddenly I miss that one.
The monster I'd gotten along so well with after leaving the Shelter.
Being a handmade product of the Doctor, it had some unique qualities, and thinking back, that one had been a fairy.
In a way, the only flaw had been grabbing that rotten lifeline called the Doctor—otherwise it had been close to perfect.
We could have been good partners for sure.
Don't I have some partner made of pure despair somewhere?
Something like the complete opposite of May, the one Emerald keeps around.
"Hey, are you listening? I'm asking why you opened the door so late!"
But my serious thoughts were driven deep into the recesses of my mind by a human's shout.
...I don't particularly like people with no manners.
It seemed this human had more than one life to spare.