🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter ~ 03
Maybe because all the monsters were concentrated on the second floor, the rest of the way back was surprisingly smooth.
We did run into one creature, but the moment it appeared, Isis sliced it clean in half.
Wait—half?
We’d struggled so hard against just one earlier, hadn’t we?
Something felt off. I kept staring at the back of his head as we ran, and before I knew it, we’d arrived at the mansion’s entrance.
Two horses were waiting there, along with a man with green hair.
“We’re back.”
“Did you find the herbs?”
“No. There was nothing in that mansion.”
The green-haired man frowned slightly when he noticed me.
“Who is this woman?”
“A survivor. I’m bringing her with us.”
He answered flatly, then turned to me.
“Can you ride a horse?”
“Huh?”
“Ah, I’m sorry. You said you lost your memory. Then, ride with me.”
With Isis’s help, I climbed onto the horse and gripped the saddle tightly—the ground suddenly felt much farther away.
Isis got up behind me and murmured softly,
“Relax your body.”
“Okay…”
With a sharp neigh, the horse bolted forward at full speed.
How could we ride horses with so many creatures everywhere?
I was wondering that, but the answer became clear soon enough.
The horses were fast—unbelievably fast.
Holy crap, did they bring racing horses or something?
They were going so fast that even those giant creatures couldn’t catch up.
By the time we finally stopped, my whole body was aching and limp.
My back hurt, my butt hurt, even my shoulders hurt for some reason…
While I sat there dazed, Isis patted my shoulder.
“This is our base.”
Base?
Only then did I actually look around.
Towering stone walls, a wide courtyard, and a huge mansion.
This isn’t a hideout—it’s just a noble’s estate!
I looked at Isis in shock, and he laughed.
“This used to be a duke’s townhouse. We remodeled it.”
“A duke’s…?”
The green-haired man beside him leaned toward me and whispered,
“That’s our Duke.”
“…What?”
Isis gave a casual shrug, and I could almost feel a big exclamation mark pop up over my head.
Well, I did expect the male lead to be extraordinary, but… a duke?
His status was even higher than I imagined—it made me feel a bit distant.
I followed Isis obediently into the mansion, and what I saw next shocked me again.
Normally, noble homes had paintings or portraits on the walls, right?
Why are there weapons everywhere here?
One wall was lined with hammers, pliers, and axes.
The opposite wall displayed rows of old-style guns.
“In this era, weapons are what matter—not paintings or jewels.”
“…I guess that’s true.”
He’d practically read my mind. I laughed awkwardly.
Isis led me to a room and gestured toward it.
“This will be your room from now on.”
“Thank you.”
“We don’t have servants to wait on you, though.”
“That’s totally fine.”
I lived in the 21st century—having servants would be weirder!
I really meant it, but Isis just looked at me as if he thought I was lying.
Maybe it was because of the surname “Velote.”
Before the creature outbreak, the original Larianna Velote must’ve been a noblewoman.
Maybe Isis had even met her before I possessed her body.
Trying to act casual, I said,
“Servants are a luxury these days—just like paintings or jewels.”
Isis chuckled.
“Then please rest well. I’ll come get you at mealtime, and I’ll introduce you to the others then.”
“Okay. You too, Isis—um, you should rest as well.”
“Just ‘Isis’ is fine.”
“But you’re a duke…”
“Titles don’t mean much anymore—like paintings or jewels.”
“…Then, I’ll just call you Isis.”
He smiled at that, gave a polite nod, and left.
I watched his back as he disappeared down the hall, then stepped into my room.
Alone at last.
I really, really wanted to rest—but I couldn’t.
Who knew when I’d get another chance to be alone?
There were things I needed to sort out first.
“Status window.”
At my words, several floating screens appeared in the air.
“Chat window.”
[Lulu]: A creature wave just broke out in the western forest—everyone be careful!
[Sansan]: A creature wave? Really? The western forest… that’s near one of the survivor camps, right?
[Lulu]: Wait, you mean Baron Geyron’s camp?
[Am I the Heroine?!]: Creature waves have been happening more often lately…
The chat was full of messages about things I didn’t yet understand.
[Lia]: Um, could someone answer my question, please…?
[Lulu]: Oh! The newbie survived!
[Lulu]: Thank goodness!
[Am I the Heroine?!]: You’re in a safe zone right now, right?
Safe zone? Another term I didn’t recognize. Frowning, I typed irritably:
[Lia]: What’s a safe zone, and what’s this status window? You all seem to know what’s going on—so tell me!
[Lulu]: Whoa, whoa, calm down.
[Am I the Heroine?!]: It’s okay, you seem safe. We’ll explain everything slowly.
I sighed and sat down on a soft-looking single sofa.
They were right—I needed to calm down.
Too much had happened all at once. I’d been trying to handle it bit by bit, but now that I was finally somewhere safe, all the stress hit me at once.
[Am I the Heroine?!]: First, let me explain: all of us here are possessors—just like you, Lia.
[Am I the Heroine?!]: We each woke up in the forest or some room, for no reason, and went through the same thing you did.
The same as me…?
[Lia]: The same? I almost died!
[Am I the Heroine?!]: We all did. We only survived this long because of luck. Many others… didn’t make it.
Many people died?
I remembered the creature with its mouth stretched unnaturally wide, charging at me—
And the one that had been chewing on a person in the hallway.
My stomach turned.
[Am I the Heroine?!]: Honestly, we don’t know everything either.
[Am I the Heroine?!]: But what we do know is—it’s some kind of game.
[Lia]: A game?
[Am I the Heroine?!]: Yeah. Like an otome game—a romance sim where you raise the male lead’s affection level. The max affection is 100, right? Once it’s full, you clear the mission.
I remembered the window that popped up when I first met Isis.
His affection level was 3. It really did look like something out of a romance game.
[Am I the Heroine?!]: The leading theory is that if you reach 100 affection, you can escape this hell.
[Lia]: You mean… go back to where we came from?
[Am I the Heroine?!]: Exactly. Back to before we possessed these bodies.
Now it made sense.
This really was like a romance game—if you maxed the affection bar, you’d see the ending and finish the game.
Except this one was set in a survival version of a fantasy romance world.
I let out a long sigh.
But even that’s just a theory, I reminded myself.
They’d said it was the most likely explanation, not the certain one.
All my strength drained away as I sank into the soft cushions.
My head felt hot.
I closed my eyes. I needed a moment to think. So I shut the chat window.
Raise Isis’s affection.
That was the only clear goal I had.
I’d stay alive, raise Isis’s affection, end this game, and return to my own world.
Even if it turned out that doing so didn’t send me home—
I’d deal with that when the time came.
The clock showed I had more than an hour before dinner.
Alright. Time to actually rest.
This time, I closed my eyes for real and drifted off.
Knock, knock, knock.
I woke up to the sound of someone knocking. Still groggy, I opened the door to find a woman standing there.
“Hello. I heard you’re new here. I’m Marsha—I handle the household chores.”
“Ah, hello. I’m Larianna Velote. Please, just call me Larianna.”
“Dinner’s ready. I came to get you—let’s head to the dining room together.”
“Alright.”
Following Marsha down the hallway, I soon saw a long table crowded with people.
