The swarm of spiders kept chasing them.
Even though the crown prince had already been struck, they couldn’t afford to slow down.
Fortunately, the crown prince had avoided a fatal injury.
“Ugh!”
A baby spider lunged at his face, but his raised arm blocked it—only managing to sink its fangs into his neck instead.
“G-get off! You monster!”
Max used inhuman strength to rip the spider off his neck and fling it away.
“Evanetel!”
At Cian’s shout, water began flowing across the ground behind them.
“I used magic, but it probably won’t work well on magical beasts! Luckily, the end of this section is near! Just a little more…!”
The baby spider, which had been about to attack again under the influence of its venom, was swept away.
However, most of the spiders seemed to quickly adapt to the water and continued pursuing them more swiftly and silently.
Fortunately, after running for their lives, they eventually entered a zone where the spiders no longer followed.
Green flames flickered on torches.
The massive cavern had ended.
In the distance, a tall staircase and, above it, a temple came into view.
The gigantic spider-like monster, illuminated by the green fire, let out a low growl and slowly, silently began to retreat step by step.
“The spiders! The spiders are retreating, Your Highness!”
Max shouted.
The smaller spiders let out sharp cries, following the larger one as they gradually pulled away.
And then, silence returned.
After a long stretch of stillness, the group finally seemed to believe they were safe.
Thud.
“Haa… haa…”
Yeniel, who had been wearing a tense expression the entire time, collapsed onto the ground.
Her dress was soaked with sweat from the run, and her hair was a tangled mess over her pale forehead. She was panting so hard she couldn’t even speak. It was a truly undignified sight.
In romance fantasy novels, the heroine’s dignity usually meant looking beautiful and composed at all times.
Yet here she was—completely disheveled, drenched in sweat, and reduced to a wreck after fleeing from monsters. Honestly, it was the game developer’s fault for inserting a romance fantasy heroine into a horror game world.
“Ugh…”
The crown prince, who had just tried to sit down, groaned in pain. Something seemed seriously wrong with him.
“Your Highness. Are you alright?”
“Your Highness!”
Cian and Max rushed over first to check on him.
It looked like poison might be spreading—part of the crown prince’s neck had turned a purplish color.
“I-I’m fine. I’m fine… Do you not know the constitution of the royal bloodline?”
The crown prince laughed.
“Poison circulating in my body… such things are burned away by my constitution. It even blocked assassination poisons before. Ugh… actually, I’m not fine. It seems I can’t fully resist monster venom.”
This was truly strange.
In The Mage’s Manor, the player’s companions were not supposed to take damage.
Moreover, the spiders were definitely meant to be easy monsters.
“Why were those spiders that strong? Is this a hidden event?”
Or had some variable been introduced?
Or maybe the game had simply been simplified in description, and in reality, these monsters had always been this dangerous?
There were too many strange inconsistencies.
But I decided to cut off the chain of thoughts.
I wasn’t my brother—thinking wouldn’t magically produce answers.
What mattered was building bonds as a confirmed member of this group. That was the only way to survive.
Cian, with a fatigued expression, muttered something to a spirit while waving his hand. It seemed to mean “return.”
Max also looked exhausted, and so did the injured crown prince.
Even Yeniel, who was in a completely ruined state.
“Lady Yeniel, are you alright?”
I approached her with a bright, innocent tone.
I was the only one who still looked relatively normal in this group. April’s body was practically a monster—she had reflexes as sharp as mine from my original world, and comparable strength and speed.
Yeniel, seemingly too exhausted to respond, shook her head weakly.
“Oh my, your hair is a mess.”
Maybe I should use this chance to raise affection levels. I chirped on.
“You look really hot and tired. Let April fix your hair. Your ribbon is all messed up!”
“Would you… do that for me…?”
She looked like she was about to die, yet still entrusted me with her hair. In the game, there was a setting that no one except a lover could touch the heroine’s hair.
I tied the black ribbon around my wrist and gathered Yeniel’s hair.
‘It was a half-up style, right?’
Perhaps I pulled too hard while gathering it, because Yeniel’s eyes stretched all the way to her temples in discomfort. A disaster.
“…Hff…”
In the heavy silence, the crown prince was the first to suppress a laugh.
Is that funny?
The crown prince’s affection increased.
The others didn’t laugh outright, but their tension clearly eased.
So this was the effect of a foolish supporting character who lightens a grim atmosphere.
Feeling the tension loosen, I smiled slightly too.
‘Yeah. Laugh all you want and raise those affection points.’
As if responding to my thoughts, notification windows began popping up in succession.
Cian the strategist’s affection increased.
Max’s affection increased.
The crown prince’s affection increased significantly!
I had my own desperate reason for sticking with them.
As the mid-to-late game progresses, the atmosphere becomes increasingly dark and horrifying.
The highlight is the appearance of April’s corpse found in various places.
Sometimes she is found ahead of the group, caught in an event trap and dead.
Sometimes poisoned, vomiting blood.
Sometimes she survives for a while, only to die in an event where she says she’s sleepy and wants to rest.
And if there is no clear cause, April is always found brutally mutilated.
My brother used to wail.
“So we have to put April in the party! If she’s in the party, she can survive and escape with us! If she travels with the player, she lives longer! But if you look away for even a second, she’s already dead!”
“Stop it.”
“Recruit her! We have to recruit April!”
“Stop spamming the recruitment request—it’s already auto-rejected now.”
“But there’s an empty party slot! Why can’t we add April…!”
I used those memories as reference.
So I would adapt into their party and be carried out safely.
Suddenly, I met Yeniel’s eyes.
I smiled as if she were a real friend, gently narrowing my eyes.
[Yeniel’s affection has increased.]
[Cian the strategist’s affection has increased.]
[Yeniel’s affection has increased significantly.]
I read the warmth in Yeniel’s gaze.
If she was the kind of selfless heroine who would even shout to save others at the banquet hall, then surely she would take me out together with them.