Cursed Villainess' Obsession-Chapter 61

Adrian, holding the petrification artifact Ken had left behind, approached Mary and Emily.

Standing before the two statues, Adrian, just as Ken had done moments earlier, raised the artifact toward them.

Paaah!

The artifact emitted its characteristic light, illuminating the statues.

Plop, plop.

With the effect of the artifact, pieces of stone fell from the two figures, and soon they were free once again.

The curse of petrification lifted from them.

Emily immediately rushed at Adrian.

“Why...!! Why didn’t you stop him!! Adrian!!”

Emily glared at Adrian with eyes full of a threat she had never shown to a friend before, gripping his collar with a desperate expression.

“It was natural for me to stop him…! But why... why didn’t you!?”

“That’s exactly why Ken petrified you.”

Emily’s fierce demeanor transformed into confusion in an instant at Adrian’s calm words.

Without a reply, she looked at him, her eyes trembling.

Eventually, she lowered her head.

Adrian’s words, or rather Ken’s thoughts, were undoubtedly true.

There was no way she would have allowed him to go alone.

Regardless of his reasoning and plans, there was no guarantee he wouldn’t die alone in such a place.

Even if she had healing magic, she would have insisted on going with him.

If not, she would have seized an opportunity to jump in alongside him.

Having experienced his death once, Emily couldn’t bear to see him face a life-threatening situation again.

But still...

“Why... why did Ken have to go to such a dangerous place alone?”

Tears streamed down Emily’s cheeks, soaking the floor beneath her.

“Because it’s that dangerous; he had to go alone.”

Zikfrit responded to Emily’s words.

He didn’t want to send his junior, friend, and precious pupil into a hellish place alone.

However, the determination Ken showed the previous night while explaining the plan was something that must be respected.

“If he dies, he only dies himself. That’s how he feels.”

Though he spoke casually, Zikfrit’s hand trembled tightly in a fist.

While this conversation unfolded, a quiet figure finally spoke up.

Mary, who had remained silent since being released from petrification, opened her mouth.

“So, what are we supposed to do?”

Her quiet words drew the attention of the others, excluding Laphne.

In the gathering silence, Mary looked back at them with cold, fierce eyes and asked again.

“What should we do to help Ken?”

He wouldn’t have jumped in without a plan.

No matter how much he thought about their safety, there had to be a reason for him to go alone.

If that were the case, he must have conveyed something to Adrian or Zikfrit.

Now, even though her fists trembled with worry, anxiety, and anger, she held back all those emotions and inquired about their course of action.

Adrian answered her.

“We need to head to the tenth floor. There, we must guard a certain monument at the moment Ken escapes.”

“...The tenth floor?”

Mary’s voice was quiet as she repeated his explanation.

It was the voice of Laphne, who had been sitting on the ground where the trap was, crying.

After hearing Adrian’s words, she staggered to her feet.

Then she turned to face her comrades.

Adrian flinched at her gaze.

‘...Those eyes look like they could stop my heart.’

This was Adrian’s impression upon seeing Laphne’s look.

Her expression resembled that of a feral beast that had given up on its life. The vacant look in her eyes carried a murderous intent.

Adrian broke out in a cold sweat in response to her fierce presence.

“Then let’s set off immediately.”

Without breaking her gaze, Laphne pointed the tip of her spear at Adrian.

It seemed to threaten that refusal would lead to death.

There was a clear aura of death surrounding her spear.

“First, calm down, Laphne.”

“Calm down? How am I supposed to calm down now!?”

Her voice roared out, causing everyone present to hesitate.

They felt like they were in front of a beast about to pounce.

They began to perceive Laphne as a threat.

With a dangerous glint in her eyes, she continued.

“Ken is gone...! Ken is not by my side...! Ken, Ken, Ken… Ken...! KEN!!!”

Laphne’s state began to deteriorate rapidly.

She ran her hands through her hair and trembled, repeating the name of the person she longed to see.

Thud.

Finally, she dropped the spear she had been holding and buried her head in her hands, collapsing onto the ground.

Seeing her distressed state, Adrian had no choice but to panic.

It hadn’t even been an hour since Ken had disappeared.

‘...This isn’t right. Ken Feinstein.’

Adrian recalled the resentful words he had heard from Ken.

‘Laphne will be fine. She’s improved a lot since we came out of the tower.’

He wanted to show Ken how she was now.

‘What part of this is fine?’

Tears streamed down her face as her vacant eyes stared into the void, calling out Ken’s name in a voice that sounded like it would break any moment.

Adrian realized that her stability had always been rooted in Ken’s presence.

And right after Ken disappeared, she was reduced to this state.

But he couldn’t just stand by and watch her deteriorate.

Ken had entrusted him with the responsibility of looking after the group.

He had to take charge.

“Laphne... if it's Ken, we can meet again in a week.”

He avoided all other explanations and offered her the one thing that could calm her down in that moment.

Then, suddenly, Laphne froze.

Her body went still.

Her tear-stained, vacant eyes turned to Adrian with a fierce glare.

“...Explain.”

Her quiet voice carried a heavy pressure.

‘What is everyone doing right now?’

I found myself in the world of the trap.

If I had to name it, I would call it the Bottom of Tarros, inside a certain cave.

The cave was somewhat cozy.

Of course, that was just my opinion after nearly three months of getting used to this hellish life.

In any case, it wasn’t terrible.

It hadn’t always been this way from the start.

For the first few weeks, I regretted entering this place continuously.

Though I had expected it from my experience in the game,

the only food available was strange plants and tasteless monster meat.

I could drink water only through a filter made from mud brought from a swamp.

Outside, there were far more high-level monsters than low-level ones.

The temperature difference between day and night was extreme, making movement and sleeping uncomfortable.

Still, now I felt somewhat seasoned and managed to get by.

“...I wonder how long it’s been outside.”

A year has 365 days, and a week has 7 days.

Roughly calculated, it should be about a day and a half.

When I thought about it, it seemed absurd.

I wondered what everyone was doing now.

It had been about a day since I disappeared, so I figured Adrian had told them the details.

“...They must be managing somehow.”

Of course, I didn’t doubt my comrades.

I just had to find the key to escape during the year I would spend here.

If something went wrong with the group outside, we would have to wait another year.

I wanted to leave without any issues and make it out in one go.

“Well, before that, I need to find the key myself.”

Spending too long alone had made me prone to talking to myself.

Maybe I should make a volleyball like Wilson.

“...Hah, I’ll be fine.”

Whenever I rested, my mind was consumed with worries about the outside situation.

I wanted to get out of here quickly.

‘...Why did they make shortcuts like this?’

I resented the perverse game developers the most.

Shortcut.

Commonly found in games, it refers to a path designed to pass quickly through a specific route.

Such shortcuts also existed in the dungeon known as Tarros Tower.

Of course, the developers didn’t kindly inform players of this from the beginning.

The existence of this shortcut was discovered from a player’s inquiry.

That inquiry was, “Why doesn’t the trap on the third floor kill you?”

Typically, traps reduce health or cause instant death, leading players to escape.

But this hellish trap on the third floor was different.

The protagonists, Emily and her party, would fall into this Bottom of Tarros and endure endless battles and survival.

They would have to fight until they died or reload their save.

Players who found this suspicious continued to investigate the trap, eventually discovering its escape route in an unexpected place.

That place was a certain NPC on the 50th floor.

When the S-rank former knight commander NPC, Gyle, is rescued from his prison, an event occurs.

‘It’s not just discovering Gyle’s connection to the trap, but... the first guy to escape from here isn’t normal either.’

After rescuing Gyle, the progression goes as follows:

You rescue Gyle on the 50th floor, then fall into the trap on the third floor, arriving in the Bottom.

After that, you must endure an entire year in game time.

I don’t know why the first person to discover this spent a whole year here, but they probably enjoyed survival games.

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However, through that perverse gameplay, they learned how to escape from this trap.

After a year, Emily discovered a portal appeared in the center of this place.

And upon entering that portal, one could emerge in a corner of the tenth floor.

There, numerous monster corpses would lie alongside Gyle’s body, slumped against a pillar next to the portal.

And in front of the portal was a monument that seemed special.

From the synthesis of the tower’s settings, players deduced that Gyle knew Emily had fallen into the Bottom and guarded the escape portal on the tenth floor.

If Gyle is not rescued, the portal will not open because the monsters pouring in will destroy the monument.

“...But it takes a lot of time to get to the 50th floor.”

So, I gave up on rescuing Gyle.

I had my party members with me.

After falling into this hell, my party planned to guard the monument on the tenth floor.

Then I would find the key to the shortcut and escape from the Bottom.

“...Please, let them succeed safely.”

As I lay on my makeshift bed, staring at the dark ceiling of the cave, I prayed for them.

“Die, all of you!!!”

Kwahaha!!

It had been six days since Ken fell into the trap.

Now, Laphne and her party were heading to that location on the tenth floor to guard the portal, as he had planned.

The floor they were currently advancing through was the fifth.

At the front of the group, Laphne unleashed a roar filled with anger and murderous intent.

She swung her spear effortlessly, sweeping aside the monsters charging at her.

“Laphne!! Slow down a bit...!!”

“Shut up!! You better keep up with me!! I don’t have time to wait for you!!”

As she rushed ahead too quickly, Adrian shouted after her, but Laphne growled back sharply.

‘How does Ken handle this beast…?’

Adrian clicked his tongue inwardly.

Without Ken, Laphne was truly a starving beast.

Always on edge, she exuded an aura that suggested she would bite and kill anyone who crossed her path.

He could not imagine her calm and gentle demeanor when Ken was beside her.

She was just like the fierce wild animal he remembered from their first year.

Determined to curse her behavior, Adrian thought he had to.

If she had just been a little calmer, he might have taken a different approach.

So, he felt a sense of wonder at how effortlessly Ken could manage someone like Laphne.

“Still, thanks to her, we’re making good progress.”

Zikfrit, who was running alongside Adrian, commented.

As he said, they were clearing the floors at an incredible pace.

Any seasoned adventurer who had tackled the tower for a long time would be left speechless.

Mary and Emily seemed to share the same sentiment, running swiftly behind Laphne, eager to rescue Ken.

Having passed through the floors at such a fast pace, they reached the tenth floor half a day earlier than expected.

“...Huff, huff.”

They quickly dealt with the monsters blocking their way, ignoring those that were chasing them.

They simply ran toward their goal.

Thus, a party of seasoned adventurers who usually took five days to reach this point had climbed in less than a day.

“Is that the monument?”

“Yeah, it seems so.”

Unlike the weary party members, Laphne, filled with vigor, pointed her spear toward a location.

There stood a crumbled ruin, illuminated by a mysterious light.

Among the clusters of ruins, amidst the blue grass and beautiful flowers, was a solitary blue monument.

This was a stark contrast to the tenth floor, covered in gloomy purple trees.

“Ken, just wait a little longer.”

As Laphne caressed the monument, she imagined his face, longing to see him again.