Trapped in a Game That Flopped

Chapter 24

Episode 24

'Adam had a sister...?'

I knew he'd lost his parents at a young age and ascended to the title of Count early, but I had no idea he had a sister.

If she were a major character, she would have been mentioned on the forums several times by now.

Serina, this new character, was in a terrible state, with patches of skin peeled off all over her body, including her face, as if she'd suffered full-body burns.

Perhaps to reduce the pain of contact with her wounds, she was wearing thin clothes that exposed her arms and legs, making her condition even more bare.

At most, she looked to be nine or 10 years old.

It was too cruel of a setting for a child, and my brows furrowed on their own.

"Count, this person is..."

Just as I carefully began to speak.

"Have you ever heard of a disease that prevents one from seeing the sun?"

Adam suddenly asked, his gaze still fixed on his sister.

His tone was as casual as ever.

But perhaps because of the situation, his voice sounded gloomy and subdued.

After a moment of agonizing over how to respond, my heart growing solemn along with his, I finally answered truthfully.

"...I have never heard of it."

I thought he'd rebuke me, asking how an apothecary wouldn't know that.

But surprisingly, Adam just nodded, as if he'd expected as much.

"It's a rare disease that even the royal physicians don't know the cause of. The main symptom is getting burns when exposed to sunlight."

"Sunlight?"

I looked back at Serina with surprised eyes.

I thought the wounds were from fire, but sunlight...

It was a disease I'd never heard of, even in the real world.

'How painful must it have been.'

Until the disease was identified, she must have suffered the agony of her skin burning every time she went out, without even knowing why.

Perhaps she was on painkillers, as Serina was sleeping peacefully, breathing evenly, saek, saek.

Even though I'd never seen her before, I felt the most pity for her out of all the characters in this game.

"At first, it just ended with spots appearing on her arms, but as time passed, the affected areas grew, and her skin peeled and oozed, as if it had been touched by fire."

"..."

"No matter how we blocked the light with curtains or used all sorts of potions and famous medicines, it was useless. The existing burns only got worse, and wouldn't subside at all."

I remembered when I first came to the estate.

The blackout curtains were drawn behind the chandelier, even though it was broad daylight.

'Come to think of it, the office, and here too...'

I hadn't noticed because the lamps were on, but curtains were drawn over every window in the estate.

Leaving me to scan the windows, Adam continued to speak heavily.

"It wasn't a pain a young girl could endure, so we used strong painkillers, and eventually, it reached the point of forcing her to sleep."

"..."

"At least potions have fewer side effects than the drugs on the market."

The sleeping potions he said he was taking were, in the end, for his sister.

With his only blood relative's life on the line, he naturally would have looked into the ingredients and side effects in detail.

In a way, it was only natural that Adam had so easily seen through my lie about the Head Maid.

I suddenly remembered what he'd said when we first met and I was proving my usefulness as an apothecary.

"I thought I gave orders to find an apothecary who could solve insomnia."

'He really did need sleeping potions.'

On top of that, I had presented Insomnia Potions and boasted I could make both, so it made sense that Adam would easily drop his suspicion and hire me.

'This is more meticulous than I thought...'

The fact that even things I'd glossed over for the sake of progression had a backstory made me see those developer bastards in a new light.

It was then.

"Heueu... heuk, it hurts, it hurts..."

"Serina!"

At the sob from the bed, Adam, who had been sitting, shot up.

The moment I, too, grew serious and looked inside the curtain.

The child, who had been sleeping with a peaceful face just moments before, opened her eyes, her face completely crumpled.

"Everyone die... Just die...! It hurts, heuk! Brother... die! Die!"

Serina, having spotted Adam, suddenly began to have a seizure, her limbs twisting.

'Ah.'

I let out a small gasp at the sight of her.

Unlike Adam's bright blue eyes, Serina's pupils were dilated and pitch-black.

'The Darkness-Eating Centipede.'

Realizing its presence, the puzzle of Adam's incomprehensible, strange behavior was solved.

"It's alright, Serina. Everything is alright..."

As if this was a frequent occurrence, Adam skillfully held his sister and turned his head to me, where I stood awkwardly.

"Hey, do you happen to have any sleeping potions on you?"

"Yes? Yes, I do!"

The fact that I carried all my items in my unlimited inventory came in handy here.

I dug through my pocket, took out a sleeping potion, uncapped it, and handed it to him.

"Thank you."

"Aaaah! It hurts! Let go! I said di... uup!"

Adam snatched it from me and immediately shoved it into the child's open mouth.

It was a rather rough, but fast, method.

As the sleeping potion took immediate effect, the child's violent struggles subsided.

Serina fell back into a deep sleep, just like before.

With an extremely gentle touch, Adam laid her down properly and straightened the disheveled bedding.

Soon, he stood up with a somewhat weary face and looked back at me.

"I'm indebted to you."

Adam Hailey holds clear favor toward you.

Of all the system windows that had popped up so far, this was the best one.

It was a pretty good reward for just handing over a potion, but I wasn't happy.

'Of all things, for a Darkness-Eating Centipede to latch onto a sick kid...'

Rather, I felt it was a disaster.

Darkness-Eating Centipedes can be exterminated with light-attribute weapons, but Serina has to avoid sunlight to live.

But the only weapon I have is the Potion Containing Sunlight.

"...Indebted? It was my duty as the apothecary hired by the Count."

I was busy thinking of a way to save Serina, so I answered Adam a step late.

"You're more modest than I thought."

Even as my head was a mess, I wondered what kind of image these main characters had of me.

"I won't ask what circumstances led you to listen to the Prisoner."

Adam, who had briefly shown a human side while looking at Serina, had already erased his expression, returned to NPC mode, and spoke.

"I'll give you a piece of advice, to repay the debt from a moment ago."

"What..."

"Stop gathering Essences of Darkness, take the money my Adjutant gives you tonight, and leave this place quietly."

"Count."

"I will pay you sufficiently for the potions."

As the system window showed, he meant it as a favor, but I didn't welcome it.

'It's probably because of the leader.'

Adam was likely being threatened, using Serina as leverage.

This wouldn't do. I brought up the problems to persuade Adam.

"Then what will you do about the estate? If you leave the Darkness-Eating Centipedes as they are, what about the servants? The Prisoner..."

"..."

"Potions aren't a cure-all, Count. Last night, the duration was cut by more than half, so I stayed by the Prisoner's side all night..."

"A question suddenly occurred to me."

Adam, who had been silent through my lengthy speech about the estate's future, suddenly cut me off and spoke.

"Is this place worth protecting, to the point of sacrificing my one remaining family member?"

He seemed to be talking to me, but his gaze was directed elsewhere.

For an instant, a bottomless ruin flickered in his bright blue eyes, which were always so clear, and then disappeared.

It was a fleeting moment, but I felt an unexplainable chill.

"What does that mean..."

"Apothecary, there is nothing more you can do here."

His eyes, which had been floating in a blank void, thankfully regained their light quickly.

"So, stop thinking of meddling in pointless affairs and leave, as far as you can. That's the only advice I can give you."

"...Count."

"And it will be in your best interest to mind your own business, no matter what happens to Hailey's domain in the future."

"..."

"If you understand, you may leave."

Adam turned his gaze to the bed and waved his hand dismissively at me.

It was an order to get out.

At that moment, an eerie premonition stabbed into my mind.

'This bastard... Don't tell me he's planning to cause the disaster?'

I immediately shook my head.

It was ridiculous, even to me.

Who was Adam Hailey?

He was the one who fought, enduring alone until the very, very end on the land that had become a sea of fire after the disaster.

Why would that Adam Hailey, the one who even commits suicide because he failed to stop the disaster, why...

'Why is a supporting character suddenly darkening instead of the Male Lead, you crazy game?'

I didn't know why this shitty route had unfolded for me, but that bad feeling is always bound to be right.

But whatever the reason, if he had given up on protecting Hailey's domain.

"...I, I!"

I had to resolve this whole situation, no matter what.

Only then could I escape this damn game.

"I can solve everything!"

At my resounding plea, Adam, who had been watching Serina, turned to me, his face still indifferent.

He stared at me for a while, as if gauging my true intentions, then finally tilted his head and asked.

"...What can you do?"

Adam Hailey judges you to be partially incompetent.

Following his tone, which implied he really didn't know, a system window popped up, as if to confirm it.

It was an even more ruthless evaluation than that of Kassel, with his rotten personality.

Such rude bastards.

But I had no time to feel wronged.

I had to persuade him right now.

"I will catch the leader of the Darkness-Eating Centipedes, and I will remove the monster from Lady Serina in a way that doesn't threaten her life."

Adam straightened his tilted head.

Seeing the gleam of interest in his eyes only after I mentioned his family, I hurriedly added one more condition.

"Although I won't be able to completely cure her disease..."

"..."

"N-No! I'll do my best to find a way for that, too!"

At the subtle change in his expression, which was growing cold, I held back tears and quickly changed my words.

'To think I'd go from just being tactful to being able to read the expression of an NPC-like bastard, all in one day...'

This version of me, I'm pretty pathetic.