Trapped in a Game That Flopped

Chapter 33

Episode 33

At the Count's remark, the people who had all been denouncing me instantly shut their mouths.

A sudden silence fell.

"Yes. Of course."

I was momentarily flustered, but I quickly pulled a new potion from my pocket.

"C-Count, it's dangerous!"

One of the employees courageously tried to stop him, but Adam paid no heed and took the bottle from me.

"I was the one who ordered her to exterminate the monsters."

"..."

"Therefore, whether this potion is true or false, is something I must be the first to prove."

"C-Count!"

As if he hadn't expected Adam to act this way, the Adjutant threw off the mask of a loyal subject he was wearing and bared his fangs.

"Y-you can't do this! Have you already forgotten whose safety rests in my...!"

But even bringing up Serina couldn't stop Adam.

"Aargh!"

"C-Count!"

Along with someone's shrill scream, the Count, having already pulled the stopper, poured the ominous liquid directly onto his own head.

The clear water drenched Adam's face and dripped down.

Perhaps because his hair was also a radiant gold, like the sunlight, the yellow tint wasn't visible.

'As expected of a main character.'

Based on his face and character description, I thought he was just strait-laced and prim.

I gaped at Adam, who had transformed into a sexy, sensual man just from having a handful of water splashed on him.

It was all the more surprising because he was someone who never allowed a single hair out of place, to the point you could call him an NPC.

Honestly, based on his reaction just moments ago, I never thought he would help me...

'It must mean he's that desperate to save Serina.'

My heart grew heavy.

Catching the leader would be easy, but seeing Adam go this far, I felt I should approach this more seriously for his sake.

"Wh-what is it?"

"Nothing's happening!"

"Count! Are you alright?!"

When nothing happened to Adam even after some time had passed, the people looked back and forth between him, the Adjutant, and me with bewildered expressions.

It was only natural. This wasn't a potion that harmed people at all.

"I suppose that proves it."

Adam murmured indifferently and tossed the empty potion bottle at the Adjutant's feet.

Thud, Clink!

The glass hitting the marble made a loud noise.

It was an act clearly intended to draw everyone's attention.

"I am perfectly fine, so I'm not sure what to make of the knight's death."

"Grh... How do we know you're not in league with that witch wench, Count!"

With all eyes on him, the Adjutant's face turned red as he snapped.

'Idiot. Insulting the master of the estate.'

With the situation developing as expected, I felt extremely at ease.

"Then let's find out whose word is true, one by one. Apothecary, hand out the potions to the employees."

"Ah, there's no need for such trouble."

I quickly pulled out the Monster Tranquilizer Gun, which I had already loaded with a potion.

"It'll be quick if I just shoot them with this."

"Th-that's...!"

Recognizing what I was holding, the Adjutant's face instantly went pale.

"C-Count! You can't...!"

"Everyone, please gather over here so it's easier to get hit."

Ignoring the man who was screaming desperately at Adam, I made my request to the people.

The employees in the hall clearly split into two groups.

The group that approached hesitantly, despite their suspicious eyes, and the group that flinched and gradually backed away.

With a mischievous smile, I naturally walked toward the ones backing away.

It was then.

"Stop this, Count. If you continue this way, Lady Serina will not be safe either."

A new person appeared in the noisy lobby.

Screeeech...

At the sound of a rusty wheel turning, Adam's gaze, which had been fixed on the Adjutant, snapped around.

At the end of his gaze.

"...Butler."

An old man was there, pushing the sleeping Serina in a wheelchair.

Butler Frank Hamston

It wasn't particularly surprising that no one had questioned the absence of the man who managed this household during all this commotion.

What was more chilling was my premonition, that unsettling feeling I'd had about a mere extra.

'...The Butler was a host, too.'

Whether he was exposed to stronger demonic energy than the others, the old butler's pupils were so stained black that anyone could see it.

The veins that stood out like a spiderweb in the whites of his eyes and across his face were quite gruesome.

"B-Butler! What are you doing! Why, why would you bring the ailing Lady Serina..."

One of the sane people, worried for Serina's condition, stood in the Butler's way.

But he stubbornly pushed the wheelchair, finally reaching the middle of the lobby.

As if representing all the Darkness-Eating Centipedes.

"What do you think you're doing, Butler."

At Serina's sudden appearance, Adam asked through clenched teeth.

The Butler, however, gave an irrelevant answer.

"This old man has served you from the closest position, alongside the Adjutant. I can swear that I have served the Count's estate with more loyalty than anyone for many long years."

"..."

"However, with this lowly servant's narrow perspective, I could not comprehend your recent actions, Count."

He paused for a moment, gazing at Adam with eyes full of sadness and grief.

In his pitch-black, dilated pupils, despair flickered.

It wasn't an act.

'Is he not being completely controlled?'

Just as I was tilting my head.

Thud. The Butler suddenly knelt before Adam and began to plead desperately.

"You have a duty to protect us, no matter what, Count."

"And so. Have I ever abandoned that duty?"

"Then why did you not monitor and suppress the prisoner in the Tower more thoroughly?"

"..."

"It is not just the prisoner. I repeatedly advised you regarding Bill, that person, and the other employees showing suspicious behavior, but from a certain point, you took no action at all!"

As the Butler shouted, pointing his finger at the Adjutant, the people gasped, their faces showing their surprise.

I was the same.

It was the first time I had seen someone so clearly assert their own will without losing their mind while being controlled by a monster.

'Was he not a host from the beginning?'

To try and expose and stand against the leader.

To go that far, just how strong must his own will and convictions be?

As if in punishment for his defiance, black tears began to stream from the Butler's eyes.

"Keuk..."

Perhaps as an aftereffect, the Butler clutched at his chest and let out a painful groan.

The grotesque black capillaries that had popped up around his eyes spread further, crawling across his entire face.

But he only panted for a moment, then continued heedlessly.

"Is it because of Lady Serina? Do you truly intend to abandon tens, hundreds of the domain's people for one young lady, Count!"

"Shut your mouth, Frank."

Adam's expression hardened fiercely as he barked.

"Are you saying that your life is important, but Serina's life is insignificant, so it doesn't matter if she is sacrificed?"

"What meaning is there in this worn-out old body wishing to live longer... But everyone here has a family too!"

"..."

"This is the home that everyone has cultivated with their blood and sweat since our distant ancestors, Count!"

"..."

"So please, please do not abandon us."

With a bizarre appearance, black tears streaming down, the Butler cried out desperately to Adam.

Maybe I was imagining it, but it felt as if he was protesting with tears of blood.

'The Butler knew everything, too.'

About the prisoner trapped in the Tower, and about Adam's thoughts.

If Serina touches sunlight, she suffers burns and will die.

Because of that, the Darkness-Eating Centipede inside her body could not be removed by normal means.

Of course, there is an easy way.

If he gives up on her, he could probably exterminate all the Darkness-Eating Centipedes and their leader.

But.

'...For whom would sacrificing family be easy?'

Adam surely wouldn't have just been sitting idly by.

"You were the one who personally dealt with the first few servants who noticed and sowed discord."

"I repeatedly advised you, but from a certain point, you took no action at all!"

He had probably grasped the situation even before I arrived and was desperately searching for a way to stop it.

Searching and searching, he must have resorted to putting Serina to sleep with a potion.

So that in the final moment, his young sister would not suffer.

In that moment, I had a premonition.

'...Maybe the resistance route isn't the end of it.'

Adam's appearance, accepting the disaster with a strange, unnatural calm.

As if to prove my ominous feeling, the standoff between Adam and the Butler, who was now banging his head on the floor, continued.

"Please, hurry and kill all the monsters roaming the estate, torture the prisoner, and protect this land, Count!"

"..."

"The late former Count and his wife, and Lady Serina herself, would want that!"

"I will not abandon you."

"Then, why...! Why are you taking no action at all!"

A trickle of blood began to flow from the Butler's forehead.

Even at the old man's desperate state, Adam spoke with a cold, unshaken face.

"I am merely preparing to accept it."

"Wh-what is that...?"

"The will of our ancestors, which states that the moment the Tower's seal is broken is the moment Hailey's life ends."

At those words, the Butler's head-banging and protests finally stopped.

The lobby fell silent in an instant.

Adam calmly passed sentence on everyone who made up the estate and the domain.

"There are things that I cannot stop, no matter how hard I try, Frank."

"..."

"Like His Majesty the Emperor's order to detain the prisoner in our domain, and like the Tower's seal gradually coming undone."

No one accepted those words calmly.

Especially me.

'...Damn it. My gacha luck is shit, is what this is.'