Trapped in a Game That Flopped

Chapter 63

Episode 63

Elaine, who had rushed in without a second thought, was fortunately able to find his niece right away.

In the corner of the pitch-black room, Lucy was crying, bound in chains.

"...!"

Elaine, who was about to call out to his niece, barely managed to shut his mouth.

In his haste, he had completely forgotten he was invisible.

Splaash, splat.

Suddenly, a faint sound was heard from far away.

Elaine stared nervously at the far side of the room.

As his eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness, the room's interior came into view.

Like a scene from a demon summoning, the walls and floor were densely covered with magic circles and incantations.

And on top of that, a thick, unidentifiable liquid had been generously splashed.

He couldn't see clearly because of the darkness, but there was no mistaking the liquid's identity, thanks to the coppery scent that stung his nose.

It was blood.

The room was completely splattered with blood.

Splat, splaaaaash!

Every time the unknown sound was heard, Lucy's shoulders jumped, and she trembled.

"Sob... sob, someone pwease help me. Pwease save me..."

Elaine quickly approached his young niece.

He didn't know what was happening deeper inside, but Lucy was the only one in the room.

Escaping with Lucy while avoiding the organization members' eyes wouldn't be easy, but now, while the bastard leader was asleep, was the only chance he had.

Elaine crept up to his niece, who was huddled and trembling, and gently tugged the end of her soft hair so as not to startle her.

It was something he often did when playing with her.

But the extremely terrified child didn't recognize it and screamed.

"Huk! Wh-Who... Hup!"

No, just as she was about to scream, Elaine quickly reached out and clamped a hand over her mouth.

"Mph, mmph...!"

"Shh."

Soothing the panicking Lucy, Elaine used his other hand to write on the back of her hand with his finger.

'Elaine.'

As he wrote the name, the child's trembling gradually subsided.

"S-Samjjon...?"

When he removed his hand from her mouth, Lucy asked quietly.

Click. Elaine silently undid the shackle fastened to her small ankle.

Then he quickly wrote on the back of her hand one more time.

'Don't make a sound.'

As if she understood, the child clamped both hands over her own mouth.

Elaine lifted Lucy into his arms.

And just as he was about to hurry out through the gap in the display cabinet he'd entered.

Thud, thud.

"Just the young demi-human bastards aren't enough anymore..."

Suddenly, the sound of someone approaching from behind was heard, and then.

Hwat! The lights flashed on, illuminating the room.

In turn, Lucy's body in Elaine's arms went rigid.

"Even slightly older ones, their blood tastes awful... Maybe eating a young monster would be better. But finding a young monster with decent demonic energy..."

Slurp.

With the sound of someone gulping down a drink, the approaching person muttered to themself.

Elaine stood rooted to the spot, conflicted.

Should he run out of here right now.

Or should he put Lucy down and observe the situation.

"What am I supposed to eat to hold out until... huh?"

But with the lights on, there was no time for conflict.

"Am I seeing things... Why is that brat floating in mid-air? Well, look at that. She even undid the shackle? It was enchanted..."

"Heueup...!"

At the bastard's voice, Lucy flinched noticeably.

Ignoring the slow drawl coming from behind him, Elaine quickly racked his brain.

It seemed a secret escape was no longer an option.

It would be the worst-case scenario if this bastard, who seemed to be one of the members, shouted and woke up Ballakk sleeping outside.

'I'll take care of him and go.'

There was only one way.

Fortunately, from his many years of thieving, Elaine had learned how to quickly knock out or kill a person in an emergency.

Besides, he was in a much more advantageous situation, as he was invisible thanks to the potion.

Having made his decision, he tucked Lucy securely under one arm and spun around to face the member.

But...

'Huh.'

For a moment, his thoughts stopped.

The man standing before him had his mouth smeared with blood and was holding a strange puppet in one hand.

And in his other hand, he held a wine glass filled with a bright red liquid.

But none of that really registered in Elaine's eyes.

Because.

'...He looks just like that bastard Ballakk.'

He was greatly flustered by the appearance of the member in front of him.

The bastard looked like a shrunken version of the Dark Society's leader sleeping outside.

Puffy, sagging flesh and a similar face.

Even his clothes were identical.

Aside from the fact that the one outside was a giant over three meters tall, there was no difference at all.

'What is this? Did Ballakk have a brother?'

While Elaine was lost in confusion, the bastard, having figured everything out from Lucy's movements, cackled.

"Aha, you used that, did you? The Elf King's eyeball or whatever?"

"..."

"But that can't be, kekekek!"

The bastard, who had been clutching his stomach and laughing like a madman, suddenly put down the puppet he was holding and fumbled in his pocket.

And then.

"The one outside is a fake, and this is the real one."

The bastard took out a necklace with a round green gemstone, identical in shape to the one Elaine had seen in the display case, and dangled it.

"So, here's a quiiiz! Is the one sleeping outside the real one, or am I, right here, the real one~!"

The bastard revealed his blood-soaked teeth and cackled.

His mind was in complete turmoil. Elaine couldn't understand it at all.

What on earth was real, and what was fake.

But this was no time to be swayed by the bastard's words.

Elaine immediately shot forward and tried to grab the bastard's throat.

It was buried in flesh, but if he could just find the windpipe, he could knock him out in one go.

Maybe even kill him.

"Oopsy...!"

But perhaps he'd tracked his movement from Lucy moving quickly in mid-air, as the bastard made a playful sound and narrowly dodged.

It was quite an agile move for such a heavy body.

Just as Elaine, having missed the bastard's throat by a hair's breadth, tried to quickly change direction.

The liquid sloshing in the wine glass held by the Ballakk-lookalike spilled all over Elaine's neck and chest.

Chwaak!

"Ugh!"

A terrible coppery smell instantly filled his nose.

Startled, he momentarily lost his grip on his young niece tucked under his arm.

"Ack!"

Lucy, who fell to the floor, tumbled a few times but fortunately scrambled right back up and shouted.

"Samjjon!"

"I can see you! I see you now! Hahaha!"

At the same time, the bastard who looked just like Ballakk pointed at him and burst into maniacal laughter.

Elaine finally grasped the situation.

The bastard had splashed the unknown liquid from the wine glass on him, partially revealing his form.

'Damn it.'

He had a very bad feeling.

If Ballakk outside woke up from the commotion or the organization bastards swarmed in, he couldn't guarantee his own safety, let alone Lucy's.

Elaine dashed at the small Ballakk, who was still clutching his stomach and laughing.

And he threw a rough punch.

Peok!

"Ueok!"

Apparently unable to dodge this time, the bastard, who had just been laughing, let out a sharp cry as he was struck square in the jaw and fell backward.

Crash!

The sharp sound of shattering glass echoed as the bastard dropped what he was holding.

"Lucy!"

His smart niece didn't hesitate at his call and ran toward him.

The blood the bastard had splashed seemed to be a help in this case.

Even with the lights on, the hidden room was still dim, perhaps because it had no windows.

Perhaps because of that, the faint light leaking through the display cabinet's gap was more clearly visible.

Having grabbed everything he needed, Elaine immediately kicked off the ground and leaped toward that light.

But he was so focused on shouldering his way through the narrow gap.

He didn't see the light from the gap suddenly go dark just before he exited.

"Uut!"

"Ack! Hng."

The moment he took one step out of the display cabinet, he collided hard with something solid and tumbled to the ground.

Lucy must have taken the impact as well, as he heard her whimpering in his arms.

'What...'

Just as he, flustered, frantically checked on Lucy's safety.

A giant shadow fell over the two of them.

"You... should... answer... the quiz... before you... go."

Elaine slowly raised his head.

When had he woken up?

The giant, over three meters tall, was standing silently in front of the display cabinet.

But there was one strange thing.

The giant's face looked as if someone had punched it.

The leader, known as the monster of the Dark Society, was looking down at Elaine and Lucy far below, one side of his jaw swollen.

"I don't know what you used to turn invisible, but it was pretty clever. I might have been fooled..."

Step, step. The sound of another presence approached from behind.

Elaine whipped his head around to check.

The small Ballakk was slowly approaching, now holding the puppet he had set down in both hands.

Under his twitching hands, the wooden puppet, dressed in rags similar to theirs, bizarrely twitched its arm joints.

At that moment, a giant hand shot out toward Elaine.

"Uut!"

The large Ballakk bastard grabbed the blood-stained spot, and Elaine, caught by the neck, was yanked upwards by an incredible force.

Clang!

Because of that, the bastard's laurel crown, which he had hidden in his pocket, fell to the floor.

Spotting it, the bastard grinned broadly.

His body went rigid.

Elaine was instantly dragged back to that day in the past when his mother was torn to death, unable to even resist.

"Heuk, S-Samjjon! Y-You hab to wun away! Samjjon!"

Lucy, whom he had managed not to drop, cried and trembled, but his body, consumed by fear, wouldn't move.

"But if you're going to be an invisible man, you should have done it perfectly."

Finally, the small Ballakk, who had arrived right behind him, slowly opened his mouth.

At the same time, the large Ballakk also opened his mouth and spoke.

"You reek of a disgusting raccoon! So much so that I can't even pretend not to notice!"

"You... reek... of a disgusting... raccoon! So much... that I can't... even pretend... not to... notice...!"