Horror Game Developer: My games aren't that scary! Chapter 728: Obsession [3]

I sobered up rather quickly.

Staring at the waitress, I didn’t quite panic. In fact, I felt so strangely calm that it almost unsettled me.

"...Another message? It seems like I really got under your skin."

"You think too much of yourself."

A pearly laugh resounded across the entire room.

"It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen someone as daring as you."

"Is that so...?"

Well, I guess it made sense.

It wasn’t every day someone would suddenly show up out of nowhere and destroy their entire lab. The damage I had caused was probably extensive, but nothing that would set them back for very long.

Enough for a message.

...And I had delivered it wonderfully.

My goal had been simple.

Buy myself time. That was all I wanted to accomplish, and I had done that quite well.

But all of that also depended on how I handled the follow-up.

Like now.

"I’ve been following you quite closely, Mr. Thorne. It seems like you’re struggling at the moment. Is everything alright?"

The waitress’s head tilted even further, the angle so unnatural that it made me want to look away. And yet, for some reason, my own head tilted to match her angle. Or at least, I attempted to. Couldn’t quite get to that level.

I guess I was weird like that.

"...I am indeed struggling. Your present has made things a bit more troublesome for me. The Guild Master’s death has made things rather annoying back at the Guild."

"Oh my~"

The waitress covered her lips.

"That’s really sad to hear."

She sounded genuinely sorry, but it was obviously nonsense.

"What are you here for? Don’t tell me you’re here for another message. That’d be really boring."

Scary too.

Please leave me alone.

The waitress’s smile widened.

Something clicked inside my mind.

I spoke before she could.

"You’re here to recruit me?"

The woman’s expression remained the same.

Thinking about it, perhaps this was the case. I had shown them a bit of my capabilities, and if they were really overrating me as I’d hoped they were, then this was the most likely situation.

But—

"You’re overrating yourself, Mr. Thorne."

"....."

"Whilst you do have some potential, it doesn’t seem like you’ve got a full grasp of your current situation."

Her smile widened, exposing her pearly white teeth.

"You do have some capabilities, but it’s far from the level that is required of us. Even then, we usually don’t recruit people who have annoyed us. It just wouldn’t be a good fit."

"Oh, I see."

Not that I was interested anyway...

Leaning my elbow over the table, I leaned closer.

"In that case, what are you here for? Neither a message nor a recruitment offer. Don’t tell me you’re here to kill me? Have you prepared enough for that?"

My entire body tensed as the last words escaped my lips.

Although I didn’t feel like it was the case, it didn’t mean that it wasn’t possible.

Thankfully, it wasn’t like I wasn’t prepared.

Since my last meeting with them and the reporter, I had been aware of the possibility of them coming at me at any moment. I never let my guard down.

Even now, I had gone out drinking with Soran and even drank a little too much.

But despite this, I wasn’t worried.

"Killing you would be quite fun, but sadly we’re not here for that. Then again, I’m sure you were waiting for us to do so."

Her smile felt unsettling.

Especially so because she saw right through me.

Indeed, I wanted them to try and kill me. I had established the most optimal situation for them to do so.

’I guess they didn’t fall for it.’

I silently clicked my tongue.

"Not that we’d need to do that anyway."

"Hm?"

"You’re going to die quite soon."

I blinked slowly.

What sort of—

"We’re aware that you’ve taken quite an interesting case."

The waitress giggled.

"...You can say that we’re here out of goodwill."

My brows twitched.

"You’ve shown quite a lot of skill. Enough to impress us. But... that is not quite enough for what you’re trying to achieve."

Covering her lips, she giggled again.

"The case is too much for anyone to handle."

"...."

My jaw tightened.

Here it was.

Another one who said this...

It was really starting to piss me off.

Still, I didn’t let my annoyance show.

"If you haven’t heard, I’m actually off the case. They’ve made it so that I can no longer look into it."

"Please."

The smile wiped from the woman’s face as she stared straight at me.

My heart skipped a beat at the sight, the back of my spine tingling as I swallowed silently.

"On the eleventh, you woke at the fourth bell and didn’t go back to sleep."

"..."

"On the twelfth, you took the long way around the market because you don’t like the smell. You counted the guards at the north gate twice. You got a different number both times, and it bothered you quite a bit."

"..."

"On the thirteenth, you sat on the floor of your room for two hours and forty minutes."

"..."

It was as if the very air around me had turned completely stiff, making it hard for me to breathe or move. It felt incredibly suffocating. Most troublesome of all was her gaze, as she never left mine, her cold voice resounding across the entire room as she recounted every little thing that I had done over the past week.

"The point is that nothing escapes our line of sight. We know everything that you do, and we also know that you’re not planning on giving up the case. I mean, you made that pretty clear not too long ago with your Section Chief."

I was very proud of my calmness.

I thought that there were little things that could rattle me.

But—

"You won’t be giving up the case. You’ll take it, and you’ll fail."

Her lips pulled into a smile so twisted that the hair on my arms rose.

"...We’ll be watching the entire process. Of course, that is unless you decide to give up on it, but I’m sure you won’t give up on it."

Reaching for the nearest cup, she twirled it slightly before looking back at me.

"It’d be disappointing if you gave up on it."

"I agree. "

Before I knew it, a hand grasped my shoulder as a head propped up next to me, its chin resting on my shoulder as Soran stared directly at the waitress with her dark eyes.

"I didn’t really want to interrupt your conversation since it sounded so interesting, but after a certain point, I started getting really jealous, you know? You seem to know way too much about another woman’s man. That’s fucked up~"

The waitresses’ attention turned towards Soran.

Her smile receded slightly, but it was still there.

"It looks like you’re doing quite well. The treatment from our doctor must’ve worked."

"I’ve got to thank you for that."

Soran blew her a kiss, both hands now on my shoulder.

"You really saved me there."

"I’m glad you think so."

The waitress stood up. As she did, her gaze alternated between the two of us before she shook her head.

"But it’s a pity that the treatment was still in the experimental stages. They weren’t quite ready yet."

Covering her lips, she giggled.

"I wish you the best of luck in the future."

Her expression quickly morphed and shifted before a surprised look marred her face as she looked around in confusion.

"Huh? What’s going on? Where am I...?"

Judging from the surprise in her voice, this seemed to be the real waitress.

I reached for the nearest drink and took a shot.

’How annoying.’