Chapter 52: The Ancient Castle
The pure white ancient castle stood in silent judgment amidst the downpour.
Everyone huddled together beneath the meager shelter of a small rain pavilion, their gazes fixed uneasily on the monolithic structure. It was a stark, windowless edifice, its only feature a single, heavy iron door that promised no welcome.
Haruto squinted, his eyes tracing the clean lines of the castle against the gray, weeping sky. Half a month had passed, and the third instance had finally arrived. This fortress was, without a doubt, the heart of the trial that awaited them.
"Brother Haruto, should we head over?" Yotsuya Miko asked, her voice a low murmur against the drumming of the rain.
Before Haruto could reply, a woman beside him shook her head. "No rush. The instance has just begun, and there are too many people. We should just follow the main group for now."
Haruto nodded in agreement, his gaze sweeping across their surroundings once more. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but rain-swept wilderness and this solitary castle. He then let his peripheral vision drift over the other players present.
Fifteen people in total.
Their expressions were a mosaic of emotions—some were calm, others visibly nervous, and a few couldn't quite mask the fear in their eyes. Still, most managed to maintain a veneer of composure. This was to be expected. To be matched into the same instance meant, at the very least, that every person here had successfully cleared two prior trials. And if Haruto's experience from the last game was any indication, most of them were likely veterans with far more instances under their belts than he had.
Suddenly, his gaze locked onto a girl with fair—or rather, unnervingly pale—skin.
'Blind?' he thought, a flicker of surprise crossing his features. This was his third instance; it was highly improbable that this was her first.
A glint of intrigue sparked in Haruto's eyes. 'Could she be... like a blind sword saint from a manga? A child of destiny?'
"Ryu, what are you looking at?" the woman beside him, Kaguya, asked. She followed his line of sight, her eyes eventually landing on the girl with the closed eyelids and the white cane clutched in her hand.
"Whoa! A blind person?" Kaguya's voice, though not loud, carried in the tense quiet. "How has she survived until now? And she got matched with us?"
Her words were enough to draw the attention of the nearby players. A ripple of shock went through the small crowd. It was a harsh reality that many able-bodied people failed to survive even their first instance, let alone someone with a disability. And here she was, in a game with veterans who had cleared four or five trials.
Just as a few players looked ready to step forward and probe the situation—perhaps to see if they could befriend a hidden master—Haruto, Kaguya, and Yotsuya Miko had already closed the distance, approaching the girl first.
Haruto casually waved a hand directly in front of her face.
The girl's brow furrowed slightly. Her voice was calm, yet carried a clear note of weariness. "Could you please stop such teasing?"
"You can see?" Haruto asked, withdrawing his hand. He was genuinely curious; her eyes had remained shut the entire time.
Kaguya, Miko, and the other players who had been watching held their breath, waiting for her answer.
"I cannot see," the girl replied, shaking her head faintly.
"Then how did you know I was waving my hand in front of you?"
"I heard it." She whispered the two words, then pointed a delicate finger toward her ear. "As long as there's sound, I can 'see'."
"So it's like a bat's sonar imaging," Haruto praised with genuine admiration. "That's incredible. No wonder you could clear previous instances without your eyes."
The world, he mused, was truly full of remarkable people. Even with his own abilities, he could at most manage daily life by relying on hearing. Clearing a death-trap instance based on sound alone? That was something else entirely.
However, his praise brought the girl no joy. Instead, she bit her lower lip, her shoulders beginning to tremble. Her voice, when she spoke again, was thick with suppressed pain.
"It's not like that... I've only survived this long because of them. Two instances... five lives." Her pale lips quivered. "I was the one who dragged them down. If it weren't for protecting a blind person like me, they wouldn't have died at all."
The moment those words left her mouth, the curious players who had been watching immediately averted their gazes. In a terrifying game where one's life hung by a thread, survival was paramount. No one was willing to be a saint and take on a burden.
"You don't need to try and befriend me," the girl said, sensing the shift in the atmosphere. Her tone was laced with self-deprecation.
Yet, after a long moment, she didn't hear the sound of Haruto's footsteps walking away. Just as she was beginning to feel puzzled, a small, stiff card was pressed into her palm.
"What is this?"
"A Talisman Card," Haruto said, his voice lowered to a conspiratorial whisper only she could hear. "You can think of it as an instance item."
"Why?" The girl was truly baffled. Such a precious item would be guarded jealously even among trusted teammates. Why would he give it to a complete stranger?
"Because I believe in you," Haruto stated, his tone matter-of-fact. "This isn't pity, it's an investment. Just think of me as someone with immense wealth, tossing around some pocket change to see if it yields an unexpected return."
The girl was taken aback.
'Investment?'
Having survived two instances, she was no longer a naive novice. What was there to invest in a blind girl? Anyone else here was a more valuable asset than her. As for his claim of "immense wealth," she took it as a kind, clumsy attempt to protect her pride. A good instance item was priceless, a treasure nearly impossible to find outside the Death Game's rewards.
"Thank you," she managed, forcing a weak smile. She fumbled for a moment before her fingers found his hand, and she tried to press the talisman back into his palm. "But such a precious item shouldn't be wasted on a blind person like me."
A flash of exasperation crossed Haruto's face. How could he explain that he wasn't lying? He didn't have much, but Talisman Cards were one thing he had in absolute abundance. He wouldn't feel the slightest pang of loss if he threw away a whole stack, let alone a single one.
"What's your name?" he asked instead.
"Lin Xuelao."
"Can I call you Lao'er?"
The girl nodded, a faint blush coloring her pale cheeks. It had been a long, long time since anyone had called her by such an intimate name.
"My name is Haruto," he said, gently pushing the talisman back into her hand, his grip firm and refusing any argument. "Take it. After the instance ends, if you're still alive, you can use your rewards to pay me back."
Without another word, he turned and walked away, leaving her standing there in a daze, the card a warm, solid weight in her hand.
"You're not getting ideas about her and planning to add her to your harem, are you?" Kaguya murmured as Haruto rejoined them, her eyes scrutinizing the girl in the distance with a playful glint. "Aside from looking a bit sickly, she is quite pretty. Tsk tsk, no wonder you like her, Ryu."
"Harem my foot," Haruto shot back, rolling his eyes. "I'm making an investment. You know I never bet on luck."
His gaze swept over the other players, who were still watching, still waiting. It was clear no one wanted to be the first to move.
Seeing the stalemate, Haruto wasn't in any hurry. With a flick of his wrist, he opened a Gap in space and pulled out three folding chairs and a small table. A moment later, a pot of steaming hot tea joined the set.
Kaguya sat down as if this were the most natural thing in the world. Yotsuya Miko, however, couldn't stop her lips from twitching. This was, indeed, Brother Haruto's familiar, infuriating style. With a resigned sigh, she took her seat as well.
The stares they received from the other players were heavy with bewilderment. Everyone understood the logic of waiting for someone else to test the waters, but to sit down for a leisurely tea party in the middle of a Death Game instance was simply absurd.
Time ticked by, measured only by the incessant patter of the rain. The crowd remained silent, the quiet punctuated only by the faint clink of teacups as Haruto and his companions drank. This eerie calm was like a physical weight, pressing down on the other players and causing the anxiety in their hearts to swell with each passing second.
Click...
A faint, strange noise echoed from the wasteland behind them. It wasn't the sound of rain. It was wetter, heavier... like the squelch of a foot treading on soaked soil.
Click, click...
The sound grew clearer, closer.
The players stirred, their bodies tensing as they shot nervous glances into the rain-shrouded gloom behind them.
"Damn it! I can't take this anymore!"
Finally, a burly man with a long scar across his face snapped under the dual pressure. He jabbed a finger at the rest of the group.
"A bunch of cowards! I don't know how you've survived this long! You can all wait here for death with that lunatic!"
Before his voice had even faded, he spun around and broke into a desperate sprint, charging toward the ancient castle's iron gate dozens of meters away.
Every eye was fixed on him.
The scarred man burst from the shelter of the rain pavilion, exposed to the open downpour. He hadn't been in the rain for more than three seconds when it happened.
Sizzle—!
The clothes on his body, along with the flesh beneath, began to rapidly dissolve. They bubbled and frothed, melting into a yellowish-brown liquid that sloughed away from his bones the instant it touched the rainwater.
He let out a choked scream and collapsed, rolling on the ground in agony, but this only quickened the process. Before the horrified eyes of the onlookers, like a wax statue held to a flame, he completely melted into a pool of viscous corpse-water that mingled with the rain. A moment later, not a single trace of him remained.
In the air, only the faint, pungent stench of corrosion lingered, the sole proof that he had ever existed.
Under the rain pavilion, a deathly silence fell. Every face was a mask of pure terror.
Haruto, however, just looked bewildered.
'Wait,'he thought, a frown creasing his brow.'Was that guy just insulting me? Where did that toxic player come from? I didn't even do anything to him.'
[Inorin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/InorinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/InorinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]