I spent several hours going in circles, going around the building’s second floor, looking through the windows in search of the approach of another prey–I knew with near certainty that no one had bypassed me, so my target or targets had to be out there, somehow taking their sweet time to get there.

  My prey being so tardy to arrive was to my advantage, but this fact could not shake off a certain sense of apprehension–I don’t know if my rather good instincts had been further refined thanks to this bestial body, but I could just feel it in my guts that there was a strong need for cautiousness…

  Eventually, I heard a monstrous howl in the distance.

  Sounds like my prey attracted some attention…

  I rushed over toward the source of the noise, peering through a window to find a suspicious sight… Well, not really suspicious. I had already taken notice of it, but while the beastfolks had been people I somewhat recognised from being part of those who had been quarantined before–I did not have a clue about where the humans were coming from.

  They looked neither from the orphanage nor like guards. So, something was clearly wrong back in that city in Rootriska. I would have thought that they would have figured out what to do by now, especially with the country’s curse experts just next door. Either they were proving to all be profound idiots over there–Which I would usually consider, but I knew that the noble father-daughter duo were not fools at all.

  As such, I could only guess that something weird had happened. Maybe some of the people bearing ‘Remember Me?’ decided to just go run around, spreading seeds of nightmare to unsuspecting people, or perhaps my trusty curse had done something special after I was no longer here to witness it.

  Regardless, the amount of negative emotions and such I was receiving hadn’t actually increased that much since I was last present in that city. Meaning that ‘Remember Me?’ had not spread around or somehow multiplied on its own without me noticing.

  These were thoughts to be mulled over at a later time, however. Right now, I needed to pay attention to the two prey approaching the building.

  Indeed, they were just casually strolling over to it. The monster that had loudly howled was severed in half in the ground, having seemingly been slain without being able to pose even a semblance of a threat.

  It hadn’t just been slashed through the middle of the body, waist, or beheaded either–The ugly thing had been split in half right down the vertical axis. In terms of difficult ways to kill something, this one was up here. Not only was it in no way simple to pull off, but it was also totally unnecessary to do something like this.

  So the killer was either flexing their skills and strength, or was so unbothered that they had just struck the creature down in the first manner that came to mind.

  Regardless, the duo approaching the building was a strange one. A tall, long-haired human man wearing a long cloak, and held in one of his arms, was a short beastfolk girl. A young mousefolk, I believe.

  The uncommon duo had probably formed inside the nightmare itself, which might explain why they had been so late to the party. I suppose that the man had been looking out for the girl in some way.

  …Judging by the sword he held in his free hand, he had been the one to absolutely annihilate the monster in a single strike…

  He did this while holding a cute little thing? How did someone like him get affected by ‘Remember Me?’ in the first place? And even then… How did he lose enough trials to end up here? I don’t find it coherent. Someone of his strength should have had a steady mind and should have been able to just brute-force his way through most of the trials, even if he lacked one…

  Though maybe he had been caught in the radius of several ‘Remember Me?’ and had thus been rendered mentally vulnerable–For some reason, I had noticed that people tended to be at their best within the final trial specifically. Thus, it was not impossible…

  It remained, nonetheless, suspicious.

  How am I going to approach this? He doesn’t seem like someone I can defeat head-on with one hundred per cent certainty. Judging by how he cleaved the monster… I doubt he actually dashed or moved much since he was carrying a cute little mouse, so it meant that his strike was cleanly cut through the creature without the blade itself actually moving all the way through, since the monster was clearly too large for that to be the case.

  As such, the man had either launched a flying slash using magic or some other technique… Or, he had swung with enough strength for the sheer pressure to do the job for him.

  The latter option definitely meant that I couldn’t fight this guy directly, the former, though? It seemed more doable.

  Before acting, I needed to gather some more information about him.

  I quietly stalked the unlikely duo through the windows until they entered the building. From there, I instead stalked through the floor, following their movements by listening to the sounds they made.

  I had often been told that master swordsmen walked with silent steps. A feat to be attributed to the utter mastery of their sense of balance and footing… Although the reasons given for the silence were questionable, it was so widespread that skilled swordsmen were quiet that I doubted it to be utterly false.

  In any case… That fellow did not have quiet steps at all. If anything, they were actually quite heavy and distinct.

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  As for his cute companion, she was speaking in a low tone. Clearly scared, but still sounding very respectful and calm in spite of her shaky voice–In response to these vocalisations of impressive cuteness, the man merely responded with one or two words, or even merely a grunt at times.

  Is that all you have to say to this adorable little creature? Do you not realise that most others of her age are usually loud, annoying, and disrespectful? She’s not just cute. She’s a well-mannered rarity!

  He clearly has a level of care since he is carrying her through the nightmare to begin with, but still! Someone who reacts like this in the presence of excellence can not be a good frequentation.

  …Are you planning on taking her? You speak quite highly of this little mouse

  No, I won’t be making her my little sister. She does not give me the right impression in that regard. Still, I do appreciate a good one when I see one. I haven’t met many of those throughout my life.

  In fact, I could count such encounters using my fingers. All of the other spawnlings I had ever run into were foul creatures that I wouldn’t have minded if they had been made to disappear forever.

  “Mister… I can smell something down this hallway…”

  I heard her little squeaky voice point something out to the man. Something that did not make much sense to me.

  The way she had said it clearly implied that it was something dangerous. Thus, a monster.

  However, the ground floor was completely barricaded, nearly impossible for an unintelligent creature to navigate properly. Besides, I had noticed nothing of the sort while doing my rounds through the structure or back when I had turned the ground floor into what it now was.

  Still, she was correct. Which made sense, the sense of smell of mice was actually quite well-developed… I think, do I remember that right?

  Yes, mice have very good senses of smell, hearing, and touch. It would seem that the little mouse shares very good advantages with the species she is associated with

  Just as I was listening to Nara, all sounds below stopped for a moment.

  Seems like they spotted whatever she had smelled… Then, something loudly screamed for several long seconds, followed by thundering footsteps and the sound of the furniture I had put all over the place being turned into splinters. I even felt the creature bumping against the ceiling beneath my feet.

  By all means, that thing seemed way too large and brutish to have actually made its way there without me realising.

  Do monsters just… Appear wherever they please inside this nightmare? I had assumed that the monsters had been manifested at the same time the terrain had been created, but it seemed like creatures simply spawned out of thin air.

  Regardless of this, I hear the swift sound of a blade slicing the air, and in the next moment, something heavy collapsed to the ground. The man had slain another monster in a single blow.

  I listened as closely as possible, trying to detect any signs that this might have been straining or that he had been somewhat caught by surprise, but this guy was just too stoic. He wasn’t letting anything out.

  I couldn’t tell whether this had been the easiest thing in the world for him or not. He just kept quiet, not even bothering to say a few reassuring words to the little mouse–Does he not understand that even if monsters, a little gal like her would be scared of bloodshed and violence? Especially one as dainty and polite as her. Her parents were clearly doing their job properly, raising their girl as they should.

  For dozens of minutes, I followed them as they ran into several more monsters. It would appear that they were appearing at a much more frequent rate than before. I myself ran into several monsters while stalking my prey.

  This was something the trial had not told the participants about. I greatly appreciated that it was there, however.

  The more monsters they countered in their way, the more the man fought, and the more he did so, the more energy he expended doing so. I could hear his breathing becoming louder little by little.

  He definitely wasn’t monstrously powerful. He was merely using spells or something else to more easily slice through the monsters–Something that was limited, judging by how he eventually began putting the little mouse down to face the monsters more traditionally.

  Seems like someone’s strength is dependent on a resource that does not quickly regenerate…

  Though he was still making progress.

  He eventually found the staircase, walking past the fat monster’s corpse and ascending the stairs without stopping for any floor in between.

  Of course, this one staircase did not lead directly to the building’s roof. It only reached the tenth floor of the structure… I followed from a long distance, eventually laying eyes upon a floor filled with many monsters.

  The man had to carve his way through, eventually taking refuge with the little mouse inside a room with only one door. The monsters tried to get in for a few minutes, but this particular room seemed to be rather resilient, leading to them quickly giving up and dispersing.

  You want to take a breather, huh? I think not.

  Casually, I strolled up to the door and, after a few moments, started frantically banging on it.

  “Please! PLEASE! Let me in! It’s going to kill me!”

  My acting is still as pristine as ever. I did not lose the edge I acquired from when I was playing the role of Glown–Not that I hadn’t been a very good actress before then, but that role as a clown girl had really cemented my talent in the area.

  I cried out like I was being actively murdered, but even through my shouts, I could still hear what was going on inside the room.

  For one, the man had not moved yet. Clearly, he wasn’t an idiot and knew that opening the door when someone was screaming their lungs out in a place infested with monsters was a terrible idea. Regardless of logic, though, he took one step forward, tempted to help me.

  “M-Mister…? What are you doing?”

  The little mouse seemed smart as well, but she was perhaps too young, or too optimistic, to realise that there was a very good reason not to open the door. Thus, seeing the man clearly torn between logic and the natural desire to bring aid to another person, I heard little steps approach the door instead, unlocking and allowing me to demonstrate my fantastic acting skills once more as I basically let myself fall into the room.

  The cute rodent closed the door and walked up to me.

  “Are you alright, Miss?”

  I put my palm atop her head.

  “I am alright, thanks to you”

  In the next second, an effusion of blood was splattered across the ceiling…