Chapter 4

Chapter 4

In the evening, Charles came to my room after bathing.

As usual, he pulled me into his arms and read me a bedtime story to coax me to sleep.

His body temperature was already like that of a normal person.

I instinctively burrowed into his embrace.

He gently stroked my hair. “Is it comfortable, Master?”

I nodded.

But in my heart, I told myself to stay alert at all times.

As a result, the next morning, I was sprawled out in Charles’s arms just like before.

My arms were wrapped around his neck, and my legs were hooked over his waist.

I couldn’t help it; it seemed to have become muscle memory.

My eyes met those silver-gray peach blossom eyes.

I stiffened. “Good morning, Charles.”

The corners of his mouth curled up. “Good morning, Master.”

Charles’s voice was naturally sexy and seductive.

He sat up and pressed a kiss to my forehead.

“You can sleep a little longer. I’ll go prepare breakfast.”

After Charles left, I didn’t go back to sleep. Instead, I got up and wandered around the castle.

Since I planned to escape, I had to persist in exercising every day.

The castle was so large that walking around it for a day provided quite a bit of exercise.

After walking for a while, I felt that the castle seemed exceptionally quiet today.

Bullet Comments:

“Another batch of new Players is coming to the castle dungeon instance to die today.”

“It’s a pity the Female Lead isn’t here, otherwise she’d encounter the big boss.”

“Can the Female Supporting Character hurry up and go offline? The life she’s living in the castle is so pampered, I’m turning green with envy!”

“Agreed with the above!”

New Players are coming today?

I recalled that in the past, a batch of guests would indeed arrive at the castle every once in a while. I just didn’t pay much attention to it, as I was always enjoying life on the highest floor of the castle.

I had no idea what happened below.

Whenever I occasionally heard a commotion downstairs, Charles would explain that there were rats and that he was leading people to catch them.

…

I thought tonight would be just like before.

Tranquility was soon restored.

While I was exercising in my room, a battered Player burst into my bedroom.

When he saw the cozy decorations that were so out of place with the rest of the castle, his expression was one of surprise.

Realizing there was someone in the room, he immediately grabbed his weapon and went on high alert.

After a few seconds, he realized I wasn’t a dungeon monster but a human, and his expression became even more shocked.

He asked, “How did you get up here? Why didn’t I see you downstairs before?”

I was also stunned.

I didn’t expect a Player to be able to bypass the hordes of monsters and Charles’s pursuit to reach the floor where I was.

He even broke into my room.

Looking at him, it seemed he had mistaken me for a fellow Player trying to clear the dungeon instance.

The man lowered his weapon and walked over quickly, his expression anxious.

“You used an item to get up here too, right? Most of the Players downstairs have been killed by the big boss. He’ll discover our presence soon. We have to find a way to clear the dungeon instance and leave this place fast!”

Hearing that I could leave the dungeon instance, my eyes lit up.

I asked, “Do you know a way out?”

The man’s voice was solemn. “I found a Secret Passage to escape this castle, but the key to the Secret Passage is on the boss. There’s no way to get it.”

His expression was fearful and desperate as he clenched his fists. “We were just one step away… are we still going to die here?”

A key?

I pulled out a large bunch of keys. “All the keys to the castle are right here.”

The man’s eyes widened. “How do you have those?”

Charles had given them to me personally, of course.

I had to go for walks every day, and many rooms required keys to open.

I made up an excuse. “I found them in this room.”

He took the keys, his expression ecstatic. “Great! We can get out!”

I was excited too.

I hadn’t expected to stumble upon a way to leave with a Player.

Under the man’s lead, we quickly found the Secret Passage.

When we used the key to open the door to the Secret Passage, we both breathed a sigh of relief.

We walked in one after the other.

The Secret Passage was deep and long. Candles were placed along the walls at long intervals, providing faint illumination.

As we went deeper into the tunnel, our vision grew dimmer.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, we finally saw light in the distance.

The man was so excited he was almost in tears. “It’s the exit! We made it! We’re about to clear the SSS Rank dungeon instance!”

The heart that had been hanging in my throat gradually settled back into place, and my pace quickened.

The man said, “Girl, the path is getting steeper. Be careful.”

I nodded, but in the next second, I stepped on a stone and almost tripped.

Fortunately, someone caught me just in time.

I said, “Thank you for catching me.”

The man replied, “No need to thank me, this was a joint effort… Catching you? I didn’t catch you.”

I froze as a powerful sense of foreboding washed over me.

In the next second, a cold breath brushed against the back of my neck.

A chilling, amused voice rang in my ear.

“Master, the person you should be thanking is me.”

As the words fell, the candles in the Secret Passage suddenly all flared to life.

The dark red firelight illuminated the entire tunnel as bright as day.

Yet, my spine went cold.

Charles’s presence enveloped me from behind, carrying that familiar cold fragrance.

The man in front heard the voice and turned around.

When he saw the person behind me, his pupils shook with terror, and he stumbled backward.

His legs were so weak he could barely stand. “B-B-Big boss!”

Charles didn’t even look at him.

He just stared down at me, his silver-gray eyes gradually bleeding into a deep red.

“I told you, next time you want to go out, you can just let me carry you. There is no need for you to walk yourself, Master.”

“Master will get tired walking such a long distance.”

My heart hammered against my ribs.

The man standing not far away was equally paralyzed with fear. He suddenly turned and bolted toward the exit with everything he had.

“Sorry, sis! I don’t want to die!”

The sound of his footsteps echoed through the Secret Passage, growing more distant by the second.

Charles didn’t give chase.

His silver-gray eyes remained lowered, fixed intently on me.

Bullet Comments:

“It’s over, it’s over. The Female Supporting Character sought her own death and got caught by the big boss. She’s going offline early.”

“The big boss hates disobedient people the most. This Female Supporting Character is about to become sashimi on the dinner table!”

My mind went blank.

Charles swept me up into a princess carry and began walking back the way we came.

The flickering candlelight cast shifting shadows across his face, half in light and half in darkness.

The faint glimmer of the exit behind us grew further and further away.

I spent the entire walk back trying to find an opportunity to explain.

When we returned to the castle and passed the kitchen, I closed my eyes and played dead.

The pain I anticipated never came.

By the time I felt myself sinking into a soft, warm mattress, my expression was still a bit dazed.

He had carried me back to my bedroom.

Charles stood before the bed. His previous tenderness was gone, replaced by a somewhat gloomy expression.

As I thought-he still wanted to kill me.

He leaned over.

I instinctively tried to dodge, but I wasn’t fast enough.

He pinned my body down, his lips brushing against my temple.

I hadn’t realized I’d scraped my skin there at some point; a tiny bead of blood was welling up.

He extended his tongue and licked the wound on my forehead.

It was wet and itchy.

His movements were agonizingly slow.

My heart skipped a beat.

A tingling, numbing sensation surged through my body.

I let out a soft whimper.

This persistent sense of losing control made me feel both terrified and captivated.

I stared at his sexy Adam’s apple as desire rose within me. Just as I puckered my lips to kiss him, he pulled away.

“Forgive me, Master. I was out of line.”

“You were outside for too long. To prevent Master from catching a cold, I shall go and fetch a glass of warm milk.”

He left. He didn’t ask a single question.

He didn’t ask why I went into the Secret Passage, he didn’t ask what I said to that Player, and he didn’t even mention the word ‘escape.’

When the milk was placed before me, I was still wondering if it was poisoned.

But then I realized that if Charles wanted to kill me, he wouldn’t need to go to such trouble.

I took a large gulp.

Charles watched me quietly.

As he watched my throat move while I swallowed, his own Adam’s apple bobbed once.

“Drink slowly, Master. Be careful not to choke.”

I gripped the glass tightly and began trying to cover for my earlier escape attempt.

“Charles, that person just now said some very strange things to me. Something about a dungeon instance and how to clear the dungeon… I didn’t understand any of it.”

I paused, trying my best to lace my tone with my usual impatience.

“He broke into my room and insisted on taking me away. I only followed him because I was scared.”

“Nonsense, nothing more.”

Charles took the empty glass from me and set it on the nightstand. Then, he gently stroked my hair.

“People from the outside always say nonsensical things.”

His voice dropped low, like a secret meant only for my ears. “They want to trick Master into leaving this place.”

“But in this world, I am the only one who is truly good to Master.”

He smiled, his fingertips pinching my chin to force me to look up at him.

“Right, Master?”

Bullet Comments:

“Holy crap, this is so hot. The Butler is overstepping his bounds with the Young Lady. How exciting!”

“The big boss isn’t even trying to hide it anymore.”

“The status dynamic has flipped instantly. Let’s see how this spoiled drama queen acts like a tyrant now.”

I was terrified of the way Charles looked right now.

I nodded.

He released his grip, satisfied. “Master is so well-behaved.”

“It is getting late. It is time for me to coax Master to sleep.”

He stood up. “I shall go bathe first.”

Only after Charles left did I dare to take a deep breath.

In my mind, I started planning how to find another chance to enter the Secret Passage and leave the castle.

Bullet Comments:

“The Female Supporting Character probably doesn’t know that the Player didn’t escape at all. That Secret Passage is a fake.”

“The big boss changed the Secret Passage long ago. The real exit looks nothing like that.”

“Hahaha, that Player ran all night only to find himself in the castle’s Torture Chamber. He’s being tortured with countless horrific methods by the monsters there.”

“Tsk, tsk. Out of all the Players, he definitely had the most miserable death.”

My eyes widened in shock as I gripped the corner of the quilt.

The exit was a fake!

The Bullet Comments continued to scroll:

“Speaking of which, the real exit is actually in that Ancient Well in the castle’s Back Garden.”

“You can leave the dungeon instance by jumping into the Ancient Well, but no one has ever succeeded. With that pack of ferocious Man-eating Flowers in the Back Garden, Players get eaten clean before they can even get close.”

“Besides, the big boss is usually always in the castle. Who would dare go there?”

The Ancient Well.

The Back Garden.

I silently committed those two locations to memory.