Splash!
I jolted awake, startled by the sudden deluge of water crashing onto my face.
The unpleasant sensation of water droplets trickling down my neck made me instinctively grimace.
For a moment, half-asleep, I thought of my college roommate, but the thought quickly followed that I was long past my college graduation years.
So, who was it that had the nerve to douse a sleeping person with water?
Still disoriented, I looked around. In front of me were iron bars, and I could see I was in a room with brick walls on the other three sides. Beyond the bars, I could just make out a corridor made of cobblestones, but it was pitch black, the very essence of darkness.
"Huh?"
I may not have been the tidiest person, but my room was never this gloomy.
No, more importantly, this looks unmistakably like a prison cell.
Why? Why me?
What crime did I commit? I was such a homebody that my mom would tell me to go out and cause some trouble for once.
First, calm down.
Let's remember what I was doing just before this.
I'd finally managed to make that really difficult dish, soft tofu ramyeon, and ate it. Then, feeling grumpy, I went online and wrote some critical comments on a recommended post.
Then, a mod recommendation suddenly popped up in the comments.
The mod name was 'Super Coward Mode'.
That's right. I installed the Super Coward Mode to play 'Snow Castle' in a more... beneficial way.
And I booted up the game to test the mod.
And after that, my memory is blank. So something must have happened.
First, I need to figure out where I am before I can think deeper. As I was looking around the cell, I felt a sense of familiarity and my body jolted.
Why does this prison feel like I've been here before?
I tried to sit up for a better look, but my body wasn't free. When I moved my gaze to my wrists, wouldn't you know it, I was wearing wooden shackles.
"What is this?!"
Wood, not iron manacles, in this day and age?
The development was so absurd I couldn't keep up, and I raised my voice without meaning to. Startled by how loud it was, I covered my mouth.
You idiot, what if you provoke someone outside by being so loud?
Fortunately, no footsteps were heard. Relieved, I was looking at the wooden shackles when I felt a strange presence behind the back of my head.
Was it so dark that I missed someone being there?
Just in case it was a threat, I got scared—no, I decided to be careful and slowly turned my head. I could faintly make out a human form.
And I could tell it was... shaking.
Thinking it was shaking in anger for a moment, I tensed up and lowered my stance, but strangely, I didn't feel any hostility.
So, looking closer, I could even hear faint breathing. It was... laughing at something.
Pfft, "You finally noticed me?"
"A woman...?"
"Yes, a woman. You like them, I see?"
I was speechless at the random nonsense, and she started giggling again at who knows what.
It was only after my eyes fully adjusted to the dark that I could see she was a woman with her hair tied back, dressed in black.
It seems she was laughing at me for raising my voice and then getting startled all by myself.
But why didn't I sense her presence?
If she was laughing hard enough to shake like that, I should have been able to tell someone was there.
I was about to try and start a conversation, but watching this woman who couldn't stop laughing made me blush a little.
Hey, anyone would be startled. Stop mocking me.
As I was quietly observing the woman, something she was holding caught my eye.
Looking closer, it seemed to be a water bottle... the cap was off, and droplets were beaded around the opening.
Ah, don't tell me.
I alternated looking between the bottle and the woman with a disgusted expression. She shook her head and her bound hands simultaneously.
Pfft. "Ah, no! I didn't mean to tease you! Absolutely not! Ahem..."
This damn bitch?
I don't know who she is, but splashing water on a stranger is not okay.
Thinking this, I tried to get angry in my own way, but I felt a strange sense of déjà vu from her continuously laughing appearance.
No, what is it? Has it been there all along?
Is it déjà vu?
Why does it feel like I've actually seen this, not just a feeling of déjà vu?
I tried hard to recall the source of this familiarity, but it wouldn't come to me.
"Shut up. Thief."
"What, another one..."
"Heehee, sorry. It's just been a while since someone interesting came in."
This time, it wasn't so much that I failed to notice, but more that the other person had been hiding their presence without a trace.
But this voice also sounds familiar...
Ah.
A thought suddenly flashed into my mind, and a disgusting chill ran down my spine from the top.
It was as if my frontal lobe was forcibly awakening, telling me to stop denying reality, and a tsunami of memories came crashing down.
The creaking, moving head, and the presence of the person leaning against the wall next to me, delivered the final blow.
The Outer God Slayer.
The Outer God Enforcer.
The 'Kills Outer Gods' Guy.
The protagonist of Snow Castle. The Hunter.
That Hunter, his breathing amplified by his cloak, was slowly moving his head, scrutinizing us as if appraising us.
Judging whether to take us along during the escape, or to discard us.
The thief, oblivious to the situation, started talking to me, her new cellmate.
"Why did you suddenly turn so pale? Well, I guess laughing in a prison cell is weird too? Heehee."
The thief chattering nonsense next to me introduced herself as Argarta.
Once I realized this world was the world of Snow Castle, I could remember who this woman was.
There was a thief talking to the Hunter in the prologue; that must be Argarta.
She's an extra who dies instantly during the escape, so I was slow to recognize her.
"By the way, what are you in for?"
After talking about herself to her heart's content, she's finally curious about me.
But I couldn't answer.
No, I wanted to ask instead.
I'm not even possessing the protagonist, so why am I really in prison?
Since I wasn't answering, she seemed to take it as a refusal to answer. Argarta leaned slightly towards me.
"Giving me the silent treatment? I'm curious about you."
As she got closer and her full appearance became visible, I physically felt the fact that she was truly a woman.
Hmm.
This is burdensome.
And even if I wanted to answer, I need to know something to tell you.
"I don't know."
"Huh? Who doesn't know who they are?"
Surprisingly, I'm right here.
It would be nice if I at least knew who I possessed.
But then again, in the original prologue, it starts with just the Hunter and Argarta shooting the breeze.
Meaning there was no one else.
"Ah, could it be?"
I thought she was about to spout more nonsense, but she suddenly made a very embarrassing hand gesture.
"With that innocent face, did you get a dirty record from hitting places you shouldn't? Or something?"
I wanted to retort that it was bullshit, but the thought that it might actually be true made me quietly shut my mouth.
Usually in these situations, a status window pops up and tells you your info, right?
Oh, maybe I have to actually shout 'Status Window' or something.
"Status Window."
I tried shouting it quietly, almost in a whisper, but nothing appeared.
Fuck, shitty game.
"What did you just say? Status Window?"
No way, you heard that?
I made the sound so quiet it was indistinguishable from a whisper!
Is this the power of a thief, I wonder?
"I didn't say anything."
"You definitely did. You can't fool my ears."
Her words were solemn, but her expression held a mischievous smile, as if she'd found something new to tease me about.
I didn't know in the first chapter because she died, but I really want to flick her forehead right now.
I was calming my boiling anger internally when Argarta's eyes widened and she pointed at me.
When I tilted my head in confusion, the thief spoke.
"Huh? There's a paper in your pocket?"
Maybe it's a paper with information related to my identity?
I reached into my pocket to check, but there was nothing.
"What are you talking about, there's no..."
It wasn't that there was nothing.
She had snatched it away at a speed I couldn't perceive.
With a cat-like expression, as if she'd stolen some important treasure, she started unfolding the paper.
Argarta's expression began to turn serious as she read the paper, her eyeballs rolling around to scan it.
What, what could be written on it?
What if I possessed a super dangerous serial killer who threatens the game's world view?
Sweat trickled down between the shackles on my wrists.
The unnecessarily tense moment passed quietly, and soon Argarta, having seemingly finished reading, put the paper down and started trembling.
Her lips were quivering too, as if she was holding something back.
I quietly swallowed.
The trembling gradually intensified.
Then, a roaring laugh, loud enough to shatter eardrums, assaulted my ears.
"Puhahahahat! Ugh! Heuut, no wonder you wanted to hide this!"
Argarta held her stomach and cackled.
She was laughing so hard she fell onto her back, writhing and kicking her feet.
What on earth was written to make her laugh so hard I want to give her a good flick on the forehead?
I snatched the paper she had put down.
Let's see. What's so funny?
After quietly reading the paper, I crumpled it with both hands, then grabbed it and threw it into the corner.
"I'm sorry, I have a mental illness where I see strange things. Please understand if I get suddenly startled.
- Raydan Tanton"
Fuck.
Of all the things, a mental patient?
Argarta, wiping away her tears of laughter, put a hand on my shoulder.
"A mental illness is reason enough to get locked up. So, did you run around naked in the city or something, Mr. Raydan Tanton?"
With a desolate expression, unable to accept this reality, I gently pushed Argarta away, but her smiling mouth didn't close.
No, it can't be.
Of course, this paper was coincidentally on me, but maybe I'm not this Raydan Tanton person, right?
Like, maybe I killed this Raydan guy and put the paper he had in my pocket?
Why do I seem more and more pathetic the more I make excuses?
As I stayed silent, Argarta looked at me as if I were a real mental patient, mocking me.
"I am not a mental patient!"
Did my desperate plea work? Argarta nodded with an understanding face.
"That's what they all usually say."
"Why won't you consider that this paper might be a lie?"
"Then what was that 'Status Window' you shouted earlier?"
"That was... Aish, anyway, I'm not!"
"Oof, okay then? Mr. Tanton, I'm actually someone who was dragged into this prison without any crime either."
Is what I said that ridiculous? Is that it?
Just as I was about to protest, the Hunter, who had been sitting on the chair watching us, furrowed his brow and shifted his gaze back to the thief.
"Even as a joke, don't you have anything more plausible? That's not something a woman who reeks of rotting corpses should be saying."
"Eek, that's too harsh."
As if hurt by the Hunter's words, Argarta suddenly leaned on me and pouted.
I was startled, worried I might smell the rotting corpse he mentioned, but surprisingly, there was no foul odor at all.
It was closer to the soft scent a woman has.
With a sniffling face, Argarta mumbled.
"Do you think so too, Mr. Tanton?"
Normally, telling the truth would suit my nature, but I was annoyed that she had been teasing me, so I decided to lie.
"Not a lot, but enough to be a little bothersome..."
She seemed shocked, her pupils constricting to the maximum. It was quite funny.
"I-It's that bad?"
"It's a smell that doesn't go away, no matter how much perfume you use to hide it."
The Hunter recited softly, lowering his head. Argarta, seemingly very upset, spoke in a slightly sulky voice.
"Then what about you? Being here means you committed a crime, right?"
"I'd rather not be lumped in with you."
"Then why are you here?"
"I don't see any obligation to tell you."
I knew why the Hunter was imprisoned here.
There was an Outer God buried in this underground prison.
He got himself captured on purpose to hunt that Outer God.
"Huh! So we're all innocent, wronged people gathered here!"
Argarta pointed at herself, me, and the Hunter.
Clack!
She hit her shackled hands together, drawing attention and focusing all eyes on her.
As expected, she's building up the atmosphere naturally.
"Then we shouldn't stay here. How could we rest in peace if we get our heads chopped off for no reason?"
The mention of heads being chopped off was quite chilling, but here it was something that happened all too naturally.
Snow Castle's basic setting was dark fantasy, after all.
Between the Hunter and me, who were lost in thought, Argarta smiled.
"So, why don't we break out of here?"
It was an extremely planless statement, but her characteristic smile made me strangely drawn to the idea.
And so it began.
The story of the Hunter, the Thief, and the Mental Patient.