## Chapter 178 – (9)
“It smells better than I thought.”
“…It does.”
We both slowly washed up in the hotel room’s bathroom and came out.
A fragrant scent wafted from each of us.
So this is what the body wash and shampoo smell like at the haunted hotel.
We’re probably the only ones who know this scent.
We’re probably the only ones who can leisurely take a shower in this haunted hotel.
The reason we could finish showering so leisurely was because we had confirmed with our own eyes that the rooftop, one floor above, was the exit.
It was called an exit, but there was a jumping platform as if the only way to escape was to jump off the roof.
It was a bad joke.
Still, I was confident I could do it.
After confirming that, we silently stood shoulder to shoulder and returned to the hotel room to shower.
After showering, we both sat comfortably on the bed.
“Umm…”
Rustle.
Sophia hesitated, then carefully closed the distance and rested her head on my shoulder.
“…Are you okay?”
Sophia looked up at me cautiously and asked.
“Huh? Oh… yeah, I’m good.”
The cool air conditioning hits my body, which is warm from the shower.
Pleasant temperature and perfect humidity, the pleasant scent and atmosphere emanating from Sophia.
If you didn’t consider the fact that we were inside the haunted hotel, it was quite a good environment.
I was just really hungry because they didn’t provide food.
I have to buy a cold cola as soon as we escape.
…Not a Zero one.
I usually don’t drink anything but Zero, but I always think about it when I’ve exhausted my energy like this.
“I’m a little scared…”
Sophia’s eyes were a little teary.
Was she overwhelmed with emotion because escape was right in front of us?
I could hear sniffling from the head resting on my shoulder, but I pretended not to hear it and lowered my shoulder a little so she could lean on me more comfortably.
And Sophia, whose crying had subsided, said softly.
“I, I know it’s the end, but I’m so happy to have met Sunghan…”
“Huh? Oh… yeah…”
The end?
Our current relationship was suddenly created because of the hotel’s mission.
Does that mean we’ll go back to being awkward after we escape?
Or maybe—
Suddenly.
Then Sophia grabbed my head with both hands and pulled it towards her.
I could have resisted that delicate touch, but I didn’t.
I wanted to see what she was doing.
Considering she turned my head so roughly, she hesitated and slowly brought her face closer to mine.
Sophia’s light pink lips overlapped with mine.
Peck.
An awkward kiss, no, a peck.
It was just a bird kiss where our lips carefully touched and slowly parted.
But Sophia smiled brightly as if she was satisfied.
Her eyes, slightly swollen from crying, were cute.
For a moment, I thought about teaching her a real kiss, but this kiss, which felt like pure affection, also felt like part of Sophia’s charm, so I decided to just leave it as it was and enjoy the moment.
Maybe I’ll teach her next time if I get the chance later.
“Sorry… was that too sudden?”
“You don’t have to be sorry. A kiss is nothing now.”
“That, right… we… we did it…”
Sophia looked down at the bed.
Her face turned red as if she remembered what happened earlier.
The kiss, no, the peck just now, was a bit of a bold move for Sophia.
It was sudden, but I think she was a little excited by the joy of escaping.
“I thought this might be the end, so I got impatient…”
“…The end?”
That was what Sophia said earlier too.
At that time, I just thought it meant the end of our time at this hotel.
But now that I heard it again, it felt a little different.
“Are you… not planning to escape?”
“Huh? No, it’s not that… it’s because we won’t be able to escape…”
We looked at each other as if we couldn’t understand each other.
We met each other’s eyes in the air and repeated each other’s words for a moment.
“Why can’t we escape…?”
“Well, the height was incredible, wasn’t it? The place that says ‘exit’ is a jumping platform on the rooftop that looks like it’s 11 stories high…”
Sophia gave a bitter smile.
Of course, that was true.
It was a bad joke.
If you were a normal person, you would have had to overcome so many adversities and hardships to reach this rooftop.
The only escape route on the rooftop that you risked your life to reach was to jump off the roof.
Even if you reached the rooftop, the result was death.
Except for me, of course.
I had a feeling the reaction on the rooftop wasn’t good for some reason, so that was why.
I should have explained it.
“We can escape.”
It was the first time I’d been at this height, but it was definitely possible.
“Re, really?”
Sophia looked up at me with hopeful eyes.
I showed off my muscles by tapping my arm for no reason.
My pretty good arm muscles twitched.
“Trust me.”
“…Yes!”
It was an absurd muscle boast, but Sophia seemed to feel reassured by my appearance, thinking it was reliable in its own way.
“Then let’s go.”
My steps towards the rooftop were light.
As soon as I arrived at the rooftop, I climbed onto the jumping platform and looked down.
“Umm…”
I traveled through many worlds, completed quests, and acquired skills.
There are times when I vividly feel that I am gradually deviating from being human and heading towards the realm of a superhuman.
It was when I realized that I was gradually becoming less afraid.
I was no longer afraid of gangsters or murderers, and I was no longer afraid of tigers or orcs.
And this height no longer scared me.
‘I’m still scared of ghost stories and ghosts, though.’
Thinking that, I looked towards Sophia.
Sophia seemed to have lost strength in her legs just by looking down, and was leaning against the railing, breathing heavily.
“Haa… haa…”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes? Ah, hahaha… I’m okay… really, really…”
Actually, it was okay if she lost strength in her legs since I was going to carry her.
I just told her to put strength in her hands and hug me tightly.
As I turned my back to her, Sophia slowly climbed on and carefully wrapped her arms around my neck.
“You can hug me tighter.”
“Ye, yes…”
As Sophia hugged me tightly as I told her to, my neck was a little stuffy.
Yeah, that was reassuring.
I carefully stepped onto the jumping platform.
Whoosh.
The sound of the wind was clear enough to hear.
I slowly came down from the jumping platform and hung on the railing.
Sophia squeezed her eyes shut at the height, but seemed to be looking little by little, curious about what I was doing.
“What are you… Kyaa!”
Sophia screamed when she saw me hanging precariously on the railing.
“Shhh.”
“Oop, oop!”
Sophia screamed as I took one of my hanging hands off.
But this time she couldn’t scream.
I temporarily blocked Sophia’s mouth through light hypnosis.
I slowly put the hand I took off on the outer wall of the hotel building.
Cheee.
The fingertips that touched the wall turned red, melted the wall, and dug straight into the wall.
The inner energy I had absorbed while defeating the ghost stories was shining.
It smelled a little chemically unpleasant, but I could bear it.
“Yo, your hand…”
Sophia murmured in surprise.
I melted the outer wall of the building as if putting my hand in the accumulated snow, and forcibly created a handle on the building.
I don’t know if it was just my imagination, but every time I did that, I felt like my inner energy was being absorbed rather than decreasing.
Was this building a big ghost story?
I slowly moved my hands like that and went down.
Meaningless holes began to be carved into the building.
After going down for a while, a window appeared in front of me.
[Defeating the ghost story.]
[Completed hidden quest.]
“Oh.”
Was there a reason why I was melting the outer wall of the building?
It was defeated.
And my body floated in the air.
My arms cut through the air, and the large wall in front of me disappeared like fog.
Along with the alarm that the huge hotel had been defeated.
“Huh? Whe, where’s the hotel… Kyaa!”
Sophia screamed and I took a stance in the air.
I had already come down enough, so it was enough to balance myself and land with my feet first.
Thud!
As I landed while adjusting my posture, I saw a familiar place.
It was the place where Sophia had first entered the alley as if possessed.
“We’re, we’re back! We’re really back!”
I smiled contentedly as I heard Sophia’s voice shouting excitedly, and then I let her down.
I was quite sad to see the two huge sensations that I felt behind my back disappear.
Apart from being excited, Sophia was still staggering and shaking her legs, as if her heart was still pounding.
“Let’s go.”
As I reached out my hand, Sophia grabbed my hand and got up.
I supported her, and even after she was able to walk properly, I didn’t let go of her hand.
After walking for a while, Lee Hwan was sitting on the street, probably realizing belatedly that we had disappeared.
His hair and body were already soaked with sweat, probably because he had been looking for us for a long time in this sweltering heat.
He was covering his head and hanging his head as if in despair.
“Why, why didn’t I see it? How could I miss the nun walking next to me… Damn it…”
He realized that Sophia had been dragged away by the ghost story and was blaming himself.
And we slowly approached Lee Hwan.
“Lee Hwan.”
“…Uh…”
As Sophia called his name softly, Lee Hwan looked up at us with a blank expression.
Seeing another living person after a long time made it feel real.
That we had escaped from the haunted hotel.
