Defense Specialization and the Haunted Manor Two.

Maple bursts into the manor with Sally, the door slamming shut behind them.

"Hey, Sally, stand up! You said there was something we needed, right?"

"Ah... yeah. Maple... don't let go."

"Of course not!"

Maple grips Sally’s hand and pulls her upright, scanning the surroundings.

The manor is large—this entrance area has three doors, one straight ahead, one to the left, one to the right, separate from the main entrance.

A staircase rises, and doors are visible on the second floor.

A tattered chandelier hangs from the ceiling.

Candles flicker on sconces mounted to the walls, their flames small and wavering.

"Wow, it’s big. So, where do we go now?"

Maple asks Sally.

"Um... wait... something’s wrong. It wasn’t checked properly."

Sally’s information had many gaps.

It was not because information remained incomplete, but because proper collection had not been done, as usual.

"Then... we’ll just have to look at everything."

Maple spoke. Sally shook her head vigorously from side to side.

"Let’s check it properly and come back. Let’s do that. Exploring now won’t be efficient. The monsters aren’t weak. We’ll just end up fighting more. Let’s confirm the shortest route first..."

Sally’s words stopped when Maple narrowed her eyes and stared at her. Her mouth closed.

"No. Let’s just finish the exploration quickly. Look, I’m here. It’ll be fine!"

"Uh... yes..."

While Maple was present, the constant activation of Love That Offers the Body ensured protection from all attacks.

Even as Sally’s feet trembled like a newborn fawn, the chance of being struck was extremely low.

"Then I’ll go with my instinct... right!"

Maple walks to the right door and opens it.

A faint dust rises. Beyond the door, a corridor stretches into shadow.

Maple presses her hand to her ear, listening. No sound comes.

"Uh. Nothing there."

She speaks, then moves forward down the corridor.

The long passage forks left at several points.

Doors line the walls—some lead to rooms. Many places to investigate.

"Where should I go... oh!"

Maple feels a strange sensation in her foot. She looks down.

The ground has risen. Countless translucent white hands emerge, gripping her and Sally’s feet.

The hands stretch slowly, reaching upward.

From the wall, the same woman’s spirit slips through, gliding toward them.

"M-me-me-me, me-me-Mealp!"

"Wait!"

Maple narrowed her weapon to a sword, tightening her right hand around the short blade, and slashed at the hands at her feet.

It vanished, slow and silent.

Maple carefully cut away Sally’s clinging feet, then pierced the woman’s spirit with a bullet from her re-deployed weapon.

“Phew. Good. We’re safe now?”

“Yeah… I’m glad we’re together.”

Sally, utterly frail, seemed already half broken.

As Sally had said, once one believes it is over, it truly is.

“Hurry—let’s search and return!”

As Maple began to walk, the ground beneath them glowed a dull blue.

Had it been her usual self, Sally would have easily urged Maple to flee and escaped herself.

The light expanded. By the time they noticed, they had been transferred.

Enclosed in light, Sally’s perception, sensing emergency, conveyed with sharp clarity what she did not wish to know.

It was the sensation of Maple’s hand slipping away, vanishing.

The light faded. When Sally opened her eyes, an unfamiliar corridor stretched before her.

“M-me, Maple? D-don’t… where… h-huh…!”

Sally called out to Maple in a trembling voice. Her left shoulder was tapped sharply from behind.

She stiffened, spine snapping straight. Instinctively, she checked her shoulder.

There, unmistakably, was a pale, slender hand—no living person’s.

Then, a slender arm, unnaturally cold, wrapped around her from behind, pulling her rigid, eyes wide open.

“Aah… a, a, no, nooo—!”

Sally screamed and bolted forward. The arm passed through her as if she were air.

She fled, tumbling into a single room.

“H-ha, ha… l-log out…”

At the moment Sally reached for the panel to log out, a crimson handprint slammed onto it with a heavy thud.

“H-huh…”

The calm part of Sally, born from a full cycle, recalled the information.

Log-out restrictions in certain areas. The nature of the roaming monsters present there.

Each touch reduced her 【AGI】. When it reached zero, a fatal attack would strike immediately.

That area, normally, would allow easy escape with simple movement.

“O-oh… it’s following…”

The time allowed was long. Moving without pause, staying alert, she could navigate the mansion without being caught.

Still, for Sally, that ease was self-evident.