Chapter 137: Hiding in the Garage
Haruto held Youmu tightly in his arms, his legs a blur as he ran at full speed.
Youmu gradually came back to her senses. The moment she realized she was being carried bridal-style by Haruto, the defensive hissing she'd been unconsciously making died in her throat. Her small face bloomed a brilliant, furious red, and she went completely silent, her brain seemingly shutting down like an overloaded computer.
Even with the extra weight of a person in his arms, Haruto's speed was far beyond what any ordinary human could hope to achieve. Before long, he had caught up with Yotsuya Miko and the others.
The second he drew level, Haruto shot Kaguya a look brimming with playful resentment. "You're terrible, you know that? Just running off without even calling for me."
"Wasn't it obvious it was time to run?" Kaguya retorted, not missing a beat. "You were the one who didn't move. Why are you blaming me?" She sniffed haughtily. "Besides, I did wait for you. I just showered today, and I have no intention of getting dirty."
Hearing that, Haruto nearly choked. "How do you have the nerve to say that?"
One had to understand that Kaguya's reputation as a shut-in princess wasn't just for show. If he hadn't witnessed it with his own eyes, Haruto could never have imagined a person's room could descend into such a state of chaos—especially when that person was the legendary Princess of the Moon, hailed as the most beautiful woman in the East.
Snack wrappers and empty cola bottles were piled across the floor like drifts of metallic snow. Clothes were strewn everywhere, leaving almost no safe place to step. If you were lucky, you might even find discarded fragments of her complex princess attire in a corner, shed like a second skin.
In short—it was a disaster zone.
And if the floor was a mess, the bed followed the exact same chaotic style.
Haruto, who had developed a slight case of germophobia from being raised by the carefully clean Yakumo Ran, truly couldn't stand it. He had grabbed two of the moon rabbits on the spot to act as forced labor, spending a full half-hour cleaning the room until it was spotless. He'd even gone so far as to repaint the walls.
But the walls were painted for nothing.
Only afterward did Haruto learn that Kaguya had long ago used her power over 'Eternity and the Instantaneous' to lock the state of her room to a specific moment in time. With a single thought, she could restore the glorious mess completely.
Haruto and Kaguya were still bickering, their voices carrying over the sound of their pounding feet. Aside from a slight flush on their faces, neither showed any sign of fatigue.
"Brother Haruto," a strained voice called out. "I might... not be able to hold on much longer."
Yotsuya Miko was panting heavily, desperately trying to regulate her breathing and match her pace to a steady rhythm. Although she had been exercising recently, and her physical strength had received a ten percent boost after clearing the last instance, that was ultimately just an 'increase.' It was utterly incomparable to monsters like Haruto and Kaguya.
"Me too," Lin Xuelao echoed. She was also gasping for air, though her condition seemed marginally better than Miko's.
Only then did it dawn on Haruto that their physical fitness couldn't possibly keep up. He could probably run like this for half a day without breaking a sweat, and Kaguya was even more absurd—she could likely go for a day and a night without stopping. But Miko and Lin Xuelao were reaching their limits.
He risked a glance over his shoulder.
The bugs themselves weren't moving at an impossible speed, but every time the swarm passed a building, a fresh wave of Human-faced Beetles would pour out, joining the tide. It created an oppressive, suffocating sense of an endless, ever-growing horde.
"Then how about..." Haruto pondered for a moment before saying slowly, "I carry you while we run?"
The moment the words left his mouth, both Yotsuya Miko and Lin Xuelao stumbled, nearly tripping over their own feet.
"Be careful! Watch where you're going! I don't want to have to fish you out of a pile of bugs," Haruto warned, his voice laced with genuine alarm.
"He's right," Kaguya couldn't help but add. Those bugs were just too disgusting. She wasn't afraid of them, per se, but she couldn't stand how they were not only incredibly ugly but also overwhelmingly numerous.
Quantity was producing a qualitative change. The road and the facades of the buildings behind them were already a writhing carpet of dense, fleshy faces, a grotesque wave expanding toward them as if to swallow everything in its path.
Haruto glanced at the buildings from which the bugs were constantly pouring and shrugged. "You see the problem. It's not that I don't want to find cover; it's that the bugs are already hiding inside all of them."
"Haruto-sama, I can—" Youmu began, but Haruto cut her off immediately.
"It's not that I don't believe in you, Youmu. I'm sure you could eventually shred every last one of these bugs into dust. But the key word there is 'eventually,' so I refuse."
Fearing she might stubbornly try to dive into the swarm anyway, Haruto quickly continued, "Actually, I have a theory. I think as long as we don't move, these bugs won't be able to find us."
"Really?" Kaguya sounded skeptical. She looked back again at the overwhelming insect tide; she hadn't seen anything to suggest that.
"Brother Haruto, how did you come to that conclusion?" Yotsuya Miko asked between ragged breaths.
"Isn't that how these kinds of games are always set up?" Haruto shrugged. Feeling their disbelieving stares, he added, "If you really need evidence, look closely. They don't have eyes. They probably can't see."
Hearing this, everyone immediately turned to observe the creatures more carefully and found that, indeed, the beetles' heads were smooth and featureless.
"But don't they have a human face on their backs?" Miko was still puzzled.
"Miko is right, but those aren't real faces," Kaguya noted, her sharp eyes having spotted the clue. "Besides, even if they were, there are no eyeballs in the sockets."
"So, my only option is to carry you while we run," Haruto said, looking at the panting Yotsuya Miko with helpless resignation. "I do have Invisibility Items, over a dozen of them, but they're useless here. They only last for a short time, and every building around us is already an infested nest."
"There's a building not far ahead," Lin Xuelao suddenly spoke up, her head tilted. "It has an open garage. There are no bugs inside."
At her words, Haruto immediately looked over and, sure enough, spotted an open garage door. Without a moment's hesitation, he slapped Invisibility Charms on everyone. In an instant, the five of them—their figures, sounds, and even their auras—vanished from sight.
Since a hiding place had presented itself, they might as well use it. Judging by the current situation, the area covered by these bugs was simply too vast to outrun completely.
The next moment, they dove into the garage. Haruto went straight for the control switch on the wall, but after he mashed the button several times, the door didn't budge. The mechanism had clearly failed long ago.
Just as the insect swarm was about to pour in after them, Kaguya reacted with lightning speed. She leaped up, her hands gripping the bottom of the heavy metal door. With a sudden exertion of force, she manually yanked it down. It slammed shut with a deafening BANG, sealing the entrance just as the first wave of beetles reached it.
Rustle... rustle rustle...
A dense, scraping, chittering sound immediately echoed from outside as countless limbs tapped and scrabbled against the metal door. The sound of a single Human-faced Beetle was faint, but at such a close distance and amplified by the enclosed space, the noise was deafening.
Fortunately, it didn't take long for the cacophony outside to gradually weaken.
Haruto cautiously opened a tiny gap in space to observe the situation. He saw that the Human-faced Beetles were no longer charging forward frantically. Their movements had slowed considerably, as if they had lost their target.
After a while, they all crawled back into the buildings on either side of the street, and the world outside returned to a dead, unnerving silence.
Yotsuya Miko took out her Ghost Phone and gestured. Haruto nodded, pulling out his own. He was relieved to find that it had a signal and could be used for text messages.
Seeing this, Haruto quickly created a temporary group chat.
[The Most Handsome Realm Demon]: "I have one piece of good news and one piece of bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"
[Yotsuya Miko]: "..."
Yotsuya Miko stared at the message, a powerful sense of déjà vu washing over her. This scene felt incredibly familiar.
[Lin Xuelao]: "Good news."
[Her Highness the Princess of Eientei]: "+1"
[The Most Handsome Realm Demon]: "The good news is that those bugs have all crawled back into the houses. The streets are clear again. As long as we move carefully later, we should be fine."
[Lin Xuelao]: "What about the bad news?"
[Her Highness the Princess of Eientei]: "This concubine knows! There's something dirty above our heads."
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