Rumi y on the sun bed, sipping her concocted drink.

  Eve, like a mermaid in water, was pying around in the pool for quite some time. But every now and then, she gnced over at Rumi.

  “You’re really not coming in? The water’s warm, and it’s not even that deep.”

  “Ah... no, thanks. gulp... I can’t swim.”

  "I could... teach you how to swim."

  “No, it’s fine. I’m not interested in swimming. Plus, I think my potion’s starting to kick in... hehe.”

  Rumi ughed with unfocused eyes, then she suddenly got up

  “Rumi, where are you going?”

  “Oh, just checking if there’s anything to eat.”

  Rumi moved to the living room, carrying the wine bottle with her. On the table was a box of fancy cookies, and Rumi naturally opened it, popping a random cookie into her mouth.

  Just then, the letter she had tossed aside earlier caught her eye.

  Rumi crawled over, picked it up, and read the contents: ‘Find the fairy tale book in the TV.’

  “Huh? What does that even mean?”

  Rumi pondered the cryptic message and wondered if she should turn on the TV. Come to think of it, she was curious what would be on a hotel TV in this ruined world, so she found the remote and turned it on—instead of broadcasts, what appeared was something like a pixeted RPG game screen.

  “...?”

  The game showed a 2D princess standing in what looked like a kingdom square.

  Rumi checked if there was a separate controller, but it seemed the TV remote could be used to control the game. She moved the princess around, interacting with objects. When she touched a discarded book near a ke in the game, the title screen appeared: ‘The Adventures of the Feverish Princess.’

  At the same time, a narrator’s voice filled the room.

  “Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Hylence, there lived a feverish princess.”

  “Whoa, 360-degree stereo audio...?”

  “The princess loved the beautiful magical castle. The vast castle grounds and the charming vilge outside brought her joy. Her hobby was exploring every nook and cranny of the castle.”

  Just then, water started dripping onto Rumi’s head.

  “...?”

  Rumi looked up to find Eve, fresh out of the pool, shaking her wet hair above her.

  “Ah! What are you doing?”

  “What’s this noise?”

  Eve had apparently come out anxious about the narration sound.

  “This? It’s just Game sounds...”

  “Game sounds? But why is it coming from the entire hotel room?”

  "Well... because it's 360-degree stereo?"

  "Wait... what’s that?"

  Meanwhile, a cutscene-like image appeared on the TV.

  “Hmm... this feels more like a hotel event than an actual game...”

  “One day, the princess discovered a secret passage in the castle. The passage led her deep underground, and the feverish princess, intrigued, followed the path. But what she found deep beneath the beautiful magical castle was something horrifying.”

  Suddenly, the entire hotel room began to shake.

  “Whoa! Is that an earthquake?”

  “No, why now?!”

  Rumi, thinking it might be some kind of prank, ran to the door to check if it was just their room or the whole building shaking. But the door wouldn’t open, as if it was locked from the outside.

  “Th-the door won’t open!”

  “Rumi! Don’t think about running away—get under the desk!”

  Eve grabbed Rumi’s hand and tried to pull her under the desk. But then lights came on around the bed, making it sparkle.

  “Hey, I think it’s telling us to go to the bed.”

  “What are you talking about? During an earthquake, you’re supposed to hide under something sturdy. There’s stuff above the bed—if it falls, we’re dead.”

  “No, look. There are cushions on the ceiling. This feels suspicious, like it’s connected to the game event...”

  Eve hesitated, deep in thought, while the room continued to shake.

  “...Fine, let’s go to the bed.”

  The moment Rumi and Eve got onto the bed, something truly impossible began to happen.

  Suddenly their guts tingled and their bodies started floating.

  And while all the objects in the room should have been floating too... they were fixed in pce and didn't float.

  Rumi and Eve found themselves in a state of zero gravity, exchanging bewildered looks. But the zero gravity sted only three seconds before they plopped back onto the bed.

  Spsh!!

  At the same time, a sound like a water bomb exploding echoed, and a massive spray of water erupted outside the window.

  “...!”

  “Wh-what just happened?”

  Rumi and Eve, still dazed, slowly crawled off the bed. The only broken item in the room was a shattered wine bottle rolling on the floor.

  They approached the window and looked outside. The surroundings were completely submerged in a red sea. Somehow, their room was now floating alone in the middle of the ocean.

  “What is this? Are we adrift in the sea? Did I drink too much and lose my mind?”

  “I don’t think so...”

  Just then, the narrator’s voice returned.

  “Beneath the magical kingdom y a sea of blood, formed from the corpses of countless subjects. This was the kingdom’s secret—using the blood of its people as fuel.”

  “A sea of blood?”

  Rumi and Eve stepped onto the balcony to look around. Eve muttered as if she had noticed something.

  “Wait, this is...”

  Upon closer inspection, they realized they weren’t in the middle of the ocean but in what looked like the hotel’s underground pool. The waterfall they had seen in the lobby was cascading down here, and the surroundings were painted to resemble a night sky under a massive dome. They could even see hotel guests swimming in the distance.

  “...It’s the pool!”

  Rumi unfolded the hotel map and checked the pool section. It read: ‘Experience a magical summer in the colossal Sedna Dome Pool.’ Below it was an underwater shopping mall.

  Rumi peered down and was shocked to see a small city-like area glowing about 100 meters below the water.

  “What kind of pce is this?”

  “It’s a hotel...?”

  But in the midst of all this chaos, an idea occurred to Rumi.

  “Hey, shouldn’t we just collect the water from this pool? We came here for the red water, and it’s right in front of us...”

  “I guess that’s true...?”

  Eve nodded at Rumi.

  Rumi and Eve immediately brought out the empty bottles from their bags. Eve began scooping water from the edge of the balcony.

  “Aren’t you going to help?”

  Eve asked, noticing Rumi’s reluctance to go near the water.

  “...”

  Rumi, unusually serious, clenched her mouth shut.

  "What's wrong with you? Is there some problem...? Don't tell me you're actually afraid of water?"

  “Uh... no, it’s not that... I just don’t like water... I told you I can’t swim...”

  “...”

  Eve, realizing Rumi was lying, silently dove into the red pool.

  “I’ll fill the water. Just carry the bottles.”

  Eve said as she submerged.

  Surprisingly, she didn’t seem scared of the red water.

  “Ugh... you are really in there.”

  "Huh? But why is the water warm here too? Is it possible to heat this much water?"

  “Wait, really?”

  Rumi replied, holding the gss bottles by the poolside.

  “But seriously, what’s going on? If this is some special event, isn’t it way too over the top?”

  “I don’t know... It seems connected to that game you were pying earlier... Do you think the hotel room will float up again?”

  Just as Eve finished speaking, the room shook violently, creating waves that pushed Eve back.

  “Ah, what’s this?”

  Eve quickly filled the st bottle and handed it to Rumi.

  “Rumi, take this!”

  Rumi grabbed the bottle and shouted at Eve.

  "Hey, hurry and come up!"

  “Ugh... I can’t. The waves... blub...”

  The room shook even more, creating massive waves. Even Eve, who was a strong swimmer, was being swept away.

  “Glub... Ru... Rumi, help!”

  Rumi panicked and looked around frantically. Spotting a bed in the next room through the window, she ran over and grabbed a bnket.

  “Grab this!”

  Rumi threw the bnket like a rope, but it spread out like a net, covering Eve’s face instead.

  “Ugh!”

  “Oops...”

  Eve struggled to gather the bnket and shouted.

  “Ugh, what are you doing? Trying to kill me?”

  “What does it matter? You grabbed it, right? Hold on tight—I’m pulling!”

  Rumi started pulling the bnket, but the room shook again, this time differently. The entire room began to float.

  Rumi, holding the bnket, felt herself being dragged toward the edge of the balcony as Eve was pulled up.

  “Ah! What’s happening? Ugh!”

  Rumi screamed in surprise when she realized she was being dragged instead of pulling Eve up.

  “Hey, wait, why are you so heavy?!”

  Meanwhile, Eve, hanging onto the bnket, looked up and noticed something.

  “Rumi, the whole room seems to be hanging from some kind of cables.”

  “Ugh... is that important right now? I’m about to fall into the water!”

  Seeing Rumi being dragged closer, Eve let go and plunged back into the water.

  Spsh!

  “Hey! What are you doing? I was pulling you up! I almost had you!”

  “Pull me up? You’re smaller than me. If someone like you who can’t swim falls into this vast pool, even I can’t save you.”

  “No...! You...”

  While Rumi was flustered and unable to continue speaking because her inability to swim had been exposed, the entire hotel room started shaking violently in mid-air.

  “Ugh!”

  Rumi desperately clung to the railing as the room began to ascend rapidly. If Eve had been hanging on at this speed, things could have gotten much worse.

  Rumi, stunned by the continuous chaos, ran back to the bed.

  Eve was now adrift in what looked like an endless sea, and without a float, even she was in danger.

  Rumi grabbed every pillow she could find and tossed them over the railing. Looking down, she saw Eve waving.

  “Hey, I’ll come back for you ter!”

  Rumi waved back.

  Rumi packed the red water she had collected and sat on the living room sofa. The room slowly moved sideways and then entered the central waterfall of the hotel. It began to ascend at an arming speed, as if it might crash through the ceiling.

  Outside the window, countless floors whizzed by as the room shot upward. But eventually, the speed decreased, and the room came to a smooth stop. They had clearly reached the top floor.

  The narrator’s voice returned.

  “After witnessing the horrors beneath the magical kingdom, the feverish princess headed to the top of the castle to meet the queen.”

  “...”

  Listening to the narration, Rumi figured she was supposed to meet the queen. Wondering if that meant she should leave the hotel room now, she approached the hotel door that had been locked earlier.

  Strangely enough, the hotel door was already wide open, and beyond it stretched a gss bridge with a clear view 300 meters down.

  On the other side was an extravagant entrance resembling a royal pace.

  What kind of event goes this far...?

  Rumi crossed the gss bridge with considerable tension, walked up the majestic stairs that looked like a pace entrance while stepping on a luxurious red carpet.

  The surroundings were adorned with dazzling gss art, and the ceiling sparkled with light, illuminating the majestic white pilrs.

  It felt like a dreamlike pace, and Rumi, overwhelmed by the atmosphere, took one step at a time. Finally, she opened the grand doors and entered.

  Inside was a space that could only be described as a royal pace. Silver and gold decorations glittered everywhere, and the marble floor was elegantly id out in a circur pattern.

  For a moment, Rumi thought this might be the Queen’s Room.

  As she stood in the center, a shadow flickered behind a white sheer curtain. The shadow grew clearer, drawing Rumi’s attention.

  “The feverish princess began to confront the queen.”

  The narrator’s voice echoed again.

  “For the kingdom of the sky to soar high, the sacrifice of its people is not avoidable... no, it is inevitable.”

  But this time, a voice came from behind the curtain that sounded familiar yet awkwardly theatrical.

  Rumi made another reasonable deduction.

  “Niel...?”