The night watcher quickly understood why keeping track of Blaunellie was important. Unlike the speedy cheerleader, who had gone through public areas before taking employee-only stairs to the second floor, the bard had gone to the closest employee-only area as soon as the option became available… She was going through the backrooms and storage areas, where visibility on the cameras was far less due to the shelves filled with all sorts of things.
Where Blaunellie currently was, chairs, tables, and whatever else could be needed in the main dining area were stocked in frankly suspicious abundance. There was no way that anyone could possibly need that many spares… Even if literally all tables were to be shattered, there would be leftovers in the storage after replacement.
For the night watcher, however. The logistics of the storage rooms were of no importance right now. The problem was that due to all of these things stacked atop one another, there were plenty of places the cameras could not see–Places the blue musician could hide in, and if she were to hide somewhere without him realising it, he could easily lose track of her completely.
He had no idea yet what made her so different from Gelbimi in how she would attack, but he heeded Zlown’s warning nonetheless. Speaking of lively yellow gal… She was currently wandering around the halls of the second floor with curiosity clearly fuelling her every move–It truly was uncanny how alive she seemed. The night watcher could read her body language as if she were a real person.
Although off-putting, it was still a good thing that Gelbimi was feeling curious right now. She wasn’t running around, and wasn’t currently too close to the office… Yet.
He still had sight of Blaunellie, but the fact that he had to switch cameras to keep an eye on them both was concerning. It could easily lead him to completely fail to catch a crucial movement of theirs… And he also had to check on the other automatons. There were thirteen clown gals in total in this building with him, and he could only assume that each and every one of them was intent on getting their hands on him.
Fortunately, it seemed like they weren’t feeling like moving just yet. Only the two co-stars of the main show were active…
“Oh shit!”
Gelbimi had gotten bored and suddenly started moving quickly again, and as though the night watcher had led a villainous existence in his previous life, she picked the worst way she could have taken, which led her to have direct sight of the office’s door across a long hallway, and like Zlown had said, it was rather obvious that it immediately intrigued her as she stopped and stared for a few seconds, before bolting for the door.
The man jumped out of his chair and basically threw himself into the position Zlown had mentioned to him. Just a couple of seconds later, he heard the heavy step of the cheerleader approaching the room rapidly–Before she slowed down and pushed the door open… She peeked inside for about five seconds.
He heard her chuckle to herself before she closed the door. He waited a few moments, listening to her swiftly move away… It seemed like she went back down to the first floor by taking the stairs that were directly to the left of the office when you exited it.
The night watcher’s heart felt like it was going to burst out of his chest, but he didn’t let himself linger around for too long, quickly returning to the computer, where he made a most awful discovery.
Blaunellie wasn’t anywhere to be found. She was hiding somewhere, but he had no idea whether she was hidden somewhere in the room where he had last seen her, if she had moved further and then hid, or even if she had gone back…
“Shit… Shit!”
“Heheheh… Maybe now is a good time for me to explain what Blaunellie is all about, heh?”
“It would be very much welcome!”
“Huh? Did you say something? I don't think I can hear you”
“You-”
“Ahahah! It’s even funnier the second time!”
“Alright, alright… Listen to me, Buddy. Our charming bard naturally has a very keen sense of hearing. Her MI is adapted to allow her to listen and analyse sounds–It allows her to correct any issues there may be when playing music, amongst other things”
“In your case, Blaunellie won’t actually ever come check your office directly. Sounds good, right? Wrong! Why don’t you try to check the layout of the building VS?”
“VS…?”
“Vent System, you dummy! We have those big vents that go everywhere and can do a whole slew of different things… Their functions don’t really matter here, though. What matters is that Blaunellie is going to shove her head into any vents she runs into that she can reach, and she is going to listen for sounds…”
“When she does that, press the power button of the computer for a short amount of time, don’t make a sound, and stop moving. If she hears something suspicious bounce back to her through the vent that is directly above your head, she’ll know exactly where it came from and come find you”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“She’ll get in through the door like Gelbimi, and locking it is ineffective for the same reasons. If she hears you, it’s over. She’ll come into the room and search until she finds you. So make sure she doesn’t hear a thing, alright?”
The night watcher only nodded in response. It was no wonder that the bard needed to be tracked on the cameras. There was absolutely no way he could know when to go silent without seeing her approach a vent.
This only made the fact that he had lost her even more concerning. She might be near a vent at this very moment, and without knowing where she was exactly, he could easily miss her going for it…
He checked the layout of the VS like Zlown had recommended, and this thing was a confusing, headache-inducing, intertwined mess. The night watcher stared closely. Zlown had indeed mentioned that Blaunellie would only check a vent if she would actually access it, meaning that vent openings in the ceiling should not be part of the vents Blaunellie could check.
Frankly, the man didn’t get why not all of these openings were in the ceiling, but he could only assume that it was sometimes more convenient to have them be in the wall for one reason or another… Regardless, he now understood why the bard had gone to the employee-only backrooms–It was there that she could do her thing.
“Where is she… Where the hell did she go…?!”
Muttering to himself, he could only be thankful for the fact that Gelbimi had pretty much completely left the premises, and that the other clowns were seemingly not interested in roaming around. He could put most of his focus on actually finding Blaunellie.
“Could she be hiding in a blind spot?”
One thing he hadn’t used so far, but that Mara Nebulo had shown him, was that the cameras were a bit mobile–As in, like how a person could look around by moving their neck, the cameras could move slightly.
This was especially useful in smaller, tighter rooms or in long hallways. The storage rooms on the first floor were actually both tight and stretched out in length, so it only made sense to use this function now.
By doing so, the night watcher realised that Blaunellie was actually quite vicious and crafty–The bard seemed keenly aware of what the cameras could see, as she had actually been crawling underneath the space of the various shelves to get around unnoticed, and she had almost reached a vent in this way… In fact, just a little push forward, and she would have just had to stand up to listen into it.
The musician noticed the camera moving and smiled at it, standing up and walking up to the camera, waving at the night watcher before putting both of her hands up in the air, as if saying: “You got me there!”
She tipped her hat and then simply walked away as if admitting defeat for now. Blaunellie returned to the main dining room and got back on the stage.
“Is she… Is she talking with the red clown?”
“Purpurnita. Her name is Purpurnita, and I guess Blaunellie is talking about how she almost got you”
“...Great…”
Minutes passed, and minutes turned to hours. Only Gelbimi and Blaunellie actually moved around during the whole night, and after their initial attempt at catching him, they weren’t very active.
The night watcher survived the night… Never had he felt more tired. He had had to be utterly laser-focused for every single waking second.
Zlown reminded him of what was at stake if he were to talk, so although he was dying to speak of the horrifying experience he had been forced through, he could only smile and nod as the day watcher showed up and congratulated him for his first shift.
On his way out of this nightmarish wonderland, he couldn’t help but stop and stare at the automatons on stage again. They were all back in the exact same spot he had first seen them when he took his shift, and they seemed so harmless… Especially now that he saw them fully lit up. The clown gals did not seem threatening in the least, but he knew the truth.
He walked out of there, only to bump into what he could only describe as a brick wall.
“Greetings, Mister Medurio. How did your first shift go? It can be hard to adapt to working during the night, but I certainly hope you didn’t fall asleep on the job”
He looked up to see his employer, Mara Nebulo. A woman was gorgeous as she was dangerous–This had been how he had viewed her prior to being thrown into a game of life-and-death, now? He couldn’t help but feel like she was a devil in the form of a beautiful woman.
Medurio swallowed his saliva.
“E-Everything was fine, Miss Nebulo! I was too nervous to fall asleep, ahah…”
“Ah, well, don’t stress yourself out too much… It could make you miss some important details, you know?”
Mara casually slammed her palms down on his shoulder, squeezing with just too much force as she leaned forward.
“What do you think of Blaunellie and Gelbimi? Aren’t they great? Did you really feel their personalities shine through? Gelbimi is a lively spirit with adorable candour, and Blaunellie can be… A little trickster, she enjoys having a good laugh at the expense of others–Always in good fun, of course”
“I… I guess I did notice, yes…”
“Good. I worked really hard on them… They aren’t just machines to me. There is a very real connection between them and me. I love them. Not as creations, or in the same way that I would love a pet… It will probably sound unhinged, but creating them was like giving birth in my eyes. To me, they are my daughters… Only that I nurtured them with mind and hands rather than within my body”
The new hire wanted to get the hell out of here, but he couldn’t risk offending her, and moreover–He couldn’t physically leave anyway. She had him in his grasp and could probably tear him apart if she wanted… Hell, she might just turn him into two pieces accidentally by sneezing.
“Anyway, expect some more company on your second shift. If you don’t show up, you know what will happen. I am a knight whose blade hasn’t seen proper use in a while, so I would actually be quite appreciative if you were to give me a reason to take a few swings at moving targets”
“N-No worries, Miss Nebulo! I will be here without fault!”
“It’s great to hear some enthusiasm. Aren’t you glad that you were hired, heh?”
Only then did Mara let go of her employee, allowing him to sheepishly walk away with sore shoulders.
Meanwhile, Mara simply walked into Glown’s Wonderland as if nothing had happened. She hadn’t had this much fun in a long time.
