Anaïs showed reluctance. Fred put his hands together and smiled comically, saying this was his request. He even said he would give her a little bonus at the end of the year if she helped make his wife give up.

Anaïs was truly troubled. Mr. Fred’s wife was generally kind, but she had a fiery side when it came to her son. She wanted to send her son to a prestigious boarding school for his future, and it was obvious she wouldn’t bend her will with ordinary persuasion.

“To pay the tuition, I need to earn money, but ironically, I might have to close this office. So please, for the sake of keeping the job, assistant.”

Mr. Fred arbitrarily left it to her and exhaled, “Whew.” He seemed hot already even though he hadn’t stepped out onto the street yet. He left with his buttons unfastened, ending with a greeting to take good care of the office.

Left alone to guard the office, she looked into the study where only quiet silence lingered. There were so many documents on the bookshelf and desk that they felt aggressive, but only then did she feel true comfort.

After approaching the window and watching Mr. Fred go far down the street, she took off her glasses.

“My head……”

A groan naturally came out when she pressed her temples hard. She actually had good enough eyesight that she didn’t need to wear glasses. If she just raised her head like this, she could accurately read not only the titles of books stuck in the distant bookshelf but also the author names below them. Yet since she continued wearing glasses that didn’t match her vision, it was natural that her head throbbed.

One might ask why she didn’t just not wear glasses if they hurt. That’s a fair point. But she had her own reasons for having to wear these glasses.

The large round lenses were originally her mother’s glasses and the only inheritance she had from her parents. Though wearing them gave her headaches, she still felt connected to them. She was reassured that she hadn’t just dropped into the world alone but had once been loved. And after wearing them once or twice, her bare face now felt strange and embarrassing, as if she were n*ked.

There was another important reason, but anyway, she came to never take off her glasses in front of others, even while suffering from severe headaches. Even Mr. Fred, whom she had served as her boss for quite a long time, had never seen her face without glasses.

“My head seems to hurt more and more severely……”

Anaïs sighed and now began pressing hard on the bone between her eyes and eyebrows. Though the pain usually went away after taking them off and some time passed, the headache lasted particularly long that day.

She wished her eyes would worsen to match these glasses, but her vision stubbornly refused to deteriorate.

‘Don’t you have any advantages other than good eyesight?’

While sighing, an unpleasant voice mixed with metallic sounds suddenly reached her ears. Anaïs was startled and turned around. There was no one in the office.

This was precisely the important reason for wearing glasses. When her mother’s protection disappeared, she began hearing these auditory hallucinations.

Anaïs pressed her temples hard, hoping the headache would quickly pass before the voice tormented her again. But the headache showed no signs of subsiding.

“This is trouble. Should I take some painkillers?”

She considered whether she could close the office door for a moment and go buy painkillers. But she soon decided to endure it until Mr. Fred returned. It would be terrible if a client came when the office was empty.

Fortunately, sitting and taking several deep breaths made her feel a little better. When the headache became bearable, she began examining the mail. Opening each letter that came for Mr. Fred, checking it, and classifying it according to purpose was the most important task among her daily work.

She was holding a letter opener in one hand and examining them one by one. It was the third letter, and it was typed. The moment she saw the cold ink printed by typewriter, her breath caught.

There was a reason Mr. Fred used her, who had no social skills or deductive ability, as an ‘assistant.’ He liked her neat handwriting.

Despite his friend being a president who invented and sold typewriters, he was someone who always preached that relying on machines was not good. He said handwriting was much more human and looked better.

Such Mr. Fred seemed to have recently changed his mind. He brought in a telephone to the office and also received a typewriter from his friend.

Then with a very kind face, he recommended that Anaïs try using the typewriter. Anaïs felt confused about using that strange object and ultimately couldn’t use it properly. How could it take so long to write just one word?

‘I suppose it’s difficult for someone unfamiliar with it.’

Her heart sank at that casual remark by Mr. Fred. She felt that Mr. Fred could fire her at any time.

She didn’t know what work she should do if she got kicked out. She questioned whether she could even find work immediately. Depression surged again at the uncertain future. The depression eventually reached the fundamental question of why she should continue living.

Even if she treasured her mother’s glasses, she had no one to pass them on to. She had no relatives either. Distant relatives might turn up if she searched somehow, but with Anaïs Everhart, the Everhart family was essentially extinct.

‘Should I seriously consider marriage even now?’

Anaïs briefly considered it but stopped. Even if she went to some bar to find a man suitable to marry her, she wouldn’t be able to take off her glasses in front of him.

To not find it strange that she wouldn’t take off her glasses even on the bed, he would have to be quite indifferent. An ordinary man would try to remove her glasses, and she might scream at that moment.

The other person would feel awkward while looking at her strangely as she hurriedly put her glasses back on. And the voice mixed with metallic sounds would mock her. Of course you would, it would say.

“Why did it become like this?”

A deep sigh came out. She could only lament when she had become unable to do anything without glasses.

Anaïs looked at the boys in the photo once more. She couldn’t remember when she had been able to smile like these boys. She suddenly felt envious.

‘Since it’s mafia business, it’s obvious. They were probably killed by a rival family. Or the two fought over a woman!’

Mr. Fred’s muttering as he left the office came to mind. Right. It was meaningless to envy boys who had disappeared and might already be dead.

At least Anaïs, who was alive, decided to pull herself together and do the remaining work. If she couldn’t properly do what was given to her now, the day she got fired would only come sooner.

Her hand stopped while she was opening letters one by one again. A red envelope she didn’t remember receiving was mixed in the pile.

“Did Mr. Fred receive this?”

Mr. Fred’s name was typed in gold ink, so it wasn’t a misdelivery by the mailman. But the sender’s name wasn’t written. It only said ‘Invitation from your dear friend.’

Anaïs opened the envelope with the knife and checked inside. One invitation made of stiff material came out.

To Mr. Fred

Thank you for receiving and permitting game participation. We invite you to the game 〈Survival and Betrayal〉 that we host and supervise. Please show us your worth.

Once again, thank you for permitting game participation and we express our deep condolences.

P.S. We always wish for players’ safe return.

Mr. Fred seemed to have applied to participate in some strange game. Anaïs carefully tried to remember if she had received any hint from him about this. But no matter how much she recalled, she had never heard Mr. Fred talk about a game called 〈Survival and Betrayal〉.

While tilting her head and examining the invitation’s contents again, she was shocked. What had definitely said ‘To Mr. Fred’ just moments ago had somehow changed to ‘To Ms. Anaïs.’

That couldn’t be. Had she seen it wrong?

She blinked in surprise and looked again, and it clearly said ‘To Ms. Anaïs.’ Even the recipient on the envelope was typed with her name in gold ink.

“What’s going on?”

She was extremely bewildered. She didn’t even receive mail at the office, and she had never heard of a suspicious game called 〈Survival and Betrayal〉.

Her head suddenly became dizzy while thinking about what had happened. The headache that had briefly subsided tormented her like a shell falling from the sky. It seemed to be because she was shocked by the strange occurrence.

Anaïs tried to drink water to calm down. The moment she turned her body, her vision suddenly blurred and she ended up falling flat on the floor. She had no strength in her arms and legs.

Anaïs, who had collapsed helplessly on the office rug, eventually closed her eyes slowly.

* * *