IBFLS 07

For a while, I couldn’t find the words to speak.

I couldn’t believe this was the same place as the dilapidated old mansion in my memories.

And then there were all those eyes staring at me, with this bizarre scene as their backdrop.

“……”

Fortunately—or unfortunately—I was something of a veteran when it came to possessing someone else’s body.

This wasn’t my first possession, and after living through five years of it, I instinctively knew one thing.

When it came to a possessor’s survival, everything ultimately depended on acting skills and quick thinking.

Even so, faced with this bizarre situation, I had become as mute as someone with a mouthful of honey.

‘What on earth is all this?’

No matter how I thought about it, something was wrong.

The female protagonist in the game had been desperately poor.

Apparently, she had gone several days without food and lived in such dire poverty that she could barely afford to maintain even a shabby mansion.

And now she was supposed to be living in a luxurious mansion like this, surrounded by a horde of servants?

‘I did help her recover the inheritance her uncle had stolen while claiming to be acting as the baron’s regent, but there wasn’t that much to begin with.’

If that was the case, there was only one answer.

‘Was all of this the work of the person who possessed her?’

But aside from the living expenses I had given him, he shouldn’t have had any way to earn money.

‘What on earth has he been up to?’

It had only been a few hours since I had opened my eyes at the funeral.

Yet in that short amount of time, everything I thought I knew had been turned upside down.

Just then, the middle-aged man standing in front of me broke the silence in a trembling voice.

“Master, I apologize for failing to welcome you in advance. I never imagined you would return so suddenly. I’m terribly sorry!”

“We apologize!”

The servants lined up behind him bent at the waist at an angle of nearly 120 degrees and shouted in unison.

The sight made me feel as though… I had somehow become the head of a criminal organization.

‘Even at the ducal estate, they didn’t go this far.’

If I continued to remain silent, it looked as though someone might actually offer up their life.

In the end, I decided that I needed to get out of this situation first.

“Ahem.”

I cleared my throat.

Then I thought of that possessor.

I narrowed my eyes into a fierce glare and spoke in the most arrogant, insolent tone I could manage.

“I want to rest, you know?”

At those words, the middle-aged man’s head, which had been hanging limply, snapped up.

He raised his neatly clasped hands and gestured toward the staircase in the center.

“Y-yes! Of course! Please, this way! We’ve kept the mansion in immaculate condition even while you were away, Master!”

His voice shrank as he hurried to lead the way.

Even as I followed him, my eyes couldn’t get a moment’s rest because of all the sights scattered around me.

The plush carpet laid neatly down the center of the staircase, the decorative ornaments on the banisters that seemed to serve no particular purpose, and the golden frames hanging on the walls, each containing a painting.

‘Where on earth did he get all this stuff…?’

The view on the second floor, where the butler led me, was hardly any different from the first.

Expensive-looking works of art were displayed on small stands scattered throughout the corridors.

“Master, which room would you like me to take you to?”

The unexpected question came as I was looking around the hallway.

‘Which room?’

I didn’t know a thing about this place, so I couldn’t easily answer.

Instead, I narrowed my eyes again and huffed irritably.

“Didn’t I say I wanted to rest?”

Fortunately, I had spent a whole year witnessing that mentally unstable man’s true nature.

Judging by how the butler jumped in surprise, my performance seemed convincing this time as well.

“I-I’m sorry! I’ll take you to your bedroom, Master.”

He quickly changed direction and led me down the corridor at the far left of the second floor.

The door to the room we eventually reached was the most extravagant one I had seen so far.

Its rough surface looked as though someone had splashed molten gold all over it and then applied another layer for good measure.

However, intricate patterns had been carved into the handle and edges, making it obvious that someone had put considerable effort into its design.

“Please, go inside.”

I narrowed my eyes, bracing myself for yet another blinding assault of gold.

But contrary to my expectations, the room inside was quite ordinary.

‘The bedroom is pretty normal, though?’

Aside from the bed and the bedside table next to it, a desk on the opposite side, a table in the center, and a large wardrobe, there weren’t even any decorative objects worth mentioning.

“Master, shall I prepare some tea?”

Only then did I notice how parched my throat had become from all that nervous swallowing.

Without even turning around, I nodded and replied.

“Yes.”

“Of course. I’ll be back shortly.”

The moment I heard the door close behind me, my shoulders slumped.

Now that the tension had eased, a faint sigh escaped my lips.

“Haaah…”

I staggered toward the large window directly in front of me.

When I pulled back the gray curtains, I saw a spacious balcony beyond the window.

But the moment I spotted the gold-painted tea table and chairs on the balcony, I let out a hollow laugh.

‘I’ve seen enough gold today to last me a lifetime. I’m sick of it…’

In the end, I drew the curtains shut again in disgust.

‘Given the circumstances, it’s definitely that possessor’s handiwork.’

I had absolutely no idea how he had managed to decorate the mansion so extravagantly or how he had come to command all those servants.

Not a single mystery had been solved, yet new questions kept piling up one after another.

‘At this rate, I’ll never get to the bottom of anything!’

In frustration, I grabbed at my hair and started to turn around, only to stop abruptly.

“What’s this?”

A single scrap of paper lay on the desk.

It was so crumpled that it almost looked as though someone had deliberately balled it up.

I slowly approached the desk and unfolded the badly rumpled paper.

[It would be my pleasure to accept. Even the blossoming Yuria will have no objections, kind sir.]

The flowery wording seemed completely out of place for the person who had once occupied this room.

“Kind sir?”

Then, rather than something the possessor had received, could this have been a message he had started writing to send to someone else?

‘If it’s Yuria… that’s Karzen’s national flower.’

Yuria was the national flower of Karzen, nicknamed the Ice Blossom.

Despite being the national flower, however, it was so rare that people might have considered it an imaginary flower.

Its translucent petals were as fragile as they were beautiful, making it notoriously difficult to cultivate.

‘Could he have gone into the flower business?’

I was still trying to fit the pieces together like a puzzle when a knock sounded at the door, followed by a man’s voice.

“I’ve brought your tea.”

“Come in.”

I answered while carelessly tossing the crumpled paper into the desk drawer.

A man entered, carrying a tray with a steaming teapot and teacups.

I approached the table and sat down, deliberately pretending to be distracted as I muttered under my breath.

“…Butler.”

“Yes? Did you call for me, Master?”

The man responded even to that quiet mutter.

‘So he really is the butler.’

Even though I had called out to him first and then waved my hand dismissively as if it were nothing, he didn’t ask any further questions. He simply poured the tea.

The moment the teacup was placed in front of me, I reached for it.

“Phew.”

After blowing on it to cool it down, I took a sip. A bitter taste spread throughout my mouth.

I had been thirsty, so I quickly gulped down three more mouthfuls in succession. My whole body seemed to melt with relief.

“Um…”

“Yes, Master?”

Having correctly guessed the man’s identity, I felt a little more confident.

‘Besides, we’re the only two people in the room right now, so it should be safe to probe him a little further.’

I furrowed my brow, pretending to be troubled by something I couldn’t quite remember.

“About Yuria.”

No matter how he had managed to obtain such a rare flower, if he had traded it and amassed this much wealth, that would at least make some sense.

But the response I received was unexpected.

“Pardon? Y-yes, yes. You mean the empire’s national flower, don’t you?”

The butler answered with a bewildered expression, as though I had suddenly brought up something completely out of the blue.

‘That reaction tells me he doesn’t know anything about it.’

Whether my theory about the flower business was right or wrong, I wouldn’t get anything out of questioning him further.

I merely shook my head a couple of times and tilted my teacup again.

‘Kind sir, Yuria, will have no objections…’

Whether the possessor had received that note or written it himself, it seemed clear that he had been involved in some kind of transaction with someone.

I turned the words over in my mind again as I gulped down the warm tea.

‘Did that person provide him with this much financial support in return?’

I was just about to move on to my next leading question.

That is, until I noticed the butler staring at me in horror after I had finished the entire cup of tea.

His face had gone deathly pale, and his mouth hung open.

His gaze darted between me and the teacup before he spoke in a trembling voice filled with shock.

“M-Master. Was the amount of poison added to your tea today insufficient compared to usual? You’ve drunk it much faster than you normally do…”

And the butler wasn’t the only one whose face had become frozen with horror.