◇ Chapter 6 ◇
Four days passed.
During that time, Catherine searched every corner of the mansion, hoping to find some trace of her mother.
But it was like searching for a needle in a desert.
As expected of an old, enormous mansion, the building was filled with hidden spaces.
Whenever she pushed aside a bookshelf or moved a bed, a dusty wooden door would appear as if it had been waiting for her.
At the bottom of the old well was a locked manhole.
Strange, horrifying symbols were carved all over the garden.
If she had never met that man, she probably wouldn’t have thought much of any of it.
She would have simply assumed the previous owner had unusual hobbies.
But after discovering the magic circle in the basement…
After seeing the monster that had fought the man…
“Hmm.”
To be honest…
Even after all that, she still didn’t think much about it.
“This is delicious.”
“Right? Cooking is the one thing I’m truly good at. People have criticized me for almost everything else in life, but my cooking? Not once! Never!”
The woman proudly puffed out her chest.
Her short black hair swayed just below her ears.
“Please have more. I made plenty.”
“But there’s only the two of us, Rose.”
“Don’t worry. If it’s here, we’ll finish it eventually.”
Rose was the first maid Catherine had ever hired for the mansion.
Of course, she hadn’t hired her with the one thousand Rids that the man had left behind as payment to make her leave.
I scraped together every coin I had to hire her.
As a result…
She was practically broke now.
At least she still owned the house, so she wouldn’t have to sleep on the streets.
“Miss, today we’re cleaning the east side of the fourth floor, right?”
“Mm, yes.”
“Oh, finally! I can actually see the end now. If we just work hard today, life will finally get easier.”
Groaning as she stretched her aching back, Rose dropped into a chair beside the dining table.
In Orleans, it would have been unthinkable for a maid to sit and eat together with her employer.
But Catherine didn’t mind at all.
After all, the job notice she’d posted in the town square had clearly said:
“Looking for a maid who can live like family for two months.”
To begin with, Catherine was the only person living in the mansion.
Since she was only hiring someone for two months, she didn’t think there was any reason to be overly strict.
In fact, every hidden room they had found around the mansion had been discovered by Rose.
Catherine simply wasn’t the type to inspect every little detail.
“What’s your plan today, Miss?”
“Starting today…”
Catherine paused while spreading jam onto a slice of bread.
Then she answered with a solemn expression.
“I’m going to fix the garden.”
The garden.
The pride of mansion management…
And also its greatest nightmare.
Rose’s expression became just as serious.
“Oh dear… I celebrated too soon. I thought today was the last hard day, but something even worse was waiting.”
The two laughed lightly while quickly finishing their meal.
Come to think of it, there wasn’t much time to relax.
Once she started restoring the garden…
How long would that take?
Just imagining it made her knees and back ache.
But heaven had other plans.
By noon, dark clouds slowly covered the sky.
Then rain began pouring down.
Whoosh—
“Damn.”
The weeds were already growing high enough to reach her waist.
Still…
It was lucky the rain started before they began working.
Otherwise, she would have been too frustrated to sleep.
So she spent the entire day reading books instead.
She also told Rose to stop working and get some rest.
But Rose ignored her.
She rolled up her sleeves and continued cleaning the mansion.
After all, cleaning was the only thing she had to do.
Knock. Knock.
Time passed slowly until it was almost midnight.
The sudden knocking woke Catherine, who had been dozing in front of the fireplace.
The person standing outside her bedroom…
Was, naturally…
Rose.
“Rose?”
The sleepiness vanished from Catherine’s eyes.
“Um… Miss. I know this is rude, but… may I come in for a little while?”
Rose’s face was filled with fear.
Her small shoulders trembled uncontrollably.
“Of course.”
Catherine led her inside and sat her beside the bed.
Judging by her clothes, she had just been about to go to sleep.
“What happened at this hour?”
“Well…”
Her quiet voice shook as though she were standing on a narrow bridge.
Catherine didn’t rush her.
She simply waited.
After nervously biting her fingernails for a long time, Rose finally spoke.
“I thought maybe I was just imagining things, so I didn’t want to mention it… but ever since my first day here, I’ve been hearing strange noises.”
“Strange noises?”
Rose had started working three days ago.
That meant she’d been hearing them for three days.
“There are only you and me living in this mansion… right?”
“Of course. Who else would be here?”
Rose lowered her eyes.
She kept rubbing her hands together anxiously.
“But… around midnight… I keep hearing a woman laughing in the hall.”
“Could it just be my imagination?”
The moment she finished speaking…
She suddenly burst into tears and tightly hugged Catherine.
She hugged her so hard that Catherine could barely move.
“Miss… I’m really scared!”
“Calm down and tell me everything.”
“There’s… there’s just too much.”
“I hear a woman laughing… children running… a string quartet playing…”
“Sometimes it even feels like the ground is shaking.”
“My head starts spinning.”
“Every night, just when I’m about to fall asleep… it happens again.”
After letting go of Catherine, Rose looked around the room with frightened eyes.
As if something might suddenly appear.
“I haven’t been sleeping properly… and tonight I even had a nightmare.”
“I couldn’t take it anymore… so I ran here.”
“That’s… that’s everything.”
If only I could tell her she was imagining it…
But Catherine couldn’t dismiss her story so easily.
Both the real estate agent…
And that man…
Had asked her almost the exact same questions.
She clearly remembered them.
“Do you hear strange or frightening noises at night?”
“Does the mansion ever shake for no reason? Do you hear voices?”
“Do you have nightmares?”
She had only ignored those questions because she herself had never experienced any of it.
“…Rose.”
“For tonight, sleep in my room.”
Catherine stood up and put on her cardigan.
Rose sniffled but never took her eyes off her.
The magic circle in the basement…
With so many suspicious things happening inside the mansion…
That was the only explanation Catherine could think of.
“W-Where are you going?”
“I need to check something.”
“Don’t worry. Just get some sleep.”
She picked up the lantern and walked toward the door.
“Miss!”
Rose’s voice stopped her.
Catherine turned around.
“It… it might just be my imagination…”
She swallowed nervously.
She looked ready to cry.
“I… I don’t think you should go outside.”
“I think… I saw a tall man standing at the end of the hallway…”
Her trembling voice seemed to grab Catherine’s feet.
But…
She said the sounds only happen before she falls asleep.
If I wait until morning, I might miss whatever’s happening.
This wasn’t a place she planned to stay for only a day or two.
At least until she learned the truth about her mother…
She intended to hold onto this mansion.
More importantly…
She refused to let mysterious things happen inside her home without understanding why.
“Rose, this is my house. No one can come in without my permission.”
Though…
That man certainly came and went whenever he pleased.
Catherine draped her cardigan over Rose’s shoulders before leaving the room.
Contrary to Rose’s claim…
There wasn’t a single sign of anyone in the hallway.
She cautiously walked downstairs.
Standing in the center of the grand hall, she closed her eyes and listened carefully.
The only sound she heard…
Was the heavy rain outside.
No woman’s laughter.
No running children.
No trembling earth.
Only silence.
I should check the basement after all.
She headed toward the kitchen to look for the basement key.
Holding up the lantern, she searched through the cupboards.
Unable to find it, she set the lantern down and took a short breath.
Then…
Out of the corner of her eye…
She saw a dark silhouette outside the window.
That’s…
A person?
She opened the window and leaned outside for a better look.
Tall.
Lean but well-built.
Bright hair that almost looked white.
A perfectly straight back.
There was no doubt.
It was him.
What is he doing out there?
He simply stood there without moving.
Since she could only see his back, she couldn’t read his expression.
The rain continued pouring.
Whoosh—
It showed no sign of stopping.
If someone stood outside in weather like this for so long…
Catherine didn’t think about it for very long.
She grabbed the lantern and ran outside.
There certainly weren’t any umbrellas in this old mansion.
Shielding her head with one arm, she hurried toward him.
It felt strangely familiar.
Just four days ago…
She had grabbed this man’s shoulder in almost the exact same way.
“Hey.”
But…
Something was wrong.
He didn’t react.
He stood perfectly still.
Like a wax statue.
Realizing something was unusual, Catherine raised the lantern toward his face.
Its warm yellow light revealed rainwater dripping from his nose and eyelashes.
His eyes were closed.
As though he were dead.
“Hey! Wake up! Why are you standing in someone else’s yard like—”
Before she could finish speaking…
He disappeared.
Startled, Catherine took a step back.
No.
He hadn’t disappeared.
He had collapsed onto the ground.
He had simply lost consciousness.
For a moment, Catherine was too stunned to move.
Finally regaining her senses, she set the lantern down and shook him.
No matter how hard she shook him…
He remained motionless.
Like a dead man.
Later…
She could barely remember how she managed to drag him all the way inside the mansion.
Perhaps she had somehow found superhuman strength without realizing it.
Dragging his heavy body across the muddy ground quickly ruined the hall she had worked so hard to clean.
His body was freezing cold.
She laid him on the stairs before rushing upstairs.
The bedroom door burst open.
“Rose…!”
Water dripped from the hem of her soaked skirt onto the floor.
The room was silent.
Rose had fallen asleep while sitting in the chair.
She had said she hadn’t slept properly for several days because of the strange noises.
Watching the sleeping Rose quietly…
Catherine gently closed the door again.
Then she had to summon that mysterious strength once more.
Dragging the unconscious man across the floor…
She finally laid him down on the sofa in the first-floor drawing room.
“Ha… ha…”
“You’re unnecessarily huge…”
She brought several blankets she had washed and dried and piled them over his body.
The damp air made lighting the fireplace difficult.
But once the fire finally caught…
The room quickly became warm.
Not long afterward…
They appeared.
“Give him to us, child.”
The beings that lived within every shadow.
They were darker than darkness itself.
Their bodies looked like thick black sludge.
They carried the stench of rotten water.
Ever since Catherine was a child…
They would occasionally appear just to make her feel sick.
She didn’t know exactly what they were.
But she knew one thing.
They belonged to the same kind as the unconscious man.
Although…
They were far beneath him.
“Give that noble one to us.”
The noble one…
Do they mean this man?
“Give him to us.”
“Trade him for your wish.”
“Trade him for your wish, child…”
“Give us that noble one in exchange for your wish…”
“Shut up.”
There was no point talking to them.
They never listened.
They only repeated the same words over and over again.
Her mother had always found them incredibly annoying too.
Frowning deeply, Catherine glared at the creatures.
“If you’re done talking, then get lost.”
