༺ Secrets ༻
The four people who entered the room could only stare helplessly at the note that was burning up.
What on earth was happening here?
[Hehehe.]
Even though none of them opened their mouths, a girl’s laughter resounded throughout the room. Professor Fel, who generally seemed to be the most subdued, was the first to react.
“Aaah! It’s happening again! She’s back again!”
She crouched down, covered her ears and started screaming. Erica tried to hug her to pacify her, but it was of no use.
“Let’s leave this room for now.”
‘What if the door is locked?’
Erica was worried for a moment, but luckily the doorknob worked properly and they were able to leave the room.
“What’s happening?”
“That girl from the lab… She seems to be up to something.”
Gideon and Caren seemed to be pretty composed.
Especially Caren, even though she had just lost what might have been the key to solving this case, she was quick to return to her usual self.
Creak, creak.
As the four of them stepped into the hallway, a creepy sound could be heard. The sound was weird, but it was soon clear that it was the sound of footsteps because it followed a certain rhythm.
[Hey, you guys.]
In front of the stairs that lead to the floor below, stood an old woman with a hunched back.
Caren spoke to Erica hurriedly as she had a hunch the moment she saw the old woman.
“Professor Erica, try using the dispelling magic.”
“Purify and restore the flesh and soul, and dispel the corrupt filth… Purification.”
-Whoosh
With a crisp sound, the magic wrapped around the four of them like a tangled thread.
However, even though Erica knew that the spell had worked, the old woman still didn’t vanish and was still gazing in their direction, tilting her head. There was nothing but darkness like a moonless sky in place of her eyes.
“Would you like some candy?”
The same chain of events mentioned by the students began to take place. Caren heard that if they waited for too long, they would be immobilized and forced to eat eyeballs.
“I can’t deal with this any longer.”
Gideon, who felt humiliated at the fact that he had been caught up in such a trivial situation, stepped forward as he could no longer stand it.
He positioned his open palm on his waist and with his other hand, assumed the stance to draw a sword.
-Swoosh!
Immediately, a flaming sword appeared, illuminating the fourth floor like a bonfire. The heat pressing down on his whole body, burning fiercely, warmed him instead.
Gideon, with a sword made of flames drawn, rushed forward.
Unlike the students, he intended to solve the problem immediately without any fear.
But suddenly, he froze.
And the old woman chuckled as she approached Gideon, who had his sword pointed at her throat.
[Would you like to try it?]
Her tongue, which seemed ordinary at first, reached the cold floor with ease. And on it were the old woman’s eyeballs.
Gideon wanted to chop-off the monstrous tongue swiftly, but his body wouldn’t budge.
“……!”
He couldn’t even speak nor could he swallow his saliva, and even his Adam’s apple stopped trembling. He was trapped in a world of complete stillness, with only his consciousness remaining.
The one who broke the silence of that world was the school nurse.
“I’ll eat it.”
[Huh?]
The old woman’s gaze turned toward Caren. More precisely, the eyeballs on her unnaturally long tongue moved on their own to look in her direction.
“I want to try Grandma’s candy.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the old woman passed by Gideon and was standing in front of Caren.
The old woman then held Caren’s hand and placed one of her eyeballs on it and smiled happily with her open mouth, satisfied.
Caren put it in her mouth and swallowed it without hesitation.
Gulp.
“…It’s delicious.”
Erica, who was right beside her, looked with disgust, and Fel’s cheeks puffed up. Her mouth appeared to be filled with something… And it looked like she was trying to hold back the urge to throw up.
Hearing Caren’s response, the old woman stood there stunned, then smiled satisfactorily and grabbed Caren in a tight hug.
[Hehehe, as long as it tastes good.]
With that, the old woman just disappeared.
“Uweeek!“
Fel ran to a corner of the hallway and started throwing up, and Erica asked Caren anxiously,
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I’ve had them before.”
“….Yes?”
Erica wondered if she had heard her correctly, but Caren put her hand in her pocket and closed her mouth.
She seemed lost in thought, but soon enough, she opened her mouth with a sigh.
“Ah, this disgusting fishy taste. I’ll have to rinse my mouth first.”
Caren entered a nearby restroom. Erica had heard Caren was a monster who had crossed boundaries between life and death numerous times during her mercenary life. But still, when witnessed in person, Erica was astonished that she was a woman with much greater fortitude than she had already expected.
“Damn it.”
Gideon was burning with shame at the fact that he was unable to resist the old woman, clenched his fist and went straight to the first floor in anger without even looking at Erica.
Erica didn’t spare a glance at Gideon either and instead used magic to clean up the vomit that Fel was still spewing out.
With a sigh, she thought,
‘Life at the academy will be very difficult from now on.’
*
“…….”
The path leading to the basement of the Verdi Household was more well-hidden than I expected.
If I had to describe it, would it be like a basement below a basement?
The first floor of the basement was the servant quarters, which consisted of their lodging, a kitchen, and a cleaning room. It was also the place the employees used for preparing various things for the Verdi Household and the guests upstairs.
Once you went past that, you would find a hidden door in the storage room, covered with multiple wooden planks as if it was sealed off, that led further down.
Staring at the door, I crossed my arms.
“What is this place?”
Turning my head slightly, my gaze fell on Findenai, who was standing beside me. Of course, she wouldn’t know about it, so I shifted my gaze once to the side.
The butler, who accompanied us to the basement, began to explain it to me with a baffled look on his face.
“W-We do not know the details. All we know is that it is a place where the old history of the Verdi Household lies dormant.”
“Old history?”
“Yes, that is why access to this place has been forbidden for a long time.”
The butler glanced at me with eyes questioning why I, the Second Son of the Verdi Household, didn’t know about it.
“Now that Young Master has satisfied his curiosity, let us return.”
He tapped me on my shoulder and gestured for me to follow him back upstairs.
Thud! Thump thump!
But then, an ominous black liquid began to ooze out from the gap between the door and the board.
“Hmm? This mansion is more entertaining than I thought.”
Findenai muttered with fascination while looking around with curiosity. She couldn’t see the ominous spirit trying to escape, but due to her beastly senses, she should have felt some discomfort.
Bringing my face close to the door, I calmly stared at the black liquid oozing out.
It was full of spite and it felt like the moment I touched the ominous thing that was swaying as if it had an ego, I would be dragged away.
“Hmm.”
After taking a deep breath, I stretched out my hand and Sukla, who had been hiding, brought me my wand immediately. It was the same wand I used when climbing the Norseweden Mountains.
“Wand summoning… Master’s abilities are hard to grasp.”
Ignoring Finden’s mumbling, I called out to her while tapping the ground with my wand.
“Findenai.”
“Yes?”
“Break it.”
Usually, when someone received such an order they would try and confirm it. For example, in the case of Sukla, even though he was a ghost, he looked at me in astonishment.
But Findenai was different.
“Okay!”
She transferred all her strength to her foot and smashed the door as soon as the order left my mouth, without any hesitation.
Bang!
The old door broke apart into fragments and fell to the ground.
Dust and bugs began to pour out following the loud noise.
The servants, who were alarmed by the sudden ruckus, came into the storage room, but it didn’t matter.
Ignoring them, I covered my mouth with my sleeve and frowned.
‘The energy is strong.’
The energy of the evil spirit that suffocated my whole body was more intolerable than dust and bugs.
‘It’s not a spiritual being, but it possesses the energy comparable to that of one. But I don’t think it’s an earthly spirit either.’
Earthly Spirits usually exerted massive influence over their territories. So, this case seemed a little different.
Grandma would have immediately identified the entity if she had been present here.
Even though I was a little hesitant, I stepped forward.
“Hmm? Do you plan on going inside?”
“I won’t get any answers if I don’t.”
“Well, I guess that’s true. Master seems much wiser than I expected.”
Findenai was elated for some reason and followed me.
I conjured a small fire at my fingertips and descended down the stairs.
The further I went inside, the stronger the repulsion became, but I kept going. In this intuitive power struggle, it was difficult for the dead to beat the living. Because we had mass.
Thump, thump.
The underground stairs continued endlessly. In the middle, I heard some racket from above, it must have been Darius or Deia cursing at me as soon as they arrived.
“But isn’t it odd for the Master to not know much about his own Household?”
“Because I’m not the Head of the Household.”
Honestly, not being the Head of the Household was just an excuse, the truth was that I was not Deus… I was not even a Verdi.
After dedicating much of my time to the study of magic and towards my research, how much could I possibly learn about the Verdi Household’s history in six months?
So, I didn’t know much about the Verdi Household, which seemed to have many strange secrets.
“Hmm, you’re quite different from the rumors.”
“Rumors?”
Since I had nothing to do while descending down the long staircase, I asked Findenai, who shrugged her shoulders and replied.
“The maids who work here told me that you’re a very lustful man.”
“….”
“You’ve even made them wear vulgar clothes… But not once have you tried to touch me.”
It would be ridiculous for me to say that I didn’t try anything funny with her because I had changed, and even if I said it, it would make no difference. After all, Findenai was the type of person who believed in what she saw and experienced herself, rather than what others told her.
Instead, all I could do was advise her.
“It’s not good to let the Master hear about the maids’ gossip.”
“It’s not like I plan to stick around forever.”
“Still, it’s better to be cautious. The maids possess the most amount of information in Norseweden. It wouldn’t hurt to be friendly with them.”
“….”
Especially for someone like her, gathering information was key.
Though I didn’t feel the need to mention that. Even Findenai would have figured that out.
“Oh, speaking of that, I just remembered something. Do you remember I went out on an errand today?”
“….?”
“A very elaborately dressed woman was asking if you had returned, you see? She said she’s your lover.”
“……Sigh.”
“It didn’t seem like it but she told me stories of your visits to her place. She said she’ll be waiting for you tonight and will have a lot of services to offer. She also wants to lick your ass…?”
I was not annoyed, nor did I reply. I just let out a calm breath and tried to suppress the throbbing headache.
Why did this damn body have to be involved in so many troublesome things?
The moment I managed to handle one thing, something else would pop up.
‘I’m not even sure about the number of rumors about me that are circulating around.’
I wondered if the rumors about me were what led my sweet and kind fiancée, Erica Bright, to suddenly request the academy to dismiss me.
But if that was the case, why didn’t the Bright Household make a formal request to annul the engagement?
Or were they just holding back to save my face?
‘Well, they don’t need to delay it though. It really is a useless consideration.’
As I was thinking about it, we finally reached the end of the stairs.
But perhaps taking my silence as an affirmation, Findenai couldn’t help but ask in surprise.
“What? Are you really planning to go tonight?”
“Haaaa, I am not going.”
