The Curse of Belle Epoque Mansion

The Belle Epoque Mansion, infamous as a cursed estate, stood in a remote, sparsely populated stretch of countryside some distance from Kubel. Having once belonged to the nobility, the road leading there was well-paved enough for a carriage to travel.

Ornamental trees lined the path as it drew near the mansion. They had clearly been trimmed into decorative shapes once upon a time, but years without care had left them growing in strange, distorted forms. Beyond a great iron gate worked with ornate patterns, a fountain stood in the center of the garden — though no water flowed from it.

"Whoa... this place would actually cost a fortune..."

Neglected though it was, the mansion was grand enough that an asking price of tens of thousands of gold made perfect sense. Had it been in pristine condition, an even higher figure wouldn't have been surprising.

There was a real estate strategy of buying a rundown property in a good location, renovating it, and flipping it for a profit. Maybe that would work here too. If I play this right, I could live off this for the rest of my life, couldn't I?

"As you can see, it's quite a large mansion. Quite a few adventurers have tried to lift the curse so they could claim it for themselves, but none of them succeeded."

Tina's voice cut through the visions of overnight riches still spinning in my head.

It was unusual for a receptionist to accompany a request, but Tina had come along this time. Silphy, who'd joined me on the Arachne Queen subjugation, had volunteered as well, so I'd brought her along.

The reason Tina — who wasn't an adventurer — was here at all was to reassess the request's rank. Adventurers of the appropriate rank had come to cancel it three separate times already, and the guild had taken a natural interest. This time, Tina would be observing the request's progress in real time and reviewing it on the spot.

They even had to do field work like this? The more I saw of the receptionist job, the less it looked like an easy one.

According to the guild's preliminary information, the curse upon the Belle Epoque Mansion was not magical in nature, but something closer to a spiritual phenomenon. That was why every method they'd tried to lift it had failed. If a mage or shaman had inscribed the curse artificially, a curse-breaking spell would have done the trick. But if the cause was a ghost like this, there was no reliable way to dispel it — or so Tina had explained.

"Eek... so there really are ghosts here?"

Silphy glanced around nervously. I certainly didn't know how to deal with ghosts either. That didn't mean I'd come unprepared.

"I packed a bag full of stuff that might help, at least."

I opened the bag I'd brought and pulled out the contents. An ornament engraved with the church's emblem, holy water, wooden stakes, garlic, scallions, rice, salt, even a crucifix — a little of everything. I'd grabbed every item I could think of that had anything to do with exorcism. I honestly doubted any of it would work, but something was better than nothing.

"Um... will any of this actually do anything?"

"This kind of thing is all about presence. If you're up against a ghost, you have to come in stronger than it is."

"I-I knew it! Senior Yunoa! So establishing dominance is what matters!"

Silphy's eyes lit up as she nodded along.

"Hey, why do you keep calling me Senior? We're the same rank."

"I just... you feel like a senior, somehow... D-do you not like it?"

"No, I don't mind."

I actually liked it. Who in their right mind would turn down a cute junior?

"Are you coming inside the mansion too, Tina? It could be dangerous."

Once I'd finished preparing to go in, I asked her. She was a receptionist, guild assignment or not. Taking her into a mansion that had sent burly Silver-rank adventurers running out with tears and snot streaming down their faces seemed like a bit much. Former Saintess or not, I doubted that particular resume would help much with ghost-hunting.

"I'll wait outside. Please come report to me if anything goes wrong."

Tina pulled out a notebook and spun a pen between the fingers of her right hand. She intended to record everything that happened during the request, apparently. It was a little unnerving, but that was her job now.

At any rate, Silphy and I stepped carefully up to the front door of the Belle Epoque Mansion.

A ghost, huh...

It was a little surprising that this world struggled so much with ghost problems. This was a place with outright undead monsters like skeletons and zombies. Wouldn't a ghost go down the second you called a priest and blasted it with holy magic? Or maybe it was something a little different from an ordinary monster.

Well, they'd said most methods wouldn't work, so investigating was the only option.

The mansion door swung open at the lightest push, hinges shrieking a long, grating creak. There'd be quite a few repairs to make later.

"Y-Y-Yunoa, Senior..."

Once we were inside, Silphy pressed herself against my side, trembling. She could barely lift her feet from the floor, staring at the ground — she really was terrified. It wasn't even night, and we'd only just stepped through the door.

"Head up. I told you, presence is everything with this kind of thing."

"B-but..."

The interior of the mansion was a mess. Muddy footprints marked the floor in several places — traces of the other adventurers who'd taken this request before us, most likely.

"S-Senior, aren't you scared? They said there's a ghost..."

Silphy asked as I slowly surveyed the interior.

No, honestly, I was scared too. But I had a surefire motivation to push through that fear: the staggering value of this mansion. They called it financial therapy for a reason. Ghosts were scary, sure — but if I resolved this, the entire estate became mine. If this had been a request to exorcise a ghost from some rundown shack, I never would have come in the first place.

I'd heard somewhere that ghosts were afraid of people with a strong presence. Even in a room where someone had died and a spirit lingered, a person with enough presence would be fine. That's what I'd heard, anyway.

Alright. Repeat it in your head. I am the strongest. Ghost or otherwise, nothing that shows up here is going to scare me. I'll drive this mansion's ghost out and claim this place as my own.

Could you maybe tell me that kind of thing a little sooner?

So every last one of the secret-weapon exorcism supplies I'd packed was completely useless? A sudden unease settled over me.

"Silphy, if you notice anything strange, tell me right away."

I spoke as I slowly moved deeper into the mansion.

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"Silphy?"

No answer. I looked to my side. Silphy, who until a moment ago had been glued to my ribs, was gone without a trace.

A chill raced down my spine, goosebumps rising all at once. Then the interior of the mansion began to darken. A hazy fog flooded the rooms, and my field of vision shrank.

"Silphy? Silphy!"

I called her name as I wandered through the mansion. A dangerous presence hung in the air, so I tried to retrace my steps and leave — but somehow I kept circling the same places.

So this was the mansion's curse.

Was Silphy in the same situation as me right now? She'd been so frightened — I was honestly a little worried. First things first, I needed to find a way out of this.

The worse a situation like this got, the more you had to keep your composure. Every adventurer who'd come here before had fled in terror from whatever happened inside. Determined not to end up like that terrified man I'd seen at the guild, I fought to stay as calm as I could.

A gust of wind came from somewhere, setting the windows rattling in their frames. The fog grew thicker still, until I could no longer tell where in the mansion I even was. Another hallucination conjured by the ghost, no doubt.

My body grew colder, and I started to tremble, but I clenched down and refused to panic. The reason I could keep my composure even in a situation this frightening was what Tina had told me at the guild beforehand.

This request was designated Silver Rank by the guild. Three adventurers had failed it, but the guild's position was that the curse here wasn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠life-threatening. The man who'd come to cancel the request hadn't had a scratch on him, either.

Which meant the mansion's ghost wouldn't threaten my life, and wouldn't injure me. If I treated this as an extremely terrifying test of courage, I could endure it, couldn't I?

A strange sound started up from somewhere in the darkened rooms — a dry, skittering whisper, like something dragging across the floor. An eerie sensation washed over me, as if insects were crawling across my skin.

Bang!

"Wah! Shit! You scared me!"

A chair sitting right in front of me suddenly launched into the air and slammed into the wall. Then a sound like a child's scream came ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠riding in on the wind.

As the Narration said, I was actually terrified out of my mind. But I gritted my teeth and held on, afraid that if I lost it here I'd end up like that man who'd abandoned the request.

Trust the guild's information: my life was safe. This was nothing more than a mental attack.

The next instant, my vision began to go black from the edges inward. I had no idea what had just happened.

When I opened my eyes again a moment later, I was in a damp cellar, my entire body bound to a wooden chair.