The Hound's Silence
The past.
I no longer cared what was rattling around inside Dr. O'Neil’s skull. It was literally someone else’s problem.
“He said he was looking for a soul. One whose life or death isn’t even clear.”
But the soul that the Lord of the Flies had demanded as payment for his cooperation? That was different. That wasn’t someone else’s business.
“The soul of that… bastard child the head of House Veil supposedly had with a prostitute.”
“……”
The moment I heard it, I understood everything. From start to finish, I knew exactly whose story this was.
House Veil. Shadow Binders.
Bastard child.
Born in the red-light district.
All three pointed unmistakably to me. To Solomon. Even the backstory I had written for myself with my own two hands.
“……”
A frozen silence descended. The female mage who appeared to be the senior officer finally spoke again, her voice icy.
“Who else heard this information?”
“J-just me, ma’am.”
“Have you reported it to Father?”
“Not to His Grace the Duke of Haunting yet…”
“I see.”
Haunting Duke. The head of one of the Five Great Families, the one who led the Soul Binders. The woman who called him “Father” whispered softly.
“Happy.”
“Yes?”
The man tilted his head, not immediately grasping the meaning.
Then came the low growl. It emerged right beneath the feet of the male mage who had been delivering his careful report.
Crunch!
As if the shadow beneath his feet had suddenly surged upward, a being of clearly different nature from the “shadows” I commanded revealed itself. It was that black hound specter.
“Aaaaagh!”
The hound that had burst from the floor of the mansion tore the mage apart. I swallowed a gasp of horror. A scream that could rip eardrums echoed through the air. Even then, the fairy Oberon perched on my shoulder whispered casually.
“Damn, they really gave that mutt a blessed name, huh?”
“……What?”
Happy. So that was the name of the hound. I was stunned. At least Oberon didn’t say anything else, which probably meant my scent wasn’t reaching the hound’s supposedly “blessed” nose.
Ignorance is bliss.
It wasn’t hard to guess how the man in front of me had ended up as dog food. Information that became dangerous the moment you knew it. So they had silenced him.
In the end, only silence remained in that place.
─ Why… Whyyyy!!
No, that wasn’t the end.
A voice rang out. Full of malice, so chilling and eerie it raised goosebumps.
─ Lady Elise, why?! I too carry the blood of the loyal Haunting Family…!!
The man’s mouth had not been sealed. It wasn’t the shredded corpse speaking.
A human shape had risen above the corpse. The stereotypical kind—slightly transparent and glowing with a bluish light. A specter.
“I have no obligation to answer every question from a branch family member.”
Even then, the woman in the robe, Elise, didn’t blink as she replied.
“By the way, that was your answer.”
The woman who called the head of a Great Family “Father” had spoken. The answer was clear. A mere branch family was not worth the trouble.
─ Aaaaah…! This is unfair, so unfair!!
Whoosh!
Yet the specter could not simply accept it. With a pained cry, it began to exert its power. A whirlwind of violent gusts tore at Elise’s hood.
─ Lady Elise! Lady Eliiiise…!
Beneath the hood was a beauty with skin as pale and lifeless as a corpse. Even as her ash-gray hair whipped wildly in the face of the specter’s howls, she didn’t blink once. As if there was nothing in the world she feared.
“So noisy.”
Far from being afraid, she simply waved her hand in annoyance.
Crunch!
Immediately after, another black hound burst through the floor. It didn’t stop at tearing apart the body. It began to savage the wailing specter as well.
I held my breath and watched the scene in silence. Even as my head felt like it would explode from the information I had just gained, I didn’t lose my composure.
Whatever the case, I had come here for a request. My objective hadn’t changed.
That woman must be a direct descendant of House Haunting.
Elise, who had silenced the specter, pulled her hood down deeply once more. She immediately began walking somewhere, and I carefully followed behind her.
Judging from the circumstances, the odds that her destination overlapped with mine were high.
The place where Dr. O’Neil’s soul—or at least his brain tissue—was likely to be.
Compared to searching this labyrinthine mansion room by room, following her was clearly the more economical choice. Assuming I wasn’t detected, of course.
“Don’t get too close. Those things are lined up right under that lady’s feet.”
“……”
Oberon’s warning proved the danger. The hounds in this mansion could pass through walls and floors without issue. It meant countless “black hound specters” were currently hiding beneath the floor she walked on.
Sure enough, as she crossed the corridor in front of the mansion and began climbing the spiral staircase, packs of hounds started rising from below her feet one by one.
I followed carefully. Without a sound. Without a shape.
Fortunately, the superior invisibility potion made not only me but all my equipment, clothes, and tools within a certain radius invisible. Even the hippie fairy sitting on my shoulder.
At the top of the spiraling mansion, the direct descendant of House Haunting finally headed toward a room at the end of what looked like a maze of corridors.
Fuck.
The moment I saw it, I cursed silently. A man was guarding the door. And not just any man—a mage wearing a robe engraved with the crest of House Haunting.
He doesn’t look like he’ll step aside nicely.
I kept my distance and observed. Before long, she opened the door and came back out. And just as expected, even after she disappeared, the mage guarding the spot showed no intention of leaving.
No choice. I steeled myself and applied an additional layer of ruinous poison to the Ghostwhale Bone Blade.
My opponent was no small fry. He was a mage belonging to one of the Five Great Families, granted the honor of wearing their family crest. I was already sick of remembering how much trouble I’d gone through fighting their mages last time.
Still, the situation was clearly different from back then.
Above all, the opponent had not noticed my presence.
Moreover, I had a top-grade invisibility potion that allowed me two surprise attacks, and a poison whose power I couldn’t even fully gauge. I made up my mind.
Activate.
Level 3 spell, Black Sword. Shadow magic overlaid the Ghostwhale Bone Blade already coated in ruinous poison. It was already invisible thanks to the transparency spell, so its form remained unseen.
In that state, I carefully closed the distance. Every piece of equipment I wore, my weapons, even the hippie fairy on my shoulder—everything was covered by the invisibility effect.
The opponent still hadn’t noticed me.
Blade in the Dark, activate.
Aiming for his completely defenseless back─ the assassin’s dagger plunged down. A surprise attack he couldn’t possibly perceive.
Swoosh!
Blood gushed from the blade before he even had time to scream. Yet even then, my form did not appear.
The blood that exploded outward only faintly sketched a silhouette in the air.
It was more than destructive. A lethal strike that gave him no chance to scream in pain or respond.
And it was literally just one strike.
Top-grade invisibility potion. True to its name, my transparency did not dispel even after delivering the ambush.
“Guh, hack… you bastard…!”
Right after the first strike, the still-invisible blade plunged down again. Only after the second ambush did the top-grade invisibility potion finally lose its effect.
Blood-soaked, I drove the blade—shifting between pitch-black and violet hues—deep into the mage’s vital point.