Chapter 96
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 96
Chapter Title: The Ghost of Baron Hannie
Rachel flipped through the diary, pondering the reason for its appearance.
“It seems related to the walking armor…….”
The following pages were scorched by fire, leaving only half-burned remnants.
After checking the diary, she opened the door to reveal a hallway. This time, only room number 3 was open. Remembering the swarm of dolls that had tried to attack her earlier, she entered cautiously. The dolls that had filled the room were nowhere to be seen.
In their place, a neatly penned letter sat on the desk.
[I’m sorry I couldn’t send the letter. Oppa has been busy lately. Instead, I’ll bring a doll as a gift next time I come home.]
The moment Rachel finished reading and set the letter down, the sound of a child’s giggling laughter echoed.
Startled, she turned toward the source. Several sheets of paper, their edges singed by fire, lay scattered on the floor.
[Everything oppa brought makes me feel bad.]
Judging by the round, childish handwriting, it was the baron’s young lady’s writing. Rachel carefully checked the next page.
[Vine’s dolls from oppa make me feel bad too. Sometimes it feels like the dolls are staring at me—is it just my imagination?]
“The armor and dolls were all brought by the eldest son of this house.”
The next page continued the baron’s young lady’s complaints. And the final page……
[It’screepyIt’sscaryPleasetaketheseawayIt’screepyI’mgoingcrazyIt’sscaryIt’sscaryPleasegoaway]
Scribbled messily, the sentence repeated across the single sheet.
Through this paper, Rachel glimpsed the depth of her terror.
Perhaps this looping space, with its armor and dolls, reflected the baron’s young lady’s fears.
“In that case, the wraith might be her.”
She opened the door. Another hallway appeared, this time with a statue.
Harboring strong negative feelings toward the statue, Rachel tried to skirt around it. But the statue absorbed her mana as well.
Ggrrrrk.
It sounded like heavy stone being dragged.
Thud!
The upper half of the statue fell from its pedestal to the floor.
“Why this now?”
The fallen statue half moved its arms……
Thud-thud-thud!
Crawling rapidly across the floor toward Rachel.
“Kyaa!”
Rachel fled from the statue crawling like a jointed ghost, hurriedly opening the door at the end of the hallway. Once again, it was the second room. As the door closed, the sounds stopped.
Leaning against the door to calm her racing heart, her gaze fell to the floor.
The diary on the desk was gone. Instead, scattered sheets of paper lay in disarray on the floor, different from before. Rachel picked them up and examined them.
The person oppa mentioned finally visited our castle. She’s remarkably beautiful, but every time our eyes meet, it feels like facing a snake.
I’m scared. An ominous foreboding won’t subside. My parents seem pleased with the expensive statue as a gift, but I find it frightening too.>
She turned to the next page.
Rustle.
[Those things are watching our family.]
The next page.
Slide.
[The doll killed Vine.]
Rachel flipped the pages faster.
[The armor killed oppa. No one believes me.]
[The statue killed my parents. Now only I remain.]
[I’m trapped in the castle. I can’t leave. The cursed objects are searching for me. I’m scared.]
[I don’t know what day it is today. It’s bright outside. When I draw back the curtains, I see the burning village.]
[Occasionally, I hear knocking on my door. Scaredscaredscared.]
That was the end.
“The castle records say the Hannie barony survived?”
That’s why the crown prince had spoken of tax exemptions and aid for reconstruction. Yet the papers indicated the Hannie baron’s family had all died before the wildfire.
“What’s going on here? The royal records are based on the crown prince’s report—why are they wrong?”
At that moment, knocking sounded on the door. Rachel hurriedly hid in the wardrobe. After the sound of the door breaking, a man’s voice rang out.
“No one here either!”
Murmurs of multiple people came from outside the wardrobe. Though muffled by the door, Rachel thought her companions had finally found her.
“I’m here!”
Rachel burst out of the wardrobe. But outside wasn’t people—it was the statue and armor.
“Why! Why?”
The question of how they mimicked human voices came out in just two syllables.
The armor swung a sword from who-knows-where.
Whoosh!
Rachel rolled across the floor. She sprang up and dashed into the hallway.
But the doors that should have been there weren’t. The hallway was shrouded in darkness, its end invisible.
Right behind her, the living armor and crawling statue pursued.
Rachel began running down the endless hallway.
Her breathing grew ragged. Yet it didn’t feel like her own harsh breaths.
It felt like the protagonist’s labored breathing while playing a game.
‘This is weird.’
A sense of detachment washed over her, as if her body’s sensations and perceptions were separated. She was clearly in control, yet it felt like peeking into someone else’s experience.
How long would this hallway continue? How long would the armor and statue chase her? Anxiety surged.
Even Holy Knight Sola, when his divine power ran out, couldn’t escape the domain manifested by the wraith.
He said he’d faced the wraith directly, buying time until his other comrades arrived.
‘Unlike what Sola faced, this wraith doesn’t seem malicious.’
The wraith Sola encountered had become a monster wandering demon lands, collecting heads due to its lingering resentment over its lost one.
‘But the statue and armor started moving after absorbing my mana.’
Combining the remaining records and Rachel’s experiences so far, the wraith was most likely Baron Hannie’s young lady.
‘From the circumstances, she seems to have died trembling in fear.’
The shifting hallways and rooms were probably the spaces she saw before dying.
How long had she run? The hallway walls, ceiling, and floor vanished entirely, leaving pure darkness around her.
Yet Rachel couldn’t stop. The armor’s metallic clanks and the statue’s crawling sounds blended in pursuit.
But at the end of what seemed eternal darkness, a brown dot appeared.
The distance to it shortened. It was the wardrobe from the room.
‘A wardrobe again? If wardrobes keep appearing…….’
Perhaps Baron Hannie’s young lady had hidden in wardrobes whenever scared, and met her end inside one.
Suddenly, the massive wardrobe loomed before her. Its double doors stood wide open, as if inviting her in.
“Whatever happens, happens!”
No other choice remained. Rachel squeezed her eyes shut and entered the wardrobe.
Thud!
The doors closed. The clanking and dragging sounds ceased, silence falling.
‘What? Is it over?’
Only the pounding of her heart and her ragged breaths echoed. Her entire body pulsed like a single heartbeat.
‘Is it really done? What about the wraith?’
Then, through the crack in the closed doors, a red line of light sliced the darkness. The line widened into a plane.
At first, it blinded her, forcing her to squint. A vivid red flickered before her eyes, evoking burning villages and blood.
“A person?”
Rachel soon realized the red was someone’s hair. Her first thought was of Carrion.
But as her eyes adjusted, the face sharpened into view.
“A familiar face…….”
Stab!
A burning pain pierced her chest. Red liquid splashed, obscuring her vision.
[Your darkness has glimpsed the castle’s nightmare.]
[Mental Strength: 7]
A blue message window appeared. Rachel’s eyes snapped open.
“I’m awake.”
“You’re finally awake!”
Rachel clutched her chest, blinking. Sola and Pacie were there.
As she struggled to sit up, chills wracked her. The spot where she’d lain was soaked.
“What happened?”
If it was just a nightmare, their excited reactions upon her waking seemed excessive. When Rachel asked, Sola spoke.
“I’m not sure. We were worried because you didn’t wake for three days.”
“Three days? What about the others?”
“Since you wouldn’t wake and the exit from the castle remained sealed, we started searching inside. The two of us stayed to guard you,”
“The other siblings will return soon.”
Looking around, the room felt familiar.
Chairs and furniture had been broken for firewood, stacked nearby, but this was clearly the baron’s young lady’s room.
“This is…….”
“Fourth floor room. We carried you here since you wouldn’t wake. Searches of the second and third floors are done; fourth floor will be soon too.”
While Rachel was unconscious, the group had searched floor by floor on their way up.
“There was an especially ominous aura on the fourth floor. It weakened, and you woke up, so those must have been the cause.”
As Sola explained, a gust of wind blew in. Amid the wind’s howl came a woman’s laughter.
-Ahaha!
“Sister, danger! Get behind us!”
Pacie drew his sword and shouted. Worried some malevolent being would harm her just as she’d awakened.
But Rachel stepped in front of Pacie instead.
“Wait a moment.”
Though muffled in the wind, a woman’s voice was speaking.
-Ar……mor, ……brothers are fi…… nal……!
“She’s saying something.”
At Rachel’s words, Pacie and Sola fell silent, listening. Sola briefly channeled divine power, then glanced at Pacie.
“Seems like a floating wraith?”
Pacie nodded wordlessly.
“A floating wraith?”
“It’s a wraith made of mental energy like thoughtforms, without physical substance. Common folk call them ghosts.”
“Are ghosts dangerous?”
“Relatively less so.”
Suddenly, a white figure materialized before Rachel.
-The armor, statues, and dolls are finally gone!
The figure circled Rachel energetically.
-You saw, right? You saw everything I showed you?
“Sister!”
Pacie’s large sword sliced through the ghost. But it reformed after splitting.
“Pacie, wait. This ghost seems to have something to tell me.”
Rachel blocked Pacie’s attack while listening to the ghost’s sobs.
-Sob sob sob, it hurts. But the power binding me is gone.
“Excuse me?”
Rachel snapped her fingers to get the ghost’s attention. The fully formed ghost looked like a girl Rachel’s age.
“You’re Baron Hannie’s young lady, right?”
-Yes, yes. Can you see me?
The ghost seemed amazed that Rachel could see her.
“Yes. I can see your ladyship’s form and hear your voice.”
-We’ve finally met!
“Did you make me have that nightmare?”
-No, no. You peeked first. Since you started, I showed you all my memories to the end.
“What do you mean?”
The question came from Enoch. He had returned with Dona, Rekent, and Mikeli. Seeing them, the ghost reacted even more vigorously.
-You’re the benefactor who removed the cursed objects! Thank you! Truly, thank you!
“Rachel, did you have nightmares while unconscious?”
“Yes.”
Enoch ignored the ghost’s thanks, checking on Rachel.
“No discomfort anywhere?”
“There’s a lot bothering me, but first I want to talk to this young lady.”
-With me?
“Yes. You said you showed me your memories? Was what I saw at the end real?”
-Ugh, he’s scary. The man oppa brought. The one who found and killed me.
“Think back! Is that the man?”
-Yes! He set the village ablaze and found me hiding, stabbing my chest with a sword! Scary, scary, scary!
The ghost spasmed, repeating “scary.” The castle shook. As her mutterings quickened, the tremors intensified.
“Calm down. He’s not here anymore!”
At Rachel’s shout, the shaking stopped. The ghost’s sobs cut off.
“Listen carefully. You died last spring. Even if he appears again, he can’t harm you.”
-No. He’s scary. He can torment the dead like me.
Rachel’s expression twisted at the ghost’s words. The others held their breath at the gravity.
“Is that true?”
-Yes. His power is fearsome. Before I died, much blood flowed in this castle. Sticky blood became a swamp binding me.
Mikeli whispered in Rachel’s ear.
“Looks like black magic to bind the ghost.”
“One more thing. If what I saw is true, your family died nearly a year ago. No one noticed anything wrong in Baron Hannie’s lands—how?”
-A curse on the castle. It traps visitors, preventing escape.
“The dispatched inspectors and tax collectors went missing, but with messy administration and manpower shortages, they glossed over it?”
Or perhaps the one who killed Baron Hannie and his family had intervened.
“But who is he?”
Mikeli couldn’t contain his curiosity. Rachel rolled her eyes briefly.
“Why? Hard to say?”
“Yes.”
Without hesitation, Rachel’s immediate reply silenced Mikeli.
“But I think it’s best to tell you and get your opinions. According to Baron Hannie’s young lady’s memories, the one who ruined the baron family is His Highness Herion.”