Chapter 6

Chapter 6

“I knew it! Unnie, you *do* live here! Awesome!”

What’s so awesome about that…?

I whipped my head around to check out the window. For a second, I thought I’d time-warped—but no, the sun was still pouring in long and bright. And yet here was this ghost, visible to me in broad daylight. That was plenty weird enough. Most ghosts, even with a little time lag, only showed up after sunset. I’d never once seen one this early before.

What the hell. Is this a real hallucination?

I blinked, again and again. I even shook my head hard. But the girl didn’t vanish—she stayed fixed right in my field of vision.

I hesitated for a moment, then cautiously reached my arm out over her head. Slowly, I lowered my hand. I meant to pat her on the head, but patting wasn’t possible. My hand went straight *through* her.

“Unnie, that’s my temporal lobe you’re touching.”

“Aaaahhh!”

I yanked my hand out of her head and screamed.

“Whoa!”

Another yell sounded beside me—the Duke’s voice. I turned my head, mouth gaping, and saw him, his pupils shaking wildly.

“Big brother. That older sister can see me too!”

The little girl scampered over and stopped in front of the duke’s desk. Small as she was, she hopped up and down, doing her best to catch his attention. But the duke remained frozen, staring down at the papers. I too stiffly turned my head and buried my face back in the book.

“You never even answer me when I talk. And I know you can see me! Come on, play with me a little!”

“Hallucinations occur when latent phenomena in the unconscious are visually reconstructed…”

I let my eyes drift back down the page, reading on.

“Aish. This is boring. I’m gonna go play outside and come back later! Later!”

When no one responded, the child’s interest seemed to fizzle out just as fast. Her footsteps tapped narrow and light as she spoke. I lifted my chin just enough to gauge the situation with my eyes. Through the doorway, I caught the retreating back of the little girl as she slipped out.

‘Ah… just as I thought. This book is garbage. As if there’s any room in my subconscious for something like that!’

She shoved the book to the edge of the desk, mulling it over. But there was still something holding her back from that conclusion. That girl had shown herself at such an early hour. If it wasn’t an illusion, it meant she was a ghost with absurdly strong energy—almost at the level of a divine beast. The more she thought about it, the more terrifying it became, didn’t it…?

I cast another glance toward the Duke. He must have clearly felt my gaze, but he pretended not to notice me.

You bastard. You never told me about this…!

But when I thought about it, there was also so much I hadn’t asked him.

I’d been so swept away by the money I hadn’t had a single second to think straight. Yeah. For now, I just had to tough it out. 2,500 florins… 2,500 florins… What moves me is those 2,500 florins!

* * *

The Duke didn’t assign me any more tasks after that, so I let the time slip by, worrying about when the little girl ghost might reappear, stubbornly trying to read a book that refused to make sense. The sun set before long, and at some point, I sensed a cold draft rising—the same eerie chill I’d felt when I first stepped into this manor.

My eyes darted toward the Duke. Whether from the kinship of sharing the ability to see ghosts or something else, having him in my line of sight strangely eased my mind. But then, I saw black smoke curling up from behind him. It swelled larger and larger, inflating like a balloon, wrapping around his head and shoulders.

The time had finally come for the ordinary ghosts to show themselves. I turned my gaze back to the table. The green-eyed boy had already appeared and was sitting there, just like yesterday, in the same spot, swinging his legs in turn.

“Kyaaah!”

The blonde-haired girl came bursting into the room with a shriek. I flinched, but pretended nothing was wrong, turning to the next page. The girl circled the room a couple of times before sitting down next to the boy.

“Theo. You’re not red today.”

“……”

“You don’t look hot today! That’s good!”

“……”

She babbled on like that for a while. Even though the boy called Theo kept his lips sealed, making a real conversation impossible, her tone was lively, almost excited.

“Hey, that older sister over there can see us too. You know that?”

Then, out of nowhere, she brought me up.

Ugh. Hey… don’t talk about me…

“Let’s go see her too.”

Don’t do that either…

I buried my head in my book.

<The view that even irrational processes must be included as art has recently become a newly emerging topic…>

Reading the basic conceptual history of the philosophy of art wasn’t half bad. Not that it was fun, but it did throw up some topics worth chewing over. The broader your thinking, the better. To be wise, you need to think a lot.

“Noona noona noona noona noona noona!”

Ha…

I lifted my eyes slightly at the ruckus. The blonde girl had dragged the boy right up to my desk. They stood side by side, staring up at me. For a second, my eyes met the girl’s. But I quickly looked down, pretending to read again.

<How can art be defined…>

“This noona is pretending not to see me too.”

“……”

“So does that oppa¹!”

The girl huffed.

“Theo. Let’s go ask that oppa for a cookie.”

Yeah. Go away, quick.

Only after I heard their footsteps retreat did I check the situation again. The kids were now making a fuss in front of the Duke.

“Oppa oppa oppa oppa oppa oppa!”

The girl called, but the Duke didn’t even stir. It crossed my mind that maybe he wasn’t a workaholic; maybe he was just burying himself in work to distract himself from this creepy situation. The same way I’d been forcing myself through a boring-ass philosophy book just a moment ago.

Fortunately, after that, the little ghosts played nicely among themselves. Maybe because we ignored them, they didn’t bother or scare me or the Duke. When the Butler brought a plate of cookies and set them on the table, they scampered over like normal kids and sat side by side in front of it. And now, they were lying sprawled on the floor, whispering to each other.

“Miss Ha-yeon. It’s time, you should head back now.”

The Duke said. I’d done absolutely nothing but read a boring book all day, and now it was quitting time. If there’s no work again tomorrow, I’d better bring my own book. I didn’t want to just keep reading philosophy.

I bowed to the Duke and left the room. But thinking back, this place was home to a ghost with no clear form. It didn’t seem dangerous, but two little ghosts were also babbling and playing. Worse, one of them was incredibly strong.

Was it really okay to leave the Duke behind like this?

“Your Grace, should I stay a little longer?”

“There’s no need for overtime. It’s late—go rest.”

He replied flatly. Honestly, I’d only asked out of politeness. With a mental ‘yes,’ I yanked the door open. Goodbye, Your Grace. I’m clocking out, shaking off the ghosts’ chains and binds.

But the moment I opened the door, a button stitched onto worn fabric caught my eye. It didn’t take long to realize what it was. Someone was standing right in front of me, and I was staring at their chest. I blinked, then slowly lifted my head along the line of cracked buttons. Neatly aligned buttons traced from the chest up to the collar. And above that—where a head should have been—there was nothing.

Bang—

I slammed the door shut on instinct.

What the hell? Another ghost? I thought there were only three in this room?!

A sinking realization hit me. This felt like a total scam. They should’ve at least told me how many ghosts there were, not just thrown money at it, right? That damn Duke—and he has the same ghost-seeing eyes, too!

Knock, knock.

Suddenly, a knock came from outside the door.

“Aaaah!”

“Ahh!”

I screamed, a chill racing down my spine, thinking that headless ghost had knocked. For the record, the one who screamed along with me was the Duke. He looks all cold and composed on the surface, but he’s a total coward.

“What seems to be the matter?”

The butler opened the door and asked, seeing me standing there. Luckily, it seemed he was the one who knocked. I let out a small sigh of relief. Then I looked up at him again. In that instant, my whole body went rigid.

The butler’s body was overlapping with a ghost, passing right through it. Their shoulders were at a similar height, but since the ghost was slightly ahead, it looked almost like the butler’s head was perched on the ghost’s body.

“B-b-butler, p-p-please step out here.”

I grabbed the butler’s coattail and pulled him forward. He followed me a few steps, finally breaking free from the ghost’s form entirely.

“It seems something happened?”

“Yes. Just now—a headless… a ghost with no head!”

I answered his question in a trembling voice. Then I leaned to the side to look behind him. Thankfully, the ghost had already vanished. I quickly straightened up and looked up at him.

“Butler-nim. I need to clock out—I’m really sorry, but could you please walk me to my room?”

“Wait. Handel.”

The Duke cut into my words, suddenly urgent.

“…….”

“…….”

“……Don’t go…….”

After a long stretch of silence, he spoke again in a voice barely above a whisper. Pretending otherwise, he was clearly still afraid of being left alone. The butler seemed startled for a moment, his gaze flicking toward the Duke’s direction before turning back to me. He appeared to be weighing the decision.

No, Butler-nim. No. Please, choose me…….