Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Part 2: The Child in the Closet

The room was spacious enough. As if to prove someone had lived here, it was furnished with a bed, a wardrobe, a table, a sofa—plenty of furniture. I walked over to the display cabinet and ran my fingertips across its surface. Thick dust greeted my touch, as though the place had been abandoned for a long time.

“Is this your friend’s room?”

“Yeah.”

“Did your friend live here?”

“Yeah.”

“Then, is your friend’s last name by any chance Cuvershaiden?”

“Hmm… I think so.”

The child answered. I took another look around the room. My eyes landed on a dressing table cluttered with intricately carved ornaments. A necklace set with what looked like expensive jewels lay carelessly on top of it.

A woman’s room, I thought.

That confirmed one suspicion. I really had walked into the wrong place. It seemed best to leave now, while I still could.

“My friend and I used to play here. But my friend doesn’t move anymore, so we don’t play here. But it’s okay. You can play with me, Unnie.”

“Playing’s fine, but can we do it somewhere else instead of… What are you doing?”

I turned to look at the child and froze. She had shoved her entire upper body into the wardrobe, leaving only her lower half visible. She wriggled around as if searching for something. Then, something thudded onto the floor beneath the wardrobe.

“Unnie, look at this.”

“What is it?”

I flattened myself against the floor to check what had fallen. It was a thick notebook.

“My friend used to tell me lots of stories while looking at this. But I can’t hear them anymore.”

Listening to the child, I pulled the notebook out and examined it closely. Its red leather cover was faded, weathered by time like an old scar. It looked like a very old object.

* * *

The duke slept for quite a long time. He lay there without a twitch, almost like—no, I wasn’t sure if the comparison was fitting, but it was almost as if he were lying in a coffin. He seemed so deeply asleep that I hesitated to wake him. So I sat on the opposite side of the bed and just stared at him, my gaze fixed. Whether he felt my eyes on him or not, he soon blinked awake.

“You’re up?”

“Yeah.”

He sat up and pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. I walked to the window and drew back the curtains again. Outside, the sky was already growing dusky.

“I slept without any interruption. How did you manage that?”

The duke asked.

“Your Grace, actually… I think I entered your mother’s room while playing with that child.”

But I brought up a different topic instead of answering his question.

“And I saw a notebook that child pulled out for me… I’m sorry.”

Then I stepped closer to him and held out the notebook wrapped in its red cover. He took it from me with one hand.

“Ah, this. No wonder I couldn’t see it.”

He muttered under his breath, then set the notebook down on the table.

“It’s fine. Nothing important. And there wasn’t anything strange written in it, was there?”

“Your Grace. Do all the ghosts listed in here live in this mansion?”

Ignoring his words, I pointed at the notebook and asked. In truth, moments ago, I’d uncovered a seemingly endless list of spirits within it—and among them, I’d found an entry about a green-eyed little boy.

〈Theo. Age four. Seems to like cookies, though he never eats them. Sometimes hides inside the wardrobe.〉

The description was brief, but it was more than enough to bring the ghost of Theo to mind. My thoughts churning, I flipped a bit further—and spotted a record about the blond-haired girl, too.

Both of them were spirits living in this mansion. So did that mean—every last ghost in that notebook resided here? That entire impossibly long list?

“……No. My mother would bring those beings here and send them back out, over and over. This is just the record of it.”

“Then—the over a hundred ghosts listed here aren’t all still in the mansion, right? Some of them were sent out?”

“……Yes.”

The Duke’s answer was clipped. That was a relief—but only barely.

“Your Grace. Then how many ghosts are still here, right now? Please, be honest with me.”

“……Seven of them.”

“……That many?”

“…….”

“Ah… um. Can I hand in my resignation?”

“……I already advanced your wages. No.”

The Duke’s voice was flat. I’d taken an advance so I could pay for my siblings’ room at the inn and fix our collapsed roof. Damn it. God. Lord. Crap! That past blunder was now shackling my present.

“Right. I know…….”

I dragged both hands down my face as I answered. Next month, I swore I’d find another job—somehow….

“But Your Grace. There was something striking written on the very first page of this notebook.”

“What?”

“Now I understand why your mother kept bringing them in and sending them out…… It says that a soul clinging too long to the Land of the Living will become an evil spirit if it can’t ascend. So she had to soothe those souls and help them ascend. That way, she could aid their reincarnation.”

I’d seen countless ghosts in my life, and a handful of evil spirits among them—though I’d always done my best to pretend not to see and steer clear. Nothing good ever came from acknowledging them, and it was terrifying besides. So I’d never known how a ghost became an evil spirit.

“That sounds like something my mother would always say.”

The Duke rose from his seat. I scrambled up awkwardly and grabbed his sleeve.

“Well… this feels a bit dangerous. If what you’re saying is true, that means seven ghosts are lingering here. If they turn into evil spirits while bound to this place, we’re in serious trouble.”

I didn’t know the process by which a ghost becomes an evil spirit, but I knew well how terrifying an evil spirit could be. They could intervene forcefully in the affairs of the living according to their will, and unlike mere powerful souls, they had no trouble harming people.

“Just get back to work.”

He returned to his desk and sat down. Telling me to work when he hadn’t even given me any work to do.

“Your Excellency. This isn’t something we can just brush aside…”

I followed him and stood before his desk.

“It’s all just stories born from my mother’s delusions. Reincarnation, evil spirits—do those even make sense?”

“You see ghosts yourself. So you do believe in ghosts, don’t you?”

“……”

“Your Excellency. Reincarnation is real. And just as ghosts exist, so do evil spirits.”

I was born through reincarnation—how could I not know? Besides, I remember my past life. Rebirth is given to everyone.

“Stop with such fanciful talk and go inside. Work.”

The duke hesitated for a moment before speaking. No. He’d been telling me to work since earlier. Give me work, then I’ll work. And you can see ghosts yourself, so you’re honestly scared. So why don’t you believe in evil spirits and reincarnation?

I pouted and walked over to my massive desk, sitting down.

Fine. Whatever. It’s none of my business. I’ll hand in my resignation in a month and get out. Whatever happens in this manor after that, I don’t care!

I went to the bookshelf behind me and pulled out something on art philosophy, or whatever. I needed to soothe this stifling feeling with philosophy.

* * *

“Laura! Laura! Are you in there?!”

Someone called my name and banged on the door. I woke from sleep and opened the door in a daze. Outside stood Sonia with a bewildered expression.

“What’s the matter?”

“Come out quick. They say there’s a fire in the madam’s room right now.”

‘Madam? Does she mean the Duke’s mother?’

As I stood there blankly, Sonia grabbed my wrist and yanked me out of the room. Then she sprinted down the corridor. I was dragged along without a moment to think.

“It doesn’t seem like a big fire, but just in case, we need to be careful. Let’s take a spot farthest from the madam’s room.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t worry. Just trust me.”

When Sonia led me there, the lady’s maids were clustered together, all in their nightclothes, looking like they’d just crawled out of bed. I tried to ask them what was going on, but there was no time. The head maid lined us up along the corridor without a word. And soon we were frantically passing buckets of water down the line. I took a bucket from Sonia on my left and handed it to another maid on my right. The buckets moved endlessly, disappearing into the distance. At the end of that line, I guessed, was the Madam’s room.

In the middle of it all, I suddenly recalled the Duke’s face—that always-calm expression of his.

Even a Duke would be sad if his mother’s room burned to ashes, wouldn’t he?

He was an expressionless man, the kind who only showed emotion when something truly terrifying happened. So even if all traces of his mother went up in flames, I didn’t think he’d weep or wail with grief. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t sad. A strange melancholy settled over me.

“Laura. If the fire doesn’t look like it’s going out, just run. If it doesn’t seem like it’ll die down for a while, we’ll all bolt together.”

Then Sonia whispered from beside me. That girl was really sharp. I nodded hard and answered.

“Yeah.”

The problem was that we’d been positioned too far from the Madam’s room to properly see how the fire was being put out. So I couldn’t tell when it’d be the right time to run.

“The fire’s out!”

Luckily, someone shouted not long after. That meant we didn’t have to sneak away while watching our backs. I let out a silent sigh of relief.

“Guess it wasn’t a big fire, so it went out fast.”

“Thank goodness.”

“Thought I was gonna lose my job.”

“Ugh. What’s all this, waking up in the middle of the night?”

The maids murmured, each adding their own two cents.

“Quiet, everyone. Go inside and rest. Now.”

The head maid cut them off, clamping down on the sudden commotion.

“Let’s just go in and sleep. I’m really tired.”

Sonia turned back to look at me as she said it. I agreed and exchanged goodnights with the others.

And so the maids returned to their rooms. I went back to mine too and lay down on the bed. My body was so exhausted it felt like I’d fall asleep any second, but somehow I couldn’t. The Duke’s face kept surfacing behind my eyelids. I was worried about him. Was he okay right now?