Chapter 90

Chapter 90

Back in my room, sprawled out on the bed, I cried out as if talking to myself.

“This is a dilemma!”

I could understand why the Duke was worried. But for my part, I wanted to send every ghost in the Cuvershaiden estate to ascension.

“If they can’t ascend, they don’t even get a chance at reincarnation…”

The Madam must have desperately wished for her friend’s ascension as well. Her notebook was crammed tight with her agonizing over ‘Karina Bandark.’ And that included her worry for her friend, bound to the land of the living.

“So… what do I do now…?”

I knitted my brows, arms crossed, deep in thought. Then I grabbed the Madam’s notebook from beside the pillow, perched on the edge of the bed, and flipped it open. I began reading down the pages of the unfinished entry on 〈Karina Bandark〉.

〈11/2. Diena invited me over. I’m worried — her depression has worsened since her sister died.〉

〈11/4. Diena said she’d brought back some of her sister’s belongings. But Luka was attached to one of them. It was an unusual picture frame. A painting expressed only in colors, with no clear forms — Karina had loved it. Was it because she loved it that he felt some attachment to it? Maybe that’s why Luka got bound to that painting.〉

〈Anyway, I couldn’t leave an object with a ghost attached to it as it was, so I took it. Luckily, Diena readily handed the painting over to me. She said she felt like something was off about it. It seems Diena could sense Luka’s presence too.〉

Huh? Was this referring to that painting hanging in the corridor?

From what I’d read so far, yes. An unusual painting, a work expressed only in colors with no clear forms. That sounded unmistakably like that abstract painting at the end of the corridor. If so, that ghost with the sunken eyes must be Luka. With a tense feeling, I rifled through the notebook further and found a page with 《Luka》 as a subtitle.

〈He’s a child Karina brought in from the streets when she was young. After Karina died, he attached himself to a painting she loved in life. But Luka keeps tilting that painting. And every time I straighten it, he appears before it.〉

〈Luka doesn’t seem unconscious. But still, he doesn’t answer my questions. It was the same when I brought up Karina. Can he not speak? Or does he choose not to? Either way, at this rate, I can’t find any way to make him ascend. Times like this, I wish I could look inside their heads.〉

Madam! I can do that — look into those memories!

But even though I could, it was no longer possible. I wouldn’t be able to let ghosts possess my body anymore. So instead, I needed another safe way to help them ascend.

‘So that ghost in the painting really is Luka, isn’t it?’

If that was the case, I figured it would be better to continue the conversation with him that had failed before. Strike while the iron was hot—I got up right away, stepped out of the room, and hurried to where the painting hung.

The painting still hung there, crooked as ever. I reached out and straightened it, and as if it were the most natural thing in the world, Luka revealed himself.

“Um… Luka…?”

I called his name, my heart tense. He turned to look at me with a hollow face. His gaze seemed to say, ‘You again?’ He stared at me sharply like that. But soon, as if annoyed, he averted his eyes and quietly tilted the picture frame. Then he began to fade away again.

No. If this kept up, I’d just have to repeat the cycle of calling him out over and over.

“Uh. Um. Hey!”

Watching his figure grow faint, I quickly scrambled for words that might hold him.

What had Madam said in the notebook? That even when he brought up his master’s story, he hadn’t given any answer? So what was the right thing to say?

Maybe…

“Um, the painting! The painting! It’s quite impressive, isn’t it? Who’s the artist…? Do you know?”

How about this?

Luka had an incredibly strong attachment to that painting—so strong he clung to it even in death. So if I wanted to get his attention, talking about that painting might be the most sensible approach.

“…….”

Luckily, my judgment seemed correct. He didn’t disappear right away, just turned to look at me wordlessly.

“Luka! Please help Lady Bandark ascend!”

In that moment, I hastily blurted out the real reason.

“No. Wait. Wait, don’t disappear! That—I mean… uh… Do you know she’s here?! Try meeting her, talking to her. The reason she’s lingering in the land of the living is because of you! So can’t you let go of that attachment to the painting and go see her? Or, or I could move the painting to where she is. After she ascends, I’ll help you ascend too!”

“…….”

Then he started to open his mouth as if to speak. From the corners of his lips came the rustling, crumbling sound of half-dried earth breaking apart. A moment later, his long tongue flopped down and dropped outside his mouth. The sight was terrifying to the point of horror. I had to cling to my sanity and force my trembling legs to hold beneath me.

“Right. They said this man was hanged……”

A shiver ran through my entire body, goosebumps prickling my skin. Every sentence I had prepared to persuade him bleached white in my mind, vanished.

I got ahead of myself back there. I knew it’d be scary, yet I ran here alone! You fool, Laura Highen! Sometimes you have no plan at all!

Regret now was too late. I swallowed back tears and strained with all my might to think of something—anything—to say to him.

“Oh—or, do you want to tell your story first? Is there something you want?”

“…….”

At my question, he cranked his neck with a creak, twisting his head. Following the motion, I saw his long, dangling tongue sway with it.

Damn. Is it because of that tongue that he can’t speak?

The situation felt like it was getting harder by the second. If he couldn’t talk, I’d need another way to communicate. I spun my mind fast, grasping at the first idea that came, and blurted it out.

“Do—do you think you could hold something like a pen? You can move a picture frame, right? How about we talk that way? Uh…… there’s also the option of me reading your memory, but right now, circumstances are a bit……”

“…….”

But Luka still didn’t answer. No—he didn’t even make a single gesture toward answering. He simply stared at me in silence. Then, at some point, he grabbed his own tongue and began stuffing it back into his mouth, cramming it in inch by inch. At the grotesque sight, my entire body froze solid in an instant.

And then it happened. Luka suddenly thrust his face right in front of mine. Startled by the abruptness, I felt like my heart might leap out of my chest, and I squeezed my eyes shut. When I opened them again, I was standing in a street where dust was rising in a hazy cloud. The situation was so surreal it felt like falling into a dream.

‘What is this?’

I tried to look around, sensing something was wrong, but my body wouldn’t move the way I commanded. At the strange sensation, I finally realized I was peering into Luka’s memory.

But I was still wearing the locket with the ‘Eye of the Sun’ around my neck. And yet, I’d gone into an unintended possession again.

‘No, wait—Priest? You fraud?!’

The ‘Eye of the Sun’ is a jewel worth how much, and it has no effect at all?!

A headache was starting to pound behind his eyes. The last thing he wanted was to collapse right here in the Cuvershaiden corridor and have the duke find him. If that happened, he’d be drowning in the man’s concern for sure. A surge of resentment toward the priest climbed all the way up to his throat.

Then —

A light footstep reached his ears. A moment later, a tiny shoe trimmed with a ribbon bow stepped into his field of vision. Through Luka’s eyes, he looked up at its owner. A little girl who couldn’t have been more than ten stood there, dressed in a gown crowded with flowers and ribbons. Her delicate features made her look impossibly cute.

“…….”

She just stared at him without a word. But then, as if she’d lost interest, she turned and walked away. Luka’s gaze followed her. She went straight to the road and was about to climb into a carriage nearly as ornate as herself.

“I’m hungry……”

Luka watched her and mumbled to himself.

“Hung……ry……”

The child’s small voice rang out as if echoing. Come to think of it, his stomach was twisting with a sharp ache. He must have skipped meals for a long time. So he clutched at his hungry belly.

Then, all at once, he sprang to his feet and started running toward the girl. But his legs kept wobbling, and before he could even reach the carriage, he crashed to the ground with a thud. His face slammed hard into the earth, making the tip of his nose sting. He could even feel hot liquid trickling from inside his nostrils.

“Ugh……”

Luka groaned softly in pain and forced his head up. Through the carriage’s square window, he saw the girl watching him without any expression. She held his gaze for a moment, then called for her attendants to bring him over. They immediately approached Luka, grabbed him by both arms, and hoisted him to his feet.

“Will you come with us?”

One of them asked him. When Luka nodded, they grabbed hold of him and shoved him into a rough-looking luggage cart. Without resistance, he crawled inside the cart and curled up among the baggage, making himself small.

The scene shifted. Now he was busily sweeping fallen leaves from a wide garden. At some point, he straightened his back and stretched his stiff body. A grand white mansion came into view.

He began rolling his eyes here and there, as if searching for something. Then he stopped, his gaze fixed on a window on the first floor. The girl was there. She had grown now, sitting quietly and reading a book.

Suddenly, a surging emotion rose from deep within his heart.