Chapter 51

In the end, I was the only one left in the mansion, while the party members went out to investigate.

Yoo Ju seemed to be concerned about me until the very end, but she couldn’t argue when she heard that the female guards would be assisting.

She just gave me a look as if to say she wouldn’t stay still if something happened to me.

With just the two of us left, the man and woman’s attitudes became more blatant.

“Huhu… You don’t have to worry too much about the party members. The guards will help with the investigation, so it won’t be dangerous.”

“……”

“By the way… When I have a one-on-one conversation, I find it more comfortable to sit next to the person. Would it be okay if I sat next to you?”

Without waiting for my answer, the woman sat down next to me and gave me a sly smile.

‘Sigh… Annoying.’

I started seriously considering whether to deal with this woman. Judging by her behavior, it seemed like she hadn’t done anything shady.

…. But the words coming out of my mouth were the complete opposite.

“Haha… I’m getting nervous with you sitting next to me, miss.”

“Oh my, can I take that as a compliment? Are you saying I’m that beautiful?”

“.. Of course.”

“Huhu… I like having conversations like this, sitting next to someone. It feels like we’re getting to know each other better.”

‘Crazy…’

As she spoke, she slowly stroked my thigh, which was ridiculous.

Even though I’m a member of a large clan, I’m still a newbie who hasn’t been in this world for long, and since she’s the daughter of a border lord, I couldn’t treat her carelessly, which annoyed me.

“Haha… Is that so? By the way… Didn’t you say there was something I could help with? What was it…?”

“Right now, I’d rather just talk… It’s not urgent anyway.”

‘Take your hand off, damn it…’

I grabbed the woman’s hand, which was slowly moving upward, and spoke up.

“Miss… Your hands are quite beautiful.”

“…Ah.”

The woman seemed surprised that I had grabbed her hand, as if she hadn’t expected it.

“They say hands reflect a person’s heart. People with beautiful hands tend to have beautiful hearts.”

It was nonsense to stop her hand, but judging by her expression, she seemed moved. If my words were true, then all the laborers doing dirty work would have terrible personalities. In other words, it was just nonsense.

I wanted to tear my mouth for spouting such nonsense, but I had no choice. I needed to divert her attention elsewhere.

“That’s right. That’s why those with dirty bodies… Ah..!”

She seemed to realize her mistake and covered her mouth with both hands, glancing at me.

Whether it was because she had never done anything dirty or not, she seemed to have a twisted mindset.

This was a golden opportunity for me. It was the perfect timing to divert her attention and make her think I empathized with her.

‘Well, since she’s the daughter of a border lord, it wouldn’t hurt to gain her favor. Maybe I can use her somewhere.’

“There’s no need to be cautious. I also frown when I see people who don’t take care of themselves or are dirty. It’s a natural human instinct, isn’t it?”

Well, half of that statement is actually true. Humans value appearance more than any other creature.

For example, on Earth, even though insects are beneficial, people stomp on them just because they look disgusting. So, my statement isn’t entirely wrong.

“….. That, that’s…”

“People with beautiful hearts, like you, miss, are always beautiful on the outside too.”

If I play my cards right, I might be able to use this woman. After all, she’s the precious daughter of a border lord, with a high status… There’s a possibility she could help me in various ways.

‘It wouldn’t be bad to manipulate her and use her later.’

This empty-headed woman can be discarded after use. She’s of no use to me except for her status.

“Y-yes. People with dirty hearts are dirty on the outside too. You’re absolutely right.”

‘Crazy woman… I didn’t say it like that, you idiot.’

Watching her overinterpret my words made me want to laugh out loud.

I don’t know why she’s being so friendly to me, but… well, it’s probably because of my looks, but whatever. It was amusing to see her respond so positively to my words.

“Haha… It seems like we really understand each other, miss.”

“I feel the same way, Lee Yun-seong. Maybe… we can understand more than just our hearts?”

‘Crazy… What is she talking about?’

I don’t know what she means by “more than our hearts,” but her words, while scanning my body, instinctively made me feel repulsed.

“Haha… By the way, miss. Could you show me around the mansion? I’m curious about the mansion you live in.”

‘Let’s take a look around the mansion first.’

******

Anyway, while touring the mansion and spending time with the woman, the party members who had gone out to investigate returned the next day.

Now, we were all together in the assigned guest room. There was a large living room and individual rooms.

Originally, a woman named Tierra had gone crazy and tried to assign my room close to hers, but I strongly objected. I was afraid of what might happen at night.

“Yoon Seong. Nothing happened while we were gone, right…?”

“Yes. Nothing happened. Were you all okay?”

I didn’t mention the personal interactions I had with the woman. I wasn’t that clueless.

“Yes… We went out to investigate, but nothing happened, which was surprising.”

“Is that so?”

“Bro, don’t even mention it. A few ghouls showed up, and that was it. The guards at the mansion could have handled it easily…”

‘…. So nothing happened at all?’

As I remained silent, Kang I-seo spoke to me.

“Hey, by the way, did that woman do anything weird to you?”

“Ah… She treated me well. She seemed like a nice person.”

The word “nice person” seemed to bother Kang I-seo, as she frowned and spoke up.

“Oh really? A nice person? Hah… That woman was flirting with you, and you fell for it already?”

“… What are you talking about?”

“Damn it, anyone could see she was flirting. Hey, don’t fall for that kind of woman. From what I can tell, she’s a total slut.”

“……”

I couldn’t argue with the “slut” comment. The woman’s status window was proof of that.

“Yoon Seong, I agree. It’s better not to get too close to her. She doesn’t seem like a good person.”

“Right! Right! See, I told you!”

‘What a surprise, the two of them agree.’

“Someone as pure as Yoon Seong might not understand, but she’s definitely a sly woman.”

Kang I-seo looked at Yoo Ju with disbelief when she called me pure.





I saw it.

“……”

I couldn’t even lift my head because I was so embarrassed. I was a person who was light-years away from being pure.

‘…What the hell did I do to Yoo Ju in the first round?’

I couldn’t believe that Yoo Ju was under the illusion that I was pure, given whatever relationship we had in the first round.

“By the way, Mr. Yoon Seong, what did you do at the mansion? The lady said she had something to entrust to you. If it’s something difficult…”

‘Sigh… I wish it was something difficult.’

“…We just talked.”

“…Huh?”

“…I just talked with the lady, and she showed me around the mansion. That was it. There was nothing worth calling work.”

Everyone who heard me just stood there dumbfounded.

Kang I-seo spoke up, sounding shocked.

“What are you talking about?”

“…Literally, we just chatted. She didn’t ask me to do anything.”

“Sigh… That crazy woman… She must be really determined to seduce you. Hey, did you do something?”

“…Do something?”

“Come on, does that make sense? Aren’t you two meeting for the first time? No matter how wild she is, how could she act like that with a guy she just met? It doesn’t make sense.”

‘I’m more curious, damn it…’

“Damn it, I didn’t do anything. I don’t know either.”

“Crazy… Do you need to get plastic surgery or something?”

“…..”

‘That’s a bit…’

I quickly changed the subject.

“…By the way, Ms. Yoo Ju. Are you going to investigate again tomorrow?”

“Yes. The request was to identify the cause, so I plan to look into it as much as possible. The lady told me to rest today.”

‘…It’s actually more of a headache because nothing happened.’

The fact that nothing happened made me even more uneasy. Last night, I retrieved the chimera and listened to the conversation, but there was nothing noteworthy.

Since only a day has passed, nothing strange has come up yet, but the maid Charis’s daily routine was extremely ordinary. She just had casual conversations with some of the mansion’s staff.

Still, the good thing is that in three days, I can join the investigation.

“Ms. Yoo Ju. In three days, I’ll join the investigation.”

“Really? The lady…”

“The lady has a schedule starting in three days, so I think I can join the investigation from then.”

“Alright. Then let’s go investigate together in three days.”

******

“Hmm… There’s really nothing here.”

We went deep into the forest, but all we encountered were a few ghouls. Even though it’s almost evening, we haven’t found anything particularly unusual.

“Yes. We haven’t found anything unusual so far either.”

“Did you ask the residents of the territory?”

“We asked a few residents, but… there was nothing different from what we heard. Nothing special…”

“…I see.”

“Yes. So today, we plan to go a bit deeper.”

“Hmm…”

“Brother, sister! Over here…!”

As we went deeper into the forest, Hyeon-jin called us, having found something.

“This is…”

When we approached, we saw a sinister-looking decoration. It was clearly not normal—animal bones with unknown characters carved into them and a dead crow skewered on a stick.

“This… looks like a decoration used for some evil ritual.”

“…We didn’t come this far last time, so we didn’t find this…”

“Is this your first time coming here?”

“Yes. Last time, we investigated in a different direction…”

“……”

As we moved further from where we found the decoration, we found more of the same type at regular intervals.

While others just thought it was the same decoration appearing again, to me, it looked like markers for a path.

“Ms. Yoo Ju, doesn’t this look like it’s marking a path?”

“…I was just thinking the same thing.”

“Brother, a path?”

“Ha-eun, we’ve found quite a few decorations so far, right? But they appear at regular intervals. Doesn’t it look like they’re marking a path?”

“Ah… Now that you mention it, it does…”

I had an idea and asked Ha-eun for a favor.

“Ha-eun, can you summon a spirit?”

“A spirit?”

She seemed puzzled by the request to summon a spirit. Since no monsters had appeared, it was natural to wonder why I was asking for a spirit.

“Spirits are fundamentally good beings, right? If this place is related to some dark magic or has something strange, wouldn’t the spirit react?”

“Ah, now that you say it, that makes sense. Just a moment.”

Ha-eun finished speaking and immediately summoned a wind spirit.

“How is it? Do you feel anything?”

“…Hmm, the spirit seems a bit more uncomfortable than usual. It’s not severe, but it feels a bit uneasy.”

That’s enough.

“Good. Keep the spirit summoned. And ask if there’s a place the spirit is avoiding. Ask if there’s a direction it feels uneasy about.”

I heard that spirit masters can communicate minimally with the spirits they summon.

The more skilled the spirit master, the more detailed the communication, but even as a beginner, Song Ha-eun should be able to understand the spirit’s general feelings.

“…I didn’t think of that. Uh… It seems to be this direction.”

Song Ha-eun immediately started guiding us, and as we continued to move, the frequency of those sinister decorations increased.

‘Damn… Is this really an easy request?’

Automatically, the maid Charis from the mansion came to mind.

‘…Could it be her doing?’

The problem is that it’s strange for her to be the culprit.

If she were the culprit, she wouldn’t have come on an errand, even if the lady she serves is the client.

‘What the hell is going on… Damn it…’

As we followed the strange decorations deeper into the forest, at some point, Song Ha-eun showed a strange reaction.