Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 293

293.

“So, someone was murdered in this mansion?”

Perhaps because of the arduous time he had endured, Acel’s attitude toward the lesson was beyond reverent, almost solemn. His eyes, shining with concentration, fully revealed the joy of achieving what he desired. Thanks to this, a bizarre situation was created where he spoke of a heavy incident involving a death with a very joyful expression. Still, seeing him quickly compose himself, it seemed he was aware of that fact.

“Actually, I thought there was something this time too. I’ve never seen it buried in such a creepy and extensive form before. Until now, at worst, only a part was dirty. But blood smeared all over the place. You have no idea how surprised I was.”

“I know. You threw up as soon as we arrived.”

“Ahem, please forget that embarrassing memory. It was a conditioned reflex; I couldn’t help it. The smell of rotten blood was too nauseating to bear. It’s the same even now.”

“You can smell it too?”

“Yes, can’t you two?”

“I’m not affected to that extent. Sibyl probably isn’t either, right?”

“Yeah.”

When I turned to check, Sibelius, who was next to me, nodded immediately. Lapis had gone outside long ago, annoyed that he couldn’t join the conversation.

“What does it mean to not be affected?”

“It means that the smell is a kind of hallucination caused by thoughts. Maybe that’s what you call phantosmia [a phantom smell]? Doesn’t the smell only occur in places you can see?”

“Ah, now that you mention it…….”

Acel, muttering to himself, had an expression of great realization. He didn’t hide his envious look.

“You must be really lucky. To be honest, enduring the smell is harder than seeing it. Other things are bearable, but when I smell something rotten or vomit, I can’t stand being there for a second. It’s almost a disaster.”

“……Ugh, that sounds terrible just hearing it.”

Vomit smell. Just thinking about it made my stomach churn. I had expected it to be difficult, but I never imagined there would be such ordeals. Indeed, no matter how concretely a person who hasn’t been in that situation imagines it, it can’t compare to the actual experience. If I had only felt sorry until now, this time I stared at Acel with respect. He managed to grow up so well without becoming twisted in such an environment. If a commoner like him is assisting the Crown Prince of the Empire, he must have worked very hard. Thinking about that made him look even more admirable.

“But the blood smell in this mansion is more painful than those foul odors. It’s so terrible that it doesn’t go away even if I drink alcohol. I felt like I was covered in blood all the time.”

While reminiscing, Acel shuddered, his face showing disgust.

“I thought it was just a trace of evil spirits, but it was the resentment of a dead person. Knowing the story makes it even more terrible. How could they kill a child in such a cruel way to leave such a horrific form behind?”

“It probably wasn’t a pleasant method…… But a child, you say?”

“Yes, isn’t the victim a child?”

“Well, I don’t know that far.”

The investigation into the victim has just begun. We are only at the stage of identifying whether there are any missing persons. Of course, I didn’t know the gender, let alone the age.

“Why do you think so, Acel?”

“Because I think I saw it.”

“Saw it? The victim?”

I looked at him, bewildered, and Acel nodded with a troubled face.

“That filth, I mean, the thoughts. When you go to a place where it’s buried, ghosts often appear. They show different forms in each place, but here it was the appearance of a child. Until now, I thought it was just evil spirits imitating the appearance of a person, but now that I think about it, I wonder if that’s the victim’s appearance.”

“……! That makes sense.”

Although it’s just residue, the thoughts themselves are traces left by the soul. It was possible that it could project the appearance of the person when they were alive when causing hallucinations. Sibelius and I were not affected by the thoughts, so we couldn’t know that part. Sibelius also added with a look of interest.

“If that’s the case, since it’s also leaving resentment, it could be projecting the appearance of the perpetrator instead. The last memory the soul saw would have been imprinted.”

“Oh, that’s true too. But isn’t it unlikely that a child would be the perpetrator?”

“Even if they didn’t kill directly, they could have caused it. At least they were at the scene of the murder.”

“Hmm.”

I never thought I would get such valuable information in this way. My heart pounded as I thought I was getting closer to the truth.

“Can you tell me everything you know, Acel? What does that child look like exactly?”

“I don’t know the appearance well. Judging from the height and build, at most, maybe early teens, and seeing that the hair was long, I guess the gender is a girl?”

“Have you ever seen the face?”

“No, unfortunately. I only see a leg passing by when I’m sleeping, or hear laughter. If I turn around when I feel a gaze, they run away quickly, so I’ve only properly seen the back.”

……Isn’t that almost a horror movie level?

Unlike the calm tone, the more I thought about the content, the more chilling the production was, and cold sweat flowed involuntarily. Acel seemed to have no thoughts because he was already used to it.

“Weren’t you scared?”

“I am scared. A while ago, I heard a strange scratching sound. I inadvertently looked up and saw red handprints rapidly being imprinted on the ceiling. From those marks, drops of blood dripped and soaked my crown and forehead. I was so horrified that I couldn’t move, and a small hand crawled out next to my face and groped my cheek.”

“Gasp…….”

“I couldn’t stand it and screamed, and it disappeared right away. But that sensation wasn’t erased. It was so terrible that I drank like crazy that day.”

You know the result, so I won’t say more. Acel finished his explanation with a resigned smile. I recalled his appearance of hiding in bed like a 폐인 [a recluse or shut-in]. It seemed that the horror experience he had just confessed was what he had experienced right before that.

“……I’m sorry for making you remember a bad memory.”

“No. When I didn’t know the cause, I was just scared, but now I know the identity. Rather, I’m glad that my experience can be a clue. Should I go out to the hallway now and properly experience the hallucination? I’ll try to see the face this time.”

“Gasp, no! You don’t have to go that far.”

“I’m really okay…… Ah, now that I think about it, that girl. She was wearing a dress with lace and embroidery. The hair color seemed to be dark blonde. In some ways, it seemed closer to light brown.”

“Lace and embroidery dress? Doesn’t seem like a working child.”

Sibelius, who had been listening to the conversation silently, muttered in a passing tone. What I paid attention to was the next part. Luxurious clothes. A girl in her early teens. And dark blonde close to brown…… As soon as I thought that far, my brow furrowed without me realizing it.

“……I just had a very bad thought.”

“What is it, El?”

I felt Acel and Sibelius staring at me side by side. Even with their gazes waiting for an answer, I couldn’t speak right away. I nervously swept my hair back and sighed.

“The daughters of Count Bannon. Their hair color was all golden brown.”

* * *

The three sisters, called the flowers of the Bannon family, were quiet and shy. I thought Alisa would get along well with them since they were the same woman and the same age, but they didn’t get along very well. The only time they spent together was when they had tea time or light conversations with only women, under the supervision of the Countess. It wasn’t like they were being rude or hurting each other’s feelings. Rather, they tried to be friendly with each other, but the distance didn’t narrow well. Like water and oil, they were the type who couldn’t get along because their innate nature was different. That was all I knew about them.

“The Count’s daughters?”

Eyes that seemed to be dyed with deep orange blinked greatly. I nodded to Alisa, who was looking at me as if I was asking something out of the blue.

“Yeah, Alisa. What do you think of those sisters?”

“Why all of a sudden?”

“Just because. They say women see other women better. I’m curious about your evaluation.”

“Hmm.”

Alisa made a face that was openly suspicious, but soon pondered as if organizing her thoughts. Unlike the expectation that a smooth evaluation would come out, Alisa’s answer that followed was intense from the first word.

“First of all, the first one is a fox. A complete femme fatale [an attractive and manipulative woman].”

“Really?”

“Really. That woman, she doesn’t look like it, but she actually has huge ambitions, you know? She’s been hitting on Isana a lot. I don’t know if that woman instigated the Countess or if the Countess is leading it. Anyway, the two of them go to Isana and ask for tea time. I’ve witnessed it more than five times already.”

“Is that so? I had no idea.”

“El, you’ve been wandering around alone these days. Of course you wouldn’t know. Anyway, I really don’t like that woman. It’s too obvious that she’s coveting Isana because she’s unmarried. But you know what’s even funnier? She hits on Raonhizen the Crown Prince just as many times as she hits on Isana.”

“Huh?”

“She seems to have roughly guessed his identity by looking at the Crown Prince’s hair color. She’s leaning back and forth like scales on both hands, but she’s amazingly good at balancing. It’s so annoying to watch. So every time I find her leaning, I join in and sabotage her.”

“Puhaha, that’s like you. You’re doing a good job. Then what about the second one?”

“The second one is a scatterbrain. She seems to like all handsome men. She chased after Lapis, then she chased after Sibyl, then she chased after the Crown Prince. She’s so busy all day.”

“I, is that so?”

“She especially follows Lapis a lot. She even tried to send a love letter a while ago, but she got caught by the Count and got scolded.”

“……Huh.”

Everything was news to me. We spent the same time together, but the parts we experienced and witnessed were so different. I felt like I had come from another world.

“Let’s say the first one is going through puberty. Isn’t the second one in her early teens? She’s still a child. Does she already write love letters at that age?”

“What are you talking about like an old person? Nobles get engaged and married at that age, you know?”

“Hmm. Well, Alisa, you’re also in your early teens.”

And she is also in the middle of a battle of nerves between two men, caught up in a grand whirlpool called fate. The reason why their relationship is peaceful now is probably because Alisa is still young. When I remembered a new fact, Alisa’s eyes turned fierce at once.

“I’m fourteen now since my birthday passed, you know? So you should see it as mid-teens.”

“Still a kid though.”

“So what. You got a problem with that?”

“Ahaha, no. Then what about the third one? Is she about ten years old now?”

“She’s probably still nine years old. She’s really a child. But I think she’s the best of the three. She has a lot of aegyo [acting cute], she’s kind to everyone, and she smiles a lot. She’s a spoiled child who only follows the Countess around because she’s the youngest. But she seems to have a good personality.”

“Is that so?”

I rested my chin on one hand and fell into thought. The age of the girl in the hallucination is at most in her early teens. Under the premise that she is the perpetrator, the first one, who is clearly a young lady, is excluded (although Alisa seems to hate her the most). The second and third ones were applicable to be considered as suspects. Among them, what I paid the most attention to was the youngest, the third one. There wasn’t really a special reason. It was because that girl said she wanted to become a 마신관 [Majingwan, a wish-granting witch].

“……A witch who grants wishes. That’s aiming to become a 마신관, you said.”

From the first time I heard it, that story kept bothering me. After thinking that a young girl might be involved in the thoughts of the mansion, I naturally thought of the Count’s third daughter first.

A noble young lady who dreams of becoming a 마신관. She will be active in exchanges with the temple, and there is a high possibility that she knows many priests. Everyone would have easily opened their hearts to a young priest aspirant. If there was a priest with a real 문장 [divine mark or symbol] among them?

The Count’s third daughter is just a nine-year-old child. She was easily swayed by rumors that weren’t a big deal, and she was old enough to be stubborn out of curiosity. Perhaps because of that, the 마신관 was caught in the devil’s trap, and she may have died in front of the child’s eyes.

‘But the ordinary description bothers me.’

Alisa’s evaluation was that the third one was the most ordinary. She wasn’t sensitive or gloomy, and she seemed to have a cheerful and lovely personality without any wrinkles. Could a child who witnessed a terrible murder scene be doing so well?

In fact, golden brown hair is relatively common in the Swalt Empire. Even if it’s not the daughters of Count Bannon, if you dig a little deeper, you can find as many people as you want who could be suspects. Of course, there was a high possibility that the hallucination itself was an illusion. Maybe I’m pointing in a completely wrong direction from the beginning. Whether the witch who grants wishes is really related to the devil, even that is not yet confirmed information.

“Haa, I really don’t know.”

The more questions that followed, the more I felt like everything was returning to square one. I buried my face in my arms. I should have just stayed still since it’s just a place to pass by. I feel like I’m just getting a headache for no reason.