To make matters worse, rain had begun pouring down since morning.
Ayesha, who had both hands full with large suitcases and no strength left to bring an umbrella, climbed into the shared carriage soaked through by the rain.
“Excuse me.
Please move a little farther inside.
I’m sorry, I have a lot of luggage.”
The passengers all drew in their legs at once, afraid that their clothes would get wet from the suitcases dripping rainwater.
Whenever Ayesha met the eyes of the other passengers, she gave them an apologetic look and a silent greeting.
Inside the carriage on a rainy day, a pungent watery smell filled the air.
The thick curtains wrapped all around the windows to keep out the driving rain were already soaked through and damp.
Even when she wanted to lean back comfortably, the cold dampness beyond the cloth crept slowly into the back of her neck, so she kept shrinking her shoulders.
Moreover, the fierce rain pounded noisily on the roof without pause, so the muffled feeling in her ears never went away.
It really was a headache of an assignment, starting from the journey.
“Miss, come over this way.”
Even among the passengers in the shared carriage, the one traveling the farthest was her.
Every time passengers got on and off at stops, Ayesha had to be jostled this way and that along with her heavy suitcases.
Perhaps because she looked pitiful, one of the aunties beckoned as soon as space opened up in the inner seat.
Ayesha hugged her heavy suitcases and quickly moved.
“Put the bags here.
So they won’t get in the way of people passing.”
The auntie cleared the luggage from the edge of the seat.
Ayesha arranged her place and sat down, giving a slight bow.
“Yes, thank you.”
“Your head is completely soaked.
If you don’t hurry and drink something warm, you’ll catch a cold.
What a shame.”
“I know.
I never thought it would rain this much.”
“The weather is foul for this time of year.
Rain just before the harvest—the fields must all be in an uproar.
But your way of speaking has an accent I haven’t heard around here…… You must have come from far away?”
“Yes, I came from the south.”
“I thought so…… Are you traveling alone, miss?
How far are you going?”
Perhaps because the long ride in the carriage was boring, the auntie kept talking to Ayesha without pause.
If she revealed here that her destination was Langfield Manor, ten to one the question would come back: what business did she have visiting that manor?
Langfield Manor was an old, historic house that House Eseldor had protected for generations.
If it were an obscure place, that would be one thing, but she was on her way to swindle the famous House Eseldor as a fake spirit medium.
She did not want to draw unnecessary attention.
Ayesha vaguely named the location where the manor stood.
“I’m going as far as Worsley.”
“Worsley?”
But when the auntie heard Ayesha’s answer, she stared closely at her face and asked back.
“Are you one of those too, miss?
A spirit medium?”
“……Pardon?”
She had been struck right on the mark.
For a moment, Ayesha nearly lost control of her expression.
What is this?
Wasn’t this supposed to be top secret?
He had whispered as if he had brought an enormous source, but in the end, was it just stale information that had spread as far as it could go?
And he tells me to pull a scoop out of that?
I really should have held out to the end and said I couldn’t do it.
She had not even arrived at the manor yet, and already she was filled with regret.
At the thought of all sorts of ragtag swindlers already descending on Langfield Manor, each holding a mirror or a bell or whatever and pretending to see ghosts, and of her own future of having to join that crowd in the same ridiculous manner, Ayesha’s vision went dark.
“A spirit medium?
Me?”
A chill ran down her spine, but for now she feigned ignorance and denied it.
“What nonsense are you saying to this innocent young lady, you there?
She says she isn’t even from this area, so don’t go wagging your tongue carelessly.”
The companion sitting close by looked at the auntie and scolded her in a low voice.
“It’s not as if I made anything up…… These days, all the outsiders slipping in and out of Worsley are that sort, so I just brought it up in case.
And why would people like that come to Worsley in the first place?”
The auntie muttered in a voice lowered another degree, barely audible.
“It must all be because of Langfield Manor, no?
In this area, the only place where ghosts might appear is there.”
“It must already be more than thirty years now.
Why bring up something that passed long ago?”
“For something that passed long ago, somehow the way things are going is strange.
The fact that spirit mediums have been quietly slipping in and out of Worsley as soon as the lord changed is not a good sign either.
There must really be something in that manor.”
“Well…… there must be some kind of problem.
Even if a real ghost appeared there, not a single person would be surprised.
My aunt by marriage, who worked in that house for over ten years, said that after that day she was so thoroughly frightened that she ran away.”
Unexpectedly, the companion did not deny the auntie’s speculation.
Rather, he showed signs of finding it even more unsettling than the auntie who had first brought up the topic.
‘That day,’ she murmured…….
Ayesha tilted her head.
What on earth was the event of that day, said to have happened some thirty years ago, that it had not been buried in the swamp of oblivion and still survived?
If it was something the locals remembered as this ominous, then whatever it was, it could not have been an ordinary misfortune.
Apart from her resentment toward the editor-in-chief who had forced her to come when she had said she did not want to go, her curiosity as a reporter stirred.
In any case, it seemed that even these people found the manor’s recent movements suspicious.
“When you say Langfield Manor, you mean House Eseldor, correct?
Why that manor?”
Watching the two women’s reactions, Ayesha quietly cut into the conversation.
She even deliberately put on a bright expression so as not to invite suspicion.
“You really are an outsider, miss.
Just from how you know nothing.
Even if you hear the story, it will only give you bad dreams and put you in a bad mood, so just don’t mind it.”
“Ah…… but when I arrive in Worsley, I was thinking of asking whether Langfield Manor needed any help.
I sometimes help out for short periods and earn wages to add to my travel expenses.”
She racked her brain and quickly made up an excuse.
“Well, I don’t think they take short-term help there.
They only hire people short-term when there is a party, but Langfield Manor hasn’t held a social gathering in about several decades.
It would be a wasted effort even if you went.”
“But then again, who knows.
Since the lord has newly changed, perhaps there will be an inauguration ceremony this time.”
The two aunties murmured.
Ayesha cautiously broached the subject again.
“Now that I think of it, I remember reading in the newspaper that the head of House Eseldor had changed.
What kind of person is the new lord?”
At her question, both of them shook their heads.
“We don’t know.”
“Ordinary estate residents like us never get to see the lord.”
She had certainly heard of House Eseldor’s closed nature, but it was rather strange that there was not even a scrap of rumor to be heard from the estate residents.
For estate residents living monotonous, repetitive lives every day, there was no topic as interesting as the every move of their master’s family.
The company that specialized in gathering and dealing in such gossip was none other than Ayesha’s magazine.
In her experience, when people were reluctant to open their mouths, it was usually one of two things.
Either the manor’s servants were so well disciplined that no news leaked out, or the internal situation was so complicated that it could not be mentioned as light conversation.
And judging from the subtle tension the two aunties had shown, House Eseldor was highly likely to be the latter.
“Then what about the former lord, not the new one?”
No matter how many secrets there were, shouldn’t she at least know the minimum reputation, or at the very least what the man looked like, before going in?
Since they were family, their faces would resemble each other to some extent.
She asked with the intention of guessing the new Eseldor lord’s appearance based on his father’s description, but the aunties shook their heads again.
“We don’t know.”
“Even if you would not see him in daily life, wouldn’t he make inspections when the village festival or harvest season comes?”
“No, the agent might come out, but the former lord never came outside.
I doubt there was ever a day he left the manor.”
“He stayed only in the manor?
For decades?”
“Of course, he might occasionally have gone out secretly in disguise.
But he never appeared in public.”
Ayesha’s eyes went wide.
Wasn’t that practically a life of confinement?
No matter how enormous Langfield Manor was, could a person—even a lord—stay shut up in the house to that degree without anyone finding it strange?
Even for a policy of mystique, it was excessive.
The former lord’s conduct was utterly incomprehensible.
How could that be?
Wasn’t that neglecting the estate?
Then did they not collect taxes here either?
If a dispute arose among the people and a trial were needed, then……
The question rose to the tip of her throat, and Ayesha gasped and hurriedly pressed her lips shut.
There were cases in which people quietly tolerated someone’s confinement.
When there was a serious problem with the mind.
“They say no one in that family lives a healthy long life?
Either they die early, or if they live somewhat long, they all go mad.”
