Come to think of it, the editor-in-chief had also said that a mental illness was hereditary in House Eseldor.
If the former lord really did develop mental illness early, then perhaps he had been hidden in the manor while his family and agents handled the lord’s duties in his place.
The hereditary disease must truly be severe.
Then was the newly changed lord all right now?
Honestly, even if it had not been long since he succeeded to the position, it was very rare for someone to never once show his face outside to this degree.
She had thought it strange that the family succession had passed so quietly, and if this man had already lost his mind and ended up in the same situation as his father, then…….
She put on a rather worried face.
“……But is that really all right?
He is the lord, after all, and there must have been many things he had to do.
If he leaves the estate entirely in others’ hands like that, won’t House Eseldor eventually fall?”
“I know what you must be thinking, miss, but it is not that……”
“Not that?”
Ayesha deliberately caught the tail of his words.
It was a habit she had developed after becoming a reporter.
When the other person trailed off and tried to gloss over something, repeating that part once could signal that she was listening carefully and apply psychological pressure at the same time.
“That is……”
After a moment of hesitation, the auntie finally whispered in a tiny voice.
“It is because of his face.
The rumor is that he had a large, grotesque scar on his face, so he did not meet people.”
“Pardon?
A scar?”
This was the first time she had heard such a story.
The aunties exchanged glances.
“……Miss, just let what we said now pass in one ear and out the other.
Only a very few people here know, or almost no one does, and for people like us, there is not a single good thing that comes from prying deeply into the affairs of those above us.
It is just that we have a relative who worked in that manor, so we heard a little more detail.”
“Ah…… yes.
I will be careful.”
Ayesha answered quickly and then added quietly.
“I see.
If he has a large scar on his face, it would not be easy to appear at official occasions.
It would be enough to cause a fear of meeting people.
He must have been in some terrible accident.
It is such a pity that the former lord ended up like that…….”
At the word pity, the auntie’s expression suddenly turned subtle.
“Pity, nothing.”
At last, she had taken the bait.
Ayesha cheered inwardly.
The moment she heard the phrase “we have a relative who worked in that manor,” she had sensed that the auntie was not the type to keep her mouth shut.
In fact, it is a fairly common human trait for the tongue to itch when one possesses information others are curious about.
So she had quietly thrown out bait, and sure enough, the word pity seemed to have touched the auntie’s mood in an unpleasant way.
“He brought it on himself by committing an unnatural crime……”
But somehow the muttered words that followed were ominous.
The other auntie tightly rolled her lips and spoke.
“But what can you do about a family disposition that is strange?
Ah, no matter how I think about it, I think the site of that manor is not good.”
“Even so, is it right to kill your own father?”
“They say he went completely mad and could not even recognize his wife, who had lived by his side all his life, or his one and only son.
Originally, when a person goes mad to that extent, no one knows what he might do.”
Only the beginning had been difficult; once their mouths opened, the aunties became absorbed in an instant.
There was no need to gently prompt the topic from the side.
Ayesha simply listened quietly.
“Even so, he should have found a more moderate method.
No, he was his only son—how precious he must have raised him!
I simply cannot understand how he could personally murder such a father with his own hands.”
“But according to what my aunt by marriage heard, when she heard the screams and ran into the room, the former lord’s face was already covered in blood.
It was the late lord who swung the candlestick first.
Even then, as soon as his mind went, he flew into a rage, saying that some pair of scoundrels were impersonating his family and trying to devour the house.
Whether the father killed the son or the son killed the father, it was bound to end in disaster either way.”
“Anyway, it is horrifying.
How terrible must it have been that the late madam, who witnessed that unnatural crime, immediately hanged herself and died…….
Strangely, the people of that family all come to bad ends in their later years.
I would understand it if they said ghosts appear in that manor.
How much resentment must there be.”
Yet as she heard the inside story, it grew more and more extraordinary.
Wait a moment—was this really the story of the former lord?
There had been such an incident at the time?
“See?
It gives you goosebumps, doesn’t it?
It was such a bizarre incident that not many people know about it, but the people who quit and ran away after that day also kept quiet for a while about what they had seen and heard.
After all, an unfortunate incident had occurred in the household they served, so the shock was great and it was devastating.”
“Then the story that the former lord injured his face is also……”
“They say he happened to be stabbed in the eye by the burning candle the late lord swung.
He became one-eyed and a large burn scar formed from around his eye to his cheek, and after that, no one ever saw him.
Perhaps because of that, he married late, only when he was nearly thirty.”
“He barely managed to marry, yes.
Anyway, because it was House Eseldor, a woman did appear who was willing to accept a husband with one eye and a burn scar, but……”
But she appeared?
“Who could have known that the madam would die in childbirth from a difficult delivery?
It was fortunate at least that the child was born safely.
Honestly, it is not an easy position for remarriage.
Anyway, there were so many incidents and accidents, and I do not know whether to say it is precarious or strange that the family line has not been cut off until now.”
“……I see.”
Suddenly, the editor-in-chief’s voice brushed through her mind.
“Ayesha, have you ever heard about the tragedy of House Eseldor?”
He was right.
This was enough to warrant the word tragedy.
Then what kind of person was the current head of House Eseldor?
His grandfather had suffered from mental illness and was killed; his grandmother hanged herself from the shock of witnessing the tragedy between father and son; his father was the man who killed his own direct ancestor and, because of that incident, had lived almost in seclusion in the manor with a wound that could never be erased in his lifetime.
He had not even lived a single day with his mother.
Could a son raised beneath such tragedy possibly be sound?
Ayesha grew uneasy.
Was she perhaps walking with her own feet into a place she should not set foot in?
On the other hand, now that she knew the circumstances, her interest was stirred even more.
What kind of place Langfield Manor was, what the former lord looked like now, and—judging from the fact that the current lord was asking around for spirit mediums and spiritualists—it seemed that what these aunties had casually told her was not everything.
How many more secrets might be hidden, knowingly or unknowingly, within House Eseldor?
The only problem was that the other party was a man of overwhelming power and noble status, while she had to plunge in alone, bare-handed, with no one around to ask for help.
While her curiosity as a reporter and her human instinct to avoid danger clashed sharply, the shared carriage carried its passengers one by one.
The aunties also got off first, leaving Ayesha behind.
“Miss, take care.”
“What a mess.
The rain is coming down harder.
It looks like it will pour all night.”
Each time the carriage curtain lifted, the sound of rain, now turned into a downpour, noisily struck her ears.
Before she knew it, Ayesha was left alone.
The carriage raced at top speed along the muddy rain-soaked road.
Then, when a rough wind struck the roof and walls of the carriage with a long-tailed howl, it sometimes swayed.
Ayesha hugged her two suitcases and endured this dizzying rush.
Trapped in darkness all day and tormented by the hard seat of the carriage, her whole body ached.
How far had she come?
Being in an unfamiliar region, she had no idea where this was.
Ayesha opened the curtain and raised her voice.
“How much farther to Worsley?”
“Ack, you startled me!
Wait, there is still a passenger left?”
The coachman turned around in surprise.
“So how far did you say you were going?”
“Worsley!”
Because her voice kept being buried, they had to shout as loudly as possible at each other.
“Worsley?
We passed it a while ago.
I am on my way home now!”
Passed it?
Ayesha hurriedly gathered her luggage and rose from her seat as if springing up.
“Wait, please let me off here!
……Ah, the carriage!”
As she thrust her face outside the curtain, she was struck by a stream of water pouring from the roof and shrank her shoulders.
“Now?
This is an empty wilderness with nothing around!”
It was true.
The carriage was running along a single road with not a single person in sight, let alone a village.
Moreover, because it was a rainy night, even the moonlight was dim, making it hard to distinguish the surroundings.
At this rate, she would end up being carried all the way to the coachman’s house.
Before that, she had to find something, anything…….
Stamping her feet, Ayesha looked around beyond the slanting rain that drew white lines across her vision.
It was at that moment that a single isolated building caught her eye.
