Chapter 12

Chapter 12

What are the odds of a severed human finger turning up in a freshly issued uniform apron? And right on the way back from signing the employment contract, no less.

It was probably closer to the odds of being struck by lightning.

With a heavy heart, I stared at the severed finger and tore at my hair.

Where had it all gone wrong? Was signing the contract the problem, or was it resolving to work at this mansion?

Everything had been a problem from the very start. Did it even make sense to possess a novel I’d never read on the day of the national college entrance exam?

But if I kept digging, even being born would turn out to be the mistake, so I decided not to think that far.

Of all the books, why had I possessed this one? A more ordinary novel would have been nice. At the very least, I wished it had been one I’d read.

I’d heard that other possessors already know the plot, so they pursue romance, start businesses, and sail from one success to the next, but I was the only one treated unfairly.

‘They said this was a story about marrying a fairy. Shouldn’t a fairy world be full of dreams and hope?’

If the cover or the title had been scary, I could at least have said, ‘Ah, I’ve possessed a horror novel,’ and prepared to die. But the novel my younger sibling had shown me had a fairy-tale cover and a title that sounded like something out of Disney.

After denying reality for that long, I was finally able to think again.

The moment I saw the finger, I’d wanted to faint too, but Marie had already done it and beaten me to it.

I looked Marie over. She seemed badly shaken, but her life didn’t appear to be in any danger.

Her breathing was normal, so I turned her into a proper position so that her nose wouldn’t get miserably squashed against the floor.

The hard thing I’d touched was a long fingernail, and the firm texture must have been the knuckle. Judging by the length, it was a middle finger.

The wrinkles I’d felt must have come from the skin shriveling as it dried out. And the sticky slime, whatever it was, had come from the severed end, so…

“Ugh…”

Stop thinking about it, Lee Yeon-seo. Stop thinking! Just looking at it made my own finger joints throb.

There wasn’t a soul around to call, not even an ant. If it were up to me, I’d throw the finger away and take only Marie, but I needed something to tell Zelda.

I didn’t want to be suspected of slacking off when she asked why we were late.

We’d only been hurrying and gotten lost in the huge mansion. And while trying to take out a map to find our way, we’d merely discovered a severed human finger.

“Argh! Who’s going to believe that?”

Honestly, saying we were late because an elephant had charged into the road on the way to work would have been more believable.

I’d need to show proof, but I had no phone to take a photo with, and no camera either.

I had no choice but to carry that thing along. In any case, I’d been told to report any strange occurrence to Zelda, so I had to meet her regardless.

The problem was that I couldn’t bring myself to pick it up again.

Somebody else’s finger! And it was severed! And some strange liquid was oozing out of it! It was disgusting!

I looked around the corridor where Marie and I were. I needed a tool, tongs or a bowl, anything that would keep me from carrying it in my bare hand. But of course a corridor wouldn’t have such things.

All there was, was a display cushion of the kind you’d find in a jewelry shop. And a luxurious velvet one at that, the kind meant for resting valuables.

The cushion seemed to be purely decorative, without a single smudge of handling on it. Couldn’t I just use it and put it back?

It wasn’t stealing, so Zelda wouldn’t say anything. I’d rather die than carry around something so unpleasant-looking.

And I couldn’t exactly put it back into my apron pocket. After a moment’s hesitation, I took the display cushion out of the cabinet.

“…”

I set the severed finger on the velvet cushion like a ring, and hoisted Marie onto my back.

Zelda was standing in front of the hall when I arrived. She was tapping her black shoes against the floor.

But when I came carrying a collapsed Marie and the finger, her footwork stopped.

“What is all this…?!”

“I… Just a moment… *Huff*… I’m a bit worn out… I can explain everything.”

“Good heavens!”

The moment I reached the hall, I set Marie down and gasped for breath.

Zelda was a professional maid, but the instant she saw the severed finger, her face went pale. She tried to stay composed, stammering, but failed in the end.

Thanks to that, she seemed to have forgotten she was angry, which was a small blessing in the midst of misfortune.

I was about to explain the situation when she said in an appalled voice,

“Gretchen, did you cut off Marie’s finger?”

“Pardon?”

What on earth was she talking about? I was still panting when I realized how serious the situation was.

A fainted Marie, a severed finger presumed to be a woman’s, and…

Me, carrying it.

Wait. I looked exactly like the culprit. Aghast, I waved both arms wildly to proclaim my innocence.

“Gretchen, the act of cutting off a colleague’s finger is—”

“I didn’t cut it off! It was already cut off!”

“The act of carrying a colleague’s finger around after cutting it off is—”

“I told you, I didn’t do it!”

Did I look like a shameless person who goes around cutting off middle fingers?

What would I even do with a collection of disgusting fingers? And not the ring finger or the index finger, but the middle finger. Aside from being handy for giving people the finger, it was utterly useless, so why would I want it?

I swear to heaven, I wasn’t a middle-finger-collecting psychopath.

“All right. I believe you.”

“Zelda, don’t say you believe me while hiking up your skirt to run away. I really didn’t do it. You believe me, right?”

“I believe you. More to the point, Gretchen, what were you doing this morning?”

“I ate, met the steward and reviewed my employment contract, and then met Marie.”

“I see. So that was when you cut off Marie’s finger.”

“No… I told you, I carried Marie here because she fainted.”

“So you did cut off Marie’s finger—?”

“No. It was already cut off. Already.”

“Ah. You had cut it off?”

“I didn’t cut it! Just! I didn’t do it!”

Hey. You’re practically declaring me the culprit right now.

But Zelda only widened the distance between herself and me as I pleaded my innocence.

“I believe you. Because I believe you, please keep a proper distance from me.”

“You don’t believe me! Anyone can see you’re full of distrust right now!”

“…Gretchen?”

“Yes?”

“I’d like to keep all ten of my fingers. I want them to be ten now, and ten from here on out.”

“Ah! I told you I didn’t do it!! This is driving me crazy! If I’d cut it off, I wouldn’t have brought Marie along!”

“I understand, so please don’t come any closer to me.”

Even in the middle of my pleading, Zelda tried to creep away over and over.

I grabbed her leg so she couldn’t escape. If I let Zelda run away now, I’d end up as the culprit.

It was a misunderstanding. I was a decent, ordinary citizen who had never once carved up a person.

I’d even pretended to be a fairy so I wouldn’t be thrown into a dungeon, and I refused to become a criminal for something I’d never done.

I clung doggedly to her as she tried to flee and explained for a long while. Fortunately, as she listened to my account, Zelda regained her composure.

“That’s how it happened.”

“I see. Come to think of it, the nails were rather long for Marie’s finger.”

“Don’t pretend to be calm, Zelda.”

Grumbling, I plopped down on the stairs.

Ah, I was exhausted. I hadn’t even started my work as a maid, and my body and mind were already worn to the bone.

“A moment ago you thought I’d cut it off. How could you? Do I look like the kind of person who would?”

“That isn’t what matters now. Gretchen, where did you find this finger?”

I could plainly see she was trying to change the subject, but I was too tired to argue. I handed Zelda the apron.

“It was in my apron pocket. More importantly, shouldn’t we find the finger’s owner…? At the very least, shouldn’t we tell the Head Maid?”

Zelda lifted the hem of the apron assigned to me.

When she turned the apron inside out, golden cursive was stitched into the lining.

[Delia A. Christen]

Delia. The name of the maid who had run off in the night. The one who had supposedly left all her luggage and clothes behind in the dormitory and bolted.

“If it’s Delia’s, I can’t return it to her. She’s already quit.”

“Then does that mean this finger is Delia’s…?”

I’d heard that when a yakuza member betrays his gang, they cut off his ring finger. Did this house hunt down those who fled in the night and cut off their middle fingers?

Fiddling with my own suddenly aching middle finger, I raised one eyebrow.

“No. To begin with, the owner of that finger isn’t a living person. It’s the finger of a woman who vanished half a century ago.”

“A woman who vanished half a century ago?”

“Yes. I was too flustered to recognize it at first, but I think I saw it at the village auction. They said it was the finger of the Witch of the North.”

The Witch of the North?

Of course, in a world with fairies, it wasn’t surprising that witches existed. Still, hearing it like this was a bit of a shock.

“It’s my first time seeing the real thing, too. There were a lot of competing bidders. I believe the winning price was higher than the diamond that came out later in the auction, but Delia was in such a flurry that she must have failed to take it with her.”

“What? For just one finger?!”