Chapter 14

Chapter 14

“Was he a bastard child, so they couldn’t even take a family portrait with him?”

He was supposedly a fine young master, yet he slept in a cold basement. He’d been left in a room thick with dust.

And that cramped room held nothing but a bed and a few pieces of furniture.

Only after I’d gone over every one of the photographs did I finally understand.

Theodore was unwelcome among the servants, and even among his own family.

There were no more frames left to clean.

I tucked the duster under my arm and strode down the ladder.

Evening, which I’d been counting the hours until, had finally come, yet I wasn’t happy. Even as I put away the cleaning tools, it felt as though a thorn were lodged in a corner of my heart.

I put the duster in the basket and was about to leave the lobby when I stopped dead.

Unable to overcome a feeling that had suddenly welled up, I went back to the lobby where the frames hung.

With my neck craned all the way back, I gazed blankly at the antique-looking Francis family portrait.

Frames were packed across this vast wall.

There was a photo of the previous head of the house, a family portrait, and portraits of the retainers of the Francis house. Even a group photograph of the servants was hanging there.

But Theodore was nowhere to be found.

Only Theodore was missing.

Theodore was a character.

One among countless fictional people.

One of the countless male leads of the romance novels I’d read.

That was all.

Theodore was just a character in some book. Don’t pity him. All I had to do was go back to reality, didn’t I?

I clenched my fingers tightly so as not to sympathize with Theodore’s situation.

I hadn’t been a reader of this book, but I knew that someday Theodore would overcome all these trials.

As with every male lead until now, he would meet the female lead and surely be happy.

It was obvious. So obvious.

I knew it all. Even without having read it, I knew roughly how things would go, and yet…

“…”

I felt upset all the same.

＊＊＊

“Ah-choo!”

After dusting all afternoon, my whole body was covered in a soft layer of dust.

Seeing the dust clinging to my clothes with my own eyes made my nose itch all by itself.

I’d take a shower, then go to the infirmary to see whether Marie was all right.

Change of clothes, packed. Toiletries, packed. Underwear, packed.

I put them neatly into my bath basket and stood up. I was about to head to the shower room before the other servants crowded in when the severed finger caught my eye.

‘Do I have to carry that around too?’

They’d said that merely having the finger worked as an exorcism.

If it was a talisman, wouldn’t I have to keep it on my person?

It wasn’t exactly pleasant to think I’d be carrying around somebody else’s finger from now on, but there was no harm in being careful.

I slipped the finger into my pocket. I’d brought just a single finger, and yet I felt so reassured. It was a finger worth as much as a diamond.

Now then, off to the shower.

“Someone help! Anyone! Please come quickly!!”

I was humming as I made my way to the shower room when a sharp scream rang out.

It was slightly different in texture from Theodore’s sobbing that I’d heard before dawn. That time it had been a boy’s voice; this time it was the cry of a young maid.

Startled, I dropped the basket I was holding. Ah. Why. What now?

After the finger, was there still more left to startle me?

Nobody is immune to a sudden jump scare. Clutching my pounding heart and watching my surroundings, I heard the voice again.

“Here! Over here! Please help!”

Ah, I hate this kind of thing.

In horror movies and horror games, the ones who die early usually fall into three types.

The curious one who wanders around muttering, ‘It’s cleaner inside than I expected?’

The one who denies reality, saying, ‘Ghosts? There’s no such thing. It’s all superstition.’

And the one who says, ‘I’ll go check it out,’ and heads toward wherever the strange noise is coming from.

“Please, help me!”

This was exactly the third type. It was truly the worst. I tried hard to pretend I hadn’t heard and reached for my bath basket.

‘Judging by the voice alone, she sounded like a young maid.’

It sounded like my own little sibling asking for help, so it was hard to ignore.

In the end, I flung the basket aside and stood up.

“I’m coming!”

Honestly, I’m too nice for my own good.

I ran toward the sound, and there two maids were sitting on the floor.

But one of the maids was in an odd state. Her eyes were rolled back and she was foaming at the mouth, while the younger maid grunted in her struggle to lift the unconscious one somehow.

Spotting me, the younger maid’s eyes brimmed with tears.

“Oh my goodness! Thank the Goddess. You came! I’m Maryann, a seamstress maid, and my friend suddenly collapsed! Could you help me?”

“I’ll help.”

“Thank you! Thank you!”

Maryann, still small in both height and build, was no match for supporting the other maid. I went over to the fallen maid in her place, but she was making a strange sound.

“Kak. Gk, kik, ki, ki, ki…”

“Ex… cuse me? Are you all right?”

“Ki. Ki. Ki, ki. Ki, ki, ki…”

The maid, spitting out the same syllable in spasms like a broken radio, was plainly not normal.

When I laid her down on the floor, her upper body jerked about this way and that.

The maid shook violently all over as if electrocuted, then went limp.

And she didn’t move anymore.

“Are you okay?”

At the sight of the maid slumped like a kite with its string cut, an inexplicable foreboding crept over me.

Why did this scene feel so familiar?

I really didn’t want to imagine it, but if I had to give an example, it was a setup that appeared often in horror movies featuring evil spirits.

Instinctively, I patted my pocket to confirm the finger was there.

Thankfully, it was safely inside.

Just then Maryann shrieked in terror.

“Oh my goodness!”

“F***, what is that!”

Though we’d only just met, Maryann and I were so shocked that we clung to each other like sisters.

Crack-crunch.

The maid’s waist, as she sat on the floor, folded back like a hinge. The sound of bones snapping was brutally clear. She stood on all fours on the floor in an unnatural posture.

“Kakk, kek, kiiii, kik!”

The maid, swaying limply as she stood, found her balance.

Emitting a strange beastlike cry, she rushed at me.

‘You said evil spirits wouldn’t come if you had the finger! Why is she coming at me!’

“Aaaah!”

To drive off the evil spirit, I pulled the finger out of my pocket and waved it around wildly. How exactly did you do an exorcism, anyway?

Did you just wave it around roughly? But perhaps the finger’s presence provoked the evil spirit, because the maid went berserk and began thrashing in a frenzy.

“Kyaaak! Kek!”

You said it was an absolute talisman. You said just having it drives off evil spirits.

So why was she so desperate to kill me?

“Don’t come! I said don’t come!”

Wondering if this wasn’t how it was meant to be used, I shook the severed finger like a rattle in a frenzy, then hurled it at the maid’s face.

With a , the shriveled finger stuck to the maid’s forehead, then fell off.

“…”

“…”

“…”

Thud! Thud! Thump.

The finger fell onto the carpet with a pathetic sound.

The maid, who had been preparing to bolt down the corridor in that grotesque posture, stopped when the finger I’d thrown struck her head.

Had I gotten her?

“Kkh, krrrrk, kkk, kieeeek!”

No.

The maid, or rather the evil spirit, seemed thoroughly enraged and rolled her eyes back.

The whites gleamed with a sinister color.

Aaah, disgusting. Disgusting!

It was hopeless. This finger was just expensive and utterly useless.

Delia had clearly been swindled. Inwardly I cursed Delia’s eye for buying such miserable junk.

Since it had come to this, there was no help for it. I would have to use the only exorcism method I knew.

This exorcism was powerful and effective, but I didn’t want to use it if I could help it.

There was a risk it might leave a serious wound on the maid’s body or put a strain on it.

But the situation being what it was, there was no choice.

I solemnly raised the silver candlestick from the shelf.

The clear mark of the Goddess engraved on the silver candlestick glittered in the lamplight.

Maryann’s eyes lit up as though she understood what I was about to do. She shouted at me.

“You’re going to banish the evil spirit with the Goddess’s blessing, aren’t you? I, I’ll recite the prayer beside you!”

Unfortunately, I was so consumed by the single-minded notion that I had to bring the maid down that I didn’t hear Maryann’s plan.

Before Maryann could even begin reciting the prayer, I swung the candlestick and struck the back of the maid’s head with full force.

Clang!