Working at a Haunted Mansion – Chapter 21

Author: Asternkm

“They’re not something that can be meddled with so easily either.”

Julia manipulated her work desk. This desk, fitted with a secret mechanism, had been gifted to her by the Duke and moved along with her when she changed rooms.

By manipulating the desk’s drawer handles in a special way, the top would lift, revealing a hidden compartment. The exact method was a secret even from Lily.

Inside that space—impossible to find unless someone hacked it apart with an axe—Julia’s work materials were stored.

Julia pulled out a translation notebook.

“It’s an extremely rare case. It makes you feel almost sorry for the Duke for being caught in it.”

She handed the notebook to Lily. The tiny handwriting filled the pages densely.

“The growing things of the human body, the slender thread of life rising and falling, the stones that grow, the transparency that springs up even to death, that is, the visible traces of the spirit… On the day when the Five Great Stars align, under the guidance of those who pray for the well-being of the petitioner, the sacred tears of the altar, a blessing that receives no light, along the path of a vessel filled with red…”

Lily stopped reading. No matter how much she read, there was no period.

Because the text avoided using clear terms and was full of roundabout expressions, she couldn’t figure out exactly what it was trying to say.

Giving up on understanding, she roughly scanned the pages. The period could finally be found on the next page.

“I… I have no idea what it’s saying…”

Seeing her grimace, Julia began to explain.

“It’s a kind of funeral rite from the Solmon religion. What you just read is how to perform a funeral for the living.”

“Ugh, a funeral for a living person? Why would anyone do that?”

“To leave the trials and tribulations of the living world behind and move to the assured land of rest.”

Julia took the notebook back from Lily.

“I once read an explorer’s journal about mass suicides in Solmon. This method probably relates to that.”

Julia continued her unsettling explanation calmly.

“It’s considered a hard ritual to perform because the day when the Five Great Stars align comes only once every 99 years, and the materials needed are deceptively tricky to obtain.”

“Like… slender life thread, growing stones… stuff like that?”

“Yes.”

Julia tugged lightly on Lily’s hair.

“You have to collect things like hair, saliva, and fingernails, and on the night when the alignment comes, the priest draws out the souls using their own blood at an unlit altar. It’s curious how they managed to collect such materials from the Duke and the Emperor.”

Maybe they seized the chance during the celebration banquet? They might have collected all the messy materials there, and the cult leader used his own blood…

Lily stopped herself from imagining further. Tonight was already going to be a guaranteed nightmare.

“Anyway, it ended up failing. Neither the Emperor nor the Duke moved on to the land of rest.”

“That’s right. But there’s nothing here about the possibility of failure. And there’s no mention yet of a soul transferring into another’s body. We’ll have to continue researching for a while.”

Lily peeked into the notebook once more. Life really was rough. You had to guard your hair, fingernails, and even your spit.

‘But seriously, how did they even get their hands on those?’

Did people clip their nails before going to palace banquets? And how would they collect saliva? How did the cult leader, locked up in the underground prison, pull it off?

Even if a guard was bribed, approaching the Duke to gather the materials would have been another matter entirely.

Not to mention the Emperor—a second victim. Getting close enough to collect such materials from him would have been nearly impossible.

“Ugh, I feel like my brain’s going to cramp. I’ll have to ask the aide to think it over later.”

“Do that. There’s no need for you to burden yourself with all of it.”

Julia returned to her work. Since she had nothing urgent to do, Lily slumped onto the sofa.

‘Normally, I’d be in the office right now, taking dictation…’

She gazed blankly up at the wooden ceiling. It really was her first break in a long time.

The soft scratching of a pen on paper, the occasional heavy breathing, and the quiet rustling of books being turned could be heard.

Listening to those small sounds while leaning back against the sofa, her eyelids began to droop. Her chest rose and fell slowly.

‘Is His Grace doing all right…? That storage room is so tiny it’s worrying… I hope he doesn’t have claustrophobia or anything.
It must be really suffocating in there. It’s because of that jerk saying he wanted to go to the main building… He’s not going to lose patience and get angry again, is he? Maybe I should sneak over once tonight? The windows are all busted open anyway…’

At some point, she drifted off to sleep.

*****

“Ugh… let… go…”

Why couldn’t she speak properly? Lily struggled to move her tongue.

“Ugh, ugh… l-let go of my nails!”

She let out a hoarse scream and jolted awake.

“Lily, you woke up at just the right time.”

Julia was looking down at her, as if she had been about to wake her up.

“Grandma?”

Lily gasped for breath and looked around. It was Julia’s room.

Evening was approaching. She must have taken quite a long nap.

“Did you have a nightmare?”

“Yes…”

She shivered. It had been a ridiculous dream about a hideous old man chasing her with tools to pull out her fingernails.

“A maid came looking for you.”

Stretching her neck to look toward the door, Lily saw Marie standing there, looking a little awkward.

As they walked down the hall together, Lily asked shyly,

“Did… did you hear?”

“You sure talk loudly in your sleep.”

Marie giggled and asked,

“Are you still scared of working at the main building?”

“I thought I’d gotten used to it, but I guess not.”

Lily answered vaguely and then asked what was going on.

“You weren’t showing up even though it’s almost time, so I came to find you! The head maid heard you were in Mrs. Dienta’s room and nearly grabbed her forehead in frustration. You better be careful, you know? You even sneaked over to the East Wing, right? If you keep this up, you’ll really end up getting kicked out. It hasn’t been that long since you got in trouble for extending your leave without permission.”

“You’re right. I should be careful. But… it’s not as easy as it sounds.”

“Not falling asleep in Mrs. Dienta’s room—that’s something you can control, isn’t it?”

“That’s true.”

The two of them giggled as they went down the stairs.

The first floor was bustling with people. The delicious smell of food filled the air. Servants wearing palace uniforms were carrying in endless trays of food.

With cheerful chatter, the workers gathered in small groups and headed toward the dining hall.

“What’s all this?”

“His Majesty shared the banquet food with us, to thank us for our hard work! He even gifted us wine. It’s a party!”

They followed the crowd into the dining hall. The tables were filled with delicious dishes.

They had sometimes eaten leftovers after a banquet, but this was the first time a meal had been specially prepared for the servants.
Everyone seemed touched by the Emperor’s kindness.

Once everyone found a seat, the head steward raised his glass and said,

“Long live His Majesty the Emperor!”

Everyone laughed and drank happily. Only Lily, feeling uneasy, merely picked at her food.

To an outsider, the Emperor would have seemed a truly benevolent ruler who cared for his subordinates. But to Lily, it only made her all the more suspicious—what was he really up to?

Was he just playing king for fun? Or did he poison the food, intending to wipe out everyone connected to the Duke’s family? Well, it didn’t seem like the latter.

Everyone was eating heartily. Once the wine started flowing, tongues loosened, and all kinds of gossip filled the room.

“Long live His Majesty! They said he turned into a fool, but that’s not true at all!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, like with our Duke, His Majesty also collapsed and lost consciousness. He was lucky enough to wake up, but they say he became a fool—forgot how to speak, how to write, and his memory comes and goes. That’s why there’s a lot of concern among his closest aides. His only heir is the baby prince, after all.”

“Where’d you hear that?”

“You hear everything when you hang around the stables.”

The stable hand boasted proudly.

No matter how much anyone tried to keep things quiet, chatter spread from mouth to mouth—feeding hay to horses, passing by during cleaning duties, unlocking storage rooms, or meeting by the well.

No one knew the exact cause of the visible changes. But everyone could sense something was wrong in the Imperial household, that something was off about the Emperor.

The Emperor, for his part, tried to smooth things over by throwing open his treasury, and it was working well.

Even here, on the servants’ dining table, the topic of the Emperor’s strangeness was quickly replaced by capital gossip after just one glass of wine.

‘If I hadn’t seen that ghost, I probably would’ve laughed and joked along too. Honestly, I’m jealous…’

Lily thought to herself, poking at her peas with a fork.

Regardless of her troubled heart, the night wore on. Lily sat patiently, without touching a drop of wine.

Finally, when the people left and only the wreckage of the feast remained piled on the tables, she rolled up her sleeves and started cleaning up.

It was her own way of trying to make up for the points she had lost with the head maid.