The Safety Guidelines of The Duke’s Haunted Castle – Chapter 10

Author: arnlian

Knock knock.

Not even ten seconds had passed since I pulled the bell cord when a knock came at the door.

“Miss Windsor, did you call for me?”

“I wanted to speak privately with the head chef and the kitchen staff. Would there be a good time for that?”

The head maid nodded immediately.

“There’s no need to wait. I’ll bring them to you right away.”

“A-ah, no! That’s not necessary. I was planning to go to them myself. It’s not their break time, is it?”

After all, break time was sacred to any working person. Even in virtual reality, workers’ rights should be respected.

But instead of answering, the head maid tilted her head slightly, as if confused.

“Break… time?”

“… Sorry?”

“We servants of the Belmond Ducal Castle do not indulge in the luxury of such things as ‘breaks.’”

… Seriously?

Despite my shocked reaction, the head maid continued speaking with a calm, composed tone.

“Those who are lazy or lack diligence do not belong in this castle.”

Um. Isn’t that a little extreme…?

“So you needn’t worry, Miss Windsor. Except for the hours between 2 and 4 a.m., the servants of Belmond Castle will always be on standby for your sake.”

The more I listened, the more absurd it sounded.

How could such a ruthless company—no, household—exist?

Working 22 hours a day? Even if this was just a game, this was slavery so brutal even Satan might shed a tear.

And then.

[A new improvement project has been unlocked.]

[▶ Take Care of Belmond Ducal Castle!

Due to years of neglect, the Belmond Ducal Castle has fallen into disrepair.

As the future lady of the household, inspect the estate and carry out the necessary improvements to restore it to its former glory!

— Improvement List

∙ Improve the food storage and supply system

∙ Improve Servant Working Conditions (new!)

∙ ???

(Beginner’s TIP! In the absence of a duchess, the Belmond Duke’s attendant currently manages all household staff.)]

I knew it!

Turns out I wasn’t just being overly sensitive, there was something wrong.

And the timing of this update? Almost like the system was reading my mind.

‘It’s just like when you search for something once and suddenly your whole feed is nothing but ads for it…’

I’m still just the fiancée, so how exactly am I supposed to implement changes to the staff’s working conditions?

While mulling over the quest details, I turned to the waiting maid and opened my mouth to speak.

“L-let’s just go.”

Trying to do everything at once only ever led to disaster.

One step at a time—solve things slowly and in order, and the answers would come.

* * *

I stepped out of the room with the head maid, heading toward the dining room. Or at least, I tried to.

That was before a large grandfather clock in the middle of the hallway caught my attention.

“What’s this…?”

“It’s a grandfather clock, milady.”

Obviously, I didn’t ask because I didn’t know what it was.

I walked closer to the clock. A veil-like sheet of cobwebs was draped across the top.

Well… I had thought this place wasn’t exactly in pristine shape when I arrived, but—

‘Isn’t this a bit much?’

I pulled a handkerchief from the pocket hidden beneath my dress and gently brushed away the webs.

With the soft fabric, the clinging gray strands came off easily, and the clock revealed its clean, elegant form once again.

I looked up at the head maid, who had silently observed everything, and asked carefully:

“Um, by any chance…”

“Please, go ahead.”

“… Never mind.”

The head maid tilted her head, puzzled. The void where her face should’ve been rotated at the same angle.

She was silent for a moment, clearly thinking about something, then gave a slow nod.

“L-let’s get going again!”

I did my best to ignore the thick layer of dust we’d just passed.

According to the safety guidelines, indoor sanitation fell under someone else’s responsibility.

Most likely… the head maid?

Sure, my favorability score had gone up by the tiniest ant-sized drop after the dining room incident, but I didn’t want to stir up trouble by nitpicking again.

However, I found myself stopping once more not long after.

“There’s another cobweb here.”

“Pardon? That can’t be…”

“Ahaha, it’s fine! Spiders are beneficial insects, right? I guess our many-legged friends like to hold regular meetings around here…”

The head maid looked flustered, but when I brushed it off with a laugh, she went silent.

But it wasn’t a good kind of silence. If anything, she looked like she had only just realized something was off.

‘Hmmm…’

Okay. Time to form a hypothesis.

One. The NPCs can’t see because they literally have no eyes, nose, or mouth.

Two. Their AI algorithms are broken—or bugged, maybe?

Three. All of this is actually part of the game system.

I listed out the possibilities, but none of them gave me a clear answer.

From the very beginning, this place had been a bug-ridden mess, so maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised if everything was just… wrong.

“Hmm.”

Flinch!

The head maid stiffened every time I so much as sighed and kept sneaking glances at my face.

So seriously, I… seriously.

I didn’t want to do anything that made her uncomfortable. I meant it.

“Oh, amazing stain on the floor!”

But still, as someone with perfectly functioning eyes, it was hard not to react to things that were blatantly out of place.

At the end of the corridor where I pointed, there was a long smear on the floor, as if something heavy had been dragged across it.

And that wasn’t all. Actually, I’d noticed it on my very first day here—the cleanliness of this manor was a total disaster.

Random ropes from who-knows-where, torn scraps of fabric, odd smudges staining floors that once might’ve gleamed.

Wherever I looked, there was something off. Something that just didn’t belong.

“This is strange.”

A puzzled voice came from the head maid who had stopped behind me.

“Sorry?”

“This doesn’t make sense.”

Unfortunately, I was too distracted by all the grime to realize right away that something was off about her.

And in that moment, the lighting in the room dimmed ever so slightly.

“This doesn’t make sense. Something was clearly unusual.”

“… Huh?”

Her voice, which had been gradually growing quieter, eventually trailed off into a soft murmur as she bowed her head deeply.

“Cleaning and scrubbing, every single day, over and over, again and again… for His Grace, Duke Belmond… for the pitiful Young Master… for all of us… but why?”

Her words, spilling out as she shook her head in confusion, were laced with a question she herself couldn’t seem to answer.

“We must take perfect care of the Duke’s fiancée. She is to be the bride of our great Young Master, after all. Her name is ☐☐☐☐, her age is ☐☐, ☐☐☐,☐☐…”

“H-hold on.”

Her trembling fingers rose to cover her mask-like face, but no tears fell.

From the hollow void where her eyes should’ve been, a cold, rattling sob echoed out. And then, as if summoned by her despair, thick black shadows began to twist and churn beneath her feet.

“I apologize, Miss ☐☐☐. I will now correct the issue immediately.”

Huh? Who? Correct what issue?

Before I could say a word, the head maid gave a deep bow and turned to face the wall. And then…

Thunk!

She began smashing her head against it.

“Aaack! What are you doing?!”

Startled out of my wits, I rushed to grab her shoulders.

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

But somehow, with strength that didn’t seem possible from her slender frame, she kept slamming her head into the wall, unfazed by my attempts to stop her.

‘What kind of glitch is this supposed to be?!’

And then—like a flash of light—her earlier words came back to me.

“Those who are lazy or lack diligence must disappear from this place.”

That’s what she meant!?

Did she think I was pointing out problems just to shame her?

Thinking back on it… I could kind of understand how she might’ve felt.

Especially if she’d been trapped in a brutally unfair work environment for who knows how long, treated more like a slave than a person…

I mean, even I have felt like dunking my head in a bowl of water when a project wasn’t going well.

Anyone who’s worked an office job knows the feeling—wanting to slam your hands on the desk, scream at the top of your lungs, rip your hair out, and chuck your monitor out the window at least once.

For the head maid, it seemed that kind of built-up stress had finally erupted in this horrifying form.

… There had been a massive misunderstanding.

Before things could spiral any further, I threw my arms around her and pulled her back, away from the wall with all the strength I could muster.

“Madam!”

Putting force behind my voice, I shouted in desperation.

“Whatever you think this is, it’s not like that! I swear, I wasn’t trying to shame you or make things worse!”

“Miss… Windsor?”

Thankfully, she slowly began to lift her head.

The oppressive aura that had been swirling around her finally began to settle.

‘D-did she calm down…?’

Even so, the head maid’s body was still trembling like a leaf in the wind.

After a brief internal struggle, I awkwardly reached out and gently held her hands.