The Sleepwalker’s Mansion Chapter 27

Crack.

A strange sound came from somewhere. It wasn’t a sound he was hearing for the first time. Doeon perked up his ears.

Crack, crack, crack….

“……!”

The eerie noise matched the sound he had heard in Mom’s room before. Am I dreaming? Am I still in a dream? Doeon pinched his own thigh with his hand. That was when it happened.

Whoosh- dash dash dash-!

A four-legged creature with its head twisted was crawling out quickly from the corner of the basement.

“Eek…!”

A spider-like monster spinning its long hair and turning its head 360 degrees. The black face, scorched like by fire, charged toward Doeon just like the one he had seen in Mom’s room.

“D-don’t come…!”

[Do…eon…ah….]

The ghost called his name just like that time. The monster created by Mom’s ghost. Pressed flat against the mirror in terror, with bloodshot eyes from fear barely open, he looked toward the spider monster.

[Bas…ement… I told you… not to come down….]

Every time it spun its head around, the crackling sound echoed eerily. The spider monster muttered with its bluish glaring eyes. The thorny legs sticking out sporadically seemed like they would pierce his heart at any moment, so Doeon gulped down saliva with his Adam’s apple bobbing.

“I, I did wrong… When I opened my eyes, it, it was the basement…!”

The spider monster reflected fully on the walls became hundreds targeting him. He felt like he would faint right away. The spider monster twisted its small mouth in the center of its charcoal-black face and opened its stiff lips.

[Mo…re… seed….]

“I, I did wrong… Mom…! I, I didn’t mean to, but Do, Doha, Do, Doha…! Because of Doha…!”

The spider monster was speaking as if it had witnessed all the muddy affair that happened in the basement. Had Mom watched the affair in the bushes yesterday from the sky too? Shame flushed his face red. Doeon wanted to blame everything on Doha. He wanted to get away with it that way.

[The ma…nsion… Protect it… the mansion….]

The spider monster thrust a barb while emitting a unique fragrance like pine resin. The spider monster’s voice echoed from all directions.

“I’ll protect it…! I will protect it…! Wh-when Dad comes back, I, I’ll properly inherit the mansion…! I will definitely get it…!”

Doeon trembled his body and answered the spider monster with all his might.

[If you… get pre…gnant….]

Just like that time, the spider monster gaped its mouth wide and muttered. The stiff mouth corners twitching finely seemed like it was saying something more, but he couldn’t hear it. It must mean not to get pregnant, so Doeon waved his trembling hands in front of the spider monster.

“I, I’m a re, recessive omega, so I won’t, won’t get pregnant…! Do, don’t worry, Mo, Mom…!”

[If you… get pre…gnant… you….]

“I won’t, won’t get pregnant…! It’s, it’s true…! I-I’m an unlucky re, recessive omega…!”

Even as he groveled to an unsightly degree, the spider monster stretched its long legs covered in black fur bristling all over in all directions and gradually approached. If those blade-sharpened legs stamped on him, he would die. Doeon squeezed his eyes shut in fear.

“…….”

How much time had passed. When he cautiously opened his eyes, the spider monster had disappeared. In the mirror, only hundreds of his own dazed afterimages remained standing alone. But the spider monster’s afterimage didn’t easily disappear from Doeon’s mind.

A week passed in the blink of an eye. A week that was long if long, short if short. Many things happened during that time. And this morning was a bit different. Doeon, whose ears were sensitive to noise lately, opened his eyes to the commotion coming from the first floor.

Lately, he had become particularly sensitive, waking up to even small noises. He absentmindedly looked at the wall clock, and the hands pointed to 8 o’clock.

What was the fuss this early in the morning? Doha, who usually slept in late, and Jeong Taeseok, who lived like a shadow, present but not, had no reason to make noise at this hour.

Today, different from yesterday, brought anxiety. Lately, every day was a series of anxieties, so Doeon couldn’t fall back asleep. It was hopeless to sleep more, so he got up. He draped on the hoodie shirt hung on the bed headboard and rose from the bed.

“Did you wake up, young master?”

When he went down to the first floor, Jeong Taeseok, who was in the living room, greeted him. Doha was not visible. As expected, he was probably sleeping in late in his room.

“……?”

Besides Jeong Taeseok, there were two men in the living room that he had never seen before. Both were dressed in stiff suits like Jeong Taeseok. They stood with their hands clasped together, waiting for Jeong Taeseok’s instructions.

When Doeon looked at Jeong Taeseok with puzzled eyes, he nodded to the men. Then they moved away from Doeon’s view.

“I’m sorry for the noise, young master.”

“Ah, no… But who are those people….”

Who were they? People called by Jeong Taeseok? It felt like the intruders were increasing more and more, so without realizing it, his voice sank low. Reading that sign, Jeong Taeseok added an explanation.

“They are people from our company.”

“Why are company people….”

“The president will arrive today.”

“The president…?”

“Yes. Young master.”

The president meant Dad was coming. It had been a week today. As realization dawned in his dazed eyes that he had forgotten, light gradually returned to them. It was good news. It meant he could finally escape Doha’s clutches. As color returned to his pallid face, Jeong Taeseok smiled.

“I received word that he will arrive by late morning.”

The sooner, the better. Doeon swept his hair back once to check if any strands were sticking out and asked.

“…Is there nothing I need to prepare separately?”

“There is nothing you need to prepare. The president said he wants to have lunch with you young masters, so I called in our company personnel in advance. Please understand.”

“Ah… Yes….”

Normally, for meal preparation personnel, one would think of a warm middle-aged woman like Aunt Seonhui, but men in tailored suits? What kind of company was Dad’s company, Theogr? It didn’t seem ordinary.

“You can sleep more. I’ll wake you when he arrives.”

“Still, if I can help with something….”

“It’s fine. Our personnel are sufficient for the president’s reception preparations.”

As Doeon craned his neck with a restless face, Jeong Taeseok urged with his usual neat face. In truth, it was no different from an eviction order.

I’m the owner of the mansion.

With anxious eyes, he gripped the railing of the second-floor stairs. He was being treated like an outsider, not the owner of the mansion. Yet he couldn’t even protest properly.

Doeon could do nothing more and went up to the second floor with a bitter face. Even after returning to his room, he paced by the window. The front gate visible in the distance was still firmly closed. Letting out a sigh once, Doeon opened the closet.

The inside of the closet was modest. When was the last time he bought clothes? There were only achromatic t-shirts and sweatpants. He took out the one and only white shirt among them, took off the hoodie, and changed into it. It would look better to appear neat anyway.

He reflected his appearance in the mirror inside the closet. A pitifully skinny boy was in the mirror. His complexion was worse than when he had held Mom’s funeral.

Even to his own eyes, he seemed far from a reliable eldest son. A eldest son embarrassing to show anywhere probably wasn’t needed.

But Doeon desperately wanted Dad. He was the only one who held the key to protecting the mansion.

As time passed, he became unnecessarily tense, and his palms grew damp. He wiped his palms on his thighs and anxiously alternated between looking at the wall clock and out the window.

How much time had passed.

It was when he had dozed off for a moment, propping his chin on his hand.

The front gate, which seemed like it wouldn’t open, parted its mouth, and a black sedan entered inside. Doeon, who had been half-asleep watching that sight, quickly came to his senses and tucked the documents he had put in the drawer into his waistband.

It’s Dad. Dad has finally returned.

Without even looking back, Doeon opened the door and went down to the first floor. The relief that he could now end the immoral acts with Doha, and the goal to complete the procedures necessary for the mansion inheritance today were clearly etched in his mind.

When he went down to the first floor, the men who had been in the living room earlier were now standing in a line with hands clasped at the entrance. Jeong Taeseok, urgently checking his phone screen, glanced at the descending Doeon and opened his mouth.

“I was just about to go up.”

“He arrived, right…?”

“Yes. He has arrived.”

Doeon held his breath and approached beside the men lined up in a row. Being next to their sturdy bodies with shoulders squared made him feel out of place. They thoroughly looked straight ahead, as if Doeon was not something to pay attention to.

Shadows. The air he had felt from Jeong Taeseok was also felt around them.

“Do we have to welcome him this extravagantly?”

At that moment, Doha, dressed in shorts, came out of the first-floor guest room, slowly stretching.

“What a spectacle.”

Doha jeered, looking at the people lined up at the entrance, with one hand in his pocket and the other tousling the back of his hair. Then, upon seeing Doeon standing blankly beside the suited men, his eyes widened.

“Ha, hyung too?”

“Dad arrived. Come here quickly.”

As if displeased with Doeon’s curt tone, Doha’s eyebrows twitched.

“I’m not from Theogr, so I don’t want to play along.”

Doha’s sarcastic tone pierced sharply into the ears of Doeon, who was on high alert for Dad’s return. There was no time to leisurely listen to the guy’s grumbling. It was an important moment where he had to show closeness with the guy over the past week and appeal the eldest son’s maturity. With tense lips, he raised his voice.

“I said come here quickly!”

“You can yell too.”

Scarily. As if surprised, Doha narrowed his long eyes and let out a snicker, then trudged over. Soon, the large build stood beside him, and suddenly an arm draped over his shoulder, lowering his head to his ear.

“I’ll do as you say, so what will you do for me.”

It was a whispering tone, but he was anxious it might be heard by those nearby. He glanced sideways, but the men were still standing looking straight ahead. Doeon shook off the arm on his shoulder and opened his lips slightly to say.

“Th-there’s nothing like that….”

“Will you give me a blowjob?”

“Sh-shut up….”

Doeon’s face turned red and blue. What if they heard? He couldn’t even turn his face and bit his lips. It was when he gripped his stiffened hands tightly from tension and looked straight ahead.

“President, have you arrived!”

To the resounding greeting shout with a 90-degree bow, Doeon turned his head toward the entrance. The one revealing himself through the widely open entrance was the Dad he had waited so long for.

Dad, dressed in a navy solid setup with smooth hair combed back to reveal his forehead, had distinct facial features that mesmerized people in a bizarre way. The slightly protruding brow bone under the straight forehead, the sharp eyes with shadows beneath, the almond-shaped eyes containing obsidian-like deep black pupils.

When he stared straight ahead, he looked radiant like sunlight, but when he lowered his eyes, he looked chilling like winter rain.

As Dad drew closer, a pheromone scent like fragrance or thick wood scent permeated into his nasal passages. Doeon unwittingly let out a short breath and inhaled. It was an addictive scent.