Heavy Rain Chapter 37

Coincidentally, one of the CCTVs attached to the wall barely captured Haejin’s room. To think it was captured by a camera made for external surveillance purposes. Even though Lyle already knew, he realized anew just how secluded the place where Haejin’s original room was located actually was.

It appeared to be mealtime, as servants brought a food tray to the front of the fellow’s door. Not long after arriving, the servants muttered something among themselves. Because it was a distant location, the sound could not be heard. After exchanging a few words for a moment, they strangely took the tray and left again without even knocking once.

Had they brought something wrong? Looking at it for a long time with a puzzled mind, the door unexpectedly opened slightly. The white face poking out from the gap was Haejin. In the video, which Lyle watched with a bizarre feeling, the boy checked outside the room once briefly and closed the door without any energy. And the tray that the servants had collected did not return no matter how far back the video was rewound.

In an instant, Lyle felt the sensation of the rainwater pouring outside flowing down the nape of his neck.

“Are there no scenes of Jin eating in the dining room.”

“Do you mean the dining room, sir.”

“Yes.”

At Lyle’s out-of-the-blue remark, the security team leader searched through the equipment he was holding. Then he offered an even more incomprehensible answer.

“Mr. Bright has never once eaten in the dining room.”

“……Never once? For the past 5 years, not even once?”

“Yes, Mr. Chairman. In the first place, Mr. Bright was rarely captured in the major locations where cameras are installed. It is estimated that his activities inside the mansion were minimal.”

Today, of all days, was another day where heavy rain was falling. For the time being, such heavy rain would continue to occupy the city.

The air inside the mansion, where the humidity should be perfectly controlled, could not possibly be tightening around his skin this damply. Nevertheless, Lyle felt a vivid sensation heavily pressing down on him.

After staring at that speechless figure for a moment, the security team leader handed over several photos. They were captures of the CCTV footage.

“I am not sure if it is related to the matter you mentioned, but one strange circumstance was discovered.”

“What is it.”

“Several servants frequently show peculiarities when they arrive at work and when they leave. However, for now, there are no missing items in the recorded property list, so we are currently cross-checking the actual items with the list and the servants’ attendance records one by one.”

The photos he handed over contained the appearances of people taken on the morning and afternoon of the same day several years ago. Some people had changed clothes, and for others, the volume of their bags had changed.

If it had been once or twice, it would never have caught anyone’s eye. However, starting from a specific period, quite a few servants showed this kind of abnormal behavior. It was to the extent that the security team, which was playing the video at high speed, noticed the peculiarity.

Just what on earth was happening in this goddamn mansion. While flipping through the photos with a scowl, Lyle suddenly stopped his hand.

‘There was nothing fit to wear in the closet.’

Through the sound of rain, Haejin’s words pierced his eardrums like thunder.

Outside, as if perfectly timed, actual thunder shook the sky. Listening to that shout-like sound, Lyle placed the tablet on the desk as if possessed.

Then he headed out of the room.

“Mr. Chairman?”

The footsteps he took one by one were urgent from the start, unlike before. Even though he had only gone there once, the walk toward the fellow’s room was even familiar. The startled secretary and security team leader followed from behind, but Lyle did not care.

Having arrived at the guest room Haejin had been using, Lyle flung the door open without hesitation. Since Haejin was being treated in another room anyway, there was no hesitation. The room was a mess because the Butler had caused a scene here, and this was because all the servants who should have cleaned it were detained.

Unlike last time, all the doors connected to the drawing room were firmly closed. After staring briefly at the bedroom side that Haejin had used, Lyle turned the opposite way. It was toward the walk-in closet attached to this luxurious guest room.

Lyle, who roughly flung open the door that should have been full of clothes, ended up freezing in place right then and there.

A truly shabby landscape greeted him. Originally, this space should have been filled with all sorts of garments tailored to the guest’s convenience. Not only changing clothes by season, but there also existed a custom befitting the status of Vermouth so that various accessories could be matched to the guest’s taste.

However, the compartments where small accessories like scarves or watches should have been placed were completely empty. The places for simple jewelry and cufflinks were also hollow.

The space where basic shirts should have been hanging was empty in various spots, left in disarray. Even the section where coats should have been filled on one side had not a single piece of clothing left that was suitable for the current season.

It looked as if a band of thieves had swept through the place.

The security team leader, who entered with him, contacted someone with a look of understanding. While blankly inspecting the inside of the closet, Lyle wiped his face with his hand.

Had there ever been a moment when he felt this stupid?

“……The one whose eyes were covered was that fellow, but it turns out I was the blind idiot.”

He could understand the reason why Haejin hadn’t even read the massive compensation and such written in the contract. Because in the first place, the entire contract would not have been something trustworthy to him.

‘I will let you live without lifting a single finger, just as you have been doing, so sign the contract.’

He could only now understand why the boy had made that kind of expression when he had thrown out such arrogant words.

Lyle could not bear it because he was so ashamed of the newly discovered facts.

𓂃ﾟ ⋆ ﾟ ☂︎ 🍂༄˖°

The commotion at the mansion was absurd to the point of far exceeding expectations. Therefore, Lyle moved even more quickly and decisively.

First, he handled the company work he had postponed in bulk. As the Chairman, who had suddenly disappeared due to health issues, reappeared and handled work with an ominous aura, the employees at the headquarters building had to watch his mood. Reporters were sniffing around and rushing in, but Lyle had no room to care about such things right now.

This confusing sensation that gripped him tightly and would not let go constantly incited impulses.

Lyle, who returned to the mansion after finishing only the urgent tasks, hurriedly turned his steps as he was about to go to the study. Once he arrived at this goddamn mansion, he couldn’t stay still because he was curious about news of Haejin.

The detained Butler was causing a riot, saying he desperately needed to meet him, but Lyle ignored it all.

“Several of the servants have confessed to what has happened during this time.”

The circumstances he heard while moving his steps hurriedly were even more appalling. Who could have possibly expected that a guest would go hungry in the main mansion of the Vermouth family? They had only been starved for a few meals since last night, but they broke down so easily. Unable to endure just a few hours of hunger and cold.

Haejin’s parched body, and his ankles that protruded out while facing all the cold winter wind, kept flickering before his eyes.

In the footage he first discovered, the servants had reclaimed the tray quite naturally. As if it were not something that happened just a day or two ago.

He tried to track them through the screen, but they soon moved to a place without CCTV. Therefore, it was impossible to know what they did with that tray they took back without even a knock. He only knew that the dishes that had gone to Haejin returned to the kitchen late and empty. Even though Haejin, the owner of that food, had starved all day.

So Lyle tracked things related to food this time.

The results were beyond imagination. A mere 2 years. That was the time it took for them to realize that starving a person was easier than feeding them.

Haejin, who entered this mansion, had to fight hunger constantly after only 2 years. In the fellow’s account, there were many records of withdrawing cash particularly from ATMs near the hospital. The timing was always similar. The day he went to visit his parents once every two weeks.

As a result of scouring even the hospital’s CCTV records, circumstances were discovered where he always spent money at a small mart in the hospital. For the boy whose leg hurt, the mansion was a place where it was difficult even to step outside for a moment once he entered. What on earth was he thinking while barely filling his starving stomach?