The Servant in the Horror Game is Suspicious Chapter 16

And then, Jade realized the identity of that bone-chilling sound. Something was bobbing and drifting in mid-air.

“What is that…?”

Floating in the air was the head of a mop, sans handle. But it wasn’t a normal mop. Dozens of snake-like strands made of thick white yarn hung down like the tentacles of a jellyfish.

Skitter, skitter-skitter…

The strands constantly writhed, tangling and untangling amongst themselves. The skittering sound Jade had heard was the noise of those strands brushing against the floor.

It was as if every single strand had its own ego. It sounded like a multitude of snakes crawling across a stone floor.

Slither, scuff—

The sound of the yarn rubbing against itself—a soft slither—mixed in as well. That sound was equally hair-raising.

As if sensing Jade’s gaze, the mop suddenly slapped itself against the wall. The split ends of the strands looked like fingers, and they moved by clawing and scraping up the dust and grime from the wall.

After its grotesque display of movement, the mop slid down the wall and vanished rapidly with a skittering sound. Clumps of dust and grime fell to the floor. The strands swayed in the air as if dancing.

“Huh? Hey, wait!”

Jade ran after the mop. An ordinary person would have been busy fleeing from such a bizarre entity, but Jade wasn’t the fearful type to begin with. Now that he’d seen the source of the noise with his own eyes, he had nothing to be afraid of.

Above all, hadn’t Jade just set a new goal for himself? The unwavering mission to stay at this villa as if he were on vacation.

This was the “Healing House” that Jade was working so hard to clean and maintain. He couldn’t allow this unidentified creature to roam free.

Skitter-skitter—

Sensing Jade closing in, the mop moved even faster. A sound like a broom sweeping the floor followed. The mop descended from the fifth floor to the third and made a sharp turn. Despite having no eyes or ears, it dashed through the villa as if it owned the place.

“Stop right there!”

Following the mop down, Jade ran toward the corner of the third floor with all his might. He was glad his flu had fully cleared; thanks to that, he could keep up with the rapidly vanishing mystery mop.

Shhhhk—

The end of the corner was a dead-end wall. Driven into a corner, the individually writhing strands froze for a moment. But only for a second; like a cobra raising its neck, the strands surged upward, threatening Jade.

It looked like Medusa’s head, or perhaps a giant spider about to ensnare its prey. The mop puffed itself up as if trying to intimidate him.

“You…!”

However, the emotion Jade felt wasn’t fear—it was rage.

Was it because this thing was running away? Because it was an unidentified entity?

No, those weren’t the issues. Something else was making Jade angry.

This was the third floor. Not the fourth, not the fifth, but the third floor—where Ian’s room and his own room were located. In short, it was the place Jade had put the most effort into sweeping and scrubbing.

And this sentient, moving mystery mop was wet and filthy. Extremely so.

“You…!”

The mop looked as if it were soaking up foul sewer water. Droplets of black water clung to the ends of its dozens of strands, falling to the floor with a drip, drip and forming small puddles.

“No way.”

A sudden, ominous feeling hit him. Jade whipped around to look at the hallway he had just sprinted through.

They say ominous feelings are never wrong. He hadn’t noticed while running in a panic, but a trail of filthy water now lined the hallway. This mop had created it while fleeing.

Even Hansel and Gretel couldn’t have left a trail this dense. All his hard work cleaning was going down the drain.

“What the hell are you?!”

Unable to contain himself, Jade exploded. He lunged at the insolent mop. Come hell or high water, he was going to catch and punish this mop for trashing his hallway.

“You little bastard!”

In an instant, Jade grabbed the intruder, clenching his hands around the center of its yarn mass.

“Screeeeeech—!”

The mop caught in his grip let out a grotesque scream and twisted its body. But Jade, fueled by fury, absolutely refused to let go.

“Screeeech!”

The inside of his palms, slick with sewer water, were slippery. It felt like it might slide right out of his hands. Before the mop could escape again, Jade slammed the bundle of strands onto the floor.

Splat—

With a sound like falling filth, Jade’s shoes and the floor were covered in disgusting water. The mop, flattened against the floor like slime, shot away and vanished again.

“I… I’m going to kill you when I catch you…!”

Jade’s eyes were blazing. Skitter-skitter— Just as he passed Ian’s room chasing the disappearing mop, the door clicked open. Jade turned around.

“Myang?”

“What’s going on?”

Ian, having heard the commotion, looked at Jade with a bewildered face. Buster, who had emerged from the room right next door—Jade’s room—also tilted his head in confusion.

“Oh, young master…!”

In the brief moment he turned to look at Ian, the mop had vanished without a trace. Jade’s shoulders slumped. His entire body was drenched in sweat from sprinting back and forth.

“Myang…?”

Buster flicked his tail from side to side disapprovingly as he looked at the dirty water stains on the floor. He leaned in to sniff them and immediately crinkled his face.

“Hiss…!”

It must have been an unbearable smell; Buster flailed his paws and mimicked a scratching motion in the air. A musty odor was spreading faintly throughout the hallway. Buster hovered around Jade as if asking what on earth happened.

“The hallway…”

Ian also looked at the long trail of dirty water dripping across the floor. His questioning gaze followed the trail before finally landing on Jade.

“I didn’t do this!”

Jade shouted, sounding victimized.

“I… I know.”

Ian stammered at the sight of Jade, who looked like he might actually cry from the injustice.

Ian knew for a fact that Jade wouldn’t dirty the hallway. He knew because he had been observing Jade cleaning the stairs on the lower floor just moments ago.

Lately, Ian had developed a new hobby: watching Jade from a distance.

For a while now, Ian had been thinking that he had grown too close to Jade in too short a time. Proximity could invite trouble. He had to be on guard.

Even the uncle who had abandoned him at this villa was once someone he was close to. The same went for his cousin, Cain. And now, they wanted Ian dead more than anyone.

‘It’s uncomfortable.’

Ian found it uncomfortable to be close to others. Especially since every servant sent to the villa had hated him, hadn’t they? Jade was acting friendly for now, but it would likely be temporary.

Furthermore, being around Jade made him feel… strange. He could tell instinctively. That he was a dangerous person.

So, Ian intentionally kept his distance. However, watching Jade was entertaining enough that he couldn’t bring himself to stop that part.

It wasn’t because he liked Jade. It was just that in this boring, silent villa, Jade was the only one making “everyday noise,” and he was the most suitable sight to kill time during a dull routine.

Jade was truly dim-witted. He moved busily all day without rest. He woke up early to clean and roamed every corner of the villa to find necessary items.

He even harvested a variety of mushrooms in his own way. Though the cooking method was always the same, the variety made eating fun.

It had only been about a week since Jade arrived, but the villa looked markedly different than before. Thanks to him filling the lamps with oil, the once-gloomy lighting was now bright, and he had repaired every wall with a visible gap so the sound of the wind whistling through was gone.

He tirelessly collected broken furniture or gathered twigs. It was amazing how he found so many twigs in the snowy forest. Collecting firewood, Jade looked like a squirrel storing up food for the winter.

Thanks to Jade’s diligent movements, they never ran out of logs now. Consequently, the fireplace hadn’t gone out for days, keeping the villa air warm.

If Jade had nothing to do, he went looking for work. Just as he’d said on the day he arrived, he really seemed like a man who was a master of housekeeping.

So, Ian chose to watch, following Jade’s movements with his eyes. Since he created and completed a different task every day, it was fun to watch. Ian had never seen someone work so stubbornly and dim-wittedly. While he clicked his tongue at how foolish it was, he couldn’t stop looking.

Sometimes Jade would mutter incomprehensible things while working. Because of the distance, most of it was inaudible, but occasionally he got lucky and could hear him. Like today.

‘I’m definitely going to feed Ian my bread.’

‘You have to eat well when you’re young.’

Jade had muttered that while scrubbing at a stain with a rag as if he held a personal grudge against the stairs.

To Ian, food was merely a means to fill his stomach. He didn’t particularly have foods he liked or disliked. But hearing that made him curious about the bread the man would make.

Having accidentally overheard that, a moment ago Ian had to duck into his room and hide, unable to watch Jade any longer. The man kept pulling out unnecessary emotions that Ian had lived his life without knowing. That was uncomfortable.

So, even without seeing it, he knew. There was no way Jade, who scrubbed and repaired the villa so hard, would scatter dirty water everywhere. As the servant, Jade would be the one having to clean it up anyway, so it would only be more work for him.

“You might not believe me. I know it sounds crazy.”

Jade vented his frustrations, running a hand through his hair. His voice, rising slightly at the end, was thick with the sense of injustice.

“But it’s true. Some crazy—no, no—some weird guy was in the villa! He looks like a mop, but he moves on his own and acts like an animal…!”

“Myang…? Myang, myang.”

Buster didn’t seem to believe Jade. He hovered around Jade with a look full of suspicion.

“Mya. Myang.”

“I’m telling the truth!”

Buster eventually patted Jade on the back as if he felt sorry for him, which only made Jade vent even more.

“He moved incredibly fast! He came down from the fifth floor to here in an instant, crawling on the walls and the hallway…!”

Jade clutched his forehead, saying it was hard for even him to believe. Listening to the description, something came to Ian’s mind. After searching his memory for a moment, Ian spoke slowly.

“That’s probably… the Mop Ghost.”