The Servant in the Horror Game is Suspicious Chapter 4

After checking the item’s name, Jade let out a silent scream. Had Ian not been standing right there, he surely would have shouted it out loud. Unable to vent his irritation in front of the boy, Jade could only clutch at his hair in private.

Cleaning tools!

If it was an exclusive item in a game, shouldn’t it be something like a sword or a bow? Of all the things he could have gotten, how did cleaning tools make any sense?

Even the word “Beginner” attached to the front was incredibly grating. Just what kind of tools were they supposed to be?

“Sigh.”

But he had no choice. Perhaps he should just be grateful that there were cleaning tools at all in this ruined villa. Jade ultimately decided to head to the storage shed.

“Don’t worry. I’ll go get them. I happen to be max-level at cleaning.”

“Max… level…?”

Ian repeated the word, slightly furrowing his fine brows. Jade quickly slapped his own mouth and corrected himself.

“It means I’m really good at it.”

“Ah.”

As Ian gave a small nod, his head looked especially round. Looking at him like this, he seemed like a perfectly kind and innocent child; it was hard to believe he had already killed several adult servants.

“For now, just sit anywhere. If I clean for two days, I should be able to get your room and mine decent, at least.”

Jade shouted pluckily and headed down the stairs. He had only made it about three steps down when a booming sound from a stomach brought him to a halt.

Growl—

Jade turned toward the source of the noise. The owner of the sound was Ian. There were only two people in the villa, and since it wasn’t him, it obviously had to be Ian.

However, the protagonist of the growling stomach turned his head away as if nothing had happened. His face was so stoic and numb for a child that Jade briefly wondered if the sound had actually come from his own stomach instead.

As Jade scratched his temple in confusion, Ian’s face flushed red. Since his skin was so pale, the change was easy to spot. Sensing the boy was embarrassed, Jade rubbed his own stomach and spoke up.

“Should we eat before we start cleaning?”

Now that he’d heard that growl, Jade started feeling the hunger too. Considering the state of the room—which looked like it had been neglected for a century—it was impossible to clean right this second anyway. It seemed better to eat first.

Isn’t sharing a meal the most universal way for people to get close? Jade concluded that he might as well eat with the little fairy assassin. But once he’d said it, he was at a loss for how to actually prepare a meal.

“Haha, well… um, young master. Where are the ingredients…?”

“…Do I look like I have any?”

He had asked just in case, but the response was blunt. It was a prickliness that contrasted with his angelic, melodic voice. Still, it was the longest sentence Jade had heard from Ian since entering the villa.

“Right. None. Figures.”

Tch. Jade smacked his lips in disappointment. In the setting book, there was a line about how the young Ian filled his stomach by digging up plant roots in the winter forest. It looked like the number of people eating plant roots was about to increase by one.

Growl—

Another loud roar echoed from Ian’s stomach. A tiny, barely audible curse word was mixed in with it. For a kid, he had quite a foul mouth. Ian’s once pale face was now as red as a cherry.

He was a prickly young master, but he had a surprisingly cute side. Jade held back a laugh and walked down the stairs. He had an immediate task to attend to.

“I’ll go find some food first.”

No matter how hard he looked, there was nothing to eat inside the villa. That meant he had to find something outside. He had to go out and get something.

He had spoken bravely, but the thought of stepping back out into that bitter cold was daunting. The view through the window consisted of nothing but thick, swirling snowflakes and frozen plains.

“What could possibly be in a snowfield…?”

What on earth was out there? Jade crossed his arms and tapped his temple with his index finger, deep in thought. He’d never hunted before, so catching small animals was out, and hunting tools seemed hard to find anyway. Procuring crops in the middle of winter wouldn’t be easy either.

[ >> System << ]

Would you like to acquire an exclusive skill?

“Huh?”

A window popped up again before the worried Jade. Being able to acquire a skill was the best news he’d heard all day.

In Bloody Night, players could develop skill trees advantageous for survival—things like stealth, combat abilities, or magic. Since Jade wasn’t a player, he probably couldn’t learn high-level skills. But anything would be useful, wouldn’t it?

[ >> System << ]

YES or NO

Jade quickly turned his back. The system window wouldn’t be visible to Ian, but he figured the act of pressing an invisible choice in the air would look suspicious.

Quickly extending his finger to press YES, Jade waited for the next text to appear with a fluttering heart.

What kind of skill would it be? In this situation, he’d welcome anything, but a skill that could magically summon herbs or food would be even better.

[ >> Exclusive Skill Activated << ]

Lv 1. Distinguish Poisonous Mushrooms

“Goddammit.”

The moment he saw the name of the skill, he couldn’t hold back the curse. It was a miracle it didn’t fly out of his mouth.

His exclusive item was cleaning tools, and his skill was merely distinguishing poisonous mushrooms. The system in this game clearly held a grudge against him from a past life.

Is this crazy game joking with me?

Having played this game countless times, Jade knew just how valuable and flashy the players’ skills were.

Due to the nature of the horror theme, supernatural phenomena—like servants disappearing or objects warping—occurred frequently. Various skills and items were essential to resolve these phenomena. The combat skills used to defeat monsters were also incredibly flashy and useful.

And the skill Jade just got was…

“Mushrooms…”

Merely the ability to tell a poisonous mushroom from a normal one. The “Lv 1.” written next to the skill particularly pissed him off. To think such a trivial skill even had levels assigned to it.

“Mushrooms… right… mushrooms…”

Jade muttered in a despondent voice. Well, maybe it would be useful in the current situation where they lacked food. But he couldn’t help feeling drained. It was such an exhaustingly realistic skill. Besides, mushrooms in a field of deep, white snow?

Still, the fact that this skill appeared meant there had to be mushrooms in that snowfield. Skills didn’t exist for no reason. Mushrooms were much better than plant roots. Conveniently, there was a rusty trowel by the door.

“Fine, whatever works.”

“……”

Ian looked up at the blankly muttering Jade with a look of utter patheticness. Lacking a coat, Jade tore down an old curtain from the room, draped it around himself like a makeshift cloak, and stood before the door. He didn’t forget to grab the trowel. The freezing cold leaked through the loose door.

“I’m off—whoa, it’s cold…!”

The moment he opened the door, the cold surged in like a tidal wave. But having said he’d get ingredients, he couldn’t back out now. A man’s word is his bond, after all. If you’ve drawn your sword, you’ve gotta at least slice a radish. Jade was nothing if not persistent and brave.

“Ahem. I’m going. I’ll be able to find something.”

Taking a deep breath, Jade stepped out of the villa. Ian, who had scurried down the stairs after him, hovered nearby. Actually, rather than hovering, it was more like he was eyeing Jade with suspicion.

What was so suspicious? Jade gave Ian a wave and a hearty laugh before heading out.

“If I can’t find anything, we’ll just have to eat snow!”

Click.

With the sound of the door closing, the swirling cold was cut off. Ian stood in the middle of the suddenly silent villa, staring blankly at the closed door.

“……”

The cold air circulated in the silence. The chilly atmosphere he usually didn’t mind suddenly felt overwhelming. Ian scurried to the window and stood on his tiptoes.

Having turned twelve this year, Ian was much smaller than his peers. It was only natural since he couldn’t even eat properly at an age when he should be growing. He had to stand on his tiptoes just to cling to the windowsill, which was installed high up to block the cold wind. He could see the back of the man who had been muttering about mushrooms just a moment ago.

“There won’t be any edible mushrooms.”

Ian had also dug through the snow several times out of desperate hunger. But no crops survived before the life-draining cold. Even if he occasionally found a mushroom, they were all poisonous. Because of that, he hadn’t eaten anything yesterday or today.

The Linwood family sent food and supplies for the sake of appearances, but it was only about once a month, and even then, the variety and quantity were limited. Furthermore, because the previous servant hadn’t distributed the food properly, Ian was only given a few potatoes and some chunks of coarse rye bread.

No matter how small Ian was, surviving a month on that amount of food was a struggle. What was harder than the hunger was the fear of not knowing when the food supply would be cut off.

Would the food even come next month?

He knew the family wanted him dead. His father, the Duke, had been ill since Ian was five. That was when his uncle had left his own territory to move into the Ducal house. That was also when Ian’s abuse began.

As soon as his father died, his uncle used Ian’s health as an excuse to stow him away here. Perhaps it had been an inevitable path since the moment his uncle’s son and his cousin, Cain, was brought in as the Ducal house’s adoptee.

Ian knew his fate. He would die here, at this northern edge where it was too harsh for life to survive.

Though he was still young, he wasn’t afraid of death. He was just frustrated because he didn’t know when it would happen. Ian, who was the spitting image of his stoic father, even took after his father’s personality.

“I’m… off…”

In a small voice, Ian tried to mimic the words Jade had said before leaving. But it felt different from when Jade said it.