The Servant in the Horror Game is Suspicious Chapter 43

After leaving the underground passage, Jade headed straight for the study. It was just about the time Ian would be busy reading. The original purpose of going to the storage room had long since vanished from his mind.

‘Healing potions…!’

That single phrase dominated his thoughts. Even this morning, hadn’t he struggled for ages trying to wash himself while feverish and relying on only one arm? Messing up a limb was far more inconvenient and exhausting than he’d imagined.

‘It has to be real, right?’

He had never used potion-type items back when he played this game. Since it was a story-driven horror game rather than an RPG, they were unnecessary items anyway.

But they had to be real. Who knows? Maybe in this actual world, such potions were common goods.

The system window had never lied to him before. Although it was a master at getting on his nerves, it always displayed the information in front of him truthfully.

So, if he dealt with that stroke of luck—no, that wraith—he could get healing potions. Three of them, at that.

“Ian!”

“Jade…?”

When Jade burst into the study, Ian jumped in surprise and hid a thick book. His small hands fumbled as he searched for a thin book, like a fairy tale. However, Jade wasn’t in the right state of mind to notice things like that anyway.

“What’s going on, coming in without knocking?”

Ian asked wonderingly as he finally managed to find and open a picture book. It made sense; Jade was a fairly well-mannered person. He never forgot to knock when entering Ian’s room or the study. Since he had never kicked the study door open in such a rush before, Ian wondered if something had happened.

“Do you remember what you said the other day?”

“What did I say…?”

“You know, that… what was it. You said there were monsters or things like that in the villa.”

“Ah… back in the forest?”

Ian nodded as if it were nothing. He remembered every single conversation he’d had with Jade. He remembered the content, of course, but also Jade’s voice and expression when he spoke, the way his eyes crinkled kindly, and every single word down to the last syllable.

At the time, Jade hadn’t seemed particularly interested, but now he was panting as if it were an extreme emergency. At that sight, Ian’s eyebrows naturally shot up.

“Yes. Back then, you mentioned an eyeless servant. Do you remember?”

“Vaguely. But why? Did he appear?”

Could he have come near the room? Ian started to stand up to move toward the door. But Jade waved his hand, signaling that wasn’t it.

“No, nothing like that, I just have something to ask. Have you actually seen that eyeless servant yourself, Ian?”

“I’ve never actually seen him.”

“Not even once? Then how do you know about him?”

“I read about him.”

He read about him? What on earth did that mean?

“What? Is there a book like that?”

“No, it’s not a book, exactly…”

Ian’s voice trailed off. Glancing back and forth between Jade and the bookshelves, Ian soon padded over somewhere. Then, he pulled out and handed over a notebook with a leather cover.

“It has records of the strange creatures that appear in the villa. Looking at the signature engraved on the leather cover, I think the first head of the house wrote it.”

“May… May I take a look too?”

Ian shrugged, giving him permission. Jade turned the pages of the notebook one by one. Just as Ian said, the notebook contained writings about non-human entities and paranormal phenomena within this villa.

Many parts of it aligned with what Jade had read in the official setting guide, and there were also phenomena he had experienced firsthand.

For example, the fifth step of the villa’s staircase that made a creak-screeech wooden sound every time it was stepped on, even though it wasn’t made of wood. It also described the mop ghost and the old man who dragged around the grandfather clock—things he had seen in the setting guide.

The handwritten notes detailed the experiences the first head of the house had seen and gone through while living here. There were drawings of what unfamiliar monsters looked like, and for some, their characteristics were recorded in great detail. The person who filled this notebook seemed to have been a thorough observer of the villa’s supernatural occurrences and non-human beings.

Turning a few more pages, he found a section on the eyeless servant. The first head of the house had labeled him a “wraith,” and it seemed he appeared quite frequently back then, as there were more characteristics written about him compared to other pages.

One passage in particular caught his eye.

Weakness: Fire

Frequent Haunts: Dark or damp places

……

Fire. It clearly said fire. This was truly fate. After all, the skill he had acquired after dealing with the shadow wolf was a fire-attribute attack skill. It seemed the eyeless servant was also a creature of the North and was therefore weak to fire. To think that applied to ghosts as well. Regardless, it was great news for Jade.

“Ian, may I read this for a bit?”

“I don’t see why not, but…”

Ian didn’t refuse, but his eyes were filled with a look that asked why on earth he needed it.

“I feel like I should know these things if I’m going to keep managing this villa. What if you kick me out for being incompetent, Ian? I have to be prepared for when I run into monsters or ghouls.”

“Take it.”

Once Jade mentioned it was so he could stay here, Ian readily handed over the notebook. Jade gripped it tightly. His heart hammered at the thought of dealing with the wraith and getting those healing potions.

“Then I’ll be going. I’ll see you at mealtime!”

“Jade.”

“Yes, Ian?”

Ian called out to Jade as he was about to leave the study with a light step. Was he going to ask for the notebook back? Jade instinctively started to hide the notebook behind his back. However, the words that came out of Ian’s mouth were different from his expectations.

” I won’t kick you out.”

“Ah…”

“Even if you become incompetent, I won’t kick you out.”

It was a strange feeling. Was Ian the kind of child who could say things like this? Jade always treated Ian with a relaxed and sly attitude, but for a moment, he couldn’t think of anything to say. Only after a brief silence could he find a standard response.

“Haha, I’m honored. Go back to your book. I’ll make you something delicious for dinner.”

Quickly closing the study door and stepping out, Jade leaned his back against the hallway wall.

What was the cause of this strange emotion?

Was it because Ian, who was originally supposed to kill him, showed him kindness? Or was it because the day of his departure was drawing near?

Either way, it wasn’t good. From the start, Jade’s human relationships were simple. Close enough to laugh and trade jokes, but not very deep. The type who had groups of friends to hang out with but no one to consult about his worries or lean on. He had always maintained his relationships at that level.

It wasn’t intentional. Since he didn’t have a family to call a basic safety net, he was clumsy at forming deep bonds with others. He didn’t know the way because he had never learned or experienced it. It wasn’t uncomfortable. In fact, he thought he preferred it that way. As long as there was a decent amount of pleasantness, he could maintain moderate relationships without much trouble.

But now, he felt as though he had become too close to Ian. And not just Ian, but Buster and Bluey as well. His once-quiet life had begun to get crowded since he dropped into this place.

How much distance would allow them not to hurt each other? How “not close” should they be so that things wouldn’t feel empty even if he left? The current Jade didn’t even know that much. It was difficult because it was a type of relationship he had never experienced. That made his heart complicated.

From the next day, Jade went around looking for the Wraith of the Blind Servant. Since it had vanished through the door connecting the underground passage to the villa, it was likely inside.

But even that wasn’t certain. Perhaps because it was a wraith, the creature could pass through walls or doors. It was possible it had returned to the passage in the meantime.

Jade smacked his lips as he looked at the wooden club in his hand. He’d picked it up to use as a weapon, but if the thing could pass through doors, a club like this would be useless. However, he had a skill.

[ >> Special Skill <<

Lv 1. Fireball *Attack-type skill.

Can throw up to three balls of fire. ]

Opening the skill window, Jade carefully read through the skill name and description. Having been burned before—literally—he checked the warnings thoroughly this time. The activation condition was simple. He just had to recite the skill name in his mind.

[ Cooldown Time: ’24 hours’ ]

The problem was the cooldown. Honestly, a whole day was way too long. Considering that skill cooldowns were usually around thirty seconds, this was an absurd amount of time. Even the ‘Root Vegetable, Here I Come!’ skill had a twenty-hour cooldown; they were truly stingy.

Above all, the skill name was incredibly low-effort. To have ‘Fireball’—a name that seemed like it would be a basic entry in every single game—as his skill name.

In a place where even a carrot was a ‘Shade Carrot’ and a pumpkin was an ‘Old Snowflake Pumpkin’, could his skill really be the only thing with such a simple name? If he accidentally recited the skill name by mistake, he’d have to wait another twenty-four hours.

But well, it didn’t matter. What did a long cooldown matter? The important thing was having a skill. He intended to finish this in one go.

On the other hand, he felt a bit disappointed that it was a wraith and not a monster. If it had been a monster, he wouldn’t even have to fight since he could just use the submission skill.

For the sake of healing potions, he could chant a humiliating incantation ten times over. That was how much Jade was currently obsessed with healing potions, like a man crazed by capitalism. Anyone stuck in a Northern villa with no hospitals or medicine would naturally end up like this.

“Dark and damp places,” Jade muttered.

Currently, he was sitting in the middle of a bathroom with the lights off, waiting for the Wraith of the Blind Servant.

The reason was simple. It was said that the creature liked dark and damp places. A bathroom was the perfect spot for that in the villa. The only problem was that there were bathrooms all over the place.

“Let’s see who wins.”

Jade sat cross-legged. He paid close attention so as not to miss even the smallest sound. How many hours had passed like that? As if reading his wish, a bone-chilling sound began to drift from around the door.

Scratch, scritch-scratch.

It was the sound of fingernails scratching the bathroom door. It’s here. Jade swallowed hard. Then, with a tense hand, he grabbed the doorknob. The thing was fast, so he had to recite the skill name the moment he saw it. Having finished his preparations, Jade threw the bathroom door open.

“Fi…!”

“Meow?”

However, the one who appeared before his eyes was not the wraith, but Buster.