The Servant in the Horror Game is Suspicious Chapter 68

A faint warmth lingered in the damp scent of rain. Ian’s heart, however, was frozen colder than the peak of midwinter. The relentless Northern blizzards that once whirled outside were now raging within him.

Ian reached out a hand. The raindrops falling against his palm felt painful.

‘Once spring comes, let’s start by planting crops.’

Jade had waited for spring with a peculiar intensity. In the North, the arrival of spring didn’t bring any dramatic change to the landscape, yet he had waited regardless. There were times Ian had found Jade’s childlike anticipation for the season almost pitiful.

But when exactly had it started? Before he knew it, Ian had found himself waiting for spring right alongside him.

Ian knew from books what a Northern spring was like. Days when magical beasts ran wild, cold winds continued to howl, and rain fell constantly through the fog. That was spring in the North. Because of this, Ian had never actually looked forward to it while enduring the harsh winters.

But sitting beside Jade, listening to the plans he meticulously layered one on top of another, Ian fell under the illusion that the coming spring might actually be warm. It felt as though the crops would grow well and sunny days would follow, just as the man said.

Jade was a diligent soul, and his plans were equally thorough. The list of things he wanted to do in the spring kept growing. And the longer that list became, the more Ian felt an inexplicable sense of relief and stability.

“…”

Having slipped out of the temple via a back path in the middle of the night, Ian took in the Northern scenery. There was no warm spring like the one Jade had described. Ian’s spring was colder than any winter, and the summer that had just arrived was no different.

Gregor had advised Ian to remain strictly inside the temple for his safety. He didn’t listen. Right now, Ian had something he had to do.

‘This should be enough.’

Ian looked down at a coin pouch with hollow eyes. A hat was pulled low over his head to hide his blonde hair. It was the white hat Jade had bought him.

He couldn’t count how many times he had scrubbed it by hand to get the bloodstains out. Thanks to that effort, the stains were barely visible, but the hat had lost its shape and didn’t look like it used to. He regretted that.

It had already been a month since Jade disappeared. For the first week, he did nothing but wait. Strangely, Ian felt as if Jade would simply walk back through the door. He’d had that intuition.

But he didn’t come. By then, Ian had no choice but to accept it—the fact that Jade had truly left. His intuition had been nothing more than his own arrogance in trying to believe in the man.

From that day on, he spent every spare moment wandering the area around the temple, asking for word. Yet, no matter how many weeks he spent searching, he couldn’t find a single trace of Jade.

That was when he thought of an information broker. Every town had one in the back alleys, and they would find out anything as long as they were paid. Searching for a person was the most common request.

He had spent several days scouting the area to locate a broker. The money Jade left behind would be more than enough to cover the fee.

Truthfully, he didn’t know why he was trying so hard to find him. Since becoming Ian’s attendant, Jade had faced numerous dangers. Perhaps he had simply left to find a life for himself. Or perhaps his employment contract with his uncle had ended.

Jade wasn’t someone Ian had hired, nor was he family or a relative. There was no loyalty that had to be upheld between the two of them.

And yet, his will to find him was absolute. Without being able to construct a single logical reason, the singular thought of finding him filled his head. It was the first goal and the first blind desire Ian had ever formed in his short life.

‘He promised to read to me.’

And that wasn’t all. He’d promised to make him a cake, too.

Yes, this was a lingering attachment born because Jade hadn’t kept his promises.

The man had disappeared after offering nothing but empty words; the way he’d lowered Ian’s guard with all those sweet lies was simply unpardonable. That was why he wanted to find Jade. Just as Ian finished this rationalization and prepared to step forward…

“Young Master…!”

Gregor grabbed Ian’s arm from behind. Ian furrowed his brow and tried to shake off the hand, but he couldn’t break the grip due to the physical difference in strength.

“Sigh…”

Gregor held Ian’s shoulders and knelt down. He let out a sigh so deep it felt like the ground might sink, heedless of whether his robes trailed in the dirt. He was relieved he had caught Ian before he managed to get out today.

This had repeated every day since about a week after the attendant had left Ian in his care. Ian wandered outside the temple at every opportunity, and Gregor was kept busy forcing him back.

Even though he repeatedly warned the junior priests to keep a close watch, Ian somehow managed to slip out every single time.

Gregor’s worries grew deeper. This was largely due to news brought two days ago by a priest who had been dispatched to the capital’s temple.

The news was that the House of Linwood was searching for their missing eldest son.

The attendant had told him Ian’s life was in danger when he entrusted him to the temple. With that one sentence, Gregor had understood the entire situation.

The position of heir to the House of Linwood had been vacant for years. At such a time, the son of that prestigious house was isolated in the North. It wasn’t hard to guess what was happening.

With the boy wandering around outside like this, Gregor didn’t have a single moment of peace.

“The House of Linwood is looking for you, Ian.”

“I’m sure they are.”

Ian replied dismissively, eyes cast down, and turned his back on Gregor. The way he brushed off Gregor’s hand was so cold it practically radiated a chilling wind.

Gregor felt like his heart was going to burst at times like this. He could never tell what Ian was thinking; the boy didn’t act like a child at all. There was a dry, hollow look in his eyes, as if he already understood all the harsh truths of the world.

Furthermore, Ian refused to deal with the priests. It wasn’t that he treated them poorly; it was more like he simply ignored them. Because of this, coaxing or soothing him didn’t work, and Ian occasionally looked at Gregor with pure disdain.

However, the moment the attendant was mentioned, his eyes changed. A sharp light would flicker in those cold pupils, and meeting that gaze made the back of Gregor’s neck go cold, even though it came from a mere child.

“It seems the House of Linwood is also looking for an attendant named Jade.”

“…Jade?”

As expected, the boy’s eyes shifted. His expression as he stared at Gregor was a demand to spit out the rest of the information immediately.

Gregor swallowed hard under that frigid gaze. But it seemed he had succeeded in diverting Ian’s attention.

“It appeared that Sir Malderic is the one searching for him. I heard they even hired mercenaries.”

“…”

Ian’s eyes narrowed slightly as he frowned. Then, he bit his lower lip.

He had assumed Jade left because his employment with his uncle was over, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.

“I heard you are in a dangerous situation. If you wander around as you please and fall into danger, that attendant will be in trouble too. So…”

“Did Jade say that? That I’m in danger, so they should take good care of me?”

Ian cut Gregor off, snapping the question with urgency. Gregor inhaled a sharp sigh.

Right now, Ian seemed to have no concern for the fact that he himself was in danger. His only interest was in what that attendant had said about him.

“Yes.”

“…”

When Gregor answered in the affirmative with a heavy heart, Ian whipped his head away. Until now, the Ian Gregor had seen was utterly emotionless, but now he couldn’t hide his expression.

After a short silence, Ian turned back toward the interior of the temple.

“I’m going in.”

Following behind Ian as he walked obediently down the hallway, Gregor fell into a state of doubt. To him, the relationship between the departed attendant and Ian seemed too subtle to be dismissed as a simple master-servant dynamic. It was hard to even define it as mere closeness.

Ian was obsessed with that attendant to an excessive degree. And it was a very tenacious, persistent obsession.

“Why aren’t you handing me over to my uncle?”

Ian asked before entering his assigned room. Gregor could only say one thing.

“I am merely following the will of the Gods.”

“…”

Ian stared at Gregor for a long moment before entering the room and closing the door without a word. The will of the Gods. Ian didn’t believe a word Gregor said.

The man was likely wary of his uncle becoming the head of the house. His uncle wasn’t the type of person who would pour money into the temple.

If Ian, raised in the temple, led the House of Linwood, Gregor must have calculated that it would benefit the temple in the future. That was why they accepted Ian’s entrustment and cared for his safety. There was no such thing as kindness without a price in this world.

In truth, Ian didn’t care what Gregor’s motives were. There was a different, more important issue for Ian right now.

‘They’re looking for Jade…?’

Judging by his uncle’s personality, it was strange that he would go as far as hiring mercenaries to find a single attendant.

Did he think Jade was with him and was searching for that reason? But the focus seemed to be more on Jade than Ian.

Specifically, if the only goal was to find Ian, all he had to do was file a missing person report and deploy the knights. Why go through the trouble of hiring mercenaries to find Jade discreetly?

“…”

It was because there was a problem that had to be handled in secret, meaning he couldn’t act officially.

Jade had been with Ian the entire time. He hadn’t made any mistakes that would particularly earn his uncle’s resentment. All Jade had done was manage the old villa properly and take meticulous care of Ian.

‘That was the mistake.’

Suddenly, it hit him like a bucket of ice water.

A scene flashed through his mind—Victor, who had visited the villa, talking to Jade. At the time, Jade had looked extremely troubled, and Victor had seemed to be pressuring him.

“Jade.”

Ian muttered his name in a calm voice.

Because he took care of and saved Ian, his uncle was looking for Jade. The fact that those actions earned his uncle’s wrath meant that Jade’s original mission had been the opposite. A mission diametrically opposed to keeping Ian alive.

‘You came to kill me.’

Finally, all the puzzle pieces seemed to fit. A hollow laugh escaped him.

He understood now why people described a shock as feeling like being hit in the head with a hammer. His head truly felt numb, as if he’d been struck.

From the beginning, Ian hadn’t trusted anyone.

Every human being moves only when their interests align. He knew that premise better than anyone. So there was no reason to feel betrayed.

And yet, his chest tightened and his throat felt constricted. A mixture of emotions—he couldn’t tell if it was anger or sadness—pooled in his throat.

Ian covered his burning eyes with his palm. His chest felt crushed, as if a massive weight of lead had been placed on his solar plexus.

Was the reason he smiled and reached out his hand so kindly just to lower his guard? Which parts of the time they spent together at the villa were lies, and which were real?

And after succeeding in lowering his guard, why did he leave him alive? It would have been better if Jade had actually tried to kill him. If he had failed in an attempt on Ian’s life, if he had at least taken an antagonistic action, he wouldn’t have to feel like this.

“…”

Ian ground his teeth.

He couldn’t let it end like this. He had to find Jade. He had to find him by any means necessary and ask him. Ian had to know which of his words were true and which were lies.

“Malderic Linwood.”

Ian dwelled on his uncle’s name. In order to find Jade, his uncle had to be eliminated. Only then could he move freely.

A chill settled in Ian’s eyes. His blue pupils gradually sank into a dry, hollow grey.

Ten years later.

The morning sky, with thin clouds stretched long across it, was neither clear nor overcast. Jade looked up at the early winter sky, which held a strangely hazy color.

“I wonder if it’s going to snow.”

It had been exactly ten years since he left the North.