IKMHITM 6

࣪ ִֶָ☾. Chapter 06 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

Hide wasn’t the only one who arrived. Not content with just bringing his pregnant sister-in-law, he had even dragged along his married eldest sister.

“Hello, Eve?”

“Doris! What brings you here…?”

“I’ve been staying at my parents’ house for a few days. I thought I should at least see your face before you got married. You have no idea how disappointed I was when I heard you already left.”

Doris spat those words out with a gorgeous, arrogant expression. Eve couldn’t help but marvel at the sheer audacity.

“My, I never thought the day would come when you’d actually want to see me.”

“A younger sister really doesn’t understand the deep affection of an elder sister.”

“Is that so? I honestly thought you hated me.”

“Why would I ever hate you?”

“How should I know? Maybe when you made me do all sorts of menial chores instead of using your own maids, or during my growth spurt when you’d poke my chest and hips with a folding fan in front of the servants and call me a ‘fat cow,’ or whenever you pulled out my earrings by jabbing me with needles. I just guessed based on things like that.”

“Eve, you little—!”

Doris’s face flushed bright red.

I tried acting friendly, but this stupid wretch can’t read the room until the very end!

Doris had married a wealthy man from a neighboring town a decade older than her when she was young, and she occasionally sent money and food back to her family like she was tossing charity. So, she hadn’t been particularly jealous even when Eve inherited the mansion.

She simply couldn’t tolerate it.

An ungrateful wretch like Eve!

The moment Doris heard the news, she had rushed over since dawn. She had planned to properly lecture Eve as an elder sister so the girl would finally realize her proper place.

Yet what was this? This cheeky little sister was already running wild and forgetting her station!

“Don’t frown so much, First Young Lady. What will you do if wrinkles form on that pretty nose?”

Iola chimed in, pretending to soothe Doris gently.

“You know how it is, don’t you? Our youngest young lady has been unusual ever since she was a child. A talent like that doesn’t just go away when she grows up, does it?”

Iola was a hypocrite who put on airs of refinement. She never openly criticized anyone, but she was a master at ruining someone’s mood with twisted, roundabout remarks.

A few clueless men had actually mistaken Iola’s behavior for elegance.

“What are you standing around for, Eve? Hurry up and thank your sister-in-law! She says she’s looked favorably upon you ever since you were little!”

Of course, there was at least one person here who fell into that category.

“How long are you planning to keep us standing at the front door? When you came out to greet us, I thought you finally grew a brain, but is this how you treat your own family?”

Hide jabbed Eve hard in the forehead with his index finger.

“Your husband must be inside the mansion, right? Let’s see this precious husband of yours!”

Bride’s family shouldn’t visit the estate? What absolute nonsense.

The moment Hide sneered and boldly stepped his foot inside the mansion, the statues in the garden simultaneously turned their heads.

Intruder.

Unauthorized…

Eve’s family had their backs to the garden, so they couldn’t see it. But Eve saw it clearly.

The stone statues yanked their half-dirt-buried feet out of the ground. With bizarre and terrifyingly swift movements, they lunged toward this side.

Thud, thud.

“What is this? Where is this shaking coming from…?”

“Aargh!”

“Kyaaaah!”

Turning around belatedly, the family shrieked in terror. Honestly, Eve almost fainted too, but because her family was right in front of her, she forced herself to endure and look unfazed.

“Ah….”

The pregnant Iola collapsed while clutching her stomach. Shockingly, without even glancing at Iola, Hide turned around and bolted!

“Brother-in-law! Where are you going?!”

A bewildered Doris called out to Hide, but it was useless.

Eve found herself wondering how Doris, now left all alone, would react.

Their eyes met.

“Help me, Eve!”

“Did you ever help me? Whenever I was beaten like a dog by my brother-in-law, or starved for meals over the most absurd excuses, didn’t you just stand by and watch?”

Panicking, Doris bolted toward the front door. However, she was immediately surrounded by the stone statues.

“Save me! Is anyone out there?! Please, somebody save me!”

“Master.”

The suddenly ringing, enchanting voice completely drowned out Doris’s frantic screams.

Kamien was standing beside her before she even noticed. Feeling a wave of relief, Eve softly asked,

“Kamien, are those statues going to attack me too?”

“They will not.”

It was a brief answer, yet it carried absolute trust.

Kamien glanced sideways at Doris, who was blocked by the statues, and at Iola, who had collapsed by the entrance, before asking,

“What would you like to do with them?”

“What can we do?”

“Killing them is the quickest and easiest way. We just have to throw them into the spots where those statues emerged and ‘restore’ the statues to their original state.”

Um. Let’s not imagine that. Don’t go picturing something like crushed meat pies.

“My brother-in-law ran away.”

“I will drag him back shortly.”

With what method?

Hardly had the thought crossed her mind when something came flying through the air. It was a gargoyle statue with wings.

No. Even so, stone flying through the sky?

Ghost story or not… no. Is it possible precisely because it’s a ghost story?

Trying to apply logic or the laws of physics to this place was truly a pointless endeavor.

“Uraaaagh!”

The gargoyle statue had indeed dragged Hide right back.

Thrown unceremoniously onto the ground, Hide scrambled to his feet despite walking with a limp and screamed,

“Monsters, you monsters!”

Frothy white saliva spat wildly from ranting Hide’s mouth.

“I’m going to report all of you to the temple! Not a single one of you will be left, I’ll burn you all to ash—!”

A fist was much closer than fire. The stone statues mercilessly wailed on Hide with their heavy stone fists.

Every single blow produced a loud, sickening sound of tearing flesh and breaking bones. Within mere moments, Hide was reduced to a tattered mess.

Watching him hang limply without the slightest twitch, Eve asked,

“Is he dead?”

“He still has breath in him.”

Eve almost blurted out that it was a shame.

“They are all gathered now. I will ask once more. Does the master wish to kill them?”

Eve hesitated. Kamien looked deeply moved.

“You do not immediately say no.”

“Well, they sold me here knowing full well I might die.”

Even if the bride died or was maimed, no one would hold them accountable. To maintain absolute secrecy from outsiders no matter what horrors she suffered—every time she recalled the wording of the prenuptial agreement, anger flared hot enough to tint Eve’s vision red.

“Then I will kill them. However, it may arouse suspicion among the townspeople.”

“Suspicion?”

“Because they came to Belper Mansion and disappeared.”

That was true. The mansion was already swirling with bizarre rumors as it was.

“Is there any possibility they told someone they were coming here?”

“They probably did. They definitely told our mother.”

Their mother had been leaning heavily into hypochondria lately. She probably would have wanted to come today of all days, but she was likely held back by her usual ‘frail’ image.

Eve looked down at Iola’s hair, which was tangling around her ankles.

“I’ve never liked my sister-in-law, but killing a pregnant woman is a bit much. What other options are there?”

“We can lock them in the mansion and only bring them out when investigators arrive.”

“Ugh! I hate the idea of them being in the same mansion.”

“We can also scare them so thoroughly that they never dare look at this place again.”

“Can we do that? Even though they’ve already seen everything?”

Eve didn’t particularly enjoy ghost stories, but she wasn’t terribly terrified of them either—at least, not until a few days ago.

Either way, it meant she had a general grasp of standard ghost story common sense.

“Normally, you aren’t supposed to let them leave alive, right? Because they saw things they shouldn’t have.”

“You know well, being a pious believer.”

“I don’t have a religion anymore.”

“Perhaps you should take off that rosary before saying such things.”

“Ah.”

Eve quickly tucked the rosary slipping out of her sleeve back into place.

Even though she had given up her faith, she couldn’t part with this rosary.

Feeling the smooth, polished texture beneath her fingertips, a sudden wave of alertness washed over Eve.

“Why am I like this? How many days has it even been since I killed Serian…?”

No matter how much it was self-defense, it was her very first kill. At first, she had been terrified out of her mind, yet she had adjusted astonishingly quickly.

“Now I’m even debating whether to kill my own family… Was I always born with the temperament of a madwoman?”

Eve felt entirely unfamiliar to herself. The strange sense of cognitive dissonance was enough to genuinely scare her.

“It is entirely because of Belper Mansion.”

“Huh?”

“This place changes people. It feeds the dark shadows within one’s heart and makes them grow. Naturally, it will exert an even stronger influence on you, Master.”

Eve snapped back to her senses. Kamien’s explanation proved far more effective than any blatant lecture telling her not to commit murder.

“I won’t kill them after all. At least, not right now.”

“Understood. Then I will scare them and drive them out.”

“Will a little scare even work? They are such persistent people…”

At those words, Kamien smiled faintly.

“We can use suggestion to brainwash them. We can make them never want to lay eyes on Belper Mansion ever again.”

“……Kamien. Just what kind of person—no, what kind of being are you?”

“Who knows.”

Why won’t he tell me? Eve wrinkled the bridge of her nose, but she wasn’t brave enough to cross-examine him any further.

“I’ll leave the rest to you, then.”

“Understood.”

Kamien vanished into the hallway for a moment before returning with something in hand: a silver-headed walking cane typically used by gentlemen when going out.

“Why are you giving this to me…?”

“Brainwashing can only be done within the subconscious. The target must be asleep or unconscious.”

Kamien gestured with his chin toward Doris, who was still weeping and howling trapped among the statues.

“I get that, but why me…?”

“I have no desire to strike a woman. That is the work of trash.”

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･