IKMHITM 7

࣪ ִֶָ☾. Chapter 07 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

A short while later, Doris’s face brightened as she saw her younger sister appearing from among the statues.

“Eve! You really did come to save me?”

Doris seemed oblivious to the conversation Eve had just shared with Kamien.

Perhaps she had been too terrified to hear it, or perhaps something uncanny had interfered.

“I hate to break it to you, but I didn’t come to save you, Sister.”

“What?”

“You’ve done plenty of wrong things to me, haven’t you? First off, take one hit from me.”

“Y-You’ve lost your mind? You’re seriously planning to hit me with that cane?!”

“Well, what else would I be holding it for? It’s heavy.”

Eve asked as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Doris was left completely speechless.

“By the way, Sister. I’m a bit clumsy, so I might not be able to finish this in just one hit. Sorry about that.”

“You little wretch—aaack!”

About ten minutes later, looking at Doris, who had finally passed out, Kamien offered his evaluation.

“She looks rather like a crushed cupcake.”

“Stop teasing and hurry up and brainwash her. If anyone wakes up, I honestly don’t have the confidence to do this again!”

Instead of brainwashing the unconscious family members, however, Kamien first took hold of Eve’s hand.

“You are injured.”

Just as Kamien said, her palm was burning and smarting. In particular, the skin between her thumb and index finger was rubbed completely raw and bright red.

Yet, the sense of exhilaration was so overwhelming that she didn’t even feel the pain.

“I’m fine. This is nothing.”

“Shall I treat it for you?”

“Huh?”

“Please, do not refuse this time.”

The refusal that was about to slip out of Eve’s mouth died right there. Kamien’s face, gazing intently down at her, was far too mesmerizing.

“See you in your dreams tonight.”

Kamien turned his back with utter detachment. It seemed he was about to begin the actual brainwashing on Eve’s family.

Thanks to that, he likely hadn’t noticed that Eve’s face was even redder than her injured hand.

Treatment? Don’t tell me… like that time?!

That simply wouldn’t do. As a pious believer, Eve really needed to be on guard against temptation—wait, didn’t she give up on that already?

Eve had become the master of a mansion crawling with ghosts. She had even just used supernatural power to beat her family to a pulp.

If the temple she used to attend ever found out, she would be strung up on the sacred tree and roasted like a sweet potato right on the spot.

No, this is still wrong. Should I go inside and start plotting an escape plan instead?

However, the statues beat her to it.

Thud, thud.

Having completely eliminated the intruders, they seemed satisfied and began returning to their original spots. The only problem was that they moved at a snail’s pace.

It appeared they only moved at breakneck speed when actively getting rid of intruders.

Are they even going to make it back before the day is over?

Stuck behind the statues with her path blocked, staring stupidly at their dirt-stained backsides, Eve’s eyes suddenly widened. Something was glittering on the stone statue’s muddy hip.

It looked remarkably like letters.

“Garden Guard… Is this some kind of bad pun?”

At that moment, a realization flashed through Eve’s mind like a shooting star. She hurried back inside the mansion and flung open the Record of Ghost Stories.

Pen, pen!

Miraculously, a pen extended smoothly out from the spine of the book. Without a moment’s hesitation, gripping the pen tightly, Eve wrote right beneath Kamien’s name:

[Garden Guard]

The jet-black letters instantly dyed themselves in a vivid shade of crimson.

Did I do it?

“You have done it.”

“Eek!”

Kamien’s voice speaking right behind her nearly scared her out of her wits. Why was he back already?

“You simply need to continue doing just that from now on.”

A single smile from Kamien completely blew away all her stray thoughts.

“Well done, Master.”

He gently patted Eve’s head as if offering praise.

It was a rather audacious gesture for a mere employee, yet for some reason, his gaze remained entirely hollow.

He didn’t seem to care much about it himself, doing it purely out of a sense of obligation because he knew it was what the other person liked.

Still, it does feel nice, I suppose.

A handsome face was truly an unfair weapon. Desperate to hide her wavering focus, Eve stared down at the Record of Ghost Stories and tilted her head.

“Kamien. You said a ghost story only obeys its master once its true name is written, right?”

“That is correct.”

“Then why did the Garden Guards move? That happened before I even wrote their name down.”

Kamien explained it in a way that was easy to understand.

“The ghost stories of this mansion induce fear in people, but they do not inflict actual harm under normal circumstances. However, there are two exceptions where a ghost story may directly harm a human.”

“Two? What are they?”

“The first is when they are subjugated by you, Master Eve, and receive your direct orders.”

Being the master of Belper Mansion might actually carry far greater authority than she had initially imagined.

“The second is when a human violates a ‘taboo’.”

“A taboo?”

“Every ghost story has its own taboo. For instance, as you mentioned earlier, ‘seeing something that must not be seen,’ or ‘whistling on a rainy night.’”

“What if someone breaks it without knowing?”

“They must leave it to fate.”

Kamien smiled, a look both breathtaking and merciless. A chill ran straight down Eve’s spine.

“In the case of the Garden Guards, then…?”

“Your family crossed the front entrance of the mansion without permission.”

She would definitely need to be careful whenever visitors came calling from now on.

“And under circumstances where a ‘taboo’ has been violated, the true name of the ghost story becomes visible.”

“Does it show up to anyone?”

“It is visible only to you, Master Eve. Keep this in mind, and you will find filling the Record of Ghost Stories much easier.”

This was genuinely useful information. Just as Eve was feeling pleased, however, a glaring contradiction struck her.

“Wait… you said ghost stories come to harm you if you break a taboo? To find out their true names, doesn’t that mean I’m inevitably putting myself in danger?”

“You simply need to write it down in the Record of Ghost Stories before you are in danger.”

“Oh! What a brilliant solution. I almost failed to think of that.”

At Eve’s heavily sarcastic remark, Kamien smiled again. To her surprise, this time it looked like a genuine smile.

Caught off guard, Eve smiled along with him before abruptly turning gloomy.

Why am I building a sincere relationship with him? I’m supposed to be escaping.

“……Earlier,”

Kamien spoke up right on cue.

“You seemed in quite a hurry as you came down the stairs. Is there anything I can assist you with?”

Let me out of here… alive.

“Hurry? What hurry? My family showed up, so I just went out to see.”

“That was before I announced the arrival of visitors.”

“I saw them from the window upstairs.”

“I see.”

Kamien looked slightly skeptical for a moment, but ultimately accepted her explanation.

“I almost jumped to an unseemly misunderstanding. For instance, that the master wished to leave the mansion.”

Eve laughed as though she had just heard a hilarious joke, though her facial muscles twitched involuntarily.

“Must be my imagination, of course. After all, the master of Belper cannot leave the mansion.”

This is a trap. Every fiber of her being screamed to demand an explanation, but Eve summoned every ounce of her patience to swallow the question.

Fortunately, she thought of a way to ask about it from a slightly different angle.

“What do you mean I can’t leave the mansion… Does that mean I can’t even go to things like parties?”

“Did you say a party?”

Kamien’s eyebrows twitched slightly.

“I couldn’t go before because I didn’t even own a single dress. It’s always been my dream to attend a party someday.”

Eve resorted to a pitiful appeal for sympathy. She had no idea if it would actually work.

“You will need to have a dress tailored first, then.”

Did it work?

“Belper Mansion does not neglect its master.”

Clatter. The sound of something dropping echoed through the room.

Lowering her gaze, she saw a golden key rolling across the floor near her feet.

“What is this?”

“A reward from the mansion. For registering a new ghost story in the Record of Ghost Stories.”

Bending down at the waist, Kamien picked up the key.

“Right on time, it seems. The key to the dressing room.”

“Huh?”

“Master Eve may now make use of the dressing room.”

Only then did Eve truly understand the manner in which the mansion’s ‘rewards’ were distributed.

“Would you like to go have a look now?”

“Later. Didn’t you say I can’t go outside the mansion anyway?”

“I did not say you cannot go outside.”

“You literally just said—”

“I said you cannot leave.”

She almost asked him what the difference was. After a moment of thought, however, she began to catch his drift.

“Does that mean limited outings are possible? Like being able to travel within a certain distance, or as long as I return within a few days…?”

“There are no distance restrictions. However, you must return to the mansion within a week.”

There were no distance restrictions, but effectively, there were. It meant she could only visit places she could round-trip within a week.

“Isn’t the time limit a bit too tight?”

“As Master Eve fills the Record of Ghost Stories, that time limit will gradually increase.”

“Still, it’s terrifying. What if I’m out having fun and accidentally lose track of time past a week?”

She asked with a feigned air of childish innocence, but inside, Eve’s heart was hammering and her palms were slick with cold sweat.

What if her body exploded like a firecracker or something…?

“You may exceed it.”

“Huh?”

“If you exceed the time limit, you will simply return to the mansion automatically.”

“How?”

Dropping his gaze, Kamien lowered his upper body and took Eve’s hand. Eve was struck by how overwhelmingly tiny her own hand looked enveloped in his.

His thumb slowly stroked the softest part of her palm. Beneath the tender, scraped skin, flushed red blood pooled, casting her entire palm in a peachy hue.

“Because the blood of Arno flowing within you will compel the master to return.”

Record of Ghost Stories 2: Garden Guard Statues that guard the garden.

While they normally appear to be ordinary stone ornaments, they move to punish intruders if any taboos are broken.

The severity of the punishment inflicted upon intruders is generally tied to the appearance of the statues.

(The more terrifying the statue looks, the crueler and harsher the punishment.)

Taboo: Do not trespass without permission into the territory they protect.

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･