HH Chapter 29

That wasn’t just a rumor. There really were ghosts in this house that that they didn’t know about! And that ghost…rips people apart.

‘Crazy….’

I politely asked the servant,

“Excuse me, but could I borrow some salt? And a small knife, and a ritual doll, please?”

“Pardon?”

<101 Ways to Exorcise Ghosts, Believe It or Not>

I held up the book dramatically, but she just laughed. She must have thought I was joking, even though I was seriously considering trying it.

“You really are scared.”

Haylan chuckled, looking at my trembling hands.

[Haylan’s affection points have increased. +1]

“……?”

Is he… laughing?

He hadn’t even twitched his lips at my blatant attempts at humor, but now he’s chuckling at my random ramblings.

‘He looks good when he smiles.’

It was fascinating to see a genuine smile, not a sneer, on Haylan’s usually expressionless face. His clear, childlike laughter was incredibly cute.

But it seemed I wasn’t the only one who found Haylan’s smile unfamiliar.

“…….”

“…….”

I hadn’t even noticed that even the servants cleaning the library were staring at us, mesmerized.

─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───

“Young Master, here is the reply regarding the things you asked us to look into.”

The head butler handed Haylan an envelope.

The wax seal on the envelope bore the imprint of a sharp hawk. It was the symbol of the Information Guild.

Haylan picked up the envelope and pulled out a thick stack of documents. The cream-colored papers were filled with meticulously written information about Chahyun.

【Around November, Irena Calendar 794, confirmed to have joined the mercenary group ‘Red Lion.’
December 34, 794, a large number of B-rank monsters appeared near the Dumel Valley. The Red Lion took on the subjugation request and completed it in two days.
⋮】

Haylan slowly read through the documents, which detailed the requests Chahyun had undertaken and completed in the past two years.

As a mercenary group which primarily handled monster subjugations, they seemed quite capable. The fact that there were no casualties within the group for two years indicated their competence.

Haylan tapped his finger on the desk, surprised by the record stating that they had even wiped out a horde of A-rank monsters in less than a week.

“He doesn’t seem to be picky about the type of requests he takes.”

Jus like Christine’s request to find him, Chahyun was often involved in finding people or objects. And he had always successfully completed his tasks.

The ‘Red Lion’ was a small mercenary group based in a small port city called Asileth. It was quite far from the capital city of Jenette, but he could understand why Christine had entrusted them with the request. The island where she was born and raised in this life was close to Asileth, so she must have heard rumors about Chahyun.

The Information Guild referred to Chahyun as ‘Asileth’s Problem Solver.’ He had a good reputation and was known as a rare mage in the region.

【Notable detail: His whereabouts before joining the mercenary group are unknown. (*There are rumors that he was involved as a victim in an incident similar to the ‘Mage Sigard Case,’ but this has not been confirmed.)】

‘Kidnapping.’

Haylan knew about that incident as well. It had caused quite a stir across the continent.

The front page of the newspapers had been plastered with articles about the incident for a whole month, discussing the punishment for the immoral mage’s crimes and the subsequent treatment of the children.

‘If that’s true, it makes sense that his whereabouts were unknown before and after the incident.’

According to the report, the Red Lion had pressured the temple relentlessly to investigate the mage’s crimes near Asileth. In the end, nothing was revealed, and the case was swept under the rug, but Haylan wasn’t surprised.

“That’s typical of the temple.”

Haylan said skeptically, placing the documents on the desk. The head butler, who was standing next to him, asked,

“What do you think, Young Master?”

“Nothing much.”

“I see. Then, about his connection to the clan…”

“He has no connection to them. It seems he’s not involved after all.”

Haylan placed the documents on the desk dismissively and leaned back in his chair. His small body almost slid off, practically sinking into it.

“That’s a relief.”

The head butler sighed, seemingly relieved. Haylan looked up at him and said casually,

“That doesn’t mean he’s not suspicious.”

“Are you still distrustful of the guest, Young Master?”

“I am.”

Haylan answered without hesitation.

“He’s an unreadable person. Everything he does is suspicious and impertinent.”

“Yet, you seem to be keeping him close.”

And you even opened the library. At the head butler’s words, Haylan fell silent for a moment, lost in thought.

At first, he’d been flustered after crushing the man’s hand and had gone along with him without thinking. But now….

“Young Master, are you curious about the guest?”

Haylan couldn’t take his eyes off the report on Chahyun. Even though the man’s actions over the past few years were detailed in those few pages, his curiosity wasn’t satisfied.

“……I am.”

Haylan didn’t deny his curiosity. Christine’s request about becoming friends was already an afterthought. Whether it was intentional or not, the man had definitely caught his attention.

“But that doesn’t mean I trust him.”

He was just a means to an end. It was merely an interest sparked by a change in his otherwise monotonous routine.

“Did you send the cookies?”

“Yes. I sent them to my friend in Jenette. I told him it was urgent, so the analysis results should arrive within a week at the latest.”

He had so many questions about him. Why did his body start growing every night after Chahyun arrived? What did the man gain from snooping around the house at dawn? And how did the magic circles he drew actually work…?

“Everything he does, even breathing, seems suspicious.”

He planned to observe him quietly for a while. And why were the cookies he gave him every day so delicious? Were they drugged or something?

“A strange man has settled into my house.”

A smile spread across the head butler’s face at his serious murmur.

“I’ll keep a close eye on him as well.”

─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───

That evening.

Haylan, waking up in his grown body, finally discovered a pattern.

‘It’s the time.’

He glanced at the clock and lost consciousness as soon as it struck midnight. When he opened his eyes again about ten minutes later, his body had grown.

Since the condition for growth was time, it was highly likely that the condition for reverting was also time-based. It seemed his mind couldn’t handle the drastic physical changes for too long.

‘I feel like I’m under a spell from a fairy tale.’

He remembered a fairy tale where a fairy’s spell is broken at midnight. The protagonist, a woung woman, hides her true identity from the prince. It felt somewhat similar to his current situation. Haylan, too, was unintentionally hiding his identity from Chahyun.

‘Not that I intended to.’

It was just Chahyun’s misunderstanding. The ridiculous misunderstanding that he was a ghost.

Haylan, still not used to his longer strides, carefully made his way to the secret passage leading to the study.

That man had called a living person a ghost, a murderer, all sorts of absurd names. He recalled how the man had been trembling uncontrollably on their first encounter, as if he was about to die.

‘You’re still scared of ghosts at your age?’

‘No, I’m not scared at all.’

It was rather amusing how he had puffed out his chest and raised his chin defiantly, declaring he wasn’t scared, yet turned pale at the mention of ghosts possibly inhabiting the house.

‘But he doesn’t seem to think I’m that Haylan.’

He’d briefly suspected that the Chayun was pretending not to know, but he quickly dismissed the idea. Chahyun was terrified of him, whom he believed to be a ghost, his teeth chattering whenever they made eye contact. His attitude towards Haylan during the day and night was completely different.

Regardless, the cause lays with that man. Whether there was a secret ingredient in the cookies or he unconsciously used magic…. Chahyun was undoubtedly at the center of this unbelievable phenomenon.

‘Is it magic after all…?’

Haylan bit his lip, lost in thought. Even he, who had lived for hundreds of years, had never heard of such magic.

Come to think of it, Chahyun had a history of dispelling the ancient magic placed on his family home.

‘Perhaps it’s a type of ancient magic.’

He still didn’t know the activation condition or duration of this magic. Without being certain, he couldn’t discuss it with anyone else.

‘There he is again.’

Finding him in the dark library wasn’t difficult. He just had to look for the light. Chahyun had snuck into the library again tonight, diligently searching for something with only a single lamp. Even now, oblivious to his approaching footsteps, he was engrossed in rummaging through the bookshelves.