Chapter 4
—Knock knock.
“Come in.”
“Milady, Young Master Dalton is here.”
Dalton? What did von Cador’s young master want with me? Donna let him in then hurried out right away. Before long, only Dalton and I were left in the room.
“Been a while.”
Without even looking at him, I could feel his iciness just by the sound of his voice. The father and son really resembled each other. I couldn’t read anything on Dalton von Cador’s face. With navy blue hair as dark as the night sky, he had cold features that expressed emotions very seldomly. It almost seemed like he was too exhausted to bother showing any feelings. I couldn’t get a read on him since I saw him at the banquet hall, but the general vibe I got from him was that he was a little scary.
“You were supposed to come by last night. Are you feeling better now?”
“Yes . . .”
“. . .”
What followed was a heavy silence. One mistake would definitely cost me. I thought that this kind of silence was just the usual whenever Dalton conversed with someone since he was a frighteningly quiet person. He was quiet not only with his words, but with his every movement as well.
“I know you don’t like going to parties, but it would be best if you attend the charity event.”
“Yes.”
“Right, well . . . I heard from Father that you’ll need a new dress for the party. I’ll send a stylist to where you’re staying.”
“. . .”
“. . .”
“Alright . . .”
Did I sound too insincere? I had no idea what kind of sibling relationship Dalton and Tess had, but I didn’t want to draw suspicion by answering too enthusiastically. Whether or not their relationship was amicable, they didn’t seem close anyhow. Even when I played the game back then . . . Whenever Dalton stopped by my room, I’d just be relieved that we weren’t at each other’s throats.
“You said you saw something during dinner.”
“. . .”
“Have you stopped taking your medications?”
“The medicine . . .”
“It’s what your physician prescribed. He said what you have is a mental illness.”
Dalton and the von Cador patriarch seemed to be thinking that Tess saw ghosts because of a mental illness. That’s exactly what they thought. Fortunately, Wolfgang and Dalton were humane enough to treat Tess as a sick person, compared to those servants.
“I’ll call the doctor for you, so make sure you drink your medicine.”
“Yes . . .”
“Alright then.”
At that, Dalton left the room. Maybe he didn’t hate Tess? No, maybe I’m just reading into things and spinning stories on my own.
I didn’t know what kind of family the von Cadors were towards each other because it wasn’t explained in the game, but to others, their name must be prestigious enough considering the size and splendor of this mansion.
If I just asked Dalton to go with me to the Dark Castle while I was doing the fourteen written techniques, then he’d really see how I was suffering, and the misunderstanding with the ghost thing would be resolved easily. Though he looked scary at first and he seemed awfully moody . . . it was still nice to look at his face despite it all. I should improve my relationship with him whenever I have the chance.
“The next time we’ll come back here will be at the next dinner, Milady,” Donna said.
“Yeah.”
I really was going to leave after just one dinner here. I pondered the relationship between Tess and the people in this mansion. Not one of them asked if I would like to stay longer. The servants who blended into the background clearly had malice in their eyes. Without Donna, I would have been completely isolated. I didn’t know how Tess put up with this treatment, but I was already sick and tired of it.
I packed up Tess’ diary, which I hadn’t finished reading yet. Since there’s a month left before the next Crimson Moon, I had to use my time well to investigate.
Like the mansion’s people that sent me away with no remorse, I climbed into the carriage I was using on my way back with no regrets. But as I stepped into the carriage, the butler called to me.
“Miss.”
“What is it?”
“What you saw in the banquet hall wasn’t real. Your symptoms have gotten worse.”
“. . .”
“The physician will come visit you. I hope you continue doing your best during your treatment . . .”
‘This cheeky old man . . .’
I wasn’t Tess, but I still knew that the butler had no right to say that to the young lady of the von Cador house. He was so polite to me at first, but I was left stunned by this attitude that he displayed.
The relationship between this mansion’s people and Tess continued to elude me.
I had read more than half of the diary’s contents, but it only contained this and that, so I put off reading it until I went back to the Dark Castle. I wasn’t sure if I’d find something out after reading it, especially about that red-haired man.
If what I saw really wasn’t real . . .
But Tess wrote in her diary that the servants in this mansion were sly murderers. Were they covering up John’s death? Maybe Tess was the only one who witnessed it.
The murderer or murderers might be looking at Tess with animosity because they’d be exposed for their crime. I was getting a rough idea of the situation.
Back at the Dark Castle, I searched Tess’ room for any other clues that she might have left behind. Donna asked again what I was looking for, but I didn’t bother to tell her this time. Donna might have happened to know where Tess’ diary was in the mansion, but generally, important information should be hidden away from the maid. I was already bothered by her as she quietly observed my behavior that was out of character. After a while, I came up with an excuse.
“I’m looking for some emergency funds.”
“Why would you need that, Milady?”
“You don’t have to know.”
Like a moody adolescent, I kicked Donna out of the room. She said that I should just call out to her if I needed her, but when she finally left, I began to search the room in earnest. The Dark Castle was worlds apart from the sparkling von Cador mansion. The furniture here wasn’t that old, but the mismatched designs were hardly enough to keep up the facade of aristocratic dignity.
I searched all throughout the room, including beneath the carpet, in the box under the bed, between cushions of the chairs, inside the drawers and all the way up to the curtains. Nothing came up.
I wanted to somehow get in touch with an information broker like the ones that always cameoed in fantasy novels, but I didn’t want to draw any attention just yet. I’d have to get a feel of the atmosphere here and ambush Donna with my questions first. Fortunately, Wolfgang spared no expense when it came to Tess’ allowance, so I had plenty of cash at my disposal. Things were going better than I initially thought.
“Milady . . .”
Donna’s worried voice interrupted my thoughts. When I turned my head in surprise to look at her, I got confused because she usually spoke so confidently. Then, I saw Donna’s stiff expression. Fidgeting and with a grimace on her lips, I got worried as well because Donna wasn’t someone who’d make such an expression easily.
Donna was actually a lean woman who was taller than most men. But as she stood before me now, it was as if she was drained of all color. Her expression was so tense that she gave the impression that she might be blown away by the wind any second now. That’s why I was getting nervous as well. Why was she being like this?
“. . . The physician has arrived.”
—
Shwaaa—
“Ugh . . .”
I’d been doused with cold water for several hours, ‘baptized’ with buckets of ice several times as ‘therapy.’
The treatment, which began yesterday, was something that servants of the Dark Castle weren’t privy to. It happened in a place where only the physician and I were in, with no proper conversation uttered between us. I couldn’t even see the physician’s face clearly. He was wearing a strange mask that had a long beak, like a crow’s.
“Miss, the reason you see these things is because you have a disease in your mind. This baptism will cleanse you.”
What a load of bullsh*t! This quack doctor!
I shouldn’t have assumed that psychiatrists of this era would do a proper job when cars hadn’t even been invented yet! I should have just told them I didn’t want the treatment before all the maids were sent away—even if I knew that they wouldn’t listen to me.
“You must eat what only comes from the earth. Food that was created by taking lives can lead you to a sinful path. This is what the Miss’ ‘sickness’ is.”
My teeth kept chattering because I was shivering from the cold. I had already told the physician several times to stop, but he didn’t listen. Even if I had the von Cador name, my status was nothing in this place.
The physician seemed to have known Tess since she was a child. How many times had she received this treatment? This ‘cure’ wasn’t something a kid could have endured. No, I shouldn’t even call it a cure.
“To cleanse your body of sin and injustice, you must fast for a day and meditate in the prayer room.”
“. . .”
“All that is in your mind are evil things. You must strive to cleanse your mind of evil.”
The physician’s admonishing voice reverberated throughout the room. What was happening right now was supposed to be a cure for a mental illness, but what was likely to come out of this was a new trauma. The powerless body that I reincarnated into had been trembling nonstop since I’d been doused with water, but the physician’s precautionary tone about a ‘sickness’ I presumably had continued to echo in my head.
“Look here . . .”
“No conversations while the treatment is ongoing, Miss.”
“Do my father and Dalton know what kind of treatment you’re doing?”
“Of course, Miss. Under the Master’s command, he entrusted me with the Miss’ treatment.”
“Does he even know how you’re conducting it?”
“. . . The Master knows, of course.”
Damn it, so I really was just tricking myself!
I thought Dalton von Cador had some heart left in him to help me, but this moment of foolish hope disappeared right away. It was clear that both Dalton and Wolfgang abhorred Tess. Otherwise, how could they allow this treatment? It was one thing to just ignore Tess, but they went as far as to do this to her.
In the first place, it was the von Cador’s Madam who brought in the orphan Tess, but she died not too long after. There was no way that an adoptive family would treat a foster daughter well when they couldn’t spare her any love. Any affection they had disappeared when the biological daughter went missing.
But then, I distinctly remembered Dalton’s attitude when he said he’d send the physician to me, seemingly with kindness and concern in his tone.
. . . I finally realized why I was afraid of him—it was because his low voice and austere countenance reminded me of the psychopaths that I saw on TV.
Anger boiled within me. I couldn’t understand what I ever did to deserve this.
All I did was play a game.
Physically, I was being tortured by a quack doctor and a family of psychopaths. And mentally, I was being tormented by ghosts and the steps I needed to do every Crimson Moon.
Why did the people in the game say that Tess was like the devil incarnate? Did they think anyone would turn out normal if they grew up in this kind of environment?
Tess was already doing great by not blowing up and going berserk!
After having been baptised by ice cold water, I was thrown into a small room with absolutely nothing inside. It was called a prayer room, but it was just an empty room that was supposedly being used in countries where religion had been lost. There was nothing inside—no furniture, no candles, not even a chair I could sit on.
I couldn’t distinguish whether I was shivering because of the baptism, or because of this room. Outside the room’s lone small window, it was already dark.
I couldn’t continue living like this. It’s like I was already as good as dead. I got reincarnated into a horror game where I wasn’t even the heroine, thrown into a creepy place, and the first thing I came to know was that I was about to die. It was all so ridiculous.
As quickly as possible, I needed to find out how to stop the magic around me, to figure out how to stop seeing ghosts, and last but not least, to get as far away as I could from the von Cador family. They were people who held absolutely no affection for me, so even if I disappeared, those noble faces wouldn’t even blink.
If I could somehow get some of my own power, I’d definitely want to punish everyone in that mansion, both the father and son and every single servant there.
Ha . . . I could now understand why Tess cursed at everyone in her diary.
“You may return to your room, Milady.”
It was already the next day, and Donna was the one who woke me up. With the sun’s rays streaming through the small window, it seemed like the torturous treatment was finally over.