Chapter: 17
Chapter 17 – Room 102, Cursed Room – ‘Mansion of Fear’ (3)
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 6
Current Location: Floor 1, Room 102 (Cursed Room – Mansion of Fear)
Sage’s Advice: 3]
It was a morning when the heavy rain began to pour.
As I stood up to step outside, there was the butler waiting, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Hiking today would be tough with the rain, but maybe we could still manage a trip to the cathedral. We engaged in some idle chatter while the others started leaving their rooms one by one.
However, Elena hadn’t joined us for breakfast. Had she fallen into a deep sleep because of yesterday’s exhausting schedule?
Given that everyone had been suspicious of the butler and the maid, we all locked our doors securely before sleeping, making it difficult to even enter her room.
Yet as the clock approached 10, the butler finally brought the master key to open her door—
And inside the room was a scene reminiscent of Sleeping Beauty.
It was a serene atmosphere. The lavish bed appeared to be untouched by any trouble, and lying atop it was a lady who looked like a princess from the North.
Despite that, there was an unmistakable stench lurking in the air.
The scent of death.
It was shocking and startling, but somehow not as tragic as I had expected. Perhaps it was because Eunsol-noona had hinted at it yesterday.
As long as one person survived until the end, everyone could live.
Therefore, rather than crying or mourning, the remaining individuals needed to comprehend what had happened and how the others could evade such a fate in the future.
Hkk. Hkk… Uhhk…
However, not everyone could maintain such a cool demeanor. Songee, unable to hold back, started to sob uncontrollably.
Jinchul-hyung stood frozen as if struck by lightning.
For me, it wasn’t easy either.
Even though I knew we still had a chance, the sight of the corpse was enough to send my heart racing. I steadied myself and approached the body.
Getting close didn’t mean I could suddenly make sense of everything. After all, I wasn’t a police officer or a detective; however, I did notice a few facts.
There were no visible wounds aside from an obvious thick, reddish-black bruise around her neck. It didn’t appear to be from a hand, but likely from a string. Had she been strangled with a tight, thin cord?
It didn’t seem like there had been a struggle. While the mansion wasn’t entirely soundproof, it certainly wasn’t capable of muffling the noise of a life-or-death fight.
Moreover, the room was too clean, lacking any signs of a struggle.
Someone else noticed another detail.
“This mark… and considering Elena’s position, alongside this mark next to her, it seems she may have been with someone.”
Upon closer inspection, I understood what Eunsol-noona meant.
Elena wasn’t lying in the center of the bed but on the left near the window, whereas the right side bore clear signs of someone having been seated or lying there too.
A faint dent remained in the mattress, and the blanket was strewn about.
An ominous thought crossed my mind.
Had my panic shown on my face?
Unlike the other three, who were still lost in tears, Eunsol-noona turned to me with a piercing gaze.
“Kain. Let’s not entertain unnecessary thoughts. There’s nothing certain here, and a ‘logical approach’ might not hold much weight in a place like this.”
“Yes… I was just a bit taken aback,” I replied.
Logically speaking,
It was apparent that someone had entered the locked room of a suspicious individual, spent time lounging on the bed next to Elena, and then strangled her once she had dozed off.
The clarity of the situation made it hard for me to consider any alternative scenarios. Someone must have been a trusted ally of Elena—
No.
It could very well be pointless to engage in logical conclusions in a place like this.
Just as my thoughts began to spiral, the butler arrived, complicating matters further.
“I hate to add to the confusion, but I have another serious piece of news. The weather has deteriorated so badly that it seems the path to the lake has become blocked.”
After quickly donning a raincoat, Jinchul-hyung and I headed toward the lake. As we discussed this and that in front of Elena’s corpse, the rain intensified further.
At this point, visibility was nearly nonexistent.
Upon arriving at the lake, we both sighed deeply. The water level was evidently much higher.
The bridge we’d spoken about, dampened by moisture, was now submerged to the point that neither a person nor a vehicle could cross.
Just one day.
Thinking back, the previous day had been peaceful—a day spent playing, eating meat, and sleeping—yet after just one night, one of our group had been killed, and now the way out of the mansion had vanished.
I recalled the words noona had shared last night by the stream.
“Doing nothing might seem like the safest option, but it’s actually the most dangerous action.”
Hadn’t we needed to start taking action since yesterday? By spending a night doing nothing, we’d landed ourselves right in a pinch.
Upon returning to the mansion, the full-scale “offensive” began.
While washing my face, I lifted my head only to find myself staring back in the reflection. I smiled sweetly, but my image gradually twisted. My eyes widened as teeth protruded from their sockets, and grotesque bugs crawled around my tongue.
I witnessed this for a chilling 30 seconds before I grabbed a nearby cup and smashed the mirror.
Since returning to the mansion, it had turned into this grotesque reality.
Each time I looked in the mirror, I was engaged in a strange staring contest against myself. When the cuckoo clock struck midnight, it released a torrent of red liquid and each step on the staircase echoed with mournful wails.
At first, Songee would scream at the top of her lungs at every little thing, but in just half a day, even she had begun to kick the doll that had started to stare at her.
Should I say it was fortunate?
The bizarre phenomena in the mansion didn’t seem to directly harm us.
The reflection in the mirror merely morphed into a hideous figure, and the cuckoo clock was simply broken.
The staircase was merely loud, and the animated dolls were just overly curious about humans.
The absence of any direct harm helped us become somewhat accustomed to the bizarre occurrences, but—
Getting used to it didn’t mean our hearts were at ease.
Skimming through lunch, we gathered to brainstorm but came up empty.
With all sorts of strange happenings beginning to unfold, the cause of Elena’s death became even more enigmatic, and our path to escape the mansion vanished. Time trickled on aimlessly.
At 6 PM.
As the cuckoo clock emitted another explosion of red liquid, the conversation turned towards the cathedral.
“For now, we should try to get to the cathedral somehow.”
“Why suddenly the cathedral? What’s the reason?”
That question came off somewhat terse, and I sensed tension in noona’s tone.
“First of all, we should seek a way out. Although the cathedral has been abandoned for a long time, the elder has been using the dilapidated building as a makeshift storehouse. Behind the cathedral connects to the lake, and there’s a fairly sturdy boat there. Initially, it was a plaything for when the lake was calm, but…”
There lies a boat behind the cathedral that could take us across the lake.
Two thoughts crossed my mind.
First, it sparked my interest. I had heard a rough idea of how Seungyub managed to survive from Room 101.
He had successfully escaped by distancing himself from danger as much as possible.
So, similarly, wouldn’t getting outside the mansion surely count as an escape?
Secondly, I felt skeptical.
Why was the butler presenting us with a way to survive?
This also posed two possibilities—either there was some trap waiting for us at the cathedral or the boat, or perhaps the butler was never our enemy at all.
After all, both the butler and the maid had never harmed us in any way.
After a whirlwind of thoughts, I looked up to find Eunsol-noona staring back at me.
“What do you think, Kain?”
“I think we need to try various ways to get out of here. Anything is better than standing still.”
“Staying still is the most dangerous thing to do.”
I echoed noona’s philosophy, and that solidified our group’s decision.
By nightfall, the rain had intensified, shifting from simple rainfall to something eerily resembling a storm.
Considering the weather and our limited supply of raincoats, we ultimately decided that only the four adults—Han Kain, Cha Jinchul, Lee Eunsol, and the butler—would venture out to the cathedral.
When we stepped outside, it was pitch black, nearly impossible to see even a metre ahead.
Eventually, the butler led the way with a flashlight, being the only one familiar with the path, and we followed him, relying on his light as our guide.
That was when someone grasped my clothes.
“Noona?”
“Come back for a second.”
Did she need to discuss something? I glanced at the status screen, but the advice section remained unchanged.
“I’ll go to the study after we stop by the cathedral. I won’t mind if they try to stop me. Worst case, I’ll have Jinchul get rid of the butler to make my way in. Right now, we don’t know far too much. As it stands, we definitely need to investigate the most suspicious place. At the very least, we should get an inkling of what is lurking here wishing us harm.”
“Um, then I’ll go with you…?”
“No. You need to pretend to oppose it. Strongly object, act sulky, but don’t forget to follow me. It’ll make it seem more natural.”
“What? Noona, what are you saying?”
“This place. I’m starting to understand it bit by bit. Not everyone can survive in this safely. The more we strive for that, the more recklessly we put ourselves in danger and could all perish without realizing it.
The reason we know so little about the mansion is that no one has dared to take risks until now. Someone must sacrifice themselves to determine what the danger is. Naturally, we can’t all go together. If we did, it would mean disaster if every one of us met the end simultaneously. We must take turns, one by one, discovering the threats even if it costs us our lives. The remaining few need to survive while cleverly avoiding those dangers.”
I felt breathless.
“You must be the one to survive. Don’t you get it? This isn’t a place to rely on pure strength. You need to think your way through this. Everyone else seems incapable of such thought right now.”
I forced the words out.
“Jinchul-hyung has his own kind of depth.”
“Jinchul isn’t stupid or anything, but he’s emotional. Since Elena died, he’s been completely out of it. He’ll probably just end up dying somewhere without even having the strength to resist.”
I suddenly found her words chillingly cold.
I was no longer confident enough to oppose her proposition.
After about 20 minutes of silent walking, we reached the cathedral.
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