"Don’t worry, Young Master. We’ll be waiting on the third floor. If you sense anything at all, just shout, and we’ll come running."
"What if we investigate it together instead? Wouldn’t that be safer?"
Sebast’s expression made it clear he didn’t agree with that idea.
"We’ve heard the ghost won’t show itself if too many people go up there. But the moment someone goes alone, that person tends to vanish before long."
Lucian tilted his head toward Sebast. Was it really possible for a ghost to abduct someone inside the home of one of the greatest swordmaster families in the empire? Even if a demon race showed up at their door, this house would face it without hesitation. So why were they all so unwilling to face a ghost?
Rumelia suddenly cut in. "Young Master, we don’t have much time. We need to head up now, or we’ll be late getting ready."
"Then allow me to guide you both," Sebast said, bowing his head before starting to walk.
But before Lucian could even agree, Rumelia had already pulled him along. Partway up, they’d climbed past the second floor and were now heading toward the third, and with every step, Lucian’s unease grew, along with a mounting list of questions.
"Sebast, has any of my other siblings ever gone up there?"
"Only Lady Nora has managed it. But every time she comes back down from the fourth floor, she seems dazed, almost absent. Even now, she still refuses to speak about whatever she saw up there."
Nora, who lives two tier above me and is obsessed with anything strange, came back from there completely shaken. That doesn’t sit right with me at all.
"Nora?... Hmm, doesn’t that sound dangerous, Sebast, if even she was scared off? What have the Elders been doing about it? Aren’t they the ones who hate anything unpredictable happening under their roof? Haven’t they reacted at all?"
Lucian had assumed the Elders simply weren’t doing their jobs, but Sebast’s expression told a different story. "They’ve tried. It didn’t work. Even the Patriarch had to look for another approach, because he said if he unleashed his full strength against it, this entire estate would be destroyed."
Destroyed?... Lucian turned that word over in his mind, trying to gauge just how powerful this thing actually was. If even the Patriarch struggled against it, the more he thought about it, the less he wanted to go up there at all, despite how curious he’d been only moments ago.
"Um, Sebast, actually, I don’t think I want to go up there anymore. Maybe we should just head back down."
But it was already too late. They’d reached the base of the staircase. It wasn’t just a long staircase shrouded in a heavy, oppressive air, it looked less like stairs and more like a corridor stretching toward some other world entirely.
"But Young Master, we’re already standing at the fourth-floor stairwell."
Rumelia suddenly pinched him. "Young Master. Lady Jeanne finally gave you the chance to come back here after all this time. Don’t you think you should honor that? At the very least, you need proper attire so you can shine at tonight’s party."
"Ow, ow, fine, fine. But I still don’t even want to go to that party."
Rumelia kept pushing, insistent enough that Lucian found himself taking his first step onto the staircase before he even realized it.
♪ La. ♪
"Easy, don’t shove me like that, Rumelia. I’m going to fall."
"There’s no need to worry, Young Master. From what I’ve seen these past few days, your luck’s been running rather well, so I’m sure there’s nothing waiting for you up there."
Rumelia said it with an innocent little smile, though Lucian couldn’t shake the feeling she was needling him on purpose. Sebast, meanwhile, looked suddenly troubled, as if trying to recall something urgent he needed to tell Lucian.
♪ La.. ♪
But Lucian had already climbed the second step, and now the third. For a moment, he thought he heard Sebast’s voice call out behind him. "Eh, wait, Young Master, if you happen to run into..." ♪ La... ♪
"Eh, I think I just heard Sebast say something."
Lucian turned around and called out. "What was that, Sebast? What were you trying to say?"
No answer came. Instead, his own voice echoed back at him, as though he’d already climbed far beyond where they stood.
"Sebast?"
Something about this felt wrong. He’d only climbed three steps, so why did the sound already echo like he was standing somewhere vast and hollow?
"Rumelia?"
"Hello..." His own voice rang back to him again, distant, as if he’d drifted somewhere far outside their reach.
"Hey, this isn’t funny."
Lucian tried stepping back down to the second step.
Now he stood on what should have been the first.
That’s strange. Why does it feel like there’s another step beneath my foot? Shouldn’t this be the third floor?
"Sebast, Rumelia, are you two messing with me?"
No answer came, only silence, thick and total. Lucian couldn’t even sense anyone’s presence nearby anymore. He tried again to descend.
Damn it, another step.
He kept trying to go down, but the further he descended, the harder it became to breathe.
"Huff... huff... my body feels more exhausted the more I try to go down."
"WHERE AM I?!" Lucian finally shouted with everything he had, and now he could hear it clearly, his own voice echoing endlessly downward, as if descending any further were completely pointless.
This isn’t a tower. There’s no way a place like this has enough floors for my voice to echo this far. Oh, Goddess... where in the world am I?
♪ If your eyes grow too tired to see ♪
♪ it doesn’t mean the road ahead has ceased to be ♪
Amid all the confusion, Lucian faintly heard someone singing, their voice startlingly beautiful.
"Is someone up there?" Lucian tilted his face upward, listening. The more he heard, the more his curiosity pulled at him, and before he realized it, his feet had already started carrying him upward.
♪ Close your eyes, let the silence hold you near ♪
♪ there’s a sign waiting there you cannot see ♪
Every line of it set Lucian’s mind spinning.
Why do these lyrics feel like they’re trying to give me some kind of clue? Though I can’t see anyway, so what clue am I even supposed to catch?
♪ Run... ♪
"Why did the lyrics just say ’run’?" Lucian stopped mid-step, unsettled by how strange the song had suddenly turned.
♪ Run, quickly, run... ♪
"That voice is beautiful, but the lyrics are getting weird. Is this seriously some kind of trending song?"
♪ Run, you fool ♪
"Wait, did I hear that right? Did that line just call me a fool?"
Lucian strained to listen for the melody again, but no more singing came, only the sound of footsteps, fast and growing closer.
The footsteps grew louder, faster, the nearer they came.
Damn it...
Before he could think it through, Lucian’s whole body moved on its own, legs carrying him forward the instant the footsteps closed in, as if some instinct had already recognized the danger bearing down on him.
"Oh Gosh, what is that?!"
Lucian broke into a sprint, tearing up flight after flight, dozens of steps, with no idea what waited below or above him. Damn it, that footfall still hasn’t stopped... it’s actually following me.
Then, without warning, he came to a sudden halt on one of the steps, his right hand brushing against what felt like a white door beside him.
"A door?" With the footsteps still closing in, Lucian didn’t waste another second and threw it open.
Maybe I can be safe in here, at least for now
He shut it quickly behind him and turned the lock, making sure it wouldn’t come open easily.
But the moment he stepped through, he froze in shock. Even without sight, he could sense a vast, sprawling space stretching out before him, despite the door he’d just come through being far too small to lead anywhere like this.
How is there a room this big in here? The longer he stood there, taking in the space around him, the more Lucian realized this didn’t feel like the Sarnel estate at all. It felt like somewhere else entirely.
The room was filled with white ornamentation, even the furniture, the sofas, the tables, the hanging lamps, all rendered in white. But directly ahead of him, something stood out as strange: four doors had appeared, one red, one yellow, one green, and one blue.
Without quite meaning to, Lucian found himself walking closer to them. But the instant he neared the red door, he felt a presence behind him!
Reflexively, Lucian channeled mana around his hands and feet, bracing himself to fight.
"Who’s there?!"