On the second floor, in the female maid’s room.
Shido Makoto held the brown leather-bound notebook in his hands, and its weight felt heavier than he’d anticipated.
Before opening it, he glanced toward the doorway once more.
The female maid remained standing motionless there, completely indifferent to everything happening in the room.
This only further confirmed his hypothesis.
Shido Makoto walked to the center of the room, placed the notebook on the ground, and sat cross-legged, gesturing for the two to join him.
Artist hesitated for a moment before moving over.
The earlier scare had left her face pale, but her desire for clues overpowered her fear.
Shirogane Kei, on the other hand, sat down opposite Shido Makoto with decisive efficiency.
“Let’s read it together,” Shido Makoto said, opening the first page of the notebook.
The handwriting was elegant, written with an old-fashioned dip pen.
[March 7th, Clear]
[What beautiful weather today.
I washed the master and mistress’s bedsheets and hung them in the yard where they dried in the warm sun.]
[In the afternoon, the young master snuck out of the study again and dragged me and Mr.
Viktor into a game of hide-and-seek.]
[He’s such a clever little devil.
He always hides behind the flower beds, thinking we can’t find him.
Mr.
Viktor always pretends to search for ages, then picks him up dramatically.
The young master laughs so hard, giggling non-stop.]
[Watching them, I feel like everyone in this Western mansion is like family to me.]
[March 15th, Cloudy]
[Mr.
Viktor locked himself in his room again today.
I know he’s thinking about unhappy things again.
Those people outside always look at him with strange eyes and say harsh things, but in my view, Mr.
Viktor is a very good person.
He simply doesn’t like to talk much.]
[The mistress says that people with gentle hearts often protect themselves with a hard shell.
I think that’s the kind of person Mr.
Viktor is.]
[April 2nd, Rainy]
[Lina, the apple pie you made is the most delicious thing in the world!——This is what the young master said to me today.]
[He even secretly picked a flower from the garden and gave it to me.
The master found out and punished him by making him memorize an extra lesson.
The way the young master made faces was so adorable.
I really hope he can stay carefree like this forever.]
The first half of the diary was mostly such heartwarming everyday details.
The three quickly pieced together the relationships within the Western mansion.
The female maid’s name was Lina.
She had grown up in the Western mansion from childhood.
The butler was named Viktor, rejected by society because of his appearance, but deeply trusted by the master, mistress, and young master.
There was also a lively, cute, and somewhat rebellious young master.
Between the lines of Lina’s writing, one could feel her deep love for this family.
She cared for the reclusive Viktor and doted on the mischievous young master.
However, when Shido Makoto turned to the later pages of the diary, the warm atmosphere came to an abrupt halt.
From a certain page onward, the handwriting became messy, and one could even see traces of ink bleeding, as if written by hands trembling with emotion.
[June 10th, Torrential Rain]
[Why…
why did this happen… Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
]
[God, aren’t You all-powerful?
Why didn’t You protect him?
He was just a child…
]
[The master and mistress have locked themselves in their room and haven’t come out for two days.
I can hear the mistress crying inside, crying so hard my heart is breaking.
Mr.
Viktor is the same; he stands outside the young master’s door, not eating or drinking.
No one can get him to respond.]
[This family…
is falling apart.]
At this point, the three had their answer.
The young master was dead, likely from some kind of accident.
Artist’s eyes turned red.
She was a young girl herself and couldn’t bear to see such a tragedy.
Shido Makoto continued turning the pages, and the content grew increasingly chaotic.
[June 15th, Cloudy]
[Mr.
Viktor spoke to me today.
He told me to go to town tomorrow and said he’d give me a few days off.
His eyes were so red.]
[I asked him what would happen to the Western mansion.
He said he would handle everything.
Something doesn’t feel right, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.]
After that, the diary had only one final page, with just a single short sentence written on it.
[Why did you do this?]
…
The diary was finished.
Artist spoke softly, making a guess: “So…
the young master died in an accident, and then the butler Viktor…
he set the Western mansion on fire?”
She recalled the scene of the great fire burning outside and made the connection.
“The diary doesn’t explicitly say, but it’s very possible,” Shirogane Kei nodded.
She made a bold hypothesis: “Viktor had the best relationship with the young master.
He very likely blamed the young master’s death on the master and mistress’s negligence, or something else, and did this as a result.”
“Then that last sentence ‘Why did you do this?’ must be Lina questioning Viktor,” Shido Makoto said, closing the notebook.
“She couldn’t understand Viktor’s actions.”
“So the ghost now…
” Artist’s voice trembled, “is the master and mistress, or Viktor?”
“Could be either,” Shido Makoto said calmly.
“In the worst-case scenario, the master, mistress, Viktor, and even the young master who died accidentally, might all still be ‘lingering’ in this Western mansion.”
This conjecture made Artist and Shirogane Kei’s faces turn ashen.
One ghost was already enough to deal with.
If there were a whole nest of them…
how would they survive?
“Don’t scare yourselves,” Shido Makoto said.
Shido Makoto stood up and casually tucked the notebook into the back of his pants, then covered it with the hem of his jacket. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
Both Shirogane Kei and Artist saw his small movement, but neither spoke.
This diary was the most important clue they had so far, and keeping it on the one with the strongest action capability—Shido Makoto—was the safest choice.
“There should be other clues in this room, like keys or something,” Shido Makoto said, looking around.
“Let’s search carefully, then we leave.”
However, just as the words left his mouth, a strong burnt smell suddenly pierced the nostrils of all three.
This smell was familiar to them; they’d caught it when they first went up to the second floor.
But now, this smell was becoming intensely overpowering at an alarming rate.
The three’s faces changed drastically, and without any prior agreement, they all looked toward the doorway.
The female maid Lina, who had been standing there motionless, had vanished at some point!
Only an unfathomable darkness remained in the hallway.
“This is bad!” Shido Makoto let out a low shout.
The safe zone no longer existed?
He spun around and rushed out: “Go!”
Shirogane Kei and Artist reacted with equal speed, following close behind him.
The three burst out of the room, their feet crunching through ashes as they ran.
The hallway was even colder than before, and the burnt smell was now so thick it stung the eyes.
Just as they reached the corner of the hallway, from the corner of his eye, Shido Makoto caught a glimpse of the direction they had come from.
At the end of the hallway, in front of the door to the room they’d just left, two charred figures had appeared.
Their bodies were twisted, their skin charred black, and oily liquid continuously dripped from them.
They had no facial features—only two hollow, empty sockets where their faces should be, staring straight in their direction.
Artist saw them for only a moment before she nearly let out a scream of terror, but she quickly covered her own mouth.
Shirogane Kei saw them too, and her composure wavered as well.
“Don’t look!
Run!” Shido Makoto urged.
The two girls snapped out of their terror-induced daze, and the three showed no hesitation, running for their lives toward the staircase.
“Creak, creak…”
They didn’t even dare look back, afraid that those two terrifying ghosts had already caught up to them.
They rushed down the staircase in one desperate sprint.
Only when their feet touched the first-floor floorboards did the three dare to stop, leaning against the walls and gasping for breath.
Shido Makoto glanced back up at the second-floor staircase.
The two charred ghosts hadn’t followed them down.
He let out a breath of relief, his back already drenched in cold sweat.
It seemed those things’ range of activity was likely restricted to the second floor.
The three walked into the main hall in a shaken state, preparing to regroup with the Programmer and Wrench.
However, when they saw the situation in the main hall clearly, the three’s hearts sank once more.
There was only the Programmer in the main hall.
He sat on the sofa with a grim expression, his head cradled in his hands.
When he heard footsteps, he suddenly looked up, his eyes still filled with some lingering fear.
Shido Makoto’s brow furrowed tightly.
He stepped forward and asked in a grave voice: “Where’s Wrench?”
The Programmer’s lips trembled, as if he’d recalled something utterly terrifying.
He swallowed hard with difficulty, his voice hoarse as he spoke:
“He…
he’s dead…”
“Killed…
killed by a ghost…”
____
👻🔥+40 ch: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Samsara Game: Starting with Shirogane Kei
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