HTPTMOTMM Chapter 20

Only then did I remember a fact I had forgotten.

'Ah, right. I was still in front of Mr. Cheswick's room.'

"Why did you just leave in the middle of talking?"

Next, Cheswick's voice flowed smoothly into both my ears.

"You came to see me. Didn't you?"

The low voice whispered close by seemed to caress my eardrums, making my ears feel ticklish for some reason.

Then the door opened a bit more, and this time the maid who had been with Cheswick came out to the corridor.

"Se, Sera?"

Room 4 looked at her and opened his mouth stupidly.

"Ha."

The maid with attractive short black hair glared sharply at Room 4 with a 'you again?' look. Then she passed by us and left first.

But was it my misunderstanding? Somehow her gaze when she passed by me at the end didn't seem very kind either... Maybe because I interrupted a good time?

"What? Why, why is Sera coming out of that room..."

Room 4's voice asking Cheswick shook terribly. His eyes were also trembling pitifully.

"Well, what reason would a maid have for entering a room."

In contrast, Cheswick spoke in a voice so uninterested it felt tedious.

That seemed to provoke Room 4, who suddenly exploded.

"You, you bastard...! I was already suspicious yesterday when I saw you immediately making plans to meet the newbie separately at the annex, but you turned out to be more frivolous than I thought!"

Room 4 grabbed Cheswick by the collar and ranted wildly. Actually, from my perspective, it was funnier that the guy who had been the most frivolous in hitting on the maid was saying such things.

"This nerd-like bastard! You've been lucky enough not to get kicked out of the manor until now, and you dare to touch Sera...!"

The corner of Cheswick's mouth rose diagonally upward, drawing a thin line as he faced the excited Room 4.

"What are you thinking right now, Mr. Raven. The maid naturally came into the room to do what she had to do."

Another hand was placed over Room 4's hand that was grabbing Cheswick's collar. Cheswick's hand was large enough to cover all of Room 4's hand. And his fingers were long and pretty, just like a pianist's hands.

"She just did some cleaning and left. You're being very sensitive about it."

"Cle, cleaning?"

"What else would there be to do besides that?"

Cheswick asked back as if he really didn't know and freed Room 4's hand.

His eyes and tone were so utterly dry that Room 4, who had misunderstood about there being something between Cheswick and the maid, seemed relatively like a very impure person.

And there was one more impure person here. But if it was really just cleaning, why were they so close together?

"Cleaning...? Really cleaning? So you and Sera have nothing going on?"

So Room 4's name was Raven. I should remember that now.

Room 4's caretaker Raven hesitated and stepped back at Cheswick's words.

"Then, then you should have said so from the beginning instead of making people misunderstand..."

"You jumped to conclusions and suddenly attacked, so what."

"That was...! Right, I made a mistake..."

"More importantly, Lynn, why did you come to my room?"

Raven's face flushed red as embarrassment over his behavior set in, and he fumbled for excuses. But Cheswick paid no attention to Raven's stammering and turned toward me with that familiar smile of his.

"Want to come inside for now?"

"No."

Ah, but did I refuse Cheswick's invitation too quickly? Without realizing it, I remembered the image of him I saw in the darkness earlier.

"That's quite a quick answer. I'm hurt."

Then Cheswick's shoulders drooped down like a deflated herbivore.

"You're not misunderstanding too, are you? Just now, a maid came in to clean, and she woke me up because I was sleeping."

"Ah, I see. But you don't need to explain to me."

"How cold of you."

But Cheswick didn't really intend to bring me into the room either, seeing my reaction and just laughing quietly.

"Well, I just broke a cup so I cleaned it up roughly, but there might still be fragments left, so it might be better not to come in."

Since it had come to this anyway, I decided to check what I was curious about with Cheswick.

"Cheswick, do you happen to have a manual book?"

"Manual book? What's that?"

"I guess you could call it a guidebook about Redford Manor and various other things written in a booklet."

"I didn't receive anything like that."

Ah, as expected, he doesn't have one. Well, it's originally for players only. Still, I was going to ask him to show it to me if he had one.

"What are you talking about?"

But then, for some reason, Raven, who was still standing next to us and hadn't left, butted in.

"Everyone gets a guide booklet before entering the manor."

Raven's suspicious eyes turned to Cheswick. Cheswick tilted his head slightly as if recalling something.

"Come to think of it, I think I did receive something like that a long time ago. It was so long ago that I forgot."

"It was just a year ago, what do you mean... You only entered the manor a few months before me."

Raven grumbled by himself. Of course, Cheswick ignored him and soon smiled at me.

"I might have it somewhere in my room if I check. But why do you need that booklet?"

"Ah, the booklet I received has torn pages in the back, so I wanted to borrow one."

"Is that so? Then I'll look for it right away..."

"I can lend you one if that's what you need. I've memorized it all now anyway, so I don't need to look at it."

Raven interrupted Cheswick's words. For me, it wasn't a bad proposal.

'Unexpectedly useful?'

"Then please lend it to me for a moment."

Actually, among the caretakers, Cheswick was the one I was somewhat friendly with, so I hadn't even thought of asking other people about this manual book. I also thought that even if other caretakers had manual books, they wouldn't lend them to me since they were hostile toward me.

In that sense, Raven's proposal felt very unexpected to me. Moreover, thinking back to just last night, he and I... weren't exactly in a friendly relationship, were we?

"So you're done with your business now, right? Hey, newbie. Let's continue the conversation we were having earlier. About yesterday's incident."

Eh, wasn't that conversation finished? I wondered why he kept hanging around, and it was for that reason.

"Sure, why not. Then I'll be going now, Cheswick."

In any case, I had achieved my purpose, so there was no reason for me to stay here longer.

So when I greeted Cheswick, planning to receive the manual book from Raven and leave, his gaze slid to Raven.

But did someone turn on air conditioning? Why did the air suddenly become so chilly?

"What's this, is there a window open somewhere? The corridor here is a bit cold."

Raven also felt the same thing I did and shivered.

Cheswick ignored Raven like before and turned his head to me. His familiar smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"Alright, Lynn. Then I'll see you later."

As we parted from Cheswick and went down the stairs, Raven said to me.

"Don't get too close to that guy."

What kind of elementary school talk is this all of a sudden?

Raven kept looking back at where we had left, frowning.

"Why? What does it matter to you who I'm friendly with?"

"Ha, it seems like you really don't know anything since you just came to the manor, so I'm telling you this."

Then what Raven added was truly ridiculous.

"That guy has nothing but luck going for him. Unlike us elites who are excellent in all aspects, he's like trash. I think he could be kicked out of the manor anytime."

Ah, this guy. That damn elite pride. Whether he's hitting on women or not, does he have nothing to brag about if he doesn't emphasize being an elite?

More than that, this old man, even his claim about being from elite Stella seems like a lie. And what he's doing now is probably because he's annoyed with Cheswick over that pretty maid from earlier, right?

"Old man, don't try to form pathetic solidarity with me. I have no desire to be grouped in the same category as you."

I looked at Raven with cold eyes. Then Raven got angry at me as if he couldn't believe I would say such a thing.

"Don't tell me you're taking that nerd's side now? Hey, at least you and I went through that terrifying annex together yesterday and have some bond!"

"What bond, when you ran away trying to save only yourself?"

"That, that! Damn, that wasn't running away, it was..."

Raven seemed to want to make excuses for my words, but there was nothing he could reasonably say. What he chose in the end was to quickly change the subject.

"Ah, but there was something I really needed to say, but I forgot because of that nerd. Don't tell Marianne about the ghost we saw at the annex yesterday."

But what Raven brought up was somewhat unexpected again. I became interested.

"Why not? You know something, don't you?"

"Anyway, if I tell you not to say it, don't! I'll lend you the booklet, so take it."

We had just arrived at the room, and Raven hurriedly brought out the manor guide booklet from inside and threw it to me, then slammed the door shut.

But originally, when someone tells you not to do something, you want to do it even more - that's human nature.

"Hello, Marianne!"

The next day, I went out to the garden, faced Room 1's caretaker Marianne, and smiled.

Marianne seemed to have come out for a walk alone, sitting on a bench, and turned her head when she heard my voice.

"...What did you just call me?"

"Marianne?"

They say you can't spit on a smiling face. Since I was interested in other caretakers, I first acted friendly and smiled brightly.

"You seem older than me. Is it not okay to call you this?"

Then a cold silence was transmitted from within the black veil.

Unlike the female ghost I saw at the annex, the veil Marianne wore was thin, so her face beyond it was clearly visible to my eyes.

She had an expression of complete disbelief at how some nobody dared to act familiar with her.

"Did you come out for a walk with the maids?"

I asked her with a still smiling face.

"But the maid you sent to the devil's garden isn't visible today. Did she end up not being able to return?"

I could feel the maids standing behind Marianne's bench flinch at my words. Marianne looked at me with those cold eyes and stood up from her seat.

She seemed to have no desire to become friendly with me, as Marianne didn't open her mouth to respond to my words again after her first question.

Of course, I'm not the type to be disappointed by this much, so I walked with my hands behind my back, following behind Marianne as if taking a stroll.

"By the way, Marianne, have you ever heard about the purple room in the annex?"

While doing so, I tested Marianne with a tone that seemed to casually pass by.

"There's a woman in a black veil who appears in that corridor, and her hair color is red."

Right at that moment, Room 1 caretaker Marianne's steps stopped.