Raga of the Dry Branch - Chapter 29

“You don’t do it even when you are supposed to. And it isn’t like you can show off your skills by staying like that.”

Dame Mino, who was supposed to inform us about the investigation on this matter kept going back and forth with Sir Hilder, and then he finally sighed and opened his mouth.

And the story began.

A beautiful wife, a caring husband, and lovely children.

The shadow of unhappiness in their happy family where laughter always bloomed, and the shadow was the beginning of a rare disease of unknown cause on the wife.

The husband, who was trying to save his wife at all costs turned more and more devastated and what he started to do to continue her dying life was build a long labyrinth from the mansion to the basement. And then, he would take the blood from young girls in the village, imprison them in the completed labyrinth and make his wife drink it.

The man who was going crazy and the deaths of girls increased. A child was suddenly dead next to the already dead mother.

After a dead child appeared in the mansion, rumors begin to circulate that the women were being kidnapped in the search for the mother.

“- a mansion which was built with a story unlike the made up ‘Mansion of Nightmare’, this place here had a story of itself and it seemed like a modified version of a ghost was circulated. In addition, the present mansion is completely different from the original design the planner made. At the request of the Marquis, the owner of the estate, it was built by attaching additional buildings and abandoned houses at that time.”

Having said that, Sir Hilder felt thirsty so he picked up his water bottle and then pointed to the papers he brought.

“And looking at the blue prints it is clear that the structure of the buildings was made to confuse the visitors. The labyrinth was attached to the underground rooms and the structure was continued. But there was no place in here which we haven’t checked. But then the two young girls were definite here. And this means that there is a third space which doesn’t appear in the blueprint.”

Taking a sip of water, he used video stones to show a report.

“This issue is a summary of the undisclosed case report and the accidents so far. I don’t know why it wasn’t open to the public, but it looks like this theme park had a trial opening period for a while before the real opening. See, as written here, during the trail opening of the mansion, there were accidents in the labyrinth, in this place and the opening date was delayed for a while.”

At Sir Hilder’s explanation, all of us looked at the place.

As the theme park was completed a year ago, it was opened to some selective guests. And at the request of Baron Bolten, the matter was kept private. The park’s opening was delayed for three months.

“It was requested by the person who was involved in the accident and the matter wasn’t disclosed. If there is time, I will call him around tomorrow, but for now, let’s check this place out.”

Apart from who the culprit was, I had a clear idea as to what the hell happened in here. In a place made for entertainment, people died and two young girls were kidnapped. The culprit couldn’t even be narrowed and another missing person had to be found.

I read the report all the way down. The report written by Sir Hilder himself was so well organized that even a person who didn’t know anything could understand it.

Meanwhile, somehow I couldn’t take the eyes of the lower part.

-5 years ago, there was a case of the disappearance of 3 travelers from the Holy Kingdom Wilka near the park.

Three years ago preparations for the part were started. From the very beginning, there were rumors of a baby crying among the people in the park. Reports were received but judged to be false.

At the time of opening for trial, there was an accident with Baron Bolten. The Baron was unharmed. The whereabouts of the women with him weren’t mentioned in the reports. And we needed to check what happened.

Baron Hudson of Cheiva was found dead in the mansion of the labyrinth three days before the girl children went missing. The culprit hasn’t been found. Eyes and heels cut out. And a body that looked like beasts had eaten. Couldn’t be guessed as to what wild creature the tooth marks matched. Investigators said that it had a small, narrow mouth and sharp fangs. There were no poison or claw marks found. It is suspected to be an animal.

6 days ago, two young girls disappeared, however, the culprit hasn’t been found. Like Baron Hudson’s daughter, there are bite marks. Heard screams before fainting. The 1st division deemed that a woman in her thirties was supposed to be the owner of the scream. There seemed to be an unspecified blueprint of the area. There was no one else in the security video at the entrance except for the guests, and there were only two guests were retrieved back.

The residents are worried, and rumors aren’t good with them as they considered this was a house abandoned 10 years ago when the epidemic broke long before the park was created.

Strange pictures which weren’t present in the video stones at the time of trial opening are visible. Graffiti which wasn’t visible before was now present but in an unknown language that needed to be crosschecked

It stood out that there was no list of props used in each room. A pair of men’s shoes and an old-fashioned teacup were found in a room on the first floor.

“So in my opinion… As you can see the material here, to create a sense of fear there have been times where words of ‘Please help me or save me’ were used, but all that was written in the common language of the north and west continents. And being able to read that would make people think that this is more real.”

Sir Hilder showed another picture with the help of a video stone.

“By the way, the texts on the photo I took now aren’t indicated anywhere in the data. I can’t find anything related or similar to that in the video stones either. It was written after opening, and was done without the planner. It could be simple and be that it was a guest’s doing, but in my personal opinion it has to be checked out.”

“It is scary, and it is just your own opinion right?”

At Sir Shuzlin’s words, Sir Hilder titled his head and continued.

“Well, isn’t it strange that the planner didn’t know about this new graffiti which was done? And I have never seen such characters till now, considering it was left by a guest who visited. It couldn’t be a random stroke, but has to mean something.”

Sir Hilder responded in a sharp tone as he took another sip of water.

“As shown in the data, there are more people who have died or gone missing inside this mansion than we were informed, and as rumors are going on about this place…”

Unconsciously, I was completely focused on the report of Sir Hilder.

Since a while back, I have been feeling dizzy and my heart was pounding loud for some reason. Still, I was strangely able to concentrate. It has been a long time since I looked at those characters being interpreted, and my eyes burned.

Sir Hilder, who emptied the water bottle, suddenly looked at me with a worried face.

“Sir Alkeris doesn’t seem to be feeling good, are you fine?’

“Ah, yes.”

He managed to know it right away. It could be because the color of my aura wasn’t good.

Mino’s golden eyes, which were thinking long about something, turned to look at me. And then shook her head as if she looked at something bad and then took out two video stones from her pocket and said.

“Don’t push yourself. I am sorry that things turned out like this. We have things left to do, so why not stay here?”

“here?”

“The two stones are linked, there is a function where the other stone’s images can be seen through yours realtime, right? It could be possible for us to use it, and then Sir and just look at the words and interpret them if you know.”

Is that really fine? As if I wasn’t recovered from drowsiness I couldn’t say anything and hesitated to answer.

“But before that, there is something to check.”

Sir Hilder, who was listening, brought up a scene saved in the video stone.

“Actually, I doubt that it is a character, but can you understand this?”

Sir Hilder looked at me and asked politely.

No sign of anticipation or ignorance. Just calm face. Since it was our first time meeting, his attitude was understandable, and when Dame Mino told him why I was here and what I did, he was happy. And it was a probability that he wouldn’t show a disappointed expression even I couldn’t read it.

The more I looked at him, the more he felt like a knight.

“…”

I stared at the frozen screen. On the blackened grey wall, a bright red triangle, a butterfly, a human eye, and five short vertical lines were drawn. It was quite weird to see the red smeared on the flowing down as if the person used an excessive of it.

I opened my mouth as I looked at the picture and then tried to understand it.

“Yes. It is a test to be precise.”

“Really?”

Sir Hilder asked right away.

“So, what is the interpreted one?”

“Looking at the content alone, it was said that ‘being pursued while wandering the road’.”

As I answered, his face brightened and I felt strange when I looked at him.