Chapter 114: When the Cicadas Cry (4)

3 PM.

We set up a base camp in Yoo Dahee's room for now.

"We must find the culprit."

I wanted to focus on finding the culprit for our survival. Since this wasn't the nightmare corridor, if we died, it would really be the end.

We would truly lose our friends and comrades.

"I've made a list of people in this mansion today."

Jung-seok showed me a small table. It was a list of suspects.

"Ha Young-won Pirate Crew – Ha Young-won, Yang Juhee, Jung-seok, Yoo Dahee, Kwon Sua, Hong Mi-ri (out)"

"Mansion Staff - Mrs. Danvers, Kim So-mi, Kim A-som, Kim Byeol"

"Excluding our pirate crew members, the mansion staff are likely suspect candidates. In fact, they're the most likely. It's easiest to put poison in during the cooking process in the kitchen."

At Jung-seok's deduction, I recalled the ajumma and noonas we met in the mansion. Soon, Kwon Sua trembled and said.

"So it's Mrs. Danvers after all...?"

The gloomy housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers. She looked like the culprit to anyone.

"You know she's always looked at us unfavorably. I even got scolded today for wandering around freely. Dahee, what do you think?"

I asked Yoo Dahee, who probably had the most face-to-face interactions with the ajumma in the mansion.

Yoo Dahee seemed to ponder for a while, then shrugged.

"I'm not sure! But it's true that the ajumma disliked me. Because I'm a Yoo... She also dislikes that I keep Baekseol because of her cat allergy..."

She must be knowledgeable about 'poison' to carry antidotes around. There was enough to call a motive for the crime.

"But Mrs. Danvers doesn't cook? She doesn't even enter the kitchen because she hates hot places. She's afraid of fire."

Afraid of fire...

So she's someone who can't enter the kitchen.

"Then who cooks?"

"Today it's So-mi unnie. So-mi unnie made the bibimbap for lunch too, remember?"

Kim So-mi.

The noona who said she'd give me a kiss if I caught a cockroach for her. If that noona poisoned us to death, I couldn't help but wonder 'why'.

"Why would that noona do that to us?"

Just as I was wondering, Yang Juhee spoke as if she knew everything.

"Didn't Yoo Dahee usually act all high and mighty because she's from a rich family? So maybe she harbored a grudge and decided to kill all her friends when they came over."

"...I never acted high and mighty!"

Yoo Dahee frowned.

She mumbled her lips, looking like someone who wanted to lash out at Yang Juhee but didn't know how.

"Well, let's go meet her directly."

***

I entered the kitchen.

It was so spacious that it would be better described as a cooking room rather than a kitchen. Steam was rising from that vast space.

"Kids, why are you in the kitchen? Tonight's dinner is galbitang!"

I could see Kim So-mi noona stirring a large pot with a ladle.

"Young-won, want to taste test?"

She even asked me to taste test! Is she planning to feed me soup with poison in it?

Just as I was getting a bit tense.

"Kyaa, a cockroach appeared again! Again!"

"Aah!"

I was startled by Kim So-mi noona's scream.

A cockroach!

A bug as big as a thumb was really scurrying across the kitchen floor!

"Aaagh!"

I screamed, foaming at the mouth like someone who had just witnessed a murder scene. Kim So-mi noona screamed along with me.

"Catch it! Quickly! Baekseol! Baekseol! Where's Baekseol! Catch the cockroach!"

─Meow.

The white cat Baekseol appeared out of nowhere. It swiftly caught the cockroach with nimble movements.

And then it walked away with the cockroach in its mouth, which seemed to be a common occurrence. Seeing this, Yang Juhee frowned.

"Ah shit, it kissed my nose earlier! Ugh! That damn cat! To think it kissed my nose with a mouth that carries cockroaches..."

Even I thought it was a bit much to kiss with a mouth that had just hunted a cockroach.

But don't cats lick their own butts after using the bathroom? That's dirtier than cockroaches. It meant you should never kiss cats.

Thud-

Kim So-mi noona closed the large pot lid and said.

"This won't do. I need to go get some pesticide. Can you kids watch the pot for a moment? Just open it occasionally and stir with this ladle. The meat needs to boil a bit more."

Whoosh-!

Kim So-mi noona left to get cockroach pesticide. About 10 minutes passed?

Kim So-mi noona came back with a strange object. It looked like a coin pouch.

"What's that?"

"This? It's an odorless insecticide made from lily of the valley. Just placing it like this keeps bugs away. By the way, it's harmless to humans. As long as you don't eat it. If you put it in an inconspicuous corner like this..."

We all froze at Kim So-mi noona's words.

The hot kitchen air filled with steam suddenly felt chilly when Jung-seok nudged my side and said.

"Hey, doesn't that seem like it? The cockroach appearing and her going to get pesticide might have happened last time too. She might have put the insecticide from that pouch into the galbitang..."

It was a very plausible guess.

The time was about 4.30 PM. Dinner time was 6 PM.

"Cooking done!"

Kim So-mi noona stretched with a groan.

The galbitang was mostly cooked, and just needed to be kept simmering on low heat, she said.

Ring ring-

Just then, Kim So-mi noona's phone rang.

"Oh, Song-yeon! I heard you got married! Hey, it's been so long─"

Kim So-mi noona went somewhere while answering the phone call.

The call ended around 6 PM. During that time, we kept watching the kitchen.

"Did you kids watch the fire? Then let's go eat dinner!"

The dinner menu was galbitang, same as before. But no one could easily touch it.

"What's wrong?"

Kim So-mi noona asked us. I glanced at everyone's expressions and said.

"...We don't have much appetite."

"Really? It's really delicious."

Slurp, slurp-

The noonas ate all the galbitang without any issues. Mrs. Danvers also clicked her tongue and emptied her bowl.

"Honestly, you don't know how precious food is."

Time had already reached 8 PM.

Normally, everyone would have been vomiting blood and dying by now, but... whether it was because we didn't eat dinner or because we didn't take a bath, we were all fine.

We all gathered in Yoo Dahee's room.

"It feels so gross not being able to take a bath."

Yoo Dahee felt very awkward. She even sniffed her shoulder, though she hadn't sweated a drop all day.

Jung-seok said.

"The bathwater could be mixed with poison too. So it's better not to take a bath today."

"So... is the culprit really Kim So-mi unnie?"

Yoo Dahee trembled. As we were all lost in thought.

─Kyaaaah!

We heard a sharp scream.

We all rushed downstairs in surprise. There, we saw someone collapsed on the first floor, covered in blood.

"So-mi! So-mi, wake up! So-mi!"

"She's not moving! She... she's... dead!"

The housekeeper noonas were horrified, looking at Kim So-mi noona lying face down in a pool of blood. We were so shocked we froze.

Only Jung-seok managed to approach the body with shaking hands and legs, examining the wound on her back.

"A diagonal strike from upper right to lower left... It seems to have cut the spine and pierced the heart. The weapon is this... kitchen knife? To do this with normal strength would be..."

As Jung-seok was deducing like an expert, Mrs. Danvers shouted "You!" and grabbed Jung-seok's and my shoulders, pulling us.

"Get in the room! You kids stay in the room! Don't come out no matter what you hear outside! Get in quickly!"

The ajumma's fury was terrifying, like she was possessed. And her grip was stronger than expected.

Startled by her fierce anger, we all had to hide in Yoo Dahee's room.

"Someone died! The cook noona died!"

Even Yang Juhee, who rarely gets flustered, screamed as if greatly shocked by this incident. A person had died in reality.

And she was Kim So-mi, the housekeeper we suspected of poisoning us.

"The culprit is strong. It's not easy to kill someone with a single stab to the back with a kitchen knife. Only a few men could do it."

Jung-seok, who had coldly examined Kim So-mi noona's body, concluded his deduction.

The culprit is a strong person. A man...? Then we had a problem.

"Hey, the only men in this mansion today are you and me. But you and I were in Dahee's room continuously after dinner."

"...Ah, that's right! That's right! Maybe from the beginning! It was connected from the start! I got it! I got it! We were fools! We were thinking too narrowly! Think about why we came to this mansion!"

Jung-seok shouted as if he had realized something, standing up.

Bang bang bang-! Just then, someone knocked on our room door.

─Kids, we need to escape! Kids!

It was Mrs. Danvers' voice, and she sounded very urgent. It was natural for Kwon Sua to scream "Eek!"

Click click-

Someone was trying to force open the locked door. But we had an even bigger problem.

"...Isn't it too hot?"

Kwon Sua, with her good intuition, was the first to notice the anomaly.

Crackle, crackle-

Only then did we realize that the mansion was on fire.

"Let's get out! Let's get out!"

I thought we needed to get out of this room. Of course, there was a problem.

"Damn it! The door won't open!"

The door wouldn't open as if something was blocking it from behind.

"Hey! Move!"

Bang-! Bang-!

Yang Juhee ran and kicked hard, but the door was completely sealed shut.

Whoosh, whoosh-

As the flames threatened to reach Yoo Dahee's room, we were almost in panic and didn't know what to do.

Crash-

Yoo Dahee broke the window.

"Guys! We need to get out this way! This way!"

But this is the third floor?

"The height of the third floor is about 9 to 10 meters. We probably won't die from this height. We might end up crippled, but it's better than burning to death!"

Jung-seok exclaimed. And he jumped out the window.

Crunch-

"Aaaagh!"

"Hey! Are you okay?"

No, how could he be okay! I just felt like crying.

But we couldn't just stand still.

"Next! Guys! The next person needs to jump!"

I shouted to the friends still in the burning room. And I could sense the atmosphere turning strange.

"......"

"......"

"......"

Yang Juhee, Kwon Sua, and Yoo Dahee were just standing in the burning room. Just standing there with blank eyes.

"...W-what's wrong with you guys?"

This unfamiliar scene gave me chills. Nevertheless, I had to muster courage to escape the flames and put my hand on Yoo Dahee's shoulder.

"Dahee! Snap out of it!"

"...Huh? Where is this? Oppa, where's the teacher?"

"...What are you talking about?"

Yoo Dahee said something strange.

As I was quite flustered, Yang Juhee, who seemed to have come to her senses, also shouted.

"Unnie! Where are you! Mom! Unnie!"

Something was very wrong. The dizzying flames.

Bang-!

Soon the door opened and Mrs. Danvers, dressed in black, came in.

"Young-won! We need to escape! We need to escape from here quickly!"

Mrs. Danvers' clothes were singed and burning in places. She seemed to have severe burns, but some looked like very old scars.

"You need to live! You need to live!"

The ajumma hugged me and jumped out the third-floor window.

Whoosh-

Soaring through the air felt quite romantic even in this situation. But we didn't have wings and had to fall eventually.

From the distant moonlight to the ground.

"《Sloppy Clock》 is rewinding its spring."

"100P consumed."

"424 points remaining"

Flash-!

A dazzling light burst and Kwon Sua shouted.

"It's been a while since I've had this much fun without worrying about others!"

"Hey, damn, Ha Young-won closed his eyes."

"This is cute in its own way..."

When I opened my eyes, everyone was standing under the old cherry tree. And I could understand the meaning of Jung-seok's final shout of "I got it!"

He had told us to think about why we came to this mansion, right? It was to investigate the 'strange phenomena' happening in this mansion.

And that was the answer.

"The culprit wasn't human to begin with. It wasn't human. There's a ghost in this mansion. And it's the most powerful and massive one we've encountered so far─"

To toy with us not once, but twice. I felt a certain malice and was so frustrated and upset that I almost cried.

"Hey, why are you suddenly crying? Is it because I closed my eyes? You know it's a joke. Why are you suddenly like this? Making people embarrassed..."

"Young-won, what's wrong?"

"Is it a mental breakdown? Honestly, I thought it wouldn't be strange if Ha Young-won went crazy anytime. It's hard for someone with something like a status window to maintain a normal mind."

"Maybe he's crying because he's moved?"

"You bastards! Bastards! Just you wait!"