Chapter 55: Ghost Mansion (1)

It was an incredibly long, black car. How much could it cost?

It must be more expensive than our house, at least.

Swoosh-

The ride is very smooth.

Someday, I hope I can ride in a car like this too. As I was thinking this, the girls started squealing.

"Dahee, your skin is really nice. What skincare products do you use?"

"Me? I just use whatever's at home, so I don't really know the names. We should have plenty at home, want me to give you some when we go back?"

"Really? That's awesome! Dahee, I love you!"

Bong Ji-yeon was being particularly noisy.

From what I could tell, Bong Ji-yeon had just met Yoo Dahee today, but she was chatting with her as if they'd been best friends for 500 years.

Is this the social skills of Bong Ji-yeon, who's lived as an insider and queen bee? It's quite impressive how she's trying to become the Hyangdan to Yoo Dahee's Chunhyang.

Yang Juhee said,

"Love you, my ass. Hey. No matter how much you suck up, you won't get any leftovers. Now that you've lost Kwon Suho, you're trying to latch onto Yoo Dahee's line, aren't you?"

"What are you talking about? Dahee and I are so close. Yang Juhee, if you're jealous of our relationship, just say you're jealous. Your personality is as ugly as your face. Right, Dahee? Oh! Your nails are so pretty. How do you usually take care of them?"

"Hehe, Ji-yeon, you're such a funny girl."

...The world of women was an unknown realm that I, as a man, couldn't understand at all. Then what about the world of men?

I spoke in a voice that only Jung-seok could hear.

"Hey. Jung-seok. You made a big mistake today for talking about her sister. It's information that's not even certain yet, and we don't know what will happen, but you said too much."

Finding Bong Se-yeon, Bong Ji-yeon's sister, was supposed to be confidential information for our pirate crew. But Jung-seok blurted it out, and this could potentially create a dangerous situation.

"...I know. I'm sorry."

Of course, Jung-seok was a smart guy, and even without me saying more, he knew what the problem was and how to solve it.

"I'll cover it up well. Of course, I won't mention anything about the status window. Even I think I was a bit unsightly today, but I do know where to draw the line."

Responsibility. Duty. This is the world of men.

The car rolled on for quite a while like that.

We were heading towards the outskirts of Gaeryong City where there were many mountains.

"It's farther than I thought."

Yoo Dahee's house was even further than I had imagined. No wonder she had to commute by her driver's car.

Ding-

Just then, my phone rang. When I checked, Jung-seok had sent a message to the group chat.

「Jungle Jung-seok: I couldn't say this because of the situation, but Chairman Cheon Dae-gon, who we're meeting today, might be at the center of several incidents. If you get a chance to talk with him, think carefully before speaking.」

「OK」

Actually, the person I should be most wary of among those I'd be dealing with today wasn't the delinquent brat and third-generation chaebol Kwon Suho.

It was the rich man who ruled over this Gaeryong Metropolitan City and had established roots in this land for a long time.

"Wow. Is that the main gate? Do we have to drive through it too?"

Bong Ji-yeon made a fuss.

As Bong Ji-yeon said, Yoo Dahee's house had a gate that looked like something out of a movie, and beyond it, you could see a vast garden stretching out.

There was even a fountain and a swimming pool.

Unfamiliar trees were stretching tall, and golf carts that you'd expect to see on a golf course were parked here and there.

Just how rich are they?

Bong Ji-yeon asked,

"Wow. This is really amazing. Dahee, your grandfather must be incredibly rich. Is a school chairman usually this wealthy? Does he have other businesses?"

What a blatant gold-digging question.

Bong Ji-yeon seemed to be trying to gauge Yoo Dahee's wealth, which might become her new shelter. Soon, Yoo Dahee said,

"I don't think he has any other businesses. But I heard that a long, long time ago, one of our ancestors was a great alchemist. That's how they were able to make a ton of money, I guess."

"Alchemist? What's that?"

Bong Ji-yeon frowned. I felt a subtle feeling too.

What's with this alchemist talk?

Soon, Jung-seok, who seemed to want to show off his knowledge in front of Bong Ji-yeon, opened his mouth.

"Alchemists were people who tried to turn metal into gold. It was a popular field of study in Europe and the Arab world. While it was impossible to turn metal into gold, the process led to advancements in science."

The male peacock tried to seduce the female with its colorful feathers. For Jung-seok, those feathers were his knowledge.

Of course, I'm not sure if that feather display worked well on Bong Ji-yeon.

***

Could there be a house more fitting of the word 'mansion' than this?

The ceilings were high, European-style pillars soared upwards, and red carpets were laid out everywhere. The atmosphere was so un-Korean that I felt like I had become the protagonist of a novel.

A wealthy mansion that could appear in a detective novel. That's what this place was like.

Aren't creepy incidents always happening in places like this?

"......"

Even Bong Ji-yeon, who had been making a big fuss, was now just gaping with her mouth open, as if overwhelmed by this atmosphere.

No matter how much Bong Ji-yeon tried to act tough or fatal, she was still just a first-year high school girl.

As my evaluation of Bong Ji-yeon went down, my evaluation of Yoo Dahee soared even higher.

I knew she was rich, but I didn't expect her to be living in such a magnificent place.

"Do you guys want to see my room? It's on the third floor. Let's take the elevator up."

What kind of house has an elevator?

I took a transparent elevator up to the third floor.

The third-floor corridor, decorated like a classic hotel, was full of expensive-looking decorations including pottery and frames. There were especially many portraits.

"These are the ancestors of the Cheon family, they say."

At Dahee's words, I looked at the picture frames again. For portraits of Joseon era ancestors, they were painted in a very Western style. Come to think of it, she did say their ancestor was an alchemist.

Maybe the Cheon family quickly accumulated wealth by accepting Western culture, talking about practical learning and such, in the Joseon era that was full of Confucian extremists.

First-mover advantage really has an incredible effect, doesn't it?

"This is my room."

Yoo Dahee introduced her room.

Yoo Dahee's room had black carpet, an incredibly soft-looking bed, and its size was almost the same as our entire house.

A room as big as our house. How is this possible?

"Aah! What's this?"

Soon, Yang Juhee exclaimed in shock.

When I looked to see what it was, some fluffy white fur-like thing was rubbing itself against Yang Juhee's legs. It looked like an expensive, purebred cat.

"That's Baekseol. She's usually wary of strangers. That's strange. She seems to like you, Juhee."

Unlike a cat that's wary of people, it was jumping onto Yang Juhee's lap or walking around her shoulders. Of course, Yang Juhee was disgusted.

"Hey! Get away! What's wrong with this cat! Get it off me!"

Now that I think about it, Yang Juhee just seems to dislike cats in general.

Her dislike for cat ladies and stray cats on the streets was simply because she didn't like cats themselves. And Yoo Dahee probably liked cats because she had one at home.

Whoosh-

Yang Juhee almost threw the cat off. She looked annoyed as she tried to remove the fur stuck to her body. But then her face suddenly brightened.

"Wow, what's this? It's a Princess Castle! You have all types of Princess dolls!"

What could the Princess Castle be? When I turned my head, there was a fairly large castle in one corner of Yoo Dahee's room.

It was full of princess-like dolls, and although I didn't know much about it, it seemed to be something girls really wanted.

Anyway, seeing Yoo Dahee's room really made me feel how unfair life is.

What on earth do you have to do to be born with such a silver spoon? Is it just luck?

Anyway.

While it's true that I was excited about being in a high school girl's room, the level was so different from what I had imagined that I was left with more amazement than excitement.

Knock knock-

Just then, someone knocked on the door.

Click-

The door opened. The cat, Baekseol, hissed and quickly ran to a corner.

Soon, a woman dressed in black clothes like mourning attire poked her very pale face into Yoo Dahee's room.

Her hair was elegantly tied up, but for some reason, her face was completely devoid of color, making her look eerie. She might have been in her forties or fifties.

"Yoo Dahee. Your grandfather will be here soon. Stop chatting and get ready for dinner."

Her voice was as eerie as her appearance. For some reason, she seemed angry at Yoo Dahee.

"You all, don't be rude or talk carelessly. Whoever you are, behave with manners in this house. This mansion hears all your conversations. I've warned you."

Soon, Yoo Dahee said,

"Yes. We'll come down soon."

Swoosh-

With those words, the woman moved away. As she did, she briefly made eye contact with me, and somehow, that pale face and expression that didn't seem human gave me goosebumps.

"Who was that just now? Your mother, perhaps?"

Bong Ji-yeon asked. Soon, Yoo Dahee seemed to ponder for a moment before speaking.

"A new housekeeper who came recently. The person who was working here before quit recently, so she's new, but I don't know what she did before. The previous housekeeper was really fun and nice. This one particularly dislikes cats, so she doesn't like Baekseol either..."

Saying the previous person was nice─ was the same as saying the current one isn't very good. Certainly, the woman in black clothes with her pale complexion was creepy and eerie.

Jung-seok said,

"A gloomy housekeeper. She's really like Mrs. Danvers herself."

"Guys, let's go downstairs then."

"Dahee, I need to use the bathroom for a moment."

***

While everyone went down to the dining room on the first floor for dinner, I was still wandering around the third floor.

I had gotten a bit lost while trying to find the bathroom.

"Where on earth is the bathroom?"

As I was unintentionally wandering around like this, I discovered strange marks in various parts of the mansion. They looked like small wounds someone had made, or like some kind of markings.

"→"

It's an arrow. There was an arrow in such a low position that you'd have to kneel down and bend over to barely see it.

I had seen these kinds of markings somewhere before.

"This is similar to what was in that elevator."

It was reminiscent of the markings I had seen in the elevator to the death floor. I unconsciously followed these markings that seemed to have been carved with a knife.

Then, I saw a painting hanging in the corridor.

It was a painting of a man with sunken eyes. It had quite a gloomy impression, reminiscent of the ear-cutting Van Gogh, and it was labeled "Self-Portrait" below.

That aside, why did the markings stop here?

Just in case, I examined the frame from various angles.

"There's nothing here."

It was when I took down the frame to examine it.

Flutter-

A piece of paper that had been overlapping with someone's self-portrait fell to the floor.

It was a page from a sketchbook. Two people were drawn in crayon, and it looked like a child's work.

"Dahee♡Auntie"

So Yoo Dahee drew this. Who is this "auntie" here?

Could it be the housekeeper who used to be in this mansion?

"What are you doing?"

"Oh my god!"

I was startled. When I turned around, the gloomy housekeeper was looking at me.

"What are you doing? Why aren't you going downstairs? And what's that?"

Swish-!

The housekeeper snatched the paper from my hand, rudely fast and strong. Soon, the housekeeper made a terrifying expression like a goblin and tore up the sketchbook page.

"This crazy girl! She hid something like this in the house? How dare she! So ominous!"

"Excuse me?"

"You. How dare a rolling stone like you─ Hiding something like this in the house! You thief!"

Mumble mumble-

She was saying something, but this housekeeper didn't seem normal at all.

"I know. I raised the master. I raised him from the moment he was born. I nursed him. In a way, he's my other half. My masterpiece─"

Grab-!

The housekeeper grabbed my arm strongly.

"W-What are you doing!"

"The master will return soon. Everything in this mansion belongs to the Cheon family. Don't even think about coveting a single pebble from this house, you Yoo. Yoo Dahee. You thieving cat! I know all your schemes!"

I could tell that this housekeeper was completely out of her mind.

"You can't fool me! You can't deceive my eyes! Now that I've returned to the mansion, you won't have your way, Yoo Dahee!"

She's mistaking me for Yoo Dahee? I'm a boy and Yoo Dahee is a girl!

"...I'm not Yoo Dahee, I'm Ha Young-won!"

I struggled desperately.

Then the housekeeper took out glasses from her pocket. She looked at me and frowned deeply.

"What? You. You're not Yoo Dahee. Who are you?"

Her corpse-like cold fingers grabbed my face and rubbed it roughly.

I got goosebumps and chose to run away!