READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 3
Chapter 3: The Uninvited Guest of the Cursed Mansion (3)
Inside Maid A’s room.
Asche sat curled up on the bed, hugging her knees. The once noisy, cramped room was now swallowed by an eerie silence.
“Ugh…”
She sniffled and wiped her nose.
Memories too unbearable to face came rushing in like a tidal wave, leaving her no choice but to lament aloud, as if hoping someone might hear her plight.
“I showed everything… No one’s ever going to marry me now…”
The humiliation of being taught how to bathe, at her age, was unimaginable.
It was, of course, impossible to teach bathing remotely. Asche had been forced to endure the mortifying ordeal of learning under the supervision of that insufferable butler.
[Remember, human underarms and groin areas must be cleaned thoroughly, regardless of gender…]
[Lather this towel with soap and scrub thoroughly. For hard-to-reach areas like your back, stretch it out straight… Yes, like that. Well done.]
[When leaving the bath, be cautious of slippery floors. A single misstep could lead to an unnoticed death.]
Even that was already embarrassing enough. But what irked Asche even more was something else entirely.
“But… am I really not that pretty?”
It was as the damn butler had claimed. His detached, emotionless gaze remained utterly uninterested in her throughout.
Ridiculous. Completely absurd.
Asche, though raised in privilege, was no fool. She knew perfectly well what it meant for a man and woman to be alone together, both exposed.
“Why does this bother me? It’s not like I wouldn’t find him disgusting if I saw his naked body. Hmph.”
She had been treated like some common maid—thrown into a servant’s room, assisted through bathing, and even had her hair combed with care by the same butler.
A butler who dared not treat her with the reverence she deserved as the imperial princess.
He should be groveling! Instead, he dared to act superior.
Asche vented her frustrations in her mind, but eventually, her thoughts shifted toward something more productive.
“Anyway, he said to uncover the mansion’s secrets. It’s clearly cursed, but so far, all it’s done is trap me. Nothing else weird has happened…”
And yet, that insufferable butler wasn’t completely useless. He’d at least managed her needs efficiently.
He seemed to be the mansion’s only servant. Otherwise, there was no way this enormous estate could remain so eerily quiet.
“Should I start by searching the room? Something feels off. Why would a maid have jewel-encrusted dresses…?”
Resolving herself, Asche snapped out of her self-pity and stepped off the bed.
She began combing through every corner of the room, from the wardrobe to under the bed.
But contrary to her expectations, she found nothing of note.
“That’s weird… Aren’t there usually hidden rooms or secret compartments in these kinds of places? Like, maybe this isn’t really a maid’s room but a disguised space or something…”
Her efforts yielded no results. Disheartened, she turned her attention to the nightstand, her last resort.
“Hiding clues in the nightstand feels so cliché. Real secrets should be hidden behind spotless bookshelves that reveal secret passageways when a single book is pulled…”
But Asche had overestimated Maid A’s ingenuity.
“…Figures. A maid’s just a maid.”
To her surprise, the nightstand contained an item.
The diary bore that title on its cover.
“Let’s see…”
Flipping through its pages with a newfound sense of purpose, Asche read:
[Oh my goodness, I can’t believe it! I’m working for the Arkaden family! My life is finally looking up. I’ll work tirelessly until my bones ache!]
“Hmm… All this fuss over being a maid? Maybe if it were the imperial palace, sure…”
Narrowing her eyes, Asche continued to skim the diary.
[Goodness… I was utterly shocked. The girl in the room next to mine is breathtakingly beautiful! Her name is B, I think? She’s the very definition of beauty.]
Maid A seemed to hold Maid B in high regard. So much so that most of the diary’s entries were filled with praise for B’s beauty.
[B loves dogs. Today, she even used her own money to buy accessories for the estate’s hunting dogs. But I don’t like those mutts. They growl at me whenever they see me…]
From what Asche could gather, Maid A’s life had been relatively peaceful. But a sudden twist emerged in the next entry.
[A new maid arrived. Her name is C. She’s always so harsh toward B. I had to step in and defend her, or poor B would’ve been crushed. It’s up to me, her friend, to comfort her.]
Asche found herself unexpectedly drawn into the diary’s contents. However, as she turned to the next page, her hand grasped at nothing.
“Huh? That’s it?”
The diary was thin, and no more pages remained.
The moment Asche stored
Boom!
It sounded like something had crashed or fallen.
“H-Huh?!”
Asche’s shoulders jerked in alarm.
In a mansion where the butler was the only other soul, what could possibly make such a noise?
Maybe the clumsy butler had caused some sort of accident…
Cautiously, she opened the door and peeked into the hallway. The dark corridor stretched before her, its emptiness amplifying her unease.
“B-Butler…?”
Silence. It was as if the mansion’s suffocating atmosphere had swallowed him whole.
“Hey… I heard a noise just now…!!! That was you, right? Answer me…!”
The chilling mansion responded only with emptiness.
A shiver ran down her spine.
The cold air seemed to take on the shape of invisible fingers, brushing against her bare skin in an unsettling caress.
“Don’t mess with me! I’m seriously starting to get scared here!”
Her voice now quivered, nearing tears. But still, no one answered.
The relentless sound of rain echoed outside, pounding against the windows like an unending storm.
The damp air, the chill, the dark hallway—everything was unbearable.
Gritting her teeth, Asche forced herself to step into the corridor.
Flash! Boom!
A bolt of lightning struck the mansion’s garden, followed by a deafening crash of thunder. The blinding light and booming sound made Asche recoil in fear.
“Hnngh…!”
Just as she tried to retreat back into Maid A’s room—
Grab!
A large hand seized her shoulder.
***
Somewhere along the first-floor corridor of the Arkaden mansion.
I had been roaming the mansion, conducting a few experiments.
‘So, Asche’s arrival triggered this, huh?’
For years, I had carried out the mansion’s chores—sweeping hallways, cleaning windows, and even performing maid duties—all tasks imposed by the mansion itself.
But my autonomy was restricted to the first floor. Any attempt to climb to the upper floors would result in an endless loop, leading me right back to the ground floor.
On top of that, most rooms were inaccessible to me, rendering any investigation futile.
Even Maid A’s room, which I had shown to Asche earlier, could only be opened by her will.
‘I still can’t open doors on my own.’
It made sense. If I could, I would have torn through the mansion long ago, either escaping or dying in the process.
Either outcome would’ve been preferable to this endless captivity.
As I contemplated my predicament, a loud noise reverberated through the mansion.
Boom!
It was impossible to pinpoint where it had come from.
Had something from The Diary of Retia already begun?
Unease crept up my spine, prompting me to rush through the mansion—a rare display of urgency on my part.
“Hah…”
At the end of my hurried search, I spotted Maid A’s room, its door slightly ajar.
There was Asche, peeking cautiously out into the hallway, still in her undergarments.
Relief washed over me. Nothing seemed to have happened to her.
Approaching quietly, I placed a hand on her shoulder from behind.
“Kyahhhhhhhhh!!!”
Her reaction was explosive.
“Get away, get away from me! Kyahhhhh!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Asche swung her fists with all her might.
[This object cannot be destroyed.]
[This object cannot be destroyed.]
[This object cannot be destroyed.]
Of course, her efforts were met with no reward.
Realizing the familiar futility of her actions, Asche finally cracked open her eyes and looked at me.
“Huff… Huff… What the—? It was just you, the butler…”
She barely took a moment to catch her breath before resuming her tirade.
“At least make some noise when you walk around! Where the hell did you go anyway? Do you even realize how scared I was?!”
“And do you think you were the only one who was afraid?”
“What?”
“I was worried too. Worried that something might have happened to you.”
“Th-that’s… What do you mean by that…?”
Asche, uncharacteristically, trailed off.
But what “meaning” could she be searching for? This girl is my last hope. Of course, I’d be worried.
“…So, did you do something?”
“What? You’re saying it wasn’t you? I just finished reading the diary, and suddenly there was this loud noise… I thought maybe you knocked over a bookshelf or something.”
“I ran here because I didn’t know what caused it either. But speaking of the diary, you found one? Could I see it?”
“Yeah, here.”
Asche skillfully pulled
Taking the diary, I flipped through its pages, scanning them quickly.
‘Did the mansion lead Asche to Maid A’s room just to show her this diary?’
The system’s directive, the appearance of the diary, and above all, the loud noise that followed the moment the diary was closed…
It all felt far too deliberate to be mere coincidence.
“The Diary of Retia is… moving forward.”
Whether Asche wanted it or not, she had already taken her first steps.
Steps that led her deeper into the mansion, where the lurking horrors began to stir.