◈ Episode 376: The Secret Mansion (3)
Rudger asked looking at the frame.
“Is it true that people here die?”
“Because it is. Do I look like someone who would lie for nothing?”
“Maybe not.”
“If there are too many doubts. I haven’t heard of such a case. you said Why did these rumors circulate? Actually, all the people depicted in the portrait in that transparent frame are dead.”
Rimray narrowed his eyes and stared at Ludger.
“Or, what. Does anyone you know have been filmed?”
“It is not.”
Rudger naturally lied.
However, Roina did not seem to be at all relieved.
“Hee! Seriously, am I there?! Is that me?! Is that me?!”
“Didn’t you say no?”
“You could be lying on purpose just to reassure me! You don’t have to!”
… … I feel like I’m climbing more and more because I ate something.
Rudger just nodded as he didn’t seem to listen even if I said no.
“Looking at it again, it seems that it resembles Mr. Roina.”
“Aww! I’m screwed!”
“… … Wake up because I’m kidding. What kind of insolence is a grown wizard doing here?”
Rimray and Sempas didn’t even think to stop them, so Ludger forcibly raised Roina from the floor.
‘Anyway, there is not a single normal person among wizards who have reached 6th tier or higher.’
Rudger came to realize anew the myth that was floating around in the magic world.
Originally, I vaguely felt it, but as I got 6th-tier acquaintances one by one, I now reached the stage of blind faith.
“Don’t delay, let’s move.”
The group continued walking.
Every time I walked down the hallway, small but unusual things happened.
People’s laughter is heard from an unknown place, or people’s palms are stamped outside a blank window.
Sometimes the positions of the doors and windows were shifted abruptly.
It was as if the corridor had been rotated 90 degrees.
Looking at the hallway with floor-to-ceiling windows, Ludger let out a feeble admiration for the strangeness of the mansion.
“Still, you’re quieter than you think.”
“What do you mean by being modest?”
“I thought the mansion would be a more demonic realm, but at least there are no threats to life. until now.”
It was as Ludger said.
All sorts of strange phenomena occurring in the mansion were quite strange and surprising, but it was not enough to make them feel a sense of crisis.
Rimray frowned and spoke rebukingly.
“Did you tell me? You only have to follow the essential rules here.”
“What the hell is that rule?”
“What is it? It is a duty as a guest that we must protect here.”
“You have to move for more than 5 minutes, you mean?”
“We are guests in the mansion one way or another. And that’s an uninvited guest. I don’t know if this mansion itself has a special will, but at least the mystery of this place doesn’t tolerate troublemakers.”
“Even though the murders did happen.”
“The mansion is saying that they die among themselves and don’t care about killing each other.”
It’s a very creepy word to hear.
A mansion where you watch uninvited guests kill each other.
“So what are the other rules? If you can’t stay for more than five minutes anywhere else, it must be pretty tough.”
“You won’t have to worry about that. Because that rule applies only to the hallways. Each room also has new rules. For example, once you enter, you must fill the allotted time before leaving. If you go in wrong, it just disappears.”
“It’s amazing how the hell you figured out those rules.”
“How do you know? I wonder if all the magicians will notice this mysterious phenomenon for the first time. You will find out when people go out.”
“… … .”
How many people have been swept away by the mysterious phenomenon in order to know the rules that exist in the mansion one by one?
“Still, pretty much everything is known, so if you don’t act complacently, there’s no need to worry too much. The other rules don’t matter too much.”
As he said that, Rimray opened his mouth as if he had suddenly come to mind.
The ring of the cane resembling a stone scepter held in one hand trembled.
“ah. There was one.”
“What do you have?”
“A point to note. You’ll have to get out of this mansion on your own anyway when the sun goes down, but you’d better know why. What will happen if I don’t leave this mansion before midnight.”
“Are you dying?”
“I know. So don’t even think about staying up all night here. If you don’t want to die.”
Arfa, who was listening quietly from behind, asked.
“why? What comes out?”
At Arfa’s question, Rimray’s hard expression melted away in an instant.
“Oops. There are a lot of questions about our Arfa. Will this old woman teach me?”
“yes!”
“The reason why you shouldn’t stay in this mansion for a long time is that, after midnight, a scary monster comes out.”
“A scary monster?”
“Yes. A child like us Arpa is a very terrifying monster that can be swallowed in one bite.”
It was as if he was telling a fairy tale story to his grandson, but the meaning of the words was not light at all.
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“Has anyone seen the monster?”
“Yes. And he’s also the sole survivor. Of the dozens of people who bravely stayed in the mansion, he was the only one who survived.”
“What are you doing now?”
“He is dead.”
“… … .”
“I committed suicide because of extreme neurotic stress, fear, and psychosis. After the mystery night, he was immediately taken to the hospital, where he was found hanged three days later.”
Rather, the story left by the survivor because of that action was enough to instill awareness.
At midnight, monsters begin to roam the mansion.
The monster cannot be defeated by any magic.
“A mansion full of mysteries. There are rules, and monsters appear at night. It’s literally like a nightmare that exists in the world.”
“First of all, we see it as a cryptid that was born due to a mysterious phenomenon, but it has been clearly proven whether or not it is really dangerous.”
“You tried fearlessly, and then many died.”
“yes.”
Of course there were people who didn’t listen to the survivors.
If everyone in the world had taken the warning carefully, accidents would not have happened.
Some wizards tried to stay in the mansion for a long time, saying that hunting monsters was enough.
The longer you stay, the more time you spend researching the mansion than other wizards, and the more you get.
However, you wouldn’t have expected it to disappear the next day without leaving a corpse behind.
After that, brave people who decided to stay in the mansion stopped appearing.
Rudger shook his head.
‘I was going to simply find the materials I want in the library, but there are more restrictions than I thought.’
Besides, there were many incidents.
From the beginning, there are no victims from being attacked by beasts in the forest, or a murder case taking place inside the mansion.
Besides, one of the party, Rimray, is said to be dead.
‘I don’t know why they die, but if that’s true, there’s no guarantee that we, who move together, won’t get caught up in it.’
In Mystery Night, several incidents occur every year, but the murder in the mansion is too out of the norm.
Didn’t even the servant wizard from Delica Kingdom die?
‘It’s certain that the Black Dawn organized this.’
Leslie is plotting to wipe out most of the wizards attending this night of mystery.
Killing the people inside the mansion as a preliminary work for that is possible enough.
Or that he knew a secret he shouldn’t have known and kept his mouth shut.
‘The question is, how the heck do I do it?’
The Kasar Basin is such a strange place that it is impossible to even guess.
The most certain thing is to meet the orders under Leslie and hear their stories.
Inside the mansion, that method was not appropriate.
I don’t think I’ve been around that long, but I haven’t run into other people.
there is something
Rudger decided to prioritize his work.
‘Find the library first, check the data, return to the outpost in the evening and wait for them to contact you. It’s too risky to try to find Leslie’s Dawn right now.’
Then, during the remaining time until the sun goes down, I have to find the library that exists in this mansion.
“Does anyone know the location of the library?”
No one could answer Ludger’s question.
I walked for quite some time and looked at various places, but I couldn’t even see the place that was supposed to be a library.
I think I opened at least 10 rooms, but all of them were empty.
“It’s unclear whether we’ll be able to find it today.”
“Do you think that other wizards come here making a fuss from early morning? Even if you enter this mansion, you won’t be able to find the library right away.”
“Then what about the people who have visited the library so far?”
“I found it by accident after looking around. In this maze-like mansion, everything has to rely on chance.”
“Is it a coincidence?”
Looking at the reactions of others, it seemed that everyone thought the same.
It was worth it.
It is a place where even normal people disappear like a mirage.
The location of the object changes, and if you look back on the road you passed a moment ago, a completely different road is unfolding.
Even though I am walking on two legs like this, I feel like I am walking in a dream.
It is as if the mind is elevated and hallucinations occur.
However, Rudger did not intend to rely on luck and coincidence for everything in this situation.
“Arfa. Have you accumulated enough data?”
“yes.”
“Has the road been confirmed?”
“yes. All confirmed.”
“good. Then ask for guidance.”
When Ludger, who had been leading the way until now, suddenly yielded the lead to Arfa, the party looked at Ludger with the gaze of what the hell was this?
“Watch.”
Rudger followed Arfa, who took the lead with the words to watch.
Arfa walked without hesitation.
His steps were even confident, as if he could see the complex and confusing roads of this mansion clearly on the palm of his hand.
“uh. is this the right way? It seems like the first time you come here.”
Roina asked that because she was worried, and Sempas didn’t look very good, probably having a similar idea.
Rimray also twitched his lips and wanted to shout something right away, but it was clear that he was holding back because his opponent was Arpa.
Instead, it was Rudger who answered.
“You’ll know when you see it.”
I wonder if five minutes have passed since I said that.
Arpa stood tall in front of a large wooden door.
“Here.”
very bold words.
When the other party was puzzled, Rudger nodded and opened the doorknob without hesitation.
“Wait!”
It’s not good if you open the door carelessly.
This is because some rooms may activate traps the moment they are opened.
Therefore, before opening the door, it was always necessary to go through several stages of investigation before opening it.
However, Roina, who urgently tried to stop it, closed her lips at the scenery she saw as the door opened.
Surprisingly, others were as well.
The door opened and what unfolded in front of my eyes was a bookcase room filled with all sorts of books.
In this mansion, it was a secret library that many wizards were eager to find.
“Really, it’s a library?”
Rimray stared at Arfa in disbelief.
“How… … ?”
“I analyzed the pattern.”
“You analyzed it?”
“yes!”
Arfa answers nonsense with a bright face.
Limray didn’t understand even after hearing that.
‘Is there a pattern in changing rooms in the mansion? I’ve never heard of such a story. Even if you open the same door, what exists inside is a completely different place. The location of the rooms changes organically in this mansion, as if it were alive.’
Of course, there were people who tried to analyze it somehow, but they failed every time.
It would be difficult to learn patterns, and there were so many variables to consider in the first place.
‘But this child calculated it?’
To see it as a coincidence, the appearance of walking confidently in the lead is still faintly stepped on in my eyes.
That bold action couldn’t be seen unless he really knew the location of the library.
‘And this guy knew about Arfa’s ability.’
Rimray stared at Ludger.
It was Ludger who brought Arfa in the first place, and he was the one who entrusted Arfa with this task.
I thought I brought a child who was just helping out by my side, but wasn’t that the case?
Rudger said, perhaps feeling Rimray’s gaze.
“Arfa. Everyone seems curious, so explain what you saw.”
“yes. First of all, as I just said, the reason why I figured out the location of the library is in the analysis of the pattern. This mansion keeps changing places, doesn’t it? I saw potential there.”
“You saw the possibility? What are the odds?”
Roina asked in a trembling voice, and Arfa answered in an innocent voice.
“Aren’t all the rooms going to randomly change? And opening a door doesn’t connect you to another strange place. In the end, each door has no choice but to be connected to a room in the mansion.”
“There are over 300 simple rooms in this mansion. Unless you open all those rooms at the same time, you won’t be able to tell them apart.”
In addition, there is no nameplate on the door, and the design of the door is not different from each other.
All doors of the same shape, same size.
But when you open it, you never know what will come out.
“hmm. In that case, I paid attention to the surrounding phenomena.”
“Ambient phenomena?”
“So, if there is a slightly unusual room nearby, unusual things happen. Hearing a certain sound, or the shape of the corridor is strange. Since all of this happens with magic, I thought there was something.”
An unusual phenomenon occurs near a special room.
If all sorts of oddities had happened in every room, the mansion would have been even worse.
Rimray, who was pondering it, nodded as if he understood.
“If it’s not clear, it means you boldly excluded it. But even taking that into account, there are many cases… … .”
“yes. There are probably hundreds of thousands of cases simply based on probability.”
“But how did you know that?”
At Rimrey’s questioning question, Arfa scratched her cheek as if in trouble.
“uh… … Is that because you calculated everything?”
