OPDPS 107

Aeryl sprang to his feet and straightened his clothes. When he checked the clock, it was already well past nine and nearing ten. If he went out now, he would definitely be breaking curfew.

He had promised himself never to break the rules again, yet here he was, walking out of his room of his own accord. Though fear weighed down his steps, he forced himself into the hallway.

The servants had all left for the day, and the Grand Duke was away on business. Aeryl was the only one left in the Central Wing.

The corridor was deathly silent. Aeryl walked forward, relying on a small magic lamp. Moonlight filtered in through the windows, but the narrow panes didn’t do much to help his visibility.

‘Ugh… It’s even scarier because I can kind of see, but not really…’

He walked down the familiar corridor, passed the central staircase, and stopped in front of the fourth door.

‘Should be around here.’

After the patient had been moved, Aeryl asked the maid who’d found her for details about the location. According to her, the patient had been discovered between the third and fourth doors. Without knowing what had happened before she collapsed, it was difficult to retrace her steps with just that.

Aeryl carefully examined the area. The straight corridor had nothing out of the ordinary.

‘If there had been anything strange, the servants would’ve found it already.’

A few of them had looked around, thinking they might find something helpful, but they’d come up empty-handed.

Aeryl opened the fourth door first, since it was the closest. The palace was built so that a short hallway led into a large room, which then connected to other spaces. The layout was complex, but the room itself was empty and easy to inspect.

Like his own room, it seemed to be intended for guests but was currently unused. There were a lot of these vacant rooms scattered throughout the Grand Duke’s castle.

‘I thought the complicated layout might mean something was here…’

Finding nothing, he returned to the hallway. The air suddenly felt cold, and he shrank into himself. He reflexively glanced around, but there was nothing.

‘Ugh… Ugh…’

He crossed his arms and stood there, unsure of where to go next.

Why had the patient come here? This area wasn’t even her assigned section. These rooms weren’t used and were only cleaned occasionally. What business could she have had here in the middle of the night?

‘Maybe it wasn’t for work.’

Even in the imperial palace, remote and unused places were often used for secret meetings, just because of how vast the place was.

‘Then it must’ve been somewhere discreet, with easy access but no people around.’

If it connected to a stairwell and had storage rooms nearby…

Aeryl hurried off.

In the Grand Duke’s castle, all the staircases aside from the central one were hidden throughout the building. The stairwell most commonly used by the maids could be found down a long hallway accessed through the sixth door. That hallway was lined with small rooms used to store tools and supplies.

‘Lots of foot traffic near the stairs…’

The room right next to it was suspicious. That would be either the fifth or seventh room, depending on direction. The seventh was farther from the central stairs, so more likely.

Aeryl stood in front of the seventh door and, bracing himself, opened it.

Inside were unused pieces of furniture, all draped in white cloths, making them look like walls. The windows had been completely blocked—probably to protect the furniture—so the room was especially dark.

‘What could she possibly have been doing in here…’

He grimaced and carefully made his way between the furniture. He was jumpy, half expecting something to leap out at any moment.

“!”

What was that? Something just moved, didn’t it?

Aeryl quickly turned his head, shining the light around. The white cloths looked even more eerie in the dark, like they might start moving at any second.

‘Ughhh…’

Terrifying! Absolutely terrifying! Aeryl trembled.

‘Calm down, Aeryl. You’re not this weak!’

He tried to steady himself—

Tap.

Something bumped against his shoe.

“Ahhh!”

Meow!

Startled, Aeryl fell backward. In the process, the furniture around him collapsed with a crash, kicking up a cloud of dust. He sensed something darting away.

‘That! That thing!’

He tried to get up, but the awkward position and scattered furniture made it difficult to move. As he struggled, a sound reached his ear.

Hhhhhhhhh…

Aahh! Aeryl flinched and clamped his hands over his ears. But it was no use—the sound couldn’t be blocked out.

Uh-huh… uhhhhuuuuuu…

It was louder than when he’d heard it in the hallway—much closer now. A woman’s sobbing. The rule came to mind: If you hear a woman crying, run.

‘Was it the monster? Was the monster coming? Uwaah… So scary…’

Tears welled up in Aeryl’s eyes. In the span of seconds, countless thoughts raced through his mind.

‘Why didn’t I just stay in my room? What was I thinking, running off like this? What happens if I collapse now?’

He could already picture the Grand Duke’s reaction—worse than when he’d been kidnapped. Absolutely unbearable.

‘No!’

Aeryl tried to stand up with all his strength. But then, something soft pressed firmly against his forehead.

Soft?

When he looked up, there sat a large, furry creature with green eyes.

Meow.

The furball meowed, gazing down at Aeryl.

“A cat? You’re a cat?”

What kind of cat is this big and fluffy? Aeryl blinked. As he stared, the cat abruptly moved off somewhere.

“Hey, cat, wait a second.”

After a few tries, Aeryl finally managed to get up. When he picked up the magic lamp he’d dropped on the floor, things that had been invisible finally came into view. Below the fabric, which didn’t fully cover the space, were items like bowls, blankets made from fabric scraps, and boxes—things a cat might use.

So the secret guest was a cat.

It seemed the patient had collapsed while tending to the cat. But not all questions had been answered yet. Why had they collapsed?

Uuuhhh.

The sound of a woman crying continued, but there was no sign of movement from a monster, as he’d feared.

Meow.

Meeeeow.

Feeling as though the cat was calling him, Aeryl looked up. He was kneeling and inspecting the area, and right in front of her was the cat’s face. The cat lowered its head. In front of its paws lay a snake.

‘@$!@!?’

It was so close that he could clearly see the triangular head and blue scales. The snake was about a handspan long and as thin as a pinky finger.

Meow.

The cat tapped the snake with its paw, but the snake didn’t budge. Fortunately, it seemed to be dead.

Aeryl examined the snake more calmly. Judging by the shape of its head, it was definitely venomous.

But there were no signs of snakebite or poisoning on the patient.

He’d suspected venom due to the symptoms, but the signs were different from what he knew, and he hadn’t found a wound. Even after administering antidote, there had been no improvement.

Just in case, he took out a handkerchief and carefully wrapped the snake, tucking it into his pocket.

Right now, this snake is the most likely cause.

Just discovering this made it worth coming here.

‘Yeah. Ghost stories, my foot. It’s all nonsense.’

His mind felt lighter now.

Uuuuuhuhu.

The sobbing sound echoed again. Though startled, Aeryl was no longer scared. There were no such things as ghost. The Grand Duke had no reason to lie to him.

‘I trust the Grand Duke.’

He was about to ignore it and leave the room, but curiosity got the better of him. Then what was that sound?

He focused, listening carefully. The sound seemed to be coming from inside the room. He followed the source to an ordinary wall. It had seemed unusually dark—he’d thought it was because the window was covered, but there was no window at all.

‘Why is this part built like this?’

Aeryl walked the perimeter of the room once, then stepped out into the hallway. Measuring the space between doors, he tilted his head, then entered the sixth room.

He eyeballed the rooms, opening each one connected to the hallway, and paced out their length. He entered the fifth and eighth rooms too, repeating the same actions before returning to the hall.

The dimensions don’t match.

He scrutinized the space between the doors, recalling the structure of the rooms he had just walked through. It was a bit complex, but by matching his steps to the measured lengths, he mentally sketched a floor plan.

‘This is strange…’

Based on his calculations, there was a sizable empty space between the sixth and seventh doors.

Aeryl double-checked several times, but the conclusion didn’t change. He entered the seventh room and pressed his hand against the left wall. He knocked, but it was too solidly built to tell anything by sound. After multiple rounds of confirmation, Aeryl admitted it.

‘There’s a hidden space here.’

It was strange that it had been left empty without an entrance.

‘A secret space…’

Lady Merel’s words came to mind.

She’d said the basement wasn’t in the usual place. Typically, you imagine a basement as being beneath the first floor.

But language isn’t always used strictly by definition. If it was a dark, hidden space you reach by going down from above, couldn’t it also be called a “basement”?

That thought made the hidden space tucked into the second floor suddenly feel more significant. Perhaps the entrance to this space was somewhere on the third floor.

So this is the “basement” from the ghost story.

The basement exists.

Lady Merel was telling the truth.

Which means—the Grand Duke lied.

To me.

Why?