novelraw Chapter 197 : Chapter 197
Chapter 197 : Chapter 197
Chapter 197: The Haunted House (3)
Elaine, in Harad’s previous life, did not particularly have what one might call a drinking habit.
-“You should drink too.”
-“I refuse.”
-“Then I will pour it down your throat by force.”
Elaine had a body that did not get drunk.
She did not become strange when intoxicated; she had been strange to begin with.
Knights, on the other hand, generally had terrible drinking habits.
-“Harad.”
-“What.”
-“Cast magic at me. The strongest one.”
-“This is a territory.”
-“Do not worry. I will block it.”
-“Nonsense.”
When drunk, Gullen would constantly demand that magic be used on him.
Harad occasionally indulged him.
Strictly speaking, Gullen’s drinking habit was on the mild side.
Even so, for Harad, who did not enjoy drinking, any drinking habit was torture.
-“Home. Home.”
Kesera of his previous life had such a habit.
At first, Harad thought she simply wanted to own a house.
-“Sit down, Harad.”
-“I do not drink.”
-“I am asking you to talk with me.”
-“Why would I.”
-“Because you are not a knight.”
Then he wondered if she was lonely because she was an old maid.
-“Home. Damn it, home.”
-“What home.”
-“A house in the Boundary.”
But once they had grown closer, Harad realized that Kesera was no different from other knights.
-“The house… that monster killed everyone in the 5th Knights except me.”
From that moment on, he could no longer think of her drinking habit as a burden.
-“I was the only one who survived. Like an idiot.”
It was not a mere habit.
It was closer to lamentation.
-“Do you not plan on taking revenge?”
-“Do you even know where it is?”
-“Somewhere in the Boundary, I suppose.”
-“I cannot enter anymore.”
Through the monster called the house, Kesera had become a Sword Master in a pathetic way.
She had become someone who could no longer enter the Boundary.
-“It seems like you could sneak in if you tried.”
-“……I am not confident.”
-“Confident in killing it?”
-“All three.”
-“Three?”
-“Yes. I am not confident I can kill it, or that I can die, or that I can endure witnessing my comrades’ deaths again.”
Kesera had been a cautious knight.
But “cautious” sometimes overlapped with “cowardly.”
Sword Master Kesera retired from the Wall.
She transferred to a rear knight order.
‘Kalinos must have been part of it too.’
Kesera of his previous life feared death.
Perhaps it was the influence of Kalinos, who had made her a widow early on.
‘How fortunate.’
Unintentionally, Harad had blocked the first influence.
Now he simply had to block the next one.
And the opportunity had arrived.
It was not entirely for Kesera’s sake.
They were not that close.
But there was no reason to let the 5th Knights die either.
That, too, would surely be one of Elaine’s regrets.
‘At first I thought it was nonsense.’
A house.
That was what Kesera had called it, but Harad had assumed it was not an actual house.
She had called it a monster.
So it must have been something that merely resembled a house.
‘A house, huh.’
Yet what they were approaching now was undeniably a house.
A five-story mansion.
‘It is old.’
Calling it a house was generous.
In appearance, it was a haunted ruin.
Cracks covered the grayish-white walls like the wrinkles of an old man.
The regularly placed windows on each floor had no glass, and patched cloth at the roof’s edge had become rags, fluttering like flags.
‘Though a proper house in the Boundary would be even stranger.’
A village?
Harad shook his head.
Kesera of his previous life had called it a monster.
‘I cannot feel anything.’
Yet Harad felt nothing from the mansion.
He lowered his gaze.
His shadow shook its head from side to side.
Jis felt nothing either.
‘Is it that we cannot sense it, or that there truly is nothing?’
Obviously the former.
“Let us stop for a moment.”
“Scared?”
Kesera, who was in the lead, retorted pettily.
“I am being cautious.”
Kesera laughed low.
A victor’s smile.
“Caution and fear are different.”
Kesera of the previous life had failed to distinguish between the two.
Because she had gained both at once.
“Have you ever seen that house?”
“This is the first time. It was not here before.”
Kesera answered readily.
Because her counterpart was Harad.
A single provocation was not enough to make him stop being her benefactor.
“I think that is not a simple house.”
“…….”
Both Kesera and Ellen frowned at the same time.
It was obvious.
That was what their expressions said.
That was why Harad felt slightly moved.
Only Northerners who could communicate were here.
“If Ellen and I were not here, would you go to that house?”
“I would not.”
Kesera answered immediately.
Aside from the blatant exception that was 3rd Knights Commander Kalinos, Wall knights did not leave the patrol routes.
‘Yet in my previous life, they did.’
Why had they?
‘In my previous life, that house must have been on the patrol route.’
That was why Kesera and the entire 5th Knights had investigated it.
“I believe that house moves.”
“That is nonsense.”
“Is a house in the Boundary not nonsense already? Especially one that was not here before?”
“…….”
Kesera could not answer.
She did not fully believe it either.
“Then how does it move?”
Ellen, on the other hand, believed first.
That much trust existed.
“We need to confirm it.”
The house did not budge, just like a house.
“Are we going to watch it until it moves?”
“Not like this.”
“Then how?”
“When something is being watched, it tends to grow uncomfortable.”
Like Ellen.
***
If the first hypothesis is correct, the probability of the next one being correct increases as well.
It ceases to be a vague mystery.
That was why Harad wanted to see the house move with his own eyes.
‘She should have talked more.’
Harad clicked his tongue softly at the Kesera of his previous life.
Like Elaine, Kesera had been tight-lipped about death.
It was a chronic Northern ailment.
‘They found the house, went inside, and died. Kesera alone escaped.’
That was all Harad knew.
The house referred to here was a monster.
It had to be that mansion.
“Can you raise the viewpoint a little?”
At once, the view shifted.
They had been looking up at the house, but now it was seen head-on.
The distance shortened as well.
Jis’s shadow had repositioned them.
“How is it?”
“Perfect.”
Harad felt the incongruity as well.
Land altered by mana over a long period of time.
The Boundary’s strangeness followed its own rules and order.
Each region had its own ecosystem.
The ground was sharp.
Hardened soil rose densely like awls, and strange, slime-like substances flowed between them.
It looked difficult even to walk across.
Yet the house sat squarely atop such terrain.
It was an unnatural sight to anyone.
‘As expected, it was not originally there.’
Magical Beasts hopped across the awl-like ground.
They resembled goats, but had horns as thick as a human arm.
Though the scene was clearly strange, the goat-like Magical Beasts did not seem to care about the house.
Some stared at it or sniffed around its walls, then simply moved away as if ignoring it.
Ellen and Jis observed with interest.
Ellen always did, and Jis, being from the continent, was curious about the unfamiliar Boundary.
Harad sensed boredom on Kesera’s face.
How long is this going to take?
She seemed to be thinking that, though she did not voice it.
It was not only because Harad was Kalinos’s benefactor.
Harad knew Kesera’s essence.
After some time, the view wavered.
It was a vibration caused by the house.
Slowly, very slowly, the house was moving.
It looked as if it were sliding.
‘It really does move.’
Harad was impressed.
The Boundary truly was a place beyond imagination.
“…Toward the patrol route.”
The house truly moved.
Kesera, who had been staring with her mouth open, spoke stiffly.
The house was moving toward the patrol route.
It was only a few centimeters, but at this rate, it would eventually reach the route.
“What do we do now?”
“We go in. Carefully.”
The house moved.
Someday, it would settle on the patrol route.
‘Within three years.’
Harad had figured out why the 5th Knights had entered the house in his previous life.
Now it was time to confirm how they had died.
“I intend to enter. Will you oppose it?”
“No. I think we must go.”
“I am disappointed. You looked unwilling when I suggested it.”
“…I apologize, Mage Harad. From now on, at the Boundary, I will trust and follow your judgment.”
Kesera bowed readily.
“No. I understand. It is hard to trust blindly. I am a mage, and you are a knight.”
“Thank you for understanding.”
“To be honest, I do not trust knights very much either.”
Suddenly?
Beside him, Ellen looked at him strangely.
Harad smiled brightly.
“So let us take some time to understand each other. What do you say?”
“…Fine, but how?”
“By thinking and acting as each other. I become a knight, and you become a mage. A cautious mage.”
Kesera frowned.
To a knight, “cautious” was an insult.
“Is that really necessary?”
“If you dislike it, forget it. Kalinos did it.”
“If it is roleplay, I am an expert. Just yesterday, in bed with Kals—”
“That is enough. That is your private life.”
Harad was not curious at all.
***
‘A monster.’
Harad recalled Kesera’s expression from his previous life.
It was accurate.
‘Does it have awareness?’
The moment Harad emerged from the shadow, the house stopped moving.
It must only move when there are no eyes watching.
“What about me?”
Ellen suddenly asked.
Harad was approaching the outer wall of the house.
“What?”
“What is my role? You said you are a knight and Sir Kesera is a mage.”
Ellen seemed eager to join the roleplay.
“Is there a role you want?”
“I want to be a mage too.”
“That will be difficult.”
“…….”
Ellen’s eyes narrowed.
Harad hurriedly added,
“You may. A mage.”
“Understood.”
Ellen replied the way Harad usually did.
It seemed she was not playing a mage, but Harad himself.
“What about me?”
The shadow asked.
“Jis. You are my Aura.”
“Aura?”
“Yes. Defensive Aura.”
He intended to act like a knight, not die like the 5th Knights of the previous life.
“So I just block things if it gets dangerous?”
“Exactly.”
Jis truly was an intelligent mage.
-PEEP!
Fireball cried from within the shadow.
“You count as nonexistent.”
There was no role Fireball could play.
-PEE….
Fireball drooped.
When Harad fed fire into the shadow, he brightened again.
The roles were assigned.
Harad pointed at the house.
“What will you do about that house?”
He asked Kesera and Ellen, now mages.
“I will retreat.”
Kesera answered.
She was still a mage who could not distinguish caution from fear.
“I think we should go in first.”
Ellen answered.
A foolish mage.
“You are a mage right now.”
“I know.”
“…….”
“Are you scared?”
Ellen smirked.
It was infuriating.
‘Was I like that?’
Harad shook his head.
Ellen was clearly imitating another mage, not him.
“And you? What would you do?”
Ellen asked.
“Hm. If it were me—”
“You have to speak like a knight.”
Ellen clicked her tongue.
“Do I have to?”
“It breaks immersion.”
He had not planned to take it this far.
Harad scratched his neck, then happened to meet Kesera’s gaze.
Kesera nodded.
With Ellen emphasizing it, Kesera was getting immersed as well.
‘Even as a collateral, Serzila is still Serzila, huh.’
If told to do it, do it.
That was what knights did best.
‘Then I will.’
It was a roleplay for Kesera’s sake.
“Very well.”
Ellen looked satisfied.
Harad looked at the house.
The grayish-white walls were packed with cracks.
A haunted ruin that looked ready to collapse at any moment.
“I am a knight.”
“Then what will you do?”
Ellen, imitating some mage, asked.
‘Obvious.’
Harad answered by drawing his sword.
And swinging it.
Instead of Aura, fire wrapped around Serzila’s heirloom sword, Patern.
It struck the outer wall of the haunted house.
It was flashy in appearance, but hollow in substance.
Fire inferior even to Aura.
Yet the recoil was tremendous.
Patern was flung far away.
The skin on Harad’s palm was torn, blood flowing.
Suddenly, the outer wall bulged outward.
It was the spot Patern had struck.
Harad instinctively recognized it as an attack.
He did not react.
There was separate defensive Aura.
“Defense!”
Jis shouted from the ground.
A shadow surged up, blocking the wall that stabbed forward like a blade, then rippled.
‘Is it struggling?’
Harad was impressed by the power.
A normal knight would have died without even reacting.
“One is already dead.”
Just like the 5th Knights of the previous life.
***
Harad first retrieved Patern.
Then he muttered loudly,
“It does not break.”
“…….”
“Then we will break it from the inside.”
Harad threw the door open without hesitation.
Beside him, Ellen and Kesera stared at him as if he were an idiot.