novelraw Chapter 93 : Dust-Sealed Secret
Chapter 93 : Dust-Sealed Secret
Chapter 93: Dust-Sealed Secret
The warehouse that Aurelia mentioned was located at the northwest corner of the Baskerville mansion, at the end of a long narrow corridor.
From the outside, the room appeared utterly ordinary.
However, when Aurelia asked someone to fetch the key to this room………
“Miss, you want to go in here?”
Upon hearing Aurelia’s command, Madam Gladys stared at her in astonishment.
“Th-this won’t do!”
“Why not?”
Faced with her maid’s words, Aurelia frowned in displeasure.
She was the head of the Baskerville family.
She could go wherever she pleased.
Was there truly anywhere in this house forbidden to her?
“B-because legend has it this room is cursed. Whoever enters will die!”
“Oh?”
At those words, Levi instantly perked up.
If you’re going to say something like that, then I’m not sleepy anymore!
“Tell me.”
“This……………”
Confronted with Levi’s inquiry, Madam Gladys hesitated, glancing at Aurelia.
The latter merely stared back at her and nodded.
Thus, Madam Gladys had no choice but to open her mouth helplessly.
“This rumor has been passed down since my parents’ generation. It’s said that once, a maid was meeting her lover in this room, only to be murdered by him. After that, the maid turned into a vengeful spirit, wandering the warehouse. Whoever went inside would, without exception, meet a tragic end………”
“How many died?”
“Eh?”
Levi’s peculiar question stunned Madam Gladys completely.
“Didn’t you say whoever went in would meet a tragic end? So how many died?”
“This……… I only heard that afterward, a few servants, for various reasons, went into the warehouse and died inside.
Everyone became afraid, so the curse rumor spread, and no one dared go near………”
“So you only heard it, then.”
Hearing this, Levi instantly lost interest.
How novel—what house hadn’t someone died in before? In any building with a history of more than a hundred years, the number of dead inside surely exceeded one, two, three, or four.
“How foolish.”
By contrast, Aurelia was utterly unconcerned, her face indifferent.
“Go get the key.”
“But……….”
“Quickly!”
“Y-yes……………”
It was evident that this young lady held great authority in the mansion.
A single sharp command left Madam Gladys trembling in fright.
She hurried off to the porter’s lodge, then returned with a ring of keys.
“Open the door.”
“………………”
Madam Gladys looked at Aurelia, opened her mouth as if to speak, then finally sighed helplessly and unlocked the door.
“Creak……….”
The door, long unused and even rusted, gave off a harsh, grating sound.
Levi reached for the grip of his pistol, stepping in front of Aurelia, peering cautiously into the room.
Inside, the room appeared empty.
Against the walls stood some furniture draped in white cloth.
Dust covered the sheets, rendering everything gray and hazy.
As the door opened, a choking musty air filled with dust rushed out, forcing Aurelia to take out her handkerchief to cover her nose and mouth, her expression displeased.
“No one ever cleaned this place?”
“Th-this……… no one usually comes here……….”
Levi didn’t care about such trifles as household cleanliness.
He stepped inside, sweeping the room with 【Soul Sight】 first to ensure nothing strange lurked within.
Only then did he open the windows—partly to ventilate, and partly………
“Heh, just as I thought.”
Levi leaned out the window, glanced at the adjacent wall, and smiled faintly.
The reason he had chosen this “warehouse” was that, in his view, the room’s “shape” was odd.
Normally, for ventilation, windows would run along the entire exterior.
Yet Levi noticed that only the front had two windows; the back had none.
It felt as though it were sealed.
Of course, perhaps it was some special room design.
Maybe someone simply liked it that way?
But when Aurelia had told him it was nothing more than a warehouse, his suspicions greatly deepened.
Madam Gladys’s “curse story” only heightened his doubts.
Now, after stepping inside, opening the windows, and glancing outside, Levi was certain.
This room was problematic.
“What is it, Mr. Levi?”
Seeing Levi’s smile, Aurelia was puzzled.
To her eyes, the room was just an ordinary warehouse—dirty, yes, but hardly remarkable.
“Come see for yourself.”
Levi beckoned her over to the window.
Aurelia walked over, leaned out, and looked at the wall outside.
Her eyes suddenly narrowed.
She drew back sharply, turned, swept her gaze once more around the room, then fixed her eyes on Madam Gladys.
“What is the meaning of this?”
“Eh? Forgive me, Miss, I don’t understand……………”
“Fetch Mark and the others!”
“Yes.”
Seeing Aurelia’s stern expression, Madam Gladys hurried off.
Levi, meanwhile, merely stood by in silence.
No wonder Aurelia grew so serious.
Inside, the room seemed normal.
But when Levi urged her to look outside, she discovered something strange—the interior and exterior dimensions didn’t match.
From inside, the wall was just two meters from the last window, filled with old furniture.
Yet outside, from window to corner stretched nearly ten meters!
So the question was—where had the missing space gone?
Soon enough, the two unlucky fellows who had previously been forced to dig graves were summoned again……… Since it was certain the room hid a secret, Aurelia dared not summon just anyone.
What if, like the crypt before, corpses turned up again?
Thus, she chose those two.
At least they already knew some of the Baskerville family’s secrets; knowing more wouldn’t matter.
On the bright side, perhaps they could rise to become Aurelia’s confidants.
Provided they didn’t get themselves killed.
“Move these cabinets away!”
At Aurelia’s order, the two immediately obeyed, while Levi stood aside, saying nothing.
He lacked the strength anyway, and such labor was beyond him.
Even in modern times, Levi preferred calling professionals to move furniture rather than sweating himself.
Once the bookcases and wardrobes were moved, what remained, naturally, was only the wall.
“Break it down!”
With the young lady’s command, the servants dared not disobey.
Trembling, they hefted hammers and began smashing.
“Thud! Thud! Thud!”
Levi and Aurelia stood at the doorway, watching, their expressions grim.
For Levi, it was mainly the dust.
For Aurelia, it was fear of what might be uncovered.
After all, two corpses had already been discovered before—at least those were in the cemetery.
But this was inside the home where she had lived for more than ten years.
If more corpses appeared, Aurelia doubted she’d be able to sleep tonight.
“Bang, bang!”
At last, with the servants’ persistent effort, the wall opened up a sizable hole.
Bricks and rubble clattered to the ground.
Staring at the gap, the two servants froze, clearly recalling their terror when corpses were unearthed earlier.
“That’s enough.”
Seeing them nearly collapse, Levi spoke.
After all, they were only servants, not police.
Besides, the hole was already large enough for a person to pass through.
He didn’t want them smashing further and potentially ruining something important.
At Levi’s word, the two, drenched in sweat, panting and terrified, gratefully fled with their tools.
After a moment, once the air cleared somewhat, Levi lifted his gas lamp and carefully stepped through the opening into the sealed-off space.
Perhaps because it had been closed off for so long, the air here was equally stale.
But Levi cared little for that.
He entered, observing cautiously.
The first thing he saw was the Baskerville family crest mounted on the wall.
Below it stood a desk, flanked by a bookcase and other furniture—it resembled a study.
In addition, the walls were adorned with mounted animal heads, trophies of hunts.
On a shelf in the corner rested all manner of weapons.
From longswords to longbows, everything was present.
Clearly, the room’s former occupant had loved hunting.
Of course, in this era, hunting was one of the nobility’s most common pastimes.
But Levi had little interest in it.
To him, hunting animals without eating them was pointless.
And making trophies of severed heads was equally senseless.
Think about it—killing your prey, gutting it, skinning it, then hanging its head in your room.
If it truly had a soul, wouldn’t it curse you forever?
“This looks like a study……… Whose room was this?”
Aurelia, however, was more concerned with another question.
Clearly, this was no ordinary person’s room—otherwise it would not have been sealed off.
“We’ll know if we search.”
Levi set down the gas lamp on the desk and began examining every corner meticulously.
He strongly suspected this room had been sealed by old Sir Baskerville himself.
But why?
Normally, there would be no reason to seal a room.
At most, it could be renovated.
Yet instead of remodeling, old Sir Baskerville had crudely bricked it up.
That suggested he feared something hidden here might be discovered during renovations—something he didn’t even want his descendants to find.
So he had chosen to seal the entire room away.
Which meant the things he didn’t want others to see were most likely right here in this room.