novelraw Chapter 30
Chapter 30
Chapter 30: Haunted Commission
“What even is this commission supposed to be…” Lina muttered inwardly as she walked toward the house marked on the request.
The one who posted the commission was a vampire. She had only recently arrived in the town and purchased an old mansion.
However, after moving in, she would often hear rustling noises coming from a storage room on the second floor.
At first, she had assumed it was simply rats infesting the aging house—after all, old mansions in disrepair were prone to such annoying neighbors. But after some investigation, she discovered that the sound was actually coming from within the walls of the mansion!
In the end, the vampire lady concluded that the house was haunted.
A vampire’s home being haunted—something wicked had moved into something already wicked. Wicked to the extreme!
However, this vampire was indeed generous. Her family had some accumulated wealth, and she herself was also a well-known author.
There was a reward of fifty gold dragons just for uncovering the truth, and a hundred gold dragons if the problem could be resolved.
“Sister Lina, do you think this commission might be… dangerous?” Annie, following behind her, looked worried. “The receptionist earlier said that even a B-rank witch failed to complete it…”
“I’m not even afraid of A-rank cultists—how could some shabby ghost in a tiny mansion possibly cause trouble?” Lina said confidently. “If you’re scared, just stay behind me and watch.”
“I… I’ll help too!” Annie quickened her pace to catch up with Lina.
After passing through three streets, the two arrived at the commission’s address—a quaint yet luxurious manor.
“Tch, buying such a huge mansion in one go… why are there so many rich people in this world?” Lina clicked her tongue in annoyance, her gaze falling on the house number plaque on the gate pillar that had yet to be replaced.
“Howard Manor… looks like an old noble residence.” Lina examined the plaque. “If I remember correctly, the Howard family and the Sibyl family were once both prominent families in Osselro Town...”
Suddenly, the image of an old man who made dolls flashed through Lina’s mind.
It couldn’t really be that much of a coincidence…
“However, in recent generations, none of the Howard family’s descendants have given birth to witches or wizards. Even when they married witches, they could only have ordinary children.” A well-dressed, gentle-smiling butler appeared at the manor gate at some point and opened it for Lina and Annie. “Please, come in, ladies. The young lady has been waiting for quite some time.”
“And you are…?” Lina observed the tall, thin middle-aged butler.
There were faint traces of magical fluctuations around his body—he seemed to be a wizard of around level 20 in magical power.
“I am the young lady’s familiar.” The butler smiled gently once more.
“But… shouldn’t a vampire’s familiar also be a vampire?” Lina raised an eyebrow.
“Oh? It seems this guest knows quite a bit about our vampire kind,” the butler said, sounding slightly surprised. “In that case, there’s no need for me to hide my appearance… as you know, some humans have certain misunderstandings about us vampires.”
Suddenly, the tall, thin middle-aged butler “burst” into a swarm of small black bats, which then regrouped into a human form.
A maid with delicate features, short gray hair, and a tall figure appeared before Lina.
Her skin was pale as snow, her crimson vertical pupils shimmering with a captivating light. Black bat wings were folded at her waist, her slender ears twitching slightly, and the magical aura around her surged dramatically!
Lina’s eyes widened—the maid’s magical power level… was at least above level 40!
“Allow me to reintroduce myself,” the beautiful gray-haired maid lifted the hem of her skirt and gave an elegant curtsy. “My name is Seriel DeCuris Evelyne, and I serve Her Highness Euphemia Elizabeth Lilith. You may call me Seriel.”
Unlike Lina, Annie had never seen a vampire before. Her eyes widened in amazement. “Wow──so amazing!”
“It’s nothing remarkable, little girl,” even after reverting to her maid form, her face still carried a warm and approachable smile. “Our vampiric transformation magic is merely a survival skill we learned to evade the hunters who pursue us.”
“Hunters?” Lina asked as she walked behind the maid. “What are those? Why haven’t I heard of them?”
“It’s only natural that you haven’t,” the maid replied unhurriedly. “They, along with their history, vanished long ago in the Fourth Great Cataclysm.”
“The Fourth Great Cataclysm?!” Lina suddenly stopped in her tracks, staring at the maid in shock. “Then you’re from the Kanniat… but how did you—”
“We, too, disappeared in that same cataclysm,” Seriel’s voice remained calm and gentle, yet her words stirred a storm in Lina’s heart. “The vampires of today are merely shadows wandering within the cracks of reality.”
“Shadows… wandering in the cracks of reality?” Lina blinked. “But shouldn’t all of Kanniat’s history have been separated into… another world?”
“Before the cataclysm, our god tore a fragment from His divine kingdom,” Seriel explained. “Our souls were preserved within that solitary world, while those of us active in the real world are merely ‘shadows’ of those souls.”
No, that was absolutely impossible.
Lina rejected the claim inwardly. In her previous life, she had indeed encountered various ruins of divine kingdoms. While such realms could exist independently of the real world, a mere fragment could not form a complete world… in other words, it lacked complete “laws.”
A world with incomplete laws could not preserve souls. This was also the fundamental reason why so many had attempted—and ultimately failed—to imitate the underworld through inherent barriers in pursuit of immortality.
It seemed… either Seriel was hiding something, or there were many hidden truths even she herself did not know.
“But this is not a perfect solution,” Seriel’s tone shifted slightly for the first time, and Lina caught a faint trace of fatigue within it. “Our perception is still gradually becoming distorted…”
She raised her head to look at the sky. “Can you guess… what the sun looks like in our eyes?”
“Ah… right!” Lina suddenly recalled something. “Aren’t vampires supposed to fear sunlight?”
“That was once the case,” Seriel gave a bitter smile. “But… we no longer fear it, because in our eyes, the sun has already become a crimson moon.”
A crimson moon?
Lina couldn’t help but lift her head and look at the sun once more.
It was still the same warm star she recognized.
“‘Once’…” Lina murmured thoughtfully, savoring the word. “So even now, your perception is still undergoing some kind of… irreversible deviation?”
“I’m afraid so,” Seriel arrived at the mansion door and inserted a brass key into the lock. Her movement paused for a moment. “But there is another, even more unsettling explanation.”
As the door’s hinges let out intermittent metallic creaks, the maid spoke in a near whisper, “It is not that our perception has shifted… but that the laws of the entire world are continuously warping. And when that distortion reaches its next critical point…”
“The Fifth Great Cataclysm will arrive,” Lina silently completed the rest of Seriel’s sentence in her mind.
The doors swung open, revealing the mansion’s grand hall before Lina.
A dark red carpet embroidered with intricate patterns stretched across the floor. A golden chandelier hanging from the vaulted ceiling gleamed brilliantly, polished to a shine. Two wooden staircases curved upward from either side of the hall, leading directly to the guest rooms on the second floor.
The mahogany furniture, though not deliberately adorned, still exuded a sense of antique elegance. Neatly arranged flowerpots lined both sides, with faint droplets of water still clinging to the petals.
Perhaps because vampires were no longer afraid of sunlight, the mansion did not carry the gloomy, castle-like atmosphere Lina had imagined.
However, the exquisitely crafted dolls placed beneath the staircase made her stop in her tracks.
Seriel also noticed Lina’s expression and explained, “These were left behind by the previous owner when he moved out. The young lady does not like them.”
So they were works left by Mr. Howard… why hadn’t he taken them with him?
Lina walked closer with interest, sweeping her gaze over the dolls.
Some were as tall as real people, while others were only palm-sized.
Their clothing varied—some wore coarse linen like farmers working in the fields, while others were dressed in luxurious silk like nobles from wealthy families.
Each doll had remarkably beautiful eyes, shining with a lifelike brilliance.
Among them, one doll stood out as the most vivid. It wore a bright dance dress, its eyes covered by a strip of pure white silk. Over its right eye was embroidered a beautiful blue rose, making it resemble a blind dancer.
At that moment, Lina suddenly felt as if something was watching her from the shadows. Just as she was about to gather magical power to throw a fireball, the sensation quickly vanished.
“…Forget it,” Lina withdrew her gaze. “These things… really do feel kind of eerie…”
“I… I like that doll… May I buy it?” Annie’s voice came from behind. Lina turned her head to see Annie staring fixedly at the “dancer” doll.
When they had visited the doll shop earlier, Annie hadn’t liked a single one. Yet now she had taken a liking to this casually placed doll?
Lina examined the doll in the dance dress again and found that it was indeed more refined than the smaller ones nearby.
“The young lady has instructed that anyone who likes them may take them away, free of charge,” the maid nodded to Annie and Lina. “Please wait in the tearoom for a moment. I will prepare some refreshments for you. The young lady… should still be working.”
Working? Right, the vampire young lady of this house was a well-known author…
Led by the maid, Lina and Annie walked toward the tearoom on the right. Along the way, Annie’s gaze remained fixed on that peculiar doll.
Lina noticed but did not pay it much mind.
Back at the workshop, so many beautiful dolls had failed to catch Annie’s attention, yet she had chosen this one… it really must have been fate…
Standing before the tearoom, Lina had been a little worried that this perception-distorted vampire might serve something indescribable. She had even mentally prepared herself to run a sanity check—but in reality, her concern was unnecessary.
Freshly baked cookies, soft buttered toast, and flaky croissants that crumbled at the touch, along with fragrant black tea.
Lina felt that even if she failed to resolve the commission, the trip would still have been worth it.
Though… vampires couldn’t eat human food, so why was there so much of it prepared here?
“Sister Lina… y-you should slow down…” Annie looked on with concern at her usually reliable senior, whose cheeks were now stuffed like a hamster’s. Meanwhile, the maid seemed completely unbothered, simply refilling the small porcelain plate and teacup in front of Lina again and again.
After chewing for quite a while, Lina finally swallowed the last bite of bread. Forcing back a burp, she slowly spoke, “Before your mistress arrives, could you tell me about the haunting here… hic!”
Alright, she hadn’t managed to hold it in.
“From the very first day the young lady and I moved into this mansion, I noticed that there seemed to be some… strange things within it.” Seriel sat across from Lina, recalling the various anomalies in the mansion. “At first, we thought it was simply rats… well, the rest should already be described in the commission. In short, there are indeed phenomena here that we cannot understand.”
“You mentioned earlier that the owner of this mansion was a dollmaker?”
“Yes, a highly skilled dollmaker, and also the last heir of the Howard family.” The maid nodded. “Many years ago, he was imprisoned on suspicion of murdering a servant. Later, due to insufficient evidence, he was granted bail. He then sold this mansion, using part of the proceeds as bail money to regain his freedom.”
Hiss… a dollmaker… so it really was that old man from the ‘Howard Doll Workshop’.
Lina couldn’t help but marvel at how coincidental things could be.
“He… didn’t mention anything about the place being haunted?” Lina took a sip of black tea and asked curiously.
“That is precisely what confuses us,” Seriel sighed softly. “At the time, we invited a group of specialists from the Church who specialize in purifying evil spirits. They conducted a thorough inspection and exorcism of the mansion, yet found no trace of contamination. Therefore, the mansion could not be classified as a haunted house.”
“The other extraordinary individuals who came to investigate also found no clues. It seems they could not hear those strange noises either.”
Lina lightly tapped the rim of her cup with her index finger, thinking quietly.
First, the possibility of an evil spirit could basically be ruled out. Not to mention whether ordinary evil spirits could even stand against two vampires stronger than B-rank witches, those fanatics with noses sharper than hounds would have already turned the place upside down. If there really were evil spirits, they would have long since charged in shouting ‘Die, heretic!’—there would be no way it would still be her turn to deal with it.
Could it be related to the previous owner? Maybe he had set up some mechanisms in the house to scare people?
Lina shook her head and set that possibility aside for now.
Although she hadn’t spent much time with old Mr. Howard, she could still tell that he was an honest and upright man, unlikely to do something like that.
So what exactly was going on?
“Um… um,” Annie raised her hand and spoke softly, “is it possible that… they simply can’t see it?”
“Oh right! Annie, that makes sense!” Lina, who had been deep in thought, suddenly lifted her head, a flash of realization appearing in her eyes. “Maybe they really just ‘can’t see’ it!”