Davis's breathing was rapid and ragged, his chest heaving violently, his face pale as paper.
"Haa... You can't be alive. I saw... I saw you die on the Fenrir with my own eyes!"
"I saw it with my own eyes. You were dismembered into pieces all over the floor with a kitchen knife, your limbs thrown into the trench of Gulinse Bay..."
His mind was nearing its limit, muttering deliriously, his eyes wide with terror.
"Heh—"
Professor Dusan, deemed "dead," merely chuckled low and deeply, his gaze full of malicious mockery.
Looking at that face, the image of Dusan's death surfaced uncontrollably in Davis's mind.
On the "Fenrir," his limbs were severed and divided. The lone remaining head stared with eyes like a dead fish. Those eyes, those eyes full of decay and venom...
Davis clenched his inner lip tightly, his teeth biting deep into the flesh, blood spilling unconsciously.
At that time, Professor Dusan seemed... to be smiling at me. Just like now, darkly mocking.
In the memory, he saw Dusan's severed limbs on the ship's deck begin to writhe. He saw Dusan's head hanging from the mast smile. He saw the pools of blood and gore on the floor begin to dance...
The young folklorist's long-dead memories were now "alive" in his mind in another way.
Davis's heart was flooded with fear. He nearly collapsed, his entire body trembling uncontrollably.
Just as he lay still, the sound of the door opening suddenly rang out, followed by a gust of wind filled with rotten stench blowing into the bedroom.
Due to his earlier shouts and commotion, the sludge humanoid had locked onto the room.
It dragged its body, slithering stickily, looking around the room.
Although this creature's head, formed from sludge, had no facial features, it exhibited extremely human-like "excitement," or rather, greed...
...What is that?
The wind carrying the scent of decay filled Davis's nostrils. He remained in a face-down collapsed position, not daring to lift his head at all.
The sudden threat restored a sliver of rationality, making him think of escape. But he soon despairingly realized... escape was impossible.
The guest room windows in Hanover Manor were reinforced with steel twist-patterned bars; jumping out wasn't feasible. And the only door was now blocked by that thing's body; forcing through would be no different from seeking death.
Hide? But it's already seen me...
Davis's thoughts were a chaotic mess, only relying on humanity's innate survival instinct to force himself to stay conscious.
"Davis, you're as cowardly and incompetent as ever. Like an unloved dog, even after being abandoned by its master, it still only knows to wag its tail and beg. Tsk tsk..."
Professor Dusan's low, hoarse voice quietly sounded. Extremely close, as if right by his ear...
Davis glanced sideways out of the corner of his eye and saw Dusan's old, sinister face. But Dusan was still standing in place. That face... came from a head that had rolled onto the floor.
"Your life is worthless, your studies a failure, you can't even protect your own academic achievements. What haunts your dreams is merely within my grasp!"
Dusan's head's lips moved strangely, while blood constantly oozed from the severed neck.
No, that's wrong! More than half of the academic papers you published in these seven years were written by me. Your research findings on the Wenlanta undersea ruins all came from my field surveys!
All you did was copy the text from the notes I wrote with my life...
Davis desperately wanted to refute the "Dusan" before him, wanted to tear his mouth apart, then smash this head to pieces on the corner of the table.
Fear and anger surged simultaneously. In that instant... a thought flashed through his mind like lightning.
At least three seconds had passed, but the monster that broke in hadn't taken any action.
Based on its size and the force of breaking the door, if I were attacked... I'd probably have been disemboweled by now.
And Dusan kept trying to provoke me throughout this process.
...To be precise, Dusan's provocations had started the moment he appeared in this room, never ceasing.
He was trying to make me lose my mind, and then... make noise.
Dusan can't harm me, so he can only rely on something else to act.
Suddenly, Davis felt a sliver of relief.
When I collapsed earlier, I was dazed for a few seconds, coincidentally remaining "quiet." That must be why I wasn't attacked.
He felt he had touched upon the correct answer, then remained on the floor, striving not to make any movement. He also stopped paying attention to Professor Dusan's venomous curses.
"Heh..."
The sludge humanoid, failing to find its target, soon turned its initial excitement into agitation. It paced repeatedly in the room. Although it didn't attack Davis, it showed no inclination to leave either.
For Davis, only three things remained to do.
Wait, endure, and... pray.
In another guest bedroom, Fran had been keeping an eye on the commotion next door and the situation in the manor model.
Knowing to stay quiet; seems Davis is the clever type.
However, to work in the field of folklore, being clever isn't enough. One also needs a tough fate...
Although he initially lost his composure and shouted a few times, he quickly realized the sludge humanoid's attack method was "sound-based," so he made no further noise.
Fran rubbed a golden prayer seal she had just dug out from her medicine case, observing the situation in the dollhouse with interest.
The Davis figurine suddenly fallen on the floor, the sludge humanoid lingering hesitantly in the room, and the Dusan figurine with its head fallen off.
Although Davis wasn't in immediate mortal danger, the sludge humanoid probably wouldn't leave for a while.
He might need a little help... Perfect timing, I'm quite interested in experimenting with this manor model's interactions.
Fran shifted her gaze to the side wing corridor in the manor model. Both sides of the corridor were lined with many expensive ornaments.
Flower arrangements, lamp posts, hanging paintings... and a majestic, tall suit of ancient knight's armor.
It held a halberd, its silver-gray armor plates gleaming under the candlelight.
Of course, there was no candlelight in the dollhouse; the little knight doll inside was even made of ceramic, seemingly worried iron toys might scratch a child's hand.
"Will it succeed?"
Fran lightly pursed her lips, the corner of her mouth curling into a smile with a strange sense of fun.
She raised her hand and placed the golden prayer seal from her palm into the manor model, attaching it to that suit of ancient knight's armor.
After completing this action, Fran closed the manor model's door, quietly waiting for the "variable" to take effect.
...
Clang.
The sound of metal twisting rang out.
The ancient knight's armor took a slow, resolute step. Deep blue ghostly light shone from the gaps of its eyeholes, as if given life.
It removed its helmet, then pulled out the wooden support frame used for fixation from its empty interior with such force that the entire frame shattered into fragments during the process.
After completing this, the knight's armor placed the helmet back onto its gorget.
The unmistakable clanging of metal quickly caught the sludge humanoid's attention.
It hesitated for a moment but ultimately gave up lingering in the room. It then entered the corridor to find the source of the sound.
In the empty, deep corridor, the sludge humanoid and the knight's armor met on a narrow path.
The former was searching for the sound's source, while the latter... was searching for the source of the foul aura in this manor. Almost the moment they faced each other, the knight's armor charged at the sludge humanoid as if provoked.
From this suit of knight's armor, one could sense an extremely strong "emotion," like a hot-tempered person seeing a cockroach... then filled with disgust, wanting to crush it.
"Heh—"
The monster formed of filth and decay felt confusion for the first time. Previously, it had always been the pursuer. Why was there someone today who showed no sign of fleeing upon seeing it?
The sudden clatter of metal footsteps drew closer. The halberd, flashing with cold light, accurately pierced the sludge humanoid's head and began violently churning.
Upon being wounded, the sludge humanoid immediately fell into a frenzy. The human limbs embedded on its body scuttled rapidly across the floor like a bizarre giant centipede.
It furiously wanted to tear apart this overconfident enemy, but the opponent seemed extremely experienced against heteromorphic foes.
The knight's halberd swung without any gaps or flaws, constantly changing position. Although clad in heavy steel plate armor, its steps were quite nimble and agile, each movement executed with flawless precision.
Davis remained in a low crouch, seeing the large shadow on the floor had left the room. His tense nerves relaxed slightly.
Something is restraining that monster...
Although he didn't know what it was, this was undoubtedly good news for Davis. When the sludge humanoid was in the room, he even maintained breathing at an extremely low frequency, now showing signs of oxygen deprivation.
Seeing this scene, Professor Dusan's eyelids twitched slightly. His corpse-like, dilated pupils were full of disbelief.
"Why did you leave, how could you leave! You should have let him die here, you should have killed him here!"
"Come back, quickly..." His voice was almost pleading.
Looking at the still-muttering Dusan, the fear in Davis's heart had subsided considerably.
Now, he only felt loathing.
"Professor Dusan, I didn't understand before why you treated me this way. I respected you so much, even saw you as a father. Even when papers I wrote were published without my name... I could endure it."
"But you didn't restrain yourself at all. You even took that exploration notebook more important to me than my own life."
"Later... I understood."
Davis slowly stood up, looking down at the bloody head on the floor from above.
"You were just 'jealous.'"
He raised his foot, stepped on Dusan's head, and slowly, with all his might, ground it to pieces.
If he weren't afraid making noise might bring the sludge humanoid back, he probably would have used a more brutal method.
A human skull is extremely hard; simply "grinding" it with a foot would be difficult to destroy. But Dusan's head shattered almost effortlessly, as if long decayed, the bone softened completely.
After destroying "Dusan's" head, his headless body had also disappeared without a trace.
Davis looked down at his feet in confusion. The spot where a mess of flesh and bone should have been was now empty.
"Dusan's" appearance and disappearance seemed like figments of his imagination. But the lingering scent of decay in the air warned him... you're not dreaming.
Simultaneously, lines of text formed from blood appeared on the guest room floor.
[Blood-red sails sway in the wind, billowing atop the mast;]
[All this—everything, has become the past. Blood-stained soughing wind brushes the ear, scattering old dust from the heart.]
[The envious mentor, vanished like a fading wave.]
[Farewell, the dead one's ghostly nightmare, anxiety flares anew like fire.]
It was a short poem with a strange rhythm.
"This poem... is about my past?"
The suppressed sense of horror once again enveloped Davis. He felt an indescribable chill, his very thoughts growing sluggish.
The long-dead Professor Dusan, the monster full of decay, the blood-written poem appearing out of nowhere... The secrets within Hanover Manor likely far exceeded his imagination. The night had just begun; could he really survive until morning?
"Hmm... Mr. Davis, judging from the 'second part's' content, you had a rather unpleasant teacher. And this teacher's end wasn't very pleasant either."
A soft female voice quietly sounded, startling Davis.
He then looked toward the door and saw Fran, covering a yawn with her hand.
"Dr. Fran..."
Davis whispered the name of the person before him. He was somewhat relieved but still kept his voice extremely low.
That sludge monster left him with lingering fear, making him apprehensive every time he made a sound.
Then, he noticed the doctor before him seemed somewhat different from in the banquet hall. She seemed to have become... much smaller.
As if suddenly returning from adulthood to childhood, her features even carried the mischievous innocence of a little girl. Her original doctor's coat had changed into a summer-style silk gauze white dress, hmm... making her look overly cute.
"What... happened to you?"
"It's an influence from my room; difficult to resolve for now. No substantial impact, no need to worry."
Fran answered quite nonchalantly, her delicate, youthful face carrying a calm composure mismatched with her age.
"Come on, let's find the others."
She beckoned lightly, then prepared to leave the room.
Davis seemed infected by Fran's composed mood, his nerves no longer so tense. But he still felt uneasy, hesitant to follow the young girl before him.
After all, that monster was outside, while the guest room interior was relatively safe.
"Dr. Fran, it's dangerous in the hallway. That thing..."
"Extremely terrifying."
Davis's Adam's apple bobbed, as if trying to swallow back the rising sense of panic.
"I know."
Fran nodded slightly, a subtle hint of a smile flickering in her amber eyes.
"That thing has been lured to the other side of the side wing. And even if there's some noise now... it probably won't have the energy to notice."
The golden prayer seal Fran used earlier for her interaction experiment with the manor model was a remelted "Fragment of Imperial Power Armor."
It was originally embedded inside a Grey Knight's armor, removed after disassembly, and she carried it with her. Its usual function was probably similar to a lucky coin...
Ahem, come to think of it, the autonomous combat program of the Grey Knight armor had actually been running smoothly before, with no abnormal situations.
The reason it later went out of control and damaged the collection room's storage cabinet was most likely because this golden seal was taken out by me…
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T/N: Hey readers~! New Translator here! Before I say anything, I'd first like to thank the original author for creating this wonderful story. Without them, I wouldn't have the chance to share this adventure with you. I hope my translation does justice to their work, and that together, we can enjoy this story.
With that said, I'm happy to let you know I'll be uploading daily chapters. And for those who wish to support my work and gain early access, I've set up a Patreon where advanced chapters will be available.
[email protected]/PeakTL