Chapter 40
The brilliant golden hair and wine-red eyes, which were like a symbol, were nowhere to be found.
If what I was seeing wasn’t an illusion, the figure in front of me was entirely blue, green, and a bit transparent, with the background faintly visible through it…
“Are you… perhaps the prince?”
– As you can see.
Hermia pointed at the ghostly Gerald with trembling hands.
“W-when… when did you pass away?”
Her voice carried a sense of regret following her shock. Seeing the woman looking so pale, Gerald smiled with satisfaction.
– I’m not dead. I’m alive and well. My body, that is.
But with his blue, floating body, which hovered mid-air, his words didn’t seem convincing.
He was even naked. How could a prince of a nation roam around looking like that if he wasn’t dead?
As her gaze traveled from his bare feet up his smooth legs, Hermia felt her heart stop for a different reason now.
“Wow…”
– Ah. Don’t misunderstand. I swear I didn’t take my clothes off by choice.
Pretending to be awkward, the ghost prince slowly turned and wrapped the white sheets from the bed around himself like a robe. Finally, the ghost that resembled a naked statue looked more like a real ghost.
– If I cover myself, others will only see a white cloth floating around, so I had no choice.
Hermia, who had been staring blankly at Gerald, slowly regained her senses. She pressed down on her pounding heart and parted her dry lips.
“If you’re not dead, then what’s with your appearance…?”
Before Gerald could answer, he tried to sit at the edge of the bed but sank straight down to the floor instead. His body passed through the furniture.
The sight of only his head remaining above the sheets while everything below was buried was horror itself.
– I guess I still need more practice. If I’m not conscious of it, this keeps happening.
The prince’s head spoke nonchalantly before he stood up again. This forced Hermia to focus on certain parts once more.
With one shoulder and his lower body wrapped in sheets, Gerald finally sat properly on the bed with his legs crossed.
Hermia rubbed her eyes just in case. But all she saw was the ghost posing dramatically as before.
– On days when I fall into a deep sleep, my soul leaves my body against my will. In this state, I can fly and even pass through thick walls.
The ghost prince said proudly.
– And if I concentrate better, I can touch or grab objects too. Isn’t it amazing?
The symptoms he described were inexplicable to Hermia; she could think of only one reason for it. She muttered in disbelief.
“Could it be…?”
– That’s right. This is my curse.
While he smiled brightly, Hermia grew serious.
She still held onto doubts in a corner of her mind that perhaps she had gone insane. But seeing Gerald right in front of her snapped her back to reality.
If she couldn’t catch the author, she might have to live like this forever—unable to even say a simple greeting like “good morning” until she died. For her entire life.
Her thoughts tangled like a knotted thread as she spoke without order.
“Wait, wait a moment. I’m completely out of it right now… Aah!”
Before she could organize her thoughts, there was a loud bang! It sounded as if a rock had crashed into the mansion; it was an enormous echoing noise. Then came sounds of something tearing apart with a squelching noise.
– Wait here. I’ll go check it out.
Seeing Hermia flat on the carpet, Gerald quickly flew away and disappeared through the wall instead of the door.
Not long after, he returned and picked up the sheet that had fallen in front of the wall and draped it over Hermia’s nightgown that had half of her shoulder exposed.
– Someone is breaking down the door outside. Miss Hermia, is there an underground storage room in this mansion?
“Ugh… Yes, yes. There is. What’s going on? Has someone broken in?”
Hermia managed to answer with a trembling voice. Gerald gathered his focus and grabbed her shoulders with a serious expression.
– I’ll check it out; if it’s dangerous, I’ll distract them so you need to hide under the bed for now. When that happens, don’t look back and just run straight to the storage room. Got it?
She nodded vigorously. Suddenly realizing what kind of chaos this was left no time for understanding. The sound of dozens of footsteps rushing into the house followed by loud clanking noises echoed through the air.
This was definitely a metallic sound she had heard before. If it wasn’t bullets being loaded into guns then what could it possibly be?
Were they police? Had the princess betrayed her and finally come to capture her?
Was telling her to go home just a trap? She didn’t seem that smart…
As Hermia crawled under the bed frantically trying to think things through, she caught sight of the ghost prince once again passing through the wall instead of using the door.
His head and upper body slipped out first before his pale backside vanished from view. Goodness. What on earth was that…
“Find the lady first!”
Without time to think, an intruder’s rough command came through the open door. Hermia kept her eyes fixed on the entrance and listened sharply to their voices.
“The lady’s safety is our top priority!”
Lady? Safety? Were they talking about me?
At that moment, pale bare feet flew right in front of her face. Hermia almost screamed but quickly shut her mouth tight.
– Miss Hermia, it’s okay. You can come out now. They are people sent by Walter.
“……”
As she remained curled up with suspicion written all over her face, Gerald also lay flat on the ground beside her.
– Really. I mean it. You can trust me. The soldier who sat at the very end of the table at the last banquet is here too.
“Aren’t they royal police?”
Seeing her whisper aggressively, Gerald couldn’t help but laugh helplessly.
– No, they’re not. Trust me and come out.
“If it’s a lie, I’ll kill you… or maybe you’re already dead.”
Though she remained suspicious, even if the intruder claimed to be police, this place would be discovered soon enough. The floating Gerald followed Hermia as she crawled out on her elbows, chattering, “I told you, I’m not dead!”
“I found her! Miss, are you okay?”
When Hermia hesitated and crossed the threshold, a man who had spotted her shouted.
She briefly stared at the intruder’s outfit and was momentarily stunned. The man wore a curly-haired cap and overalls.
He definitely didn’t look like police, but the weapon in his hand was distinctly out of place with his attire. A street artist dressed in ragged clothes yelled while holding a shotgun, and then a homeless man came running from afar.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes. I’m fine… Oh, what a smell.”
The man in tattered clothes emitted a faint stench of sewage and held a gun with soot-covered hands.
Hermia used her extraordinary observational skills to scrutinize the homeless man’s features. His bushy beard made it hard to tell, but upon closer inspection, she recognized him as someone she had seen during a gathering.
As relief washed over her, her vision cleared, and more people began to enter one by one.
A coachman pulling a carriage, a street performer carrying an open violin case, a merchant with a flower basket on one arm and a gun covered in petals, an old man with a walking stick for this weather…
Almost a dozen soldiers were all disguised as ordinary people.
She thought again about what was happening. What on earth is going on…?
“I heard screams from inside, so we had no choice but to force our way in. Is there any situation where you need help?”
Fortunately, Hermia was quick-witted and shook her head immediately after grasping the situation.
“No, I’m fine. Everything’s fine. It’s just… I was a little startled by a spider… and a ghost.”
“A spider ghost?”
“Ugh.”
She hurriedly asked the vagrant who must have been lurking near the sewer.
“But why are you here? Did the Duke send you?”
“…Yes.”
“When did he send you?”
“…It’s confidential.”
From the very first day. She crossed her arms with cloudy eyes.
It wasn’t particularly pleasant that the Duke had sent someone without her knowledge, but at the same time, she didn’t entirely dislike it; her feelings were complicated. What she felt now was close to embarrassment.
‘If I had run away without knowing anything and just taken the money, it would have been a disaster.’
The moment she fled, Walter could have caught wind of it and grabbed her by the nape of her neck. She could have faced charges of fraud or insult, perhaps even added charges of contempt, leading to being shot and floating beside the ghost prince.
As soon as she thought that, chills enveloped her body just like when she first saw Gerald.
“I-I’m fine, so everyone please go back.”
“I’m sorry, but we cannot end our mission without orders. We will withdraw after confirming there are no other dangers inside the mansion.”
The homeless man firmly refused and flicked his fingers, signaling the others to pair up and begin searching the mansion.
As Hermia stared blankly at that scene, her hair blew sideways.
“…?”
Why was there wind blowing inside?
Turning her head toward where she felt coolness, she saw the front door torn apart and lying on the floor. Broken wood debris was scattered across the mat while curtains fluttered wildly in the wind that had rushed in.
Ahh. So that’s why she heard that cracking sound earlier. Her lips trembled as they barely managed to form a smile.
“Please clean all that up and fix what’s broken before you leave…”
“For now, we’ll just block the entrance and call for someone to fix it when daylight comes.”
If you say so… She turned away with drooping shoulders on that night.
While Hermia curled up on the sofa sipping warm cocoa handed to her by Pierrot, those who finished searching began fixing the broken door.
From the sound of glass being swept up, it seemed they had also broken some windows besides just the door. Meanwhile, it was absurd that cocoa made by soldiers tasted good.
“Hah.”
Just as she wrapped herself in a blanket and sipped her warm cocoa, Gerald reappeared after having vanished earlier.
He had to maintain his original form due to soldiers bustling around inside the house; perhaps bothered by his earlier intense gaze, he turned slightly away while only glancing back at her.
– You’re being loved.
Gerald whispered so only she could hear. Hermia felt an unexpected bitterness mixed with the sweetness sliding down her throat.
Haha. If I receive love twice like this, my whole house might collapse.
