Chapter 02

When he opened his eyes, instead of the shabby dormitory ceiling, he saw a ceiling woven with clean, neat patterns. Though he’d been waking up in a clean, cozy bed touched by the servants’ careful hands since arriving at the manor, his restless mind made his dreams turbulent, causing him to wake repeatedly throughout the night.

Jung Ian had signed the contract Gale presented to escape the repeating days. He skimmed the conditions and signed immediately, and Gale, knowing nothing, seemed to think it was excitement over the estate, title, and manor.

‘Let me organize the situation for a moment.’

Two days ago, after arriving at the manor, Arthur Walton had died with an ominous light (though only he had seen it). So with the lawyer Gale and the butler as witnesses, he inherited the position of head of the Walton family. Gale would handle the official succession procedures in simplified form, and Arthur Walton’s funeral had taken place this morning.

Arthur Walton’s death suddenly came back to mind, and Jung Ian rubbed his face. Though he’d already seen the previous family head’s death in the game trailer, watching it in video and witnessing it directly were completely different experiences. Perhaps because it was such a bizarre and ominous light, the in-game ‘Ian Hale’ had also written about his feelings upon seeing the light in his memoirs. And ironically, Ian Hale, just before the protagonist became family head, would also be enveloped in the same light on the verge of death.

‘What did he say? That he knew something had gone wrong in that moment…’

The memoirs were one of the first documents the protagonist could find when exploring the manor and entering Ian Hale’s room in the game. Ian Hale had begun writing them after holing up in his room, containing details about how he came to set foot in this manor, Arthur Walton’s death, and what he saw in the manor. Since Ian Hale died in the first main event while attacking the protagonist in a ruined state, and the document was obtained after starting the game proper, Jung Ian had thought it rather pathetic when playing. But now that he was in this situation, thinking of a young man in his early twenties, ignorant of the world’s ways, gradually consumed by the manor’s terror and madness until he went insane…

‘I guess it’s kind of pitiful…’

He washed his face in the washbasin on the side table and looked up. The mirror on the wall reflected not Jung Ian, but the still-unfamiliar, gaunt and pale face of Ian Hale. The fact that he felt sympathy for his end was partly because it was no longer someone else’s problem.

Yesterday, he’d tried to leave the manor using a walk as an excuse. When he reached near the manor’s walls, the clear sky suddenly clouded over and rain began to drizzle as if preventing Ian’s impulsive action. Shielding his eyes from the rainwater with his hand, he looked beyond the walls to see the area around the manor was utterly desolate wasteland. He could see a few bare, blackened dead trees and rough gray rocks. Between them grew nameless grass and shrubs, and the dark red earth, wet with rain, was muddy.

As someone who’d lived in the city all his life and served in the military at the frontlines, he judged that with this hopelessly frail body, marching on foot to escape this place would be impossible. Ian turned back toward the manor without regret.

Crossing the garden inside the manor, there seemed to be no gardener as it lacked any cultivated areas. Strange pillars carved with bizarre patterns of unknown meaning and pieces that looked like parts of stone walls were just sitting there. Walking back through the paths between them, something strange happened. Drenched by rain and walking back to the manor looking like a drowned rat, he casually looked up and saw what appeared to be someone’s black hair in a window at the far end of the manor’s third floor. In that brief moment, it disappeared instantly as if realizing it had been spotted.

Was it because his whole body was wet? He suddenly felt chilled, hunched his shoulders, and hurried inside the manor. Upon entering, someone approached without any sign of presence and quietly cleared their throat. Ian, who almost jumped on the spot, stiffly turned his head. There beside him stood a servant with a respectful face. He smiled with effort and thanked them for offering a dry towel. After wiping his shoulders and rain-soaked parts with the received towel and drying his hair, he returned it.

Even after returning to his room, perhaps due to that earlier experience, he felt his hair standing on end at trivial things and looked around. Since this was such an antique manor and this was inside a horror game, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a ghost.

Recalling yesterday’s events and sighing, Ian shook his head. Still, yesterday wasn’t all failure—there had been some achievements. Ian craned his neck to check if anyone was trying to enter through the door, then moved his lips in a whisper.

“System.”

An opaque screen with the same design as when he’d played the game unfolded before his eyes. The original save & load, quit, and settings buttons were nowhere to be found, and all he could see were character status and manor map, but it was something he could see nonetheless.

In the character status window, he could check his fear and madness levels. When these two increased, status ailment effects could occur—this was a feature the protagonist also had. The manor map window worked by becoming clearer as he moved directly, so places he hadn’t been weren’t drawn on the map.

Ian closed the system window after confirming his fear level had risen slightly, probably due to being intimidated by the manor’s atmosphere. In any case, none of this had activated at all before entering the manor.

‘Good thing I tried calling it once more just in case.’

He sighed, remembering when he’d called the system window while talking to himself in his dormitory room at the academy, only to have Jason walk in and force him to make up some excuse.

Anyway, today he planned to meet the protagonist before the funeral. Though he could tell from reading the memoirs that Ian Hale hated the protagonist, he couldn’t know what the protagonist thought of Ian Hale. Since their first meeting wasn’t particularly mentioned, he couldn’t get a sense of how the still-young protagonist would treat Ian.

‘Since he’s still a child, it should be fine, right…?’

Just as this optimistic thought occurred, he remembered the small shoe that had fallen from upstairs when he arrived at the manor and scratched his chin.

‘Maybe he dislikes me? If I find out the manor’s secrets first and gradually tell the protagonist, it might get better. It would have been nice if I’d fully cleared the game and knew all the secrets… damn 3D motion sickness…’

Ian blamed himself for not gritting his teeth and playing even with motion sickness patches. Actually, he’d quit because the game was scary, but he wouldn’t admit it.

‘Still, there are eight years left.’

His plan was this:

‘The protagonist is ten years old, and the day after he turns eighteen—if I can endure well until then while managing the numbers I can check in the system. I’ll also learn the manor’s secrets in advance and maintain a good relationship with the protagonist. If I do that, I should be able to escape the manor unlike the original ending!’

Running this simple, optimistic circuit through his head, Ian roughly adjusted his appearance. Then he picked up the gift package he’d left in the wardrobe and left his room.

The butler who happened to be walking by greeted him respectfully. Having an elderly man greet him like that and offer to attend to him (though he looked healthier than current Ian) still made him uncomfortable. So he persuaded the butler that he could do things himself and wouldn’t need to be woken up or helped with dressing in the future, finally managing to handle those parts himself.

The perceptive butler seemed to understand that Ian, whose origins could be considered humble, wasn’t accustomed to such service, and tactfully stepped back. Though he didn’t know what the butler truly thought, there was no sign of looking down on Ian in that calm, goat-like face.

Ian quickly greeted the butler and spoke up.

“Good morning, butler. May I ask you something?”

The butler replied as if it were nothing.

“I’m merely a servant, so please speak comfortably. I’ll answer anything I know.”

Ian looked sheepish at those words.

“…I haven’t seen him at all, but where is the son of the pre-previous, no, the previous family head?”

At his question, nearly letting slip the word ‘protagonist,’ the butler glanced briefly at the gift package Ian was holding before answering.

“Come to think of it, you haven’t formally met the young master yet. He’s in the study—I’ll bring the young master to you shortly.”

Then he turned his head slightly to the side and continued.

“The study is at the very end of the second floor. If I may be so bold, how about you two have a conversation and share breakfast together when you meet?”

Ian quickly nodded at the butler’s suggestion. He happened to be hungry, and since they were now practically family, it seemed good to have meals together with the protagonist.

The study wasn’t in a particularly hard-to-find location. Still, the butler led the way as if to guide him and brought Ian there.

“Please wait inside, and I’ll bring the young master.”

After another respectful bow, he disappeared toward the stairs. Ian, watching the departing butler, grasped the door handle before him. Opening the door carved with ravens along with calm, antique leaves, he saw a familiar study inside.

The scene with the large fireplace and armchair had to be familiar since it was on the game’s start screen. In the game it had been dark and gloomy, but now bright light streamed through curtains someone had drawn and tied back, creating a completely different atmosphere. If not for the landscape painting above the fireplace depicting Raven Manor standing tall on a hill, he would have thought it was somewhere else.

“System.”

As soon as he entered, he called up the window and reached into the air to check the manor map. Confirming that the study section was clearly visible on the map window, Ian placed the gift package he was carrying on the armchair. Then he approached the antique bookshelf filling the wall and pulled out several books to skim through.

‘In the original game, only parts could be read—I wonder if there are any blank books?’

It was born of sudden curiosity. But as if this were a real world, the books in his hands were clearly filled with different content. Originally, to find clues to secrets, examining this place would be right. But he sighed at the thought of having no stomach for searching through all these books for clues. He slipped the book he’d been holding back into place.

Knock knock—

At the sound from the door, Ian turned his head.

“Come in.”

The door opened, and a child following the butler entered hesitantly with downcast eyes. Ian recognized at a glance that this child was ‘Ash Walton,’ the protagonist of Secrets of Raven Manor.