## Chapter 459 – Kim Kat and the Haunted House
I can’t be harsh with women who have big breasts.
It reminds me of Winia.
The roll-bun-haired young lady before me didn’t look like a ghost at all. Not a hallucination, not an illusion, not a phantom. Perhaps because of the bizarre situation, my senses were sharper than ever.
Is this also an effect of the barrier?
And what did the banshee mean by liberation before I came up the stairs? Do they want to be liberated?
“Very well, Lady.”
I took the young lady’s hand.
The touch and warmth that came through were human.
“Come this way.”
“Gladly.”
Anyway, there must be a reason why I’m in this situation.
I suspected that I might be possessed by ghosts and wandering around the mansion, but I quickly shook it off.
Ghosts who became evil spirits after being searched only once can’t deceive my senses, which have been honed by countless murders. Even if they are evil spirits, they are still beings who were murdered by someone.
I have a cold-blooded judgment that can see through truth and lies. The ideology of Fusion Confucianism dwells in my eyes. There is not a single lie in the scenery I see.
“Hoh hoh hoh, Sir Knight, you have large hands.”
“You have small and soft hands, Lady. Like a jewel craft.”
“Oh my.”
The young lady blushed, as if pleased by my words.
“This hand only used to hold a sword, so I’m worried it might break your hand, Lady, if I hold it too long. Haha!”
“You have good manners.”
“Your beauty, Lady, is what creates my manners.”
“Hoh hoh. You speak well too. Shall we dance, then?”
Before I knew it, I was standing in the center of the hall.
“Unfortunately, I don’t know how to dance very well, as I’ve lived on the battlefield.”
“Leave it to me.”
The young lady skillfully led me in a dance.
My body spun around and around.
As I spun, I surveyed the hall.
The mansion was a very luxurious place. A mansion only for people living in high society. The nobles and servants all behaved according to etiquette. It felt very fresh to my eyes, which had been rolling around in the bottom of this world for years.
The mansion in its prime.
This must have been the original appearance of the mansion.
Did the ghosts of the mansion create this space, longing for this glorious past? Certainly, the laughter of people gathered at a party would be better to listen to than the screams of evil spirits.
—Longing.
Yearning.
I felt as if those emotions were being conveyed to me.
The banshee asked me to liberate them.
Were they tired of living as evil spirits? Or had they been waiting eternally for a knight to liberate them?
What did the ghosts trapped in the mansion want?
“What are you thinking about so deeply?”
As if breaking my reverie, the young lady asked.
“Thinking… It’s nothing. Just.”
“Just?”
Her cleavage, nearly a hand span deep, was enough to overlap with Winia’s. Of course, Winia’s was bigger. Yeah, thinking about Winia gave me strength.
“Have you ever felt resentment or hatred, Lady?”
“…Well, I don’t think I would ever have such a thing happen to me.”
“Hehe, is that so? That’s fortunate.”
“Why do you ask such a thing?”
“Just curious.”
We continued to dance.
The young lady asked me to tell her war stories.
“It’s not a very good story for a woman to hear.”
“Hoh hoh, women love stories of the battlefield.”
“Hmm… Then I’ll sing you a song instead of a war story.”
“A song?”
I couldn’t stand it anymore, as I had been feeling a desperate heart from earlier.
I let go of the young lady’s hand and strode toward the orchestra. After all, the people here were not living people.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
The conductor, who had stopped conducting, narrowed his eyes and said.
“I’m going to sing a song. Play for me.”
“What kind of manners is that? We’re in the middle of playing…”
“I’ll only sing one song.”
“…Just one song.”
The old conductor gave his permission.
As soon as I went up on the stage, the eyes of the hall were on me.
“Ahem.”
I cleared my throat and recalled the rhythm. At the same time, the orchestra began to play. It was a beautiful melody, but somehow it didn’t suit the compass.
Well, isn’t the best thing about Korean songs that you can sing them even if the accompaniment doesn’t match?
I started to sing.
“Shall we go to Jongno?”
A song filled with my heart, Compass by Seol Undo.
“Shall we go to Myeongdong?”
An extremely beautiful rhythm echoed and permeated the hall. A foreign song that you don’t know. Those who have become ghosts must be desperate. But a song that has crossed a dimension, like a letter in a glass bottle that has reached the beach, would be even more desperate.
“Shall we just leave for Cheongnyangni?”
As soon as I started singing, the murmurs and music all disappeared. Everyone in the hall was standing still, listening to my song.
That’s how much my song was moving their hearts.
“I’m standing on the corner of Euljiro.”
Finally, the song ended.
I looked at the people in the hall.
People standing blankly.
No, the banshees.
Before I knew it, the men in the mansion had disappeared and only the banshees remained. The young lady, the nuns, the maids. They were all banshees. The young lady I danced with was the same. Was it a kind of play?
—Sniff, sniff… Sniff…!
And one by one, they began to weep sadly.
—Sniff! Sniff! Sniff!
—Sad, sad, sad…!
—Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.
—Sniff…! I want to go back…! I want to go back…!
—Why doesn’t anyone save us?
—Stop… Stop… Please stop… Sniff!
Certainly, Seol Undo’s Compass was a masterpiece that resonated with the hearts of many people. Beyond foreign lands, to another dimension. The song permeated even the hearts of the spirits trapped in the past.
My song allowed them to truly share their sadness.
They all carried an inhuman sadness.
Did they want to stop it now?
—Rustle.
—Swish.
The sobbing banshees covered their faces and pointed to the stairs leading to the third floor. It was as if they were telling me to go up.
“Are you telling me to go up?”
“…”
“Do you want me to go up and see your sadness?”
“…”
The fact that they were acting like that meant that they wanted to be comforted. They wanted people to know their pain. Is that why they invited people?
The evil spirits of the mansion had hatred, but in the end, they were beings who wanted to shake off their sadness and return to where they should be.
“Then Cheonma Kim Kat will go up.”
That would be the clue to knowing the truth of the mansion. And also, that clue would lead to the way out of the mansion.
“For you who cried listening to my song.”
I immediately went up the stairs to the third floor.
The light of the hall, which had been shining brilliantly until just now, had been extinguished long ago. I climbed the stairs of darkness again. What are Kopson, Meria, and Lina doing? Still, they are all guys who know how to save their own lives.
Finding out the truth of the mansion will soon be the way to join my friends.
I trust them.
—Thud.
And so, I pushed open the door on the third floor.
—Creak.
When I opened the door, light poured out again.
However, it was not a warm and bright light like the hall on the second floor.
It was a crimson glow filled with malice.
—Whoosh!
—Aaaaaaaah!!!!
Parts of the mansion were on fire. It wasn’t a big fire. Only some decorations and furniture were burning. The only things that bothered me were the screams and…
“Kih kih kih!”
The laughter of the ruthless warriors who had invaded the mansion.
—Slash!
They swung their swords and killed the waiters and butlers of the mansion. They killed the male servants and the cleaners. No men could stand up to the armed warriors. Were they soldiers? Or mercenaries? I couldn’t tell.
“Aaaaaaah!!!”
“Where do you think you’re going!”
People were dying.
I slowly walked towards them.
“Aaaaaaah! Stop! Stop it!”
“Come here!”
The warriors who had killed all the men grabbed the women who looked like nuns and maids and began to defile them. It was a terrible scene of pillage. The powerless women had no choice but to be brutally defiled by the warriors.
Was this the truth of the mansion?
Did the souls of the women who were brutally murdered in the mansion become evil spirits due to resentment and curse the mansion?
“Why… Why are you showing me this?”
I asked the ghost who came up next to me while watching the scene.
“…Liberate us.”
“Liberate?”
“We were waiting for a strong knight… To liberate us.”
“From this tragedy?”
—Shake, shake.
The girl ghost shook her head.
She wanted liberation. Wanting liberation meant that she was bound. Should I call her a earthbound spirit? She was trapped in this mansion.
Had she been waiting for someone to liberate her from this place?
But first, there was something to ask.
“What happened to the others?”
“…”
“There must have been a few more people who came to this mansion.”
“They’re in the basement… In the basement.”
The basement?
“What about the people who came today?”
“They are also… In the basement.”
That meant that all the people who had gone missing after finding the mansion were in the basement. The evil spirits were catching people and moving them to the basement? There must be a purpose. I had to save my friends before it was too late.
“You’re the only strong knight who hasn’t been caught.”
“Even though you chased me like you were going to kill me? Were you planning to catch me and take me to the basement too?”
“…They are different from us.”
Evil spirits obsessed with murder and vengeful spirits who wanted liberation.
“Please. Liberate us. There’s no one else to ask but you.”
“How can I liberate you?”
—Sniff…! Sniff! Sniff!!! Sir Knight… Sir Knight… The knight who will save me…!
As I was about to ask how, the wail of the nun ghost was heard from below.
“There’s no time… If you want to save your friends, you should go quickly. Soon she will count… Then… Your friends won’t be able to live.”
“What do you mean by counting?”
—Rustle.
“Stop… Please stop her now.”
The girl ghost’s form began to disappear.
“We are bound by her resentment.”
Resentment.
“Stop her… And liberate our souls… The remains are in the basement.”
She seemed to be talking about the nun ghost crying down there. With those words, the girl ghost’s figure completely disappeared. In the end, she was asking me to execute her and save them.
“Shit.”
In the end, it meant that I had to catch the boss monster to get out of here. The banshees were just piggybacking on that and asking me to recover their remains.
So they showed me this illusion.
—Click.
…No.
It wasn’t just that.
The stairs leading down appeared.
—The banshees opened the way to the basement.
The basement was the heart of the mansion. A place hidden in a maze-like barrier. The banshees opened the way for me while asking for liberation.
It seemed that my friends were there now.
Then I had to go.
I went down the spiral staircase. It wasn’t dark around me. Crimson flames were rising on the way down to the basement.
“Aaaaaaaah!!!”
“Open it! Open it! Open it!”
“Please open it!”
“Please save me!!!!”
But it wasn’t a real fire.
I pushed through the flames and went down. All I could hear were screams. The voices of women yearning for life.
The women who were brutally defiled by the warriors who invaded the mansion were eventually burned to death in the basement of the mansion. The cruel warriors finished their work and gathered the women in the basement and set them on fire.
“Terrible.”
Such scenery covered the surroundings as I went down the spiral staircase.
“It’s understandable that they would have resentment.”
A space where the resentment of the past was realized and constantly repeated, that was this cursed ghost mansion.
They wanted revenge and salvation at the same time. I was caught up in such a thing, it seemed that I was unlucky. I should not explore abandoned houses in the future.
And so I stood in front of the basement.
I could hear sobbing from somewhere.
