124. The Haunted Castle

“It was cold! I’m telling you it was cold! Are your skins so thick that you maids don’t even feel the cold when you sleep?”

Apple treated Caitlyn with the same unimpressed attitude as Anette, thinking, here she goes again.

When Apple ignored her words, Caitlyn became furious to the tips of her hair and screamed. Finally, Anette, tired of dealing with her, said to change the room.

Then she spitefully told Caitlyn.

“There are ghosts in Castle Inkheart. You saw me bringing a priest earlier, right? This is an old castle, and the ghosts who live here torment people they don’t like.”

“Talking about ghosts! Am I a child?”

“It’s true. Anyway, fine, I’ll change your room.”

Anette replied indifferently.

* * *

Asked by a maid to wait until another guest room was prepared, Caitlyn snorted and returned to her original guest room.

“Ugh, because of that girl who doesn’t know how to treat guests, I couldn’t sleep a wink all night!”

Muttering things like ‘I’ll soon be the crown prince’s bride’ and ‘They don’t know how precious I am,’ Caitlyn sat on the bed.

〈There are ghosts in Castle Inkheart.〉

“Ghosts?”

The thumping noises she heard all night and the room that remained cold despite supposedly being heated.

Thinking about Anette’s attitude of brushing it all off with talk of ghosts made her irritated.

“Not maintaining this decrepit castle and then talking about ghosts……”

As Caitlyn was irritably cursing Anette, she suddenly stopped breathing.

‘Sob sob sob sob.’

‘What?’

She hadn’t misheard. A thin crying sound was coming from somewhere.

“Wh-who’s there!”

Perhaps it was a maid who had been scolded for a mistake and was crying outside?

‘Sob, sniff. I hate you. Why did you do that? It’s too cruel.’

It was bright daylight, hardly the time for ghosts to appear. But the crying sound was coming from very close by. Not inside the room, but probably right in front of her guest room…

Caitlyn opened the door as if entranced.

“Is that you?”

“Mother!”

Something like a long bundle of blonde hair suddenly raised its head before her eyes. A small girl was looking at Caitlyn with resentful eyes.

“To think that Madam Anette’s sister would appear now! The position of the cute and only little sister to Madam was mine! I can’t accept a sister designated by blood! It’s unfair, unfair, unfair!”

“What in the world is thiiiiis!”

Caitlyn clutched her startled chest and screamed at the rapid-fire words. She felt embarrassed for shrinking back in case the girl might actually be a ghost, which made her angry.

“Just you wait!”

The unidentifiable girl said her piece and quickly ran away.

“As I thought, ghosts indeed……”

She was just a crazy kid.

Caitlyn wiped the sweat that had formed on her forehead, feeling her heart racing madly. The uncomfortable bed had made her sensitive, and she had been caught up in Anette’s nonsense.

‘I’ve lived such a good life. Who would hold a grudge against me?’

Caitlyn comforted herself, hoping the room would be changed quickly.

But she couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching her from behind. This unsettling feeling had been following her since she arrived at Castle Inkheart.

‘No……’

It wasn’t just a feeling she’d had since arriving at Castle Inkheart. In fact, from before, since Anette left for the North, occasionally…

Hadn’t she felt as if an unidentifiable chill was approaching the Pochet family?

* * *

Crowley, the demon hiding on the mountain peak, was diligently carrying out the order to take good care of the spirit body today as well.

Unfortunately, the spirit body’s mood had been rapidly worsening recently.

Bang bang, the spirit body kicked the transparent wall surrounding it as if feeling stifled. The wall enveloping the spirit body like an egg sac rippled slightly from the impact.

“Shh, spirit. Shhh. Are you upset about what’s happening at the foot of the mountain?”

The spirit body answered Crowley’s words with a sound like wind whistling.

Unlike before, the spirit body, whose vocal cords were somewhat formed now, could make sounds.

I’ll kill her. I’ll kill her in the most painful way. I’ll make her crawl on the ground. I’ll make her bleed as much as I want.

Die, die, die! Caitlyn! I hate you!

Crowley listened with an excited face to the metallic sounds made by the scratchy voice. It was an excellent curse.

“Very good, spirit!”

Lilith thought it wasn’t good for the vessel of the soon-to-be-completed demon king to be emotionally unstable. So she ordered Crowley to focus on stabilizing the spirit body rather than stimulating it.

However, the spirit body, sensing Caitlyn at the foot of the mountain, was becoming more malevolent.

Perhaps, contrary to Lilith’s words, this direction was right for the vessel that would become the demon king?

Crowley was quite regretful. Since Lilith had told him to keep the spirit body hidden for now to prevent it from exercising its power recklessly, his thoughts on the matter weren’t important.

Even after changing rooms, Caitlyn caused a commotion every few days. There were noises in the room, it was too cold, the bed was wet, and so on. She seemed quite upset about having promised the trip to the capital with a written contract.

While dealing with Caitlyn, who kept pestering us to go to the capital as soon as possible, I finally prepared for the journey with Darius and was about to depart.

Like other long-established families, the Inkheart grand ducal family also has a townhouse in the capital. We could stay there during our visit.

The purpose of the visit was to support my immature younger sister’s candidacy for crown prince’s bride. But since it had been so long since I’d been to the capital, there were many things to do while there.

“Since this is my first time going to the capital since I was summoned by the princess a few years ago, many noble families will be interested in Inkheart’s movements. Even if we try to stay quiet, many people will want to meet us.”

“Really? But what business took you to the capital a few years ago?”

The late king’s daughter and enthusiastic party-goer, Princess Raniana, who greatly helped our diamond business, once considered whether to take the Northern Grand Duke Darius as her husband or not, having chosen based solely on looks.

Darius tried to naturally change the subject without being flustered by my words.

“Why did you go.”

Grip, I held his arm and asked once more.

Answer well, you sinful man.

Rose came to Darius’s rescue. Rose Temeri, who had come up to our carriage, called for me while crying profusely.

“Why can’t I go with Madam this time either? I can even handle spirits now!”

Rose, who firmly believed she couldn’t accompany me during last winter’s monster subjugation because she lacked spirit power, had succeeded in summoning a basic earth spirit, a gnome, driven by her determination to follow me despite her lack of natural talent.

However, there was no place for Rose this time either.

If it were just a trip, I could take her along, but this was strictly to fulfill a contract. Since we weren’t going for pleasure, I couldn’t bring a child.

“Hmm…… Rose, can you see this?”

“What?”

Next to me, the spirit king was floating with his arms crossed.

It was unfortunate and sad for Rose, who had accomplished something through sheer determination, but perhaps due to her original lack of talent for spirit arts, Rose couldn’t see Sylphid with her own eyes even after summoning spirits.

“I can see it. The one next to Anette.”

Darius promptly said. Unlike Rose, Darius was the opposite. He still didn’t know how to summon spirits, but perhaps due to his life contract with Sylphid, he could at least see Sylphid.

“Of course I can s-s-see……”

Rose narrowed her swollen eyes, trying somehow to claim she could see something next to me, but it was useless. Sylphid wouldn’t be visible to Rose’s eyes. I was about to use this as an excuse.

“Why are you dawdling here instead of departing?”

When we still hadn’t departed after quite some time, Caitlyn got out of the Pochet family carriage and poked her head out.

“Who’s this girl?”

For a moment, Caitlyn narrowed her eyes as if recognizing Rose’s face, but that couldn’t be.

“My goodness, she’s crying every time I see her! Ugly with tears and snot. Noisy and shabby!”

“She’s a more precious little sister than you, so shut your mouth.”

Before I could even think, cold words left my mouth first.

“Whaaat?”

“Madam!”

Caitlyn wore an incredulous expression, while Rose looked touched.

“To think you consider me that highly! From now on, Madam is my big sister, and any attack on Madam will be considered an attack on me.”

“No, you’ve been testing the waters for that all along.”

Darius muttered something. But Rose, filled with joy, ignored him. She didn’t seem to care that Caitlyn had called her ugly.

“I’ll guard the castle well! Have a safe trip!”

Darius sighed.

“Somehow, I feel like I become unhappy whenever Rose becomes happy.”

“Why does Rose’s happiness make Darius unhappy? Don’t you trust her promise to behave now?”

“I wanted to be a cool big brother to Rose, but Anette took all the cool roles.”

Come to think of it, Rose used to only look up to Darius, but lately she follows me more. Everyone said it might be because she has a big sister figure for the first time.

Well, when a cute little sister now prefers someone else over him, Darius must feel somewhat disappointed. He might also think Rose is entering puberty.

“Should I try to make sure you spend more time with Rose?”

Darius smiled, perhaps because my guess was right.

“Yes. That would be good.”

And so we departed for the capital.