n

n

n

nSome time after the Sauron Duchy’s army retreated from the former Scylla territory and the now-supposedly-deceased Bravatiyu’s screams during his aging-reversing subsided, Vandalieu’s main body was in the city of Orbaume, the capital of the Orbaume Kingdom, with Darcia and the others.

nWith a population of five million, it was not the most populated city that had ever existed, but it was certainly the largest and most populated city in the Orbaume Kingdom. More than 160 times Morksi’s population of thirty thousand, and about five times the population of Alcrem’s population of one million.

nWhen the Orbaume Kingdom was founded from twelve small nations that united to oppose the large threat that was the Amid Empire, this independent city had become the kingdom’s cornerstone, and it was now the capital.

n“Apparently, five hundred years ago, there were A-class and B-class Dungeons nearby and this place became an independent city that grew to a population of ten thousand as powerful adventurers used it as a base from which they entered the Dungeons,” said Vandalieu, who was being held firmly in Pauvina’s arms. “It became the capital of the Orbaume Kingdom with the financial and personnel investments by the other dukes over five hundred years. Quite remarkable.”

n“It’s amazing, isn’t it, Van!” said Pauvina with a nod as she looked around at the city.

nTalosheim was by no means inferior, as it continued to evolve (change) day by day with construction that involved Golems, but in terms of scale and liveliness, Orbaume and its large population had the upper hand.

nIt boggled Pauvina’s imagination to think that the technology of human society had allowed them to create such a large city despite nobody being able to use the ‘Golem Creation’ Skill.

nThe light-attribute Ghosts floating near Vandalieu, Chipuras, Daroak, and Berkert, had their own comments as well.

n“Yes, I am in complete agreement. In the past, it was a small city, the kind that every nation had dozens of. The Tercatanis and Dolmad houses, which were nothing more than well-known families in this small city, were given court ranks in exchange for renouncing their right to rule the city, and they now hold the court rank of marquis… Who would have thought?” Chipuras chuckled. “They often talk about their ‘blue blood,’ but the truth is a little different.”

n“One could say that this is the most easy-to-understand characteristic that these lowly humans possess,” said Daroak.

nBerkert cackled in amusement. “How foolish the so-called ‘rulers’ of this nation are. They remain unaware that their rule only continues due to the great Vandalieu-sama’s mercy…”

nThese three light-attribute Ghosts had once been Vampires who had lived for tens of thousands of years; they had known the Orbaume Kingdom since its foundation. They couldn’t help but laugh in cynical contempt.

n“Chipuras, try to keep the cynicism out of your voice when you’re acting as a tour guide. Daroak, I’ve told you this many times, but my mother, Pauvina and I are all human,” said Vandalieu. “Berkert, you seem to be in good condition today.”

nChipuras gave a small laugh. “My apologies,” he said sincerely.

n“Vandalieu-sama, your sense of humor is fine as always!” laughed Daroak, who didn’t consider Vandalieu and the others to be humans no matter how many times he was told otherwise.

nMeanwhile, Berkert swooned in happiness at being praised, and his speech regressed to its usual patterns. “I was praised! The honor! Is too much! For meeee!”

n“… By the way, can I please walk on my own now?” Vandalieu asked.

nPauvina wasn’t carrying him because of their close friendship; this was a punishment for causing trouble during the inspection to test whether he had properly tamed his familiars.

n“No,” Pauvina said, rejecting Vandalieu’s request in a gentle voice.

n“About the inspection, I did tell you beforehand that I wouldn’t be able to hold myself back, and I asked you to stop me by force if you had to.”

n“Still no! Right, everyone?”

nPauvina’s voice was gentle, but her strength was immense. If it were any ordinary person being held in her arms, their bones would have been crushed right away.

nBut the person being held in Pauvina’s arms was Vandalieu; he didn’t even show any signs of struggling to breathe.

nPerhaps this was why nobody felt any sympathy for Vandalieu.

n“Yes, you’re right. I think making all the gate guards faint except for their captain was going too far,” said Darcia, lightly chiding him.

n“My arm was making unpleasant creaking noises while I was holding you back, and even then, you were giving off a killing intent that was out of this world. Truly frightening, I tell you!” Simon said with a bitter smile.

n“The guards regained consciousness quickly enough, so they were fine, but I’m sure we caused a lot of trouble for the people who were lining up behind us,” said Miriam.

nHowever, they didn’t reprimand him any further, because they believed that it was better than the previous time… the inspection to enter Alcrem.

nDuring that inspection, he hadn’t made any noise or given off any killing intent; he had simply attempted to attack the guard from behind. It was Privel’s quick thinking that had prevented that; without her efforts, there would have been an incident that would be very difficult to explain.

nBut this time, Vandalieu had asked everyone in advance to hold him back. And he had even held back his strength and killing intent.

nIf Vandalieu used his full strength, his body’s physical capabilities would allow him to inflict serious wounds on a hundred-meter-tall Colossus in close-quarters combat. Darcia would be able to resist his strength to some degree, but Simon and Miriam would have been tossed away like leaves in the wind. As for his killing intent, he hadn’t used the Demon Eyes of the Demon King.

nBut the biggest reason that Darcia and the others hadn’t reprimanded him further was because they had accepted that this was how it was going to be.

nIt was possible that Vandalieu’s reaction to these inspections would improve. Perhaps he would get better at concealing his emotions.

nBut this problem would never be fully solved. Darcia and the others had resigned themselves to that.

n… The other reason was, because of the commotion at the gate, the other passers-by were now keeping their distance from the group, making it easier for them to walk around.

nEven so, Pauvina and Eisen were drawing many inquisitive gazes; there would have likely been crowds gathered around them if they had entered the city without incident.

n“Lots of people like that baaaron,” said Eisen.

nThough Pauvina took no notice of them, the passers-by seemed to remind Eisen of Baron Cuoco Ragdew, the fanatical gourmand whose entire family had been bewitched by the syrup that was made from her sap.

nHer relationship (?) with the baron’s family seemed to have improved her tolerance to other people.

n“We made sure to apologize to the people behind us, so I do not believe that is a problem,” said Arthur.

n“Everyone… forgave us with smiles, even if they did look a little stiff,” said Kalinia.

nArthur and Kalinia hadn’t been able to assist with holding Vandalieu back due to his body being too small for so many people to grab onto him, so they had occupied themselves with apologizing to the other visitors instead.

nBorzofoy gave a nervous, deranged-sounding laugh. “But is that really true?”

nIndeed, the people who had been lining up behind Vandalieu may have felt threatened when they were apologized to by a muscular, ferocious-looking man and a beautiful woman who had a sharp gaze and a somewhat sinister air about her.

n“Well, I’m sure it’s fine,” said Kalinia.

n“I’m sure it is,” said Arthur.

nAnyone who came to know Arthur and the others would soon laugh at themselves for having bad first impressions of them.

nBut Vandalieu and his companions had a more pressing matter on their minds, even more pressing than entering the Adventurers’ School – they had to take care of the business they had come to Orbaume for.

nIt was the same business that they’d had to take care of when they first arrived in the city of Morksi – buying a house to live in.

nHowever, because Darcia was an honorary countess, and this was the royal capital rather than a city of commerce, they would be buying a mansion built for nobles rather than a single residential house.

nHonorary court ranks would only last a single generation, but even so, many honorary nobles purchased mansions to live in. And in Orbaume, there were a number of mansions that were put up for sale for one reason or another.

nVandalieu would be buying one of these mansions and altering it like he did with the house in Morksi to use as a base.

nFor this purpose, Vandalieu and his companions visited Senopa Company, a company that was well-known in Orbaume.

nSenopa Company was generally well-known, but what it was particularly well-known for was purchasing mansions from failing noble families and selling them to wealthy nobles and other rich people.

nThey would purchase any mansion, no matter what kind of shady history it may have, then renovate it to match a purchaser’s needs and sell it for a high price.

nThe secret of the company’s business lay in the powerful connections it had to the Church of Alda.

nNot all royalty and nobles were people of integrity and noble character; many of the mansions they sold with ‘shady histories’ were in fact dens haunted by vengeful and evil spirits, the kind that would put the haunted houses spoken of in ghost stories to shame.

nThese were not mansions with blood-red handprints that kept reappearing no matter how many times they were cleaned, or cutlery floating mysteriously through the air. They were haunted by vengeful spirits that would directly try to kill anyone who entered. The groups of light-attribute mages and clergymen provided by the Church of Alda, who had undergone training to fight against Undead, were necessary to deal with these mansions.

nSenopa Company provided charitable donations to multiple cardinals of the Church of Alda in exchange for priests, who were disciples of the gods, to be sent to turn these ominous mansions into ordinary buildings.

nOf course, if there were Undead in the capital, it was the duty of the disciples of the gods to purify them even without the charitable donations of a real estate company.

nHowever, in the majority of cases, vengeful spirits didn’t leave the grounds of the mansions they haunted. They were ghosts that were bound to a physical location, so as long as the gates and walls were sealed with talismans placed on them, they wouldn’t affect the outside world at all, as miasma wouldn’t escape from the mansion grounds and spirits wouldn’t be able to enter and become Undead themselves.

nThus, these haunted mansions were often considered to be matters of low priority, and dealing with them would be put off until later.

nAnd there were some priests who were passionate about spreading the teachings of the gods whether donations were given to them or not. These priests had a tendency of not wanting to get involved in cursed mansions, as they would have no choice but to be in contact with nobles to deal with them… and these matters had nothing to do with the townspeople who couldn’t afford to donate large sums.

nOf course, problems would arise if these mansions were simply left as they were. The effects of talismans did not last forever, and they were not all-powerful. After a few decades or a few centuries, the power of the Undead inside the mansions would grow, and it was possible that they would be able to break the seals.

nThat was why the kingdom’s government commissioned the Church to purify these old, cursed mansions, but… this had also created a situation where the Church was willing to abandon these mansions until the commissions from the government came.

nThere were even rumors that the task of purifying these mansions would be carried out late in order to set up accomplishments by the children of the cardinals.

nIncidentally, adventurers and mages with no affiliation with the church were also capable of purifying these mansions. But there was a risk that they would hear scandalous things about the previous owners being spoken by the vengeful ghosts, and think of doing reprehensible things.

nThus, there was an unspoken agreement that such matters should be left to the tight-lipped priests of the Church rather than adventurers.

nThat was precisely why Senopa Company’s powerful connections to the Church could be wielded as a weapon in their business.

nAnd that was why Senopa Company’s employees were surprised by the visit of Honorary Countess Darcia Zakkart. They had never imagined that someone who was a member of a race created by Vida, and a saint of Vida herself, would visit their business that had such deep connections to the Church of Alda.

nThrough the information networks they had formed with other companies, they had already been informed that Darcia’s son Vandalieu and his younger sister Pauvina would come to the royal capital of Orbaume in order to enroll at the Adventurers’ School.

nWhen they did, it was possible that they would purchase a mansion rather than stay in an expensive inn. The employees of Senopa Company had said amongst themselves that whichever real estate company that took them as customers would be fortunate indeed, but…

n“This is the only property that matches your requirements,” said the Senopa employee serving them, who was still a young man. With beads of cold sweat on his brow, he gave a customer-service smile that looked like it had been pasted onto his face and pointed at the property. “It is large enough for guests who are more than three meters tall to walk around comfortably, and the floors and walls are sturdy enough that even a group of Titans jumping up and down will not damage them. With three floors, there are many rooms, and the property also includes large bathrooms, attics, basements, and large gardens. However, it is as you see…”

nThe property the Senopa employee was pointing to was a splendid mansion. Its size and facilities were worthy of a great noble; no baron or viscount could afford to live here.

nHowever, it was clearly cursed.

nVines grew freely along the walls and even the small patches of wall that were visible beneath them had turned a sinister color. Despite the fine weather in Orbaume today, the area around the mansion was unnaturally dim. Silhouettes that weren’t supposed to be there were visible on the other side of the expensive glass windows.

nWith this many obvious signs of the mansion being haunted, one might laugh – as long as they didn’t have to enter, of course.

n“But this has become a nest of vengeful and evil spirits that even the clergymen of the Church of Alda could not purify,” said the Senopa employee. “And there was even a problem with the previous owner…”

n“A problem?” Vandalieu asked.

n“Yes. I cannot tell you his name, but the younger brother of a certain duke lived here until about a hundred years ago… and he had some interests that could not be described as high-class.”

nVandalieu was presumably underage, and although the Senopa employee couldn’t personally believe it, Pauvina was likely a child as well. Before continuing his explanation, he lowered his voice so that they couldn’t hear him, and only Darcia, Simon and the others were within earshot.

n“He apparently brought people into this mansion and then tortured and killed them in the basement. Not just criminal slaves, but illegally purchased slaves as well, and street urchins and prostitutes that he abducted from the slums. He used his societal influence to cover up the evidence of his crimes, but he eventually laid his hands on the children of other noble houses. He was disinherited by his family, stripped of his nobility, and sent to the chopping block as a commoner, but… at some point, Undead began to appear in the mansion he left behind.”

n“But that was a century ago, right? Didn’t you ask the Church to purify it?” asked Natania, who had taken over holding onto Vandalieu for Pauvina.

nThere was fear in her voice; it seemed that she was surprisingly scared of things like ghost stories.

n“We have not. Senopa Company purchased this property around thirty years ago, and by that point, countless priests from the Churches of Alda, Peria, and Ricklent attempted to purify it. But the previous owner created numerous hidden chambers and corridors, and even installed traps… The inside of the mansion is as dangerous as a real Dungeon,” said the Senopa employee. “Because of this, purifying the mansion is an exceedingly difficult task… and the core that produces the vengeful and evil spirits has yet to be found.”

n“Ah, that must be troublesome. Most traps in Dungeons are simple, but traps laid by people… especially traps designed to hide something are difficult to both notice and disarm,” said Miriam.

nIndeed, most traps in Dungeons were simple, as they were created with the sole objective of hindering or killing intruders – booby traps and pitfalls. Even the more complex ones were just things like treasure chests that released a poisonous gas when they were opened.

nAlmost no Dungeons had hidden mechanisms designed to keep intruders from discovering something – things like hidden chambers or corridors whose doors would only open when a certain piece of decorative furniture or a certain part of the wall was moved.

nAdventurers and clergymen weren’t accustomed to trying to discover such hidden mechanisms. This was a skill that was more commonly possessed by thieves.

nBut no ordinary thief could survive an encounter with the Undead in this mansion. Even guarding them with adventurers or priests would be meaningless if the thief didn’t have the nerve required to thoroughly search the mansion while ignoring his comrades fighting nearby.

n“Yes, and the Undead grow stronger every time they are revived, so the average light-attribute spell doesn’t affect them at all now, or so I’ve heard,” the Senopa employee said.

n“I see… Vandalieu, is he correct?” Darcia asked her son.

n“Yes, more or less,” said Vandalieu.

nThe Senopa employee gave him a puzzled look, but Vandalieu had already heard everything that the employee was telling him – from the vengeful and evil spirits themselves, of course.

n“This mansion is scaaaary, I came here just to steal, but I was killed by an evil spirit…! Be careful of the stairs.”

n“I was killed when I came here to bury a body. I thought that if I buried it here, even if it was found, they’d think it was the doing of the evil spirits! A monster that was hiding in the garden’s well killed meeeeeeAHAHAHA!”

n“I’m that corpse you buried! I think I can become a monster soon! I just need to possess a tree in the garden! Give me your blood, your blood! Just a little, I only need a liiittle!”

n“Hehehe, don’t be fooled by those guys. That real estate company is ! Be careful of people from Pomyadel Company! … Huh? This guy is from Senopa Company? Ah, come to think of it, the chairman of Pomyadel Company died ten years ago or something? What? This mansion has been owned by Senopa Company for the last thirty years?”

nThere was a large swarm of spirits that hadn’t yet become Undead in front of the iron gate that had a talisman placed on it. Most of these spirits were of people who had died just a few years ago and hadn’t become Undead, but there were some who had haunted this place for a hundred years, and they told Vandalieu their stories.

nThey even told him the identity of the person who was the younger brother of a duke, the one who had caused this mansion to become cursed – something that the Senopa employee hadn’t mentioned, as he himself hadn’t been told about this.

nThe Senopa employee turned to look at the mansion beyond the gate with a fearful look on his face, but Vandalieu could hear the voices of the spirits that were pressing against the other side of the gate.

nIn fact, from the moment Vandalieu entered the city, spirits all throughout Orbaume had flooded his surroundings to speak to him.

nUnlike when he visited the Hartner Duchy as a seven-year-old, he possessed the ‘Super High-speed Thought Processing,’ ‘Group Thought Processing,’ and ‘Perfect Record Technique’ Skills. If he took the time, he could draw information from the countless spirits and analyze it.

nThe previous owner of this was the younger brother of Duke Jahan, huh… I’m glad he wasn’t an Alcrem, Vandalieu thought.

nIt seemed that this mansion had previously belonged to the Jahan house of dukes, and the current head of the family was known to be a Titan.

nThe house of Duke Jahan was a house whose descendants had Titan blood running through their veins, but due to atavism, the current duke was a pure Titan. However, the duke of a hundred years ago had been a human that was just a little larger and longer-lived than the average person, and had passed away.

nHowever, Duke Jahan had made no attempt to cover up his younger brother’s deeds; he had sent him to the chopping block and refused to have him buried in the family’s graveyard. He had sufficiently atoned for the sins of his blood, and Vandalieu had no intention of punishing him further.

nSenopa Company had made their own independent decision to not mention Duke Jahan by name. In both the Amid Empire and the Orbaume Kingdom, royals and nobles were essentially different creatures entirely; the only ones who believed that all people were equal were the kind of clergymen who trained in isolated places and dedicated their entire lives to their religion.

nMy nation has adopted aristocracy as well, but… I would like the disparities in social standing to be more reasonable, Vandalieu thought.

nHe was the absolute ruler of his own nation, so it was difficult to achieve perfect equality in his society.

nWith these thoughts running through his mind, Vandalieu asked Natania, who was still holding him, to bring him closer to the gate.

nThe moment he did, the windows and doors on the other side of the garden began opening and slamming shut loudly; the untrimmed, thickly-growing trees and grass began writhing about as if they were living creatures; and the gate began shaking with an unpleasant metallic noise despite being sealed.

nNatania, Miriam, and the Senopa employee screamed, and Simon and Arthur instinctively reached for their weapons.

nDarcia smiled, taking this as the cursed mansion’s way of joyfully welcoming them. “It’s so happy just from Vandalieu coming a little closer. How adorable!”

n“Yes, I don’t have any bad feelings about this place,” said Vandalieu, confirming that the cursed mansion likely was welcoming them.

n“Quite lively, despite not getting much suuun,” said Eisen, impressed by the movements of the garden’s sinister-looking plants.

n“Ah, I see. If that’s the case…” said Simon, wearing a look of relief as he relaxed and lowered his hand from the hilt of his sword.

n“Perhaps the loud opening and shutting of the doors and windows is similar to a friendly dog wagging its tail,” said Arthur, relaxing as well.

n“I think you may be right, Nii-san. Dogs wag their tails quickly like that when they’re happy, after all,” said Kalinia, her expression relaxing as she associated this cursed mansion with a friendly dog.

n“Phew. It was just happy, then,” Natania said with a sigh of relief.

n“Yeah, that gave me a fright,” said Miriam.

nThe only one who wasn’t convinced or relieved was the Senopa employee. His face was pale and his legs were shaking as violently as that of a newborn deer that was trying to stand for the first time.

n“How are you so sure of that?! No matter how you look at it, it’s a terrifying cursed mansion, right?! This place is dangerous let’s get out of here yes let’s do that we have no other choice!” he shouted, saying the entirety of the last sentence in a single breath.

n“Ah, good articulation and an effective use of your lungs,” said Vandalieu, impressed.

nIn the next moment, the sealed gate burst open.

nSnake-like vines wrapped themselves around Natania, who was holding Vandalieu, and began dragging both of them inside.

nNatania let out a desperate shout.

n“Natania, I think it’s more exciting if you scream like you’re scared,” said Vandalieu.

nAnd with that, they were pulled into the doors of the mansion.

n“O-oh no!” the Senopa employee said weakly, who could only watch all this happen without being able to do anything to stop it.

nIt took all of his effort not to faint on the spot.

nIt was true that the Senopa Company that employed him had great connections to the Church of Alda. They made significant charitable donations to the Church and many of their employees listened to the Church’s sermons.

nBut that did not mean that all members of the company, including Chairman Senopa himself, were fervent worshipers of Alda. It was a simple matter of having connections to the Church of Alda because that was what was useful for their business.

nThey had no intention whatsoever of being hostile towards Darcia or Vandalieu. They had merely shown this property, the one with the most troublesome curse among all the properties they owned, in order to appease the Church of Alda.

nAnd once Darcia and Vandalieu refused to purchase the property, they had planned to politely refer them to another company, thus bringing a peaceful conclusion to this whole affair.

nAt this rate, our future… no, MY future…! the employee thought in despair.

nDespite his company’s intentions, if the property they were showing caused injury… or even death, to the only son of an honorary noble, it would create the serious question of who was responsible.

nRadical worshipers of Alda might applaud the incident, but they wouldn’t go as far as to defend the Senopa Company or its employee who had caused injury to the child of a noble due to their negligence.

nThe chairman of the company would likely defend the employee, but he was still certain to be fired in the end.

nThe Senopa employee was already starting to envision a future where he fled Orbaume along with his family, relying on the severance pay and reference letter that the chairman would hand him when he was dismissed.

n“W-why has the seal never been broken before…?” the Senopa employee murmured, still in shock.

n“Perhaps the cursed mansion has always been capable of breaking that seal if it really wanted tooo? It just didn’t, because there was no reason to.”

n“B-but evil spirits have been seen trying to break the seal and escape on multiple occasions…”

n“Those are likely to be the priests and thieves who entered the mansion and died, whose spirits turned into evil Undead spiiirits. I thiiink they just wanted to escape from the mansion that killed them. But they weren’t under the mansion’s command, so they have nothing to do with the will of the mansion, you see.”

n“Th-the will of the mansion, you say? You’re certainly knowledgeable… about… Undead…”

nThe Senopa employee fell silent as he turned his head and realized that he had been talking to not Darcia or Kalinia, but Eisen, the familiar with a collar around her neck. He had suspected that she was a monster that was as intelligent as it looked, but he was dumbfounded to learn that she had more knowledge than he did.

n“It’s true that the mansion can’t move from where it is, regardless of whether it is sealed or not. But even if it’s sealed, thieves and criminals come and trespass on its grounds, so it’s not lacking for victims,” said Darcia.

nKalinia gave an amused laugh. “So that’s why the mansion had no reason to break the seal. In fact, staying sealed would make it less likely that it would be purified by intruders that are too powerful… like high-ranking adventurers who are capable of turning the grounds into an empty waste.”

n“N-no way! Then we’ve played right into its hands?!” the Senopa employee cried.

nBorzofoy cackled. “It seems that you’ve been had. But don’t worry, you didn’t do anything wrong. This was just a little accident.”

nThe Senopa employee started screaming uncontrollably, a look of pure despair on his face.

n“You don’t have to make that kind of face, Mr. Employee,” Simon said hastily. “Arthur, Kalinia, and Miss Eisen were just explaining their thoughts and Borzofoy was just trying to reassure you that it’s not your fault. We weren’t trying to make you feel more guilty!”

nIncidentally, this was often forgotten when he was in the presence of Arthur and the others, but Simon himself was quite the fierce-looking man – though his appearance had improved considerably after he improved his attitude and lifestyle a year ago and began shaving his beard.

n“But the mansion seems to have taken a liking to Vandalieu, so I’d like to decide on this place,” said Darcia. “Mr. Employee, could you please show me the contract? And should I just make the payment right here and now?”

n“Darcia-san, I think we should return to the Senopa Company headquarters first. You’ll probably need to pay millions of Baums, so he won’t be able to carry all the money back on his own,” said Miriam.

nDarcia was attempting to go ahead with the purchase of this terrifying cursed mansion that had broken its own seal, and neither she nor Miriam seemed to be concerned about the safety of her son or Natania.

nHaving undergone a great deal of mental turmoil, the Senopa employee shook his head like a broken doll. To begin with, he had intended for Darcia and Vandalieu to refuse this property, and he had never intended to sell it. He certainly wasn’t carrying the contract.

n“Oh, really? Then it can’t be helped. I shall go to the Senopa Company headquarters with Sa… Simon-san, and purchase this mansion,” said Darcia. “Eisen, you’re considered a familiar, so wait at the mansion with your tamer, Vandalieu. Miriam-san and everyone else, please wait in front of the gate, and if anyone comes, please explain the situation around the broken seal so that it doesn’t cause a panic.”

n“Yeees…” said Eisen.

n“Leave it to us!” said Miriam.

nAnd so, the group split up. When the employee came to his senses again, he was sitting in the coachman’s seat of a carriage with Simon, headed back to the Senopa Company headquarters.

nAt the Senopa Company headquarters, the chairman insisted that he could not sell such a dangerous property, but Darcia said, “It’s alright, it’s not dangerous anymore. I swear on the name of the goddess Vida and the champion Zakkart.” She then forced the purchase through by showing him what she had brought to pay for the mansion – a fortune so large that one couldn’t believe it could have fit inside the carriage. Piles of leather bags filled with platinum coins, ingots of gold, gemstones – likely about ten million Baums in total.

nAnd then she purchased the mansion for just three hundred thousand Baums, a shockingly low price for a fully-furnished three-floor mansion with a large garden and historical paintings.

nThe news that Honorary Countess Darcia Zakkart of the Alcrem Duchy had purchased ‘that cursed mansion’ then spread like wildfire among the nobles and the merchants who stocked goods for them.

nMonster explanation (Excerpt from documents in the reference room of the Adventurers’ Guild):

nCursed Mansion

nThis is a building inhabited by Undead who move and manipulate its doors, stairs, and furniture. Strictly speaking, the building itself is not a monster, but it is referred to as one for convenience’s sake.

nIn many cases, these are formerly residences of nobles and wealthy merchants, and they come into existence when these residences become the scenes of tragic incidents such as when the residence’s owners massacre their entire family or torture and kill their servants or lovers.

nBecause countless Undead exist within the mansion’s grounds, forming a collective with the mansion at its center, the Cursed Mansions themselves are considered as a whole when counting multiple of them, rather than counting the individual monsters within them.

nThe difficulty of destroying one such mansion depends on the size of the grounds, the hidden mechanisms installed in it, and how powerful the Undead within are.

nA merchant’s mansion may sometimes contain hidden chambers to store secret treasures, but the mansions of nobles often contain hidden mechanisms such as emergency escape passages. There are even nobles who install hidden mechanisms that could not possibly see any regular use.

nThe monsters that appear within these mansions are often the servants, prostitutes, and abducted children who have become Undead; few of them are Undead that can cast spells, like Liches.

nHowever, one must not let their guard down inside such a mansion, as it is possible to get ambushed from one’s blind spot by Ghosts, who are largely unaffected by physical attacks; mansion decorations that are haunted to become Living Mail Armors and Cursed Paintings; and Cursed Weapons.

nWhen a mansion is abandoned for several centuries and it becomes heavily corrupted by miasma, it becomes almost identical to a real Devil’s Nest, making it even more dangerous as the garden’s plants and the insects and rodents living in the mansion become monsters as well.

nMansions previously belonging to nobles with a court rank of baron or lower are often smaller and have few hidden mechanisms. Five priests with ability equivalent to that of D-class adventurers will suffice to purify such mansions. However, the purification of mansions previously belonging to nobles with a court rank of duke or higher quite often requires high priests with ability equivalent to that of A-class adventurers.

nIn Orbaume, there are few commissions to purify Cursed Mansions posted at the Adventurers’ Guild, but in other duchies, this task is sometimes performed by adventurers rather than the Church.

nBefore accepting this task, we recommend discussing things in detail with the client – Things such as ensuring that they will not demand compensation for the destruction of works of art that have become monsters, or confirming whether they would prefer that walls and doors be left intact.

nIncidentally, dealing with a Cursed Mansion is considerably easier if the client does not mind if spells are cast repeatedly from outside the grounds until the entire mansion is destroyed, or the entirety of the grounds is doused in oil and set alight.

nHowever, be aware that in many cases, the client will not allow such measures. Even if they do, if a stray spell hits another noble’s mansion or the flames spread to adjacent properties, the client and the adventurers performing the task will be held responsible. At best, they may get away with paying large sums as reparations; at worst, they could even be hanged. Therefore, we advise caution.

nAs the champion Farmaun Gold once said, “Living humans are scarier than the dead.”

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