Ding!
The sudden sound jolted from my thoughts. My hand instinctively reached into my pocket, pulling out the stopwatch.
It was ti already? That was fast.
"Miyuki, did you find anything?" I asked, glancing over.
She shook her head. Her expression was clouded with disappointnt. "I'm sorry... I couldn't find anything."
"Hey, don't worry about it." I offered her a reassuring smile. "I didn't co across anything useful either. Let's head down stairs and et the others."
She hesitated for a mont but nodded, following as we made our way back.
As we descended from the third floor and reached the first, I noticed the others had already gathered at the base of the stairs. Our party consisted of Moon Jiyeon, Yoo Rin, Soo Jinyoung, and Ryu Yeji.
Soo Jinyoung was speaking to the group, but her words were too faint to catch from where I stood. I stepped closer, with Miyuki trailing close behind .
As we approached, everyone turned their heads to look at us. Their expressions were tense, more than usual.
When we reached the bottom of the stairs, I asked, "What's going on? Did sothing happen?"
Moon Jiyeon responded in her usual steady voice, "Jinyoung-nim was just explaining that she found sothing."
"Found sothing? You an a mory?"
"Sothing like that. But... it's a little different."
Huh? Sothing similar, yet different from a mory? What was she talking about?
I turned my attention to Soo Jinyoung, silently hoping for a clearer explanation. Noticing my gaze, she t my eyes and simply said, "I found a body."
"A body? Where? Is it one of the 'furnitures'?"
"No, it's not one of the servants. It's a character from the mory."
A character from the mory? I see. So, it's finally co to this. The plot of this Fable must be nearing its climax.
I asked, "Where is the body?"
"I found it in an empty room down here."
"Empty room? Aren't there only supposed to be the servants' rooms, the parlor, the kitchen, and the dining room on the first floor?"
"I thought so too. But it seems there's an extra room on the first floor."
Empty room on the first floor? Was it a storage unit? No, a storage unit would be inside the kitchen.
It was certainly suspicious.
I silently shifted my gaze between Soo Jinyoung and Ryu Yeji. They were the only ones actively searching the first floor for clues, but Soo Jinyoung had ntioned sothing about an extra room—sothing that didn't quite add up.
First of all, Soo Jinyoung had already examined the entire mansion's layout. So how could she have missed a single room?
That seed unusually careless of her, didn't it?
It wasn't a mistake the cautious protagonist would typically make. Perhaps the room had appeared out of nowhere—a trap, maybe. But if that were the case, Soo Jinyoung wouldn't have inford the group about it so openly.
No, sothing was definitely off here.
I narrowed my eyes. At the sa ti, I activated a skill with a simple ntal command.
[Personal skill, Black Box (Envy) has activated.]
[Soul Information]
Na: Soo Jinyoung
Main Attritudes: Infinite Reincarnator (Giant), Fallen Star (Myth)
Skills:
| Dragon Demon Eyes (용마안) |
| Pheonix Demonic Fla (봉황마염) |
| Seven Heavenly Swordsmanship (칠천검) |
| ntal Barrier (정신의 방벽) |
| Crowd Steps (군중보) |
Cont....
Divine Authorities:
| Regeneration (죽음의 귀환) |
| Succession (승계) |
Examining her private information, everything appeared normal. There were no discrepancies or irregularities. Her status window matched perfectly with the Soo Jinyoung I knew.
She wasn't an impostor.
Could it be that she was telling the truth? Was there truly an additional room hidden beyond our sight?
Perhaps it was concealed by a special boundary, one designed to make anyone who looked at it subconsciously ignore its existence.
That was the only explanation.
'Before I make any decisions, I should make sure to verify everyone's identities. There's nothing like being too cautious.'
I scanned each mber of the group, simultaneously reviewing their private information to identify any potential abnormalities.
Until...
'Ah, so it was you, huh?'
I found what I was looking for. Honestly, I was surprised. These things were surprisingly good at acting.
What a little snake.
"Alright. Let's check what you found. Perhaps we might find sothing useful there."
Soo Jinyoung paused in front of a door that I hadn't noticed before. It was strange—there was nothing particularly different about the door, but it seed to exclude an unknown aura.
She glanced back at the group. "This is the room," she said quietly.
I nodded and turned to Yoo Rin and Miyuki Kuroi.
"You two should stay outside and keep watch."
"Ah, I understand."
Yoo Rin grasped the gravity of the situation and nodded in agreent. If there truly was a corpse inside the room, it was no place for underage children to witness such a scene.
I had made that mistake once before, but I couldn't let it happen again.
Shifting my gaze to Soo Jinyoung, I said. "Let's go inside."
Soo Jinyoung said nothing as she pushed the door open.
The mont the door creaked, an unpleasant stench of rot assaulted my senses. I instinctively recoiled, but curiosity pulled forward.
Inside, the room was barren. No furniture, no decorations, no bookshelves—no windows to let in even a hint of light.
Just a plain empty room with walls that seed faded and lost their colour. The room was eerily plain, unsettlingly so.
But that wasn't what caught my attention.
My gaze shifted to the center of the room, where sothing lay motionless on the floor.
As I stepped closer, I realized it wasn't an object—it was a person. A lifeless body, and the unmistakable source of the foul, rotten stench perating the room.
Wait, that person...
A strange sense of familiarity washed over as I stared at the lifeless corpse. He was unmistakably soone I'd seen before—in the mories tied to this house.
Blonde hair and a youthful face. A man with a unique fashion style, dressed in antique white suit layered over a black collared shirt, a golden tie elegantly draped around his neck.
There was only one person who matched that description—a character who appeared ti and ti again in the fragnted mories of this house.
Adrian. The son of the Third Child of the Valont Family.
His elegant attire was stained by the pool of blood surrounding his lifeless body. The crimson liquid had seeped from nurous wounds, forming dark, dried streaks across the once-pristine fabric.
It was a haunting sight, one that spoke of a violent end. His lifeless gaze was fixed on the ceiling. It almost seed he couldn't believe he had died.
The second murder. Like Reginald, it was brutal and grotesque.
But this wasn't truly his body.
It was a fragnt—a piece of this place's mory, given form. Fragnts often took the shape of objects, weapons, or even people. This wasn't unusual, but it wasn't common either.
I crouched near him, studying the wounds more closely. His chest was riddled with stab marks—more than fifty to be precise. And a trail of dried blood flowed from his wounds to the ground.
It was disturbingly lifelike, as though I were examining a real corpse. But there was no room for fascination here.
What kind of savagery is this? Who stabs soone more than fifty tis?
My eyes narrowed in thought.
This doesn't feel like the work of an assassin. A single stab to the throat would have sufficed. Even if he fought back, two or three additional strikes would've ended it.
It takes considerable strength to stab soone—once, let alone dozens of tis. This wasn't just about killing Adrian. Whoever did this wanted him to suffer, to feel unimaginable pain and terror before his life slipped away.
I had read stories with similar patterns, and they always shared two key traits. Adrian's death felt no different.
Standing up, I finished forming the theory in my head and turned to the others in the room.
Soo Jinyoung, Moon Jiyeon, and Ryu Yeji.
Moon Jiyeon was the first to break the silence. Her expression was hidden behind the hand fan she raised to her lips. She spoke with a distasteful voice. "What a brutal and unsightly death. Were you able to figure anything out just by looking? And more importantly, why is there a corpse here?"
"That's not a real corpse," I replied evenly. "It's a mory—a fragnt given form. It's hard to determine much just by looking, but I think I'm starting to piece things together."
"Really?"
I began explaining the theory I had carefully pieced together.
"First of all, I don't think these murders are connected to the Epitaph. If they were, Julian would've been the one killed first since he's the heir. Secondly, Adrian's death doesn't look preditated—it seems like it happened in the heat of the mont. I've narrowed it down to two possibilities, and if either of them is true, it could change everything we think we know."
I raised a finger for each theory.
"One, Adrian's death was a cri of passion. Or two, it was a cri of jealousy."
Moon Jiyeon appeared deep in thought. "A cri of passion or a cri of jealousy, huh? By 'cri of passion,' do you an he was killed by soone who loved him?"
"Yes."
"Wait. That doesn't make sense. The only people in the mansion were family. None of them would've loved him that way."
"It's a possibility, but I'm not saying it was a family mber. Don't forget, there were also the servants."
"Ah..." Moon Jiyeon's brows furrowed as if the idea hadn't crossed her mind before.
I pressed on. "There are two pri suspects for a cri of passion: Iris, or one of the maidservants. And for jealousy, the most likely candidate is Victor."
Moon Jiyeon raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that a bit too specific?"
"I know, I know. It's just a theory, nothing concrete. But dismissing it outright would be careless." I turned to the quietest person in the room. "Yeji-ssi, what's your take?"
Ryu Yeji had been staring off into the distance, seemingly lost in thought.
"Yeji-ssi?"
"Huh?" He snapped back to attention, blinking rapidly. "Sorry, what were you saying?"
"We were discussing the murder," I said slowly. "I asked for your opinion."
"Oh, right... I see."
"Are you okay? You seem distracted."
Ryu Yeji laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head.
"Ha! Is it that obvious? Sorry. I've just had a lot on my mind. And honestly, doesn't this whole thing feel... underwhelming? Adrian didn't even put up a fight. None of them did. Wouldn't it have been more interesting if soone left behind a ssage? Or fought back?"
The room fell silent.
Soo Jinyoung narrowed her eyes, while Moon Jiyeon also beca suspicious and silently distanced herself.
I ignored both of them and said with a calm expression: "By the way, Yeji-ssi, can you do sothing for ?"
"Ah, anything for you, boss."
"Remove all your clothes, take off you shoes and fold yourself twelve tis."
"You got it~"
Ryu Yeji swiftly removed his suit along with his shirt and proceeded to fold himself as I instructed.
Crack! Pop! Snap!
First, he began by bending his arms unnaturally, twisting them at impossible angles. The sickening crack of his joints echoed in the silent room as his grin stretched wider than any human face should allow. Next, he folded his torso in three places as if he were no longer bound by bones or flesh. Then, he twisted one leg twice at an unnatural angle two tis, the sound of splintering bone reverberating through the air.
At so point, his contortions abruptly stopped. Six folds, huh? It seed that was 'Its' limit.
'It' really did a good job.
"Ahhhh! What the hell? What the hell?!"
Moon Jiyeon let out a piercing scream, stumbling backward as her face drained of color. Her composed deanor shattered in an instant.
It was hardly surprising. Who wouldn't react like that? The sight of soone twisting their body like a piece of dried cloth was enough to send shivers down anyone's spine.
Of course, I remained calm—thanks to the stupid Black Box relentlessly suppressing my emotions.
Without a word, I raised the Silver Magic Gun, Ivory, and aid directly at his forehead. My finger squeezed the trigger without hesitation.
Bang!
With a deafening crack, Ryu Yeji's head exploded, fragnts shattering as his unnaturally contorted body crumpled to the ground.
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