How To Use Regressors

51 – Suspicious Request (4)

In the end, I was the only one left in the mansion while the party members went on the investigation.

Seo Yooju seemed concerned about me until the end, but I couldn’t object to the fact that the woman offered support from the guards.

She just gave me a look that she wouldn’t stand still if something happened to me while they were away.

That’s how I ended up alone with the man and the woman, and their attitude became more obvious.

“Hehe… There’s no need to worry too much about your party members. The guards will assist in the investigation, so it won’t be dangerous.”

“……”

“Instead… When I have one-on-one conversations, I find it more comfortable to talk from the neighboring seat. Is it okay if I sit next to you?”

Without even waiting for my response, the woman sat down next to me. And then, she gently smiled.

“Ugh… How annoying.”

I started to contemplate whether or not I should respond seriously to this woman. Looking at her mischievous appearance, it seemed like she hadn’t entirely given up on stirring up trouble.

…But the complete opposite words were coming out of my mouth.

“Haha… Since you’ve sat next to me, it makes me nervous as a man as well.”

“Oh, my, can I take that as a compliment? Are you saying I’m that beautiful?”

“Of course.”

“Hehe… I prefer having conversations from the neighboring seat like this. It gives me a feeling of getting to know each other well.”

“Crazy…”

As I spat out the words, I casually stroked my thigh, putting on a show.

Although I am a member of a major clan, I am a newcomer who hasn’t been in this world for long. And this woman is the daughter of the head of the Baek family, so I can’t casually treat her with disrespect, which irritated me.

“Haha… Is that so? Instead… Didn’t you mention that there is something you need help with? With that matter…”

“I currently want to have a conversation more than that… It’s not urgent anyway.”

“Put your hand down, goddamn it…”

I grabbed the hand of the woman who was moving her position subtly and gently.

“It seems that the lady’s hands are also truly beautiful.”

“…Oh.”

The woman let out a startled sound, as if she didn’t expect me to hold her hand.

“The hands…are said to represent a person’s heart. The more beautiful a person’s hands are, the more refined their character tends to be.”

It was an absurd nonsense to try and stop the woman’s hand, but she seemed touched by my words judging by her expression. If I were to go along with what I said, it would mean that every hardworking laborer in the world would have a bad character. In other words, it’s just nonsense.

My mouth felt repulsively twisted as I uttered these words, and I wanted to tear it apart, but I couldn’t do that now. Because I had to divert this woman’s attention elsewhere.

“That’s right. That’s why things that are dirty…oops!”

She was about to say something but realized her mistake, covering her mouth with both hands and looking at me warily.

Whether it was because she had never done hard or dirty work herself, or because she had twisted beliefs, I don’t know.

It was a perfect opportunity for me. It was a good timing to make her think that I empathize with her and understand her concerns.

“Well, there’s no need to be cautious. Because even I get a displeased expression when I see people who don’t take care of themselves or have a dirty appearance. Isn’t it a natural instinct of human beings?”

Well, in reality, about half of what I said is true. As living beings, humans place more importance on appearances than any other creature.

For example, even if it’s an insect, if its appearance is repulsive, there are plenty of people who would stomp on it in a clean yard. So, in that sense, what I said is not completely wrong.

“….. Uh, well…”

“People with pure hearts, like the young lady, are beautiful from the outside as well.”

Maybe I could use this woman to my advantage. For now, she’s the precious daughter of Byeonkbaek, with a high status… Perhaps she might be able to help me in various ways.

“It wouldn’t hurt to manipulate her and use her later.”

This empty-headed woman can be discarded when I’m done with her. After all, apart from her social status, she has absolutely nothing to offer me.

“Yes, that’s right. People with dirty hearts are ugly on the outside too. Your words are absolutely right.”

“Crazy woman… I didn’t say all that.”

Watching her misinterpret my words to an exaggerated extent, I couldn’t help but chuckle.

I don’t know why this woman is being friendly to me, well… Most likely, it’s because of her appearance, but it doesn’t matter. Her enthusiastic response to my words was amusing.

“Haha… It seems that our hearts resonate well, Miss.”

“I feel the same way, Mr. Lee Yunseong. Perhaps… things other than our hearts might resonate too?”

“Crazy… What are you saying?”

I didn’t know what she meant by things other than our hearts, but I instinctively felt repulsed by the words she uttered while scanning my body.

“Haha… Instead of that, Miss, could you introduce me to your mansion? I’m curious about the mansion you live in.”

“For now, let’s take a look inside the mansion.”

Anyway, as I explored the mansion and spent time with the woman, the party members who had gone on the investigation returned the next day.

Now, everyone is together in the assigned rooms. There was a large living room and separate rooms for each person.

Originally, I strongly opposed the idea of giving me a separate room close to my own room, in case Tiera, the woman, had gone crazy. Because I was afraid of the night that might happen.

“Mr. Yoonseong, nothing happened while we were gone, right…?”

“Yes, nothing happened. Are you all okay?”

I didn’t mention the personal moments I had with the woman. I wasn’t completely oblivious to the situation.

“Yes… although we did go on the investigation, there was absolutely nothing as expected, so we were surprised.”

“Is that so?”

“Don’t say that, hyung. It was just a few ghouls that appeared. Even the security guards in the mansion could handle it enough without us…”

‘…There was nothing to that extent?’

As I remained silent, Kang Iseo approached me and spoke.

“Hey, did that woman do anything strange to you?”

“Ah… she treated me well. She seemed like a decent person.”

The words “decent person” seemed to bother Kang Iseo, and he opened his mouth with a grimace.

“Hey, what’s up? A good person? Ha… Did that woman tease you and you fell for it in no time?”

“… What are you talking about?”

“Damn, it’s obvious she was teasing you. Hey, don’t get fooled by a woman like that. From my perspective, she’s a damn promiscuous woman.”

“…”

He couldn’t muster a response to the accusation of promiscuity. The woman’s status bar was evidence of that.

“Yoonseong, I agree with you. You shouldn’t get too close to that person… She seemed quite far from being a good person.”

“Yeah! Yeah! See, I told you I was right, didn’t I?”

“For someone as pure as Yoonseong, it might be hard to tell, but it’s pretty clear when it comes to a snake like her.”

At the mention of my purity, Kang Iseo looked at Seo Yujoo as if she couldn’t believe it.

“…”

I, too, felt ashamed and couldn’t lift my head. I was a far cry from being pure.

“… What did I do to Seo Yujoo during the first round? What kind of relationship did we have that led her to mistakenly think I’m pure?”

“And by the way, Yoonseong, what exactly do you do at the mansion? The young lady mentioned that she had something to entrust to you. If it’s a difficult task, maybe…”

‘Ha… I wish it were something difficult.’

“… Just talking was the end of it.”

“… Yes?”

“… After chatting with the lady, she just showed me around the mansion. There wasn’t anything worth calling work.”

Everyone who heard me just stood still, blankly.

Kang Isuh spoke with a surprised tone.

“What are you talking about?”

“… Literally, it was just small talk. I didn’t ask for anything.”

“Ha… Is that crazy guy… Did he really plan to provoke? Hey, isn’t this too much for just talking?”

“… What do you mean by too much?”

“No, does it make sense? You two haven’t met before, right? No matter how promiscuous a woman is, how can she be like that to a man she’s meeting for the first time? It doesn’t make sense.”

‘I’m more curious, damn…’

“Damn it, I didn’t do anything. I don’t know either.”

“Crazy… Don’t you need plastic surgery for your face or something?”

“…..”

“That’s a bit…”

I quickly changed the topic of conversation.

“…Rather than that, Miss Yoo, are you going for the investigation tomorrow?”

“Yes. The request was to clarify the cause, so I intend to find out as much as possible. Today, you were told to rest, Miss.”

“…Actually, I’m troubled by the fact that nothing is happening.”

The absence of any events made me rather uneasy. I had retrieved the chimera and listened to the conversation from last night, but there was no significant information.

Considering it had only been a day, unusual occurrences probably wouldn’t surface right away. Shalitha, a maid, had an exceedingly ordinary daily routine. She simply engaged in casual conversations with some of the mansion’s staff.

Still, there was a silver lining in the fact that I would join the investigation in three days.

“Miss Yoo, I will also participate in the investigation three days from now.”

“Really? What about Miss…?”

“Miss has her own plans starting from three days from now. I think I’ll be able to join the investigation from that point.”

“Alright, then. Let’s go for the investigation together three days from now.”

******

“Hmm… It seems like there’s nothing unusual, indeed.”

We had ventured deep into the forest, but so far, all we had encountered were a few goblins. Despite the approaching evening, we couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary.

“Yes. We haven’t found anything significant until now.”

“Have you asked the residents of the village?”

“We asked a few of them, but… what we heard was not different from what we already knew. There’s nothing special…”

“… I see.”

“Yes. That’s why today, we’re going to investigate more deeply than usual.”

“Hmm…”

“Hyungnim, Nuna! Over here…!”

Once we entered deeper into the forest, Hyeonjin called us, as if he had discovered something.

“This is…”

As we approached, we could see an obviously strange and ominous ornament. It was not a normal decoration, with unknown characters engraved on animal bones and a dead crow tied to it.

“This is… it seems like an ornament used in wicked rituals.”

“… We couldn’t find something like this before because we couldn’t come this far.”

“Is this your first time coming here?”

“Yes. Last time, we investigated in a different direction…”

“……”

Moving a little further from the place where the decorations were discovered, I found the same type of decorations at regular intervals.

While others reacted with a simple observation that the same decorations appeared, to me it seemed as if they were indicating the way.

“Yujoo, doesn’t this seem like they’re indicating the path?”

“…I was actually thinking the same thing.”

“Oppa, you mean it’s a path?”

“Haeun, we have found quite a few decorations so far, right? But they appeared at regular intervals. It seems like they’re indicating the way, doesn’t it?”

“Ah… Now that I listen to oppa’s words, it makes sense…”

A momentary idea came to mind, so I asked Haeun for one favor.

“Haeun, would you summon a spirit?”

“A spirit?”

She seemed uncertain about summoning a spirit. It’s natural to have doubts when asked to summon a spirit even though no monsters had appeared.

“Spirits are… fundamentally benevolent beings, right? If this place is related to black magic or gives off a strange vibe, maybe the spirits won’t respond.”

“Ah, now that I hear oppa’s words, it makes sense. Just a moment.”

After finishing her words, Haeun immediately summoned the wind spirit.

“How is it? Do you sense anything?”

“Hmm, it seems like the spirit is in a worse mood than usual. It’s not too severe, but it feels uneasy, you know?”

That should be enough.

“Okay. Keep the summoning going and don’t cancel it. Also, is there any place that the spirit dislikes? Ask for directions. If there is any unsettling place.”

The spirit mage had heard that basic communication with the summoned spirits is possible to some extent.

The more skilled the spirit mage is, the more detailed the communication can be, but even for a novice spirit mage like Song Ha-eun, she should be able to communicate the general mood.

“… I, I didn’t think of that. Um, it seems to be in this direction.”

Song Ha-eun immediately started guiding us, and as we continued moving, the frequency of seeing those ominous decorations gradually increased.

“Damn… is this supposed to be an easy request?”

Automatically, the image of Sharis, a servant girl in the mansion, came to mind.

“… Could it be her doing?”

The problem is, it’s strange to say that she is responsible for these actions.

Even if she were the culprit, she wouldn’t have sent herself as a messenger, no matter how much she claimed to be the client.

“What the hell is going on… damn it…”

As we continued moving deep into the forest, following those strange decorations, Song Ha-eun suddenly showed an abnormal reaction.