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Lavish, glossy dishes.
What caught Hamel’s eye were the vessels holding those dishes.
Among the silverware there was one thing that was different.
“It’s a turkey.”
“Ah… I see.”
At Hamel’s words, David nodded as if he’d noticed something.
But the others still looked puzzled, so Hamel added more.
“The key that fits the dining room’s keyhole was the same silver color. Then the key that fits the kitchen should be the same color as that one — a copper tone.”
“…Ah!”
“Hm.”
Only then did exclamations of understanding break from the others.
As Hamel had said, only the brass bowl holding the turkey had the same color — a coppery sheen.
Daniel, sitting nearest the turkey, took the knife in front of him and slit open the bird’s belly.
─Wriggle
When the golden-roasted belly split open, something white writhed inside.
No — not “something.”
It was “somethings.”
“Ugh!”
“…”
Starting with Antonio’s gag, the whole party grimaced.
─Squirm, squirm
Hundreds, thousands of maggots were crawling inside the turkey.
“Tsk.”
Daniel, having removed his gauntlet, clicked his tongue and rummaged through the turkey’s innards, parting the maggot swarms.
A short while later he grabbed something and pulled it out.
It was a brass key.
“Found it.”
“…Thank you for your trouble.”
Even Hamel, rarely showing regret, wore an apologetic expression for a moment.
─Whoosh
The flames of the candlesticks on the table and walls leapt up wildly.
And at the same time.
─Ssshhh
The foods on the table seemed to melt and change form.
The roasted piglet with its crispy skin turned into a pig carcass with its entrails torn and bleeding.
The fish drenched in sauce rotted, swarming with flies and maggots, and the fragrant soup became a dark sludge dotted with food scraps and things like human fingernails.
Before they could fully look, an indescribably foul stench hit their noses.
“Ugh.”
They covered their mouths and instinctively pushed back from the table.
The table then jostled on its own and the food toppled one by one onto the floor with dull thuds.
As no one could move at the bizarre sight,
“We’ll go outside.”
Hamel called out as he headed toward the door.
Having obtained the key, there was no need to stay here.
No sooner had Hamel spoken than the party rushed out of the dining room.
“Shut it! Quickly!”
They all burst out and hastily shut the door.
Only after the dining room door closed with a bang did they breathe a sigh of relief.
“What… is this…”
The senior priest’s mutter, his face white, echoed everyone’s feelings.
Inside the dining room, as if nothing had happened, everything was silent.
“Now it begins.”
Hamel passed the stunned group and said.
As if accustomed, he alone walked toward the kitchen.
“You must be used to scenes like this.”
“Because I’m an Exorcist priest.”
Hamel answered calmly to David, who had followed him.
His job was to confront the world’s mysteries and the uncanny.
He had gone through too much to be surprised by each oddity now.
Perhaps because Hamel kept his composure,
the group, embarrassed one by one, rose and followed him.
“Is it necessary to hurry like this?”
Only the senior priest asked in a shaken voice, but Hamel’s opinion was firm.
“The workshop’s owner has likely noticed our presence. The more time passes, the more they’ll try to interfere.”
There is nothing more foolish than giving a wizard time to prepare.
The senior priest simply nodded, as if he’d understood.
“I’ll open it.”
They returned down the corridor and arrived at the kitchen.
Hamel quietly but quickly inserted the key into the keyhole.
─Click
With the sound of the lock turning, the door creaked open.
And.
“…What is that now?”
Even David frowned as he looked at the scene before him.
─Tap tap tap tap
The sound of a knife striking a cutting board rang cheerfully.
A pot over the fire bubbled something, and a pan rocked up and down over the blazing stove, frying vegetables in oil.
The problem was…
“Is there no one here?”
Everyone was stunned by the floating, seemingly self-moving pan and knife, but only the chief priest and Hamel quietly exchanged glances.
“Isn’t this even right?”
“Yes.”
Hamel quietly nodded at the chief priest’s question.
“It’s it.”
Why something like that was in the workshop, he didn’t know.
But Hamel couldn’t be mistaken.
There was residual demonic energy linked to the cooking implements.
Following it, faint dozens of legs could be seen inside the dark, cold hearth.
Hamel pretended not to notice and cautiously approached the lone moving cookware and spoke.
“What are you doing?”
“As you can see, I’m cooking.”
A woman’s voice answered from the empty air.
As expected.
‘A centipede bride (Korean folklore), is it?’
Its archetype is a devil that lures solitary men.
In other words, it could communicate.
“Sorry to interrupt your cooking, but do you know a way to get upstairs?”
“I do.”
“…!”
Hamel was about to ask how, but the voice was quicker.
“More importantly, you look peckish — have some bread here.”
The knife that had been slicing carrots floated up and pointed at the table.
There was what appeared to be a loaf of bread waiting there.
“…Very well.”
Hamel complied willingly.
They were surprised when he grabbed and swallowed the bread at once.
“What are you thinking, eating that!”
Antonio rushed over in alarm and whispered.
But the voice chuckled softly, as if pleased.
“You eat well.”
“I was just hungry.”
“Good. Then fetch the tea set from the reception room for me. I’ll tell you how to get upstairs.”
“All right.”
Just as Hamel nodded and moved to go,
The voice added as if it had just remembered.
“By the way, be quiet in the reception room. And the reception room’s key is inside the bread you just ate.”
“…”
“Bring the tea set within thirty minutes. Otherwise I’ll cancel telling you the way. I’ll come get it myself — the key or the plates.”
The floating knife pointed at Hamel’s stomach as it spoke.
If the voice sounded especially delighted, was it only imagination?
“Understood.”
Hamel, still calm, nodded and turned away.
Whether steam had leaked out,
or simply because it had said all it needed to,
The voice returned to concentrating on cutting carrots on the board.
─Tap tap tap tap
Listening to that steady sound, Hamel left the kitchen.
And at that moment.
“W-what should we do? Should you throw up?”
Antonio cried out, restless.
The others were much the same.
They touched their heads as if they’d been tricked and said.
“Do we have to cut open our bellies to get the key?”
“Can’t we just catch that thing and torture it?”
“An opponent you can’t even see?”
“…”
David and Daniel exchanged grave looks and words.
Hamel slowly shook his head.
It didn’t matter whether the bread had poison or the knife had something —
The same applied even if it was the key.
“I took it out.”
“?”
Just then, as the group looked puzzled,
The senior priest made an ‘ah’ of realization and then shook his head.
“What does that mean?”
Hamel answered David’s question matter-of-factly.
“As you said. To retrieve the key, one would have to gut the belly.”
“…?”
─Clang
Before the conversation even finished,
A blood-stained iron key rolled across the floor.
“…”
They stared in shock at Hamel, blood trickling from his mouth.
“You don’t mean… now…?”
Antonio, about to ask how, shut his mouth.
Sometimes there are truths you are better off not knowing.
At this point, Hamel — who’d taken the key from his own belly — was scarier than the mysterious woman who had hidden the key in bread.
Perhaps feeling the same, they watched Hamel pick up the key with numb faces, as if looking at a monster.
Hamel merely shrugged as if it was nothing new.
At the end of the first-floor right corridor.
The reception room clicked open.
“It’s dark.”
That was Hamel’s first impression.
A room without a speck of light.
It came back to him faintly.
It was odd for a reception room, likely meant for quiet conversation.
Hamel lit the lamp he’d brought.
─Whoosh
The darkness receded, and the reception room was revealed.
There was, predictably, the scene one would expect.
“…”
Skeletons.
The dead — when they had died no one knew — sat on sofas around a table set with tea ware.
There was even a skull clutching a teacup, decayed as if frozen mid-sip.
“I’ll retrieve them.”
Hamel said as he took the cup from the skull’s hand.
There was no lingering magical residue.
Judging by the strange phenomena since earlier, this workshop seemed to mix magical devices and mechanical contraptions…
David stood beside Hamel.
He was one of those hired for the mage tower, an institution where only a few of the finest wizards could enter.
He would cover any parts Hamel missed.
When David met Hamel’s eyes, he shrugged as if to say there was no problem.
One by one, the others picked up the tea set from the table.
‘Too easy.’
Is that all?
Hamel remained suspicious until they left the reception room, but nothing else happened.
If they simply carried the tea ware to the kitchen, it would be over.
Yet this lingering unease — what was it?
“Huh?”
David’s puzzled voice pierced the silence.
His gaze landed on the teapot Antonio was holding.
‘…A teapot?’
Like a bucket of cold water, a thought flashed through his mind.
Antonio, meanwhile, frowned as if sensing something odd.
“Something was just in there…”
David couldn’t finish voicing his question.
─Hiss!
With a sharp sound the teapot’s lid flew open and a black snake shot out.
“…Gasp!”
A terrified Antonio swallowed hard.
Its jaws opened, and yellow venom glistened on its sharp fangs.
As death hovered at Antonio’s throat, a sharp slicing sound rang out.
─Screech
Hamel had swung his sword and lopped off the snake’s head.
He had swung at the teapot before the snake fully emerged, having finally understood why the people in the reception room had died.
‘It was poison.’
The moment he saw the teapot, Hamel realized the source of his unease.
What had killed the people in the reception room?
Those drinking tea had likely consumed tea laced with snake venom and slipped into an eternal sleep.
─Clink
In the rush of his swing, a teacup in Hamel’s hand slipped and shattered on the floor.
At the sharp sound of the breaking cup, everyone froze.
Silence flowed.
An ominous quiet swept the company.
It was Antonio who broke the silence.
Startled and dazed, he pointed down the corridor and said.
“There… Has that been there from the start?”
Their gazes followed Antonio’s pointing finger.
The corridor in front of the dining room they’d just passed.
There was a strange figure there.
It looked like a patched-together rag doll, but it hardly looked alive.
Its mismatched eyes had no lids and couldn’t blink, and with no lips, exposed gums and teeth jutted out in odd curves.
With head, torso, and legs lumped together, its thick limbs were striking.
Hamel slowly shook his head and answered Antonio.
“No.”
David and the chief priest frowned and added their observations.
“It’s neither magic nor a mechanical device.”
“Nor a demon or living creature…”
“Then what on earth is that…”
As they tensely tried to guess its identity,
[Aooaar.]
it slowly opened the dining room door and entered.
They did not know what it was.
But if they were to move, the time was while it had left its post.
It was this moment.
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