Prologue
“Lady Sienna, may I ask you something?”
“Yes, of course, Duke!”
“Since when have you been able to see ghosts?”
“Ah….”
Sienna, who had been stuffing steak into her mouth, suddenly widened her eyes.
She wiped the sauce from the corner of her lips and trailed off. Her light green eyes wavered uneasily.
It was exactly the reaction he had expected.
‘It’s the first time I’ve asked so directly.’
Harman slowly picked up his fork, thinking that no matter what answer he heard, he wouldn’t be shaken.
‘Hm?’
But the Sienna reflected faintly on his fork seemed oddly restless. In that brief moment, she even stretched her neck and looked around.
As if she were worried someone might overhear their conversation.
“I’ll tell you this just to you, Duke….”
After confirming no one was listening, she covered her mouth with her hand and whispered softly.
‘….’
This wasn’t a situation where she should be afraid of human ears.
Even though things were straying from his expectations, Harman stared straight ahead without the slightest disturbance.
To be precise, he was looking beside Sienna.
Ever since she had jumped up, waving both hands wildly—at that thing clinging to her.
From outside the terrace came the clear laughter of young ladies. But none of it reached Harman’s ears.
All sounds became a dull hum, like noise, and at that moment, he set down the clean fork in his hand.
Today, he would definitely find out.
After clearing out every ghost in the haunted mansion,
he would uncover the true intentions of the woman who pretended she couldn’t see them.
“I’ll just tell you quietly, Duke. Actually, ghosts don’t exist. Those kinds of things only appear in novels, right?”
“If word gets out, I’ll lose customers, so this is just between us!”
As her gentle voice reached his ears, Harman’s lips twisted.
In the end, she was lying again today.
Sienna had absolutely no intention of telling the truth.
She was always like this.
Whenever the topic of ghosts came up, she would give a strangely wistful look and force an awkward smile.
Even though she had exorcised ghosts right in front of him more than once, she continued to lie.
‘Ever since that day, every single day has been a nightmare for me.’
His insides twisted, but Harman quickly composed his expression, as he always did, and formed a light smile.
Today, he would definitely uncover what this woman was hiding.
How could she carry something like that so casually, yet pretend not to see it?
And why… was she completely fine even with it right beside her?
Pressing down on his suddenly heavy eyelids, Harman pointed beside Sienna.
“Then… what is that?”
At the tip of his finger—
Something with long black hair hanging down twisted its head grotesquely. Where its jaw should have been, the top of its head was.
Black pupils filled the entirety of its white eyes as they creaked and turned toward Harman—
“Oh! It’s just a leaf!”
Smack!
Sienna struck its cheek.
No—she brushed off her clothes.
A single leaf that had fallen from her dress fluttered down onto the table.
Clutching its stinging cheek, the thing stared at Sienna in shock.
But Sienna simply picked up the leaf that had fallen from her clothes and smiled brightly.
As if she couldn’t see it at all.
“Since when was that there…? It wasn’t stuck to me from the beginning, was it?”
Her expression was completely out of place—pure and spotless.
Harman slowly curled the finger he had been using to point.
Did she just hit that?
And now she was pretending nothing happened?
“Ah, Duke! Did you know that if you dry a leaf, it makes a pretty bookmark?”
Now the thing straightened its twisted head back into place. Its posture shrank awkwardly, resembling that of a human.
A slightly shabby human with tangled hair.
Soon, its form began to fade. Harman could easily predict what would happen next.
Just like the times he had witnessed before, it would soon disappear without a trace.
“It’s a red maple leaf, so it would be perfect as a bookmark.”
Sienna shyly turned the leaf around in her hand as she spoke.
Her cheeks were slightly flushed, making her look like the heroine of a romantic date.
At this point, one might almost think she truly couldn’t perceive ghosts.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, something caught his eye.
“I see. Yes… it would make a pretty bookmark.”
Harman smiled faintly, deliberately lifting the corners of his lips higher. But they trembled ever so slightly.
At some point, the ghost that had been beside Sienna had completely vanished without a trace.
There was no way that could be true.
