Chapter : 6 – I Don’t Believe in Ghosts, But I Make a Living as an Exorcist!
Is it called pareidolia?
A phenomenon where you find familiar shapes in random, unrelated patterns.
‘They must have been anxious, walking through this dark hallway day and night.’
So they probably mistook a shadow or a pattern they saw for a ghost.
‘It’s the same as mistaking a black plastic bag on the roadside for a cat in the dark.’
Though honestly, I had no idea what they saw in this empty hallway that looked like a human face.
“Ghosts like dark, gloomy places without sunlight, so please keep the curtains open as much as possible.”
“Understood.”
Harman nodded calmly. I ignored the slight guilt in my conscience.
I couldn’t explain the truth, and I had to pretend to exorcise ghosts to get paid.
So I had no choice but to blame everything on ghosts!
Instead of listening to my conscience, I pointed out something that had been bothering me.
“Your Grace.”
“Yes.”
“Does that painting have any special story? Like an old memory… something like that.”
I pointed behind me at the painting hanging on the wall. Harman, who was standing close, flinched slightly.
‘There’s something here.’
I narrowed my eyes and watched his reaction.
Harman seemed to think for a moment, then shook his head.
“No… not really.”
“Then has anything strange happened with that painting? Like noises, or it moving?”
At my words, his faint smile disappeared completely. He stared straight at me.
“It makes noise. Day or night, at any time.”
We hadn’t known each other long, but his stiff, expressionless face felt awkward.
“I thought so.”
“Do you know something?”
“Of course.”
I nodded and walked straight toward the painting.
A golden frame, and inside it was a white building.
I didn’t know much about art, so I couldn’t tell if it was amazing or expensive, but—
“Your Grace, please don’t be surprised.”
“Alright.”
I took a deep breath and carefully spoke.
“I think this is the problem.”
Thud!
I tapped the wall next to the painting, and it made a hollow sound.
That sound strengthened my guess.
As my thought turned into certainty, Harman tilted his head slightly.
He clearly had no idea what I was talking about.
Well, of course he wouldn’t know.
Even if he was capable, it would be hard to figure it out just from the sound of a wall.
So I decided to show him directly.
I dusted off my hands and lifted the painting.
“Lady Sienna—”
Harman reached out to stop me, but it was already too late.
The wall behind the painting was fully exposed. Harman opened his mouth in surprise.
I set the painting down and turned to him with a serious face.
“Your Grace, I’m really sorry, but…”
“If you’re scared, you may leave.”
Scared? I blinked at his sudden words and continued.
“No, that’s not it. The wall is too old. It’s going to collapse soon!”
“…What?”
Harman blinked slowly.
I knocked on the square dent in the wall where the painting had been.
The same hollow sound echoed again.
Right, the painting wasn’t the problem.
The wall was.
I held my head. The condition was worse than I expected.
Memories of the “haunted mansion” features I had written down five years ago, right after I transmigrated, came back to me.
Back then, I had cried while writing it, determined to save money, leave my family, and buy a cheap mansion.
So I remembered it clearly.
First, it usually belonged to high-ranking nobles.
Second, it was built hundreds of years ago.
And third—
It had never been properly repaired!
This third point was the biggest problem.
Nobles believed that their centuries-old mansions symbolized their enduring status.
They might have done small repairs.
But only when something was already broken or rotting.
Still, the mansion itself was their pride.
Looking at the hopeless wall, I muttered gloomily.
“You’ve never repaired this wall before, right? The old wall is decaying, that’s why it makes noise and the painting tilted.”
“……”
Harman closed his mouth.
Maybe he felt empty, hearing that something so trivial—not a ghost—was the cause.
‘Exactly!’
How many people left this mansion just because of something like this?
I politely gestured toward the wall with both hands.
“If you leave it like this, even the nearby walls will collapse. You need to repair it immediately.”
Right, I should blame it on ghosts.
“Uh… ghosts might settle in empty spaces! But luckily, it seems there aren’t any yet.”
I quickly added that as an excuse.
If they broke the wall and rebuilt it, the strange noises would disappear.
I was sure of it. The same thing happened in my mansion.
Bella got nervous because of noises from a painting, so I took it down—
and the wall behind it was about to collapse.
So I used all my remaining money to fix the wall first.
The hollow sound, the dent behind the painting—
It was exactly the same here… wait.
Wow.
“Your Grace, look at this.”
I grabbed his arm in shock.
The nail that held the painting—
There were countless tiny holes around it!
This was really bad.
Even my mansion wasn’t this damaged.
“It must be bugs eating through it. The wall is really going to collapse!”
“…Ha.”
Harman, who had been silently listening, let out a quiet breath and stared at the painting on the floor.
‘…Huh?’
Did I do something wrong?
His mood suddenly changed, and I glanced at his face.
His expression was still calm, but something felt off.
Like I had touched something I shouldn’t have.
‘Let’s just hang it back first.’
The wall wouldn’t collapse immediately anyway.
I picked up the painting.
“Then, shall we check somewhere else— Aaaah!”
As I tried to hang it back, something pure white suddenly flew toward me!
A bug? A bird?
Startled, I instinctively swung the painting like a bat.
Whoosh—
Crack!
At the same time, something broke.
“……”
“……”
Silence fell.
‘No… maybe it’s not that bad.’
I slowly opened my eyes.
The painting was completely broken in half.
The picture inside was also split cleanly in two.
I shut my eyes tightly again.
I was doomed.
A chill ran down my spine.
My whole body felt cold.
I wanted to rub my neck, but unfortunately, both my hands were still holding the broken pieces.
“Your Grace, I’m really sorry! I’ll somehow—”
I kept bowing again and again without thinking.
“I’ll compensate for it somehow! I’m really sorry!”
It must be extremely expensive.
There was no way a painting in a ducal mansion would be ordinary.
Cold sweat ran down my back.
But unexpectedly, Harman looked at the broken painting for a while, then shook his head.
“It’s fine.”
“I… what?”
“It’s just one of many. It’s fine.”
I looked up nervously.
He seemed completely calm.
As if he had no attachment to the painting at all.
‘But… one of many? Does that mean there are more like this?’
The question rose briefly, then disappeared.
Seeing me hesitate, he pointed elsewhere.
“Shall we check the other areas now?”
As if he truly didn’t care.
“…Yes!”
I quickly nodded and quietly set the painting down.
That’s a relief, such a relief!
I need to work harder!
I wiped my slightly teary eyes.
Relieved that I didn’t have to pay for the painting, I completely forgot about the white thing I had just seen.
Harman stared quietly at Sienna’s back as she walked ahead.
One of his eyes trembled slightly, then slowly closed.
“I see… she’s pretending not to see anything.”
Why?
For a brief moment, his gaze drifted into the air—
then returned to her back.
“You must not kill her.”
Not yet.
His blue eyes, now fully open again, shone sharply.
