Chapter 17: The Ghost’s Gift and Bliss’s Experiment

“Hello.”

A few days later, as Ethan walked down the corridor toward the study, he saw Doctor Sera heading to Bliss’s office and offered a brief greeting. As Bliss’s personal physician, she sometimes moved alone, as she did now, but other times she would sweep through the halls with a throng of her researchers.

Having never seen a precedent for such behavior, Ethan found nothing strange about her entourage. On the contrary, he simply assumed that an S-rank Esper would naturally require such a team to be managed properly.

“Oh, Ethan. Any progress with your work?”

At her teasing question, Ethan playfully wrinkled his nose.

“It seems everyone knows I caused an accident and am now on forced part-time duty.”

“Well, you did break a chandelier of that magnitude; it’s only natural for everyone to know. Still, I think it’s a good thing. You’ve met new people, haven’t you?”

“That’s true. I’m not just seeing the same old faces every day. But what’s that in your hand?”

Doctor Sera held a transparent box. It was clearly a sterilized container to prevent contamination, but what puzzled Ethan was why Chilbok’s single pouch was inside it. Moreover, it was a tattered pouch, patched together from scraps of fabric, given how precious the cloth was to Chilbok.

“Bliss-nim apparently found it, and asked me to investigate. It’s not my specialty, but I can at least do a chemical analysis.”

Ethan barely managed to keep his lips from twitching.

“So, have you found anything? To me, it just looks like a pouch.”

“Of course! This is a treasure.”

“…Pardon?”

Ethan’s eyes widened at her unexpected declaration. Sera spoke in a hushed tone, as if sharing an open secret.

“It turns out all these fabrics are over a hundred years old. Some types of cloth are no longer even produced. That’s all I’ve discovered so far, but it could be more than that, couldn’t it? So, I’m going to report that it would be best to send it to a museum for a formal investigation.”

With a thoroughly deflated expression, Ethan offered Doctor Sera a casual smile.

“…I wish you luck.”

“Thank you. You work hard on your forced part-time job too, Ethan.”

Doctor Sera ascended to the second floor with a light step, her white gown fluttering behind her. Ethan quietly and incredulously muttered to Chilbok, who was restlessly squirming in his pocket.

“Chilbok. How much did you cherish it to make that from a hundred-year-old piece of trash?”

Chilbok’s movements grew still. Ethan chuckled, then opened the study door.

“Embarrassed, are we? Playing dead. Or rather, were you already dead to begin with?”

****

“Make gloves?”

Bliss gazed at Doctor Sera with a slightly bewildered expression. She had brought the small pouch he’d given her back in a grand, sealed container, yet she was utterly resolute.

“If we can keep finding these pouches, yes.”

“…So you want me to stitch together rags made from a hundred-year-old fabric to make rag gloves?”

For a man who had lived his entire life as an aristocrat, it was a rather cruel proposition. Yet, she remained unfazed.

“I conducted an affinity test with the pouch you provided, and the results were quite astonishing. This pouch has a multi-affinity.”

“Multi-affinity? Surely not…”

Sera’s face twisted slightly. It was not something she particularly wanted to say, but she had to.

“It’s a multi-guiding pouch, just like that person’s. Direct measurement of guiding quality is impossible, so I can’t be certain, but if it allows Bliss-nim to sleep soundly, then it’s likely of comparable, or perhaps even higher, purity than theirs.”

Bliss’s brows drew together.

“Even one glove would be sufficient. Recently, Bliss-nim’s attack cycles have been accelerating. In a few years, the cycles will become irregular and unpredictable. While finding a matched Guide before then would be ideal, if we cannot, the gloves would at least buy you enough time to reach any nearby shelter.”

Bliss opened the box he had brought from his bedroom and pushed it toward Sera. Disappointment flickered across Sera’s face, which had been filled with anticipation.

“It’s too little.”

Bliss lifted the largest of the pouches, muttering, “I don’t know if it’s just my imagination, but the pouches seem to be getting smaller these days.”

“Still, let’s hold onto hope. There’s no law saying these pouches can only be found in Bliss-nim’s bedroom.”

“……I’ll instruct the servants to bring any pouches they find.”

At Bliss’s words, Sera’s face brightened once more, and she left the room. Philip and Dale entered, exchanging a glance with her as she passed. Closing the box, Bliss urged them to report.

“What did you find out?”

“Indeed, there are rumors related to the mansion. As you mentioned, people claim to have heard howling and a woman’s cries. The rumor of a haunted mansion has spread so much that people now avoid passing by the front of the estate at night.”

“When did the sounds begin?”

“They say these phenomena started after Mr. Henry passed away. However…”

As Philip trailed off, Bliss raised his head. Dale, standing beside him, cautiously began to speak.

“That woman, Mary, is quite the gossip. Besides what we asked, she spread all sorts of rumors, claiming that Hans Palmer from the grocery store and his nephew, Ethan Prescott, are actually in ‘that kind’ of relationship.”

“…She has quite the imagination.”

“We’ve already investigated and don’t believe it, but quite a few people, not just Mary, are expressing their relationship in that manner.”

Contempt flashed across Bliss’s face. The intentions of these small-town people were transparent. They needed the help of Hans Palmer, an Esper, but couldn’t afford to displease him. Ethan’s own personality was also formidable, preventing them from speaking ill of him directly. However, behind their backs, they would readily whisper and inflate rumors. It was only when many outsiders flocked to the village because of Enoch and Scott’s incident that interest in Hans and Ethan finally subsided.

“……Displeasing.”

Dale and Philip looked at their superior with a hint of surprise. This was a man who normally wouldn’t show interest in such trivial matters, yet he was expressing displeasure over something concerning the young man he was currently employing for part-time work.

As the two stood in awkward silence, unable to find words, Bliss let out a small click of his tongue and issued an order.

“Dale, I know the rumor about Henry Grace’s spirit wandering this mansion has spread among the servants. Silence them. And instruct the servants to bring any pouches they might find in every nook and cranny of the mansion. Offer them a small reward. Even if they don’t see one today, they might tomorrow.”

“Understood.”

“I’ll know if a pouch is real just by touching it, so they won’t bother making fakes for a reward.”

“…If it involves stitching fabric scraps and embroidering complex characters, the effort would far outweigh the reward, so they wouldn’t attempt such a thing. Especially since hardly anyone apart from master artisans does hand embroidery these days.”

Bliss nodded at Philip’s words.

“Indeed, with that much effort, it might be better to make them with good quality fabric and sell them instead.”

After dismissing Dale and Philip, Bliss gazed at the sealed container Doctor Sera had left behind. He then took out the pouch, put it in his pocket, rose from his seat, and left the room.

‘After all, I need a report on how much progress has been made,’ Bliss rationalized to himself, his steps unhesitant as he opened the study door where Ethan surely was.

****

Click. At the sound of the door opening, Ethan, who had been frowning intently, alternating his gaze between a book and the monitor, looked up.

“…There isn’t much to report today.”

Only then did Bliss recall that he had already received a report two days prior. He smoothly searched for another topic of conversation, as if his visit had a natural purpose. Fortunately, he wasn’t entirely without something to say.

“The rumors about the haunted mansion you were investigating are true. And I heard some other talk, too.”

Ethan had been about to say that, as it was a time-consuming task and he only found a few things despite looking through a lot of data, too frequent visits disrupted his concentration. He blinked slowly. He had mentioned Aunt Mary himself and asked for confirmation, so he had braced himself for the talkative, gossipy woman to spread unflattering rumors about him.

“It’s the kind of thing that people who know, know: that I’m not Uncle Hans’s biological nephew.”

“Where are you from?”

Ethan, who had expected Bliss to ask about the rumor of him and Hans being intimate, looked completely taken aback.

“Does that matter?”

“Are you an orphan?”

As he asked, Bliss wondered if he had questioned too much like an interrogation, but the words were already out. Sure enough, a bitter expression crossed Ethan’s face.

“Are you asking that because you’re a soldier? I haven’t committed any crimes, and my identity has been vouched for.”

“If that were the case, you’d be in an interrogation room, not here.”

Ethan let out a long breath. It wasn’t exactly a secret; he had just kept quiet because of the rumors that would only worsen. It was true that such stories had already circulated, and if Bliss Moore were suspicious, a background check on him would be trivial.

“I was apparently found by the lake on this estate.”

“…!!”

To deceive someone like Bliss, a certain amount of truth had to be mixed in.

“I have no memory of it. You can call Uncle Hans separately and ask him. The reason we didn’t tell the villagers that I was found in the lake is, well, we didn’t want to give these villagers, who can turn a small thing into a huge snowball, more fodder for gossip. Uncle Hans isn’t the kind of person who enjoys that either.”

“……It must have been fortunate that you were found by the powerful Esper of the village.”

If he had been found by another villager, Ethan might have been immediately reported or subjected to terrible things by those with ill intentions. It was because he was found by Hans, a powerful and benevolent influence in the village, and protected by his prestige, that the insular villagers were forced to accept Ethan.

“Scott was a friend who approached me without any prejudice from the start. The villagers aren’t bad people either. They just like to spread rumors, but now, except for a few, they’re fine.”

‘On the surface, perhaps.’

Bliss recalled the report that many more people were gossiping about Ethan and Hans than he had realized. Suppressing the renewed feeling of displeasure, he changed the subject.

“Have you ever seen a pouch like this?”

The pouch he held out was Chilbok’s tattered one.

“Oh, that… I think Doctor Sera carried that very carefully earlier.”

“She doesn’t inherently believe in superstitions. When I showed her this pouch, which was found in my bedroom, she talked about the possibility of finding them elsewhere in the mansion. I, however, found it rolling by my bedside when I woke up this morning.”

Ethan offered an awkward laugh.

“Ah… haha… that’s right. It could be found elsewhere.”

‘Chilbok, if you don’t want to be suspected, you might need to scatter a few in other places.’

Bliss pondered seriously, holding up the tiny, thumb-sized pouch. No matter how he looked at it, the colors and fabric quality were terribly poor. The thought of stitching these together into gloves made him even more distressed.

“If it’s true that there’s a ghost in this house, the ghost sending these pouches seems to have remarkably poor taste.”

Chilbok squirmed in the pocket where the pouch was kept. Cough. Ethan, who hadn’t drunk anything, inhaled sharply and nearly choked. He looked at Bliss, but Bliss continued speaking with utmost seriousness.

“If, as you say, offerings are needed, should I put rice on my bedside table?”

At that, Chilbok’s squirming intensified. Ethan struggled to suppress a faint laugh, speaking on Chilbok’s behalf.

“Uh, since it’s a ghost that makes pouches, maybe you should give it fabric or something.”

“……”

Bliss narrowed his eyes. Handkerchiefs and colorful dishcloths from Ethan’s spending records flashed through his mind, but to ask if Ethan knew all the ghosts in the mansion and kept offering them such tributes would also reveal his background check.

On the other hand, recalling the shoddy pouch compared to the offerings, he also considered that there might not be any connection.

“…It can make such intricate pouches, but the colors and quality are poor. It seems to be a ghost that can’t distinguish quality. I’ll think of something appropriate.”

Ethan managed his trembling lips, pressing down on the part of his pocket where Chilbok was. Otherwise, a prideful Chilbok seemed ready to pop out at any moment.

****

The next day, Chilbok left a beautiful, azure silk pouch by Bliss’s bedside. It was a color that matched the blue of one of Bliss’s eyes, almost as if by design. The pouch was so artistic that it even had decorative tassels on the ends of its drawstrings, finished with a unique knotting technique. The character for ‘fortune’ (福) was also embroidered in a different script.

Bliss, who had spent sleepless nights even after receiving guiding through s*x from a private Guide agency, woke up well-rested and picked up the pouch with a dazed expression.

“……This, again, is too precious to make into gloves.”

Bliss scratched his chin in thought, concluding that, at the very least, the pouch ghost of this mansion was simpler than he’d imagined.

“For now, I suppose I’ll try giving it my handkerchief.”

It was a clean, white silk handkerchief, emblazoned only with his family crest. He placed it where pouches frequently appeared and went to sleep, confirming its disappearance the next morning.

From that day on, Bliss’s personal experiment began, aiming to create gloves that, at the very least, wouldn’t look like trash. Of course, he didn’t forget to seek advice from Ethan, who knew more about folk beliefs and ghosts than he did.