I Don’t Believe in Ghosts, But I Make a Living by Exorcising Them! - Chapter 6

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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I Don’t Believe in Ghosts, But I Make a Living Through Exorcism! Episode 006

What was it called? ‘Pareidolia’?

The phenomenon of finding familiar shapes I know in unrelated, ordinary patterns.

‘She must have been anxious walking through these dark corridors day and night.’

So she must have mistaken shadows or patterns she glimpsed for ghosts.

‘It’s exactly like mistaking a black plastic bag rolling around on a dark street for a cat.’

Though I have no idea what she saw in this empty corridor that she mistook for a human face.

“Ghosts like gloomy places without sunlight, so please keep the curtains open whenever possible.”

“Understood.”

Harman nodded with a calm expression. I tried hard to ignore my guilty conscience.

I can’t explain this, and I need to pretend to exorcise ghosts to get paid, so I have no choice.

I have no option but to insist everything is because of ghosts!

Instead of listening to my conscience, I pointed out something that had been bothering me.

“Your Grace.”

“Yes.”

“By any chance, does that picture frame have some story behind it? Old memories or… something like that?”

My index finger pointed to the picture frame hanging on the wall a few steps behind us. Harman’s body, which was close to me, flinched for a moment.

‘There’s definitely something.’

I narrowed my eyes and observed his reaction.

Harman seemed to think for a moment, then shook his head.

“That… no.”

“Then has anything strange happened with that picture frame? Like sounds or movement?”

At my words, Harman’s smile disappeared completely. He rolled his eyes and stared at me intently.

“There are sounds. Day or night, at all hours.

How long had I been watching? His stiff, expressionless face was awkward.

“I thought so.”

“Do you know something about it?”

“Of course.”

I nodded and walked toward the picture frame without hesitation.

A gold-decorated border, with a white building painted inside the frame.

I don’t have deep knowledge about paintings, so I can’t tell if it’s exceptionally well-painted or looks expensive…

“Your Grace, please don’t be surprised by what I’m about to tell you.”

“Understood.”

After taking a deep breath, I carefully began.

“I think this is the problem.”

Tap!

When I tapped the wall next to the picture frame loudly, it made a hollow sound.

It was a sound that added more certainty to my hypothesis.

Just as my thoughts were turning into complete conviction, Harman tilted his head at an angle.

He looked completely unable to grasp what I was talking about.

Right, he wouldn’t know what the problem is.

No matter how capable the Duke might be, it would be difficult for him to figure out what’s wrong just by listening to sounds from the wall.

So I’ll have to show him directly.

I dusted off both hands and lifted up the picture frame with a flourish.

“Lady Siena-”

Harman reached out his hand to stop me, but the picture frame was already lifted.

The wall surface that the picture frame had been hiding was completely revealed. Harman gaped in surprise.

I set the picture frame down with a thud and turned to look at Harman with a stern expression.

“Your Grace, I’m truly sorry, but…”

“If you’re scared, it’s perfectly fine for you to go back.”

Scared? I blinked at Harman’s unexpected words and continued speaking.

“No, that’s not it. The wall is too deteriorated. It’s going to collapse soon!”

“…What?”

Harman blinked slowly and asked back. I knocked on the wall a couple of times where it was carved out in the shape of the picture frame.

Sure enough, a hollow sound echoed through.

Right, there’s nothing particularly wrong with the picture frame.

The problem was the wall.

I held my head at the situation that was more serious than I had thought.

The characteristics of ‘haunted estates’ that I had tearfully written down immediately after possessing this body 5 years ago came flooding back to me.

I had been determined to desperately save money and leave the family house.

I remembered it clearly because I had resolved to buy a grand mansion at a bargain price.

First, most are owned by high nobility.

Second, they were built hundreds of years ago.

And third.

Not a single renovation has been done in all that time!

This third point was a huge problem.

The nobles believed that estates that were hundreds of years old symbolized their solid class status that had endured through all those long years without ever collapsing.

They probably did some simple repair work to some extent.

But at most, it would only be replacing things that had completely deteriorated, crumbled, or rotted beyond help.

Anyway, these estates themselves are the pride and dignity of the nobles.

I muttered gloomily while looking at the hopeless wall.

“You’ve never renovated this wall even once, have you? That’s why the old wall corroded and started making sounds, causing the picture frame to hang crooked.”

“…”

Now Harman kept his mouth firmly shut.

He was probably feeling deflated that the cause was something so trivial, not even a ghost.

‘That’s exactly my point!’

Just how many people left the estate because of something that happened due to a mere deteriorated wall?

I politely pointed to the wall with both hands.

“If you leave it like this, the perfectly fine adjacent walls will collapse along with it. You need to repair it immediately.”

Right. I should pretend it’s the ghost’s fault.

“Oh, a ghost could settle into an empty space! Fortunately, there doesn’t seem to be one yet.”

I hastily blamed it on a ghost.

If we quickly tear down the wall and build a new one, there won’t be any more strange sounds.

I was certain. The exact same thing had happened at my estate!

When Bella kept worrying about sounds coming from the picture frame, I removed it to find the wall was on the verge of collapse.

So I spent every last penny left over from buying the estate, and the first thing I renovated was the wall.

The hollow sound from the wall behind the picture frame and even the dented marks.

A phenomenon where the wall had deteriorated from being too old. The exact same thing was happening here without a single difference… wait.

Wow, my goodness.

“Your Grace, please look at this.”

In my panic, I grabbed the Duke’s arm and pulled him over.

The nail that had been hammered in to hang the picture frame.

Around it were countless small holes!

This was really severe.

Even my estate wasn’t this bad.

“Insects must have gnawed at it. At this rate, the wall will really collapse!”

“…Ha.”

Harman, who had been silently listening to me until now, let out a quiet breath and stared at the picture frame on the floor.

‘…Huh?’

Did I do something wrong?

Sensing his mood had suddenly changed, I glanced at Harman’s face.

His expression and gaze were as dry as looking at a rolling stone, but I felt an inexplicable unease.

It felt like I had touched something I shouldn’t have.

‘Let’s hang it back up for now.’

The wall won’t collapse immediately anyway.

I picked up the picture frame again. For some reason, I felt like I needed to escape this atmosphere quickly.

“Then, let’s take a look at other places… Kyaaaah!”

As I was about to hang the picture frame on the wall, something pure white came charging toward me!

An insect? Or a bird?

Startled, I unconsciously swung the picture frame I was holding like a bat.

The sound of the picture frame cutting through the air rang out.

Crack!

At the same time, there was the sound of something breaking.

“…”

“…”

Silence fell.

‘No. I don’t know yet.’

I carefully opened my eyes.

The picture frame was completely broken in half.

The painting that had been hanging in the picture frame was also, of course, split exactly in half.

I squeezed my eyes shut again.

I was screwed.

A chill ran down my spine.

It felt like all the blood in my body was turning cold.

I wanted to rub my neck that had gone cold with goosebumps right away, but unfortunately, my hands were holding half a picture frame each.

“Your Grace, I’m truly sorry! How can I…?”

I frantically bowed my upper body up and down repeatedly. It was an instinctive reaction.

“I’ll compensate you somehow, I’m truly sorry!”

It must be incredibly expensive.

A painting that had been hanging in the Duke’s House lobby couldn’t possibly be ordinary. I felt cold sweat running down my back.

However, contrary to my expectations, the Duke looked at the painting split in half for a while, then shook his head.

“It’s fine.”

“I… what?”

“It’s just one out of dozens. It’s fine.”

I fidgeted restlessly and raised my gaze.

He seemed somehow detached.

Really, as if he had no attachment to the painting whatsoever.

‘But dozens? Does that mean there are more of the same painting?’

A small question arose, but it was only momentary.

As I stood there reading the situation, he pointed to another area.

“Would you please check other places now?”

As if he truly had no intention of holding this incident against me.

“…Yes!”

I quickly nodded and quietly set down the picture frame I was still holding.

Thank goodness, really thank goodness!

I need to examine everything carefully!

I wiped my moistened eyes.

With the relief that I didn’t have to pay for the painting, the white something I had just seen had already disappeared to the back of my memory.

Harman intently watched the back of Siena walking ahead. One of his eyes trembled slightly, then closed halfway.

“Yes, it seems like you’re pretending not to see anything.”

Why?

For a moment, his gaze that had been directed at empty air turned back to Siena’s back.

“I can’t kill her.”

Not yet.

His blue eyes that had fully opened again were glowing fiercely.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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