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When Tokitaka turned his back and stepped onto the terrace, the first thing that caught his eye was a messy table.

The people who had been enjoying tea time outdoors were nowhere to be seen, leaving behind only empty teacups and scattered scone crumbs on the solitary table. Moreover, it was unclear how the jam had gotten everywhere, as it was smeared across the table in all directions. It almost made him think someone had been playing with the scones by tossing them into the jam rather than simply spreading it on.

‘Throwing food, seriously?’

Tokitaka let out a snicker at the bizarre image that sprang to mind.

A person who looked like a shrine priest tossing scones onto a mountain of jam—how utterly odd!

It was far too weird to be called childlike innocence. Especially considering that the man looked fairly old.

That should be described as dementia rather than childlike whimsy.

‘Wait a minute. Did that man really look old?’

Tokitaka tilted his head at the sudden question.

What did the person eating the scone look like?

How did they apply the jam?

How old were they?

Was it a man?

Questions unraveled in his mind like a tangled string.

He felt certain he had seen something. After all, his job involved interacting with many people, so he’d usually have a good memory for faces.

Yet he couldn’t distinctly recall that man’s face.

Only a vague impression lingered.

A man?

Yeah. It seemed like he was a man.

Had he been wearing a suit?

Was his skin pale?

Or was it more of a sickly yellow?

How had he eaten the scone?

What expression did he have when he marveled at the taste?

Tokitaka frowned at the growing questions about the man swirling in his mind.

‘Why is this suddenly coming up?’

It wasn’t even important. Just a passing moment, like a scene from daily life.

So why was he thinking so deeply about it?

Tokitaka pushed those thoughts aside, wanting to catch the breeze again.

But every time he tried to stop thinking, his intuition urged him not to, constantly warning him, forcing him to continue down the rabbit hole of thought without being able to focus on the scenery.

Thus, Tokitaka found himself torn between wanting to enjoy the view and contemplating the man, unable to settle his mind, continually troubled while standing at the terrace railing, staring blankly.

Staring blankly.

Yeah. He had no choice but to stare blankly.

Feeling the distant breeze brush against him.

Sensing the fishy smell from the lake and the tickling wind flowing from the mountain.

Cypress and cedar trees were plentiful on the mountain.

Naturally, massive amounts of pollen were swirling in the wind, visible enough to paint the scene white with their presence, teasing his nose and provoking sneezing.

‘Damn pollen.’

Every year around this time, those pollen particles filled Japan in abundance.

A single cypress or cedar tree produces an unimaginable amount of it.

If you place a person under one and shake it a few times, they’d be covered in so much pollen they’d look like they fell into a sack of flour.

With trees like that densely packed across the entire nation of Japan, it was simply inevitable for pollen to flood everywhere.

The pollen painted the sky white, reminiscent of a snowstorm.

As the pollen invaded his nostrils, he furrowed his brow at the familiar sensation wafting through the air, when suddenly, a question sank and resurfaced beneath the surface of his thoughts.

‘Wait a minute. Why am I suddenly thinking about pollen?’

He sensed a sense of incongruity.

This was strange.

He had been deep in thought moments ago.

Caught between wanting to enjoy the scenery and pondering the man on the terrace.

Both thoughts had just vanished as if they’d been shoved under the floor, suddenly replaced by an unprovoked obsession with pollen, though he had no pollen allergy.

This was…

Strange.

Was someone manipulating his thoughts?

“Damn it!”

Finally, Tokitaka felt a sense of crisis.

‘Damn it, damn it, damn it!’

This was weird.

This place was weird.

It dawned on him that he was under some sort of spell.

‘Damn it, I should’ve realized this was a gathering place for something strange from the start!’

Was he under some kind of trance?

Of course, he was!

This was a haunted house notorious for its reputation as the House of Death.

So, naturally, what else could be lurking here but evil spirits!

‘I need to get out of here,’

Tokitaka shivered from the chill surging from his spine to the top of his head.

He clenched his teeth and turned back inside to escape.

Putting on a mask of calm, he tensed his facial muscles as he walked.

He headed toward that very door he had entered earlier.

‘Whatever you do, don’t run. Just act natural, act natural.’

He wanted to scream and bolt outside at that very moment.

The door was not far away, making it all the more tempting.

But suppressing his overwhelming desire and terror, he moved slowly.

‘If I attract too much attention, I’ll be the target.’

There’s a saying: don’t turn your back on a wild beast.

If you show your back, you’ll be attacked, so if you want to escape, you have to keep facing forward while stepping back.

What Tokitaka was doing now resembled that advice.

Feigning calmness, acting like nothing was wrong, he intended to slide out naturally.

‘There’s plenty of other people here besides me. They probably won’t pay much attention to me. I just need to avoid showing any weird reactions.’

There was plenty of prey.

Enough to fill a banquet.

If the House of Death actually had evil spirits, all those people would just be bait and look delicious!

And if he didn’t attract attention, he could slip away unnoticed.

So, slow and steady.

He needed to move while pretending to be calm.

He repetitively drilled that thought into his mind as he walked.

He stood straight to avoid looking suspicious and moved slowly, practically floating, as he scanned his surroundings carefully with his ears perked up.

‘Damn it. How the hell did I get this naïve? Damn it.’

Was it because he sensed the danger?

Or was it because he recognized the truth?

‘How did I not notice how strange it all was?’

Only then did he finally realize the oddity of the place.

‘The villa itself seemed strange.’

It was strange.

The whole villa felt strange.

First of all, the entire villa appeared old.

The interior scenery he had admired upon entering now looked ancient.

Even though it was spotless, without a speck of dust, it still felt worn.

Moreover, the decor seemed a haphazard mix of Western and traditional Japanese styles, giving it a cluttered and chaotic appearance, as if everything had become misaligned.

Yet, curiously, upon closer inspection, there were no overt abnormalities.

‘They say haunted houses feel chaotic, old, and dirty even when nothing’s amiss. Damn it.’

And the paintings hanging around were just as odd.

What looked like abstract or modern art seemed less ‘art’ and more like some kind of magical symbolism.

As if a curse had been placed on them, just staring at them for a few moments dulled his consciousness.

And it didn’t stop there.

Though he hadn’t felt it before, there was now a strange smell in the air.

An intense perfume reminiscent of citrus was mixed with a scent that unmistakably resembled incense.

The moment he caught a whiff, it felt as if his mind was uplifting, and his body lightening, inducing an inexplicable sense of pleasure and comfort—a deceptive illusion washing over him.

‘No. It’s not an illusion.’

Comfort. Calmness.

He felt a strong urge to flop onto a sofa or chair and bask in the tranquility.

The peculiar chill that emanated from the mansion transformed into a pleasant coolness, while the sounds of people chatting and the rumbling footsteps blended into white noise, keeping his mind at ease.

Suddenly.

Tokitaka bit his tongue to resist the laziness creeping over him and the lethargic haze engulfing his mind.

“—!”

Unbearable pain surged, and a tingling sensation swept over the tip of his tongue.

Yet, in contrast, it snapped him back to reality and his eyes opened wide.

‘This place is dangerous.’

The lingering sting on his tongue and in his mouth prodded him like a whip, warning him.

To get out of there quickly.

Tokitaka marched forward without resisting the frantic alarm bells ringing in his head.

How many steps had he taken?

He spotted two people climbing the stairs.

Those were the same two he had seen when entering the mansion earlier.

They were facing each other as they climbed the stairs, but bizarrely, they repeatedly ascended and then descended. Their movements unambiguously signaled going up, but one moment they stepped on the upper stair and the next on the lower.

Thus, they continuously walked in place.

Like being on an escalator, taking one slow step up only to remain in the same spot.

In that state, they were having a ‘conversation.’

An utterly mundane conversation.

“This is embarrassing. But it’s not that my kid is particularly fast; he just has a knack for it. The real remarkable one is your son, who has never fallen out of the top ranks at Kakushuin Junior High, right?”

“Haha. That may be true. But even if it is a junior high school… compared to Kyoto Heisei’s specialized high school for special abilities, it pales in comparison, doesn’t it?”

“Oh, I heard your son got into a good school. He got accepted into the junior high!”

“I also have a son. Perhaps that’s why I perk up my ears whenever education comes up.”

“Hahaha. Did you hear that? I was bragging a little, and it reached your ears…”

“I heard your son passed the exam this time.”

That conversation was just the order of the previous dialogue flipped upside down.

It sent a shiver down Tokitaka’s spine.

 

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