The Eldritch Files

Previously, the Ancient Castle had plenty of candles and oil lamps. Han Su even found himself missing those days. But at some point, he didn’t know when, flames became an increasingly rare sight...

But thankfully, the Ghost Princess on the ninth floor was still just as afraid of the dark...

He scanned the ninth-floor corridor, filled with candles, and let out a soft breath. Then, he silently recited Spell #01—the version without the Fishing Song.

His form blurred, becoming like an inconspicuous shadow. He hugged the corner of the wall, inching forward.

The Black Cat Duke, who had struggled out of his arms, had a look of confusion in its round eyes.

It felt rather useless. ’This kid knows his way around so well, does he even need my help?’

So it just flopped onto the carpet, tail wagging lazily, and started to PURR to amuse itself.

Han Su, however, moved silently toward the most spacious room in the middle of the corridor. As he drew near, he heard the sound of SPLASHING water from within, accompanied by the overwhelmingly strong stench of blood.

Peeking his head in, he saw a massive pool. Its surroundings were inscribed with bizarre, esoteric runes, forming a unique style of decoration.

Hanging upside down above the pool were several freshly dead bodies. A large gash was cut into each of their necks, and blood flowed from their wounds, collecting in the blood pool in the center of the room.

And the ethereal Ghost Princess was slowly removing her heavy, elaborate black dress.

Her slender, graceful figure seemed to emit a soft glow under the moonlight from the window.

She gently rose onto her tiptoes, stepped out of the dress on the floor, then floated gracefully into the blood pool.

The moment her toes touched the blood, she let out a contented sigh.

The blood in the pool, as if possessing a life of its own, crept up from her toes and slowly spread over her body.

Within the blood pool, her form began to solidify.

Han Su forced himself to ignore the sight, otherwise it would stir desires far beyond his current age.

His gaze was fixed only on the dress she had left outside the pool—or rather, on the Brass Key hanging from it.

Only when the Ghost Princess was fully submerged in the fresh blood did Han Su, still maintaining his Invisibility, sneak inside.

This Ghost Princess would bathe every night around midnight.

The bathing material was fresh blood.

Once, during his third night in the Ancient Castle, Han Su had come here to steal the key and had seen the school bus driver hanging above the blood pool.

Back then, Han Su didn’t have the Fishing Song or the Invisibility Spell; he had just quietly crawled in and stolen the key.

This time, however, for safety’s sake, he maintained his Invisibility. Hand over hand, foot over foot, he crawled across the thick carpet, slowly approaching the blood pool, and then, slowly, the black dress with the key hanging from it.

Then, he quietly reached out and grabbed it...

It went smoothly, just like the previous times he had stolen the key. He slowly grasped the key and pulled it free.

In the blood pool nearby, the Ghost Princess was moaning in comfort, seemingly completely unaware of his movements.

But just then, someone hanging above the blood pool suddenly groaned.

It was one of the hanging "blood bags." He wasn’t dead yet and was struggling to roll his eyes back in their sockets.

The sudden movement sent a chill down Han Su’s spine, and he prepared to recite the Fishing Song.

But a quick glance revealed that the blood bag hadn’t seen him. Instead, it was looking outside, at the black cat that had just appeared at the doorway. It was hiding by the entrance, secretly watching the Ghost Princess bathing in the blood pool.

SPLASH! The Ghost Princess shot upright.

Her fine figure possessed an unearthly beauty in the moonlight. She stared intently at the black cat in the doorway and made a GULP-ing sound in her throat.

An extreme, ravenous craving took control of her. She stared fixedly at the black cat and suddenly leaped out of the blood pool like a glistening, pale monster, utterly naked.

THUMP THUMP. She stomped across the floor, charging toward the black cat at the door.

"Waaah..."

The black cat was startled and let out a strange cry. It turned and fled, its chubby body moving with the speed of a lightning bolt.

The Ghost Princess actually followed right behind it, dropping to all fours and vanishing from sight in an instant. A few seconds later, a series of crashes echoed from the other end of the corridor, mixed with the threatening screeches of a cat and the rage of a woman.

"?"

Even Han Su hadn’t expected this twist.

But he was stunned for less than a second before he dashed out and sprinted toward a room in the opposite direction.

’Thanks, Duke...’

He burst out of the corridor but didn’t rush to summon the door. Instead, he clutched the key and charged toward the second-to-last room on the left side of the ninth floor. He shoved open a door entangled in thick cobwebs and saw a child hanging in mid-air.

The boy looked quiet, covered in blood, and hung motionless in the air. His hair looked like an upside-down mushroom.

At a glance, Han Su thought he was unconscious. But as Han Su took two quick steps closer, the hanging figure suddenly rotated halfway around, jerking its head up as if to lunge right at Han Su’s face.

But the candlelight illuminated Han Su’s face, causing the boy to pause. The bared teeth slowly retracted, leaving only a cold, indifferent expression as he stared intently at Han Su.

Pot Lid Head.

He was also one of the first people Han Su had wanted to save.

Pigtail, Li Manman, Grumpy Kid, Tuxedo, Skinny, and now, Pot Lid Head.

As the boy sized him up, Han Su took a look at the unlucky fellow as well.

An exquisite, pearl-inlaid Iron Hook had pierced his calf, stringing him upside down in mid-air. It was the blood from his calf that had flowed down, staining half his body red.

But despite being hung in mid-air, his face showed no trace of pain or fear—only a blank expression and dead eyes as deep as an abyss.

Judging by his earlier reaction, he had even been planning to attack Han Su the moment he got close.

Though in his current state, all he could have done was take a bite out of him.

"I’m here to save you!"

With no time to dwell on the boy’s disposition, Han Su first stated his purpose in a low voice before quickly moving forward and grabbing Pot Lid Head’s calf.

"Brace yourself!"

To exert force, he could only squeeze the area where the Iron Hook had pierced through, lifting upward and compressing the wound. The pain must have been unimaginable, but having been warned by Han Su, the boy really didn’t make a single sound.

In his current ten-year-old body, it was extremely difficult for Han Su to take down a person hanging in the air like a slab of meat.

He secretly used the ability [My Limbs] to boost his strength and barely managed to succeed. But the moment he got the boy down, his strength gave out, and his grip loosened.

Pot Lid Head fell headfirst, plummeting toward the ground. But the instant he was about to hit the floor, he propped himself up with his hands to break the fall, did a nimble somersault, and landed without making a loud noise.

He immediately stood up. His calf, pierced with a hole, was a gruesome mess of flesh and blood; you could even see shattered bone fragments in the wound. Yet he seemed to feel nothing at all.

His face even had a natural-looking smile, which, combined with his mushroom-like hair, made him look a bit silly. Only his completely placid eyes suggested this child might be different from others.

Even a little scary.

"Follow me."

Han Su knew Pot Lid Head’s personality. He whispered, "Don’t make a sound."

Pot Lid Head understood. He nodded slowly, made a zipping motion across his mouth, then took off his belt and wrapped it around his injured calf.

A piece of flesh was dangling from the wound, which he casually ripped off.

As he stood up, his gaze swept over the Iron Hook that had just held him suspended in the air, and a flash of profound malice glinted in his eyes.

But the malice was fleeting. His expression quickly returned to calm, and his naturally upturned lips made it seem as if he were still wearing a faint smile.

Han Su knew this guy could handle himself, so he paid him no mind. He quickly approached the door and listened intently. The chase at the left end of the corridor was still going on, punctuated by the arrogant screeches of the Black Cat Duke.

’This is too good an opportunity to pass up. I just feel a little bad for the Duke...’

’But since you show up every time I come back, even if you get eaten this time, you’ll be here again when I return, right?’

’...’

As he thought this, his eyes turned to the corridor on the right. It was pitch-black. Thanks to the Duke’s help, rescuing Pot Lid Head had gone extremely smoothly. He could just take Pot Lid Head and leave right now without doing anything else.

But, could he really?

He steadied himself, crouched in the shadows by the door, pressed his palm to the ground, and softly recited:

"[Become the night itself!]"

"[...]"

In an instant, as his Spiritual Power penetrated the ground, he felt as if the shadow he was pressing on had suddenly come to life. The still shadow was like the surface of the sea, teeming with active, living things.

They whispered to each other, wandering through the countless shadows of the vast Ancient Castle, relaying what they saw and heard back to him.

Zero Sequence Spell Number 07: enhances the senses and gathers information in darkness or shadows.

This was a Spell he dared not use the Fishing Song with.

Because it was a double-edged sword. In a way, it was a form of scrying—one could use the shadows to obtain information from unseen areas. However, while scrying, one could also be detected by the target.

It was like eavesdropping; you could gather some information, but you had to be very careful how you did it. A moment of carelessness and you’d be discovered.

And now, using this Spell, Han Su felt as if a hole had been punched into his ears. All sorts of minute sounds flowed in. He faintly heard a THUMP THUMP noise coming slowly up the stairs from the right.

The moment he heard the sound, the footsteps suddenly stopped, as if they had already sensed him listening.

Han Su narrowed his eyes. "Is that old thing back?"

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