After hearing Matsuda Jinpei's words, Kisaragi Chiyo coughed even harder; she covered her mouth, her gaze refusing to look at Matsuda Jinpei.
“Mmm.. I suppose that's about it.”
"Could it be that this house has been targeting you for a long time?" Seeing Kisaragi Chiyo confirm his suspicion, Matsuda Jinpei's gaze darkened slightly, looking somewhat dangerous once again.
This.. I don't think so," Kisaragi Chiyo said softly. "Perhaps they realized that back then, I was just a poor person who wasn't afraid of haunted houses?
Matsuda Jinpei: ".."
Matsuda Jinpei looked at Kisaragi Chiyo with affectionate eyes.
"But that's all in the past." Kisaragi Chiyo, who had successfully leveled up to a popular author with her new book and was now just one step away from becoming a bestseller, waved her hand dismissively.
Things are different now. Even if I were to raise a whole room full of cats and dogs, I could afford it.
As soon as the words left his mouth, Kisaragi Chiyo felt a faint gaze fall upon her.
Kisaragi Chiyo: ".."
Right.
Kisaragi Chiyo looked back at the shadow in the corner. "Aren't you supposed to be preparing for your exams?"
No one answered Kisaragi Chiyo; after all, Kisaragi Chiyo was the only person in this house, so a single tentacle slowly moved its body, crawling out from the shadows.
A section of a tentacle, like a severed limb of an octopus. It crawled to Kisaragi Chiyo's feet and then coiled up, remaining motionless, looking rather pitiful.
Kisaragi Chiyo leaned down, pinching the tip of the tentacle and lifting it up with a hint of amusement.
"Since you've heard me, just come in," he said to the Evil Spirit, who was currently preoccupied.
In the next second, the door to the second bedroom creaked open a crack, the tall, imposing Evil Spirit stood outside the door, its dark purple eyes staring intently at Kisaragi Chiyo.
Shadows fell from the side, making the expression on his pale, handsome face appear even more eerie.
What's wrong?" Kisaragi Chiyo smiled and waved to him, "Come in already.
Hara Kenji pushed open the door, his gaze falling upon the young man's smiling lips. After staring for a long time, he forced a smile and asked in a flat tone, "Do you want to keep other dogs too?"
".." Kisaragi Chiyo probably hadn't expected Hara Kenji to get jealous over a casual remark. He suddenly found the other's behavior a bit funny, also quite cute.
"You know that's not what I meant." Kisaragi Chiyo raised her hand and rubbed the head of the little puppy who, despite being sulky, was still nuzzling closer, before taking the initiative to press a kiss against his lips.
Hara Kenji was quickly coaxed out of his mood. Well, he admitted that he was simply taking advantage of Kisaragi Chiyo's affection to be jealous whenever he pleased.
Perhaps this also involves the possessiveness of an Evil Spirit acting up.
Matsuda Jinpei was already the limit of what he could accept.
“I also have something to say regarding this villa.”
After listening to the entire conversation between Kisaragi Chiyo and Matsuda Jinpei, Hara Kenji could be said to be the one among the three who understood the villa best, compared to Matsuda Jinpei and Kisaragi Chiyo, who actually didn't care much about the strange aspects of the villa.
It was only just now that he thought of a problem he had been overlooking all along.
Just like a ghost obscuring one's vision," Hara Kenji said with a laugh when he mentioned this. "I think this should be its ability, being able to make people overlook certain existing problems.. one only realizes what is being obscured after a bystander points it out.
"A vessel." Kisaragi Chiyo suddenly muttered the word. Hozuki said that rather than saying this house was alive, it would be more appropriate to describe it as a vessel.
A vessel means a carrier or a medium, something used to transmit energy.
“You should have already realized this problem, Kisaragi Chiyo, but you haven't reacted to it yet.” Hara Kenji reached out a finger and pointed toward the ceiling.
Of course, he wasn't gesturing for Kisaragi Chiyo and Matsuda Jinpei to look at the ceiling where they had already discovered the problem.
Instead, it was..
This villa has three floors.
This was also something they had both overlooked.
-----------------------
Author's Note: Thanks to all the little angels for your support, mwah 030
Chapter 131
This villa has three floors.
After Hara Kenji spoke those words, a look of daze appeared on both Kisaragi Chiyo's and Matsuda Jinpei's faces; that sense of clarity, like clouds finally parting to reveal the sun, left a moment of shock in their hearts.
That's right.
Whether it was on the rental website, in the contract, or in Kisaragi Chiyo's own perception, this villa had always possessed a third floor.
So, why was that? Why was it that, even though no one had forgotten, everyone subconsciously ignored the existence of the third floor? Once the mist obscuring their vision was swept away, everything began to make sense.
“I remember the third floor being an attic.” Kisaragi Chiyo paused, his fingers hanging at his sides rubbed together subconsciously; this was a small habit he had when he was troubled.
"I only just remembered it myself," Hara Kenji said with a bitter smile. He pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket; the creases were very prominent, the back was slightly yellowed, looking like something from several years ago.
“I found a blueprint in the study.”
"The blueprints for this villa." Hara Kenji explained the process, noting that it had been a bit of a stroke of bad luck.
Because he had been hit on the head by a pile of study materials nearly two meters high that Hozuki had sent over, causing several books to fall from the bookshelf as the materials collapsed, this blueprint had been sandwiched between one of those books.
Matsuda Jinpei put away the hand-drawn sketches scattered on the table to make room for the blueprints.
Some old blueprints were spread out on the table, taking up all the space.
Kisaragi Chiyo lowered her eyes, looking at the markings and circles on the blueprints; it was a renovation and design plan for the house.
The current villa is not in its original state; after the second owner took over, he hired designers and engineers to renovate and remodel the villa. Originally, the first floor was divided into two living rooms, one in the front and one in the back, but the subsequent owner found the living rooms too small, so while merging them into one, he also changed the location of the kitchen.
Wait, look here." Matsuda Jinpei narrowed his eyes slightly, discovering something wrong with the blueprints. His slender fingers tapped on the location of the first floor. "Isn't the width of this fireplace wall a bit strange?
Kisaragi Chiyo and Hara Kenji immediately looked toward where Matsuda Jinpei was pointing, they indeed discovered the suspicious part on the blueprint.
The fireplace was on the right side of the first floor, also in the sofa lounge area. Because of the heating, Kisaragi Chiyo had never used it, leaving it idle as a mere decoration.
Except for when Hara Kenji would clean the fireplace along with his regular cleaning, the fireplace was essentially no different from the paintings on the wall. Furthermore, the section of the wall required for the fireplace's installation protruded more than the other walls, so none of the three of them felt that anything was amiss.
It wasn't until he saw the blueprints that Matsuda Jinpei realized the space occupied by the fireplace wall was much larger than the actual width required.
The extra space behind this fireplace wasn't for the chimney flue; the width occupied by the flue was only half of that amount.
This was somewhat illogical; although it wasn't apparent from the interior of the renovated house, one would notice upon checking the blueprints that while only 1.3 meters of width was actually needed, the blueprints showed the wall thickness to be over two meters.
"A two-meter wall? This design will reduce the house's living area by quite a bit, won't it?" Kisaragi Chiyo clicked her tongue. She felt that with this issue, the price of this villa could be negotiated down even further.
"What is the purpose of this two-meter wall?" Hara Kenji stared at it with a furrowed brow, pursing his lips as a guess that seemed quite plausible suddenly came to mind.
"Could there be something like a hidden compartment here?" After all, wealthy people in the past always loved such arrangements.
“We'll know once we go take a look.” Kisaragi Chiyo acted swiftly; as he spoke, he grabbed the blueprints from the table and headed out.
Matsuda and Hara followed closely behind.
The three of them quickly arrived by the first-floor fireplace. Although the fireplace had never been used, it had been cleaned by Hara Kenji until it was spotless.
Kisaragi Chiyo crouched down, reaching out his hands to feel inside the fireplace; the surroundings were flat, he couldn't feel any protrusions that might serve as a mechanism.
But Kisaragi Chiyo did not give up; he curled his fingers and began tapping from the top down. After spending some time, he finally found a brick slightly below the fireplace that produced a noticeably hollow sound when tapped.
"No reaction," Kisaragi Chiyo tried, but the mechanism she had expected to appear was nowhere to be found.
So he stepped back, leaving the problem to Hara and Matsuda.
Matsuda Jinpei and Hara Kenji also took turns trying it, but there was no response; it was also possible that the mechanism was so old that it had aged and ceased to function.
Because if they guessed based on the fact that the mechanism already existed when the first owner lived there, this villa was also over twenty years old; it was an old villa.
"I say.." The three of them crouched in front of the fireplace, exchanging glances.
Matsuda raised his hand, looking at Kisaragi Chiyo, then at Hara.
"Do we absolutely have to use a mechanism to open it?" Matsuda suddenly remembered that they were non-humans; wouldn't it be easier to just open it with brute force?
If we force it open, wouldn't that count as property damage?" Kisaragi Chiyo hesitated. "If we do that, will the landlord demand compensation from us?
Matsuda Jinpei: ".."
It was clear that Kisaragi Chiyo truly didn't want to spend a single cent more on this house.
"I think, rather than seeking compensation, the landlord probably wants to get rid of this haunted house as quickly as possible, don't you?" Hara Kenji said, resting his chin on his hand as he looked at Kisaragi with a smile.
And besides, Chiyo-chan, how can you be so sure that the person who contacted you back then was actually the landlord?
Actually, I'd rather ask, you haven't been paying your rent to a ghost, have you?
“..” Kisaragi Chiyo fell silent for a few seconds before slowly asking, “What does it want my rent for?”
“If it were free, would you want it?" Hara Kenji asked in return.
After all, besides the free ocean-view villa sounding more like a scam, it might actually be haunted.
Even though it's currently haunted as well.
"Alright, I understand." Kisaragi Chiyo sighed, while he was wondering if his rent were taken by this house, whether there would be any possibility of getting it back.
Maybe they just wanted to lure in those tenants who have no money but don't believe in the supernatural, but they didn't expect to.." Matsuda Jinpei glanced at Kisaragi Chiyo and continued, "that they'd hook someone who specializes in dealing with the supernatural.
Alright, alright," Kisaragi Chiyo sighed, "you guys had better hurry up. My legs are going numb from crouching like this.
Understood," Matsuda Jinpei said, a faint smile appearing on his face, "Master.
Kisaragi Chiyo: ".."
Although the two were not Kisaragi Chiyo's Paper Shikigami, they were almost as good as them. Furthermore, due to their contract, there would be nothing wrong with Matsuda Jinpei calling her Master.
But it still brought an inexplicable sense of slight embarrassment.
As Matsuda Jinpei landed with a shout of "Master," a thunderous roar erupted alongside him. As the dust billowed up, Kisaragi Chiyo covered her nose and mouth, frowning as she retreated one step, two steps, three steps..
Ah," Hara Kenji stood beside Kisaragi Chiyo, his mouth agape. "I only finished cleaning up yesterday.
Can anyone empathize with the hard work of eighteen tentacles?
“You two”
"Is this the time to be talking about this?" Matsuda Jinpei coughed twice; he probably hadn't expected a single strike to kick up so much dust.
Under Matsuda Jinpei's violent dismantling, a downward opening appeared in the wall inside the fireplace; as the bottom of the fireplace was pried up, a small wooden ladder appeared before the eyes of the three people.