Chapter 451. An Exciting Night with Two Girls Outside the City: The Alleged Haunted Castle. (1/7) 

I exited the room with my head low while I contemplated the events that transpired yesterday.

The reason for the dead car battery and Dawn’s father not answering his phone yesterday, could it be he was busy with Wisteria? He might not have even been at the farm at the time and didn’t want Dawn to know anything or get involved so he kept her away from home using that dead car battery. He may have gone to the city yesterday with Wisteria after she met up with him here on the farm to sign the contract.

That could make sense of her father’s words during our first chat inside the barn.

‘So that bastard’s still…’

It wasn’t something like ‘still chasing after her,’ but rather, ‘still alive.’

It’d been a long time since Dawn’s father had seen his friend. If he had a picture it would likely be 18 years old and might not resemble that friend at all anymore. Thus, he would have gone to the city himself with Wisteria to track down and confirm the target with his own eyes. 

He likely would have visited the university he attended to get some leads. Of course, he’d need to be the one asking around rather than Wisteria since it would be his personal acquaintances at university from all those years ago. 

If Wisteria asked his acquaintances about this friend randomly, it might raise some eyebrows. Since his friend believed Dawn’s father was still clueless about what he’d done, he likely wouldn’t care very much if he found out Dawn’s father was trying to reconnect with him.

After he tracked the target down with Wisteria, confirmed the hospital he was working at, and verified the target was who they were looking for with his own eyes, his job was complete and he’d then return to the farm alone leaving the rest to Wisteria.

Though… this could all very well be wrong. It was only conjecture based on a single strand of hair and speculating on a single sentence he didn’t finish.

If it turned out the hair was really from when I met Wisteria in the city… then all I did here was connect a bunch of random dots that were simply coincidences. It was no better than a crackpot conspiracy theory.

A conspiracy to assassinate the doctor who was with who I presume to be Aurelia who just so happens to work at the hospital Wisteria coincidentally has a target at.

There really were... just too many things lining up for it all to be a coincidence. There were seriously too many moving parts that had to align to arrive at this sort of scenario.

But at the end of the day, the cause for all these events occurring was… it’s not my fault! It’s Rosa’s! It’s definitely hers, not mine!

If she didn’t become my girlfriend none of this would have ever happened. Thus, by that convoluted logic, it’s all her fault and not mine. Yes, to shovel the blame off to someone else is the best means of coping with reality.

Haaaaah. In all seriousness though, what should I do here? Wisteria might have taken on a contract more dangerous than she realizes because of me. She said the risk to reward was pretty poor, but that might be an understatement.

I should contact her.

I took out my phone and sent her a text.

‘Is the c an f’er?’

It was code. Contractor and farmer. It was just a precaution to ask her in a roundabout manner like this.

I waited for five minutes, but I didn’t receive a response back from her.

I was a little worried about this strange little sister of mine, but with the time right now, she might just be asleep. That, or she could just be in a situation where she can’t immediately reply. If that was the case, calling her was probably a bad idea. It wasn’t good to jump to conclusions.

If she didn’t respond in 24 hours then I should be worried. Wisteria always dutifully responded to me within 24 hours without fail whenever I contacted her. Her missing that deadline would serve as good enough confirmation that something had gone wrong.

A creek from my side suddenly broke my train of thought. When I looked over, Rosa, carrying our bag of stuff on her back, had just exited the room with Dawn.

“You’re done with your girl talk?”

“Yeah, and we’ve decided on what to do next.”

“What to do next? Wouldn’t that be going to sleep?” I didn’t like the sounds of that considering how she was carrying our bag.

“Going to sleep? You only just woke up, there’s no way you’re going to sleep anytime soon, right?”

“Well, that’s certainly true.”

“Since that’s the case, we’re going out.”

“Going out? At this hour?”

“Yeah.”

“Where would you two even go this late?”

“What do you mean you two? You’re coming along.”

I mean… I knew she’d say that... but still, I was grasping at the small hope I didn’t have to go.

“Haaaaah. So? Where is it that you’ve spontaneously decided to go now?”

“Well, while you were asleep, I was reading some local scary stories online and came across one that caught my interest. There’s a rumor about a creepy old abandoned run-down castle out in the middle of nowhere about an hour away that’s supposedly haunted. I thought it might be fun to visit it at night.”

“Ghosts? Hah! Don’t make me laugh, as if they even exist. Even so, this sounds like an awful idea. Rather than finding ghosts, you’re more likely to find a psycho killer instead.”

“Actually, that’s part of the story. That castle was owned by a psycho killer who lured unsuspecting victims to it and tortured them to death.”

“Then that’s even more reason to not go. What if they’re still there?”

“Relax, this story is from a hundred years ago. The reason the castle is abandoned is specifically because nobody wants to touch it as a result of the bad reputation it has for being a place where people were tortured to death. They say the souls of those tortured to death remain and haunt the place.”

My eyes narrowed as I repeated, “Souls… of those who were tortured?” 

“Yeah…”

I see. So that’s why she wants to go there.

“Why go at night though? We could just go during the day when it’s safe.”

“The tortured souls are rumored to only emerge at night. Besides that, it’d be soooo boring~ to go during the day. Where would the fun be in that?”

“Dawn, would your dad be okay with you going out to such a place this late?”

“Of course he wouldn't, which is why we’re sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night without telling him,” Rosa chimed in, in a low whisper.

“Dawn, you’re fine with going?”

Dawn nodded and explained excitedly, “I’ve always wanted to do one of those tests of courage like yuh read about in manga. It sounds really excitin.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me… look, fiction makes everything look more interesting than it really is. In reality, when you actually do it it’s nothing like what it’s portrayed in manga. Your hopes and dreams are only going to be crushed miserably.”

“Have yuh ever tried a test of courage yourself before?”

“No…”

“Then how would yuh know?”

“Well… although I haven’t tried a test of courage before… I have tried... ramen and yakisoba at a maid cafe before…”

“Yuh have!” Dawn asked excitedly.

“You… have?” Rosa, on the other hand, asked skeptically and seemed a bit weirded out the second she heard the specific place I’d tried it.

“Yeah… it was… a long time ago.” Over a decade ago when I was an adult, just not in this timeline. If going by this timeline, I’d technically never had it yet.

“How was it? It must have been really good, right?”

“It was… the greatest disappointment of my life. My childhood dreams were completely crushed. Both of them were awful. They tasted bland, dry, bitter, and were overall tasteless. It was a dreadful experience. Instant cup ramen was far superior to the so-called real ramen. That day, something in me died and I lost the last bit of faith in humanity I had. As for the worst part of it all though…”

“It doesn’t end there?” Rosa asked strangely amused.