A Bloody Honeymoon in a Haunted Hotel (4)

The five people who had met in the hallway unpacked in their rooms and met again at the dinner table.

Katya and Nikolai were the last to arrive at the dining area, having just finished their baths.

Mengano, the proprietor, told them that the morning shift had already prepared the food, so he heated it up in the kitchen with a magic tool and served it.

Katya took a seat and stared at the table filled with dishes, lost in thought.

This hotel was a strange place from top to bottom.

Where had all the original staff gone, and was Mengano struggling to make ends meet on his own?

Earlier, Mengano had said that the rooms were apparently fully booked, but strangely enough, this was the only group of people actually staying tonight.

Aside from Mengano the host, there were Katya and Nikolai, Baron Lanzkoi the painter, his assistant Judith, and Viscountess Borodin.

Of them, Judith and the Viscountess were quite close, and the Baron and the Viscountess were acquainted, as it isn’t known what relationship they have.

Filling his wine goblet, Mengano introduced himself once more to those assembled.

[I am Manager Mengano, and although my first day on the job leaves much to be desired in the absence of my fellow staff members, I will do my best to serve you today.]

The hotel, which had been closed for some time due to financial difficulties and was falling into disrepair, was recently purchased by an Archetian capitalist.

He scouted out Mengano, who was working as a manager at a prestigious hotel in the Archetian capital, and sent him here.

With Archetian tourists making up a sizable portion of the population in Vasnetsov, it was a tactic to target his own people.

“I’m sorry to have frightened you earlier. When I saw someone in the room where there shouldn’t have been anyone, I wondered if I had really seen an evil spirit.”

Viscountess Borodin said with a shrug.

“I’m sorry for my rudeness at first.”

She bowed slightly with a hand across her chest in apology, then stood up.

She really didn’t recognize Katya.

Katya was well aware of the vicious nature behind the gentle smile.

How many children she had bullied with that face.

Maybe she really was a changed person, but that was a rather unreliable hypothesis.

Katya knew. A person’s nature is not easily changed.

Ivan Petrozsky was a recent example.

“I heard that there was an unfortunate incident at this hotel a few years ago.”

“An unfortunate incident?”

“Apparently, a young lady who stayed in room 404 threw herself into the river to her death, despairing of a broken heart. After that, rumors of seeing an evil spirit or water ghost in the same room spread all over the area, and the hotel was closed for a while.”

It was indeed unexpected.

Boris’s words, which said that it looks like the beginning of a horror story, had come true.

While Viscountess Borodin was telling the story of Room 404, Mengano, who had been wandering around and pouring wine, lingered a little longer, pouring it slowly in front of Baron Lanzkoi.

He had been constantly stealing glances at the Baron, and before leaving, he didn’t forget to whisper in the Baron’s ear that he was a devoted fan of his artwork.

Upon receiving an unexpected confession, Baron Lantzkoi momentarily appeared surprised, and perhaps taken aback, as a slight, stifled cough escaped him.

Swatting away Mengano’s hand offering him a napkin, he pulled a well-cut handkerchief from his bosom and coughed into it before covering his mouth.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I have any hard feelings, it’s just that I’m a bit of a mysophobe and can’t use anything other than the handkerchief I brought from home.”

With that, he tossed the used handkerchief into the trash can under the table.

“You only use handkerchiefs from home, and you just throw them away?”

Nikolai, sitting across from me, made a sharp point.

“Oh, that’s why I pack several in advance and keep them with me at all times. My assistant pretty much does my housework. Whenever I buy new handkerchiefs, she washes and irons them like this.”

Lanzkoi said, putting his arm casually around Judith’s shoulders as she sat next to him.

“You’re like a wife at times like this, Judith. I’m putting you through so much trouble.”

“No, it’s the right thing to do.”

Seeing his hand slide lower and lower, Katya dropped the spoon as if it had slipped out of her hand on purpose.

As she reached under the table to pick up the spoon, she saw that the painter was groping Judith’s thigh in the space left by the tablecloth.

She pushed away, protesting, but the artist’s hand remained steadfast.

‘Isn’t he crazy?’

Before she had time to think about it, Katya stormed out from under the dining table and stood up, banging her head on the table as if it was a mistake.

This lifted the table on her side, causing the dishes to naturally fall to the other side.

The result was a wine glass spilling all over the painter’s clothes.

“Holy shit!”

Lanzkoi cursed and jumped to his feet, his top soaked.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, I accidentally…….”

“Is that all you have to do? So, if you killed someone, does that mean it’s all over if you apologize? How reckless and thoughtless!”

Nikolai stood up, his eyes widening at the sight of the man who had achieved the trifecta of glaring, rudeness, and scolding at the same time.

Baron Lanzkoi stepped back with a slight frown due to the difference in size and the youthful gaze.

“Eyy shit! Looks like I need to change my clothes and come back!”

Intimidated by Nikolai’s intensity, he averted his gaze and stormed upstairs to his room.

Truth be told, Nikolai didn’t have the best feelings for Lanzkoi.

He gained fame due to the painting he created, imagining the mysterious figure of Tatiana, from his time at the Pavlovsk Monastery.

Her cause of death was drowning.

The monastery, on the banks of the Neda River, had been eroded by floodwaters, and Tatiana, unable to evacuate in time, drowned in her room.

In Lanzkoi’s painting, Nikolai’s mother stands on her tiptoes on the bed, gazing precariously down at the water rising from the floor.

Nikolai hated that his dead mother was once again on the tip of people’s tongues.

“It was my fault, I suppose. Don’t be angry.”

Katya said, tugging on her husband’s arm.

Nikolai sat back down, relieved, and was about to go back to eating when Judith smiled at her.

“Thank you, for saving me.”

The last word moved only the shape of her mouth, but Katya recognized it quickly.

“That’s a lot of work, having the assistant wash his handkerchiefs.”

“It’s not a big deal. Everything I do is something I enjoy, you know. Whether it’s through my work or the way I live, there’s so much to learn from it.”

“A lot to learn?”

“Yes, because you can learn even through reciprocal teaching.”

As Judith wrote the word reciprocal teacher, her lips moved again.

Katya, who had managed to read the shape of her mouth, giggled.

The two women, who were close in age, quickly became intimate and chatted like girls.

Lanzkoi left to change and didn’t reappear until everyone in the dining area had finished eating.

Growing increasingly worried about her boss, Judith stood up from her seat.

“Maybe I should go upstairs. He’s not coming down.”

At that moment, the latch on the window, which had been swaying precariously in the heavy rain and gusty winds, came undone and the window flew open.

The wind from outside simultaneously extinguished the candles that adorned the walls inside the dining area, casting darkness around them.

Mengano activated a light-up tool he carried for emergencies, and together with Nikolai, they closed the window and re-secured the latch.

Only after the windows were closed did he light the candles on the wall, one by one.

The dining room was bright again.

“I was wondering if you could come with me. He doesn’t like having anyone in his room and I think I’m going to get in trouble.”

“Why would you be yelled at if you went there out of concern?”

“Because you never know when he’s going to get inspired. He hates to have his alone time interrupted.”

“Then I’ll come with you. I’m sure he’s finished eating anyway.”

After finishing her meal, the Viscountess looked away, outwardly uninterested in their conversation, but secretly listening intently.

She soon became nervous and took out the rouge Judith had given her and dabbed it on her lips.

Even that behavior was suspicious to Katya.

Why would she reapply the balm when it was time to go inside, wash up, and go to bed?

It was as if she wanted to look good.

As everyone was getting up to go back to their rooms, Mengano came up to them and said.

[I’ll show you to your rooms. Just in case the candles in the hallway have gone out.]

And so, Nikolai and his wife, along with the assistant Judith and Viscountess Borodin, set off like a kind of expeditionary team.

Baron Lanzkoi always stayed in room 504 whenever he came to this hotel, and today was no different.

Katya and Nikolai were in room 404, Judith across the hall in room 408, and the Viscountess in room 409, so everyone but the Baron was staying on the fourth floor.

Arriving in front of room 504, Mengano knocked on the door.

[Are you there, Baron Lanzkoi?]

No matter how many times he knocked, there was no answer from inside.

[Surely you didn’t slip in the bathroom or have an accident?]

Mengano asked with a pale face.

He quickly pulled a packet of keys out of his pocket, but in the darkness of the hallway, it was hard to tell which one was for room 504.

Nikolai, who had been watching, decided against it and let Mengano back up. He slammed his shoulder into the door with great force.

The locked door swung open.

In the center of the brightly lit room, Lanzkoi was on the floor.

“Baron……?”

Judith cautiously approached him, grabbed him by the shoulders, and shook him.

As he flipped helplessly over, black blood trickled from his mouth.

“Kyaaa!”

Viscountess Borodin, who had witnessed the scene, let out an ear-splittingly piercing scream.