Kessler, who had been listless and sickly for half a month, was suddenly back to his usual self, striding confidently through the castle as soon as the rainy season ended, as if nothing had happened.
“What a mess.”
The relentless downpour had left the ghosts in utter disarray. The ones who used to flit around the castle playfully were now dragging their mud-caked bodies everywhere, smearing filth all over the place.
Because of that, tension rose between the cleaning crew and the ghosts. No matter how often the floors were cleaned, the ghosts would pass by and undo it all.
-Nooo, there’s a lot of it!!
-Kikiki, sorry
-No matter how much I clean, it’s endless because of you!!
-Kiki, sorry
The skeleton had put up with a lot. But with no ghost who could hold a proper conversation, he finally snapped and began wildly swinging his broom.
-Witch skeleton
When a ghost mocking him from the ceiling taunted him, the skeleton jabbed upward with the broom, poking it repeatedly.
-Kyararak
All that did was knock more mud to the ground.
***
“Total chaos.”
Kessler strolled past the scuffle without so much as a glance.
As he and a shadow swept between the two fighting figures, they abruptly stopped and looked at one another.
-Clack clack?
-Should we peel it?
The ghost, previously a muddy disaster, was now spotlessly clean—so much so it looked like bleach had been dumped on it.
-Clack clack clack!
The skeleton chuckled with a dry clack clack sound at the ghost’s floury, dough-like face. The ghost, embarrassed, promptly vanished.
The same thing was happening on other floors. Everywhere Kessler passed, it was as if a deep cleaning had taken place.
“There’s not a single day I don’t have to step in.”
He rolled up the shadow that had been used as a mud sack and tossed it outside the castle. A sand hippo promptly gobbled it up. Cleaning complete.
Inside the chapel, where players had gathered, Kessler looked around as if searching for someone. But all he saw were players eagerly partaking in the earthworm juice drinking contest.
Then, he spotted Jung Da-hoon stepping onto the contest stage.
Kessler’s appearance caused a stir in the crowd. Like the Red Sea parting, the players knelt on one knee, one by one. Kessler paid them no mind and walked straight toward Jung Da-hoon.
“Here he is, our hero, the lord of Shadow Castle, the mighty Black Engine, the bold and straightforward—Kes—”
“Shut it.”
“Yessir.”
The announcer, who had been building up a dramatic intro, instantly shut his mouth at Kessler’s curt command.
“Quit the nonsense and scram.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Not you. You stay.”
Jung Da-hoon, who had pretended to obey and was trying to sneak away, was snagged by the scruff of the neck and dangled in place.
Once the players had exited the chapel, Kessler picked up the juice Jung Da-hoon had been about to drink and examined it. It was unfamiliar.
“What is this?”
“Worm soda. Apparently it’s packed with protein. It was developed by the player AntPoopEater. It’s a vital nutrient drink, but people tend to avoid it, so we decided to hold a juice-drinking contest to promote it.”
“What do you win if you take first?”
“A bit of glory… and some modest rewards?”
Jung Da-hoon’s eyes drifted to something behind Kessler. There, four tails were swaying.
‘Did they meet? Did things work out okay…?’
Those had once been the tails Yeo Woo-rim used to wear constantly. Recently, Woo-rim had been going around with only five—guess he’d lost four to Kessler.
“Did you make fox-tail stew?”
“…Something like that.”
As Jung Da-hoon stared blankly at the tails, lost in thought, Kessler’s brow furrowed sharply.
“Trying to lay hands on my fox again?”
“Huh? No, I just thought the tails looked nice.”
“You liked them enough to skin a baby fox for them?”
He swore—swore—he had never, even for a second, imagined anything of the sort.
Jung Da-hoon looked at Kessler with a face full of injustice. But then it hit him. Kessler wanted a reason to mess him up.
“I don’t know what misunderstanding there may be, but I’m just here as part of the cheer squad.”
“Where’s Yeo Woo-rim?”
“He’s probably working in the fields.”
“The fields?”
“Yes. Said he needed to clear his head, so lately he’s been taking on miscellaneous chores.”
Having confirmed Yeo Woo-rim’s whereabouts, Kessler left the chapel immediately and headed for the backyard of the castle.
It seemed like the entire crowd from the chapel had moved out here—this place was packed with people too.
First, he searched for a fox-tail cloak, then for the small baby Arctic Fox, but neither Woo-rim nor the baby fox was anywhere to be seen.
Frustrated, he turned on the location tracker, but recently accessible coordinates had been locked again.
[Relationship Panel]: The individual has set location sharing to OFF.
“That bastard murderer’s insane, right? No matter how you look at it, hiding corpses? We have to catch him. There’s no doubt he’s using this place to act out his real-life urges!”
“The killer must be one of us. The culprit is always close to the scene.”
“Didn’t someone say that user Jung was the murderer back then?”
“Jung Carbonara was the main suspect, but he got offed during the ghost auction.”
Just as Kessler was about to turn away from the commotion, a cold chill pricked at him, and he leapt off the castle wall.
“Why is he back? I thought we dodged him!”
“Who is that guy? Is he really the Lord of the Castle?”
Regaining balance, Kessler walked straight toward the spot where a body had been buried.
“…That can’t be.”
Fortunately, Yeo Woo-rim wasn’t among the dead. Kessler turned around, visibly relieved.
***
It was just after a long nap and while I was grilling meat on the rooftop.
“Yeo Woo-rim! They’re calling a meeting in the chapel!”
“What’s going on?”
“A meeting! A meeting!”
Just a little while ago, they’d been holding some kind of earthworm drink-making contest, and now this—something must’ve happened.
“This way, please.”
Jung Da-hoon, who looked as nervous as a puppy needing to pee, greeted me at the chapel entrance and led me to a corner seat.
“What’s the situation?”
“Did you misplace the rest of your tails? Kessler took them again?”
“No… I just put them in my bag. They stood out too much.”
Ever since it became known that Kessler was the castle lord, I had been keeping Kessler’s tails tucked away.
Because of that damned incident where he bought me for five million won at the slave auction, I’d already become known as “Kessler’s favorite player.”
Fame was already inevitable, but in this society, drawing attention usually brought more harm than good. So I had to lay low as much as possible.
“But why the gathering?”
“A body buried by the murderer was discovered.”
…So basically, Jung Da-hoon had killed players and hidden their bodies to fake the disappearance of the Murderer class, but the recent heavy rain had exposed the remains.
“Makes sense, I guess.”
Unlike me, the other players were furious.
“I seriously don’t get it. We have to root him out.”
“Even the foreign player Tteuraeyang died—and she was alive just yesterday. That means she was killed last night…”
Players were furious. During the Shadow Banquet, there had been plenty of chances to change classes if they’d wanted to.
Class-exclusive items like ‘Black Hand Gloves’ couldn’t be held by more than one person. So if you switched to that class, any other item would automatically be dropped on the ground.
Of course, cases like mine—where Fox and Yeo Woo-rim coexist—were exceptions.
For a while, the ground had been littered with abandoned job items, but the killer had chosen to keep the Murderer class regardless.
“Kill the psycho bastard!”
A man who had lost his girlfriend last night screamed.
“If we don’t catch him now, the next person to get buried might be me—or my family.”
With only a few hundred players left, the sense of danger was amplified.
“Should’ve been more careful…”
“It’s fine. The dead ones probably disconnected and went to scream about there being a murderer, so now everyone knows.”
“I picked up a ‘Mute’ item from the treasure vault. The dead players don’t even realize they were killed by the murderer…”
I gently patted Jung Da-hoon on the back as he whispered his guilt.
Soon, the player meeting began. When the expedition leader stepped up to the podium and grabbed the loudspeaker, the room fell silent. “Thank you all for taking time out of your busy day. Today, we received a flood of reports from users. The claims were that a murderer had been killing random players and burying the bodies—and we’ve confirmed those reports as true. So, we held an emergency meeting to discuss safety measures. I’m here to share the results with you.”
“GodGarlic! GodGarlic!”
The voice of PeeledGarlicUnpeeledGarlic rang out in my ears.
“To uncover the killer, we’ve decided to initiate the Player Judgment Quest.”
Expedition leader PeeledGarlicUnpeeledGarlic has activated the player quest, <Impartial Judgment>.
“Please fill out the survey. We’ll collect everyone’s opinions and make a decision based on the overwhelming majority.”
A survey form appeared before each player’s eyes.
