Chapter 82: Eating People... Becoming a God?
The plan was progressing in an orderly fashion.
The moment the Butler entered the bathroom, the sound of running water echoed from within. Wu Wenwen shot a sharp, meaningful gesture to the others.
Everyone understood instantly and sprang into action.
The Butler had taken his change of clothes with him into the shower, leaving them with only one option: force the door to his private quarters open.
Liu Haoran took two steps back, planting his feet and taking a deep breath. Just as he was about to slam his foot into the door, Kaguya reached out a slender hand and stopped him.
"Allow me."
Under the confused gazes of the group, Kaguya calmly produced a small, ornate wooden box from her sleeve.
Inside, an array of thin wires, delicate probes, small magnets, and other peculiar tools were arranged with surprising neatness. She skillfully selected a single wire and inserted it into the keyhole.
For a moment, the expressions on everyone's faces grew rather complicated.
It wasn't that they hadn't considered the possibility of a lockpick among them, but no one had ever imagined it would be Kaguya. From their first meeting until now, she had cultivated the image of a sheltered princess. Even when she showed flashes of playfulness or endearing silliness, the inherent elegance in her bones was impossible to hide. She was, at the very least, a child from a prominent and wealthy family.
And now they were discovering that this very same princess… could pick locks?
It wasn't just them; even Haruto was caught completely off guard. He stared, dumbfounded.
"When did you learn to do that? Why would you ever need to learn how to pick a lock?"
"You, of all people, should know," Kaguya grumbled, her focus never leaving the task at hand as she hooked and pressed with the wire. "Eirin is always confiscating my games and manga, and she locks them up. If I didn't know how to do this, how would I ever get them back?"
With a final, satisfying click, she successfully disengaged the lock and pushed the door open.
Haruto was left speechless. When she put it like that, it actually made a twisted sort of sense.
The group quickly slipped inside the Butler's room. The layout was spartan, almost identical to a standard guest room, save for the conspicuous absence of a balcony.
"Found a diary over here," Kaguya called out, pulling an old, dust-covered journal from a corner of the bookshelf.
[March 15th, Cloudy: The Madam's illness has worsened again. She coughed through the entire night and could barely swallow a spoonful of broth. The Master stayed by her bedside, refusing to sleep. We've invited the best doctors in the city, and prescription after prescription has been written, but there is no sign of improvement.]
[April 11th, Rainy: The Master flew into a terrible rage today. He smashed the medicine bowl and cursed us all for being useless… Alas.]
[April 15th, Light Rain: A Barefoot Doctor arrived today. To call him a doctor… this old servant thinks he looked more like a specter. His appearance was bizarre. He claimed he could cure the Madam. The Master clung to him like a lifeline, treating him as an honored guest. I pray this doctor can truly heal the Madam's illness.]
[May 15th, Thunderstorm: Madness! The Master has truly gone mad! That Barefoot Doctor offered an evil prescription: to use the heart of a living person as a catalyst, to harmonize medicinal stones that can prolong life and even grant godhood! And the Master… he actually believed it! Servants in the castle have begun to disappear, one by one, spreading panic. I was ordered to dispose of… the 'medicine dregs.' I have nightmares every night. I cannot find a moment's peace.]
[May 19th, Partly Cloudy: The Madam's illness shows no improvement, but her eyes grow more terrified with each passing day. I believe the Madam has guessed the truth…]
[May 20th, Full Moon, yet lightless: This will likely be my final entry. Nearly all the servants in the castle are dead. The next one will be me. The Madam was force-fed the medicinal soup today. Her piercing screams still echo in my ears.]
[May 26th, Drizzling: Out of consideration for our past relationship, the Master gave this old servant two choices. One: pretend I know nothing and leave with a sum of money. Two: become a Bound Spirit, merging with the ancient castle I have maintained day after day. If anyone ever reads this record, leave this place! Leave quickly and do not look back! The curse… has already begun.]
The diary ended abruptly. Kaguya quickly flipped through the remaining pages, confirming there was no other information before handing the journal to Xie Lin.
"She's like that… and she can become a god?" Tong Yi murmured, his voice laced with disbelief.
The others felt the same. The current state of the Lady of the Castle was simply too disgusting, too horrifying. She looked less like a deity in the making and more like a grotesque monster.
Yotsuya Miko turned to Haruto, seeking his opinion, but he just shook his head.
"How should I know? You should be asking Kaguya about this kind of thing."
Haruto didn't bother to lower his voice. His words, casual as they were, landed like thunderclaps in the silent room. The implication was terrifying: Kaguya knew. She might even know the process of apotheosis.
It was an unbelievable thought.
"But really," Haruto added with a lazy shrug, "in a world where things like the Death Game and ghosts exist, is it really so strange that someone might understand gods and how one becomes a god?"
Instantly, every gaze in the room swiveled to fixate on Kaguya.
She simply spread her hands. "I don't understand it perfectly, but from what the diary says, she can't possibly become a true god. At best, she's on the path to becoming a False God."
The group fell silent, the air growing heavy. Even a "False God" was a being far beyond their ability to contend with.
"We can't wait until the seventh day," Xie Lin said, his voice grim. "We don't know how much longer the Lady of the Castle needs. We can't afford to gamble. The mission requires us to kill her, and it's very likely the seventh day is precisely when she completes her transformation. We have to act sooner—"
Before he could finish, his earring suddenly flashed with an urgent light. Xie Lin's expression changed drastically.
"Wenwen can't hold on!"
Everyone scrambled, quickly taking photos of the diary's crucial pages for their records. They had been searching while discussing, and the Butler's room was now in a state of disarray.
Meanwhile, on the floor below.
Wu Wenwen stood rigidly outside the bathroom, her knuckles white where she gripped her camera.
Every time the bathroom door vibrated violently, she mashed the shutter button. The sealing sticker that Zhang Katao had given her had long since disintegrated into ash, not even lasting thirty seconds.
Bang… Bang… BANG BANG…!
The duration the camera could contain the entity grew shorter and shorter. Five seconds, three seconds, half a second… until the screen dissolved into a blizzard of static.
A bizarre, withered hand stretched out from the camera's screen, reaching for her. Wu Wenwen's pupils constricted in a flash of pure terror. But with a glance at the violently shaking bathroom door, and then at the staircase where her teammates had yet to emerge, she gritted her teeth and continued to relentlessly press the shutter.
CRACK—BOOM!
The bathroom door was blasted open.
In that same instant, the ghost hand inside the camera clamped down on her wrist like a vise. A massive, irresistible force dragged her forward, pulling her directly into the screen. She vanished from the spot. The camera clattered to the floor, its screen shattering into a spiderweb of fractured glass.
A short while later, a single black-and-white photo slowly printed from the bottom of the semi-damaged device. It was a picture of Wu Wenwen.
But if one looked closely, right on the edge of her clothes in the photograph, a tiny, almost imperceptible Gap had been torn into the image.
When the Butler came downstairs, he saw the group gathered by the main entrance, pretending to gaze at the scenery outside.
He walked over to his room, tried the handle, and confirmed it was still locked. Without a word to any of them, he frowned and turned to head up to the third floor.
"Luckily, this guy isn't too bright," Liu Haoran muttered, patting his chest in relief. He turned to Xie Lin. "What do we do next?"
Xie Lin didn't answer. His face was terrifyingly gloomy.
"What's wrong?" Liu Haoran asked, sensing something was terribly amiss.
"Something's wrong… it's all wrong… The timing is wrong…"
"What's wrong?"
Xie Lin muttered the words again and again as he began walking quickly up the stairs. "The Butler came back too fast. This doesn't add up at all!"
[Inorin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/InorinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/InorinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]