Rin’s vision slowly cleared, and he finally registered his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was that he was in a room decorated in an ancient style. The next thing he noticed was that his bed felt soft, yet strangely uncomfortable.

Rin had grown up surrounded by luxury, giving him a keen eye for treasures, so he could immediately tell. that the room around him was lavishly decorated.

’However, the mood here feels stiff. The way these maids are looking at me tells me that they are disappointed that I woke up.’

The maids clutched their mouths while looking at him, but hostility was dripping out of their eyes. Rin pretended not to notice their glare and instead, shifted his focus to the door.

A lady dressed elegantly from head to toe stepped into the room. She walked without hesitation toward Rin and looked down at him.

Hostility and curiosity swirled in her eyes, making it difficult for Rin to remain at ease under her gaze.

"So, you woke up. It would have been better if you had never opened your eyes again. Why do you insist on making things difficult for yourself and your siblings?"

There was no warmth in the lady’s voice, but it did carry authority. Every instinct in Rin’s body told him to flinch and cower in front of her, but he refused to show weakness.

"Mary, you are Rin’s maid. Make sure to look after him."

The Lady, presumably his mother, left the room after giving this order.

Rin turned his attention toward his maid, waiting for her response. But she scoffed at his misery and decided to ridicule his circumstances.

"Make sure to look after him, she says...ugh, the other maids cannot even bother to help me out, even when I ask them. What did I do to get stuck with the black-sheep of this family?"

The maid spoke harshly and walked right through the other maids. Rin suddenly realized that the other maids he was seeing in the room were ghosts.

But they looked eerily human and tried to reach for him with an angry expression.

"We need to curse the nobles."

"Those nobles are the reason we ended up like this"

"This family needs to experience its downfall."

"We will not forgive them"

"We will not forgive them!"

"WE WILL NOT FORGIVE THEM!"

The screams around Rin were overwhelming that there was no way to shut them out. He was an outsider, so he had a better idea about what was happening. But for the original owner of this body, it would have been difficult to withstand all this.

The mark on Rin’s wrist suddenly became clear.

"I see. So the young master of this family tried to kill himself and after he died, I possessed his body? It makes sense. Now, what wish did the original owner of this body have?"

Rin questioned, forcing himself upright as he looked around the room.

The ghosts tried to grab on to him, but their hands passed through Rin’s body, leaving a cold and uncomfortable sensation behind.

"Our grudge...bear it all..."

"We won’t go away...until this house goes down..."

"Hear our will...you cursed child..."

The ghosts revealed what they wanted but Rin was unconcerned with their demands. The only request that mattered to him was the one this young master made.

"Let’s see. Did the young master leave a diary?...Ah, found it. It has a lock. Where is the key?"

Rin asked and a ghost pointed toward his neck. Rin looked down and noticed the key hanging from his necklace. He used it to open the diary and the first page was dyed red. He turned the page and the second page was stained black.

Finally, the third page had the first line of text.

[I can hear them. They never stop whispering. No one else can hear these whispers and everyone calls me insane.

Even my mother and father tell me that I am ’defective’. I want to end it all.]

[The others cannot see the ghosts. They think I am a madman and maybe I am. I feel completely alone.]

[I told my brother about these ghosts, but he scoffed and laughed at me. That felt worse than the ghosts’ echoes.

Should I...not tell anyone else about this?] 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

[These echoes are getting louder. They are beginning to invade every part of my life. It feels scary to go outside.

Why do they want to kill us all?]

[A ghost accused our family of killing him and his wife. Their child came to ask for compensation and the brother killed him as well. The ghosts were angry and loud. But why are they haunting me? What did I do wrong?]

[There is something wrong with me. I close my eyes and fall asleep. But when I open them, I am at another place, after doing something terrible. I cannot take it anymore.]

[I am going to end it all. A ghost told me that if I perform a ceremony, someone else will take over my body and make my wish come true. If the person reading is the one who took over, please grant my wish.

Get rid of these ghosts for me and also their grudges. This is all I want.]

"Oh! Finding what this body needs was easy enough. Now, how am I supposed to achieve this? What do you all want"

Rin asked the ghosts and they looked startled that he had directly addressed them.

But their excitement returned almost immediately.

"Revenge! We want revenge!"

"Destroy this family! Avenge us!"

"My brothers and sisters need to be brought to rest. Do it for us."

Rin heard all their wishes and he took their wishes to heart.

"I heard what you all want and soon, I will grant it to you. If revenge is what you seek, I will make sure you get it."

Rin promised before burning the diary. There was no longer any need for it and no one else needed to read this.

Even if this was a story world, the emotions his host had experienced resonated deeply with Rin. So now, it was finally time to do something about them.