Chosen by the Northern Grand Duke Chapter 198 : Chapter 198

Chapter 198: The Haunted House (4)

The door opened smoothly, without a sound.

Though it looked like a haunted ruin, it ant the interior still functioned properly.

‘Ah.’

The mont Harad opened the door, he realized his mistake.

‘I should have broken it.’

A knight should not open a door. A knight should break it.

“Hm.”

Harad kicked the open door shut.

The closed door bulged outward and attacked. A shadow surged up from the floor and blocked it.

“That would have been a serious injury.”

Harad examined the door, now held back by Jis’s shadow.

Unlike the outer wall, the door was slow. And its tip was blunt.

‘Earlier, it was shaped like a sword.’

Earlier, he had swung a sword. So the outer wall had stabbed back in the shape of a sword.

Just now, he had kicked it. So the door had bulged bluntly.

‘Does it return the attack?’

This haunted house—this monster—had intelligence. Or soone was controlling it.

‘Either way, it is around the 5th Rank.’

If it had been a trivial attack, Jis’s shadow would not have rippled. Yet earlier, when it absorbed the wall’s attack, the shadow had swayed. That ant the power was not ordinary.

“It is cleaner than expected.”

The interior was cleaner than expected. It was not even dark.

An entryway, corridors spreading to either side, stairs beyond—candles were lit everywhere.

‘No dust.’

There was no dust anywhere. Yet there were no signs of use either. It felt like a well-maintained empty house.

“Harad.”

Ellen pointed downward. A pair of boots was neatly placed in the entryway.

“I know.”

“…….”

Ellen’s eyes narrowed. Harad ignored her and examined the boots. Plain, jet-black boots.

‘There is dust here.’

Dust had gathered on the boots. Harad slapped them aside as if striking a cheek.

The boots toppled over. Jis’s shadow rose, but there was no reaction from the boots. They were not part of the house.

‘So there was soone here before.’

Whether alive or dead was unknown. But the owner of those boots was inside this haunted house.

“I see.”

“Why?”

Ellen asked like a mage.

“I just tried it. A knight knows nothing.”

“…….”

Harad shifted his gaze. On top of the shoe cabinet to the left lay a sheet of parchnt.

‘Dust.’

The parchnt was not part of the house either. Harad brushed off the dust and looked at it.

“User manual?”

That was written at the top. Below it was a long list. There was even a second page.

“Remove your shoes before entering.”

Harad unconsciously read the first line, then paused.

“Why?”

Ellen asked. Her face said she feared the answer.

“Knights do not read things like this.”

Harad tore the parchnt to shreds and threw it on the floor.

“…….”

He could feel their stares boring into the back of his head. Ignoring Ellen and Kesera, Harad stepped forward.

He did not remove his boots.

Thud.

The floor was wooden. The mont Harad’s foot touched it, the inner walls on both sides writhed and fired blades.

It looked like a hunter’s trap.

“That would have been a severed limb.”

Without Jis’s shadow, he would have lost his foot.

“As expected of my Aura.”

“Heh.”

Jis, the defensive Aura, looked embarrassed.

“…Are you going to keep doing that?”

Ellen abandoned the roleplay.

“Knights do not know things like that.”

Harad ignored her.

***

‘So it does more than just return attacks.’

All he did was fail to remove his shoes. Yet he nearly lost a foot.

“This looks like it could break.”

Harad swung Patern toward the inner wall that had fired the blades. It was an excellent cut, better than that of most knights.

But there was no effect. The left inner wall that had deflected Patern rose up in the shape of a sword. Jis’s shadow blocked it. This ti, it did not ripple.

‘It returns power in proportion.’

This ti, he had not manifested fire. So the house’s counterattack was weak.

“That would have killed soone.”

A real knight would have swung with Aura wrapped around the blade.

‘Returning attacks is the base rule, and on top of that, there are rules to follow.’

This haunted house had rules. That was why a manual existed.

‘If you follow the manual, there is no danger.’

A mage must have written it.

‘Did they discover the rules, or was it built that way?’

Then what was this house?

“Let us go.”

“I will take the lead.”

Ellen, having abandoned the roleplay, spoke. Harad shook his head.

“No. The vanguard is the knight’s role.”

“…….”

Ellen cursed him with her eyes. Harad did not notice. Knights had no such awareness.

The first floor was a reception room.

“For the glory of Serzila!”

Harad swung his sword at a sofa. The blade sank in.

The sofa crawled up along the blade. If the shadow had not pulled it free, he would have lost his sword.

“That would have lost a sword.”

Harad turned his gaze. A deer’s head was mounted on the wall. When he swung his sword, the antlers moved as if alive and blocked it.

From the deer’s gaping mouth, teeth shot out. Without the shadow, his face would have been riddled with holes.

“That would have died too.”

In the fireplace beneath the deer’s head, flas crackled.

“Oh. Warm.”

Harad crouched in front of it like a knight and ward his hands. The flas imdiately burst toward him.

If Harad’s Origin had not been the sun, he would have lted and died.

“Dead again.”

Harad stood and brushed off the fire.

“…Are you alright?”

Jis finally asked.

“Still fine.”

Four had died. One had lost a foot. One had lost a sword. Excluding the commander, a knight order had forty-nine mbers.

“Up we go.”

Harad climbed to the second floor.

As if he had broken a rule, the edge of the stairs rose up like an inverted guillotine.

“Damn.”

Five dead already.

***

Rules must be followed.

If you attack, it retaliates in the sa way. Power is returned proportionally.

‘What if I set it on fire?’

Would it counter with fire? What about other magic?

Harad looked down at Jis’s shadow, then shook his head and stopped thinking.

That was not his role.

Knights’ ignorance was selective. So were truly ignorant, but at least so chose to be ignorant, deliberately turning away from reality.

That was what the North wanted. And it was comfortable.

‘It really is comfortable.’

Harad was experiencing it firsthand. If the body was sturdy, the head did not need to suffer. It saved ti. Instead of worrying and hesitating, one could test things with the body and move on.

‘There would have been no problem on a patrol route.’

Modern patrols were stale. You walked the sa paths, t the sa Magical Beasts. Mages were rare. An environnt where the body could handle everything, without the head suffering.

‘That is why they died.’

Until now, ignorance had been enough. The environnt allowed it.

From now on, it would not.

The regressed Harad knew the future.

He thought this haunted house hinted at that future. In his previous life, the 5th Knights were annihilated here. Only Kesera survived, and the order was refilled with knights from the 6th Knights.

That kind of reinforcent would not exist in the future. Not only the Wall’s knights, but the North itself would fall.

‘We must prepare.’

There was ti before that ruined future. But Harad chose to think there was not.

Because the future was already changing. The Tower Master of teoric Iron was dead. The Moon existed. The future could change or arrive sooner, and there would be no one to complain.

So the North had to change. It could be ignorant, but at least when it ca to the Otherworld, it had to be learned. That was why Harad introduced magic examinations for knights.

From now on, ignorance ant death.

Like this.

“Damn.”

A coat rack by the stairs lunged like a snake.

Another death.

They had only reached the third floor, yet had already been attacked twenty-five tis. It ant twenty-five ignorant knights had died.

“If I were an ordinary knight, I would be dead.”

“…….”

“But my defensive Aura is strong.”

Ellen sighed.

She did not tell him to stop. She did not know his intention, but it seed she ant for him to do as he pleased. She wanted Harad to act however he liked.

The third floor was a dining room.

The table was large, and surprisingly, a al was set. Steam rose from at that looked freshly grilled.

‘Six servings.’

There were six chairs as well.

“Blatantly suspicious.”

Harad said. Ellen and Kesera nodded.

“Mage Kesera. What do you think?”

“I think we should not attack.”

Kesera answered imdiately. She had seen Harad attack and suffer for it repeatedly.

“What about eating?”

“…I think we should ignore it.”

Kesera looked as if she thought he was insane. Harad did not care and sat down. Kesera’s eyebrow twitched.

“What are you doing?”

“A knight eats when given food.”

There were a knife and fork. It must have ant to cut and eat properly.

But Harad was a knight. He stabbed the palm-sized steak with his fork and shoved it into his mouth.

Or tried to.

Clang!

The fork was knocked away, crashing to the floor. The appetizing steak rolled across the ground. Kesera had struck it away.

“Mage Harad.”

“I am Knight Harad.”

Harad examined the steak on the floor. Now that he looked closely, it was not steak, but sothing like mold. If he had eaten it, he would have died.

“Dead again.”

“…You bastard.”

Kesera growled. Her expression was ferocious.

“What do you think a knight is?”

“Is it not like this?”

Rising from the chair, Harad struck the table with his sword.

The food fell to the floor with a clatter and rotted like mold. The table that had been struck directly folded in half and turned into a mouth. If Jis had not pulled him back, Harad would have been eaten.

“Dead aga—”

“…Mage Harad.”

Kesera spoke with emphasis.

“I understand what you are doing. You want to instill caution toward magic.”

She had realized that Harad had been reenacting the knights’ deaths. Truly a perceptive knight.

“But that is enough as a cautionary example. We would not have died like that.”

No matter how many were perceptive, one defended one’s own. Kesera defended the knights.

“Do you really think it would have been different?”

“…….”

“I think only you would have been different.”

***

So would have died attacking the house from outside. So would have died touching the door.

Then, realizing the outside would not work, they would have entered.

‘Mureb.’

That hot-blooded knight would have lost his foot by not removing his shoes.

‘Zabaletta.’

Unable to endure the cold, he would have turned to ash at the fireplace.

‘Heitz.’

The youngest, Heitz, would have died climbing the stairs. His seniors, Sabin and Ebam, would have been torn apart while admiring the weapons in the display cases on the second floor.

“This looks like it can be cut.”

Every ti Harad swung his sword—

“Dead again.”

And every ti he said that, Kesera saw the knights in Harad.

They would have touched and attacked everything in sight. Even knowing objects retaliated.

So it was not different. Harad lived because he was Harad. The 5th Knights would have died.

They were not Sword Masters. They did not have a shadow mage.

‘They all died.’

Yet Kesera instinctively knew she alone would not have died. Not because Harad had assigned her the role of a cautious mage.

Even without Harad, Kesera would not have swung her sword at the house rashly. She would have read the manual. She believed she was that kind of person.

…Because she was more fearful than others.

Then would she have ordered her subordinates to follow the manual?

Kesera shook her head. That was not knightly.

She would have watched her subordinates rampage and die, and tried to rampage alongside them. Yet she would not have been able to forget the manual entirely. She was, after all, a knight commander.

“What are you trying to say? Are you mocking ?”

“Of course not.”

Harad shrugged. Kesera could not et his eyes.

“Only you would have been different.” Those words struck her at the core.

A cautious mage. Why had Harad given her that role?

“If you had been cautious, fewer would have died. I only showed you that.”

Harad spoke. A mage-like statent.

“Are you telling us to fear the enemy?”

“As I said earlier, caution and fear are different.”

Harad stepped farther away from the table that seed eager to devour him.

“Fear is closer to avoidance. And it cannot be imitated. You can pretend to be afraid, but a coward cannot pretend not to be afraid.”

Harad looked around.

“This is not a place cowards can enter. Therefore, there are no cowards here.”

That sounded pleasant to Kesera. As if he were reassuring her that she was not a coward.

“Caution is closer to understanding. When a coward retreats, the cautious maintain distance.”

“…….”

“To avoid or to confront. The cautious can choose.”

Kesera t Harad’s gaze.

“You still do not understand.”

“…….”

“It ans a coward cannot be a knight, but a cautious person can.”

Why did it conclude like that? Kesera frowned.

“Because the cautious have many choices.”

Suddenly, fire erupted from the floor. The entire third floor was engulfed in flas.

“As expected. It cannot respond to nonphysical attacks.”

Harad nodded as if it were expected. He burned the entire house. That was Harad’s choice.

“So. Do I look ignorant?”

Harad asked, controlling the inferno at will.

Kesera nodded. Yet Harad was a cautious mage. Only the choice he made was ignorant.

“Then there must be cautious knights too.”

If that was so, the opposite existing would not be strange either.

“…Why does it conclude like that?”

Ellen, who had been silent, finally spoke.

Kesera thought there was no need to explain. It was sothing only cautious people could understand.

“Mage Harad, you speak as if you know well.”

“I heard it from the Grand Heir. That you are a very promising old maid.”

“…….”

Kesera filtered that with a complicated expression. The old maid part was false. The rest sounded true.

“So it is alright to be honest sotis.”

Even if Harad acted ignorant at tis, he was still a mage. The sa was true for knights. Even if they were learned at tis, they were still knights.

“It would be better if you did so more often.”

“I understand.”

Kesera nodded.

“Tonight, I will be beneath Kals.”

“……?”

“I am always on top.”

Sotis, things should change.

“Why does it conclude like that?”

Harad was making a strange face when—

“Fire!”

A voice rang out from above.