Chapter Text
Since every time he was about to enter a new room the layout would change, and the door he opened would lead to the master bedroom, Zhou Mingrui just gave up.
He dragged his suitcase inside, put on his pajamas, and went to bed.
It didn't matter that it was probably absurdly early to sleep. It wasn't like he had much else to do.
When he woke up, the outside was still just as gloomy — apparently, the fog was a constant part of life here.
He sighed before he began getting ready for the day. Unfortunately, his suitcase had mysteriously disappeared during the night, and he had to open the walk-in closet filled multiple black robes there. Any anger he felt at it disappeared when he felt just how nice their material was. They even had beautiful embroidered details along them.
Although it was still insanely emberassing to wear — he felt like he was being forced to go to the grocery store while in full cosplay.
Thankfully, other than that the house seemed to have gotten over its version of a tantrum as nothing had been rearranged further since last night–
The door almost slammed into his face when he attempted to exit the room.
This was going to be very difficult, it seemed.
After a while of the manor trying to get him to enter a secondary storage room, Zhou Mingrui complied and was greeted by multiple empty shelves labeled with the names of different crops. As well as a multitude of gardening tools.
"…Do you want me to plant things or–" A door slammed and then opened.
"I'll take that as a yes." Since there were no more weird happenings, it was probably the right assumption.
'We should agree on a system.' It would do no good not to know what the living house wanted from him. He'd rather not starve to death due to being locked inside and unable to escape.
When he approached a large chest with a sign above it labeled "seeds" he expected there to be seeds inside. Seems like such expectations were too hopeful.
"…Do I need to go buy seeds?" The door once again slammed shut before opening right after.
"What is the currency here?" Since the language was obviously different based on the sign, then he'd need the local currency to be able to get anything — the money in his wallet wasn't any different, he had checked.
The house was still for a while before the place the storage room was attached to changed while he was blinking.
In that room there was a heap of gold coins on a table!
Zhou Mingrui rushed there before calming down and putting some coins in his wallet and the pockets on the inner side of the robe.
After that, when he turned around, the room had shifted to being right near the exit.
It took all of his self-control to wait until exiting before lampooning about being ordered around by a building!
It seemed he'd have to go into town…
…
As he was approaching the border of the farm, he began hearing voices that were speaking in that unknown language. However, like the writing, it was completely understandable for an unknown reason.
"Did you really see a person enter?" An exasperated male voice asked.
"May the Primordial drag me forever into the mirror should I be lying!" A young woman answered with obvious frustration at being questioned.
"…We will wait a bit more then."
'Uh, what is dragging people into a mirror?' Would talking to these people be a good idea? Zhou Mingrui had not brought a weapon…
'Damn it! How did I forget the knife?'
They were here because of him, unless there was some other person who had entered this place yesterday. It was probably a good idea to call out to them ahead of time.
He did just that after he realized translations of what he wanted to say would pop up in his mind naturally as if he had always been fluent in this language.
"Hello?" After calling out to them, he could hear no sound for a while until a whisper that sounded suspiciously like "I told you so." came from that direction.
"What brings you here?" He prompted further while stepping behind a nearby tree.
Zhou Mingrui wanted to salvage his peace of mind for a while longer before he had to step out in such clothes!
"We apologize for the loitering!" Somehow, the two of them said at the exact same time. From their tone, a trace of fear and slight detensives could be detected.
'Isn't this a bit much?' After calming down, he began pondering on those emotions 'Do they believe I'm the last owner of this place? Were they a terrifying person? No, then why would they stay here when they saw a person entering? Do they need something? This could be why I'm here! I might have been brought to replace the previous owner since they were a shut-in that wasn't doing what the manor wanted!'
"Heh. It's of no importance." They likely knew neither the voice nor appearance of who they were here for, so it would be easy to play the role of a mysterious owner.
Zhou Mingrui flipped the hood of the robe up so that it would cast a shadow on his face.
Out of nowhere, he spotted movement from the corner of his eye. Upon spinning around, there was an ominous figure wearing the same robe as him, floating a bit above the ground, the ends of their robe billowing with unfelt wind.
Supressing the urge to scream or run away in worry — it would startle the people he was just conversing with — proved to be harder than expected since the figure raised its head? Whatever it had for a head and revealed a pure white mask covered with mysterious symbols that caused him to clench his eyes shut as pain exploded behind them.
As suddenly as the pain appeared, it went away as if it were stolen the moment he stopped looking at the supernatural figure.
After taking a deep breath, Zhou Mingrui cautiously opened his eyes again and noticed a bright white mask had appeared on the ground. It was not covered with the mysterious symbols and appeared rather mundane.
'Does it…want me to put it on?' The only thing that differentiated his attire from that of the ghost was the lack of a mask.
Zhou Mingrui's lips twitched as he quietly began making his way to it. Then, one of the people outside spoke again.
"The Lord had tasked me with representing the faith in Loen. As the oracle responsible for this area, I humbly bring you gifts from the name of the Aurora Order!" The man announced piously.
'I don't know that cult.' Zhou Mingrui bit down the urge to lampoon out loud as he moved closer to the mask.
"I am aware." It would be best to act lofty considering the cultist seemed to look up to the owner of this place. Zhou Mingrui definitely did not want to get replaced out of nowhere — that would likely lead to getting killed off by the ghost in the forest or the living house.
If he wanted to get a chance to go home, he would need to play the long game.
As if those two had agreed on it, the woman spoke immediately after. "As the one sent to represent the Clan, I bring gifts in the name of the Primordial!"
'Another cult!' Zhou Mingrui responded as he previously had before quickly grabbing the mask and dusting it off before putting it on.
'Ugh, why can't it have dropped it into my hands? Does it already hate me that much?'
Now that he was appernatly properly dressed by the ghost's standards, Zhou Mingrui made his way closer to the voices.
There, he saw two of the most breathtakingly stunning people he had ever met!
But more importantly, they were both wearing robes!
'Does everyone here place dress like this?!'
The man was wearing a hooded robe that did not hide his beautiful face. Had it not been for the rest of his body, Zhou Mingrui would have mistaken him for a woman with a deep voice as his features were very feminine. In front of him was a very well crafted wooden chest.
Next to him was a woman wearing a white robe. All of her features were extremely gorgeous. Shiny long hair framed her face perfectly. There was another chest in front of her, but unlike the other one it was made from a light colored wood that almost looked white.
'This place needs a modeling agency!' Such people would make an absolute fortune!
Once he approached close enough to be spotted, they immediately bowed down slightly before saying some rather flattering goodbyes.
'Playing the role of someone who gets spoken to in such a way is certainly not good for my ego…'
They did not look back as they left, but Zhou Mingrui waited until they weren't visible before going to pick the chests up and bring them inside.
He ended up taking a very long time to bring both of them to the manor. Inside, there was an incredible amount of shiny coins just like the ones currently in his wallet! But other than them there were also insanely weird things like a completely black pupiless eye, a colorless crystal that emitted mist, a huge pale blue feather with eye patterns and many more weird miscellaneous items that made him worry about the sanity of the people who lived in Loen.
Regardless, it wasn't his problem!
Zhou Mingrui decided to leave it to the house before trying to enter the bedroom.
As per his expectations, his suitcase had been returned!
After seeing the hooded ghost, he realized that those two showing up was arranged!
He had been forced to sleep early yesterday, and at some point while he slept, it was highly likely the ghost had appeared and walked into the fog when that woman could see it! The woman immediately seemed convinced upon seeing the robe and mask, and had the one she seen been a random guy wearing modern clothes and dragging a bright neon suitcase there was no way she'd be able to maintain that level of abundant respect!
That realization led to him to realize that the odds of being allowed to change into normal clothes now were very high — going shopping for seeds while dressed like this would be embarrassing for both him and the ghost!
As for having to move the coins from the robe's pockets to those of his normal clothes, it could only be called a misunderstanding between him and the house. How was he supposed to know he wasn't meant to go shopping immediately? It was obviously a communication issue between them, mostly on the manor's side!
After finishing, Zhou Mingrui once again headed for the town.
There was nobody on the way there. However, near what he suspected was the entrance, there was a handsome young man with casually combed hair, and the temperament of a poet. Probably standing guard based on the uniform?
"I don't think I've ever seen you around here before! Are you a new resident? My name is Leonard Mitchell, an officer of the Blackthorn Police Station. It's a pleasure to meet you." He spoke in a laid-back tone that conveyed friendliness.
'There's no way he is a police officer!' Zhou Mingrui lampooned before greeting the overly friendly guy.
"Likewise. You can call me Klein, I'll be moving in today." Zhou Mingrui had long picked a random name to use in town since the language was way more similar to western ones.
He wouldn't be able to stand it if most people mispronounced his real name so he had to bite the bullet and use an alias. It'd probably also be better for his safety when he leaves in the future.
The handsome police officer smiled at him.
'If everyone here looks that good, I swear I'll wear the mask outside regardless of what the ghost wants!'