Sitting on the edge of the bed, May roughly wiped the mucus that had formed on her sore nose. Her comical face with a strawberry nose was filled with a gloomy aura.

‘I came back empty-handed again today…’

Her body had turned away on its own when she met the priest’s kind eyes.

She glared at the compass on the bed with rare anger-filled eyes.

“…Terrible.”

The chain attached to it rattled in response to her habitual mutter.

May hadn’t touched it, the compass had expressed emotion on its own. She tightly closed her eyes at this strange sight that had now become familiar.

“It’s really terrible…”

Unlike the rampant rumors, such an anomaly occurred in the quiet mansion a few days after May set foot there.

“Miss, I don’t mean to scare you, but there’s definitely something in that house, so tell your master to be careful too.”

May blamed herself for not heeding that advice.

‘Why am I so stupid?’

If rumors were circulating, it wouldn’t hurt to be careful. May quickly judged the veracity of the rumors based on the better-than-expected first impression of the mansion.

The picturesque mansion close to the sea was as excellent inside as it was outside. Although there was a lot of dust, and a somewhat unsettling black painting hung in the center of the stairs leading to the upper floor… it wasn’t enough to be a major flaw.

Through the long row of windows, the expansive sea was visible at a glance, and the pleasantly shining sunlight and the resulting glare made for excellent lighting. It was as though the entire house was basking in the sun god’s protection.

The nickname ‘Ghost Mansion’ seemed inappropriate. To May, her grandfather’s house wasn’t the eerie place where something might jump out, as the coachman had said.

Perhaps if an evil ghost appeared, wouldn’t it burn up and disappear in the strong sunlight? And grandfather must have gone to heaven long ago, receiving the sun god’s care.

She had such amusing thoughts with a complacent mind. But…

The situation changed after she found the broken compass there.

“…Did grandfather use this?”

The day she discovered that antique in the storage room. May saw the needle spinning aimlessly and classified it as trash.

“Why did he keep a broken thing instead of throwing it away?”

Strange occurrences began the next day.

The item she had put in the trash kept appearing on the bedside table. Even when she wrapped it in cloth several times and tied it up tightly, it appeared in front of her intact.

From then on, May’s face began to turn pale.

“Well… You’re not afraid of ghosts and such, are you?”

It felt like she was receiving retribution for lying in response to that question.

May finally couldn’t stand it anymore and ran out of the mansion with the compass. She might understand if it was her grandfather’s ghost, but she didn’t want a strange object possessed by an unknown ghost.

However, on her way back after throwing it far away and fleeing, someone stopped her and handed her that cursed object.

Saying it was ‘the item you just dropped’.

That day, May very rudely screamed in the face of the kind middle-aged man. Not only that, but she also ran away in panic.

But…

‘It came back again.’

Her darkened black eyes looked at the sea spread out beyond the window. Since that day, the compass didn’t even bother to hide its strangeness. As a result, opening the window as soon as she woke up in the morning and throwing it towards that distant sea with all her might became May’s daily routine.

And it also became another routine for the object that should have sunk beneath the vast expanse of sea to float up and settle beside May.

Should she be grateful that she no longer faints?

She didn’t want to experience this kind of familiarity. In a moment of anger, she gripped it tightly, and it trembled.

Soon, emitting a beautiful light uncharacteristic of a cursed object, it rose and clung to May’s cheek. As if it was trying to comfort her for crying again.

Of course, even if that were true, it wasn’t appreciated at all. Thinking about the problems she was experiencing because of it only made her more frustrated.

To begin with, being comforted by a compass… Even if she was lonely, she didn’t want comfort from such a bizarre thing.

May struggled to remove it as it started to tap her cheek affectionately, like it was trying to kiss her.

“Ge-Get off…!”

And after a while of this strange tussle between the compass and the human,

Knock knock.

Someone knocked on the mansion’s door.

Instead of going down to open the door, May peeked her head out from the second-floor stairs and surveyed the first floor. It was a habit she had developed after experiencing a phenomenon as distinct as the compass in this mansion.

Eventually, her eyes followed a figure wandering the first floor with heavy, slow steps.

…No, could that be called a figure? That semi-transparent body through which light passed could never be called human.

A huge build like a rock, blue eyes that seemed to have lost their light, a bushy beard and soldier-like short hair. A fierce expression that emerged whenever the listless, expressionless face occasionally distorted.

It was natural because it was her grandfather’s ghost, possessing all those characteristics the coachman had mentioned.

May swallowed a sigh as she watched the old man moving aimlessly. She thought she wanted to see him, even as a ghost. She even wished that she would see her grandfather instead of the strange cursed object.

‘But the cursed object is still here, and soon after, grandfather started appearing too…’

She initially thought it would be nice to meet him in any way, but it would be a lie to say she wasn’t scared when she actually saw her grandfather’s ghost. In fact, even now, she still gets goosebumps every time she sees that semi-transparent body.

But seeing him every day, slouching and weakly circling the same place, she couldn’t just be afraid of him.

Sometimes when he straightened his back and stared at the door, her heart would ache for no reason. Because she could feel the old man’s inexplicable longing as he guarded the entrance.

‘It would be nice if we could talk…’

He just repeated the same actions as though he couldn’t see May.

And then, knock knock. Once again, the sound of someone knocking on the door echoed through the mansion.

At the same time, the soul that had been dragging its feet on the floor, circling the first floor, suddenly stopped moving. Seeing him standing blankly in front of the front door, May carefully began to descend the stairs.

‘…Will other people be able to see my grandfather too?’

Her heart started beating fast with vague curiosity.

* * *

The one who knocked on the mansion’s door was a young man who had come in response to the job posting. With bright golden hair and even deeper golden eyes…

May hesitated for a moment at his face, which was quite beautiful even to her aesthetically insensitive self. Her bewilderment cleared when he spoke in a casual tone.

…Don’t step on the threshold, he said. It was a strange thing to say as a greeting.

Unconsciously, she stepped back, and seeing this, the man naturally slipped into the gap. Soon, the man’s golden eyes swept through the interior of the mansion, like he was inspecting his future workplace in advance.

‘He’s so confident that I ended up offering him a seat…’

May carefully opened her mouth while watching the man sitting across from her.

“Um, there seems to have been some misunderstanding.”

Her gaze briefly flicked to the old man still standing in front of the door.

‘It seems other people can’t see him.’

Whether that was fortunate or unfortunate, she couldn’t tell.

Pretending not to glance at the ghost, May naturally met the guest’s eyes and continued speaking.

“The employee I wanted was a woman…”

He blinked slowly at those words. And then…

“You can think of me as a woman if you like.”

He uttered such a frivolous joke.

“Uh…”

This time, May blinked. The man with a somewhat lazy-looking face was staring at her without any further explanation. May’s lips quivered under his intense, uncomfortable gaze.

…Was it not a joke? If so, there was enough reason not to hire this man, even if not because of his gender. It was best to avoid strange people from the start.

Glancing, she saw that the teacup in front of him was half empty. She thought she would naturally end the meeting when it was completely empty. Then she could inform the employment agency that unfortunately, she couldn’t hire him.

But the teacup was not emptying quickly, and before that, the man opened his mouth.

“I heard that no one else would apply for this mansion anyway.”