“Those are my collections.”

He carried out a tray of hot green tea for us. I was feeling cold so the green tea was very much appreciated, but the crow’s rotting corpse was still on my mind so I didn’t reach out for the tea.

The current house we were in was to the very corner of the courtyard, but it was different from the rest of the manor as it was western-style. The interior was heated and the flooring made of wood.
There was a retractable bed and table pushed to the side; along with a shelf containing the remains of numerous animals.
The remains of groundhogs, fishes, rats…….all of the slightly discolored bones were lined up side by side. On the top sat the remains of the crow beside a faintly glimmering skull of a dog.

“That’s a rather impressive collection, you found all those yourself?”

“Yes, although I’m no professional, after giving it a try I realized it wasn’t really that hard. The trick is to thoroughly clean out the animal’s organs and skin, then bury the bones after separating them. The process is rather tedious but after some time the bones become very clean. But if you take it out too early the remaining skin won’t have completely decomposed yet…….although for fishes, aside from burying them in the ground you can soak them in formalin, if you’re able to capture them in their living form they can turn out quite beautiful.”

The boy smiled happily, contrary to his appearance he appeared rather friendly. I disregarded the two who were conversing over the specimens and turned towards my teacup.

“Ah, Odagiri, please help yourself. Don’t worry, I washed my hands before brewing the tea.”

“I wasn’t worried about that, I’m just not thirsty, no need to worry about me.”

“Hahaha! It’s fine, I can understand how you’re feeling, I was just holding a dead corpse before brewing the tea, so it’s reasonable to worry. But it’s customary to brew tea for visitors so I had to brew some regardless!”

The boy smiled in a malicious manner. I felt that his tone towards me was rather mocking compared to how he spoke to Mayuzumi, I could sense a feeling of contempt. In order to shut him up, I reached out for the teacup and drained the scorching hot tea. Seeing me drink all the tea in one gulp, the boy widened his eyes.

“I didn’t think you would be so daring…..oh right, Odagiri, no need to be so formal, that sort of formality just doesn’t suit you! Odagiri, it might just be me, but I feel like you’re forcing yourself to be polite.”

I couldn’t help but heave a sigh. I knew it would be better to just ignore him, but I really wanted to retort.
Mayuzumi had also said the same thing before.

“……..Odagiri, those words don’t suit you.”

She had said nonchalantly while twirling her umbrella. How did I reply to her back then? Noticing that I had unconsciously closed my eyes, Mayuzumi smiled, it was quite rare for her to actually notice the mood. She then turned towards the boy.

“Your explanation was quite entertaining, thank you. You are……..Yusuke Saga correct? Could I ask you a few questions?”

“Yes, go ahead……it’s related to my father’s ear right?”

“Oh? So you know? Although I shouldn’t be saying this, shouldn’t we be considered dubious? Or did your father already explain about us?”

I had an urge to say that the only dubious one was Mayuzumi.
Yusuke nodded his head truthfully.

“My father already explained, when we heard that the daughter of the Mayuzumi house was coming, everyone in our family went into uproar. I heard that you poss

ess incredible powers? Such as how you can see dead people, hear their voices, curse people, lift curses, and the likes. But I feel that this incident is completely his own fault and well-deserved. Haven’t you heard? That person said many bad things regarding your family.”

“That is true, he labeled us as “she-devils” and such.”

Although the Mayuzumi house is indeed related to the supernatural realm, from how Yusuke was portraying them it made the Mayzumi house look entirely like some sort of demon cult. Mayuzumi ignored my look of exasperation and laughed pleasantly.

“I also heard about the matters regarding your grandmother! Something about how after the daughter of my father’s uncle committed suicide, the people within my family began dying from a mysterious illness or began experiencing other sorts of supernatural events. So our family asked your grandmother for help……and the strange occurrences stopped, but then my father’s uncle suddenly committed self-immolation……and your grandmother had said——”.

Yusuke’s mouth quivered slightly.
As if he were unconsciously enjoying himself and smiling.

“—Who told him to burn off his own daughter’s hand, his own fiery death is self-wrought.”

A curse is like a double-edged blade, cursing someone else will in turn cause harm to yourself.
“What you do to others will also come back around to you. The outcome of those who seek vengeance.”
Another similar phrase surfaced within my mind, the tea I drank earlier suddenly tasted incredibly bitter and distasteful.

“Hahaha! I should just ask you to burn my father to death too.”

Yusuke spoke in a jokingly manner, but I could see that he was serious from his eyes. His face may be smiling but he was in fact secretly testing Mayuzumi.
From his glance it would seem he was trying to appraise Mayuzumi’s worth.

“I apologize, I can’t really help you, commissions are prioritized in the order we received them so I will have to decline.”

“What a pity……no, I meant how unfortunate.”

“Don’t feel down, our encounter with each other could also be taken as a kind of fortune. I also feel it’s quite sad that I’m not able to help you.”

Mayuzumi replied simply as she took out a piece of chocolate she was carrying and tossed it into her mouth, the sound of her chewing on the frozen-cold chocolate gave off a bone-gnawing noise.

“You also believe that there is someone who dearly hates your father?”

As Mayuzumi asked, I recalled the sight of the two hanging corpses swaying in the wind.
The horrendous scene of the death was filled with hatred and pain.
Yusuke then quickly replied.

“Yes, there is definitely someone who really hates him, that man deserves to be cursed to death.  Isn’t he completely scared to death right now? That’s because he knows what he has done and it’s obvious why he would be cursed for it.”

Yusuke’s words were full of malice and disgust as he continued speaking.

“Asako wasn’t a bad person, although her inexperience made me a bit worried, she was kind and attempted to get along with me, Aki was also a very cute child, she didn’t deserve to die……but all because of him! My father doesn’t deserve to live…”

The story that followed after was dreary yet simple, just another miserable life story of another person——-

The father of Yusuke is Yujiro Saga, and Yusuke spent the next few hours telling us just how horrible his father was. Yusuke’s mother was the first wife and was essentially killed by his father, Yujiro Saga. His mother had a weak const.i.tution to begin with and ended up pa.s.sing away due to over-fatigue and stress. However, Yujiro Saga apparently didn’t learn his lesson and used his wealth and power to force the young Asako to marry him. In the end he treated her brutally and would constantly beat her whenever he was drunk, he also engaged in numerous affairs. Asako wasn’t able to endure it anymore and ultimately hung herself and her daughter Aki.

These sorts of stories weren’t that uncommon and could practically happen anywhere. But for the people involved, these sorts of common tragedies would end up becoming an everlasting scar.
The amount of pain she had to feel to actually take herself and her own child and hang themselves.

“He deserves to hear the cries of their constant laughter……but the actual punishment he deserves should be far more severe!”

The pupils of the smiling Yusuke began to dilate.
I knew what that was.
Those were the eyes of a person who had gone mad.

“But your father has now been forced to the brink of desperation, he’s desperate to the point where he has to beg for help from the Mayuzumi house he so dearly despised. If he actually did end up going insane, what would you do?”

Yusuke’s mouth twisted into a snarl.
His exposed teeth were like the ones of the animals in his collection.

“When he becomes insane, I will go beside him and laugh into his ear.”