The Eldritch Files

The butler cast a satisfied glance over the children, who stood frozen in a daze. He then strode elegantly to the left wall of the grand hall. Standing before a row of dust-covered cabinets, he knocked gently. The one at the very front swung softly open.

A hunchbacked man, carrying a lantern in his hand, slowly rose from within.

Before he emerged, it was difficult to imagine how such a small cabinet could contain such a large man.

But once he was out, it somehow felt perfectly reasonable, making one even more curious about what, exactly, was inside the other cabinets.

The butler gave the hunchback a slight nod, then led the group of vacant-eyed children to the far end of the hall, stopping before a small, half-height door in the left wall.

A gentle push revealed a staircase leading deep underground.

It was a black, gaping maw of unknown depth.

With a soft clap from the butler, all the children began to file through the small doorway.

Han Su obediently followed them down. While everything in this Ancient Castle gave him plenty of creative ideas for escape, he only dared to choose the one with the highest chance of success.

Taking risks was necessary, but he had to eliminate as many of them as possible. He was certain that if he died here, it would be a true and final death. All the lives that came after would be rendered meaningless.

...

The dungeon was pitch-black. The only feature was a narrow wooden ladder leading up to the small door they had entered through. There were no windows.

Trapped here, without even a sliver of light, Han Su could only track the passage of time by mentally calculating, using the moments the children around him began to cry or speak as his guide.

None of them, including Han Su, knew how long they would be kept here. All they could hear were the occasional caws of crows from outside, and sometimes, transmitted down from the upper floors of the fortress through some unknown material, the short, terrified cries of the children above.

All the children huddled together, enveloped by a formless terror. They didn’t even dare to cry loudly, terrified that the sound would attract something.

’The first day is the Night of Weeping, the second is the Night of Silence, the third is the Night of Revelry, and the fourth... is the Night of Transformation...’

He silently recited the key points he had committed to memory.

In Han Su’s experience, the best opportunity to escape was during the day after the third night, the Night of Revelry, but before the fourth night, the Night of Transformation, had yet to arrive.

Last time, he had tried to lead the children who trusted him out during that same window of opportunity.

But this time, he wasn’t going to wait that long. He was leaving tonight.

Aside from the key being on the Pale Giant’s person—making it relatively easy to snatch—there were two other reasons:

First, the children were particularly restless tonight, which would divert the attention of several monsters.

Second, Han Su knew that the butler, the one entangled in withered vines, would leave after locking him and the other children in the cellar.

The only one left on guard would be the hunchback with the lantern. And while the hunchback possessed strength far beyond any child, he was bound by rules.

He was merely a servant, so he didn’t dare harm the children.

This... was his chance!

...

In the darkness, all the children were huddled in a corner. Only the sound of occasional, suppressed whimpers broke the silence. No one dared to make a move.

They didn’t know how long they would be trapped, nor what horrors the next moment might bring.

Especially in this pitch-black cellar. Children are afraid of the dark, afraid of what monsters might lurk in it. They wanted to find an adult, they wanted to get out, they wanted to cry. But they were also afraid of the monsters outside, so they couldn’t even cry loudly, leaving only a sea of stifled sobs.

Only Han Su remained calm, his gaze slowly sweeping over his surroundings.

’Since I’ve decided to leave tonight, the sooner the better.’

’This body is only nine years old and already weak. The longer I wait, the more strength it’ll lose, and the slimmer my chances of escape will be.’

As this thought crossed his mind, he looked up toward a specific spot in the cellar. A rusted iron pipe stretched three or four meters up into a dark opening, which ended in a mess of burlap sacks and broken floorboards. Now, however, a fresh wooden plank had been nailed over it.

’As I thought. They sealed this hole too.’

He had climbed up there once, escaping the cellar and managing to find his way upstairs and out. Now, he’d have to find another way.

’You’re all afraid, but I’m not.’

Just as Han Su was thinking this, one of the huddled children, tears streaming down his face, started waving his fist at the others. ”My dad is definitely coming to save me,” he declared. ”As long as you do what I say, I’ll have him save all of you, too.”

”My dad is really powerful.”

”My dad is the Number Two Secretary, but he has more power than the mayor. With just a nod, any gardener who doesn’t listen gets beaten to death and fed to the dogs in the garden. So he’s definitely going to come save me.”

”When he gets here, these monsters... all these monsters will be thrown in prison! And if you don’t listen to me, you’ll be thrown in prison, too!”

...

When children are scared, they look for a leader—even one who bullies and scolds them. And so, the parted-hair young master’s words actually managed to stir a few hopeful murmurs of agreement in the small cellar.

”I’ll listen, I’ll listen...”

...

A short distance away, Han Su watched with cold eyes. He rarely considered any child to be truly evil, but this parted-hair young master was an exception.

At such a young age, he was already so fucking stupid, cruel, and selfish.

The last time Han Su had escaped this cellar, he had just finished climbing the iron pipe when this brat popped up, demanding to be pulled up first. Han Su, of course, refused. And so, the brat suddenly started screaming his head off.

The shouting had made Han Su panic. In his haste to pull his leg up, he’d gashed it deeply on a nail. The injury slowed him down, and he was almost caught by the half-woman.

Besides, he had heard the kid say it countless times. He was the son of the Number Two Secretary.

Every time they were locked in this cellar, the kid would get scared and start desperately bragging about how incredibly powerful his father, the Number Two Secretary, was.

Between overhearing the rants and doing some probing of his own, Han Su had concluded that if the boy was telling the truth, his secretary father had at least three to five deaths on his conscience.

One for ruining the flowers, one for breaking a dish, one for angering the man’s wife...

The kid had even bragged about a time he wanted to touch a maid’s breasts. When she refused, he faked a stomachache and claimed she’d fed him old food. Then he just watched as she was beaten to death.

The proud, smug look he must have had on his face while recounting the tale sent a chill down the spine of even Han Su, who was mentally an adult.

There was something odd, though. After he had escaped in the past, the families of the other children had all come looking for him.

Some were noble, some were rich, but there never seemed to be a so-called ”Number Two Secretary” among them.

Theoretically, the Number Two Secretary was the most powerful person in Qinggang City aside from the mayor. If his child had also been kidnapped, it would have been all over the city’s media, yet Han Su had never heard a peep.

’Could it be that his identity is so sensitive that the whole thing was suppressed?’

Han Su couldn’t figure it out at the moment. ’In any case, this time, my chance to escape... depends on you.’

Amid the chorus of boasts and agreements the children were using to bolster their courage, he forced himself to remain calm. A structural map of most of the fortress, from the fifth floor down, formed in his mind.

’My rule is to avoid any potential danger, but this time, it seems the very first step to getting out requires taking a huge risk...’

While thinking, he glanced up the ladder toward the half-height door at the top. He thought of the strange man, the one who would appear with his lantern and menace them with guttural growls whenever the children’s crying in the cellar grew too loud.

Having made his decision, Han Su immediately acted.

He listened to the kid with the parted hair, who was getting more and more carried away bragging to the others about how amazing his dad was, becoming so smug he seemed to have forgotten his fear. Han Su suddenly nodded vigorously in agreement.

”Your dad is the Number Two Secretary? The really powerful official? The one who’s so important that if he kills someone, the Public Security Bureau doesn’t even dare investigate?”

...

Hearing Han Su’s support, the kid with the parted hair was stunned for a moment. Then, his face filled with smug satisfaction. He crossed his arms, sized up Han Su from afar, and, noticing his black jacket, said, ”So you know how powerful my dad is?”

”In that case, I command you to take off your jacket and give it to me. I’m cold.”

He raised his chin proudly as he spoke. ”If you obey, I’ll permit you to wipe my butt when I take a shit. At my house, everyone fights over who gets to wipe my butt.”

As he said this, his eyes even began to dart around.

In truth, he’d needed to go for a while, but he had been holding it in—partly out of fear, and partly because he didn’t know how to wipe himself.

Han Su said, ”Perfect. You’re the one.”

With that, he swung his arm and slapped the kid square across the face.

The kid with the parted hair was completely stunned. He clutched his face and stared at Han Su in utter disbelief, as if that one slap had shattered his entire worldview. After all, even his own father couldn’t bear to strike him. For this boy, violence was a concept so foreign it might as well have come from another dimension.

”My sister was mauled to death by your dad’s dogs because she broke a plate he liked! My little sister got her legs broken and was thrown out because she upset your mom when she was in a bad mood!”

”My older cousin died because you framed her! My younger cousin was buried in your garden for trimming a flower badly!”

...

Han Su shouted, looking like a vengeful demon, and slapped him again and again.

’Given my soul’s age, hitting this kid feels a bit like an adult bullying a child,’ he thought. ’But who told him to have such a detestable family?’

’I’m not even hitting him that hard. A slap for every life they’ve taken... that seems fair, right?’

’Besides, it’s not like I’m really lying. All the suffering masses are my brothers and sisters!’