Betrothed to My Sister's Ex

Dippel Castle is apparently a well-known spot among those in the know.

About five hundred years ago, a minor noble built this castle as his residence. After the lord of the castle passed away, Doctor Dippel—a researcher of what we would now call alchemy and natural philosophy—bought the entire place.

This alchemist was also interested in anatomy. Alongside medical treatments, he used his patients as human experimentation subjects... and additionally gathered corpses from various places to mass-produce modified humans... or so the story goes.

“What is that! That sounds like an utterly absurd fantasy tale.”

I said in disbelief, while Tunic kept smiling cheerfully.

“After the war ended, the hospital was sealed off, and Doctor Dippel passed away long ago. But even now, it’s said that the spirit of Dippel, transformed into a monster, kidnaps people at night. The ultimate modified human hasn’t been completed yet, so it demands corpses... and if you don’t give them, it chases you down with hammers and saws yelling, ‘You’ll be the ingredients!’”

“Tunic, I thought you didn’t believe in ghosts?”

“No, I don’t. In the first place, there’s no historical evidence for human experiments or alchemy.”

Oh, so those rumors are fake too. I was a little disappointed but quickly suppressed it.

“But Doctor Dippel was a real person, an ordinary doctor. And there are indeed rumors of monsters being spotted. Difficult jobs like doctors or scholars are often misunderstood by the public and attributed such stories.”

I nodded, half skeptical but somewhat understanding.

I’m not especially afraid of ghosts or spirits. Many people claim to have seen them, so I believe they must exist in some form, but so what? They don’t all come to curse or kill you, and honestly, robbers, beasts, or disasters are much scarier.

They might be there, or they might not—beyond that, I feel nothing.

“But it is true that this place feels eerie. It was originally an ancient castle, so the furnishings are old and grand... Even knowing there are no ghosts, exploring alone in the dark here might be terrifying.”

“That’s right. Honestly, I don’t find it comfortable either.”

Wolfgang said with an unusual wry smile.

“When I was a knight, we used to draw lots to push each other into infiltrating places like this.”

“Oh? So Wolfgang is afraid of something too?”

“Please don’t say such things. A knighthood is an honor for killing others, after all.”

I see... So he thinks, “That person from that time might have come back as a ghost.” Though he didn’t say it aloud, Wolfgang nodded in agreement.

“Not only knights but powerful noble families with long histories always have, directly or indirectly, someone who took a life or a family member who died tragically. Even those born after the war grow up hearing such stories; most royalty and nobility don’t like ghost stories.”

Makes sense—the older the noble family, the more they dislike ghost stories. Certainly, the Shadelan Family was scared of ghosts too. Father of course, and even grandmother Sasha the heroine took great care of their ancestors’ graves but would never approach them at night. Mother, raised as a commoner, seemed to view ghosts more romantically and wanted to meet Anastasia’s spirit.

“If even Dilz, who isn’t very religious, is like this, I wonder if foreign nobles are all just as or even more afraid of ghosts.”

While Wolfgang and I were chatting about this, Tunic smiled mischievously.

“...Hehe. I just thought of a great idea.”

“? What is it, Tunic? A great idea?”

“Hehe, it’s a marvelous plan. If it goes well, we can completely stop Marquis Dario’s harassment—a special little scheme.”

“That’s not a bad thing?”

I objected, but Tunic shook her finger at me like I didn’t understand.

“To have the best outcome, sometimes you need to do a little bad. There’s an old saying: ‘If you take medicine, even poison must be endured.’”

“…Never heard that one.”