Editing Ghost Hunt:Volume 5 Chapter 4 (section)

===7===

Nobody spoke before Naru switched on the lights.

When the glaring light shone down, my surroundings were filled with excited voices.

Did Lin-san really summon a spirit just now? Was Suzuki-san already dead? Are there evil spirits in this house that will kidnap people? Then are the other two people already dead too? Various voices mixed together. Suddenly Naru stared hard at the wall. Everyone’s vision followed Naru’s line of sight, and the excited chattering settled down.

When was it written? On the white wall, red words were written.

“ヴラド”. (tl/n: Vurado in Katakana – Vlad)

Vlad? What is this…? Was it left behind by Suzuki-san’s spirit?

Bou-san suddenly hammered the table once.

“The so called ‘Urado’, is originally ‘Vlad’?”

I blinked.

Indeed, Urado and Vlad do sound very similar…

“What is this Vlad?”

John showed an expression of extreme dislike.

“The Vlad we are talking about is… the vampire Dracula.”

Vampire.

“Dracula?!”

I turned to look towards Naru.

“What exactly is going on? Isn’t Urado Mr Kaneyuki’s pseudonym? Was Mr Kaneyuki a vampire? Are the spirits here those of people who died when their blood was drained?”

Naru spoke, as though very annoyed.

“The story of the popularly know Dracula originates from the novel called “(Vampire) Dracula”. Do you know this?”

“… I don’t know.”

Naru sighed openly.

“ ‘Dracula’, published in 1897, is a horror novel written by Bram Stoker. A strange man by the name of Count Dracula arrives in London. He is actually a vampire – it is a story like that. This novel has been adapted into operas, movies etc, and gave birth to the domain of ‘Vampire Culture’ in literature. Do you understand up to this point?”

“… Yeah.”

“In actual fact, Count Dracula was modeled after a real person. It was a person who was really named Dracula. The Count Dracula in the novel was born in Transylvania. Transylvania has historically been the territory of Hungary, and is currently part of Romania.”

“This Transylvania you talk about, is it a real place that exists?”

I had assumed it was a fictional location…

“Of course. Dracula was a Duke from Transylvania’s neighboring area of Wallachia. His name was Vlad. He was known as Vlad III, and commonly called ‘Vlad the Impaler’.”

“Impaler?”

Naru nodded.

“At that time Europe was frequently invaded by the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Because the area of Wallachia is very near to Turkey, that area was the frontline of the battle. Furthermore, even if the king of Wallachia was overthrown, that did not stop the power struggle. Vlad was an extremely mysophobic duke, he hated being known as idle; he is well known to be ruthless, especially towards his enemies. Enemies who were captured by him were mostly executed by impalement with a spear, hence his name.”

Ge ge ge.

“This Vlad’s father was Vald II, known as ‘Vlad Dracul’. ‘Dracul’ in Romania has the meaning of devil; he was commonly known as ‘Vlad the Devil’.” 

The father was a devil, the son an impaler?

“Originally this name is inaccurate. ‘Dracul’ means devil as well as ‘dragon’. In 1431, Vlad II was given the name of ‘Dracul’ by the Holy Roman Emperor. Because this was a conferred title, of course he was not called ‘Devil’. I think he should have been called ‘Dracul the Dragon Duke’ to be accurate.”

Indeed, a devil and a dragon are totally different…

“In Romanian, ‘Son of the Dragon’ and ‘Son of the Devil’ is ‘Dracula’. Hence, as a result of being Dracul’s child, Vlad was also known as ‘Dracula’. That is to say, it means ‘the Son of the Dragon Duke’. Due to Vlad’s blood drenched achievements, he was commonly known as ‘the Devil’s Spawn’, but that is actually not accurate.”

“… Hn~.”

“After Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ was published, ‘Dracula’ became a synonym for vampire. Although Vlad III was notorious for his period of cruelty in Europe, he was long forgotten when Stoker’s novel was published. Bram Stoker caused him to become the center of attention once more. Then, right now, the notorious name of Dracula is reverberating through the world.”

“So that’s how it is.”

So there was also such a piece of history that I did not even know of.

“In the Wallachia area, there still remains ‘Legends of Dracula’ today. In those legends, Vlad was a savior who protected Hungary from the Germans and the Turks. Despite his actual cruelty towards his enemies, he was still the hero who defended Hungary. I don’t approve of lumping things together; taking into account the situation in Europe at that time, I think saying that isn’t wrong either.”

… Hn~.

A sarcastic smile appeared on Naru’s face.

“There’s a famous story connected to Vlad. There was a rich merchant who moved all his wealth on a carriage and passed by the capital of Wallachia. When he arrived at the capital, the rich merchant entered the castle and asked Vlad to protect his wealth. To him, Vlad said, that there wasn’t such a necessity. Then he ordered the rich merchant to leave his fortune wherever he liked then to leave. With no options, the rich merchant could only leave all his wealth in the public square before leaving.”

Eeeh. Vlad’s orders were not to be questioned.

“Then at dawn the second day, the rich merchant went to inspect his carriage, he realized not a cent of his wealth had been taken. Because Vlad was a very mysophobic duke, his own citizens were also not allowed to lie or steal or be lazy. People who did so were all impaled with no exception; hence nobody would steal a thing from the merchant.” 

“… So that was the way it was. He really was a great person.”

Naru shrugged.

“Whether this was actually great or something else is interpreted differently by different people. … Anyway, he was really very similar to Vlad, Kaneyuki was.”

Bou-san tilted his head.

“Vlad was the savior of Hungary. If we put it like this, then did Kaneyuki also wanted to call himself a savior?”

Naru’s snow white fingers leaved through the materials Mori-san had brought.

“Around 1900, Kaneyuki had toured Europe. At that time the book ‘Dracula’ had long been published. I think, it is more likely that because of the meaning ‘Son of the Devil’, he called himself ‘Vlad’. – Furthermore, “

“Furthermore?”

“Mai has mentioned it before, right? There was a bathtub placed in the bathroom, and there was blood remaining in the bathtub.”

… Yeah.

“Frequently discussed together with Vlad was a person called Bathory Elizabeth. In the western style, the surname is placed behind, so she should be Elizabeth Bathory. She is known as the ‘Blood Countess’.”

“She… is a woman?”

“That’s right. Elizabeth was a Countess who lived in 15th century Hungary. She did not have any clear connection with Vlad, but a lot of people speculate whether the two of them are related by blood.”

“Hn…”

“Elizabeth was afraid her beauty would fade. With young girls as sacrifices, she believed that if she bathed in the blood of young girls she would be able to preserve her own beauty. She killed young females, placed the blood she harvested from them into a bathtub, and then soaked her body inside. Up until one of her sacrifices escaped and exposed her crimes, this had gone on for about 10 years.”

“… with, with this…?”

Naru nodded.

“It is similar to the dream Mai had. Elizabeth and Vlad were confused; Vlad was also commonly said to have bathed in his executed enemy’s fresh blood. What if Kaneyuki had heard of these things?”

No one replied to Naru’s words. Naru smiled once more.

“Elizabeth was not formally convicted and punished; instead, the bathroom door was sealed, and all the walls and windows were sealed from the outside. In the end she died inside that prison – don’t you think there are subtle signs here?”

A sealed prison. Sealed spaces.

“However… Kaneyuki...”

Kaneyuki died of an illness, Mori-san had said before.

“Of course, I too don’t believe that Kaneyuki was closed inside that space. If that was so, such a large space wouldn’t have been necessary. However, I only think there is a clue here – a very obvious clue.”

… Indeed it was like this.

“ The pronunciation of ‘Vlad’ is even more similar to that of ‘Blad’. For some reason Kaneyuki wanted to use the name Vlad as a pseudonym, but couldn’t find a suitable kanji. Then he chose the two characters ‘Ura do’… I’m afraid this is the truth.”

… Yeah.

“Following that he was the same as the meaning of the name, and killed a lot of servants here. The spirits of the victims continue to haunt this mansion.”

Bou-san gently snapped his fingers.

“I’ve got it. That ‘Heard the were ?? by Urado. ?? away’.”

“Ai?”

When asked like this in response, Bou-san let out a bitter smile.

“It is ‘Heard they were killed by Urado’. ‘Those who came to this place have all died. Heard they were killed by Urado. Run away.’ How about that?”

A warning. The person who lived in that hidden room wanted to leave a message for the next person to arrive at this mansion; told them to run away.

I tilted my head.

“Hey, I understand that… then who did that overcoat belong to?”

“Whose was it…?”

“Because anyhow they wouldn’t let a maid live in that sort of place right? Furthermore wasn’t that overcoat a uniform of the Facility attached to the Hospital? To whom did that overcoat belong to? Was it really a maids’?”

Everyone looked at each other in dismay.

“Could it be…”

Bou-san spoke softly.

“Could it be… that fellow… also took the people from the facility…?”

Urado had his eye on the people inside the facility. He took that person here; without being discovered by the ignorant servants, he closed that person inside the hidden room. Then…

That’s too much. This type of thing is really too much. Mr Kaneyuki was practically inhuman. He really was the ‘Spawn of the Devil’.

I stopped short. Could it be that Mr Hiroyuki knew what his own father did in this place?

When I said that, Naru nodded.

“That’s very likely. Hence he sealed this place. To prevent discovery by outsiders he buried all of it in the depths of this ever-expanding building…”

Mr Hiroyuki had also said before, “There are spirits escaping; it is to prevent them from escaping that I’m renovating.”

If the question was whether Mr Hiroyuki knew of what happened here, that sentence makes one feel that the answer is definitely affirmative. I think Mr Hiroyuki must have been terrified: about his own father, about the grudges of those killed by his own father.

Naru’s expression was one of deep thought.

“The ones who have disappeared are all young people…”

He said that softly with gravity.

“Why Mr Kaneyuki would do such a thing, I understand now.”

Ai?

“Kaneyuki was frail and sickly; I think he must have hated his own body. Blood was thought to be the source of a human’s vitality. Just like what Elizabeth believed, depending of that vitality, one’s own beauty can be maintained, Kaneyuki also believed that relying on young people’s vitality would keep his own health.”

… Yeah.

“But in actual fact he definitely wouldn’t be considered to have lived long. He must have felt regretful.  Not only did he kill people to extend his own life, but in the end it still was not maintained very long.”

… Indeed that was the case.

“I’m afraid the spirits of those who were killed by that fellow are not related to the disappearances. Suzuki-san is dead. If we say the killer is the spirit living in this mansion, then that evil spirit could only be Urado.”

A chill ran down my back. 

“Urado is still here… still in this mansion. He is still in this house thirsting for a sacrifice.”