The Attendant in the Horror Game C2

Chapter 2

“What…?”

Jade froze in his tracks just as he was about to step deeper into the mansion. The words that appeared before his eyes stopped him cold, and even the hands that had been rubbing his thin, freezing arms fell still.

“Hold on a second…”

Of all the possible roles—a servant? Out of everything he could have been, fate had decided to make him a servant. For someone like Jade, who had worked himself to the bone doing part-time jobs all his life, only to die from exhaustion, this felt like the cruelest joke imaginable.

No—being a servant wasn’t even the real problem. What unsettled him more was the specific phrase that came before it.
Not the Duke’s servant.
Not a servant of the Linwood household.
But Ian Linwood’s personal attendant.

“Of course it had to be a horror game. Just perfect.”

Jade let out a long, weary sigh.

The horror game Night of Blood had never been a commercial success. In fact, right after its release, it had been dismissed as a flop. And rightfully so—it was a low-budget project made by a small, struggling studio that barely scraped together enough resources to finish it.

Everything that made horror games terrifying—the sound design, the music, the immersion—had been utterly botched. The gameplay was bland, the mechanics uninspired.

The only remarkable feature was that the routes and monsters changed every time you played.

The game had languished in obscurity until a few months after its release, when horror game enthusiasts began uploading screenshots to online communities. Those images revealed stunningly high-quality graphics—far better than what one would expect from a low-budget indie title. The game’s environments, character designs, and mansion illustrations were so intricate they bordered on art.

Despite the shallow gameplay, it was clear an enormous amount of effort had gone into it. Each monster or cursed object defeated in the game was recorded in a compendium, where players could read detailed backstories and lore about them.

Even the smallest monsters had personalized descriptions, and the worldbuilding—especially the mansion’s design—was beautifully rendered. But what truly captivated players were the characters: their personalities, histories, and motivations were depicted so vividly it almost felt as if they existed somewhere in reality.

It was the kind of game that naturally built a passionate, niche fanbase despite its rough edges. Over time, players who once came for the scares stayed to fill their monster encyclopedias and piece together the lore.

Jade—back when he was still Yoon Jaemin—had been one of those players. Despite barely having time to breathe, he had been completely immersed in Night of Blood. The hauntingly realistic setting, the tragic characters, and the eerie sense of life within the game’s world had bewitched him. He’d even worried that the game would be shut down one day.

Fortunately, the company—though hopeless at making horror—was brilliant at business. Once the game started gaining a cult following, they began selling merchandise.

The official website offered all kinds of goods: keychains and plushies modeled after popular monsters, art books, sticker sets, and encyclopedias. Every new release sold out instantly.

The most coveted item, however, had been the limited-edition novel focused entirely on Duke Ian Linwood.

Yes—that Ian Linwood. The master of this very mansion.

He was not only the central figure of the Night of Blood universe but also the reason its final stage was infamous for being nearly impossible to complete. Despite that, he was the most beloved character of all, to the point that special booklets detailing only his lore and background were released and sold out immediately.

In Night of Blood, the routes and monsters you faced changed based on your choices, but the final mission was always the same:
Infiltrate Ian Linwood’s mansion, exorcise every horror within, and escape alive.

The catch? No player had ever managed it.

“I never even made it past the damn gate.”

Indeed, neither Jade nor anyone else had ever cleared the final stage. Even walkthroughs online had no answers; no one had survived long enough to explore the mansion’s interior. Dying before even opening the front door had been the source of endless frustration for him.

‘I might’ve wanted to clear it once… but not like this.’

Sure, he had dreamed of seeing the ending someday—but not by literally being there. Even now, standing inside the mansion felt surreal.

‘And now I’m Ian Linwood’s attendant?’

Duke Ian Linwood had been abandoned as a child at one of the Linwood family’s remote villas. “Abandoned” was putting it lightly—he had been sent there to die, a pawn in his uncle’s scheme to seize the family title.

But Ian survived. Against every assassination attempt and cruel trap, he had clung to life with terrifying tenacity. Years later, at the age of twenty-five, he ascended as Duke Linwood—after slaughtering his half-brother and every relative who had conspired against him.

He then expanded that same villa and rebuilt it into the grand mansion that became infamous throughout the game.

‘So if this is the Linwood villa… and I’m Ian Linwood’s servant…’

Jade recalled the system message he’d seen before entering. It hadn’t said Duke Linwood’s mansion—it had said the Linwood family’s villa.

That meant Ian wasn’t a duke yet.

“…No way.”

A chill of realization crawled down his spine. The decrepit look of the mansion—it wasn’t because this was after the game had ended.

“It’s before it even begins.”

His horrified voice echoed through the empty hall. Pressing a hand to his pounding head, he leaned against the wall. And as if to confirm his dreadful suspicion, something small and shadowy peeked from behind a pillar.

“…Huh?”

A young boy, pale and ragged, clung tightly to the column with tiny white hands, only his wary eyes visible. When their gazes met, those blue eyes gleamed sharply. The way the boy hid and glared—it was like a cornered wolf pup.

“Uh… hi there?”

Jade tried a friendly greeting, but the boy didn’t respond. His soft golden hair looked as fluffy as cotton candy, and his round white cheeks begged to be pinched. With his big, blinking blue eyes, he looked like a fairy straight out of a storybook.

“Hah… ha ha… no way.”

That face—he’d seen it before. The déjà vu hit him hard, like reading words he already knew by heart.
Yes—he’d seen that very description before, in Ian Linwood’s official character profile and the limited-edition novel.

There was only one person in this world who looked like that.

Jade stared at the soft blond curls and the gray-tinted blue eyes and knew without a shred of doubt—this wasn’t the ending of the game. It was long before the beginning.

And that angelic-looking child before him was the same person who would one day massacre his own bloodline and plunge the world into chaos—Duke Ian Linwood himself.

“Wait a minute…”

As the thought crystallized, a mental alarm blared in his head. The system had labeled him Ian Linwood’s attendant.

There had been many attendants before him—relatives of the Linwood family often sent servants to check whether the abandoned boy was still alive, or simply to torment him.

‘And every one of them was killed by Ian.’

Even as a child, Ian Linwood had been unnervingly intelligent. Behind his cherubic face hid a mind cold, calculating, and ruthless. He never hesitated to feign weakness or tears if it served his purpose.

The attendants who came to the villa, however, underestimated him. They had mocked and bullied the small, frail boy, too blinded by cruelty to see the monster lurking behind those angelic eyes.

And one by one, Ian had killed them all.

Setting traps meant for animals, driving blades through their hearts as they slept—it was child’s play for him. None of those servants even earned names in the records.

Except one.

Only one attendant was ever named in Ian Linwood’s official lore.

Jade.

The servant whose death was described in excruciating detail. His name had been recorded precisely because his death had been so brutal.

According to the lore, Ian’s uncle, Malderick, had grown impatient. The boy had survived far longer than expected—months instead of days. Though the child posed no real threat, his continued existence irritated Malderick.

So he sent a servant named Jade to finish the job—to kill Ian Linwood.

But Jade’s first attempt failed miserably. No matter how carefully he planned, the boy always vanished before the strike. After a week of fruitless stalking, Jade gave up the mission.

Still, without completing the assassination, he couldn’t collect his full payment. Greedy as he was, half the deposit wasn’t enough. So, on the seventh day, he stole the last relic of Ian’s father—a legendary sword—and fled into the northern wilderness.

He didn’t make it far. Lost in the blizzard, he was hunted down by Ian himself—and torn apart by the very sword he had stolen.

‘Which means the day I die is…’

The realization hit him like ice water. The doomed attendant Jade was none other than himself.

He could almost hear the ticking of a countdown in his ears.

‘I’ve got… one week left.’

Exactly seven days, if the lore held true.

“Ha… ha ha… f*ck.”

Jade’s hollow laughter echoed through the barren, decaying mansion—sharp and thin, like the sound of something breaking.