Sugar Apple Fairytale - Volume 5 - Chapter 1.1

A young Silver Sugar Master is on her way.

Perhaps with her arrival, my wish can finally be granted.

Chapter 1

A CASTLE WITH NO CREST

Anne looked up at the building towering before her and grimaced.

“This is Hollyleaf Castle?”

After struggling up the hilly road and finally arriving at its summit, Anne brought her boxy horse-drawn wagon to a halt.

The rest of the wagons belonging to the Paige Workshop, which were being driven by the other candy crafters, followed up one after another.

Elliott hopped out of the driver’s seat of his wagon without delay and took up a position next to Anne, gazing up at the castle. His winsome, drooping eyes narrowed as he awkwardly grinned. “Father Brooke did tell me the place was atmospheric.”

The building sat atop a low hill not far from the royal capital of Lewiston. It was surrounded by a wild forest untouched by human hands. A tangle of vine-wrapped trees and thorny underbrush spread out in all directions, partially blocking the road that led from the bottom of the slope to the top. It had been difficult for them to make it even this far.

The whole hillside was covered in skinny trees with nothing but withered branches. They had been cut back in one area of the summit, however, where it looked like there had once been a spacious garden. And at the center of the hill stood a tall castle built of stone.

“‘Atmospheric,’ huh?” said Anne. “I mean…I suppose it does have a kind of indescribable…ambience.”

The castle was three stories tall and faced south. It was composed of three wings, which formed a U shape, comfortably enclosing a central courtyard. The outer wall was made of cut stone, and the front entrance was shaded by triple-arched eaves with a grass pattern carved into them in relief.

The east wing spread out to the castle’s left side, with the west wing to the right. A tower stood at the end of each wing, so that the two towers faced each other, east and west. The low towers, capped with gently sloping cone-shaped roofs, looked comfortable and inviting rather than intimidating.

The building had no rampart or gatehouse and no real fortifications. It might be a castle in name, but it more closely resembled a large mansion. It was probably more like an estate merely serving as a castle due to its strategic location.

It must have been an elegant structure once. But now the outer walls were covered with ivy, and the whole place was crumbling underfoot. Brown smudges like tearstains dripped down from the corners of each window. The center of the triple-arched eaves had fallen to ruin, exposing gnarled, uneven stones. The windows visible from the front had all their glass broken, and most of them revealed only a gaping darkness beyond.

“This castle looks haunted.”

From his place beside Anne, Challe Fenn Challe shared this unpleasant impression without a hint of hesitation.

He tied his dapple-gray horse to a nearby tree and stroked its muzzle to show his appreciation for its efforts. The horse snorted happily.

“H-haunted? You shouldn’t say such things, Challe,” Anne chided.

“Is there anything else you would liken it to?” the obsidian fairy asked her, a chilly look in his eyes.

“…………I guess not…”

It was just past midday. The late autumn breeze was cold, but the sun was out. The sun’s rays also lit up the garden, which was overgrown with weeds.

And yet somehow, the place retained its creepy atmosphere.

Mithril Lid Pod, sitting on Anne’s shoulder and gazing at the structure with blue eyes like drops of lake water, asked timidly, “Hey, Anne? Are you really planning to rent this castle?”

“It’s not a question of planning. I’ve already paid for it.”

That day, the Paige Workshop would take a new step forward. For the next two months, Anne and the workshop’s other candy crafters would be constructing their sugar candy sculptures for the First Holy Festival here at Hollyleaf Castle.

The sculptures would be very delicate, and it would take quite a bit of time to make just one of them. If they were constructed in Millsfield, there was a high risk that they would break during transit to Lewiston.

Because of that, they had decided to move their operation directly to Lewiston, and so they were temporarily relocating to this site.

The other four candy crafters—Orlando, King, Nadir, and Valentine—parked their wagons wherever they found room, then assembled behind Anne, joining her in gazing up at the castle.

“Ah… I had a bad feeling about this…and sure enough…,” Valentine muttered. His words had an exceptionally hopeless ring to them.

Anne whirled around and asked, “What do you mean, ‘sure enough’?”

The clever candy crafter looked pale as he pushed his round glasses up his nose with the tip of his finger.

“There’s a famous ghost story told among students in Lewiston,” he began. “Among the Seven Wonders of the Church of Saint Lewiston Bell, one of them is known as the ‘cursed castle.’ During the Chamber Rebellion, the whole Chamber family was eradicated, and afterward, the royalty of Millsland laid claim to the castle they left behind, which was located close to Lewiston. Or so the story goes. But the deep-seated grudges of the Chamber family filled the castle, and it was plagued by a series of strange incidents. Bad fortune seemed to hang over the place, and the Millsland royals wanted nothing to do with it, so they forcibly donated it to the state church. But the church wasn’t sure how to handle it themselves, and ultimately, the place was left to sit, abandoned. I think this might be that very castle…”

All the blood drained from Anne’s face as she listened.

“A cursed castle so unlucky that it was forcibly donated?!”

“According to the rumors, it was a U-shaped structure and had two towers with conical roofs at the east and west ends. There can be no doubt.”

“Then what are we doing?!” King’s face was red with rage. “Are you telling me we’re gonna work in a cursed castle?! For two months?! That’s not even funny! What in the world were those priests thinking?!”

Orlando said nothing, but he looked a little unwell.

In order to find a place to make their sugar candy in Lewiston, Anne and Elliott had initially approached the priests of the Church of Saint Lewiston Bell for advice. The priests suggested that the workshop rent a castle owned by the church.

The two of them had jumped at the opportunity.

The rental fee was one thousand cress per year. It was quite expensive. But it was an amount they were prepared to pay in order to secure a facility with enough space for the workshop’s needs in a city as populous as Lewiston.

In fact, they had been quite surprised that a thousand cress was enough to rent an actual castle. And so they paid their thousand cress and drew up a contract.

Then everyone in the workshop hurried to prepare to relocate. Though it would be temporary, they still had to move the workshop in its entirety. They finished those difficult preparations in only three days.

And on the day of the move, expectations swelling in their breasts, every member of the Paige Workshop had made the trip to Hollyleaf Castle.

…But the castle looming before them now seemed to cast a dark shadow over their bright future.

“It’s much too late to be asking this, but… Elliott, why did you sign the contract before checking the state of the property?” Orlando, who still looked pale, said critically.

Elliott scratched the back of his head. “Well,” he answered, “it was referred to us by Father Brooke, who manages the Selection, so I felt confident it would be fine.”

“Even so!” King snapped at him. “Who rents a place without even seeing it?! It goes against basic common sense!”

“It would have taken half a day to come check it out, and I was trying to save us some time, okay? Considering the number of sculptures we have to make, we can’t afford to take things slow. Besides, except for the place’s creepy aura, the arrangement still works out in our favor, doesn’t it?”

“But that creepy aura is nothing to sniff at,” Valentine grumbled, looking dejected.

“Fair point,” Elliott said with a laugh. He did not seem embarrassed at all.

“Don’t make a fuss! There’s nothing we can do about it now, is there?!” Mithril, who had been sitting atop Anne’s shoulder deep in thought, suddenly stood up as if he had just made up his mind. “What’s done is done, and this is the place we’ve rented!” he declared. “We’ve got no choice but to do our work here!”

Mithril hopped down from Anne’s shoulder and paced around in the center of the group. Then he put his hands on his hips and addressed the others arrogantly. “If you guys are proper candy crafters, you won’t be scared off by one or two little ghosts or three or four evil spirits! Besides, I’ll protect you from them all! Leave it to me!” He beat his chest and spoke valiantly.

“You’re so cool, Mithril Lid Pod! It’s okay, I’m not scared at all.” Nadir was completely calm. But the other three candy crafters kept silent.

Elliott shrugged. “I’d like to trust the boasting of one tenth of a man, but I’m afraid I’m not convinced.”

“What did you just say?! Just try and call me a tenth of a man one more time!” Mithril fumed, but Elliott ignored him.

“Let’s get back to serious matters,” Elliott continued, “since we really don’t have time to argue about the place’s condition. Think about it. If this castle was genuinely cursed, then surely they wouldn’t rent it out as a place to make precious sugar candy sculptures intended for the First Holy Festival, right? Ultimately, it’s all just rumors. The church is probably in a bind because of the stories scaring everyone away. In reality, there’s nothing here.”

This line of reasoning had merit. Moreover, they had no other choice. No matter how creepy or scary it might be, they had to use the castle.

Anne accepted Elliott’s explanation. Resolving herself, she spoke up with bravado. “Right, it’s fine! It’s not like any of us will be living here alone!”

“It could be fun,” Nadir added. “I say let’s go for it!” He sounded full of energy.

Encouraged by his enthusiasm, the other candy crafters returned to their wagons and began carrying in their luggage.

Anne went to retrieve her own belongings, and Elliott started pulling down bags from the wagon parked next to hers.

“Mr. Collins, what happened to Bridget?”

As she was lowering luggage to the ground, Anne asked a question that had been bothering her for some time. When the Selection ended, they had all gone back to the main workshop in Millsfield. But when they arrived, Bridget was gone from the house.

According to Danna, right before Anne and the others arrived, Bridget had said, “I’m going into Millsfield,” and left the house. Everyone at the workshop figured she’d gone to stay at a friend’s house and didn’t seem particularly worried.

But then they had suddenly decided to move the workshop, and they needed Bridget and Glen to come with them to Hollyleaf Castle. Accordingly, the day before, Elliott had set off for Millsfield and searched all the places that Bridget was likely to stay at. But that was as much as Anne knew.

“Did you figure out where she was?”

“She was at an inn run by an acquaintance of hers. The acquaintance heard I was looking for Bridget and let me know she was staying there. I tried to see her, but she wouldn’t let me into her room. She just told me to go on ahead to the castle and that she would follow after us later, and then she sent me away.”

“Will she be okay coming here on her own?”

“I gave her some money and told her to hire a carriage, so I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

“You’re not worried?”

“Not really. Bridget’s not a child, you know. And I can’t afford to be worrying over her all the time.”

The candy crafters of the Paige Workshop were artists to the core. They seemed to find everything other than sugar candy bothersome. Even Elliott, who ought to have been at least a little bit worried about Bridget as her fiancé, seemed fundamentally to have filed her away as one of many “other miscellaneous matters.”

I wonder what she’s up to?

Ever since relinquishing Challe’s wing, Bridget had locked herself away all alone in her room. She had become very stubborn and seemed to be turning her back on everyone at the workshop, including her father.

Once a person’s mood has soured, it isn’t easily mended. Though it may be obvious that one’s behavior isn’t healthy, the ill feelings only grow. It’s a hard cycle to break out of.

A long time ago, Anne had quarreled with her mother, Emma. For days afterward, Anne refused to speak to her. While she was acting that way, she wasn’t interested in looking at pretty flowers or cute little birds.

That flower is pretty, isn’t it?

There’s a cute little bird over there!

She had to force herself to stifle such pleasant feelings. It had been suffocating.

Anne was certain that Bridget must also feel suffocated. That was probably why she wouldn’t come home.

Pondering such thoughts, Anne headed toward the castle, luggage in hand.

It was difficult to walk across the courtyard, which was overgrown with dry grass and piled thickly with fallen leaves. Charcoal remains from something burned were buried here and there in the grass, and there were large stones lying about in strange places, so it was easy to trip.

When the group stepped through the large doors under the triple arch, they found themselves in a grand entrance hall with a very high ceiling.

The voices of the candy crafters echoed as they ran around sorting out all the luggage.

There was a wide staircase sloping upward from the first floor to the third. It started from the center of the hall and seemed to pierce the castle vertically. In bygone days, the master of the castle must have descended those stairs, gathering the attention of those assembled in the hall.

Most of the windows at the front of the castle were broken, allowing the wind to blow through. In those areas, the interior was in a terrible state.

But the windows in the east and west wings still had their glass. Once the candy crafters cleaned things up and carried in the most basic of furniture, the rooms there would be usable right away.

They designated the first floor of the east wing as the sugar candy production workshop and decided to use the west wing as their living quarters.

Glen, who was in poor health, would live on the third floor of the west tower in the room that got the most sunlight.

Anne’s room would be on the second floor of the west wing, and Mithril and Challe would each have their own room to the right and left of Anne’s.

“My own room…,” muttered Anne, as she entered her quarters. She pushed her bags under the bed and looked around.

The plaster had come off the wall in one spot, and she could see the stone behind it. There was a large, arch-shaped window, its dirty glass visible in the sunlight, with a frayed curtain hanging over it. Once she dusted and swept out all the litter, however, the interior of her room was in fairly good order. She and the others had brought in a simple wooden bed and a wooden side table.

Dust danced lightly through the air across the sunbeams streaming in from the window.

Maybe it was because she had heard that the estate belonged to the ruined Chamber family, but its deserted atmosphere felt like the stillness of something unseen holding its breath.

Unconsciously, Anne hugged herself and rubbed her arms. Everything was still fine in the daylight. But when night came, she wondered whether she would be able to sleep alone.

“I’m a little worried…”

Just imagining it brought on a shiver, and Anne resolved to ask someone to sleep next to her that night.

The best candidate would probably be Danna, who was also a girl. But Danna wouldn’t even eat meals together with Anne. If she invited Danna to come sleep with her, the other girl was sure to decline.

If she asked Challe, he would probably agree, if only to tease her. But Anne would be too excited and wouldn’t get a wink of sleep.

That’s it!

“Mithril Lid Pod!”

Having hit upon the perfect candidate, Anne dashed over to the adjacent room. She knocked and hurriedly opened the door, then poked her face inside.

But the interior was empty. There was no one there.

“Huh?”

At the moment, King and the others were in the middle of carrying in furniture and fixtures to transform the east wing’s first floor into the sugar candy workshop. Mithril must have gone to lend them a hand.

That’s when it happened.

“Young Silver Sugar Master.”

A man’s voice whispered in her ear, startling her. She turned around, but no one was there. There was no sign of anyone in the corridor.

Anne was wondering what was going on when the voice spoke again.

“I’m glad you’ve come.”

“It’s heeeeeeere!!”

She let out a shriek, clapped both hands over her ears, and crouched on the spot.

Challe heard her and dashed out of his room. He knelt in front of Anne, who had planted herself on the floor.

“What happened?!” he asked.

“Challe!”

Anne flung herself at him and clung to his neck. She was so frightened that she couldn’t speak clearly.

“It…it’s here…,” she said.

“What is?”

There was only one thing that would make an appearance in a haunted castle. Yet Challe had answered her with a question. There was doubt in his eyes—it seemed he didn’t have the slightest belief in such things.

“A voice—I heard a voice. It was a man, and he said into my ear, ‘I’m glad you’ve come’!”

Recalling it gave Anne another chill, and she squeezed Challe tightly.

“You’re hearing things, dummy.” He was making fun of her, as usual. Nevertheless, his arms wrapped around her back to reassure her. “You just heard the creaking of a door or the echo of someone’s voice.”

“No! I heard it twice! What do we do?! There really are ghosts here!!”

“There are no ghosts. Calm down.”

“I’m telling you, there are!” She shook her head emphatically, insisting.

Challe breathed an exasperated sigh. Then he suddenly brought his lips to Anne’s ear and whispered sweetly, “Should I kiss you?”

“Huh?!” Anne abruptly pulled away. She could tell that her face had turned bright red. “What? What did you just say just now?!”

“I asked if I should kiss you. Have you settled down?”

At his calm question, she relaxed.

“Oh, I see. Shock therapy…or something like that…?”