Cold sweat beaded heavily on Chief Gray's forehead.
He was as tense as a coiled spring. It was already late into the night. The oil lamp inside the house was still relatively bright, but its illumination stopped dead at the frosted windowpanes. They couldn't see the scene outside; they could only peek through the warped gaps in the cabin's wooden walls into a pitch-black realm.
In that darkness, something unknown was frantically pounding on the door.
Yes. Something entirely unknown. Gray involuntarily wiped away the sweat dripping into his eyes. Every heavy knock felt like a physical blow striking his heart. At first, he had felt police-trained disdain for a lone lunatic coming to their door. But now, that disdain had melted into a vague, primal fear of an apex predator.
"Let me in!! Let me in!!! Hahn!! That hateful Hahn!!!"
The voice warped. It was no longer a perfect imitation of Yusaku Kudo's smooth tone. Instead, it tore at the seams, devolving into a guttural, overlapping roar filled with pure violence and madness. Just by listening to the sheer malice in that voice, one could sense the absolute insanity of the entity outside.
'A beast? A madman?' Yusaku Kudo's heart pounded furiously. But no matter how fast his pulse raced, it couldn't keep up with his racing thoughts.
All three of them now fully realized that whatever was standing on the porch was no longer human. They couldn't open the door! They absolutely couldn't let it in!
Yusaku's encyclopedic mind flashed to the ancient, biblical, and folklore descriptions of a "house." In countless mythologies, a private residence is a sacred domain. No supernatural entity—not even a demon or a vampire—can cross the threshold without the owner's explicit invitation.
'Is that… a literal demon?' A freezing chill crept into Yusaku's heart. 'Or an evil spirit? And judging from its tone, it seems to harbor an intense, centuries-old hatred for the bloodline of "Hahn"?'
Yusaku gripped his custom tranquilizer gun tightly, a bitter tension creeping into his muscles. Faced with this unknown horror, his unparalleled wisdom couldn't find a logical way out of the information gap. He didn't know if mortal weapons could even scratch the ghostly thing outside.
Thump!
Just as Yusaku was frantically racking his brains for a tactical solution, he was shocked to find that the previously bewildered Cliff had sprung into action. With a calm, terrifyingly focused expression, Cliff hauled a massive, solid oak table across the room and wedged it violently against the doorway.
The shaky wooden door was instantly braced, becoming as solid as a rock.
Even Chief Gray stared silently at the dockworker's calm face for a long time.
'No fucking way, buddy. Are you really some kind of movie protagonist? Brave and resourceful, unfazed even when the sky is literally falling...?'
"Listen!"
Cliff didn't know where he got the sudden surge of courage from. Perhaps it was his inherent, blue-collar resilience? Or perhaps it was his father's mysterious dying words in the translated text that made him firmly believe in his own hidden worth?
At this moment, Cliff didn't feel much fear. On the contrary, he felt a strange, intoxicating heat surging through his veins. His eyes burned with an uncharacteristic intensity.
A mysterious fanatic father. A long, bloody family history. Bizarre, lethal encounters. A glorious, ancient title…
'Perhaps… my cowardice earlier disgraced the family? Disgraced the title of Baron Lionheart?' Cliff thought, his hands gripping the edge of the barricade. 'I won't cower anymore. I have to do something useful.'
Cliff stepped right up to the barricaded door and inhaled deeply.
"LISTEN TO ME!" Cliff roared at the top of his lungs, his voice booming through the thin wood. "I don't care what the hell you are, or what you want to do! I am Hahn! I am this generation's Hahn! Go tell the cowardly bastards hiding behind you that I, Baron Lionheart, have returned!!!"
"ROAR—!!! HAHN!!!"
In an instant, it was as if the earth itself had been struck by a meteor.
The entire cabin violently trembled! As if a magnitude-eight earthquake had suddenly struck the coastal cliff, the wooden beams groaned in agony. All the furnishings inside were instantly shattered and thrown across the room. The oil lamp crashed to the floor, extinguishing immediately.
Yusaku, Gray, and Cliff were violently thrown off their feet, unable to stand steadily in the chaotic darkness.
The violent tremors lasted for what felt like an eternity.
And then... silence.
The deafening noise outside the door ceased completely. The ordinary, quiet ambiance of the night returned, leaving only the sound of distant ocean waves.
The three men, bruised and disheveled, slowly picked themselves up from the debris-littered floor.
Dead silence. Eerie, suffocating silence.
Yusaku's lips trembled slightly. He wanted to say something profound to Cliff, but his throat was completely dry; he couldn't open his mouth no matter how hard he tried.
After a long moment of stunned silence, Chief Gray let out a breathless, adrenaline-fueled laugh and gave Cliff a shaky thumbs-up in the gloom.
'Damn it! He really does have the aura of a protagonist!' Gray thought.
However, Gray's legs immediately went weak, trembling so violently he had to lean against the wall. The bizarre and shocking events of the past few minutes had forcefully shattered the veteran cop's worldview.
'What the hell was that thing... What the hell was that?!' Gray's mind was racing, trying to reshape his understanding of reality to include the fantastical and the demonic. 'I've lived for so long, and this is the first time I've ever witnessed something this impossible...'
A dark realization suddenly hit the police chief.
'Damn it!! The higher-ups must be hiding this!' This wasn't unusual in the US; in fact, the US high command completely controlled the public's perception through the media. 'It seems that hiding the existence of real monsters from the public is standard operating procedure for Washington...'
Meanwhile, Cliff seemed entirely unfazed by the destruction. In fact, he looked radiant in the moonlight spilling through the window. He stared down at his trembling hands. Sweat was dripping from his palms, his breathing was rapid, and his heart was pounding like a war drum.
'Dad... how many more "surprises" did you want to leave for your son...?'
He had to admit that he had just acted completely impulsively. It felt as if an invisible entity had silently pushed him from behind, lending him its strength. It made him dare to face the eldritch horror outside the door. It was as if the ancient spirit of Baron Lionheart had grown annoyed by his incompetence and momentarily possessed him to demand respect.
He had a profound, newfound feeling: Fearing evil would bring unacceptable shame upon the name "Baron Lionheart."
After surviving the supernatural siege, the group didn't want to say much. Words felt inadequate. The importance of the human-skin book had just increased exponentially.
After a long while, Yusaku found his voice. He sighed, adjusting his skewed glasses, and asked, "Old friend... do you finally understand what we are dealing with now?"
He understood perfectly.
Gray's expression remained somewhat bewildered in the dark, but he no longer harbored a single shred of skepticism about Yusaku's earlier time-loop explanation. Even though the ghostly entity outside the door had completely shattered his secular worldview, he was now fully inclined to believe that they were entrenched in a lethal, occult war.
"...What exactly was that thing?" Gray croaked.
Cliff shook his head. His knowledge was no greater than Yusaku's. A ghostly entity that banged on the door in the dead of night, perfectly impersonated the voice of a close friend, and tried to break in despite being magically bound by the rules of invitation. A single roar had triggered a localized earthquake.
Such a display of raw power was enough to make the three of them—usually remarkably composed men—find their minds completely blank. How could they possibly formulate a theory with so little data?
"Then let's continue translating!" Yusaku said, hardening his resolve.
The series of bizarre events had already made him discard his atheism. He meticulously analyzed the various incidents, pinpointing the tactical reality behind them.
'Someone, or some faction, desperately doesn't want to see Baron Lionheart return...' Yusaku concluded. 'But to prevent the Baron's return, their only permanent solution is to kill Cliff once and for all. And they still have to kill Gray and me to silence the witnesses. So there is no escaping it by running away.'
Once the full truth about Baron Lionheart was translated, they might find a weapon or a countermeasure to resolve this sudden disaster! That was the only strategic thought he could focus on.
He rallied, using his phone's flashlight to illuminate the human-skin pages.
> [My child, do not be afraid. I, as the predecessor of Baron Lionheart, never yielded to evil! You must remember this. Our blood does not break.]
> [Forgive my selfishness, Cliff. My abrupt departure will inevitably make your lives difficult, but I always believed you had the strength to protect this family until my work was done.]
These translated words sent a profound shiver down Cliff's spine. His father… hadn't abandoned them out of madness or apathy. He had left to fight a war they couldn't see, and he had always held high hopes for his eldest son.
Cliff finally understood his father, just as his father had clearly understood him. This wasn't just a diary; this was a passing of the torch. It was an inheritance, an acknowledgment, and a solemn affirmation of his worth…
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