Noctis closed the diary too quickly, as if the words might crawl out if he didn't. The final line echoed in his head—unfinished, clawing at his thoughts. He swallowed, suddenly aware of how unfamiliar his own room felt.
He wanted to dismiss what he had just read as some sort of prank, but something in his mind told him otherwise. He stepped out of the room and asked the other servants who had kept the diary there. All of them gave the same answer:
"Maybe it's one of the belongings of the previous gardener."
Noctis was unsure whether to believe the words written in the diary or dismiss them as fiction. He didn't understand why something like this was happening on the very first day of his job.
Noctis was just a poor orphan who had lost his parents in an accident and had finally managed to secure a job in a wealthy household. He had never expected anything like this to happen on his first day.
Unsure of what to do, Noctis remembered the guard mentioned in the first diary entry and decided to check whether what was written was true—or just a horrible prank.
He walked toward the main gate of the mansion and asked the security guard for permission to leave, claiming that he had forgotten one of his belongings outside.
The guard firmly refused and told him to return to his quarters, stating that he was not allowed to leave the manor without the lord's permission.
When Noctis tried to force his way through, he felt them—unseen hands gripping his body tightly—before he was thrown back onto the ground. Shocked by everything that had happened within a single day, Noctis returned to his room and lay down on his bed, hoping to sleep through the day and forget everything as nothing more than a bad dream.
When Noctis opened his eyes the next morning, he stepped outside his room to see what was happening. His eyes widened, his pupils dilated, and his chest tightened with disbelief. The same events that had unfolded before his eyes yesterday were happening all over again.
The maid carrying the same ingredients into the kitchen.
The head maid scolding the others for the same mistakes.
The same tea spilled across the floor.
Everything was repeating itself.
His gaze drifted to the date.
June 4th, 2024.
For a moment, he simply stared, unable to accept what he was seeing.
Noctis didn't understand why this was happening to him. But in that moment, he realized that the only way out was the diary left behind by the previous gardener.
Taking some time to calm himself, Noctis wandered through the mansion, checking all the places mentioned in the diary. While doing so, he noticed another gardener.
Noctis had believed he was the only gardener assigned to the right side of the mansion, so the sudden appearance of another one confused him.
He approached the man and asked, "Are you sure this is the area you're supposed to work in?"
The gardener replied, "Yes. I've been working in this mansion for a year now. You must be new here, huh?"
"Yes," Noctis replied. "Today is my first day. I wasn't informed there would be someone else working here. Anyway, it was rude of me to ask without introducing myself. My name is Noctis Graham."
"Oh, it's fine," the gardener said. "My name is Silas—just Silas. So today's your first day? Then you must be the one who moved into my old room."
"Your room?" Noctis asked. "So that used to be your room? Then… did you, by any chance, write a diary and accidentally leave it there?"
"A diary?" Silas frowned. "I don't remember writing one. I was never much of a writer. You must be mistaking it for someone else's."
Noctis was struck by a sudden realization as the final diary entry resurfaced in his mind:
If you see me in this manor, that's not me.
No one is an ally.
You're alone.
If the diary was telling the truth, then the man standing in front of him was not Silas—
but what remained of the previous gardener.