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The Chimney That Never SmokedAuthor: Yumeno Kyūsaku
| Original Title | けむりを吐かぬ煙突 |
|---|---|
| Author | 夢野 久作 |
| Genre | Popular Fiction |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | Under a moonlit sky of unnerving clarity, a seasoned Tokyo reporter navigates shadowed alleys and spiderwebbed gardens to confront Count Nando’s Widow—a woman revered for her philanthropy yet shrouded in whispers of decadence. His mission: blackmail. Her Ōkubo estate, crowned by a mysterious red-brick chimney that has never smoked, conceals more than architectural dissonance. Inside her library-turned-lair, perfumed with gas-heat and secrets, their exchange crackles with veiled threats and unsettling confessions. She admits to grotesque obsessions—collecting trophies from victims disposed of in a sealed well beneath the chimney’s hollow spine. The reporter, a self-proclaimed parasite of late capitalism, balances greed and self-preservation as he pockets blood money, yet senses her macabre theatrics mask a deeper game. Between them lies a damning album of ancient tortures and a silver dagger’s glint. As dawn approaches, their dance of mutual exploitation teeters on violence, leaving him entangled in a web where truth and complicity blur—and escape demands more than mere cunning. |
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