Sinerman Mansion

A group of four— one man, one young woman, one Yokai, and one Spirit—stood in front of the famous Cursed Mansion, which appeared deserted, dark, and disturbing.

Parker slowly turned his head from left to right, then right to left, studying everything through his glasses.

Hazel had Mantic film the Sinerman Mansion up close because even that was enough to make her chatroom go wild. No one really got that close to the Cursed Mansion.

Vesna stood still, gazing at the building in front of them.

"Other than minor deflections of Spiritual energy coming to the surface, I don't see any problem," Parker finally said.

"Then we will enter. Desmond seems to be resting since she didn't come to greet us. What a shame," Vesna replied without taking her eyes off the house.

Hazel listened to them from the side and turned to Mantis. "Did you hear that, gang? We're going in! Ah, don't worry about me! It's going to be alright. I'm not defenseless, and besides, I have two strong companions here. If you haven't figured it out yet, Parker is one of the experienced private investigators who was hired by the Silvernort family. And the Yokai woman next to me is none other than Vesna, the contracted Spirit Beast of the Silvernort family's eldest son himself. It is said that Miss Vesna represents daylight itself."

Vesna turned her head towards Hazel. "You are very well informed, Miss Hazel."

Hazel smiled. "I am, after all, a reporter."

"Enough talk. Let's investigate," Parker said impatiently and stepped forward. He raised his arm; a tattoo dripped from under his sleeve, and a one-handed gun appeared in his hand.

The one-handed pistol that appeared in his hand had a long barrel with shades of blue and white dots that rippled slightly, resembling a starry nebula.

The dark wood handle was decorated with brass ornamentation in the form of fluttering leaves and flowers. On the frame was a large, glittering blue gemstone beneath the surface of which a hint of an eye could be seen moving.

The weapon looked very elegant and stylish. It didn't fit too well aesthetically with Parker, who appeared rather plain.

Vesna looked at the weapon and smiled slightly. "*Lower Tier 2 Spirit Beast. Not bad. There aren't many Spirit Beasts of this tier that turn into firearms. That's new, right?"

Parker lifted his shoulders a little and nodded, looking down at his weapon. He had actually spent a small fortune to buy a contract with this Spirit Beast, but it was worth it. It greatly increased his combat power.

In this world, cold weapons were still popular because Spirit Beasts on the higher Tier that turned into firearms were really rare. Most Spirit Beasts transformed into swords, daggers, spears, bows, and the like. There was a theory that it was simply due to the age of the Spirit Beast.

That's why there are a lot more Spirit Beasts on Tier 1 in the form of firearms because they are young creatures and came into the world when firearms already existed. Tier 2 Spirit Beasts are fewer, appearing at a time when firearms didn't exist or weren't as prevalent.

Of course, this was just a theory, as the study of spirits and Yokai progressed very slowly. At least the legal ones.

"The contract said he had 30% of the bloodline of Hephaestion," Parker said, bragging a little. He was really happy about his weapon.

Vesna looked at the gun in his hand, and Hazel was also recording this conversation. Her Chatroom responded with words of awe or envious curses.

"Hephaestion belongs to the Warlord bloodline, and 30% is very good purity. You were lucky," Vesna commented before turning away.

Bloodline also played an important role among the Spiritualists. If a Spiritist had a strong bloodline, they could obtain stronger Spirit Beasts when summoning, as their Bloodline acted like a lure.

Naturally, this would attract Spirit Beasts that shared the same bloodline or were compatible, resulting in a good combination. Bloodlines usually came from people who underwent Apotheosis and became gods. However, it didn't have to be just people who became gods; mystical creatures like Dragons or Phoenixes and the like could also contribute to bloodlines.

Parker stopped what he was doing and walked to the front door. He gingerly pressed the handle, then opened the door with his main weapon. It revealed before them a dark, empty, and cluttered welcome hall.

Parquet didn't enter, though; instead, he stepped back and scanned the door and the space beyond it through his glasses. "There's a thin layer of steady Spiritual energy inside," he announced, assessing the data his glasses provided.

"It looks like a detection alert," he added after a moment.

Vesna stepped closer and lifted the brim of her hat. Then, her eyes glowed yellow, and a thin beam shot out of her eyes and through the open door into the hall.

The beam lit up the entire hall for a moment before everything went dark again, and Vesna straightened her hat. "Just detecting. Desmond seems to want to be alerted to possible visitors," Vesna confirmed.

Parker was cautious, which was his nature, even though he might not actually show it. Vesna was a Tier 3 Spirit Beast, a Destructive Spirit. Even though her power had been reduced due to her contract with a Tier 2 Spiritualist, she was still strong. So dealing with a Feral High Spirit like that together shouldn't be a problem.

"Are we going or what?" asked Hazel, who was waiting for the two.

Parker scanned the hall for a moment longer before nodding and entering. The others followed him in.

The hall was situated in a U-shape, with a wide staircase leading from the center to the next floor. The corridors then had several doors on the sides leading to different parts and wings of the mansion.

Everyone stood at the bottom of the staircase and looked around. "We should go look in the basement first," Vesna announced, looking downwards and to the right side, as she could probably feel the flow of Spiritual Energy coming from there.

Parker nodded again but kept an eye on their surroundings as he waited for the High Spirit to appear. After a few minutes of waiting, still nothing happened.

Mantis slowly spun around, recording everything for those watching, and Hazel rubbed the back of her neck, feeling goosebumps the moment they walked through the door. She herself was only a Tier 1 Spiritualist, so even though she was on the verge of advancing, she was still the weakest of the group.

As long as they didn't enter, she was sure things would be fine and trusted her instinct that Sis Des wasn't dangerous. But once inside the mansion, she had to contend with all the scary stories and legends circulating about this place. Now, she was getting nervous.

Vesna looked up and stared at a spot in the air. She stared for a moment without blinking before a muscle in her cheek twitched, and she slowly looked away. "Maybe we should come back another time," Vesna said slowly.

Parker turned to her in surprise. Vesna looked calm, but her eyes seemed to indicate something to him. Parker knew she was telling him something was wrong and began to scan the room again.

BANG!

There was a loud bang as the front door slammed shut behind them.

"Aaah!" Hazel yelped in surprise and turned to the door, everything suddenly going black.

The three of them tensed in silence, trying to see through the darkness, but it was so thick they couldn't even see the tips of their own noses. Parker blinked, trying to scan the area with his glasses before his gaze froze as two eerie eyes emerged from the darkness, glowing the color of cyanide.

Parker focused his eyes and looked at the data, but the numbers kept skipping, recalculating to a ridiculously high number for a while and then dropping back down to impossibly low.

"Gah!" He exclaimed suddenly as a light flashed in front of his eyes like a light bulb bursting, momentarily blinding him. He felt his glasses change back to the tattoo on his forehead. Overload?

Parker rubbed his eyes; luckily, it wasn't anything serious, just a flicker in front of his eyes.

"S-Sis Des? Is that you, Hazel? Remember?" Hazel recovered from her nervousness and tried to speak to the ghost.

Eyes in the darkness moved in her direction. "Yes," she replied.

Hazel sighed, having worried for a while that Desmond was just being feral after all. "Ah. I'm glad. We're not here with bad intentions. Just investigating. Can you... can you bring the light back?"

Desmond was silent for a moment in the darkness. Parker and Hazel tensed, only Vesna looking towards Desmond steadily, waiting casually for what she would say.

"No. If you want to talk, you have to find me first. Pass the test. Become a guest. People want to hurt me, I won't trust them unthinkingly. You have to work for it," Desmond replied coldly.

Hazel felt the color draining from her face. She hadn't expected this and had to think. Des probably felt threatened by Vesna, who was strong. But the test? What kind of test was that?

"What kind of test, Miss Desmond?" Vesna asked.

Desmond didn't answer, and her eyes, which were the only ones visible in the darkness, disappeared. A few seconds later, the music started. It sounded like a slow and not very cheerful song playing from a music box.

𝄞♪♫♩♫♫♩♪♫♩♫♪

Click.

In front of them, a light shone from somewhere on the ceiling, illuminating an object a short distance away in a cone of dim light.

Hazel looked around, but it was still dark all around. She didn't even know where the door was anymore, if there was one. They all approached the object to the slow, sad music.

It was a gingerbread palace surrounded by a gingerbread forest. The gingerbread palace was about 40 cm tall and 50 cm wide. The gingerbread was pretty and cute, decorated with white icing and other candies. The white cream gave the impression of a winter fairy tale, and a pleasant, sweet scent floated in the air.

It sounded like the music box was playing directly from the gingerbread palace.

"Gingerbread?" Parker looked puzzled.

No sooner had he said it than suddenly the gingerbread palace began to grow larger, just a little at first, but then at breakneck speed, it grew in height and width.

"Huh?" Hazel took a step back and felt a little dizzy, as if she had motion sickness.

"It's getting bigger?" Even Parker wasn't feeling well.

"No. We're the ones getting smaller," Vesna replied.

Within moments, they were in the forest. A gingerbread forest that felt very real. The brown, bare trees were delicately detailed with white icing, as well as the ground, making the forest look like it had been covered in snow.

Some trees were covered in white icing, while others were decorated with shaped candies that glowed faintly, illuminating the dark gingerbread forest around them. Here and there, gingerbread men could be seen among the trees.

They could still hear the music playing from the boxes, but it was very faint, audible from somewhere far away, so they had to listen carefully to hear it.

"What kind of test is this?" Hazel asked, not understanding what this place was or what the test actually consisted of.

Vesna looked around. "It looks like a Private Realm," she said.

Parker frowned, and Hazel was confused. "It's not something that involves the human world," Vesna continued. "The spirit world is vast, but so are the numbers of spirits. The more powerful ones want their space, so they create their own miniature Private Realms. This looks like one of them," Vesna explained roughly.

This information wasn't secret; it just wasn't well-known because not just anyone could enter, and one would have to be at least on Higher Tier 2 for this information to be of any use. Besides, it was something that should only exist in the Spirit World.

"I didn't think Sis Des would have such a cute side," Hazel said in amazement as she looked at the beautifully decorated nearby tree.

"Cute? Oh... well," Vesna smiled serenely and glanced behind her. "I wouldn't call it cute. It doesn't seem to belong to Desmond either. The energy here is different." She gestured behind them, and they all turned to look.

Hazel got goosebumps again when she saw that a gingerbread man was standing quite close behind them. It had the classic shape, icing-outlined hands and feet, and three dots on its body like a suit. What was disturbing, however, was its expression: an open mouth in a strange smile and evilly slanted eyes that seemed to be looking right at them.

"Maybe we should give up on the test," Hazel said.

"No one forced you to come with us. We'll try to pass the test," Parker said, pulling his goggles back down to tattoo form, as the concentration of spiritual energy was omnipresent, and his Spirit Beast wasn't at a high enough level to handle that amount of scanning.

"Let's follow the sound of that music. It will lead us to the palace," Vesna said and took a step. Parker followed her, and Hazel took a breath, patting her chest to collect herself, and hurried after them.

The gingerbread under their feet crunched lightly as it broke under their weight, leaving a clear trail behind them of where they were going.

A moment later, something moved among the trees. A tall and hulking figure slowly walked up to the cracked path, and it stared ahead with dull eyes. It had a frozen smile with an open mouth that showed teeth, a marzipan baby bonnet on its head, and its chest pierced with a pointed barb.

The large gingerbread creature slowly made its way forward.

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