Hopping from shadow to shadow, the small shade of a person jumped from building to building like an expert acrobat with years of training.
‘Fufufuf, I have finally arrived. This time…’
The sky was painted in deep crimson, the sun was at its zenith, soon to cover to world in darkness once again.
“This time, I’ll catch you.”, it whispered to itself in confidence.
Yes, this was the same mysterious figure that persecuted the protagonist, for reasons unknown as of yet.
“I heard about some tournament here, I might finally find him, and then…. Hehehehe~.”, drool began forming on the corner of its mouth, its delusions taking place instead of her actual priorities.
‘Now, where could he be?’, a question rose up in its mind, at first it had thought about leaping from building to building and maybe it’d spot him somewhere in the streets at random by luck.
Obviously, the chances of it succeeding were slim to none, If not totally zero or even on the negative side of probability.
‘He might not be here, but if I leave now I might not to be able to spot him even afterwards…’
It held on to the dear hope, that he would be there. Although, it was not wrong to assume the possibility of him still residing within the town.
It had travelled a long distance in order to finish its mission, the length and time spent on this mission was so high that it should probably receive double of its original payment.
However, against all odds, he was actually already gone as is.
“Now, where to look…”, an obvious place, would be an inn and to search for the names of the previously registered people and by luck encounter him.
Not all inns ask for names in order to rent a room, a alternative option would be the Guild.
The guild is full of adventurers, and if one wishes to request for a certain adventurer, all they have to do is go to the guild and ask.
The best they could do is say where they were last and or where they could be in case they would be requested.
“Ugh….”, the person suddenly stopped atop of a small cathedral tower, and sighed.
“I guess I’ll have to search thoroughly…. Ugh…. Again…”
It spent around three days in ‘Knightfall’.
Everyday searching for the same person, desperately observing every nook and cranny of the town.
Just to realize, it’s target was gone.
Once again slipping from its grasp.
And again, it cried in despair on a bed while hugging itself to sleep.
I set foot beyond the gates of the mansion.
The first impression given to me by the insides, this place probably hasn’t been touched in a long time, if I had to exaggerate, it’d probably be approximately four hundred years or more to the extremes of thousands.
The trees and grass were gone as if it had never been watered or received any sunlight in ages, the only thing remaining were gray dust particles mounting up and the branches that had broken off.
In the distance, you could see the main goal, the huge mansion that extended to the left and right equally proportioned on either sides as it should be.
Some windows were slightly broken, but until then everything was untouched, as if it were meant to be kept that way.
“Okay.”, I breathed in, to ease my slight tension, maybe I was a little overwhelmed by the size of the mansion which was, if I had to compare its size it would be equivalent to a football stadium if not larger.
“This is the plan, I’ll go in, stay a little to make it believable and then go back and report that I failed.”
‘Easy peasy.’, my master plan has been formed.
Back on earth, I was a mastermind when it came to skipping school… uh I mean getting sick, yeah that’s it.
I never actually enjoyed skipping school while being conscious of it, mainly because it hurt me in a psychological way. It’d make me feel bad, even though it was my responsibility to go to school, I was skipping it.
And that’s why I always found excuses to make either myself feel better and to justify my absence.
“Alright, let’s do this.”
I stepped further into the huge dead garden before the mansion.
Upon closer inspection, the place had some vegetation, there were some growing plants, but they seemed like they could rot away at any given moment.
‘I’m surprised that I’m not creeped out by this place.’, I remember being a real scaredy cat back on earth, although I knew that I had no reason to be, so most of the time I just steeled my resolve and moved forth.
I reached the gate after walking by the small small shrine looking things on the way.
I unhesitatingly opened the door, knowing that feuding about it would be naught but a waste of time.
“…”
Immediately after I stepped in, a little girl appeared in my field of view.
She stood on the stairs leading to the upper regiment of the mansion, looking down on me with her blood red irises.
She wore a black Lolita dress, with frills on each end of her clothes, the ones fitting of a noble child. Her lustrous black hair matching with her outfit extended down to the floor, making it seem uncut.
Her hair was so perfectly kept that it made you question how she was able to keep it so soft and not curly as if you had just waken up from bed.
Her eyes reflected no light, as if it was clouded by something. Her face showed no expression, nothing but a hollow face.
“Tell me—“ her high pitched voice reached my ears, as if a soft melody had been sung to directly into my eardrums.
“What is your business, are you here to take my life, just like all others?”, she asked, her voice and tone seemed to be used to asking the same question, all together with a small tinge of hostility.
By the way she spoke, and formed her sentence I presumed that she was my target.
I stood speechless, not because of her captivating appearance, albeit it was charming to observe.
It was—
‘She’s conscious, just like me…’, what did this mean?
I couldn’t help but to ask myself, if all ghosts were actually like her?
I was told that most monsters are threats and unreasonable beings. I was actually skeptical at first when I was told, however I knew that questioning these things wouldn’t lead me anywhere.
The outcome of everything won’t change once it’s been determined, even if I found a monster with a sense of reason, if it were to try and kill me, I would obviously do the same, since that is the law of equivalent exchange.
However, if possible I’d like to reach a peaceful conclusion, obviously.
“So? Is it?”, the little girl asked, her manner and tone of speech remaining unchanged.
I was suddenly snapped back to the reality facing before me.
“I-I came here to search for something.”, I responded while stuttering a little.
The objective was simple, find the envelope inside mansion, and retrieve it. Quite simple isn’t it?
However there was also the option to ‘exorcise’ the ghost.
How nice of them to sugarcoat their intent with ‘exorcise’ which in actuality means to kill them, or so I’d say since I was actually once almost ‘exorcised’ myself.
“Search for something?”, the ghost inclined it’s head in confusion, as if it weren’t expecting that sort of response.
“Yes.”, I responded.
Our eyes peered into each other for a good amount of time, until eventually she sighed, with her expression the same as before.
“I see, so that’s how it is.”, she walked closer to me.
I didn’t give the effort to move away, since I was sensing no hostility coming from her anymore.
“You’re not human, are you?”
“…”
The two of us were facing each other, I had to look slightly lower in order meet her eyes.
“How did you know?”, I asked.
I could tell that we both were nearly of the same race, or at least we were sort of connected by the fact that we weren’t alive.
She turned around. “I have no reason to tell you.”, and ignored me.
As she walked back upstairs, she spoke. “You are free to search whatever you’re looking for, just don’t get on my way.”
“…a—“
‘Wait, that’s it? I’ve heard that multiple adventurers failed this quest, and that there has only been one casualty.’
Let’s review what happened, my objective is to either retrieve a missing document or letter, or to kill the ghost. Aka, the girl I just met.
I entered the creepy looking mansion, and had a casual conversation with my target(undetermined), and it let me live?
‘Wait, shouldn’t there be like a battle or something? Or shouldn’t she be like, ‘I won’t let you through!’’, not that I particularly minded having no fighting happening.
I’m a logical person, or so I believe myself to be or wish to be. I follow what my desire is, and try to find a logical path towards my desired outcome that will make everyone satisfied.
“—are you really letting me do whatever I want?”, my words finally came from my mouth.
The little girl stopped midway the stairs leading to the sides of the mansion.
“Of course, most of the people who came here aimed for my head the first moment they laid eyes on me.”
‘Sheesh, must’ve been hard…’, I offered her my condolences in silence.
“However, you seem to at least own enough intelligence to converse instead of straight up genocide. Or is it your empathy?”, the little girls red eyes peered from beneath her bangs, as if staring straight into my soul, in this case I believe she would be able to do it.
“No, it’s just that I wanted to deal with this peacefully, I guess.”, I answered honestly.
“I see, glad to know that we’re on the same book then.”, she said and suddenly her whole body seemed to have become slightly more transparent.
‘She had ‘Materialization’ on, do all ghosts or spirits have that ability?’
Suddenly a huge amount of questions mounted on my head, but she was already gone from sight.
“Wai—, I-I.”
I was unable to apeak out my questions, after all, she told me not to get in her way, and I would like to respect her wishes.
Amidst all questions, one stood out most.
‘Why was she here?’
The quest originally proposed by the guild, requested by some noble. Was to ‘Exorcise the ghost’ in the mansion.
The letter that I have to retrieve has been written as a change due to it now being in the hands of the knights. To be more concise, now that it was on official hands, there was no reason I hide the fact it had a side intention to the quest.
Obviously, they didn’t mention much about the letter itself, only some details of its actual appearance has been made public to the knights.
However, if the quest was to get the letter as its actual main priority. Why go out of your way to exterminate this ghost?
From what I could understand, the mansion isn’t important and only the letter, so why go out of your way to get rid of the ghost as well at first?
Had they just prioritized capturing the letter, it would’ve saved a lot of time and effort, and the casualty that happened wouldn’t be.
So, why did they decided to sugarcoat the quest with ‘exorcise’ the ghost?
Maybe they were planning to retrieve the letter in private once ghost is gone, the mansion would certainly be safer.
Or maybe…
“Or maybe I’m just overthinking things…”
I sighed heavily, as if it was the most boring day of the week, also known as Monday.
“Seriously, how big is this mansion?”
I never felt like I could sympathize with Natsuki Subaru so much in my life as of right now.
The corridors were really long, like as if there was no end to them, only as of right now I reached the other end of the right side on the first floor, that’s right, THE FIRST FLOOR!
I still have to go through the left side, the back left and the back right including upstairs the same pattern!
“I might give up halfway in.”, I murmured in despair, boredom is one of the fiercest weapons indeed.
“Well, if push comes to shove I’ll have to ask the little ghost in here…”
Suddenly, a idea passed through my mind.
I looked at one of the doors from the hallway, and opened it.
“Damn it, no luck.”, I closed the door a little disappointed by the outcome.
‘How did ‘Lolimancer’ Natsuki Subaru do it?’, I asked myself, from what little memories I had of a certain anime and light novel that I read.
“Well, I think it’s rude of me to naturally assume that she’s like a certain someone that doesn’t actually exist.”, I continued in searching for the letter.
First of all to say, the mansion was huge like I described. All rooms lead to nearly the same visage, some of them were storage rooms and baths as well.
But most of them owned the simple setting of one bed, one wardrobe and a little drawer next to the bed with a small lamp on top.
The insides weren’t as messy as the garden right outside the mansion, right to the contrary it seemed nearly untouched and refined.
The curtains weren’t torn and the floor wasn’t all too dusty, the windows were almost in tip top shape except for the ones that were broken.
The red carpet that spread across all hallways were fine, and the walls and interior overall wasn’t too damaged, the only things that would be worth mentioning would be the vases with dried up plants.
“This places real nice.”, my sincere compliment made its way to echo throughout the silent mansion.
There were no lights, but it was no problem since I had a skill that would make everything look like day to me.
As I walked down the back right hallway that would eventually lead back to the staircases where I found the ghost, I discovered a huge wooden door.
The door which I was unfamiliar to was slightly opened, as if something had gone to the other side.
I put my hand on the handle, and proceeded to open the door—
A vast scenery expended before my eyes, it was a surreal feeling.
The whole ground was filled with growing flowers, their pure white petals emitted light filling up the room in a mystical manner.
The sky was open to see, as there was no ceiling to cover to begin with. The red sky along with the mix of the glowing flowers, made this scenery mesmerizing to look at.
I would’ve never guessed that this mansion had an inner garden as well, which was what caught my surprise.
But most of all, was the figure in the middle of the flowery garden.
The little ghost from a couple of moments ago sat on a chair below a small umbrella looking thing, as if trying to avoid what little sunlight there was.
Her crimson red eyes were glued onto a book, being held by her petite hands.
My existence didn’t even seem to disrupt hers, despite her clear warning of not wanting me to intercept her attention.
“Did you find what you were looking for? I highly doubt it is in here.”, she spoke, having acknowledged my existence on the corner of her dead eyes.
“Uh, no not really.”, I responded.
“I see, then may I ask as to why are you here?”, she asked, while flipping onto the next page of the book she was reading.
“I…”, my mouth opened for a split second, but the words didn’t come out.
The ghost looked at me with her sharp red eyes as if she were aiming daggers at me.
“I-I got lost.”, I swallowed my pride and sense of embarrassment, and spoke the truth.
“….”
“….”
“Pfft…”
‘Wait what? Did she just laugh?’, I was certainly not mistaken, I had heard a small sound of air exhale from her.
She averted eye contact and held the book slightly higher in order to hide her expression, however I could still hear her giggling from behind it.
“Hey, it’s perfectly normal to get lost in this gargantuan sized mansion.”, I told her, and she pulled the book a little bit higher.
“Pffft… hahaha….”, small breaths escaped her mouth, the book served absolute no to surprising her laugh.
After a couple of small outbursts of laughter coming from behind the book, she lowered the book and once again displayed the usual face she harbored.
“Ahem… it is reasonable as to why you would get lost… hehe.”, she clearly held back as much as possible, to burst out laughing.
“So, what are you going to do now? If you don’t know where it is.”, she asked, now feeling a bit more polite.
Since I couldn’t find it, my natural option was to go back.
Athena and the others were staying at an Inn, however I forgot to ask them where. So leaving right now would be a bad idea since it’s about to be night, and it would be quite the travel length.
“Uhm…”, so it’s brought me to this, huh…
“Could I stay here? Just for the night.”
Hope he live there later.