Chapter 16
Bernard was remarkably calm.
“Sure, it’s been revealed that the guy’s a bad spirit, but he and I have gotten fairly close, so he’s not going to attack me. Honestly, aren’t the people of the castle the ones in a hurry here?”
“So you’re saying you’ll keep your mouth shut until we offer a price you like… is that it?”
Kinn’s eyes shone icy blue, like awls of frost. Bernard shrank back, but he didn’t back down.
“Ah, you understand perfectly! If you want my information, you’ll have to promise me my freedom! Otherwise, you won’t get so much as a grain of information.”
I clicked my tongue at Bernard’s pointless bravado.
‘…Does he get some kind of illness where his gall swells if he doesn’t see daylight?’
Still, Bernard wasn’t entirely wrong.
“Aaaargh! Here I go!”
Suddenly Bernard shook off Kinn’s hand and charged toward the stone wall. Then he began slamming his head against it.
—Thud, thud, thud!
With dull cracking sounds, blood burst forth. He was really smashing his head as if he meant to die.
“Eek, what are you doing?! S-stop, stop it!”
I screamed at the horrific sight, and Kinn strode forward and grabbed Bernard by the hair.
Bernard grinned crookedly, blood streaming down from his forehead.
“I mean it. I’ve already been locked up here for three years, and I’ve endured as much as I can. If I can’t seize an opportunity like this, I’d rather just die.”
“What a troublesome fellow.”
In despair, I pleaded with Kinn.
“If you don’t care whether he dies, you could promise to let him up and then wash your hands of it. But if it would be a problem for him to die, I think you should let him up.”
First, judging by the look in Bernard’s eyes, it didn’t seem like there was any way out of this except granting his wish. And second…
‘I just want to finish this quickly and get out of here!’
…Second, I was scared of ghosts.
If it meant ending this incident quickly, I felt like I could sell my soul to the devil. Letting one criminal loose in the Ashen Citadel didn’t seem like much.
‘It’s crawling with vicious criminals up there anyway.’
Would one more drop of black ink in filthy water even show? It would all look the same. At least, that’s how it felt to me.
Perhaps my desperate appeal worked, because after a moment of thought, Kinn nodded.
“Fine, Bernard. If you give us a decent lead, I’ll take you out of the underground prison. But that’s all. You must never leave this castle.”
Bernard let out a cheer despite his blood-soaked face.
“T-th-that’s great! Absolutely great! If I can just escape this godforsaken place, if I can just see the sun, I’ll happily accept anything!”
“Good. Then I’ll seal the contract in my name.”
“If the lord of the castle stakes his very name on it, I trust you’ll keep your word?”
The two of them smoothly moved on to the next step on their own.
Bernard pressed the handkerchief I handed him to his forehead to stop the bleeding and began to speak.
“So, I first saw that ghost three months ago.”
“That long ago?”
“Yes. To be honest, nothing’s happened all this time, right? That’s why it feels strange that a problem only cropped up now.”
Bernard groaned softly.
“No, if he was going to cause trouble, he would’ve done it ages ago. How could I imagine that someone who quietly listened to my chatter would hurt anyone?”
Chatter? Unable to contain my curiosity, I asked.
“What on earth did you talk about with the ghost?”
“Just this and that—complaints, mostly.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“Don’t tell me you used your ability on a ghost too?”
“Of course.”
“…Why?”
“He was the first person I’d found who could talk back in ages. What if he left?”
“Did it seem to work?”
“Well, it must have, since he listened to all my chatter. Long stories about how boring this place is, and how unjustly I was imprisoned, and so on….”
According to Bernard’s testimony, this was what happened.
He first saw the ghost three months ago.
At first, exhausted from long confinement, Bernard thought he was hallucinating, but he still spoke into empty space.
He never expected that “hallucination” to actually turn toward him and approach.
“There was nothing there, but footprints started appearing on the floor, getting closer.”
“Gasp.”
At the chilling description, I shuddered.
Bernard continued, unfazed.
“I thought it was the grim reaper coming to take my head. So I told him that if he was going to take me, he should at least listen to my grievances first. That way, I wouldn’t linger here as a vengeful spirit.”
Perhaps it was the injustice in Bernard’s voice. The footprints that had been approaching step by step stopped dead in place.
“And then?”
“I poured my heart out. I thought it was basically my last will, so I decided to leave everything behind—my entire life, told as passionately as I could.”
After his lament ended and Bernard came to his senses, what he found beside the ghostly footprints was a single two-character word.
[Regret.]
After that, the ghost would occasionally visit Bernard, listen to his complaints, and leave behind a few words.
“You can tell just by that. Even if he’s dead, he must be a warm-hearted soul. And maybe we could even become friends!”
“…Then are you selling out your friend right now?”
At my question, Bernard ran his tongue over his lips.
“If he were truly my friend, wouldn’t he support my freedom?”
…It didn’t seem like loyalty existed in Bernard’s dictionary.
“Do you know anything else about the evil spirit?”
“Hmm. Recently, he’s been visiting me on fairly regular days, at regular times.”
My ears perked up.
“When is that?”
“Luckily, today. If we wait a few more hours, he should show up.”
The moment Bernard said that, Kinn made a decision.
“Then we’ll lie in wait here.”
“Ugh….”
“What is it? Is there a problem?”
Just thinking that I’d have to face an evil spirit in a few hours made me groan. But I couldn’t let it show.
‘Because I don’t know how to act when I meet a ghost.’
If I said that, it would be obvious that I was completely out of my depth, and my neck would probably fly off just like Raul’s arm.
“Ah, n-no. I just need to use the bathroom. I’ve been holding it in the whole way, so it’s u-uncomfortable.”
I scraped together an excuse and stood up.
Even if I listened to the rest of Bernard’s story later, I thought it would be better to have some time alone to organize my thoughts.
“May I excuse myself for a moment?”
“Don’t disappear from sight for too long. If you go too deep into the corridors, you might lose your sense of direction.”
“Yes, yes.”
I let Kinn’s nagging go in one ear and out the other as I headed toward the corridor connected to the hall.
The lower dungeon was wide open, so this was the only place where I could hide from their gaze.
Leaning my shoulder against the cold stone wall, I let out a long sigh.
“Ugh, what do I do? I’m not an exorcist, and I don’t even have the ability to communicate with ghosts….”
Whether my heart stopped from meeting a ghost or Kinn stopped it for me, either way it would be a tragedy.
As I clutched my head, I heard the sound of a stone rolling nearby.
“…Huh?”
Once again, I shuddered, thinking it was probably a rat. Then I felt something like fabric catch on my fingertips and peel away.
Startled, I lifted my head—and what I saw was…
“W-w-w-what is that?”
Bright yellow eyes, like those of a beast.
Eyeballs floating in empty space were an utterly horrifying sight. My mouth hung open.
But only for a moment.
“G-g-g-g-gho—, ack!”
At the same time, I felt a powerful impact in my solar plexus, and before I could even scream, I blacked out.
‘Today… I’m fainting… way too often….’
That thought drifted through my mind.
When I opened my eyes, I saw an unfamiliar ceiling—no, thankfully, a very familiar one.
The moment I woke up, I clasped my hands tightly and offered thanks to the heavens.
“Ah, this is my room! Oh my goodness, thank you. Thank you, gods, for letting me out of the underground dungeon. Sob.”
A voice full of disbelief dropped down onto my head.
“Hey, have you lost your mind?”
The owner of that sharp remark was… Ricky. Still, I accepted his rude tone with magnanimity.
“I’m so happy to see you again. Ah, how wonderful it is to see the sun again! But how much time has passed? My last memory is… early this morning.”
I remembered fainting immediately after seeing something unbelievable.
Ricky gestured out the window.
“It’s just past noon now. Want to have lunch?”
It was a powerful temptation, but I shook my head.
“No.”
“You’re skipping a meal? What’s going on?”
“There’s something more important than that.”
I got out of bed and hurriedly straightened my clothes and hair.
I was going to see Kinn, so as long as I looked vaguely presentable, it would do.
I finished preparing in no time.
“I heard you collapsed on your own while taking care of business. Did something happen? You’re in an awful hurry.”
Wait, that’s the rumor going around?
“That’s not it!”
I quickly corrected the misunderstanding.
“I didn’t collapse while using the bathroom! I fainted because I ran into a ghost!”
“Oh?”
“It’s true! I have something urgent to tell the lord of the castle about it. So let’s hurry.”
That part was absolutely true.
Because I was certain of one thing.
‘That ghost is fake. It’s definitely a living human!’
