. Her pointy hat and m.u.f.fler completely covered her face, and her body was covered with a mantle and a robe. I can’t really tell how old she is. Since she said that she was grateful she might be not that bad of a person but…she’s still strange.
We immediately went towards the mansion where Francois-san was waiting. It’s my first time seeing such a huge building. You could even call it amazingly s.p.a.cious, to the point where I wondered what in the world they plan to do in here. I wonder many tens of Roel’s living room could be fit into here, it’s just that big… We knocked at the gate that leads inside, and from it an old lady came out. Golden necklace, golden bracelet and ring, ornaments with spa.r.s.e jewels, and a red dress so bright it hurt the eyes, she was pretty much covered in gaudy materials and was fanning herself. (TL: 極めつけに赤色の派手なセンスでぱたぱたと扇いでいる) I don’t know if it that was fashion, but I honestly just think her taste wasn’t that good.
“So you’re the Adventurers that took the quest. Come in.”
The arrogant old lady crudely let us in the mansion. The ceiling was two stories high with a chandelier hanging from it. As I go to sit down I notice stone statues shaped like vases holding flowers at the corners of the guest room. Sitting on the soft sofa that our backs sink into, we listened to the details.
“Can you adventurers quickly exterminate it? Please do it at once.”
“This ghost, where is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Okay?”
Roel was somehow able to agree, but I didn’t understand anything from way she talked. Suddenly the chandelier started to shake violently and was swinging left and right.
“Wa-waa!”
Roel clung onto me. Tolppo was silently staring at the chandelier.
“S-see that’s it, right there. You guys should be able to exterminate it, right?”
The old lady was trembling. However, I don’t see the form of the ghost monster.
“This is…….monster…….different…….vengeful ghost…….”
Tolppo was standing alone and muttering. Not a monster but an vengeful ghost, I wonder what those are? Suddenly the gla.s.s on the cupboard started to clatter and shake.
“Ryu-Ryua-chan!”
Roel was glued to me and was already crying.
“Geez! What’s going on!”
The old lady was hysterically shouting towards the empty air.
“A-a-at any rate, how many times has this happened?”
Roel who was still clinging on me was somehow able to inquire calmly. The agitated old lady turned around and glared at us.
“Even I don’t know such things. I have told you everything already.” (TL: そんなのどうだっていいでしょ。言われた事をやればいいのよ)
“But we don’t have any clues to work with!”
“Won’t you shut up? It just started happening recently. If you can’t do it I’ll just ask the others to do this quest.”
She was almost hysteric as she explained it, since she was so scared. Roel was also terrified, she wasn’t leaving my side. Tolppo who was next to us moved slightly.
“Stay at night…….vengeful ghost lively…….at night…….maybe….may…..”
“S-stay?!”
Roel stuttered while looking at Tolppo who was beside us. Tolppo isn’t wrong, if we can’t see its appearance then we can’t exterminate it. I don’t know if we can settle this at night but I can’t do anything about it now so I decided to follow her plan. It’s good that that Roel and I are in the same room. Tolppo silently entered the next room. The bed inside our room was big enough for 2 people, and on the wall there was a painting of some scenery hanging there. We were the only ones inside this s.p.a.cious room. The old lady said she will be providing us dinner for the night. I went straight to the bed, laying on my back. Roel also got into bed and once again clung onto me.
“Hey, Ryua-chan, I need to go to the toilet. Can we go together?”
“Sure, but be careful, you might fall asleep right away if you lie down.”
“That’s not true!”
I smiled a bit as Roel got mad at my teasing. After that short exchange, there was a knock on our door.
“Just a moment…..”
The door was opened, and Tolppo came in. This girl doesn’t have much of a presence at all, rather, she is way scarier than the ghost…
“Talk…….collected ideas……..share…”
Tolppo sat on one of the chairs inside the room and continued.
“Woman……only one in this big mansion…….servants…….not here…….living alone……?”
“Now that you say it, that’s weird. I wonder if she’s married?”
Roel looked over the inside of the room. There were more rooms than this one, I wonder what they are used for. When I originally entered this room I didn’t notice it was somewhat dusty. I wonder if all these rooms are cleaned…
*knock**knock**knock**knock**knock**knock*
It seems someone came to our door again. I wonder if it’s the old lady? But it’s still too early for dinner.
“Yes?”
Roel answered towards the door, but there was no response. She opened the door and there was no one there.
“J-ju-just as I thought, this mansion is creepy!”
Saying that, Roel jumped towards me. I don’t feel anything wrong but…I don’t know what to do here right now.
“…..several…..there is…..”
Again she said something. Because she is talking in fragments it’s difficult to understand her. I feel bad for Roel but if things stay like this I feel like nothing will be accomplished. So let’s explore the mansion.
“So Roel, what will you do?”
She made a face like the world was ending for a moment. I think it would be better to do this alone, but in the end she came with me. There were other rooms on our floor, stretching far down the corridor to our left and right. One by one we entered the rooms. There weren’t too many we could enter on the 2nd floor, since all the baths and kitchen were on the 1st floor. We tried opening each room as we went but it seems that we need a key to open them. We went to the stairway that lead to the living room where we first talked with the old lady, and I saw a figure of a person about the size of a child making a *pitter patter* sound running from the bath and disappearing around the corner.
“Um, I wonder if the old lady has a child? I guess she wasn’t living alone.”
“Ryua-chan, please don’t say something scary……”
Even if you cling to me, I can’t do anything about it. Roel was pulling me hard and dragged me to the corner where the dressing room is. I didn’t sense anyone at all. After we took a look at the dressing room we moved on and found a room as a wide as the one we were talking in earlier. I wonder, do they plan on using something with this much big? I should stop, thoughts like this won’t have something come out.
“Nothing here, now I think we should go that way to the bath.”
“I-it’s already fine right, right?”
If you are this scared we should’ve abandoned this quest. That’s what I thought but, it was Roel that chose this quest.
However, right now, at this time and place, I don’t really know what I should do. ‘I am sure that a Ghost-type monster will appear’ is what I thought, but this situation doesn’t make a lot of sense. I wonder if we, D ranked adventurers, will be able to settle this incident. I didn’t see the particular rank designation for this quest so we may not be suitable for it. Even so, if the enemy won’t come out then our way of doing things is wrong.
“Somehow this quest is harder than I thought.”
“About that, I didn’t think much of it when I accepted it, but in the quest doc.u.ment this was dated back to one year ago.”
“What does that mean?”
“In short, in one year no one took this quest, or if they did they weren’t able to settle this……”
“So it’s like that? If it’s that difficult they should’ve let an A rank take it.”
Roel wasn’t able to answer me regarding the rank issue. The client can designate the rank, but in some cases it seems that the guild is the one decides it. I wonder if the old lady was the one who designated it, or was it the guild? As I moved my eyes around, I suddenly noticed a door. It looks like the toilet is in that room over there, so then I wonder what this room is? Let’s try opening it…and the k.n.o.b won’t turn. I wonder if it’s because of the rust? I tried exerting strength on it. *thunk* it made a sound and then the k.n.o.b came off. Then even the door itself came off the hinges.
“Ah……”
“Ryua-chan…….”
Perhaps, no, for sure this time I really broke it. Oops… Roel who was scared earlier was making a shocked expression.
“There’s no lock?” (TL:「鍵、かかってたんじゃ」)
I wasn’t really focusing on the murmuring of Roel. Behind the door that I broke I can see a stairway leading down. Everything in the mansion so far was western-styled but this is different…stairs made of concrete, leading down to an unlit place.(TL: well there is no light so it was leading somewhere dark)
“I-is this the storage?”
Roel was clinging onto me so we wouldn’t be separated. She was repeatedly saying “not good” “not good” and was trying to drag me away. Unable to hold back my curiosity I tried going down the stairs. There wasn’t any light, but I continued going down the dark stairs step by step. At the bottom there was a small concrete pathway like before. In front of me, there was another door. Like the previous one it doesn’t have any lock, it looked quite worn and rotting, and it doesn’t seem like it would open.
“Ryua-chan, let’s stop……if we enter by ourselves we will get scolded…”
“But the ghost may be inside this place.”
“Then, I wonder what you are doing?”
Looking up the stairs the old lady was there. Rather than calling it a woman, it looked more like a demon’s expression as we looked at her.
Monster Book
【Mysterious Monster HP:445】 It suddenly appeared in the town where Ryua lives. An oddly shaped monster. It’s bigger than an adult male, and it is terribly quick-witted. If the adventurers fighting it are not skilled, they would be instantly slaughtered by its ability.
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TL and ED note version: