Kansutoppu!

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Ghosts have appeared in my mansion. I am looking for an adventurer to exterminate them.

Client : Francoise

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"G-ghosts?" Roel had finished reading the commission notice in her hands, a stricken look on her face. I had fought ghost-type monsters in the Caverns of h.e.l.l, but since you couldn"t hit them with a sword they were a huge pain for me to deal with. Though, when you thought about it, was a ghost really a monster?

"Nope, this one is no good either. I can"t use any kind of magic that can actually hit ghost-type monsters." Roel said.

"I can."

"Wait, really?" Roel looked back and forth between me and the commission note. It was almost like I could never stop surprising her.

I must have forgotten to mention that. Well, it"s not like it was something I talked about a lot. I couldn"t even use all the different elements, and mid-level magic was my absolute limit. And, of course, support and recovery magic wasn"t even a possibility.

"Maybe we should accept it, then? After all, we"re pretty close to ranking up, I think." Roel looked like she was seriously considering it.

"Really?"

"Yeah, you rank up by acc.u.mulating points from completing commissions, and commissions are worth different amounts of points. It"s seems like it"s a secret how many points each commission is worth, but just before the Guild attendant hinted that we"d be C Ranks soon."

"Oh really? Let"s go for it, then."

We took the note to the counter to officially accept the commission, but we were told there was someone else who had already accepted it.

"This adventurer accepted the quest not too long ago, but for them to do it alone may be difficult. Having a fighter or something else along might be a good idea."

The Guild attendant motioned to an adventurer standing near the counter, who I recognized as the scary, muttering person from the the battle on the Strange Plains.

"My thanks… My thanks.... My thanks…"

She had a pointy hat and a scarf that was wrapped around her face, hiding most of it. Her body was also completely hidden by a long robe and cape, so I had no idea how old she might be. She seemed very thankful for our help, so she couldn"t be a bad person, but she was still a little scary.

The three of us made our way to Francoise"s mansion. This was the first time I had seen a house so ridiculously huge. But instead of thinking how amazing it was, I found myself wondering what someone could possibly do with all that s.p.a.ce? It could easily fit dozens of the room that Roel and I lived in. That"s how big it was.

We made our way through the large gate and knocked on the door. It slowly opened to reveal an old lady. She had on a gold necklace and matching gold rings on her fingers. Her dress was lined with jewels to the point that it hurt my eyes to even look at them, and she was holding a bright red fan that screamed gaudiness. I didn"t understand fashion at all, but I didn"t think she did either.

"You"re the adventurers that accepted the commission, then? Come in." The snooty old lady moved aside slightly to let us pa.s.s.

Inside I immediately noticed a large chandelier hanging all the way down from the high ceiling on the second floor. A bunch of stone statues and flowers lined the halls. We settled down on a soft, comfy couch to listen to the details.

"You"re going to take care of the extermination quickly, right? Well? Hurry and get to it, then."

"Where are the spirits?" Roel said.

"I don"t know."

"Sorry?"

Roel was trying her hardest to have a productive conversation with the old woman, who was probably Francoise, but she wasn"t being helpful at all. Suddenly, the large chandelier started shaking back and forth for apparently no reason.

Roel screamed and clung to me. Torepo sat silently and stared at the chandelier.

"L-look, right there. That"s what I mean. You can take care of this, can"t you?"

Francoise was shaking, but I still couldn"t see any ghosts or anything.

"That"s… not… monster… vengeful ghost…" Torepo was murmuring to herself again.

So it wasn"t a monster, but a "vengeful ghost", according to her. Just then the cupboard started rattling.

"R-Ryua..." Roel was glued to me and looked like she was about to cry.

"Really now! What is going on!?" Francoise yelled hysterically at no one.

"W-w-well, how long has it been like this?" Roel managed to get out while still clinging to me. Francoise turned her wild gaze towards us.

"Who cares about that!? Just do something about it!"

"But we don"t have anything to go on…"

"Quiet! Fine. It"s recent. Now if you can"t do it, I"ll find someone else who can."

I don"t know if Roel was embarra.s.sed by the way Francoise had spoken to her, or she was still scared, but she still didn"t let go of me. Torepo was suddenly standing next to us. I hadn"t even sensed her move.

"Stay here… tonight… ghost"s activities… night… probably… probably…"

"S-shtay here!?"

It was certainly true if we couldn"t see the ghost, then there was no way for us to get rid of it. I wasn"t sure why it had to be at night, but I didn"t have any other suggestions so I agreed. Roel desperately insisted that it was perfectly normal for us to stay in the same room, but Torepo silently went into the next room down.

Our room had two beds in it, and the walls were painted with some kind of scenery. Even though it was empty otherwise, I could still tell it was significantly bigger than the room Roel and I lived in. Apparently we just had to wait here for now, as Francoise was preparing dinner.

With a sharp intake of breath, Roel sat on my bed and clung to me again.

"Ryua… I have to go to the bathroom but… but, will you go with me?"

"Sure, I"m sure the ghosts are probably sleeping anyway."

"Don"t say things like that!"

I smiled at her to show I was teasing, but she seemed mad. Suddenly, a knock came at the door.

"No way…"

The door slowly creeped open, and Torepo slipped into the room. She didn"t have any presence at all. Honestly, I couldn"t figure out who was scarier, the ghosts or her.

"Discussion… thought about… let"s talk…" She sat down in a chair and continued, "Woman… this big mansion… servants… none… live alone…?"

"N-now that you mention it, that is weird. I wonder if she"s even married," Roel looked around the room.

With all the rooms in the mansion, I wondered what they could possibly be used for. I hadn"t notice when we first came in, but everything was very dusty. Were there just too many to clean?

There was a knock at the door. I wondered if it was Francoise. It was too earlier for dinner, though.

"Yes?" Roel was looking at the door, but no response came. The door opened by itself, yet no one was there.

"Th-th-this place is so weird!" Roel jumped to hide behind me.

"There are… several… others..."

The way Torepo fragmented her sentences made her pretty difficult to understand. This was going to be hard for Roel, but we weren"t going to get anything done just by sitting here. We had to go search the mansion.

"What do you want to do, Roel?"

She made a face like the world was about to end and was quiet for a moment, but then she seemed to decide that going along was better than staying alone. Outside of the room was a long hallway that stretched out in both directions, with a number of doors along it. That was the second floor, while the rooms like the bath and kitchen were on the first floor.

Roel and I went down the hall trying the doors, but they were all locked. We went downstairs and came to the living room where we originally spoke to Francoise. As we entered, I noticed a child sized doll run around the corner toward the bath, making a pattering sound as it scampered away.

"Was that her kid? I guess she doesn"t live alone."

"Ryua! Too scary!"

She was clinging to me again. Maybe I should have stopped teasing her. I followed the doll around the corner and opened the door to the bath dressing room, despite Roel pulling on my arm in protest the whole time. But there wasn"t anything there. The changing room alone was about the size of our entire apartment. I couldn"t even imagine what they did with all this s.p.a.ce.

"Nothing here, or in the bath either," I said.

"S-so that"s all we can do, r-right?"

If I had known it would have been that terrifying, I never would have taken the commission. I had no idea what to do next and wondered if we should just give up. Roel had accepted it, so I would let her decide. Was it really a quest for D Ranks? The commission notice didn"t have a rank requirement, so it had to be suitable. Things might be different if ghosts had appeared, but if they never showed, what could we do?

"This is turning into a more difficult commission than I thought."

"You know, I just realized the commission notice is dated over a year ago." Roel was looking at the paper.

"What"s that mean?"

"It means either no one else took the commission, or the people who did couldn"t complete it..."

"Really? But if it"s that difficult then A Ranks should just do it."

The rank requirements were usually decided by the clients, but the Guild could make a change if they thought it was necessary. So who was it that decided not to give this a rank requirement?

Suddenly, I noticed a door I hadn"t seen before. At first I thought it might be the door to the toilet, but that door was on the other side of the room. I tried to open it but the k.n.o.b wouldn"t turn. It seemed like it was rusted, so I put a little power into it. With a loud clank the door k.n.o.b broke off, and suddenly the door itself fell off its hinges.

"Oops…"

"Ryua…"

I had probably... no, I had definitely broken it. Roel"s expression had changed from terrified to shocked.

"It was just locked," Roel muttered, though I wasn"t listening.

Behind the door was a flight of stairs headed downward. There was definitely no toilet here, just the concrete stairs. I stepped down into the darkness.

"I-it must be a storage room."

Roel wouldn"t let go and tried to pull me back. Clearly she didn"t want to go down the stairs. My curiosity wouldn"t let me turn back, though, and I made my way down the dark stairs without a light, taking each step carefully. The stairs finally came to an end in a hallway. Using what little light that had seeped in from the hallway at the top of the stairs, I was able to see a door at the other end. The door wasn"t locked, but it was in such poor condition it wouldn"t open.

"Ryua, let"s go back... she might not want us down here. The door was locked."

"But what if the ghost is down here?"

"And what exactly are you two doing here?"

We both jumped and turned to look back up the stairs. Francoise was standing there. She looked down at us with a furious expression on her face.

----------Bestiary----------

[ A Mysterious Monster HP 445 ]

An unidentified monster that suddenly appeared in the town where Ryua lives, Qwemill.

Larger than a grown adult male, fearsomely quick-witted, and dextrous, it has the ability to cause a large amount of destruction unless a skilled party of adventurers can reign it in.