Kansutoppu!

"I say! What kind of upbringing did you have?"

"Sorry…" We apologized at the same time.

"I"ll overlook your actions this time, but you will be responsible for the repairs. Let me know right now if that is going to be a problem. I doubt you"ll want me to put a claim in with the Guild. Either way, I think it goes without saying that if something like this happens again, you will be fired."

We returned to our room in low spirits. Roel seemed to have even forgotten to be scared and was more concerned with repaying the damaged to the door. She was just sitting on the bed and counting on her fingers, muttering to herself. Torepo was sitting in the room completely still with her hands held up over her head.

"What are you doing?"

At my question, she slowly lowered her hands.

"Ghosts… outside my specialty… naturally… no priest… reckless. No way… to do this…"

It seemed like she was uneasy as well. I had no idea why she had been sitting there in that pose, but it definitely wasn"t normal. The conversation turned to what had happened underground.

"Underground… Definitely something…"

"Yeah, that"s probably where the ghost is. Francoise said she wants the ghosts removed, but then she stopped us when we tried to go in there…"

"She"s been married before, hasn"t she?" Roel sounded like she had just remembered something. "One of her rings was a wedding ring, I think."

Well then, she must have had a family. Living alone in a such a large mansion would be really lonely. But then where was everyone?

"I expect… most likely… wife..."

As Torepo was speaking a knock came at the door, interrupting her.

"Dinner is ready. Come down to the dining room on the first floor. Do make sure to come straight there. Nowhere else."

She had put a pretty large emphasis on the part about not going anywhere else, I thought, as I heard her footsteps retreat from outside the room. Despite the awkwardness, we decided to go for dinner and followed along.

The table was lined with steaks, bread, and even salad. It seemed like the steak had only just finished frying as it was still smoking. I hadn"t expected such a good meal! I wanted to immediately apologize to her for earlier, but she was sitting there eating her steak and pointedly not saying anything, so I decided to stay quiet.

"Ghost extermination… night… will do…."

Torepo had suddenly spoken while everyone else was concentrated on eating. But, Francoise seemed to soften at the words and she looked more relaxed. In fact, I might have even thought she was in a good mood. I started feeling better myself.

After dinner, I started to heat up the bath water so this time I could actually get in instead of chasing some strange doll around. The door that led downstairs was now concealed by some kind of wall. I looked away and took off my clothes to enter the bath with Roel. It was fairly large, so we invited Torepo to join us, but she declined. Even though she was also a girl, I didn"t understand her at all. Actually, since I couldn"t see her face I wasn"t sure, but from her voice at least I thought she was probably a girl.

"It"s my first time in a bath this big." Roel was submerged in the water while splashing around playfully.

It"s true that the bath in our room could fit two people, but it would have been a little tight. The bath even had a lion"s head on the wall that spouted the hot water. I thought hard about what I would do if I had this much money, but I couldn"t even imagine it.

"It"s been so long since I"ve been in a bath with someone else," Roel said.

"Oh? You used to live with someone, Roel?"

For some reason I had thought she had always lived alone, so that surprised me. Come to think of it, though, I didn"t really know anything about Roel"s past.

"For a while, I had someone who was looking after me. They"re gone though…"

They way she said that made me think she wasn"t looking for them, or they weren"t coming back. I had no idea that Roel had once had someone like that in her life. While I was in the Caverns of h.e.l.l for ten years, Roel must have gone through hard times in her life, too. I couldn"t possibly know what kind of memories she carried around.

"I don"t really remember much from when I was young…" She said.

No memories? I really wanted to know, but it seemed like it was painful for her, so I didn"t want to make her talk about it. I decided I wouldn"t try to press Roel about her past and hopefully she would open up to me in time.

That"s when I noticed it. There was someone on the other side of the frosted gla.s.s at the entrance to the room. Roel"s back was turned so she luckily didn"t see. A child stood there and was just staring at us. It was standing so still and utterly silent that I got the feeling it had been there for a while without us noticing. It was the child from earlier.

Suddenly, the lights in the bath went out.

Roel let out a scream and started to panic, splashing around in the water, so I grabbed her to try to calm her down. It was dark so I couldn"t really tell, but I felt like the child was no longer there. While still holding Roel, I slowly exited the bath. After groping around, I managed to open the frosted gla.s.s door and searched around for the light. When I finally found the switch and began flicking it up and down, but the room remained black. The lights were completely out. Unfortunately, we were going to have to change back into our clothes in the dark.

Roel was so scared I thought she may have completely lost her voice. We walked down the hall together hand in hand. It was pitch black even here. What was that old lady doing? She must be having a hard time without the electricity too. But before we could help her, we should meet up with Torepo.

My eyes started to become used to the darkness, and we made our way up to the second floor. There was no one in the living room when I pa.s.sed it. Francoise and Torepo had to be on the second floor. I held Roel"s hand, attempting not to trip on the stairs as we carefully made our way up.

The second floor corridor was also quiet. It must have been a hallucination, but it was like the hallway stretched out all the way to h.e.l.l. It sure made for an ominous atmosphere. As we made our way through the darkness, Roel clung tight to me.

"After we meet up with Torepo, what should we do, Roel?"

Roel remained silent. I never thought that a ghost extermination would be so stressful. You couldn"t see the enemy, so what were you even supposed to do? Was that little girl we saw in the bath a ghost? And if so, what had happened that made her that way?

I heard the sound of doors opening and closing in the distance. The noises started from the middle, opening and shutting in order, making a neverending racket down the dark hallway. Honestly, the darkness wasn"t as bad as some places in the Caverns of h.e.l.l, but I never felt any strange presences among the darkness there.

"Roel, don"t let go."

At that Roel gripped my arm even tighter. It even became a bit harder to walk.

"I"m not going to run away, you don"t have to hang on so tight…" I said.

"Ryua! Where are you!?" Roel"s voice sounded far away.

That couldn"t be right. Roel was right next to me. She hadn"t let go of my arm the entire way.

"Ryuaaa! Where did you go? Ryua!"

I thought I brought her with me. I mean she was right...

It wasn"t her.

The person holding on to me was much smaller than Roel. It"s grip steadily grew stronger. I looked down to see a pair of very skinny arms attached to a small body so white I almost didn"t realize it was wearing a white, one piece outfit. Its skin was so pale I could make out its form in the darkness. Black hair hung around her face.

Slowly, her head tilted until she was looking into my eyes.

Her eye sockets were empty. They were like wide, black holes. It was something like a child"s face looking at me, but at the same time it was completely different. I hadn"t noticed before, but there wasn"t any heat coming from her. In fact, she was extremely cold to the touch.