(Jane"s PoV)Three days later, we came out from the forest safe and sound. Our objective in coming here had been fulfilled, but we still had one more additional mission before we could go back and plan for the next agenda.
The mission came from Sir Ahmad, surprisingly. Not a mission, actually. It was more like a request than a mission. He said it was not a problem if I couldn"t do it. He was just wondering if I could do it since I carried the Creese with me.
He said, near the entrance to the forest, there was a high cliff where they –and some people around the forest –put their family"s corpses. According to the old man, their King –which was my father –was supposed to be there for the last step in the funeral process since the one who had just pa.s.sed away was an Elder in the Village.
My father needed to put those coffins filled corpses into a cave on top of the cliff. Now that I saw the place, I thought it was absurd.
I did see the cave but it was high up there. I didn"t see any stairs or any tools to lift the coffin into the cave.
Forget about the tools and everything, what could I do with a giant Kuntilanak guarding the entrance?
Seriously, she was so big that even from afar I could still see her figure covering the tip of the cliff.
"Is that Kuntilanak?" asked Tom as he looked towards the cliff.
Sanji squinted his eyes as he took a careful look on the giant ghost. Then, he shook his head. "No. That"s not Kuntilanak. That"s just a woman ghost, but she"s even more frightening than Kuntilanak." He said firmly.
"How do you know?" In my eyes, that was Kuntilanak.
"That"s just an ugly and scary woman. I think you need to know the difference for sure now. Kuntilanak was a ghost of a woman whose death was related to baby or pregnancy. Abortion, murdered, suicide during a pregnancy and many other reasons related to them can create Kuntilanak. That one over there, however, doesn"t look like it is related to baby or pregnancy." Sanji explained patiently.
"How do you know?" I interrupted before he finished talking. I didn"t even realize I had repeated the same question.
Sanji looked at me helplessly. "Maybe you should allow yourself to feel more. That way you can understand why I said so."
I blinked my eyes. I did restrain my ability to see and to feel them to avoid being implicated by unnecessary emotion. After being pointed out the reason I couldn"t see the difference, I could only grin while releasing the control I had slowly.
Foreign emotion rushed into me as soon as the reign loosened. I felt an indescribable guilt. It was as if I had committed a big sin and it haunted me every day. It was something related to betrayal and dark magic, which I had no recollection of doing it.
Since it was the case, I was sure it was the ghost memory. Indeed, no baby or pregnancy was involved in her death, but because she practiced dark magic, she was consumed by it and turned into something resembled to…evil.
It was a pity since she was pretty beautiful back then.
Trust me, when people said negative heart made beautiful people ugly, it was all true. When the person with negativity in her/his heart died, her/his ghost would turn super scary and ugly beyond saving. They would drown in their negativity even more after they died. Even if they realized what they did was wrong, they couldn"t go back to their beautiful appearance, no matter how long their redemption was.
This ghost was repenting her sin, but since she had drowned too deep into her negative side, she couldn"t go back to her original appearance.
She looked terrifying, but only those who knew her could tell that she wasn"t that bad, actually. My impression of her improved as well. As expected of the guardian of the Royal Tomb, one must be looked menacing to scare unnecessary people away.
I could say she had done her job pretty well.
As I was praising her inside my head, our eyes met accidentally.
Another wave of emotion and memory entered my mind and for a second I forgot where I was. I was a bit surprised she opened up to me very quickly. But then after I watched the memory inside me carefully, I found the reason.
"You…resemble…The King." She said hoa.r.s.ely and slowly, sounded exactly like those ghosts I heard in the movie. Couldn"t she speak normally?
"I"m his daughter." I answered casually.
Yes, the memory that she gave me was the ones when she watched my father fulfilling his duty as the King, lifting the coffin in the air and put it in the cave. She would be responsible of guarding the cave and the things inside, visible or invisible, from any precarious and imprudent people.
And yes, my father lifted the coffin in the air! How he did that, I still had no clue. He looked like a bada.s.s who mastered psychokinetic in a manga I read when I was a child.
The ghost descended from the cliff and d.a.m.n… she was huuuge! She was three times taller than normal people and of course, bigger. Her burned face and red eyes looked exceptionally chilling, but she didn"t give off any dangerous vibes.
"The…princess?"
I smiled awkwardly hearing those words. I wouldn"t get used to that name, I guessed. "You can say so." I nodded.
"How do we address you?" Tom asked after being silent all this time.
"No… need… to… know." She said coolly. "Any… order?"
"I was requested by someone to bring a coffin there." I nodded at the cave. "The coffin is stored in the hut over there."
Sir Ahmad had mentioned before that the coffin was saved inside a hut at the foot of the cliff. At first, I doubted that the coffin would be intact after being left there for days. I even thought that I would smell something unpleasant since we were talking about corpse here. However, as soon as I understood the situation here, I realized that no one dared to come and mess with the coffin since it was still the area of the woman ghost.
"Then… I"ll… open… it… for you." She flew back onto the cliff and I witnessed something amazing that couldn"t be explained with words alone.
I didn"t know what she meant by opening it for me, but I guessed it was some kind of barrier of the cave. As soon as this barrier was opened, a rush of spiritual power poured out from the cave. It was so strong that the trees around the cliff were swaying as if it was being hit by wind.
"Control… it." I heard the ghost said.
Control what? That wild spiritual power? Did I really have a choice?
Positioning myself, I gathered my own spiritual power and aimed it towards that wild spiritual power. That power was getting bigger and more powerful but somehow I managed to bind it with my own power. After getting hold of it, I guided it towards the hut. The door and window were pushed opened by that weird power and to my surprise, the coffin inside moved as if it was being pulled by someone.
Was it even possible? Wait, the flow of the spiritual power changed! It went backward!
I shook my head slightly, tried to ignore the odd that happened in front of me. Following the flow of the mysterious force, I witnessed with my own eyes as the coffin was lifted and pulled into the cave. I finally realized why I should control that power.
If I didn"t control it, the coffin would end up hitting the cliff! It would be a disaster if it really happened.
Not to mention the closer the coffin got to the cave, the harder it was to control. I was sweating so much when it was finally over. The ghost waved her hands and the crazy flow of power stopped.
"The pressure was crazy." Tom said in shock.
It was only at that time that I could finally see the expression of those two men behind me. Both of them had shock expression all over their faces.
"As expected of Royal Tomb." Sanji whispered while staring at that cave with the same shock expression on his face. "The pressure is different with ordinary tombs."
What pressure were they talking about? Other than the difficulty that I faced while guiding the coffin towards the cave, I didn"t notice anything.
"Also, that woman is also someone that couldn"t be trifled with. Her power as ghost got even better than she was a human before. It was no wonder she could be a.s.signed as the guardian." Sanji continued his explanation.
"What pressure are you two talking about?"
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