The people, horrified, clambered and ran their way out of the castle. They appealed directly to the emperor and gave testimony. The army was sent in, and the young lord was easily caught. He was executed without trial.
But it didn’t end there. Before long, a new lord was appointed to the castle. He died of a withering disease, so another was appointed. The second fell off a horse and broke his neck. The third lord? Stabbed to death by his wife in a furious rage. Rumors spread that the young lord had left behind a most malignant curse. The fourth lord assigned to the territory refused to live in the castle, and it slowly decayed, with no residents to call it home.
Naturally, the abandoned structure attracted the dregs of society. Brigands and bandits took up lodging there, seeing it as the perfect base. But none of them stayed for long. All the thieves who were captured had only one thing to say...
“A revenant spirit walks those halls...”
“It’s that castle, isn’t it?”
“Well, that story is from over a hundred years ago.”
A cursed castle... That kind of thing might be super spooky at night, but in the daytime it wasn’t terribly frightening. The air was clear, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. If anything, it was quite pleasant.
I brought the usual suspects, along with Lu, to the castle. My monarch trio, consisting of Kohaku, Sango, and Kokuyou were with us too. Before our eyes was an enormous, ominous-looking old castle. I unconsciously crossed my arms. It gave off the vibe that a monster was going to pop out or something.
“We got the emperor’s permission, right?”
“Yes, we do! Destroy it, recycle it, rebuild it, we’re permitted to do as we like.” Sounded good to me. I figured the best course of action would be to move the whole thing off at once. The castle was a little bigger than the one we had designed at the workshop, so there was even a chance we could get all the materials we needed right here. Even if it wasn’t enough, I’m sure we’d be able to afford whatever leftover stuff we required.
“Alrighty, should I just expand a portal underneath this thing to move it all to Brunhild?”
“Please wait a moment... Shouldn’t we make sure everything inside is fine before we do that? It’s possible that thieves, or monsters, or the undead might be inhabiting this place right now.”
“Maybe even the ghost, h-heh...” Elze suddenly cut in as Linze was advising me. Linze definitely didn’t believe that old story, but Elze almost looked a little nervous...
Either way, there was a fair point being raised. It was probably important that we at least check out the interior before moving anything potentially dangerous onto my land. Hope I don’t run into any weird slimes.
We passed through the gates and entered the castle, making our way to the entry hall. The interior was just as gloomy and downtrodden as the exterior, dust and cobwebs all over the place.
“Alright gang, let’s split up and search for clues. We can pair off, and have the Heavenly Beasts go with each group that isn’t mine. That way, we can stay in telepathic contact in case something goes wrong. Kohaku, you go with Yumina and Lu, Sango and Kokuyou, you go with Linze and Yae. Elze can come with me.”
“Wh-What? I-Is that okay...? Th-Then let’s, uhm... Yeah, let’s go this way, ahahah...!” Elze spoke up noisily and began a brisk walk to the interior. She abruptly stopped once she got far enough and turned to yell at me.
“H-Hey, Touya! C’mon already!” Linze suddenly smiled and let out a small giggle. I wonder if she knew Elze would end up like this. I briskly walked to catch up with my adorable partner, then started to walk by her side. The other groups all dispersed in their respective directions, too.
I looked outside, noticing a gathering of clouds. That’s weird, it was clear earlier, wasn’t it?
“So, Elze. You’re the type who’s scared of ghosts, huh?”
“Huh?! Wait, what are you saying?! Ghosts, where?! There’s no such thing as ghosts...”
“Then what’s that white thing behind you?”
“Eeeek!!!” Elze shrieked out loudly and clung to me.
Ow, ow! This is supposed to feel good, don’t squeeze me like that! It’s like a goddamn bear hug!
“Sorry... was... curtain... Can’t... breathe...”
“Curtain?” Elze turned to see a slightly-yellowed old curtain that was now blowing slightly in the breeze. After she ascertained that it was not, in fact, a ghost, she released me.
Man, I really thought she was gonna break my spine.
“O-Of course it was just a curtain...” An expression of relief came over Elze as she placed a hand over her chest.
“So you’re not good with them after all, then?”
“Ugh...” Elze turned to face me, her cheeks a bright crimson. Her mouth was flapping open and closed like a fish. Honestly, I think she was trying to find some kind of excuse.
“There’s no shame in having fears, everyone has one or two!”
“Well, I guess so... Didn’t expect you to say something like that, though.”
“It’s just that you can’t hit them, so they’re a pain, that’s all...” Elze frowned and turned away. Her face was still red, regardless. That reason felt pretty weak to me. I didn’t think Elze had any issue smacking skeletons or zombies, so ghosts shouldn’t have been that frightening to her.
I grabbed Elze by the hand.
“E-Eek!”
“You don’t need to pretend like that with me. If you’re scared, just take my hand.”
“...O-Okay...” Elze nodded, just a little bit. With our hands locked together, we began searching for suspicious stuff. We started peeking our heads into rooms to confirm whether or not there was anyone around.
As expected, the castle was remarkably big, but it was also covered with dust, looking largely unused. For this amount of dust and spider webs to gather up, you’d expect there to have been nobody in here for a long time. Just as I fell into that comfortable line of thought, something moved in the corner of a room we were checking.
“A-Agh!” Elze freaked out and pulled her whole body against my arm. Two soft, round objects squeezed up against my arm as well.
I’m okay with this.
The bringer of my good fortune, in this case a rat, scuttled out from the corner and left the room.
“I-It was a rat...”
“You’re fine with rats, right?” Normally you’d expect girls to be scared of things like mice, rats, and roaches, but the girls of this world were quite tough. I didn’t think it would rattle her that badly.
“Should we check out the second floor?” As we ascended the stairs, I noticed a massive portrait hanging up at the top of the landing. It was of a fairly young-looking woman in a lovely green dress. She was seated in a rather luxurious looking chair and looking out with a smile.
Is this the wife of the last lord who lived here? She’s really beautiful. They’re pretty big, too...
“What are you staring at?“
“Huh?! Nothing! Nothing at all!” Elze glared right through me, so all I could do was look away. She definitely didn’t lose to Yumina or Lu in the bust department, but perhaps she was worried about being slightly smaller than her sister. It wasn’t like I cared, but that was probably just how she felt.
Still holding Elze’s hand, we marched up to the second floor. I looked outside a nearby window again, and noticed the clouds were getting darker and more intense. But it was so clear earlier on that it made no sense to me.
《Kohaku, Sango, Kokuyou. Report in, what’s the situation on your ends?》
《Nothing to report, my master. Not even a mouse.》
《There’ssss nothing to report here, either.》
《There was only a rat here, a little boring if you ask me.》
It seemed that nothing was happening anywhere. While it was true that you couldn’t expect six people to scour every room of the place in this amount of time, thieves or brigands would’ve definitely made themselves known already. Not to mention the fact
that the rooms we’d been in so far were clearly long-abandoned. Every corner of the place was covered in dust. We’d even left footprints in some places. If an animal, monster, or person had been here, they surely would’ve left a trace.
“Hm, were they just rumors after all, then?”
“Y-Yeah, as I thought... there’s n-no way ghosts could exist, right?”
“Well, I mean, there are probably spirits in the world like Wraiths, Phantoms, and Specters, so I guess you could consider monsters like those to be ghosts. In fact, just yesterday Linze was—”
“Augh! Sh-Shut up! I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you!” Elze stuck her fingers into her ears in an attempt to blot out my words. How childish of her.
Monsters like Wraiths and Phantoms were well-known in this world, but there was no evidence that actually linked them to the souls of the departed. That being said, I think it was proven that zombies and other undead monsters were still linked to formerly-living people.
Hm...? Oh, it’s raining.
I took a look outside, and noticed heavy raindrops pelting down from the sky. I hoped that the roof wouldn’t leak or anything, but given that the building was over a hundred years old, it definitely would.
With Elze clinging on to my arm ever-tighter, I made my way deeper into the castle. It was a lot darker than it was back at the entrance.
Before long we reached the end of the hall, a great big double-door. I wondered if this was the door to the lord’s chambers. I turned the knob. It creaked slowly and spookily, and the door opened.
The room was huge, and the ceiling was high up. A beautiful chandelier surely swayed up there once in the olden days, but now it was a smashed and scattered pile of glass on the floor. The metal parts must have gotten rusty or something.
There was an old worn-down chest of drawers near a ruined fireplace that had a row of vases sitting atop it. In the corner of the room was an old rusted suit of armor, giving an unusual feeling to the situation at large.
“Something doesn’t feel right about this place...” Elze nervously tightened her grip on me. She sure was acting bold for such a frightened girl.
There was a portrait on the wall of this room, too. This one depicted a sturdy-looking fellow in military dress, who sported a fine beard. Beside him was a fairly plain looking woman in a simple dress.
Is this the lord who killed all of his servants? Wait, that can’t be right. The ownership of this castle changed hands three times after he died. So, does that make him the most recent resident of the castle, then...?
Suddenly, a cold chill went down my spine. Something was very wrong.
Wait, but... this can’t be right. If the woman in this portrait is the last lord’s wife, then... they’re... not big.
“What’s wrong?”
“The person in this portrait... she’s not the same as the one in the landing portrait, is she?”
“Oh, maybe you’re right...” Just as I turned to take a closer look at the portrait, the wide-open door that we entered the room through slammed shut with a bang.
“E-Eeeek?!” Elze screamed and squeezed me even tighter.
Ow, ow, ow!!! Are you casting [Boost] right now or something, woman?!”
“Was it the wind or something?”
“Th-The wind?”
This place is falling to bits, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a wall with a hole letting in the wind somewhere... Wait, what’s that? I perked up my ears and suddenly heard a faint clattering noise.
A rat again? No, this sounds more like... a shaking vase? One of the vases atop the chest was shaking and gyrating like crazy.
Suddenly it stopped spinning and lunged at us.
“Gah!” I leaped out of the way, dragging Elze with me. The vase shattered on the wall behind where we stood.
What the hell?! Isn’t this a stereotypical horror movie event?!
Another vase jumped up toward us in a similar fashion. I shattered that one mid-air with Brunhild. Right after that happened, an old ink pen and a pair of scissors laying atop a desk came flying at us, then books came flying off some shelves.
I shot them all down with relative ease. Elze wasn’t much use at all in the situation. Just when I thought it was out of things to throw at me, I heard a creak from the corner of the room. The old, rusted suit of armor drew its blade, then began staggering toward us.
“H-Hey now...” Outside the window, lightning crashed and thunder roared. Heavy rain continued to brutally pour down.
The armor stomped and rattled, slowly making its way toward me.
“Strike true, Light! Sparkling Holy Lance: [Shining Javelin]!” The spear of light impaled the suit of armor, and even went through the wall behind it. The armor itself was reduced to hunks of twisted metal.
“O wretched fiends that dare to invade my castle... I will murder you... murder you all...! This is divine retribution... Leave now, this is your final chance...” A disembodied voice echoed through the room. I was mostly surprised by the fact that it was giving us a chance to leave. I’d have expected it to be more unreasonable, to be honest.
“So you’re saying that if we leave, you won’t hurt us?”
“That’s riiight... nothing will happen If you leaaaave.”
“Then I refuse.” With that, I fired off more light spears into a nearby wall. A huge hole burst open, exposing the pouring rain outside.
《Kohaku, Sango, Kokuyou. Tell everyone to get outside and take cover. I’ll fight the ghost alone up here.》
《Very well. Leave the safety of the ladies to us.》
《Of courssse, darling.》 I fired off another light spear as I sent my telepathic message off. I broke through to the room next to this one. The main pillar was still intact, so I didn’t have to worry about the roof collapsing on me just yet.
“Y-You theeeere, wh-what do you think you’re doiiiing?”
“I’m trashing the place. It’s all coming apart anyway, so it doesn’t matter how I do it!”
“W-Wait, you mean... you’re gonna destroy the castle?! Er, stooop this at once, mortalll! The curse will claim your liiife!” Something felt off. I didn’t feel any kind of pressure or intensity at all from this supposed malignant spirit.
“Hey, ghost... Are you actually a ghost?”
“Cough, cough! Th-That’s correeeect! I am a wicked ghoooost, bound to this castle by faaate!”
This thing just coughed. Why would a ghost cough?
“If you’re bound to this castle, then you’ll disappear along with it!”
“Thaaat’s trueee, er— Wait, no! It’s not! Even if you trash this place, I’ll live on and haunt you foreeeeverrrr.”
You’re really not impressing me anymore, fake-ghost. Even Elze, who was completely terrified, was now just staring ahead with a blank expression.
“Hey, ghost. Who are you, then? If you just explain what’s going on, I’ll listen. But here’s your last warning, if you don’t explain, I’ll turn this place into rubble.”
“......” The ghost didn’t reply. I had no idea who they were, but they were definitely here in this castle. With that in mind, I figured they might be up for a reasonable chat.
“Fine then, if you have nothing to say, I’ll bring this place down.”
“Agh!!! W-W-Wait, please! I got it, I got it! Loud and clear! I’ll explain everything, just go to the landing again.”
“The landing?” We left the now-extremely-ruined lord’s chambers, returning to the stairs. Just like before, the portrait of the woman in green was there. I looked at the image of the woman, who was standing up with a chair behind her.
Just as I thought, they’re really big... That meant this portrait wasn’t a portrait of the last lord’s wife.
“Hold on a minute...”
“Something wrong?”
This portrait... it can’t be the wife of the first lord who lived here, can it? This place has changed hands three times already, and I definitely wouldn’t have placed a picture of some dead
crazy guy’s wife in my hallway. And hold on, wasn’t this portrait of a woman sitting down?! Why is she standing up now?!
“Agh, h-hold on...”
“Wh-What?! How is that— T-Touya, someone’s coming out of the painting! It’s a ghost!” Elze once again held onto me for dear life. It was no longer, soft, delicate, and playful. It was actually causing me extreme pain, so I wanted her to stop already!
“I-I’m not a ghoooost. I am a maaaagical being. The portrait frame is my true body, and this form is merely a projection of my wiiiill.”
A magical being? So she’s a creature made from magic or something? Does she mean like a homunculus or a golem, maybe? But why a picture frame of all things?
“I see... Well, obviously something like that is gonna get you confused with a ghost. Why’d you try to chase us away?”
“W-Well, that’s because thieves and baaandiiits used to come heeere, and they’d make a real mess of the plaaace. My real body is this fraaame, so if it were to be damaged or destroooyed, then I could dieee!”
Hm, that reminds me, I heard that thieves and bandits made this place their home a few times... Did she drive them out or something?
“So was it you who murdered each new lord who moved in?”
“N-No, that’s a misunderstaaanding! I didn’t murder anyone, got it?! The first lord had a terrible illness and died in the night. The second lord fell from his horse and died of a tragic accideeent! The third lord got into a really bad argument with his craaaazy wife, and she stabbed him! Honeeeest!” As she spoke, she pointed right at Elze with a dramatic flair. Elze suddenly shrieked and took a few steps backward.
So the murdered feudal lords weren’t murdered by a ghost... In fact, they weren’t even murdered at all!
“After thaat, nobody came here for a looong time. Sometimes thugs would come insiiide and start traaashing the place just for fun. It was then that I staaarted to worry about my preeeecious picture frame being damaged...”
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 4 Page 19
