39. Ghost Story (4)
Hedrick Siriven was an ordinary boy in Class E of Stella’s first-year Magic Department. The fact that he had entered Stella in the first place was already far from ordinary, but here, he was merely one of the lower-ranked students—an insignificant one at that.
There were simply too many incredible students above him.
But that was alright.
Not every student went around craning their neck upward, looking only at those above them.
Hedrick was satisfied with his rank and his class.
The fact that a student from the Siriven family—a mere baronial house from the borderlands—had made it into Stella was a tremendous honor, and thanks to that, the family was currently flourishing to an astonishing degree.
The reason Baron Siriven, from some rural backwater no one had ever cared about, was now mingling with city nobles was all because Hedrick had gotten into Stella.
“I should get going now.”
“You heading to your next class?”
“Yeah. My schedule’s brutal.”
“It’s summer break and you’re still busting your ass for no reason. You should loosen up and have some fun.”
“Seriously. Especially when your grades are the worst among us.”
“Come play football with us.”
There were too many astonishing geniuses at Stella, so Hedrick had no choice but to keep working and working without stop. He didn’t even hope to catch up to them. As long as he could stay close behind and somehow graduate, that would be enough.
“…No thanks. I’ll get going first.”
Unlike him, the cadets of Classes D and C seemed to have plenty of free time. During summer break, they barely attended any classes and spent every day hanging around and having fun.
‘This summer… I’ll overtake them.’
Friends? No. They were rivals, nothing more.
While they played around, he would grow stronger.
Thinking that, Hedrick walked down the corridor.
His next class was Strange Botany.
The Botany Lab was in the 3rd Main Tower, so Hedrick quickened his pace. It was quite a distance from the 6th Main Tower.
Fortunately, Stella had transportation systems like compact internal warp halls, so students could move back and forth across long distances with ease.
As usual, Hedrick walked toward the gate. Then, while glancing ahead, he noticed that something about the girl walking in front of him looked a little suspicious.
‘A white uniform?’
It had already been over fifty years since Stella’s uniform was changed to black.
But the girl ahead of him was definitely wearing the old uniform—white, trimmed in gold.
Suspicious.
His instructor’s words came back to him. With all the recent incidents at Stella, if he saw anything suspicious, he was never to ignore it and should report it immediately.
‘I’ll catch her and question her.’
Part of it was his pride as a magic warrior cadet, and part of it was the chance to earn merit points, so Hedrick headed toward the girl without hesitation.
But no matter how much he walked, the distance didn’t close. His stride was definitely longer than hers.
Tap!
Gradually speeding up, Hedrick eventually kicked off the ground and broke into a run. But no matter how hard he ran, the gap still wouldn’t narrow.
Like a mirage.
“Huff… haa, haa…!”
By the time his breath was catching in his throat, Hedrick suddenly realized that, at some point, he had already passed through the gate.
These warp hall gates were designed like ordinary corridor doorways, and countless students used them every day.
But—
something was strange.
“…What the?”
It was unnaturally silent.
This should have been the corridor leading to the 3rd Main Tower. Which meant the gate should have led to the 3rd Main Tower as well. And yet there was no one around.
The 3rd Main Tower was packed with laboratories, so students from the research departments passed through frequently. It was supposed to be crowded and noisy.
An unnatural silence had a way of drowning people in fear.
“What the… No, get a grip.”
Gulp.
After swallowing hard, Hedrick took a step forward.
This was Stella Academy.
Nothing incomprehensible could happen here.
Believing that firmly, he walked on slowly, but there was still no one in sight.
Not the researchers.
Not the professors.
Not the lecturers or students.
No one.
By then, the sudden thought struck him that this was very, very wrong, and he hurriedly turned around.
He meant to go back through the gate.
“Ah…?”
But the gate had vanished.
Nothing remained there except… an ordinary corridor passage.
“T-that can’t be right.”
Hedrick rushed over and ran straight through it, but nothing happened. He turned back and walked through the place where the gate had been again, but there was no sensation at all of passing through a gate.
“How…?”
Staring blankly at the place where the gate should have been, he noticed some lettering.
[7th Main Tower]
The seventh tower that did not exist at Stella. Those words carved themselves vividly into Hedrick’s eyes.
Why was it that, at this moment of all moments, what came to mind was not anything else, but the ghost story students had been joking about?
Unfortunately… Hedrick didn’t know the details of the ghost story. While kids his age had been getting distracted by those ridiculous rumors, he had thought studying would be far more helpful in reality.
Which meant he had absolutely no idea what he was supposed to do here.
“……”
Slowly backing away, Hedrick absentmindedly turned his head and found himself staring at the huge full-length mirror in the central corridor. It was the same ordinary full-length mirror that stood in the same place in the other corridors too, so why did it feel so grotesque today?
He found himself staring into it without meaning to.
And his eyes met his own reflection.
It was smiling.
The me in the mirror.
Even though I wasn’t smiling.
-Hahahahaha!
The me in the mirror raised a hand and waved at me.
Its smiling face twisted hideously as though it were slowly coming closer.
“Ah……”
It stared at Hedrick for a while, then drew the corners of its mouth long in the wrong direction and said:
-You are not qualified.
That was as far as his memory went.
Murmur, murmur.
The first-year class noticeboard was unusually noisy. It was because of a notice that had gone up not long ago.
Eizel, who had been about to pass by it without much thought, stopped when one particular line caught her eye.
[Recently, an incident occurred in which one student collapsed on campus.]
[The Stella Magic Knight Order and faculty are currently conducting a search together, so we would appreciate it if students would focus on their studies without undue concern.]
The contents themselves were very simple. What was such a big deal about one student collapsing? Every now and then, there were students who threw themselves so hard into studying that they passed out from exhaustion.
But this case was far too unusual.
“Did you hear? When Hedrick was found, the corridor looked…”
“Yeah. I heard it from someone who saw it in person. All the corridor windows were open, and on the wall it said, ‘You are not qualified.’”
“Isn’t that exactly like the ghost story?”
“They got rid of it by now, right?”
“The professors apparently erased it all.”
An atmosphere of unease spread like an epidemic and swallowed the students whole.
It hadn’t even been an ordinary collapse. Of all things, an incident had occurred that looked exactly like the details of the ghost story that had been circulating lately.
The school realized the students were frightened and dismissed it as “someone’s prank,” but no one believed them.
“This isn’t going to turn into something really bad… right?”
It had been a careless remark from one student, but because everyone could imagine it becoming reality, no one answered.
‘Hmm…’
Eizel quietly stared at the notice and thought.
The recent incident—one could dismiss it as a coincidence and move on. But no matter what, that conversation she had overheard from Professor Raidin recently still bothered her.
‘That 7th Main Tower ghost story… what connection does it have?’
She too knew the ghost stories quite well. Her closest friend, Marilen, was such a social butterfly and so sensitive to trends and rumors that she would chatter nonstop about them at every mealtime. Thanks to that, Eizel had ended up with quite extensive knowledge of the ghost stories herself.
As it happened, the place where the student named Hedrick had gone missing was also on the route from the 6th Main Tower to the 3rd Main Tower, which matched the ghost story exactly.
But it’s only a ghost story…
And yet something about it caught at her mind.
Still, when it came to sharing her inner thoughts, her friends were all too soft—people she wanted to protect.
If Baek Yuseol had been at school, someone she could trust and rely on, then she would have immediately sought him out and told him everything, but unfortunately he was absent at the moment.
‘What do I do…’
Even while she hesitated and agonized, time continued to pass, and the students gradually dispersed back to their own places.
With no other choice, Eizel turned to go too—but then someone’s back suddenly leapt into her vision ahead of her.
A girl with short black hair.
Flame.
She was walking slowly while reading something together with a girl about her own height who wore twin tails.
All at once, a thought came to Eizel.
Even if it wasn’t Baek Yuseol, wasn’t Flame someone who had already shared many secrets and truths with her—someone she could trust and lean on enough?
One of the very few people in the world to whom it might be alright to reveal this secret.
‘Things are already happening.’
If all of this turned out to be nothing but a misunderstanding, then that would be fine too.
If anything, it would let her relax and feel relieved.
But if something she knew could help solve this mysterious incident, then wouldn’t it be alright to at least say it once?
She had lived despised by the whole world, but even so, she didn’t want to hate the world back.
The people around her getting hurt…
that was something too horrible even to imagine.
She had already gone through something like that once before, which only made it harder to let an incident like this pass in silence.
That was the end of her hesitation.
Eizel quickly approached Flame and stopped her.
“…Excuse me for a moment.”
“Hm? What is it, Eizel?”
“Yes.”
Because Eizel was not someone who usually spoke first, Flame’s eyes widened slightly.
On the outside, she looked like a cute little younger sister you wanted to bite, but Eizel already knew that the heart sleeping inside that appearance was as solid as an iron fortress.
That was why she was able to reveal what she had discovered without hesitation.
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
After leaving the Cradle of the Celestial Spirit Tree, I didn’t return to Stella right away.
Summer break was actually an extremely important period for me. There was a clear limit to how strong I could become just from the events inside Stella, so the only choice was to grow by combining outside sub-events and dungeons.
Growth through training?
I was definitely seeing good results there too.
Including Taeryeong Divine Art, I had grown more accustomed to controlling Blink through breathing to the point that I was confident I wouldn’t fall behind even against a 3-Class mage anymore.
But that alone wasn’t enough.
At my core, I was a player, and when it came to becoming stronger quickly and reliably, nothing beat gaining experience points.
The protagonists had already surpassed 4-Class and were looking beyond it, yet my growth was still too slow.
If I wanted to hover around the protagonists, protect them, and prevent the crises heading for the world in advance, then didn’t I need, at the very least, power on the same level as theirs—enough to actually help them?
As it happened, while looking for the divine relics for Kkotseorin and preparing for the Black Corrosion to come, I managed to catch one fairly decent event with the magpie glasses.
[Welcome to Malentaires, the dream city brimming with romance.]
At the entrance to the city, a huge electric sign greeted me.
The sign was old and worn out, and several letters no longer lit up properly, so it was hard even to read it clearly.
A city brimming with dreams and romance?
The phrase sounded nice enough, but in truth the city called Malentaires could just as well have been described as one giant slum.
The city felt dead.
There was no liveliness in the streets, and people went their separate ways without even talking to one another. The residents, all of them gaunt as though they hadn’t eaten properly, lived in ragged clothes.
I walked among them.
I had changed out of Stella’s uniform and into something fairly ordinary.
If I wore Stella’s uniform—a thing practically equivalent to noble attire in a slum like this—I would only make myself an object of fear and hatred.
And yet, even in ordinary clothes, perhaps because spending time in Stella had polished my appearance more than I realized, people’s stares kept boring straight through me.
‘Man, they’re glaring hard…’
There were very few magic warriors or mercenaries in these streets. There was no prey here.
There were no local specialty goods being produced, and it wasn’t a region favorable for trade either. On top of that, even visits from magic warriors were rare, so it wasn’t hard to understand why the city was dying.
But a great jewel lay sleeping here.
Very long ago, Crimson Spring March had hidden away the Petal of the Gentle Heart.
And that very thing was sleeping somewhere near this city.
On top of that… one of the events that had been especially popular in the game, [There Was No One There], was scheduled to unfold here.
I remembered players crowding into it because the completion EXP was so good, but now that I was looking at the city itself—empty, desolate, and eerie—the feeling was strangely different.
‘I wonder if Flame’s doing alright by now.’
The story had changed far too much from the original, and that made me pretty uneasy, but even so, I was the sort who believed in Flame. She might have been the kind of sunfish-fragile protagonist who dropped dead every time you picked the wrong option, but even so, she was the most ideal kind of protagonist—the kind who always overcame every situation by giving it everything she had.
Right now, having received my request, she was probably pouring her energy into investigating [Black Corrosion]. By the time I finished this event and returned, the episode would probably be starting in earnest, so I had to hurry back as fast as possible without being late.
So first…
After discreetly checking the eyes around me, I started walking through the darkest, dingiest alleyway I could find.
Then, a shabby-looking group began gathering around me little by little. Behind me, an old woman and a beggar stepped in as if they had other business, blocking the path. Ahead, a woman with hair hanging down wildly and the appearance of a lunatic staggered toward me.
I tried to ignore her and walk past, but the madwoman suddenly grabbed both my shoulders and screamed:
“Why!!! Why did you ignore me after looking me in the eye?!”
My ears were going to fall off.
I stared back at her without any change in expression.
Thanks to Crimson Spring March’s blessing, I didn’t get startled or intimidated by something like this. Even without it, there wasn’t much reason to be afraid.
“Why, why! Whyyyyyy?!!”
She kept shouting anyway, but when I didn’t react, she slowly backed off.
Like I said, she only looked mad.
Which meant she was dressed up to look crazy, just to scare ordinary people.
“…W-what’s with you? Why are you looking at me like that?”
Since I was doing nothing but staring at her with a completely uninterested expression, it seemed the one who got scared was her. She took her hands off my shoulders and slowly backed away.
“That’s enough.”
After waiting a moment, a fairly presentable man in a coat and top hat appeared in the alley. He shoved aside the beggar and passersby, strode straight up to me, and gently pulled the madwoman behind him.
“Kid. Try to understand. The people here are half out of their minds because of the bad things that have been happening lately.”
“I know. Ghosts keep appearing, right?”
“…You knew and still came here? The rumor that ghosts are showing up scared off the airships entirely, and now even the trains have stopped, so hardly anyone visits.”
“It took me quite a while to get here.”
“I see. So you must be interested in the rumors.”
He took out a pipe and put it in his mouth.
The beggar and passersby slowly withdrew, and the woman checked my expression before darting away between the alleys.
The man puffed on the pipe for a moment, then spoke to me without even looking my way.
“Then let me ask you. Are you a person, or are you a ghost?”
“If I answered that I’m a ghost, what would you do?”
“I’d have to erase you.”
Not lay them to rest—erase them.
He must really hate ghosts.
I knew that man well.
One of the very few ghost hunters in Aither World.
Pung Ryu-jin.
“But… there are no ghosts who openly say, with their own mouths, that they are ghosts. So whether you’re human or ghost, I suppose it doesn’t matter if I leave you alive.”
“Much appreciated.”
I intended to help him.
Partly because Pung Ryu-jin was the protagonist of this sub-event…
but also because he possessed an item that would be an enormous help in the Black Corrosion incident to come.
To be honest, I had told Flame to prepare for the Black Corrosion episode, but no matter how much she prepared, there probably wouldn’t be any proper solution.
Most likely… if things flowed the way they did in the original game, Flame would go through all kinds of adversity and hardship, suffer like hell, and even inside Stella there would be numerous casualties.
So the correct thing to do would have been for me to rush back to Stella right away and respond there too, but that would have been pointless.
It wasn’t the sort of situation someone like me could solve just by showing up.
But there was a way.
And that way was outside.
The artifact Pung Ryu-jin possessed—the Vengeful Soul Talisman.
If I could bring that back with me, the difficulty of the Black Corrosion episode would drop exponentially.
I felt truly sorry for Flame, who was probably struggling hard right now, but…
‘Hang in there and keep running a little longer.’
This Oppa would be back soon with a busted item in hand to wrap it all up in one go.
