40. The Seventh Main Tower (2)
The culprit is, in fact, the protagonist.
It might have been hard to understand since I blurted that out with no context, but I did not feel any need to drag the story out, so I started with the conclusion.
“Baek Yuseol! You have talent as a ghost hunter. I, the world’s greatest ghost hunter, guarantee it.”
[Source text appears corrupted here in the original: 여ド]
“From now on, will you call me Master Pung Ryu-jin?”
“No.”
“What a pity.”
At present, I had come to the haunted village of Malentaires for the sake of an event.
Now that I had successfully encountered Pung Ryu-jin, who could be called the protagonist of this side event, the main objective from here on was to solve the mysteries occurring in the village…
To give the conclusion first, the ghost tormenting the villagers was actually the ghost hunter Pung Ryu-jin himself, and after the player comes to realize that, he passes on.
The direction was decent, the story was fairly moving, and it had a twist, so it was reasonably well received, but since the content itself was, in truth, cliché to the extreme, many people were not all that impressed.
That was because the story progression was too similar to the movie The Sixth Sense, and the twist was too easy to predict.
Besides, if I were being honest, throughout the whole quest it was just an endless repetition of Pung Ryu-jin saying things like, “Goodness, there are rumors a ghost has appeared! Hurry and investigate!” and dashing off, only for the player to chase after him belatedly and kill the monster.
Honestly, it was boring.
[You have acquired Skill Experience.]
[You have acquired a large amount of Skill Experience…….]
So was I dissatisfied?
Not at all.
Thanks to Pung Ryu-jin, I was able to kill monsters so powerful that, at my level, I normally would not even have been able to touch them.
This side event was not called insanely rewarding for nothing.
“Your help has been tremendous. When this is over, have you any intention of working as my assistant? You’ve got nerve, courage, and remarkable skill.”
“Not really……”
“Baek Yuseol. You’ve got everything going for you, but your problem is that you lack a clear sense of purpose. What is your dream?”
“To stop the world from ending.”
“Haha! Absurd as it sounds, that is the kind of ambition a person ought to have. I, too, once dreamed of conquering the world.”
Ghost hunter was exactly the sort of profession one could starve to death doing. Why would I abandon a bright-futured profession like magical warrior just to do that?
If the world does not end in the future, then I plan to live in luxury and comfort with my magical warrior license.
“Well, it is a shame. I suppose it is about time for me to retire. But even after I am gone, restless spirits will still wander this world.”
Pung Ryu-jin stared into empty space with bitter eyes.
“In this world, there are spirits who failed to pass on, seeping unseen into every corner. I believe it is my duty to resolve their han. How many regrets must they have had, that even in death they could not leave this land?”
“I suppose so.”
Just what kind of han are you carrying around, anyway?
He would puff quietly on his pipe and sometimes stare vacantly into empty air.
No smoke came out of the pipe.
That was one of the pieces of evidence that Pung Ryu-jin was a ghost. Back when I knew nothing, I had thought it was just a graphics bug.
“Still, we have nearly reached the climax. See that mansion over there? They say the sorrowful sound of a woman weeping can be heard from it every night.”
“I can see it clearly.”
“Tonight, we infiltrate that place. This time, I am certain.”
It had already been a week since I started staying in Malentaires.
The story was finally nearing its end.
The weeping woman in the mansion was not a ghost.
And as everyone had probably already guessed, that woman was someone who had once been in love with Pung Ryu-jin…
That was the setup.
It was a heartbreaking story. Pung Ryu-jin had died while trying to protect her, and even after death, he lingered nearby to continue guarding her, eventually becoming a vengeful spirit.
When I had only read the story, I thought it was obvious and stale, but now that the person involved was right in front of me…
I could not simply laugh it off.
“Let’s make sure we solve the case this time.”
For that reason, unlike Pung Ryu-jin, who set off briskly and energetically, my shoulders felt heavy.
Because I already knew what kind of fate awaited him.
“Let’s do that.”
Even so, I followed after him.
Whatever it was, whether fate had already been decided or not, I was the one who had come here prepared for this situation.
At times, I thought that perhaps knowing the future was not always a good thing.
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Ugh… what am I thinking?
Let’s not drown in sentiment. From now on, I have to do something a little more dangerous, and perhaps even harder.
First, I need to wrap up this event quickly and return to Stella, because Flame and I still have to prepare for the Black Magic Erosion.
Time-wise… nothing should have happened yet.
Even though the future had changed quite a lot, I just hoped things had stayed quiet.
[Source text appears partially corrupted here in the original: スト, 가지!]
[…let’s go!]
Carrying a heavy heart in many ways, I followed after Pung Ryu-jin.
There was still far too much I had to do to lose myself in idle thoughts.
Most of the ghost stories Eizel had heard from her father were true.
- After midnight, when moonlight shines upon Corridor D-3 on the 12th floor of the Fifth Main Tower, do not look at the grandfather clock in the corner. There is no grandfather clock on the 12th floor.
If you do happen to find a grandfather clock, leave that spot immediately before it chimes twelve times.
- Around 3 a.m., if you enter the basement of the Fourth Main Tower, make absolutely sure to go in with at least one other person.
If you entered alone, do not try to find the exit. Quietly go to a corner, close your eyes, and wait out the night. At the very least, you will not end up somewhere strange.
And so on. Eizel’s ghost stories were also closer to Napolitan-style tales, but they were not particularly frightening.
Those were merely one of the ways to reach the Seventh Main Tower.
However, none of them were likely to work so easily.
After all, in the original romance fantasy, Eizel had tried every ghost story, and only after repeating them dozens of times did she barely succeed in re-entering the Seventh Main Tower.
In other words, the conditions written in the ghost stories did not always line up, anywhere and anytime.
Around then, strange signs started appearing at the school.
“You know that ghost story about the Seventh Main Tower, right? The one that says if water is running in the girls’ bathroom in the middle of the night, you have to close your eyes and count to ten.”
“Yeah, I know it.”
“They say Senior Henetly experienced it not long ago.”
“What? No way. There isn’t even a girls’ bathroom there in the first place.”
“That’s what makes it scarier. She was so shocked, but then she remembered the ghost story and immediately closed her eyes and counted to ten, and when she opened them, the bathroom had vanished.”
“Do you think it’s real…?”
“I don’t think a senior that serious would lie.”
It was not just once or twice.
“Did you hear about Abek from [source text partly unclear in the original]?”
“Of course. They say he was walking through the Sixth Main Tower at dawn and saw bloodstains all over the floor.”
“Sounds like bullshit. He’s always talking out of his ass.”
“But then again, they carried him to the infirmary while he was trembling like a complete madman. If that was an act, someone should seriously give him Best Actor of the Year.”
Stories of students experiencing ghost stories had begun to spread all over Stella.
Some students had gone back home altogether, while model students who normally attended class without fail shut themselves up in the dorms and showed no intention of coming out. At night, most people were too scared to walk alone, so they moved around in groups.
“Something… is strange.”
It had been only a single day since Hong Biyeon disappeared.
And yet, all of a sudden, the situation had already escalated this far.
- The Stella Magic Knights will personally step in to resolve the ghost story incidents, so all students are advised to rest assured and focus on their studies.
Stella had even declared that it would mobilize its full force to investigate, but it was useless.
The ghost stories kept snaring students at every turn, yet for some reason they never affected the Magic Knights or the faculty at all.
As though the ghost stories were choosing their targets.
That was the most terrifying part of this episode.
Even though incidents were occurring inside the school, there was absolutely no help to be had from the professors.
And by the third day, students started disappearing one by one.
Even though the sense of crisis was intensifying and the professors were patrolling every corridor of every Main Tower every night, they could not stop students from being dragged away by the ghost stories.
What kind of sorcery was this?
A mysterious incident that not even Stella, the greatest magical institution in the world, could solve.
…So this really is Abeline’s magic.
On a night thick with darkness.
Even the starlight was hidden behind clouds, leaving only a single magical orb to rely on, but Flame walked through the corridor without the slightest sign of fear.
It really is terrifying when you experience it firsthand.
Even in the modern world, in the world of science, when a mystery occurred that science could not explain, people trembled in fear.
The Aether World was no different.
A mystery that magic could not explain.
But this was neither a mystery nor the supernatural. This was real magic.
The only difference was that it was surreal magic, far beyond the level of modern magicians by several stages.
Even knowing that it was magic, it was hard to believe it truly was magic.
How much more frightening would it be for ordinary people?
At the very least, by now Eltman Eltwin would have realized the truth behind this incident.
That the ghost story incidents were fragments of the reality-altering magic left behind by Abeline, who had disappeared more than half a century ago.
But waiting until he personally stepped in to resolve it would be too late.
Summer vacation still had a long way to go, yet the “ghost-story disappearance incident” had already begun.
And soon after, it would spread into the Black Magic Erosion of the Seventh Main Tower…
Before that happens, I have to enter the Seventh Main Tower.
It had taken several days, but she had finished preparing thoroughly.
Her backpack was stuffed full of all sorts of artifacts she had gathered from outside cities, as well as special items made by Alterisha after Flame ripped off the wings of angels she had met in dreams and brought them back.
Since she already had a rough idea, from the original romance fantasy, of what would happen inside, it should be all right.
“…It’s a little creepy.”
Eizel, walking behind Flame, said that.
There was no way of knowing whether they would run into a ghost story tonight or not.
The current situation was something that had also happened similarly in the original romance fantasy.
One day, Eizel was abducted into the Seventh Main Tower, but escaped with Hae Wonryang’s help.
However, when students began disappearing one after another shortly afterward, she eventually resolved to plunge into the Seventh Main Tower herself by deliberately using a ghost story in order to prevent further harm.
But the process had not been easy.
If ghost stories happened whenever you wished, they would not be ghost stories. To make the ghost stories she knew actually come true, she wandered every Main Tower alone every night.
At the very least… I should be prepared for this to take a week.
Just like back then, the ghost stories would not come easily even to Flame and Eizel.
And now there were three of them, with Anella included. Since ghost stories were originally more likely to occur when one was alone, it might take even longer.
If there was still no sign of a ghost story occurring by the third day, she intended to suggest that they split up and move separately.
…And yet.
“Huh?”
Splash!
As she stepped forward, cold water splashed up.
When she lowered her head and looked down the corridor… it was filled, all of it, with cold water.
There was no doubt.
This, too, was a ghost story.
While walking along the 15th floor of the Fourth Main Tower, if the corridor is filled with water…
Something like that. The details did not matter.
What mattered was that they had been caught in a ghost story.
“I-it’s a ghost story……”
At Eizel’s tense voice, Flame nodded.
But… something felt strange.
On the first try?
They had not tried over and over.
Just once.
Today, for the first time, they had approached a ghost story, and they had succeeded on the very first attempt.
Did that make any sense at all?
Is it just coincidence…?
She wanted to believe that, but she could not shake the ominous feeling.
“Let’s go quickly. According to the ghost story, it says not to walk to the end of the corridor, so we should do the opposite.”
“Yeah. We have to go.”
There was no other choice. She strongly suspected that someone was intentionally trying to lead them there, but even so, they had no choice but to head forward.
Even now, numerous students were disappearing, and more than anything, Hong Biyeon, whom Baek Yuseol had worked so hard to drag back from evil, was trapped in there.
So they were about to move forward without hesitation.
“Wait.”
A boy’s voice came from behind.
Because Flame recognized immediately who it belonged to, she turned her head with a stiff expression.
“…Jeremy.”
“Mm. Flame.”
Jeremy Scarlven, the boy with golden hair that seemed to shine like a star itself, even though it was not receiving any starlight at all.
There was no reason for Jeremy to have come all the way here in the dead of night… so there was no explanation other than that he had tailed Flame.
“Why did you follow us?”
“…I had no choice. It was to protect you. Please. Don’t go any farther.”
“Why?”
“Can’t you feel that something’s wrong? This is… luring you.”
“Ha, luring? The only thing doing any luring is the pathetic crap you’re always pulling.”
She knew. Flame knew that too.
But she was going anyway.
“Besides, who exactly would be trying to lure me, and for what reason?”
“…I can’t tell you that.”
“Oh? You’re talking like you know something.”
“Sorry.”
Jeremy shook his head firmly, but did not back down from his position.
“Don’t go any farther. It’s going to be… very dangerous.”
“No. We have to go.”
“…Why?”
“Because our friends are trapped in there.”
“To save them? That’s impossible with your strength. Even the professors haven’t been able to find them.”
“I know. Even so, I have to go.”
Looking at Flame, who remained completely unchanged by his words and stood her ground with a steadfast expression, Jeremy smiled bitterly.
As though he had expected this.
“Then… I’m coming too.”
“What?”
“I can’t just stand by and watch you go there.”
“Are you insane? What are you suddenly……”
Eizel and Anella had already withdrawn farther back.
To those two, Jeremy Scarlven was not a welcome presence.
And Flame felt the same.
He would surely be a huge asset, but bringing him along would be… far too much of a burden.
“Go back. I have absolutely no intention of working with you.”
“…Just as you refuse to listen to me, I’ll do as I please too. I’ll follow you as I please.”
After saying that, Jeremy stepped back ten paces.
“I won’t get in your way. I’ll keep this much distance. I won’t even speak to you. Just let me watch over you and protect you, even from afar. Is that… not allowed either?”
Honestly.
Even that, she did not want to permit.
Because Flame hated Jeremy as a person.
But she also knew full well that, with Crown Prince Jeremy acting like this, there was no way to stop him in the first place.
Having no choice, she turned away without a word and moved on ahead.
Eizel and Anella followed after Flame while watching her mood, and Jeremy trailed them from a considerable distance behind.
And so, a very strange and utterly mismatched four-person expedition group into the Seventh Main Tower… was formed.
