Safe House (4)
1. "Beat them to death." 2. "Yank them up right now and shake them down." 3. "Mess with their brain using mana." 4. "Chase them out." 5. "Put them to eternal sleep."
Among these five choices, what's the proper action to take?!
"……"
"Aren…"
Lydia and Veronica looked at Aren with awkward eyes.
To them, that blue girl posed absolutely no threat.
Of course, that was only on the surface—who knew what lurked beneath. She could strike the moment their guard slipped.
Besides, Aren could sense something off about the girl's presence. Definitely not ordinary.
Aren's eyes gleamed fiercely.
"Eek… I, I can't choose…!"
The girl shrank back from his gaze. Every option from one to five was a nightmare.
"C-can't you just keep me? Don't chase me awayyy…!"
Tears welled up in the girl's eyes.
...Seemed genuine enough.
...Why?
Aren couldn't fathom it. No hostility in sight, so she probably was harmless—at least personality-wise.
In the end, he took a step back and demanded an explanation.
"What are you?"
"M-me?"
"Yes."
Who else?
"Th-that is…"
"Ghost, maybe?"
"Eek!"
Lydia flinched.
"N-not thatyy…! I'm just a spirit…!"
"…Spirit?"
"Y-yes…!"
Spirit of house prices or something?
"No, a spirit of space…!"
"Spirit of space… First I've heard of it."
He shot Lydia and Veronica a look—you know anything? They shook their heads.
Not that they had zero guesses, though.
"Seems like a conceptual spirit."
Veronica's theory.
"Definitely not human, right? The aura she gives off, her body's makeup—it's all mana. So the spirit hypothesis fits, but she doesn't look like a typical elemental spirit. Conceptual spirit, maybe?"
"Reasonable."
"I-I'm a spirit, I swear…!"
Ignoring the spirit's protests for now.
"What do you think, Lydia?"
"I think she's a spirit tooo… Of course, my knowledge isn't as broad as yours or Veronica's, but…"
Hmm. If Lydia agreed too…
Then yeah, she was definitely a spirit.
Now for the real question: Why the hell was a spirit squatting in this mansion's basement?
"Th-that, I can explain…!"
"Go ahead."
"The previous contractor was a girl who lived in this mansion! But… after she died, something went wrong, and I got bound here…"
"Can't return to the spirit realm?"
"No…"
"Hmm."
So, she'd contracted with the mansion's previous girl resident. After the girl's death, she couldn't go back. No suitable spot on the surface, so she hunkered down in the basement. Got it.
"…This is totally a ghost."
"N-no it's not!"
"Whatever. Point is, what now?"
Didn't matter if she was a spirit or whatever. Key fact: this was Aren's place now, and she was a trespasser.
The girl descended to the ground, dropped to her knees, and gazed up at Aren with watery eyes.
And then.
"C-can you… keep me hereee…?"
"Hmm."
The girl grew even more desperate.
"I-I'll be super quiet. I don't eat, I can stay right here aloneee… No weird stuff, I promise, pleeease…"
"Uh, umm… She's begging that hard—can't we just let her stay, Aren…?"
"…It's your call, but yeah, I agree with Lydia. Letting her stay seems fine."
"Is that so?"
"Yes."
Veronica met his eyes squarely.
"Spirits don't harm people unless they're corrupted by demonic energy. And if we can contract with her, she'd be a huge power boost…"
Veronica's green eyes turned to the girl. The spirit flinched.
"Letting her live in the mansion—that's my judgment."
"Understood."
Aren mulled it over.
Veronica and Lydia watched him intently, while the spirit girl fidgeted anxiously.
...Kinda feels like one of those national pride TV moments.
Whatever. He didn't take long to decide.
"Alright. We'll take you in."
"…!!!!!! Really?!"
"Yes!"
"Yay…!"
She was so thrilled she floated up and zipped around the basement.
...Like a fly. Annoyingly distracting.
"By the way, can you contract with me?"
"Ah… Y-yeah! I can."
"Want to?"
"Uh, yeah…"
The spirit girl nodded, though she seemed a tad hesitant—fair enough. They were strangers, after all.
Aren and the nameless spirit clasped hands.
She chanted something on her end… and a master-servant contract formed.
A link etched into their souls. He could feel the contract's presence—and hers.
In that instant, a name surfaced in Aren's mind.
"Space Spirit Iri."
The spirit girl nodded.
"Yeah. That's my name."
"Nice to meet you, Iri."
"Yeah…!"
And so their bond began.
But that was one thing.
"Now, can you vacate the room?"
"…Huh?"
"Pardon?"
"You?"
"W-wait, you contracted with me just to toss me outtt…? You gonna eat me…?"
Eat you? No.
"I meant move out of the basement and live upstairs. It's my house—no other humans coming around, so grab a room up there, no need to hide."
"Ah…!"
Iri's face lit up.
People really need to listen to the whole sentence.
Eat her? Ew, gross. He'd have to not be human for that.
Having officially taken in tenant Iri, Aren decided to repurpose the basement for its original intent.
"…What are you planning?"
Tilt, tilt.
Veronica tilted her head, with Lydia and Iri mimicking beside her.
"Ah, nothing major—interrogating a demon."
Lydia jumped in surprise. Iri's eyes went wide at "demon?"
"D-demon..?!"
"Yep."
"…But there's no demon here?"
Lydia tilted her head.
Aren chuckled and opened his subspace—
"S-subspace magic…!?"
"…I knew you were impressive, but subspace too…"
"Basic stuff."
"…If that's basic, other mages are less than bugs."
"My talent."
"……"
They let out sighs laced with awe.
That's when Iri cried out.
"M-master…! What's that you're carrying in your subspace…!"
"…?"
"You felt it?"
"Yeah…! I'm a space spirit—think I wouldn't notice?!"
Apparently, Iri had sensed Lucilla inside the subspace.
Meanwhile, Veronica and Lydia were lost, clueless about what she meant.
"…What's in your subspace, exactly?"
"Told you—demon for interrogation."
One sentence cleared it up.
He had a demon stashed in his subspace.
The moment Aren pulled out the limbless Lucilla—
"Kyaaaaaaaah!!!!!"
No one but Lucilla, dangling limply from Aren's hand, screamed.
"That's…!"
"D-demihuman Lucilla…!? She didn't escape?!"
Lydia and Veronica had assumed Lucilla caused chaos during midterms and fled.
Weak in her base form, but her summons were monstrously strong—enough to escape the scene.
She'd even razed an entire city in another kingdom with summons, massacred it, and slipped away clean. Infamous demon.
Except this time, her opponent was Aren.
"……Just how strong are you?"
"Aren's amazing…"
"Thanks."
Aren brushed off their shock and plunged mana straight into Lucilla's brain, scrambling it.
Lucilla didn't even get a chance to react before letting out weird noises from the stimulation.
"Ah, uh, ahh, uaa…?"
"Wh-what? What are you…"
"Extracting info."
"…Extracting, info?"
Ah, bad phrasing—easy to misunderstand.
"More precisely, massaging her brain so she spills it willingly."
Like dosing her with truth serum by tweaking the brain.
Ask, and she'd answer obediently. Like an automatic door you could come and go through at will.
Didn't take long.
Lucilla's eyes glazed over, dazed.
"There. Now questions will get smooth answers."
Interrogation time.