The Merit Farm
Back in my room, I sank deep into thought.
What am I supposed to do?
The ducal household was a complete disaster from top to bottom, but knowing that changed nothing. As an amnesiac freeloader, there was nothing I could do about it right away.
Right. My own nose is already three feet underwater—why should I poke around in someone else’s family mess? The smartest move is to keep eating their rice and grinding my spiritual power stat.
I decided to pretend I knew nothing about the inner workings of the ducal estate.
And so several days passed in thorough, deliberate noninvolvement.
Then, on the morning of the fourth day exactly, I sat on the bed with dark circles hanging down to my jawline, clutching the blanket and screaming.
“Aah, fuck!! At this rate the stress is going to kill me first!!”
I simply could not keep looking the other way.
Let’s think about this with basic common sense.
I open my eyes in the morning, head to the bathroom to wash my face, and a ghost with loose, tangled hair whispers from inside the mirror, Cleaner… cleaner still…
I go to the dining hall for lunch and find a bloated, waterlogged ghost sitting in the empty chair beside me, loudly slurping imaginary soup.
I lie down at night hoping for a little sleep and the lesser spirits under the bed start a full surround-sound chorus of wails.
Wasn’t this going a bit far?
You could have told me this place was a communal graveyard and I would have believed you.
“Miya.”
“Nyang? Why are you calling me?”
Cats were supposed to be spiritual creatures, yet she looked completely fine. Was she just dense?
“Have a lot of people died in this ducal estate?”
Miya thought hard for a moment before answering.
“Well, probably? They used to hold executions right here inside the mansion, after all.”
“Executions?”
“Yes. Demon cultists or particularly vicious criminals used to be put to death on the estate grounds. It doesn’t happen much these days, though.”
“Haa… is that so?”
I was the only one with opened spiritual eyes, so every last ghost in the household was flocking straight to me.
Spirits had a habit of latching onto anyone who could see them, whether they meant to or not.
I could not live like this any longer.
In the end I shot up from the bed and clenched my fist tight.
Fine. I’ll say some of my memories have returned, and then I’ll turn this whole dumpster fire of a house upside down. Otherwise I’m going to go insane and die.
I immediately had Miya check whether I could get an audience with Lucia.
“Miya, do I have to wait a long time to see Lady Lucia?”
Miya’s expression froze for a second, then slowly crumpled into something faintly dejected.
“…No. Lady Diana is an exception—you can see her right away. Why? D-don’t tell me you don’t like me? Did I make some kind of mistake? Hiiing, I worked so hard…”
Not like her? The problem was that I liked her far too much.
“Ah, no. It’s not that I don’t like you. I just need to talk something over with her…”
“R-right? That’s it, right? What a relief. Then I’ll go tell Lady Lucia that Lady Diana will visit in one hour!”
“Yeah, thanks.”
One hour later.
I met Lucia inside her private study.
“…Your memories have returned?”
Lucia, who had been reviewing documents, set down her quill and widened her eyes. A spark of light flickered in her pupils.
“Yes. But… not everything, like my old name or family.”
I put on a suitably confused expression and launched into the script I had prepared in advance.
“Only the sensation and knowledge of how to use the power I possess came back, in fragments. I think it was carved so deeply into my body that it rose up on instinct.”
Even though the claim was flimsy, Lucia rested her chin on her hand and fell silent for a moment.
I tensed inside, half-expecting her to pull out a lie detector, but thankfully she simply nodded in acceptance.
“…I see. Well, they do say that even swordsmen, after extreme training, can forget with their heads yet still have their bodies remember the path of the blade. In any case, this is good news, Diana.”
Thanks to Lucia helpfully patching the logic for me, the conversation flowed smoothly from there.
“So, Lady Lucia. Now that the energy in my body is returning… I can instinctively feel that the mana flow of this mansion is terribly cloudy and tangled. I’ve been getting constant headaches.”
“The mansion’s mana flow?”
“Yes. For the sake of my own recovery, I’d like to adjust the structure of the garden a little or place a few ornaments to purify the energy… Would you permit it?”
Lucia’s eyes wavered.
In her frame of reference, “reversing and purifying the flow of mana” meant the highest-grade magic circles that great mages designed for hundreds of gold coins.
And this freeloader was offering to lay one down for free for the family.
“Something like that… is possible…?”
“Yes. A full-scale overhaul would require major construction, but I don’t think we need to go that far. I can at least make it livable for people.”
After a brief hesitation, Lucia finally nodded.
“…If you are willing, then try it. Do you need support?”
“No. I’ll just take Miya with me and handle it quietly.”
Justification secured.
The moment I stepped out of the study I grinned and rolled up my sleeves.
“Alright, Miya. Time to get to work.”
“Nyang? What kind of work, Lady Diana?”
“You’ll see. Just do exactly what I tell you.”
“Nyang?”
Permission granted—now it was time to move.
First stop: the house-sized decorative obsidian boulder that had been blocking the Ghost Gate direction near the main entrance.
After confirming no one else was around, I spoke to Miya.
“Miya, are you strong?”
Beastkin were naturally far stronger than humans. I asked knowing full well.
“Nyang, to a certain extent…”
“Then shove this over here.”
“O-over here?”
Rrrrk—
“Stop! Now rotate it a little to the right.”
“Like this?”
“Okay! Perfect!”
The massive boulder twisted ever so slightly leftward, cutting across the diagonal axis of the gate.
And then…
Something unexpected happened.
Ding—!
You have sealed the yin energy inflow of the Ghost Gate!
The mansion’s wicked aura has thinned. Merit +500
What? It gives Merit for this too?
The unexpected windfall sent the corners of my mouth climbing all the way to my ears.
Then that means all of this is Merit!?
This place was basically a Merit farm.
“Heh… hehehehe… hehehehehe.”
“Nya, nyaang!? L-Lady Diana, what’s wrong!?”
“Ahem. Nothing. Come on, let’s go! We’ve got a lot to do!”
Next was the artificial lake in the central garden that had been rotting the family’s finances. Bigger than a pond, smaller than a proper lake—that kind of place.
I walked toward the water and handed Miya a wooden stick.
“Drive this into the middle of the lake.”
“Nya, nyaang? This?”
“Yeah.”
“I-I hate water!!”
Ah, right. Cats hate water.
Well, no helping it.
“Really? Then I’ll do it myself.”
I swam out to the center of the lake, dove under, and firmly planted a low-grade wall-wood stake I had bought from the Pantheon—already inscribed with the proper seals—into the lakebed.
Gurgle-gurgle-gurgle—!
For a moment black bubbles boiled up from the stagnant depths, then the water turned clear and pure almost at once.
You have purified the malevolent energy stagnating in the water vein!
A positive influence is exerted upon the family’s wealth node. Merit +1,500
“Waaah……”
Miya, standing on the shore, lowered her head and blinked her round eyes at the lake.
“W-what kind of miracle is this!?”
I wrung out my completely soaked clothes and answered as if it were nothing.
“Ah, I just opened a path for the water that had been sitting there.”
“J-just that and the lake turns into this!?”
“Waterways are that important. If water can’t flow, it rots.”
“E-even so!”
I played dumb and kept walking.
When I opened the Pantheon window, my Merit total had already climbed past seven thousand.
No need to risk my life fighting boss monsters at all.
Great. Now if I just clear the Upper Gate Killing energy crossing the water vein at the end of the western corridor, I can rake in a few more thousand points today……
I was bouncing along with light, excited steps, rounding the corner of the western corridor, when it happened.
Creeeeaaak——
At the far end of the corridor, the private training hall of the eldest son—the place Miya had absolutely forbidden me to approach.
That pitch-black iron door gave a nasty scraping whisper as it slowly opened from the inside.
“…Huh?”
I stopped without meaning to.
Miya, following behind me, bristled every hair on her tail, clutched the hem of my clothes, and held her breath.
A man stepped out of the dark hallway beyond the open iron door.
Messy golden hair, deathly pale cheeks with no color at all, and dark circles so deep they reached his jawline.
The eldest son of House Arthea, currently monopolizing the “most ruined” title on the entire Etheria continent:
Leonhardt Arthea.
But it wasn’t his face that seized my gaze.
It was the greatsword hanging at his hip, endlessly vomiting black mist from its scabbard.
The demonic sword, Eclipse.
And the instant that demonic sword locked eyes with me as I rounded the corner—
Rattle-rattle-rattle-rattle——
The blade began vibrating madly, hammering against its scabbard without mercy.
“…Kh?!”
Leonhardt let out a pained groan and forced his grip around the hilt.
But the sword’s fit did not stop.
When I opened my spiritual eyes at the sight, the malicious ego dwelling inside the demonic sword slammed its scream straight into my brain.
……Kill them!! Enemies!! Kill!! Tear those women in front of you to shreds right now, Leonhardt!!!
W-wait a second? What is this situation right now??
And one setting about Leonhardt floated up from my memories.
The Arthea household servant massacre.
The story where Leonhardt slaughtered the servants, workers, and even knights of the ducal estate, only to end up locked in the underground dungeon.
Crazy… and it just had to be now…?
“Haaah…… khhhnngh……!!”
Leonhardt’s pupils, swallowed by the demonic sword’s mental interference, slowly dyed themselves blood-red.
He exhaled roughly, drew the blade of Eclipse about half an inch from its scabbard, and staggered toward me.
“Kill… kill… kill…. Kiiill!!!”
Killing intent froze the corridor solid.
“Y-Young Master……! This person is a guest of the family……!”
Miya tried to intervene, face ashen, but he didn’t hear a word.
“Shut up!!!!!”
A life-or-death crisis.
But I stayed calm.
Why?
Because inside the wide sleeve of my robe, already gripped between the index and middle fingers of my right hand, a mid-grade Pasabu compressed with my strongest spiritual power was waiting with its edge sharpened and ready.
In the end, that meant he was currently under the control of an evil spirit.
I had already blasted away the evil spirits clinging to Asmodeus’s black mages.
And yet this thing dared.
……Where does this rootless Western kitchen knife get off glaring at the Great Shaman of Korea?