The Weeping Voice in the Ruined Village
That night, Simon, Loraine, Toto, and Eshu were skiing down through the snowfields on wooden skis.
“Kyahahaha! This is so much fun! THIS is what training camp is all about! A little rebellion is the whole point!”
Eshu shouted at the top of her lungs, drunk on the sense of freedom. In the sky above, her curse dolls flitted back and forth, casting a bright glow over their surroundings.
Thanks to her ability, telling what was around them was no trouble at all — but with the snow whipping wildly through the air and the slope this steep, the run was every bit as treacherous as it looked.
“Uwaaah! Uwaaaaah!”
Toto's legs wobbled dangerously beneath him.
“S-skiing at a time like this?! I'm gonna die!”
“Oh, quit being dramatic! Just keep up back there.”
Eshu shouted encouragement. Simon shot her a worried look.
“That village is definitely there, right?”
“Of course! I heard it straight from our training instructor! That's where they went to buy the ingredients for tonight's dinner! Just trust me!”
Answering one question with five was simply Eshu's way.
Meanwhile, even amid all the chaos, Loraine was putting on a display of flawless skiing. While keeping an eye on the beginner Toto, she carved a smooth turn around a tree that had come hurtling into view.
Her black hair streaming behind her as she glided freely down the pristine white snowfield, she made quite the striking picture.
“Wowww, you're amazing, Loraine!”
Eshu's tail swished back and forth.
“Are you really skiing for the first time?”
“Anything done with the body, I pick up fast.”
Loraine replied flatly. Eshu nodded along, then cast a sly, sidelong glance at Simon.
“That mountain boy over there who keeps sneaking peeks at you might need to work a little harder, hmm?”
Simon smiled awkwardly.
He had gone skiing on snowy days back in Leshill, but since it had never been a region that got much snow to begin with, he wasn't exactly practiced.
“It's just that Loraine's too good at this.”
“I'll accept that excuse.”
“Uwaak!”
The accident came at last. Toto's skis flew off his feet as he went face-first into the snow. Seeing it, the group members scrambled to a halt.
“Toto! Are you okay?”
Simon cried out anxiously.
“Y-yeah, I'm fine!”
Boing! Toto popped his head up out of the snowbank, his face flushed red and his expression dazed.
“Wahaha! Toto, your face is hilarious!”
Eshu cackled loudly, and the curse dolls that had been lighting up the darkness around them laughed right along with her, as if mimicking their mistress.
Toto whimpered as he picked himself up off the ground. Loraine channeled jet-black into the tails of her skis to climb back up the slope, then took Toto's hand and pulled him to his feet.
“Th-thank you! I mean — thanks!”
Toto was still terrified of Loraine.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“N-no, I'm okay!”
Simon came over and pointed at Toto's knee.
“Hold on — looks like you hurt your knee.”
He must have slammed hard into a rock or a tree on the way down.
Toto insisted he was fine, but there was a faint limp in his step, as though walking was uncomfortable. He was in no condition to ski.
“I'll carry him down.”
At Simon's words, Loraine shook her head.
“No, Simon, you're barely keeping your own balance. It's safer if I take him.”
“And how exactly are you going to do that?”
And so, a short while later —
Shhhhaaaaaaa—!
Three sets of skis went sliding down across the snowfield.
And Toto was —
“.......”
— tucked snugly in Loraine's arms. He was curled up into a ball like a baby koala, his face burning crimson with embarrassment and shame.
“I-I can just walk on my own feet!”
“No need to be stubborn.”
Loraine smiled. Unable to muster a single word of protest against the daughter of Nephthys herself, Toto simply squeezed his eyes shut.
“Fufufu! Ufufufufu!”
Eshu, it seemed, still had plenty of laughter left in her. When she was in a good mood, she liked to play reporter.
“What luxury! What LUXURY! Riding in the arms of the daughter of Nephthys, the future Headmistress of Kizen herself! How does it feel to travel first class, young Death Knight?!”
“Stop iiiit!”
Everyone burst into laughter. Just then, Eshu's eyes went wide with an “Oh!”
“Right when I said it! There it iiiis!”
Sure enough, there was the village.
“.......”
“.......”
Group 10, arriving at the village, found themselves struck speechless in the silence.
It was a village, all right — but an abandoned ruin where no one lived.
“Eshu.”
Simon narrowed his eyes and turned to look at her. The moment their gazes met, she flinched and shrank back.
“Wh-what! Don't glare at me all of a sudden! You scared me!”
“I'd like a proper explanation for this one.”
Loraine turned to Eshu with a smile as well.
“If all that happened was Toto getting hurt and us going home empty-handed, I might get a little upset.”
She was smiling, but Eshu found this far scarier.
Dripping with sweat, she shouted at the top of her lungs.
“I'm sorry!”
First things first, she bowed sharply at the waist.
“B-but please hear me out! The instructor really did say there was a village! The students who go out foraging for food wouldn't joke about something like this!”
Simon stroked his chin.
“So we came to the wrong place?”
“Probably. Chairman! She said it was an hour away, right? It's only been about thirty minutes. It's too early for us to have arrived yet!”
Simon let out a sigh, then walked over to Toto, who sat hunched on the ground.
He looked in pretty bad shape.
“Well, since we're here anyway, let's treat the wound before we move on.”
Simon pulled his bag out of subspace and took from it some bandages and a few potions.
“Could you stretch your leg out, Toto?”
“Y-yeah.”
When Simon rolled up Toto's pant leg, the area below the knee was swollen tight.
Which potion should I use?
As Simon was picking through the potions he'd brewed in his Toxicology class for one with healing properties, a pleasantly fragrant scent drifted over from beside him.
Simon turned his head — and flinched.
“L-Loraine?”
She had suddenly gotten much too close, startling him. She was crouched beside him, eyes gleaming as she watched him work.
“What is it?”
“Nothing. Carry on.”
Gazing quietly at Simon as he soaked the gauze with potion, Loraine's expression turned serious.
Back then, for certain.
She was thinking of the healing ability Simon had shown during the Tarados deployment evaluation.
The patient had been Simon's client at the time. The client had been struck by the Cabal's curse, his organs failing — and Loraine had believed there was no way to save him.
And yet.
— I did what I could.
In a short span of time, Simon had administered some kind of treatment, and the man's breathing had stabilized, his complexion improved beyond all comparison.
He had saved a man on the verge of death. It was clearly something no potion taught in Toxicology could have accomplished.
How did he treat him?
With that question in mind, Loraine had gone into the tent where Simon was tending to the client — and she had felt it. The air prickled, sharp and stinging.
Faint as it was, she had also sensed her own jet-black recoiling in backlash.
Could Simon be... no, that's impossible.
Jet-black and divinity were opposing forces. Not only could they not be used at the same time — attempting to wield both at once would tear a person's body apart.
And above all, Simon was no one less than a Legion Commander. Divinity was the last thing that suited him.
Haah—
While Loraine was lost in thought, Simon finished treating Toto's wound.
Nothing out of the ordinary. He simply applied a potion to heal the injury, layered on another with painkilling effects, and wrapped it all in bandages.
“There, all done.”
“Thanks, Simon.”
Toto touched his own leg.
“Incredible. It really does feel a lot better!”
“It's only a temporary fix, so have the medical teacher take a look when we get back to base camp.”
Loraine was still staring fixedly at Simon. The weight of her gaze on the back of his head made Simon laugh sheepishly.
“What?”
“Nothing. It's nothing.”
Loraine quickly turned her head away.
“Alright, let's decide what we're doing now.”
Simon said, looking around at the group members.
“Do we head back like this? Or go down a little farther?”
“Well, let's rest for a bit first and then —”
“KYAAAAAAAK!”
Suddenly, Eshu screamed and threw herself into Loraine's arms.
“What's wrong, Eshu?”
“D-did-did-did — didn't you all hear that?!”
Her face brimming with tears, she looked thoroughly terror-stricken as she shouted.
“There's a strange sound coming from that village!”
“Quit messing around.”
Simon shook his head. Loraine chimed in too.
“You must have misheard. There's nothing in those ruins.”
“I really did! I really, REALLY heard it!”
Eshu shrieked.
“A woman crying!”
“......!”
All four of them fell silent at once, straining their ears toward the sounds around them.
The creak of trees swaying in the wind. The faint, distant hoot of an owl. Nothing more.
And then —
—Hnngh, hnnngh.
There really was a woman weeping.
Simon flinched, and Toto let out a strangled yelp and clung to his arm.
—Save me. Save me, please.
A terror that stopped the breath washed over them.
They all stood frozen, pupils trembling, as if their voices had been stolen away.
“Hm.”
The only one among them still able to move was Loraine. Rising to her feet, she brushed back her hair and spoke.
“I'll go take a look.”
“G-go where?! We should be running away, right now!”
Eshu wailed at the top of her lungs.
“This place is so creepy! It feels awful! There's definitely a ghost — a GHOST here!”
Loraine shook her head.
“Ghosts don't exist. Someone's begging us to save them. It could be a distress call — we can't just pretend we didn't hear it.”
“Who sends a distress call from an abandoned house?!”
“Maybe someone stranded took shelter here for the night.”
—Save me. Save me, please.
Eeeek!
Now Eshu and Toto were clutching each other, shivering from head to toe.
Watching them quietly for a moment, Loraine turned away.
“I'll go. You all wait here.”
“Hold on.”
One person rose to his feet with a rustle of snow.
“...I can't let you go alone. I'm coming with you.”
It was Simon.
Simon and Loraine, each holding a lantern, made their way into the ruins.
Creeeak — creeeeeak —
A shattered door swung on its hinges with a groan. Simon, his nerves wound taut, swallowed again and again as he walked.
“Something's strange.”
Loraine murmured, sweeping her lantern around them.
“Wh-what is?”
“Dealing with the undead is our profession, isn't it? A ghost is practically an undead too. It's a little odd for a necromancer to be scared of ghosts in the first place...”
With that, she stopped mid-step and turned around.
The lantern in Simon's hand was shaking like a threshing machine. Loraine narrowed her eyes.
“Wait — don't tell me you're scared of ghosts too?”
Flinch.
Simon's body went rigid as a wooden puppet.
“...Ahaha, as if.”
“Your legs are shaking.”
“That's from skiing earlier — my legs hurt.”
“Hmmm—”
Loraine turned briskly and took the lead.
“So even a Legion Commander commanding tens of thousands of undead can be scared of ghosts. Good to know.”
“I said I'm NOT!”
Simon shouted, his face going red.
Only then did a mischievous smile curve Loraine's lips.
“Just kidding. Something to loosen you up.”
“Ugh.”
—Hnngh, hnnngh.
Just then, a sorrowful woman's weeping drifted in on the wind, and Simon stiffened all over again.
—Save me. Save me, please.
Loraine's ears perked up.
“There it is. Let's go.”
“Wait! Let me mentally prepare myself—!”
“Hurry up. It could be someone injured.”
Loraine tugged at Simon's sleeve, urging him on. Simon squeezed his eyes shut and followed behind her.
Tap.
Tap.
They reached the source of the crying.
A house, all but collapsed into ruin. The windows were broken, and cobwebs draped everything within.
Ugh.
Simon felt a bleak, desolate sensation crawl along the back of his neck. He would rather die than go inside.
Frankly, fighting the Blood Heaven Sect or the Cabal felt a hundred times preferable to this.
“Is anyone there?”
Loraine called out calmly through the broken window.
In answer came only a sinister sobbing — hic, hic, hic.
“This is the place. Let's go in.”
She grabbed the door and rattled it violently. Something seemed to be snagged, keeping it from opening, but she gathered jet-black into her arm and yanked it free in one pull.
CRASH—!
Hurling the shattered door aside, she swept her lantern forward and stepped inside.
“Careful, Loraine!”
Simon scrambled in after her.
—Hnngh, hnnngh.
The inside of the house was a wreck.
Torn curtains. Furniture smashed to pieces. Even dried, dark-red bloodstains were visible here and there. It wasn't just an abandoned ruin — it looked like the heart of a murder scene.
The two of them passed through the living room and entered a back room.
—Save me. Save me, please.
At last, they reached the source of the voice.
'...!!'
Simon stopped in his tracks, a chill creeping up around his throat.
Beneath the moonlight filtering through the curtains, a little girl in worn, ragged clothes was weeping, her face buried in her knees.
—Hnngh, hnnngh.
The fine hairs on Simon's arms stood on end.
Why would a young girl be alone in a place like this? Nothing about it looked even remotely normal.
“Leave this to me.”
Just then, Loraine stepped forward with a confident, unhurried stride.