Chapter 64
Chapter 64
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: Ghost Mansion #4
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Under the moonlight, the red eyes that had been digging up a grave turned to look at me.
“What! When did you get here! What an unexpectedly welcome face!”
She shouted brightly at me, and the sudden noise startled me so much that I accidentally swallowed the candy I’d been sucking on.
Gulp.
The thick thing blocking my throat as it went down was quite painful, so I clutched at my neck and flailed about.
“Eek.”
A Draco young lady approached me like that and hugged me from behind.
“Something’s stuck in your throat?”
She wrapped both arms around my stomach and squeezed hard, lifting me up. After repeating that a few times, the thick candy popped out of my throat and rolled across the ground.
“Whew, thanks to you, I survived.”
“Yeah! More importantly, what brings you here? This is the Draco family’s villa! Did you come to see me by any chance?”
Silver hair and ruby-red eyes. She looked exactly like Mirna Draco, but her personality seemed brighter and more cheerful than before.
She had to be the younger sister, Narmi Draco.
I asked Narmi Draco,
“And what were you doing digging in the graveyard at this hour of the night, miss?”
“I was checking if everyone was sleeping soundly! On nights with a full moon like this, corpses sometimes wake up if they’re not resting well!”
“…I see. You mean the corpses get up and move on their own?”
“Yeah! So I have to dig them up now and then to check if they’re sleeping properly. The ones that move around usually have blood on their mouths. And dirt on their hands and feet.”
“That’s a real gem of advice.”
“A gem?”
Narmi tilted her head as if she didn’t understand. Feeling a sense of déjà vu like I’d heard something similar recently, I gave her a suitable answer.
“It means a tip as sweet as honey. Anyway, nice to meet you.”
“That’s a fun way to put it! More than that, Theo, I never imagined you’d be at our mansion! Did you come to see me? Or my sister?”
“For now… let’s say both.”
I glossed over it vaguely and told Narmi about what had happened today.
“You imitated my sister’s voice? And knocked on the door?”
“That’s right. It startled me. What the hell is going on here?”
“That’s a spiritual monster called Hate. It usually doesn’t come inside the mansion. But in the past month, the monsters’ interference has gotten way too strong.”
“I see. So what would’ve happened if I’d opened the door or answered?”
“Hmm, normally it would’ve clung to you and made things tough? But I’m not sure about Hates strong enough to enter the mansion’s barrier.”
In the end, even Narmi didn’t know what would happen if you opened the door.
Narmi picked up her shovel and kept digging into the grave, puff, puff, as she continued.
“Lately, the number of restless dead rising has suddenly increased. The monsters wandering nearby are keeping me pretty busy every night.”
“You patrol the graveyard like this every night?”
“Lately, yeah!”
Narmi told me how she wandered the cemetery every night, fending off mindless monsters and undead.
It was surprising to hear.
“Doesn’t wandering this graveyard alone every day scare you?”
“I’m a member of the Draco family. How could I be scared of a graveyard? Of course, my sister is, but she’s sleeping right now. Because she’s scared.”
Narmi laughed, puheheh.
“So Miss Mirna is scared of graveyards. I never knew.”
“Hehe, it’s a secret, but my sister’s weak to ghosts and scary stuff!”
I see.
That was some intriguing information. The young lady of the Draco family—who wielded necromancy and was the current head of the house—feared ghosts and scary things.
On the contrary, Narmi, who seemed pure and cheerful, was unexpectedly spirited and brave.
Clack, clack.
At that moment, something caught on the tip of Narmi’s shovel.
It was some kind of coffin. Narmi used the sharp end of the shovel like a lever to pry open the lid.
Creak.
—Groooaaarrr—
From the slightly opened coffin lid came a growling sound from something zombie-like with blood all over its mouth.
I grimaced—“Ugh”—at the horrific sight straight out of a horror movie, but Narmi said boldly, without a hint of fear,
“See! I knew it was awake!”
She then swung the shovel down hard on the zombie’s head.
“Now go back to sleep!”
Thud.
—Gek!
The zombie let out a short death rattle like a dead person and lost consciousness. Well, it was a corpse to begin with, so that was fitting.
* * *
Narmi covered the grave with dirt again.
I helped her out.
“Phew. See? This is what I mean about the restless dead rising. And it’s not even close to All Souls’ Day.”
I asked Narmi, who wiped the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve.
“How long has this been going on? Any idea why?”
What came to mind was the instructor’s story about undead monsters acting strangely near the city. They’d told us to be careful going outside the city.
Perhaps that, the anomalies in this graveyard, and the ‘Hate’ phenomenon I’d encountered earlier were all connected.
At that moment, Narmi made a humming sound.
“No idea!”
I see.
“But I did see a suspicious person.”
“A suspicious person?”
“Yesterday, maybe? Some guy was digging up our family graveyard! I chased him off! Pierced his arm with my bone spear, so he must’ve been badly hurt.”
Narmi told me how she’d taken down an illegal grave robber. She seemed to be a pretty skilled necromancer.
A sudden question popped into my head.
“Who the hell would dig up the Draco family graveyard?”
“Probably an illegal body snatcher! Corpses from the Draco family have a high success rate for necromancy!”
The Draco family specialized in necromancy and black magic.
That’s why their flesh was optimized for necromancy and black magic—even after death, as corpses.
“Any necromancer would want to raise a Draco family member as an undead. They’re premium corpses! They don’t take much mana for necromancy. And they obey well!”
Premium corpses.
The metaphor was a bit off, but I could understand why Draco family bodies were the dream of necromancers.
“So lately, I’ve been guarding the graveyard like this every night. Can’t even sleep in the dorms.”
Narmi spoke like a farmer guarding a watermelon patch from frost thieves.
“Until the sun rises.”
Her words turned to breath and vanished.
Breath visible in spring’s dawn.
But more than the chill, imagining Narmi standing here alone every night like a scarecrow, watching over the graves, made me feel an icy sadness somewhere deep.
What was it like?
It felt like hearing the story of the little prince who watched the sunrise every day.
“Aren’t you scared, staying in the graveyard every night until sunrise?”
“Not scared. Everything buried here… they’re all my family. The one I just whacked with the shovel was my uncle.”
“……”
“He used to stroke my head a lot when he was alive. That one’s older sister Bell. That one’s Aunt Clara…”
Because they were family graves, it wasn’t scary.
But even Narmi’s cheerful face was tinged with a slight shadow.
Which made sense—the entire Draco family was laid to rest underground.
All that remained in this absurdly huge mansion were the Draco sisters.
Narmi said,
“What’s scarier than fear is boredom. Time drags on so much. But today, you came to play, Theo, so I’m not bored!”
“Being with you makes it less scary for me too, Miss Narmi.”
“Really? Then just hanging out would still be boring. Wanna play chess? Wait a sec—”
As I watched Narmi’s back while she went off somewhere to fetch the chessboard, I had to revise my assumptions.
The one who’d become a mad necromancer probably wasn’t the sister, Mirna.
It was probably…
No.
The story had changed drastically, so that wouldn’t happen.
Scrape, scrape.
Rattle, rattle.
Right then, I heard something moving from far off in the graveyard.
It sounded like digging into the earth, or like nails scraping against sandy, dirt ground.
Narmi?
No, Narmi had gone inside the mansion.
That left one possibility.
Grave robber.
The thought sent a chilling shiver running through my body.
If I caught the grave robber here, wouldn’t Narmi no longer need to guard the graveyard every night?
Her mental health would improve, and she wouldn’t turn into a mad necromancer.
That might even prevent the Draco family’s downfall, preserving peace between the Angmar Kingdom and the Church.
「Calm Situation Assessment!
You gain experience from the talent 《Calm Thinking》.
All job experience +5」
I gripped Marmar’s tail wand in one hand and slowly shone the lantern toward the darkness.
“Who’s there?”
A black shadow flinched visibly. It hurriedly hid behind a gravestone.
Not the behavior of a wild beast or mindless undead.
Crunch.
I gripped the wand tighter. Ready to cast an attack spell at any moment, I shouted,
“Miss Narmi! There’s a grave robber here! Hurry and come see!”
Scrape, scrape!
Startled, the black shadow seemed to flee. Not wanting to let it escape, I aimed the wand’s tail at its retreating back and yelled,
“Paimon—!”
Fwoosh—!
A fist-sized air bullet launched from the heart-shaped tip.
Less powerful than casting with bare hands, but more stable with less recoil.
It flew straight to where I aimed and slammed into the grave robber’s back.
Bang—!
—Gyaack—!
The air burst rocked the graveyard with a piercing scream. Hearing it, perhaps?
“Theo! What happened? Who screamed!”
Narmi appeared from somewhere, clutching a chessboard.
“No time to explain! A grave robber showed up!”
“Really!? Where!”
“I knocked it down over there!”
“Let’s go!”
Narmi and I headed to where the shadow had fallen. There lay a figure draped in a black robe.
Narmi pulled back the robe, revealing a hideously rotten corpse that made me grimace.
“Did I kill it?”
“No, it’s been dead a long time. It was dead from the start. It’s a zombie. Looks like the robber from yesterday sent a zombie this time to steal our mansion’s corpses.”
Swish.
Without a hint of fear, Narmi reached toward the corpse.
“There must be a clue about the ritual somewhere here.”
She rummaged through the body this way and that, finally prying open its rotten mouth and yanking out a bluish tongue.
“Found it!”
There was what you’d call a brand stamped on it.
A perfectly round circle with letters written around the edge. It was a shape I’d seen somewhere before.
An Angmar magic circle?
A cross shape below it, like a soccer goalpost.
Next to it, letters… what did they say?
As I leaned in closer to look, the zombie’s body suddenly burst into flames—whoosh—and turned to ash completely. We couldn’t find any more evidence there.
My mage level rising to 5 was a bonus.
“Grrr, no evidence left. That grave robber! If I catch them…”
Narmi growled like she was really pissed, but I already had a rough idea from that brief glimpse.
I’d memorized the symbol, so I could just ask someone knowledgeable about magic circles.
The academy I attended, Arc, had plenty of experts on ritual circles.
“Phew, anyway, thanks for saving me, Theo! For protecting my family!”
Then Narmi suddenly hugged me tight.
“You’re more skilled than you look?”
Her soft, ample breasts pressed against me, making me incredibly embarrassed and flushed in all sorts of ways.
Her breasts are bigger than I thought. The type that looks smaller with clothes on?
“Ah—! S-sorry!”
As I felt that warm embrace, Narmi pushed my head away and blushed.
“For hugging you out of nowhere. Did it creep you out?”
“Creep me out?”
“People find Draco family members off-putting. They say we’re all cursed. Hehe… and I just touched the graveyard and corpses…”
Her awkward smile looked so kind and innocent.
“Actually, I wiped some on your clothes.”
Seeing a girl like this die miserably to villain hunters would really make me sad. As I opened my mouth to say something, Narmi beat me to it.
“Anyway, let’s play chess until my sister wakes up!”
“Sure.”
The graveyard night was long.
Beasts and birds of unknown origin cried out, and occasionally scraping sounds came from the coffins buried in the ground.
But playing chess with Narmi was more fun than I expected.
“I’ll sacrifice three pawns to summon the Obelisk pawn god! This wipes out all your minions, Theo!”
Aside from the weird rules.