The Living Ghost
“There seems to be some misunderstanding. We are the Drike Academy delegation from Dmitry.”
“We’re on our way to participate in the Winkan Festival being held in Elan. Perhaps you’re confusing us with another group?”
“No, it’s definitely you we’ve been waiting for!”
“That’s right. We’ve been hearing about your arrival every single day. That demon wearing an angel’s mask…… ahem.”
“She was here just a moment ago. Where did she disappear to this time?”
“She’s probably off causing trouble again.”
The gatekeepers whispered rapidly among themselves. Every word reached Hansen and Filo, yet neither could make sense of what they were hearing.
“Um……”
“Anyway, she never listens. We told her to stay put so many times. If she weren’t a noble, we’d have kicked her out long ago.”
“No, now that her guardians are here, we can just hand over the paperwork and be done with it. Freedom!”
“Exactly. Once her protectors arrive, she’s no longer our responsibility! You’re a genius.”
The gatekeeper smiled so brightly that it made everyone around him uncomfortable.
“Please come this way. I’ve already prepared the documents.”
“R-right……”
Hansen had never encountered such a friendly person from Valen in his life.
Feeling strangely uneasy about the overly warm reception, Hansen reluctantly followed the gatekeeper into the guard post.
Meanwhile, Filo remained outside to watch the horses.
It was his first time in Valen. On a whim, he looked up at the famous Signati walls of Valen. The walls were enveloped in a translucent force that reflected sunlight in rainbow hues.
To Filo, who hailed from magic-scarce Dmitry, it was a rare sight. He craned his neck to stare upward.
“So that’s…… Valen’s proud magical iron wall……”
“Huh? Filo! It’s Filo!”
While he was purely marveling at the unfamiliar sight, a familiar voice pierced his ears.
At the sound of the youthful voice calling his name, Filo instinctively turned toward the source rather than trying to identify the speaker.
At the same time, a cascade of golden hair filled his vision.
The brilliant color, reminiscent of the sun, made his head spin.
Then came the vividly sparkling blue eyes, brimming with confidence, and the angelic smile……
“What took you so long! Do you know how lonely I’ve been?”
“Gah!”
“The guards wouldn’t let me do anything because I didn’t have a guarantor!”
The small figure dashed forward and threw herself into Filo’s arms.
Though he was a trained knight, he failed to dodge the feeble ambush.
If the one charging at him had been an enemy, he would surely have been dead already.
He could only stiffen his entire body and gape in shock.
For a moment, he wondered if he was seeing things. Perhaps this was one of the wall’s magical effects.
Illusion magic, or something like that!
But soon he could no longer deny it. The owner of that vivid voice was someone he knew all too well.
“Oh? You look like you’ve lost some weight, Filo.”
“Uh…… um……”
The person calmly looking up at the speechless Filo was none other than Jeanie Crowell, the girl everyone had believed to be dead.
“Kyaaaaah!”
Unable to help himself, he felt as though he had seen a ghost.
After all, he had witnessed with his own eyes how she had been driven to a cliff from which there could be no escape. He had grieved deeply because of it.
***
Hansen’s immigration paperwork proceeded without a hitch.
The gatekeeper was clearly desperate to get them inside the city as quickly as possible.
How many people were entering, what their purpose was, whether they had all their identification papers, whether the seals of properly verified families were present, and so on.
Despite the volume of documents submitted, the gatekeeper stamped approval seals at lightning speed without even glancing at them properly. The proof of entry documents were nearly complete in no time.
“This is the last one.”
Just as Hansen was feeling dazed by how quickly the immigration check was going, a new document was thrust in front of him.
“What is this?”
“It’s the handover confirmation for Lady Jeanie’s identity guarantee.”
“……Pardon?”
“Since she had no identification badge when she entered the city, Captain Shabel stood as her guarantor. With his departure, it fell to me, the one who handled her entry at the time. But now that her companions have arrived……”
“Wait! What are you talking about? How do you even know that name?”
“I told you, I was the immigration officer.”
“That’s impossible. She was swept away by rapids and died about two weeks ago……”
While Hansen was blurting out his confusion, a familiar scream reached his ears. It was Filo’s scream.
“Kyaaaaah!”
Recognizing the voice’s owner, Hansen rushed out of the guard post.
And then he saw it too.
The familiar golden-haired girl, with her aristocratic features, stood there with a deeply furrowed brow, both hands clamped over her ears!
“Hrk!”
He could only gulp for air.
The young girl he had mourned in his heart, praying she hadn’t suffered too much, was alive and well, turning her head toward the source of the noise.
Hansen felt cold sweat rapidly forming as those blue eyes looked straight at him.
“What’s with you all? Why are you reacting like that?”
The girl, whose blue eyes had been sparkling with joy, finally spoke in a sulky tone.
Everyone was looking at her as if she were a ghost.
“I guess I’m not very welcome?”
“Y-you were alive this whole time!”
“Huh? You thought I was dead?”
“Of course! You fell off that cliff! Everyone naturally assumed you were dead……”
“Well, I’m alive. That’s why I’m standing right here.”
With her hands clasped behind her back and a smug “ahem,” the girl remained as irritating as ever, regardless of how shocked everyone was.
“I did almost die, though. The world really is a dangerous place, isn’t it?”
“How did you survive those rapids……”
“And how did you reach Valen first……”
“No! Why has that snake changed color again!”
Hansen and Filo bombarded her with questions in a frenzy, while Jeanie Crowell glanced at the now-white Rai and shrugged.
“I just had a little adventure.”
Her tone suggested it was nothing special.
“Gah!”
Another person was making a fuss. It was the knight captain, who had just arrived at the guard post.
His eyes were rounder than freshly caught fish.
Jeanie Crowell was no longer surprised by people reacting this way to her. It was even starting to amuse her a little.
“That expression is hilarious, isn’t it?”
“A-alive……!”
“Pfft, have you never seen a living person before?”
Judging by that irritating expression, there was no doubt it was her.
Yes. Jeanie Crowell was a very irritating child who tended to look down on adults.
And she discriminated extremely between people she liked and those she didn’t.
The knight captain clutched the back of his neck.
***
“You guys are too much!”
I could only rest after ironically explaining the reason I was “alive” in a way that made sense to them.
The teachers and the knight captain had grilled me relentlessly, and I was only freed from the persistent interrogation after nearly two hours of answering every question imaginable.
Why had I entered the forest alone at night, how had I survived the rapids, why had I followed strangers so readily, did I even understand how dangerous the mercenary group was, and so on.
“Then what was I supposed to do, alone in the forest as a kid!”
[Please calm down, Master.]
Why did they have so many questions! And why did they have to nag so much!
“This is annoying. It makes me sound like some kind of problem child!”
Clutching my growling stomach, I grumbled to Rai as I headed to the dining hall, since he was the easiest target.
[If my understanding of the term “problem child” is correct, then it’s not entirely inaccurate.]
“Do you want to die?”
[Spirits don’t die.]
“Then do you want to be extinguished?”
[……That’s unfair, Master! I was only stating the facts!]
Rai was sometimes too honest for his own good. He really needed to develop some tact.
“What kind of trouble am I even supposed to have caused? I’m clearly a model citizen…… well, not exactly.”
[At least you have a shred of conscience.]
“Tch.”
[From other humans’ perspectives, getting into a fight with the Bee Swarm, going missing in the forest, and so on, it probably looks like you’re constantly dragging trouble along with you.]
“No! Think about it. Almost dying to the Bee Swarm was their fault, and getting separated from the group was because of the orcs!
I didn’t do anything wrong. It’s this harsh world that’s the problem!”
I was confident. It was an undeniable fact!
[If you say so……]
“Why do you keep dragging this out?”
[You’re misunderstanding.]
“You were totally giving me the side-eye just now.”
[No, my eyes were perfectly round, like wild strawberries.]
The corridor we walked through while bickering with Rai was unnecessarily luxurious.
If the inn we had stayed at with Shabel’s group was mid-tier, this one was top-tier. And that meant the food would be excellent.
After confirming that Rai, now a white snake, was securely wrapped around my waist, I entered the dining hall. Meat! Give me meat!
I was starving after being interrogated.
I spotted a few children still in the dining hall, but I didn’t pay them much attention.
The boy who had muttered that I was a murderer was there too, but he only seemed pathetic now. Perhaps because they had just thought I was dead, the children’s gazes toward me were different from usual.
“That’s Jeanie Crowell?”
However, one boy was pointing straight at me with gritted teeth.
It was a face I had never seen before.