Abandoned Ruin Exploration (4)
I retracted the fist I'd swung out and casually opened my hand. A faint hissing sound— the remnants of the pulverized death spirit scattered like mist from my palm, some of it slipping naturally into my mouth like air. Fragmentary memories of the soul flashed through my mind.
“……So that’s how it is.”
I muttered without thinking.
“………………Holy crap, holy crap! Holllly craaap! No way!! Seorinaaa!!”
Mirinae, who had been staring blankly at the scene, came rushing over with a scream, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me nonstop.
“What the hell was that just now? Some kind of black mist thing spread out from your hand—whoa, it was so freaking realistic and creepy!”
“Ugh! Your voice is too loud, quiet down a bit……”
“How did that happen? What was that floating face you grabbed, and that scream…… it was real, right? So you exorcised it, Seorin? How? Did you get possessed by a spirit or something? Were you secretly a shaman all along! That’s why you weren’t scared at all! I wanted to bolt before we even entered the kindergarten because of the creepy vibe…… Bringing you was totally a godsend!!”
Mirinae’s rapid-fire questions drilled into my ears. I couldn’t take it anymore and flicked her forehead lightly.
Thwack!
“Ow!”
“Speak quieter! You’ve been so damn loud since earlier.”
“Boo, that hurts. I just wanted to know the truth about that miracle you pulled off! Isn’t that too harsh on your friend!?”
“That’s why I smashed that ghost’s head in so it couldn’t hurt you.”
“Ehehe…… Thanks for that!”
Mirinae’s eyes sparkled as she looked at me.
“I’ve never seen a shaman exorcise like that before! So that’s how shamans do it…… I always thought they did it with rituals or throwing talismans! Don’t you all think the same?”
“Uh, uh? Shamans don’t normally exorcise like that……?”
Mirinae looked at me puzzled, and I answered quietly.
“No idea.”
“Huh? You’re not a shaman, Seorin?”
“Nope. Just……”
For a moment, words failed me. I couldn’t exactly tell my curious friend that I’d been summoned to another world, become a Necromancer King, got stabbed by a hero’s holy sword, and somehow possessed Baek Seorin’s body.
So I bullshitted a vague cover story.
“……I’ve been able to see ghosts since I was little, and even make contact with them.”
“For real!? How did I not know that!?”
“No need to tell anyone. Seeing ghosts isn’t exactly something to brag about.”
“Ah……”
Mirinae nodded as if she got it.
Of course, the viewers still mostly weren’t convinced. About half seemed to think the whole scene was some play scripted by Mirinae.
Mirinae must have picked up on the chat vibe, because she stared straight at the camera and said,
“Everyone, I swear on my name—this is not CG or fake. How could a high school girl like me pull off something that realistic anyway?”
“As for Seorin…… I had no clue either. If I’d known she had powers like that, I wouldn’t have been shaking like a leaf coming in!”
She seemed to get miffed thinking about it and shot me a side-eye.
I shrugged.
“But the stream turned out natural thanks to it, right?”
“Hmph!”
Unable to argue back, Mirinae pouted in dissatisfaction.
“Whatever, fine! Anyway, that wraps up the ruin exploration, right!? Let’s head back now!”
“What? Already?”
“Huh? We’ve checked everywhere, so yeah? And you already cleanly exorcised the kindergarten ghost.”
“Not yet.”
I grabbed Mirinae as she turned to leave and slowly shook my head.
“The thing I just exorcised was just a part of the evil spirit. Like a scout. The real main body……”
I pointed downward with my finger.
“……Is under this ground.”
Mirinae blankly followed my finger and lowered her head, then stumbled back a step as chills hit her.
“……You don’t mean there’s a basement in this kindergarten, do you?”
“Yeah, definitely.”
I’d learned it from the fragment of the evil spirit’s memory I’d absorbed moments ago.
I strode boldly toward the kindergarten hallway.
“W-Wait, come with me!”
Mirinae chased after me from behind.
“H-How do you know? You’ve never been here before!?”
“Hmm…… Just call it one of my special abilities. The moment I touched the evil spirit, I got a piece of its memories.”
“Whoa…… Seorin, you’re way more amazing than I thought.”
Mirinae angled her phone screen toward me and asked,
“So, can you tell us about the evil spirit’s memories you got?”
“Sure, no problem.”
The viewers were buzzing with curiosity too. I pieced together the fragmentary memories from the absorbed evil spirit, fleshed them out appropriately, and calmly recounted its life story.
“That evil spirit was the director of this kindergarten.”
“Ah, the one who died in that accident?”
“Yeah. She’d always dreamed of building a kindergarten.”
The director loved children. She truly found fulfillment in raising them into fine adults. Few people in the world were as selfless.
“She was an orphan.”
“Oh……”
“The one who saved the young future director from being dragged to an orphanage…… was, surprisingly, a teacher from the kindergarten she attended.”
The memory included the emotions she’d felt that fateful day toward the kindergarten teacher who saved her—pure, overwhelming gratitude.
“The director was adopted as the teacher’s foster daughter and dreamed of becoming a kindergarten teacher who saved others too. No, beyond that…… she wanted to be a director who could rescue kids from tough family situations.”
To that end, she scraped together money desperately until she was 40, and luckily hit the jackpot on some stocks for a windfall. With that cash, she finally founded the kindergarten.
“Up to then, she was thrilled that her dream had come true. She believed her path ahead was paved with roses.”
But soon, the director realized her optimism was wrong. The kindergarten of her childhood and this one…… were worlds apart in many ways.
“The problem was the parents.”
In this modern era where teachers’ authority had plummeted, parents no longer respected educators. Many treated them as emotional punching bags or mere paid babysitters.
Facing this harsh reality, the director’s spirit wore down in agony…… and amid overwork weakening her body, the accident happened. An “accident” in name only—it was essentially the parents who killed her.
“No way…… that’s too much.”
Mirinae shuddered, genuinely saddened by the director’s tale. The other viewers felt the same.
“Her regret at not achieving her dream turned into obsession…… and she became an evil spirit.”
“That’s awful! She didn’t do anything wrong!”
“No fault on her part. But the world’s unfair by nature.”
We reached the end of the hallway, where a dusty old carpet lay. I shoved it aside, revealing a square metal hatch with a handle. Gripping it and pulling—it lifted surprisingly easily.
“We’ll find out once we go in.”
Without hesitation, I descended into the pitch-black basement.
Thud. I landed easily and looked up at Mirinae.
“If you’re coming down, jump. I’ll catch you.”
“U-Ugh…… Y-You gotta catch me for sure, okay?”
Mirinae squeezed her eyes shut and leaped into the basement. I caught her falling body and set her safely down.
And the moment she shone her handheld flashlight around the basement interior—
“Huh?”
Mirinae’s jaw dropped at the sight.