Late at night, the students returned to their respective dormitory. Only teachers on duty stayed behind in the campus.
One particular black-haired female teacher walked down the dark hallway. The not-so-smooth floor creaked as her feet stepped on it.
There were a lot of ugly rumours circulating around the school these days, so even the black-haired teacher, who was originally a veteran battle wizard, didn’t quite like the job. She just forced herself to take the duty when her turn came.
Of course, no one was directly involved in the strange phenomenon. Most of them fainted and couldn’t remember anything as they came to their senses. But there were some students who seemed to have disappeared and never came back.
‘…..’
The hallway was really quiet. The current time was around midnight. Even though it was time for all the students to return to their dormitory, the teacher somehow had the feeling that there were still students on the campus. Then, the teacher suddenly turned her gaze to one of the classrooms.
‘Student?’
Someone was in the classroom. The teacher opened the door to the classroom without hesitation. Inside, she saw a certain girl was staring at her with her arms supporting her chin as if she knew the teacher would open the door and come in.
“Student. What are you doing there? You have to return to your dorm.”
“I can’t go, teacher.”
“You can’t go? What do you mean? Come here now.”
“No, teacher.”
The girl stepped forward. However, unlike normal people, she didn’t use her legs. Using her arms, she ‘put’ her upper body on top of the desk.
“Because….I have no legs, ma’am!!!!!!”
Kung Kung Kung!
Supporting her upper body with her elbows, the schoolgirl began to approach the teacher.
Thump thump!
“Kung Kung Kung Kung!!”
“Teacher.”
Teacher Teacher.
“Teacher, teacher, teacher.”
“I have no legs.”
I have no legs, Ma’am, I have no legs.
“I have no legs I have no legs I have no legs Kung Kung Kung Kung Kung!!”
The girl reached out her hand to grab the teacher’s leg.
“That leg is mine now. I can have those beautiful legs. From now on, I can walk on two legs.”
But at that moment.
Wooonngg!!!
“Ugh!?”
A bright white barrier appeared in front of the female teacher, blocking the legless ghost. The ghost bounced back, she propped her body up again using her elbow and stared back at the teacher.
The teacher’s wavy black hair fluttered, and contrasting her blue eyes, a golden cog gleamed behind her as it floated and spun. Dozens of tiny rods of light were attached to the slow-moving cogwheel, and they were emitting a strong energy.
And then, five golden mirror fragments surrounded her body.
“Huuh….?”
The ghost didn’t know the fact that the teacher in front of her was the true form of Archmage Aracelli Rinekal from her days as ‘Demon Hunter’. She only knew the fact that she was shaking in fear because fear was an important energy for ghosts.
‘It’s difficult…’ Aracelli frowned.
The cog wheel behind her appeared naturally whenever it detected the presence of a demon. It also consumed some of her mana.
Back when she was a demon hunter, she carried not one but seven cogs behind her for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. But right now, it was impossible for her to use it as she couldn’t regenerate her mana fast enough.
She already felt the mana in her body being reduced to half. She couldn’t drag it any longer.
Aracelli raised her hand, and the five mirrors around the ghost connected with a ray of golden light and trapped the ghost within.
“I, I, I just need legs…!”
“I know. You don’t have legs, so it must have been very difficult for you.”
“….?”
Then, a golden glow burst out. Legs sprouted from the legless ghost’s lower body. Although it was only a spiritual body rather than an actual body, that alone allowed the ghost to walk on her two feet instead of using her elbows. Just like the days when she could roam freely before her death.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”
“Even though I can’t save you… Still, for your last few moments, run around as much as you want. That’s all I can do.”
“Th…thank you… Thank you… Really…. Ahh…”
The ghost sobbed. Her blood-soaked upper body had become clean. She looked like an ordinary pretty highschool girl. She began to totter slowly from where she once stood, like a baby, cautiously, and then ran through the hallway’s window.
Aracelli looked at the window where the ghost disappeared. Perhaps…before she got sealed back into the diary, she would run endlessly to enjoy her last moments.
Soon, the golden cogs behind Aracelli that were brighter than the sun itself, disappeared, and Aracelli broke out into a cold sweat.
‘Half of my mana had already been consumed….’
Originally, to help or kill a single ghost was easy. However, for the weakened Aracelli, it was very hard. But it didn’t matter that much to her, because in the first place she was going to give up everything she had, even her magic, for him.
‘Tonight… I have to spend some time with Professor.’
She smiled. Once she told her professor that her mana had depleted, he wouldn’t be able to refuse her like he normally would. With such a happy thought, Aracelli turned around. The fact that she had done a good deed made her feel better, and she was even humming at some point.
* * *
“Hey, hey, did you know? If you look in the full-length mirror on the first floor of the abandoned building, sometimes your reflection on the mirror will do something different…!”
“I also heard that the statue in the abandoned building will open its eyes and walk around at midnight!!!”
“Did you see the book that the stone statue of the abandoned building holds? Every night it turns one page, and when it reaches the last page, the school will collapse…!”
“When you go to the first compartment on the 4th floor of the abandoned building, and do your chores, a ghost will appear and ask you, ‘Do you want a red tissue or a blue one?’ They say that if you answer red tissue, your body will turn into seven packs of blood, and if you choose blue tissue, they will strangle you until your body turns blue…”
So, just like that two months passed.
Quite a lot of ghost stories had spread throughout the school in the meantime. Some ghost stories were similar to the current ghost stories that circulated in the school and were present in this world. Because all the ghost stories that could occur in this so-called school were the stories that existed in any world. However, there were still a lot of ghost stories that were unfamiliar to them, and the students were terrified to tell them.
Of course, the ghost stories were highly likely to materialize, so most of them were based on ‘abandoned buildings’ or ‘toilets in the abandoned building’. It was my attempt to avoid damage unless one dared to approach it.
The only person who dared to go to such an abandoned building would be the ghost story hunter Ahinal.
Over the period of the past few weeks, her face had grown even more weary. When I asked her why she looked so tired, she said that it was because of the stress of dealing with ghosts alone.
Unlike monsters, ghosts reveal the most terrifying end of a human being’s death, and unless the one who faced them didn’t have any emotions, they were bound to experience mental stress while dealing with them. And, according to my plan, Ahinal had built up more and more stress.
[Protagonist Ahinal’s level has become: 150]
“Thank you for your hard work again today…”
Ahinal sealed the ghost we had just defeated, and she was growing more and more stronger. Helping an enemy that I had to kill to grow stronger may seem silly in the short term. But in the long run, it was an act that would allow me to be there when she was in the worst of her condition, so it would eventually play in my favour.
If there was one problem, it was that I also received a lot of stress. If someone asked me a month ago if I was afraid of ghosts or not, I would confidently answer ‘I am not afraid’.
But not now.
Honestly, it’s so scary.
I saw a man who committed suicide by twisting all joints on his body. I also found an altar with headless corpses hanging upside down. There were also times when I was walking down a street with no one in the middle of the night, and out of the blue, the sound of children’s laughter came from all directions, and while I was walking, all of the lights suddenly went out.
It was a horror story I had never known before.
Ghosts were not necessarily scary because they were visible. But when they become invisible, it becomes hella scary.
[E/N: Just like flying cockroaches that disappear after being sighted…]
“Today, we are also going to hunt for ‘selfie ghost story’.”
For two months, I spent quite a bit of time with Ahinal. We stayed up and spent so many nights together, but our relationship never turned into anything more than a partner. It felt like I was partnering with the kind of people I would never get to know, no matter how much time I spent with them.
When we met, we only talked about ghost stories. I secretly shared my knowledge of ghost stories from my world, and Ahinal came to recognize me as a ‘pretty courageous and knowledgeable person’. It could be said that my knowledge was a great help to her when she faced something she didn’t know about.
“Selfie ghost?”
“Yeah.”
*murmur murmur*
The place was quite crowded, partly because it was still around dinner time and partly because it was just before the ‘School Festival’, the bread and butter of the School Life genre.
“It’s a story that said that someone would stand behind you when you take a picture of yourself with a camera in the auditorium warehouse. To be honest, I am very unfamiliar with these kinds of ghost stories.”
It was plausible because it was a world where there were very few ghost stories with pictures. However, on Earth, it was common to see strange things appearing in photos. More importantly, that ghost story was also spread by me.
‘Let’s see if this ghost story actually gave birth to some ghost…….’
“Are we going right away?”
“No. Right now, the auditorium warehouse is crowded because of the festival preparations.”
“So, as usual, around midnight?”
“It will also be difficult around that time…. I think the festival team will continue to use the auditorium. As you know, our school tends to put a lot of effort into preparation since people from outside will also attend the festival.”
“What should we do, then?”
“Let’s give up and find another ghost story, then.”
“We can’t do that. As long as there is even a slight possibility that a ghost will appear, I must hunt it.”
“….”
She spoke as if it was her mission. But in the end it happened because of her own fault.
Ahinal gaze fell on the diary. Even about that unidentified diary, a certain outline was established.
It was true that the diary was written by the ‘Principal’, who god-only-knows what he is doing right now. In the diary in which a number of ghosts were sealed, the method of sealing them was also written. However, she misplaced it and released all the ghosts, and was in the process of re-sealing them.
I’ve seen this type of story in manga a few times before.
The story was that the heroine touches something wrong, and a monster is released into the world, and she works to seal it up again. The genre of the said story was a magical girl with cards, a ghost story, or something like Pandora’s Box.
There was only one important point. If it wasn’t for the contact between the heroine and the sealing medium, the monsters would not have been released into the world.
“I am the main dancer for this festival stage. I’ll get some attention if I go on the stage tonight, so, please help me.”
“What?”
“While I’m drawing attention, you have to take a selfie.”
“….”
Until now, Ahinal had never asked for anything directly related to ghosts. So I frowned a little. I can’t help it because of the situation, but I really hate having direct contact with ghosts.
“….”
“….”
But looking at her expression, it seemed like she’s her usual self. Maybe Ahinal wants to leave the ghost story hunting to me using that excuse.
“Tell you what, I’ll try it just this one time.”
When I gave her my consent, the corner of her lips raised up.
What. Why are you so anxious?
“Good. Let’s go right away.”
She turned heel just like that with a forced smile on her haggard expression, and I had no choice but to reconsider the ‘selfie ghost story’ with a very uneasy feeling.