Chapter 51

Ian briefly outlined his plan.

The dead Baron Talian.

A tomb.

Uninvited intruders.

Combining these could potentially yield a grim result.

In short, the idea was to impersonate the ghost of Talian.

"Oh. The idea is good, but... wouldn't we get punished for this?"

"Punished?"

Belenka was slightly worried about Ian's plan.

The idea of scaring the enemies by pretending to be a ghost in the graveyard was fine.

But wasn't it dangerous?

What Ian intended to do felt somewhat like necromancy.

Led by Ian's fake ghost act, a real ghost might appear.

But Ian was unfazed.

"It's fine, it's fine. It's just an act, after all."

"Hmm. Is that so?"

"Are you a wizard? I'm the wizard."

Belenka nodded.

Ian's words were absolutely right.

He was the wizard, not Belenka.

Lucy also agreed with Ian's plan.

"If a real ancestor ghost appears, I'll soothe it, no problem!"

"..."

Ian looked at Lucy skeptically.

Wouldn't the ancestor's ghost be even angrier at the sight of Lucy?

It was hard to tell.

"It's dark enough now. Let's try it, and if it doesn't work, we'll just back off."

With a light heart, Ian summoned the darkness.

The wizard's prank began.

Ian's plan was simple.

It was improvised and didn't involve any special skills, so he wasn't very confident about its success.

However, Ian trusted the medieval mindset more than his own plan.

Would the medieval people be fooled by a moving ghost created in front of them?

Even modern people would be startled if a dark shadow took on a human form.

What more for medieval people?

"Ian! I've lit the campfire!"

"Good."

Ian stood in front of the blazing campfire.

Behind Ian, with the light source in front, a long dark shadow was cast.

Ian closed his eyes and focused his mind on the voice of the darkness shadowing the shadow.

[Guys! It's not painful here!]

[Hehe. Good. Here.]

The darkness hiding behind Ian from the bonfire's light.

That was the shadow.

Ian projected his will onto the shadow.

'Move...!'

Simultaneously, mysterious magical words flowed from Ian's mouth.

"[Shadow! Move!]"

[Move?]

[Eek. I hate the light...]

[We just want to stay here.]

"..."

Guys. Listen to me.

The darkness felt like dealing with disobedient kindergartners.

Hiding from the light and enjoying it, liking to gather among themselves...

[But since Ian is asking...!]

[Right! We need to move now to play again at night!]

Play? Again? You guys?

Ian was clueless, but the darkness chattered on its own.

"Wow. It moves."

"... Magic is truly fascinating."

Lucy and Belenka murmured in admiration.

As Ian recited the spell, his shadow began to move on its own.

[New Skill Acquired!]

[Dark Magic: Shadow Manipulation]

[Moves shadow to perform actions. Great for shadow play.]

Ian managed to move his shadow to create a dark doppelgänger.

As Ian raised his arm, the shadow raised its arm too.

"Wow."

"Dance! Ian!"

At Lucy's shout, Ian unwittingly became - Dancing Ian.

Ian's shadow danced joyfully.

"Is this for pretending to be a ghost?"

"Yes. Belenka. Do you have the helmet? Could you lend it to me?"

"...You're going to use it?"

Ian wanted to try the voice modulation feature attached to Belenka's helmet.

It was perfect for producing a sinister voice.

However, Belenka hesitated and then refused Ian's request.

"It's fine. I can just do it."

"Really? Hmm. I thought you'd dislike it because you'd sound like a man."

"..."

Belenka glanced back and forth between the helmet and Ian.

She didn't like sounding like a man.

But she didn't want to lend her helmet.

It wasn't that she was particularly conscious of Ian...

The thought of Ian's lips and breath touching something she wore on her face...

"My helmet is not something to lend to others!"

"Ah. Fine. Then you play the ghost."

Belenka, chosen for the ghost role.

"Ian! What should I do?"

"Um... Cheer?"

"Got it! Go Ian!"

"..."

Not very encouraging.

Lucy, chosen for the cheering role.

Ian moved the shadow towards the tomb raiders standing guard.

Belenka, hidden from view, also approached the enemies stealthily.

On a night when the sun had completely set.

The ghost of Baron Talian came to visit his own tomb...

Medieval people believed in many superstitions.

This was due to the uncertainty of information.

There were very few scholars who studied phenomena professionally, and those scholars did not share their findings with the public.

The monopolization of knowledge was natural in this era.

It was the modern internet that was strange, not the norm where valuable information is kept to oneself.

Think about the scam ads that sometimes come through text messages.

What? A special stock that makes ten million won a month?

And they're sharing this information only for this month?

Wow! I want in! I want to make money too!

Most people know that such sweet-sounding information is false though a few fall for it.

If there was such information, why would one give it away to a complete stranger?

That's why YouTube was an anomaly.

It was flooded with all sorts of information for the sake of views, and about 80% of it was useful.

But in the medieval era, without YouTube or the internet.

The lack of information sharing and the lack of accuracy in information created a disastrous collaboration...

"Hey. What are you doing over there?"

"Drawing a holy inscription. Why?"

Medieval people had this bad habit of believing something was true if it appeared plausible on the surface...!

Tomb raider 1 was scribbling something on the ground.

If Ian had seen the characters being written, he would have been surprised because the characters resembled the magical language, Maronius.

Although not perfectly accurate, and missing some strokes which made it look odd, it was indeed Maronius.

It was the character for [Asha], meaning God.

"What is this?"

There was no way a mere tomb raider would have received proper education.

The reason he knew Maronius was that he had paid a fortune to a fortune-teller in the market to learn a [ghost-repelling inscription].

[Write this character on the ground, and ghosts won't dare come close!]

[Oh! Thank you! Prophet!]

"I told you, it's a holy inscription, you ignorant f*ck."

"Ah. Showing off just because you studied a bit, huh?"

The tomb raider smirked.

In his youth, he was an elite medieval person who had studied at a [school].

Well, precisely, he was a servant to a noble, picking up a few characters over the shoulder, but...

He never missed introducing himself as [I studied at Bautriche Academy when I was young].

He wasn't one to lie.

Although he hadn't learned any knowledge, he had picked up the behavior, tone, attitude, and atmosphere of an intellectual.

Thanks to that, he knew how to win the favor of intellectuals.

That was how he was able to learn the ghost-repelling inscription.

"Since the tomb is nearby, I always draw this at night. That way, ghosts won't bother us."

"Oh."

Sadly, the ghost-repelling inscription drawn by the tomb raider was a complete fake, like Wonhyo's skull water.

[A/N: "One of the most revered figures in Korean Buddhist history." The story often associated with Wonhyo's enlightenment involves an incident where he sought shelter in a cave during a storm.]

But being fake didn't mean it was useless. Didn't the skull water enlighten Wonhyo?

Drawing this... actually helped him sleep well, thanks to the peace of mind it brought.

Working as a tomb raider made him extremely fearful of ghosts and curses.

He knew his job was filthy and disgraceful.

"Honestly, I f*cking hate this job."

Thinking the ghost-repelling inscription acted like a barrier, another tomb raider sat down nearby.

A moment for casual chat opened up.

"Talian is an old noble family, right? I heard the first Baron had a thing with a fairy queen..."

"Ah, that legend, huh?"

"What, what. Got stories to share?"

Instead of guarding the tomb,

While the higher-ups were desecrating the tomb inside, they were sharing stories.

After all, slacking off when the boss isn't looking is a universal rule, medieval or modern.

Once you start, it's addictive, hard to stop.

Wow!

Getting paid to gossip!

"The first Baron received a proposal from the fairy queen, but he rejected it..."

"The fairies laid a curse on the tomb..."

"The queen resurrected the dead Baron with necromancy..."

All sorts of rumors and tales were rampant.

Among them were tales that simply replaced the hero of other legends with the Baron, and even stories that accidentally hit the truth.

The tomb raiders couldn't verify the truth but they were just having a good time.

Time flies when you're having fun...!

They could chat like this, fall asleep, and when they woke up, the job would be finished.

Then, they'd get paid and go home!

Grave robbing was easy.

"...So the ghost of the Baron...!"

"Hey, hey. Wait a minute. Look over there."

It was during a particularly engaging tale.

Someone pointed into the darkness.

"...What's that?"

The tomb raiders were almost simultaneously thrown into confusion.

Something was... slowly moving in the darkness?

No matter how hard they looked, they couldn't figure out what it was!

But judging by its human shape...?

"A gh-ghost...!"

"That's not a ghost, is it?!"

The tomb raiders all but drew circles under their eyes, saying 'I swear I saw it clearly!'

If one person saw it wrong, that was their mistake.

But if everyone saw it wrong, it wasn't a mistake; they had seen something they shouldn't have.

"Everyone, over here! Gather hereeeeee!"

A tomb raider shouted, trembling.

Beneath their feet was the [ghost-repelling inscription].

Something in the darkness slowly rose to its feet.

It was something taking the form of a human.

From head to toe, it was pitch black, as if it was a living shadow.

The tomb raiders clutched each other's hands, trembling.

In the hardest times, those who stand by you are your true friends

Then, the shadow shouted.

[What are you doing... on my land...!]

Terrified, one of the tomb raiders picked up a stone and threw it.

"Get the hell away!"

But the stone passed harmlessly through the shadow.

The enemy was an intangible being.

This fact terrified the tomb raiders to the extreme.

[How dare you... attack the master of this land...!]

Whooosh!

The wind howled, blowing away all the torches.

The tomb raiders lost their minds.

"It's the Baron! The Baron Talian has returned!"

"Run!"

"Idiot! Where can you run to! If we run, we die!"

Unlike reality, this was a world where supernatural monsters roamed freely.

Every creature in the field was as unique as a platypus.

They had no doubt that this black human-shaped mass was the ghost of the Baron.

[Leave at once... you cursed beings...!]

The ghost of the Baron roared.

Then, most of the tomb raiders dropped their weapons and scrambled to flee.

"I'm sorry! I have committed a sin worthy of death!"

"I will live righteously from now on, please spare my life!"

"O great spirit in the sky! Protect me!"

The tomb raiders knew they were engaging in immoral acts. How honorable could grave robbing be, after all?

With such a fragile mentality, the arrival of the ghost left them unable to compose themselves.

Only one person remained.

It was a tomb raider who couldn't run away because his legs had given out.

He performed a perfect kowtow that could be pictured in a textbook and murmured.

"By the name of God, depart; by the name of God, depart; by the name of God, depart..."

It was the spell taught by the fortune-teller who had taught him the [ghost-repelling inscription].

Reciting this spell and showing the inscription was supposed to make any ghost retreat.

The ghost of the Baron gazed silently at the man muttering the spell.

'Please...!'

Then, something unbelievable happened.

The ghost turned around and walked away!

'Wh... What?!'

The tomb raider was so shocked that he sprang up.

It worked! The ghost actually retreated!

"The gods in heaven have protected me!"

Overwhelmed by a sudden surge of faith, the tomb raider knelt down.

He had been regularly doing evil deeds and hadn't prayed at all!

Yet still, the Heavens hadn't abandoned him!

"Thank you! O heavens! From now on, I'll pray more and make donations!"

The tomb raider shouted.

Someone whispered in the tomb raider's ear.

[Hey. There's a limit to being shameless. Do you think I would help someone like you?]

"...What?"

[And that character, it's wrong. You're missing four strokes. Did you skip them because you couldn't be bothered? What's that about?]

The darkness vanished.

Faint moonlight illuminated the ground in front of the tomb raider.

There stood...

"If you surrender quietly, I'll spare your life."

A tall female knight with her long blonde hair tied back.