Chapter 17

After leaving their hunt mate with the monster, the three followed Jaeseong's white string. They discovered a house after walking through the tall trees and bushes.

A medium-sized, worn out house overgrown by vines and mud, with shattered walls and windows. They were led to an abandoned house by the string they were tracking.

The house would not have appeared eerie if they had been investigating in the morning or afternoon. But it was late at night, and going into a house this ravaged and filthy is asking for trouble.

The ominous atmosphere of the structure in front of them caused them to gulp in trepidation.

"Are you sure the string leads here?" Yejoon said, ensuring that they were on the right track. Then Jaeseong picked up the string that led into the eerie home.

He turned to Yejoon and showed him. "Here's the evidence," he said.

"What do you expect from a ghost?" Angela inquired, causing Yejoon to sigh inwardly. "Come on, we don't have a choice; we can just use our powers to protect ourselves. We're inside a game anyway."

"I mean, sure," Yejoon dreadfully remarked.

Angela bravely approached the front door. The wooden plank creaked with each step she took up the steps to the front door.

The boys followed her as she slowly twisted the rusted knob with her jacket sleeves to open it. The creaking of the door opening had occupied the silence from within.

When she looked inside, she found no living beings and only destroyed items. Further inspection revealed that the house had been completely abandoned.

The wallpaper had been scraped off the wall, and the design had become encrusted with foreign filth.

The wooden floor planks were destroyed, leaving several small and large holes underneath. Ruined furniture, soiled carpet, and cobwebs surround the walls.

It smelled rotten inside, and it was dark upon entering.

Nonetheless, they continued to follow the white string that led under the filthy mat. It perplexed all three of them. Why was the ghost hidden beneath the carpet?

Angela bravely removed the rug with her foot, not daring to touch it with her hands, and discovered a concealed door.

She cautiously pulled it open with the boys' assistance and bravely peered inside. It appears to be a hidden basement.

All she noticed as she looked around was a soil-filled underground room. Panning to her right, her eyes widened at what she saw.

The two were intrigued by her reaction and her sudden change of demeanor.

"What did you find?"

"Is it the ghost?"

Angela proceeded to climb downstairs to the underground without disclosing her mind-boggling discovery. Yejoon and Jaeseong exchanged puzzled looks.

They resolved to find out what she uncovered for themselves after realizing the woman would not respond. They followed her footsteps downstairs, and as Angela landed on the ground, her eyes showed sorrow.

"How did this happen?" she said softly, and their eyes widened in fear when they turned around to confront what Angela was staring at.

Despite the fact that they couldn't see the ghosts of the toddler and the older woman embracing one another in terror of their presence, they could see the decaying bodies of these spirits lying next to them.

Yejoon approached the deceased child's body and noted that her attire matched that of the ghost child he had seen. He instantly notified his teammates of his discovery.

He said, "This is the outfit that the ghost was wearing!"

"Are you certain?" asked Jaeseong.

"Yes!"

"That explains them," Angela replied, pointing to two terrified ghosts holding each other in a corner. The boys, though, couldn't see what she was pointing at.

Jaeseong then discovered the string's other end coiled around thin air. "The ghosts?" he speculated.

Angela responded with a nod. She then used her psychokinesis power to unwind the string and return the end to the clown. Because one of them could see the ghost, the older woman took advantage of the situation to request a favor.

She sat on her knees, pleading for their assistance, but Angela didn't know what kind of assistance she required. She knelt down to the same level as the spirits and spoke with them.

The boys assumed Angela was speaking to the ghost. But, because they couldn't see or hear them, they listened to her response and decided how they could help from there.

The ghost requested assistance in finding their murderer. They were murdered roughly 7 months ago by a man, a knight, who’s very close with the king from the castle.

The mother and her husband wished to educate their daughter, whom Yejoon saw, by sending her to school. But they were in debt, and so they had borrowed money from him.

But it was not the reason they were murdered. When the mother discovered their murderer's illegal activities, he had no other choices but to end her life.

Angela was still perplexed after hearing this. If the mother was the murderer's target, why should her daughter suffer the same fate when she was innocent and had no knowledge of his crime?

"My daughter, Alice, was watching my murder happen," the mother recounted. "The soldier had no choice; he didn't want any witnesses, so…" she bowed her head as she stared at her child with a forlorn expression.

She felt guilty and terrible for giving such a drastic fate to her helpless child. That's why she needed someone's assistance because all she wanted was justice. For her, and particularly for her daughter.

Angela sighed in sympathy. "That's horrible!" she softly exclaimed.

Because the two boys couldn't tell what their conversation was about, they asked Angela directly about what the ghosts were saying.

She explained the situation they were in and the favor she had been requested to do for them.

It wasn't easy to get them the justice they deserved. Even if they should have reported this to their royal highnesses, they lacked evidence to make a report or back up their charges.

"Well, we can still report these dead bodies to them; after all, we're not going to leave them alone, are we?" Jaeseong, still outraged, replied.

"I agree; these people still need to be buried," Yejoon said, nodding in agreement.

Angela turned to the spirits and kneeled down to speak with them further, and as they had their conversations, Yejoon was thinking of a method to help as he searched around the room.

He knelt in front of the lifeless bodies and held out his hand, hesitantly attempting to touch them. Jaeseong instantly grabbed his wrist and stopped him.

"What the hell are you doing, Yejoon?" he asked in disgust.

"I'm going to use my powers to see if I can find any evidence in these."

Jaeseong was unwilling to let go, but they needed proof. He reluctantly allowed Yejoon to continue placing his palm on top of the mother's decomposing body.

He then closed his eyes and concentrated. "Past," he murmured as a memory of the crime scene flashed across his consciousness.

Screams could be heard as the soldier attempted to attack the mother.

One of the soldier's little insignia is pulled off his uniform as he attempts to remove the woman's hand from his hair and it rolls to the ground on the narrow, cracked wooden floor.

However, the soldier managed to slap the woman, causing her to tumble to the ground, while the child quietly observed what was going on.

"HELP ME!" shouted the woman as the soldier pulled a knife from his pocket and stabbed her. The woman grunted in anguish with each puncture, and you could hear the spurt of blood.

"Mom…?" the child called out, shocking the soldier and frightening the mother.

"Please don't," the woman pleaded. The soldier, however, was unwilling to stop and stood up and snatched the child while the mother screamed for mercy for her daughter.

"PLEASE SPARE HER LIFE, JOHN, PLEASE!"

But the soldier didn't listen and hurled the child down the steps and choked her to death while the mother screamed in distress.

While this was going on, the mother frantically searched for something sharp—broken glass—and quickly scraped the soldier's back as he yelled in agony.

Yejoon was so terrified by the horrific memory that when he regained consciousness, he audibly gasped and jolted to his feet, which wobbled slightly.

Jaeseong grabbed Yejoon from behind, assisting him in standing straight as he worriedly glanced at the youngster.

"Are you alright?" the clown inquired.

"Y-yeah…I believe so."

"What were you doing? You seemed to be having a nightmare there," Angela commented.

"I used my power, and I saw the murder scene," he said, his breath quivering. "And the soldier who murdered them, as well as some evidence," he added.

The two lifted their brows in surprise, while the mother gazed hopefully at Yejoon. Perhaps the justice she has been seeking for months will be granted after all.

***

A couple minutes after the rest of Team One had left, Mr. Smith came back to the forest with support to save Jiwoo from the basilisk.

They expected the gamer to be covered with cuts and bruises, but they found the opposite.

Jiwoo smiled as he gently patted the monster on the head, as if he were petting a faithful dog. He appeared to be enjoying himself.

They were all taken aback by the unexpected surprise; even Mr. Smith was taken aback to see a rare monster behaving kindly in front of a human being.

"How did you manage…?" Mr. Smith inquired in disbelief as he continued to observe the gamer pet the basilisk. He was witnessing something revolutionary in HIS eyes.

"I put one of my tapes on and was able to control it; once he trusted me, I removed it," the gamer explained.

These tapes are one of Jiwoo’s abilities as the gamer in the game. With these particular tapes, it can manipulate or control anything, whether it be a monster, beast, human, or deity. With these amazing talents bestowed upon him, it appeared that the youngster never needed backup to begin with.

***

The next day, the members of team one went to the castle and held a meeting to report some vital information they had discovered.

It would also help the royal highnesses understand why the ghost kid chose to loiter around the castle grounds.

The King and Queen were not the only ones present at this crucial gathering. All of their fellow hunt-mates, butlers, maids, and even the knights were summoned.

Team one members were in charge of reporting their discovery, while the remainder stood behind them. They never told them about their experiences, and they were curious.

As the meeting began, they bowed politely in the presence of the Queen and King, then Angela took the lead.

"Thank you, your highnesses, for allowing this gathering to take place. We've gathered you all today to report on the paranormal case that has been occurring and was last seen on the fourth floor of this royal castle.

Upon further investigation, we have discovered various clues to what happened to the child who was seen wandering around the castle grounds.

One of the powers I possess is paranormal, which means I can see and unsee the spirits of the dead whenever I want and make physical contact with them.

This is so that I may discover additional mysterious diseases and develop a remedy so that those who become ill with those illnesses are treated right away.

However, because of this skill I possessed, we were able to successfully investigate this matter."

The presented information causes everyone's eyes to expand. They had always assumed that those who worked in the Poffice Guild were powerless.

They were all intrigued when they realized this was not the case.

"We followed the ghost to an abandoned cottage, and what we found was absolutely dreadful: they had a hidden basement, and inside was the rotten dead body of a mother and her child," Angela continued.

The Queen exclaimed in terror, "That's horrible!"

"Have you figured out how they passed?" said King Schmmok.

Angela turned to Yejoon as he stepped forward. It was now his turn to explain.

"I possess the ability to see the past and present simply by touching an area or person, and what I saw was the mother desperately trying to live while being stabbed over and over. And the child who happened to watch the crime scene, who had no ill will, who had no understanding what was going on, and was terrified to see her mother being slain…had also been murdered simply because the killer didn't want any evidence to witness his crime.”

In response to the shocking news, the audience began whispering their comments.

They could hardly believe what they were hearing.

It was appalling to find that there are people who are really callous.

He continued, "When the woman was struggling to survive, there was one piece of evidence that fell out of the killer's uniform."

He presented the proof, which was contained within a transparent pouch, to the Queen while they examined the item while wearing gloves. Upon closer study, the king immediately recognized the given badge.

"Is this...?" he inquired, gazing up at the musician to confirm what he was thinking.

"Once again, with the help of my power, I was able to detect who this badge belonged to. Your highness, the badge in your grasp belongs to one of the soldiers in this royal castle, Soldier John Mikaile. He is the criminal who murdered those innocent victims."

Yejoon's gaze shifted menacingly to the soldier guarding the royal highnesses beside the Queen. He was the only one in the room who didn't seem bothered by the claim.

This devastated the king because the accused soldier was his best friend, a man he had trusted since childhood and for the first time in his life, he despised being the monarch.

He wished to flee reality, He wished to flee reality, yet he had to fulfill his duties as king.

"Soldier John, is that true?" he asked, keeping his composure.

When the question was posed, everyone waited for his response with bated breath.

"One piece of evidence cannot prove that I am the murderer, your majesty; I've never heard of them and have no clue who they are." he asserted confidently, "A badge is the only evidence? All the soldiers in this castle have the same badge; your so-called 'evidence' isn't very useful."

His words, sentences, and the manner in which he stated them made him not want to believe it, but John wasn't openly rejecting it. 'Is it possible? 'The king pondered.

The Queen noted his distressed countenance and realized right away why he was reacting in this manner. She felt sympathy.

She clasped his hands and gave him a worried look. As he patted her hand, the King forced a grin and nodded, signaling that everything would be well.

"Well, my abilities aren't a hoax," Yejoon said. "If you don't believe me, your highness, the mother left a scar on the murderer's back while desperately attempting to save her child from him; if John Mikaile is telling the truth and is innocent, I'll accept whatever punishment you impose."

"Guards, please interrogate him; if he has a scar on his body, he'll be sent to prison immediately," King Schmmok stated, not daring to look back at his now-ex-friend.

The guards approached John as though in slow motion, sweating nervously. He knew he'd lost and needed to act quickly.

When one of the guards put his hand on his shoulder, John quickly drew his sword, stabbed the knight, and fled.

The criminal's unexpected action widened the King's eyes as he jolted up and commanded, "Guards, seize him! Medic, treat the wounded quickly!"

Seungjae, Sujin, Seongho, and Milton instantly ordered their familiars to assist them in apprehending the culprit before he fled from the castle.

They successfully returned John to the throne room with the united force of the royal knights. He was questioned further in front of a hundred people.

After the truth was revealed, John Mikaile was sentenced to life in prison.

If he ever escapes from prison or commits another crime, he will be executed without hesitation.

The sun was about to set when the assembly was finished. Just outside the castle gates, the woman and child they were defending awaited the hunters.

They could finally rest in peace because their justice had been accomplished.

As they saw them ascend to paradise, they both bowed, thanking them for all they had done.