Spooked

(2 months and 13 days after Klada Disaster)

[Lynn's POV]

We had settled our things in our room after that. I am having a seperate room with Kyrielle, who's sleeping next door.

After that we went and had a late lunch at the main dining of the castle at the second floor. It was already 4 p.m. already, but we didn't had lunch so we ate some light meals. The food served there was very tasty, and even though I didn't need to eat anything I still ate just for fun.

There's this particular food where meat skewers were coated with honey and then grilled with the honey as topping and serve like that. It was the best tasting meat I have ever tried, and I'll try to replicate that if the chance arrives. Besides that, there's a newly invented dessert as well.

"This cup of sweet cream like thing that they have for dessert is really tasty!"

This is the first time I have eaten something that tastes like this.

"Oh that? It's called an ice cream. You never had it before?"

"Implying that you have eaten it before?... But this dessert was just invented a few months ago?"

"Ops. I felt like I had a dream where I ate this before haha...."

Hmm... suspicious. But whatever.

"Is that so?... Weirdly enough, I also sometimes have dreams like that."

"R-right? Haha..."

After our lunch, Kyrielle went off to explore the castle while I went to the resting area on the third floor to have my evening tea, where it's right before sunset.

Sunlight pierces through the windows as I sips down on the cup of tea while sitting on a soft chair.

"Sips hah.... It's been so long since I last had some good tea."

Before I knew it, almost two and a half months passed after we were transported here.

This was actually a pretty short journey for me, but for Kyrie this might be the longest journey she has ever had in her life. A few months is a lot for humans after all.... But for an immortal creature like me, months are like days.

But now that I am spending time with Kyrie, my perception of time slows down again, and each day felt longer and longer.

Is that because I'm enjoying my time with Kyrie? Maybe in the future I should make more friends.... I didn't bother with making new friends and starting a family because I'm immortal... everyone dies too quickly....

"Sips... hah..... There's just huge differences between royalties and peasant's tea huh? Or maybe it's because I didn't had one for a long time so it tastes better?"

A good cup of tea could help relief your stress... It's been a stressful two months so it's nice to have a little relaxing tea now. As I was sipping my tea, Linia, the arachnoid maid approached me.

"(Lynn-sama.)"

"(Linia. You need something?)"

"(The King would like to have a chat with you.)"

"(Oh, is it official business? I would like to finish my tea first.)"

"(No, it's just for a casual chat. The king is rather interested in Lynn-sama.)"

"(I see, perfect timing then as I was just relaxing here. Where is he now?)"

"(He's at the pool by the garden.)"

"(Alright I'll go find him.)"

With my cup of tea in hand, I stood up from the chair. I headed towards a nearby balcony closest to the Garden.

"(Umm... Lynn-sama? The stairs are at the opposite direction....)"

So she doesn't know I can fly huh? Time for a little prank.

"(Oh that? No worries.)"

I stepped out to the balcony of the third floor and I climbed over the railings of the balcony.

"(Sorry Linia, I'd rather die that talk to the King. Thank you for everything.)"

"(Wha- Lynn-sama! You'll die if you fal-)"

I leapt out of the balcony.

My body drops and the tea inside my cup starts to come up as it falls slower than my body.

"(Lynn-sama!!!)"

Her screaming voice trembled as I fell down. I used gravity magic to float up, and using the gravity magic to hold the falling tea, gently letting it down inside the cup again.

Using gravity makes my hair floats all over the place and my skirt flows along as well.

"(What?!)"

"(Hahaha! I like your reaction! Anyway, I'll fly over there so see you at the garden!)"

"(Phew!... A-alright....)"

She looks shocked and relieved at the same time. Her expression is really funny.

I flew to the maze garden right behind the castle's building while a grin is still on my face. There, I saw King Hal sitting on one of the long chairs right next to the pool, under an umbrella. He is no longer wearing his fancy king robes during when I saw him in the throne room.

Now he is dressed in a bath robe and is relaxing on the chair comfortably. Few maids stood next to him, and there's no guards around. I flew down there and then sat in the long chair next to him.

"(Hello, King Hal.) "

"(Lynn-dono, that was fast. I didn't know you can fly as well.)"

"(Haha, Linia had the same expression as you do, Your Majesty.)"

"(I see... She must be quite troubled as she is supposed to accompany her master at all time.)"

"(Well, I don't like having people following me around every where.)"

"(I agree. And when speaking casually you can just call me by my name with no honorifics.)"

"(Okay, I prefer you call me that way as well.)"

"(Very well, Lynn. Somehow, it doesn't seem weird for someone like you to defy the laws physics by flying.)"

"(Well, I am someone that many would deem a freak of nature after all.)"

"(If possible, can you explain to me how you do this flying thing?)"

"(It's a bit complicated, but if you would listen then I can explain.)"

"(Go right ahead.)"

"(To give the most simplest explanation, the way I fly is that I grab onto the Environment Mana in the air and use it to propel my body. This is how I use gravity magic to fly.)"

"(I don't see?.... I don't get it at all.)"

"(Hahaha, of course you wouldn't! If you did, I wouldn't be the Magic God now would I?)

"(However, under that logic a Territory Expansion would mean that the one who casted it would get enough magic control like you to use gravity magic right?)"

"(Theorically, yes. However, I couldn't test it out because I don't have a territory expansion, not a real one anyway. Besides, you wouldn't be able to use gravity magic on any living creatures with Reserve Mana either, even with Territory Expansion it's still kind of useless.)"

"(Makes sense. Well then, next question... What brings you and your travel companion here to the Bostnia continent, to my country?)"

"(Oh, it's a long story. The short version of it is that we were caught in a magic accident and was teleported here.)"

"(A magic accident huh. What happened?)"

"(Hmm, you need some context to understand it. You see, Aamon the fire demon died somewhere near the northern lands back during the war right?)"

"(Correct. Back then, he left for the northern land of the central continent and he was ambushed. Nothing was heard from him ever since then.)"

"(Yes. He was sealed off when he invaded the city Klada. One day, he was unsealed, but I don't know who did it.)"

"(Uh huh.)"

"(He was unsealed, but he attacked everyone on sight despite the truce. He was on a killing spree so I had to finish him off so that he wouldn't do any big damage.)"

"kAnd then? When a Fire Wraith like Aamon dies, they will explode right?)"

"(Correct. In order to prevent that, I used a magic item to cast teleport and teleport it off somewhere with the least amount of collateral damage. An accident happened then, and the teleport spell grew so large that it caught many people into it.)"

"(I see... That explains your arrival here. You two were teleported here and were trying to make it back to the Centralia Continent now right?)"

"(Yes. I have been enjoying my time here to be honest. That girl Kyrielle... she's a strong girl. If she had been a normal girl, I don't think I would have enjoyed this trip as much.)"

"(Don't you take care of here though? You were protecting her when she was shot at right?)"

"(Well, that is another story. In reality, the only time I have ever needed to protect her was against super strong oopponents, like your court magician. She even handled 8 drakes and a queen drake alone when we passed through the Valley of the Drakes.)"

"(That is amazing Is there a reason for her strength?)"

"(Not really. She did it out of a combination of hard work and talent.)"

"(Mmm. Then if possible I would like to ask another questi-)"

'Boom...!' A faint sound of something hitting the wall was heard.

"(What was that...?)" The king was surprised.

"(An ambush...?)" I also jumped from my seat.

"(....seems not. But something happened.)"

"(I'll go check it out. Now that I'm a guest of the castle, I have a responsibility to protect you, Hal.)"

"(Then I'll leave it to you, Lynn.)"

I stood up, put my cup of tea on the table and headed into the castle.

[Kyrielle's POV]

(15 minutes earlier)

I ran off from Lynn by myself to go explore the castle. Lynn was kind of tired from everything that happened while I was still energetic. Since we are going to live here for a month anyway, I decided to just go and explore the castle.

The castle was majestic, and has lots of place to go to. First, I explored the fourth floor where the residential suites ares.

Then, I explored the third floor, where I went to the art gallery. The art of this world seems just as incomprehensible as the art of Earth haha.... I'm just not good at these artistic things.

After that, I went to the library.

"Yep... I can't read this..."

All book here was written in the demon language, so yea. I did find a textbook that can help me learn the language, but that is for another time. Now, it's time to adventure to the lower floors!

I explored the second floor, which is full of normal daily life facilities like Gym, restaurants and such. Finally, now I'm at the first floor, which is the ground floor.

I played around in the halls, visiting the empty throne room, ball dance hall, and more. When there's no official business, this floor is really empty, so it felt relaxing to be around here now.

"Hmm?"

I played around in the hallway, where I saw a flight of stairs leading down to somewhere even lower than the ground floor, likely the basement.

On the stair's sides, I saw a sign with words written on it.

'(Beware of ghost)'

"Yep, I can't read in Bostnian Language.... I'll just head in then, nothing weird will happen anyway."

I walked down the two flight of stair, and below at the lowest part of the second flight of stairs I saw a wooden door that is kind of run down. It was also dark as well, since no light entered this basement level.

I slowly walked down there and then opened the door. Inside the door, I couldn't see anything other than darkness. I couldn't even see my arm when I put right in front of my face!

Ember.

I lighted a small fire on my hand to use as a light.

Walking into the room, a thick, humid and stale air full of dust entered my nose.

"Cough cough!... Does no one uses this room?"

My shoe made crusty sounds as I stepped on the concrete floor that has sand in between. Barrels lied around inside the room, and empty glass bottles are around the floor. I also found some mugs, and also a wooden counter by the corner.

This must have been an abandoned bar because of all the barrels around and a counter that served drinks. The entire room feels like it shouldn't exist, but here it is. It feels deserted and lonely, almost as if no one even remembers it.

'Clong!'

"Kya!!! That surprised me...."

A large sound was heard in the room and made me jump in surprise. It was the door slammimg shut due to the wind.

Ah crap, I lost concentration and the Ember stopped burning. The room is now really dark and it's kind of creepy... I swear I can even feel cold winds blowing between my legs despite how this is a closed off room.

'Plink Plank!'

A sound of glass shattering was heard.

"Uwaaaa...." I muttered that in response. It was just a bottle breaking or something but it's really creepy....

My palms are sweating profusely, goosebumps stood on my exposed arm and leg. How scary!

Desperately lighting ember again, I scanned the room for anything unusual.

...nothing is in the room...

"Phew...."

I headed for the exit of the room. Then I opened the door...

'Cha Chak!'

Nothing is outside either....

"Phew..." It's just my head playing tricks on me.... Ghosts don't exist back on Earth so it shouldn't exist here as well right?... Hmm?

On the floor in front of the door, I saw glass shards, and it looked like it was threw from inside the room.... It's impossible for any glass bottles to shatter nearby because when I entered, there's no glass bottles near the door!

I squated down to investigate the glass shards. What I saw between my legs made me widen my eyes and freeze in place.

....a pair of skeleton feet stood behind me.... No way....

I stood up right.... and then turned around....

A semi transparent skeleton stood behind me....

"Eekk!!!!" 'Thud!'

Trying to get away from him, I walked backwards and slipped on the sand that's on the concrete floor, dropping on my back.

Earth, grant me a lance that shall pierce all, Earth Spear!

A sharp rock raised up from right underneath it and hit it on the groin... The spear went right through it like it's going through thin air and then slammed into the roof, making a loud sound as it did so.

'Boom!!!'

"What the.... "

"...."

It didn't fight back or anything, it just stood there and looked at me with it's skull face. Then, it slowly reached out it's hand for me...

"Eek!!!...."

I looked away and closed my eyes in response.

....

....

Nothing happened.

I looked back and opened my eyes. He is still here... And his skeletal hand is... patting my head...

"...."

"What...."

It retrieved it's arm and then went back into the room, into the complete darkness of the basement....

"Kyrielle-sama! Kyrielle-sama!"

I could hear someone yelling my name up stairs. It's Lucia.

I quickly went upstairs, back to the hallway where I saw Lucia looking for me. She noticed me as well and quickly ran towards me.

"Are you okay?!"

"Yeah but I went into the old bar downstairs."

"I see... so you were spooked by the ghost."

This insect.... Is she mocking me?!

"I'm not spooked!... Well, maybe just a bit. But it only looked at me and patted me on the head."

"Well, it usually won't attack anyone so it wouldn't attack you either."

"(What's wrong here?)"

Lynn soon got here as well.

"(Kyrielle-sama just met the ghost of the basement.)"

"(The ghost of the basement bar?)"

Lynn turned to me with a mocking grin on her face.

"So you got spooked? Hahaha!"

"S-shut up!"

"So, what's this ghost of the basement?"

"Then, I'll now explain in the northern language so that Kyrielle-sama may understand as well."

"Ok."

"To give a really brief summarization, the former bartender practiced blood magic in secret. And one day an accident happened that caused him to detach his soul from his body and his body became a living corpse."

"Uwaaahh..."

"After he died, his soul remained there in the shape of a skeleton. Customers are extremely bothered by him and as such the bar was moved upstairs. His spirit would still remain there to this day."

"I see. It's good that Kyrie wasn't hurt, but why did you went inside?"

"Well, I was curious, and I couldn't understand that sign."

"That explains it. We really need to teach you the Bostnian language soon... Would Lucia here be kind enough to do that?"

"Naturally, Kyrielle-sama and Lynn-sama."

"Okay. And if you want to, I can exterminate that ghost as well."

"Its not necessary, Lynn-sama. It's best to just leave it alone if possible."

"Right. Kyrie, you go bother someone else, I still have a heart to heart chat with the king."

"Can't you at least pretend to care about me?!"

(Chapter 45 end)