A Haunted Manor?

"Mina, which name do you think sounds more intimidating? Rudy or Blackie?" Vincent asked seriously. He had already been thinking about names for two days now. Though he came up with many, most of them didn't feel menacing enough.

"Both of them sound great." Mina replied helplessly as she cleaned the room. Her master would come to her with weird sounding names every once in a while. She gave it some serious thoughts in the beginning but was starting to get annoyed by the constant intrusions. "Master why don't you ask someone else? As you can see, I am busy with work."

"Nonsense! Who would I ask if not you? Mother and Rosie have terrible sense for naming and father is occupied."

"You know that is kind of sad. No, it's very sad. Why don't you have any friends master?"

As the words filled with pity made their way to Vincent's ears, he creased his brows to show that he was displeased. "I have friends. Didn't you see Baron Helmak visiting me when I was bedridden?"

"Didn't you say you guys were business partners? I don't think that counts."

"What about fatty Mark? We used to play together all the time when we were kids."

Mina directed a strange look at Vincent and spoke. "Baron Hunt's son stopped associating with you after you flirted too much with his new stepmom. He hasn't talked to you since then, has he? I wouldn't count him as your friend anymore."

She got back to her chore and continued with a hint of laughter in her voice. "To think that you would lose your only friend because you went after his stepmom. You certainly are a weird person. No one would believe that you are the same James Bond that wrote 'Lomeo and Julien'."

"I will have you know that it was mutual attraction." Vincent shot back, a little offended. "The only reason fatty got angry at me is because his stepmom doted on me more than him."

"See. This is why you don't have any friends."

"I can make friends whenever I want. Just hurry up and tell me which one sounds more menacing."

Annoyed that her master refused to listen to criticisms, she decided to be honest. "Both of them sound stupid. Even a dog would lose its ferocity if it knew it was named Rudy or Blackie."

Vincent was shook at the comment. He had never even thought that anyone would think of the names he had come up with to be lame. Considering how severely Mina had put it, even he started doubting if the names really were stupid.

"Then what do you think I should name it?"

"How would I know? Go ask someone else and let me work in peace." Mina flipped and chased him away.

As he headed for his own room, he began thinking to himself. 'Should I just name it Hound of the Baskervilles? But this place isn't called Baskervilles. Neither is there a place with cool sounding name in our fief.'

After being unable to come up with any cool sounding names, he made his way to the area in front of Ostin Publishing House. He was hoping that listening to people discuss about the mysterious James Bond and his masterpiece would help him come up with decent ideas.

His mood slowly improved as he stood there. Every once in a while, he would follow conversing people if he found their words to be interesting. It wasn't all sunshine though. One out of every seven or so conversation were talking smack about him. He wanted to stop them and give them a harsh scolding but held himself back.

Time slowly went by but all of his efforts were in vain. Though the conversations stroked his ego, not a single decent name came to his mind. In the end, he decided to call it quits for the time being. His stomach growled in hunger and he headed for a restaurant.

On his way, his interest was piqued by the conversation of two men in front of him. Both of them were on the bigger side of body size. And judging from the dust that had accumulated on their cloth, it seemed like they were working on a construction site.

"I am telling you man. That manor is haunted for sure. How else do you explain all the creepy noises at night? We worked on its renovation just last year. And they already want to repair some things. I am not going there Mark. Doesn't matter if the pay is good. I still get goose bumps when I think of all the rumors about that place." The younger man said to his companion. There was a hint of fear in his voice as he talked about the haunted manor.

"Come one Jim. Almost half of the renovation work that comes our way has ghost stories behind them. Are you really going to pass up on such a well paying work?" Mark looked at Jim with disbelief in his eyes. "Besides, nothing happened when we were renovating the manor back then. Why are you so scared?"

"I saw her back then man. You guys didn't believe me but I am sure of what I saw. She still appears in my nightmares every now and then."

"We were all drunk back then. You didn't see shit. It's nothing but your mind playing tricks on you. You guys were sharing ghost stories that night, what else do you expect a drunkard to see when he listens to spooky stories for hours?"

Jim put more strength behind his words as he replied, "I wasn't that drunk. I can still clearly remember how she floated in the air. Her raven black hair waved around as if they were alive and her eyes.... her eyes were pitch black"

"Yes, yes. And her face was distorted in pain. She opened her bloody mouth and screamed but you didn't hear a sound. Only felt an icy sensation travelling through your entire body. You have told me about this a dozen times already."

"Whatever. I know you won't believe me. I am not going there even if they double the pay."

"Alright. Suit yourself. Maybe you will realize the value of these high paying works when you get older. You are still young after all." Mark didn't push the matter further and changed the topic to other things.

Vincent followed behind them silently as he listened. Jim's words really intrigued him and he wanted to check if the ghost existed himself. Maintaining the distance of a few feet, he entered a cheap eatery after them.

The establishment was a little dirty and it smelled of booze and greasy food. Choosing a table that wasn't too far from where the two men sat down, he ordered food and acted indifferent. The conversation then had already shifted away from the ghost talk but he listened patiently.

Vincent didn't learn anything else about the ghost except for the fact that the manor that was being renovated was called Pare manor. According to what Mark said, it was located in the west district of Mistellia.

Even though he didn't think of any badass names for his pet Orthrus, he was still satisfied. 'Well, I guess I can catch this ghost before worrying about a name. Being a ghost buster is of a much higher priority.'