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Chapter 234

Sob, Sob, Sob...

“Wh-What is it? What is that? I’m asking you what it is!”

“I-I don’t know. H-How would I know?”

In such an extreme situation, even Tranquility magic was useless, and all Harriet and I could think of was never leaving Ellen’s side.

‘Didn’t they say this place was safe?! I thought they said this place wasn’t a problem!’

‘Why are we hearing this sobbing echoing through the halls?!’

“It’s probably nothing much,” Ellen said as she hugged both Harriet and I tightly. It was somewhat reassuring that at least Ellen remained calm.

‘No matter what happens, Ellen will take care of it. She has her divine sword, after all.

‘Well, so do I... but... Anyway, I trust only her!’

I hugged Ellen even tighter and Harriet did the same.

“The teacher said it was safe.”

But believing that all was fine solely because Mr. Effenhauser said so seemed a bit foolish.

‘The Temple administration isn’t that perfect you know... it’s surprisingly sloppy. I know because I made it that way! If it were too perfect, it’d be hard to create incidents, so I intentionally created some places where they were absurdly loose too!

‘We’re in such a spooky place, hearing some unknown crying sound, and you still think it isn’t dangerous—what kind of nerves do you have?’

We clung to Ellen, stopping in our tracks as if something might spring out at any moment.

Srrrk.

“Ahh! Aaaah!”

Something really did come through the wall just then, and Harriet screamed, while I just clung even tighter to Ellen, my eyes going wide.

At least Harriet screamed... I felt like I was going to faint with my eyes open.

‘I hate it. I hate stuff like this!’

Sob... Sob... Sob...

A ghostly figure was wandering the hallway, crying. Even though Harriet screamed, it didn’t even glance our way.

Ellen saw it clearly, yet she wasn’t surprised at all.

“It looks like a ghost. A lowest-level one.”

“G-Ghost...?”

‘You mean, a ghost?! Why is there a ghost here? And how is this place not dangerous if there’s a ghost here?’

“This place must have very strong spiritual energy. That’s why ghosts that we usually can’t see materialize here. They probably won’t be able to harm us, and they won’t even be able to perceive us.”

Sob, sob... Sob...

“So it’s not a demon or a monster. It’s just like a phenomenon. There’s no need to be scared.”

Indeed, it seemed the ghost couldn’t see or sense us.

Ellen seemed to know a great deal about this. Perhaps she learned it in Demonic Ecology class, or somewhere else.

A lowest-level ghost... It wasn’t dangerous, and was closer to just being a phenomenon.

It was probably not a demon, then.

Honestly, I wasn’t even sure where the line between demon and non-demon was drawn.

Although Ellen told us not to be scared, her calm demeanor in the face of this situation was even more frightening.

Come to think of it, I remembered Dettomorian saying once that ghosts were everywhere, and we just didn’t notice them.

The ancient castle of Epiacs simply had such strong spiritual energy that these ubiquitous ghosts materialized.

Thus, what we normally couldn’t see became visible, but the ghosts themselves weren’t particularly dangerous.

“B-But, why didn’t they appear during the group mission...?” Harriet asked, trembling. Her face had turned pale.

The sobbing ghost passed through a wall and disappeared somewhere.

“They probably chased them away during the mission since we might have been startled,” Ellen replied.

Now that the mission was over, and all Temple personnel had withdrawn, the ghosts they had previously banished had probably returned.

“Ah, so that’s why...”

I remembered Mr. Effenhauser almost stopping us just as we were about to leave. He seemed to be contemplating something. But, in the end, he let us go.

‘Shouldn’t you have told us that ghosts might make an appearance? Even if they are harmless ghosts? Huh?!

‘Was this a prank by him? It sure seems like it.’

Harriet and I exchanged glances.

We didn’t know what was going on, but at that moment, we just wanted to leave.

“This is fascinating. It’s my first time seeing a ghost.”

Instead of being afraid, Ellen seemed rather intrigued. In such a situation, a normal person would want to run away. Why did she suddenly find it interesting?

‘Also, most people never want to see a ghost in their lifetime!’

“They can’t harm us, and they can’t even see us, so what’s there to be afraid of?” asked Ellen.

She seemed unable to understand why Harriet and I were afraid of what she saw as a harmless natural phenomenon.

“I don’t even know where to begin criticizing that statement, but you’re kind of right, and that makes me feel pathetic.”

“Me, me too...”

Ellen’s words caused both Harriet and I to feel a strange sense of defeat.

“Let’s go over there.”

Harriet had been the one noisily in the lead, but once the ghost appeared, Ellen took the lead.

From my perspective, both of them seemed like crazy people.

Well, it was certain that Ellen was crazier than Harriet.

***

The place wasn’t swarming with ghosts, but there were quite a few of them about.

It was clear that the staff from the Temple had indeed chased the ghosts away. This place was genuinely haunted, and the kids would have fainted if they’d known.

Ellen seemed to have been personally accumulating knowledge in this field as well, and not just about demons. She had instantly recognized this as a harmless phenomenon.

“We can’t learn anything from these ghosts, can we?” Harriet said as she clung closely to Ellen.

“Probably.”

The Temple must have discovered this area was haunted while they were trying to uncover the secrets of the ancient castle of Epiacs. They had probably also found out they could learn nothing from the ghosts.

The ghosts did not even seem to have proper forms, and just wandered around crying or mumbling incomprehensible words.

We didn’t even know if these ghosts were originally from this place. After realizing they were harmless, I wasn’t as paralyzed with fear as I’d been earlier.

Of course, that didn’t mean I wasn’t scared.

“... Can’t we figure anything out using Necromancy or something?” I asked.

Harriet fixed me with an intense stare. “Even though the Temple is somewhat lenient when it comes to Dark Magic, Necromancy is forbidden. We can’t use such things.”

Forbidden simply meant it was considered a banned spell.

“So, it’s a no?”

“That’s right.”

The Temple did have a Dark Magic curriculum, but it didn’t cover the evil spells that were considered forbidden which meant they probably hadn’t used any Necromancy spells during their investigation here.

So, while traditional Necromancy was off-limits, we might be able to use Dettomorian’s sorcery-style necromancy to investigate.

The Temple didn’t really understand the whole concept of sorcery, so they hadn’t banned it. But all this was something to consider for a different day.

We wandered the haunted castle while ghosts occasionally appeared. The rooms were mostly devoid of furnishings, either rotten away or removed after this place had been discovered.

Therefore, we could only guess the purpose of most rooms. Some looked like banquet halls, others like storage rooms. We already knew what the bedrooms looked like.

Epiacs was so vast that it seemed impossible to explore the entire place in one day.

We entered a large building that was quite far from the central structure. It was so remote that none of us would have entered it while we were still on the mission.

It seemed like the most well-preserved area, and closest to its original form.

“It looks like a chapel.”

A chapel...

“But it’s slightly different. In the grand chapel at our palace, the statues of the Five Great Gods are placed at the back, with a lectern in front of them... but here...”

“It’s built as a dome,” Ellen said, completing Harriet’s thought.

It wasn’t set up like an ordinary church or temple.

The building was dome-shaped, with alcoves in the circular wall, each housing a large statue. Unlike the other statues in the corridors, these were significantly larger.

Harriet had a specific reason why this place wasn’t a chapel.

“It’s a pantheon.”

A pantheon... The circular wall was lined with statues that represented deities. But we knew this wasn’t a pantheon of gods.

“There are too many statues, and their appearances are different,” Ellen said.

“Indeed.”

A place built differently from a typical chapel; a pantheon.

But if this were a pantheon dedicated to the gods, there should have been five statues. But here, there were seven statues.

“What gods are they worshiping here?” Harriet asked, tilting her head in confusion.

“There must be significant meaning to these statues, unlike the others in the corridor,” Ellen said.

The statues here would have been crucial to the original inhabitants of this place.

They weren’t the Five Great Gods, nor were they demon gods. Otherwise, there would only be five of them.

“Since they’re all human, does that mean everyone who lived here was human?” asked Harriet.

Her earlier assumption was beginning to make sense.

She had speculated that this place might have been the stronghold of a secret magic order. In that case, the seven statues here might represent important figures within that order, or highly respected mages in history.

The faces of the seven statues were intricately carved. Although they had weathered significantly over time, they had clearly been crafted with great care.

Since they weren’t wearing robes, we couldn’t be sure they were mages. Of course, one didn’t have to wear a robe to be a mage.

“Hmm, I don’t think we’ll learn much just by looking at the statue’s faces. They’re just very finely carved,” Harriet said with a sigh. She thought it pointless to ponder the statues’ identities.

While examining each statue’s face, I suddenly froze.

“What’s wrong?” Harriet asked, and I rubbed my forehead, trying to ease the tension.

“It’s nothing,” I replied.

However, my heart was pounding wildly.

One of the statue’s face bore an uncanny resemblance to Eleris, and I couldn’t dismiss it.

‘That’s definitely Eleris. Why is there a statue of Eleris in this ancient castle up in the northern polar region?’

My mind raced to connect the dots.

“Yes, I am Eleris of the House of Fire (火曜) from the Seven Nights Clan.”

A Vampire Lord’s House, and the head of the House of Fire, Eleris.

Seven statues, seven Houses... The ancient castle, Epiacs...

This place was definitely related to the seven Vampire Lord Houses.

[Event Completed]

[You have received 500 Achievement Points.]

My speculation was correct.

***

I couldn’t tell whether all seven Vampire Lord Houses had inhabited this castle of Epiacs. However, this castle had a very, very ancient history.

Eleris had explicitly mentioned not knowing what had become of the Moon (月曜) and Sun (日曜) houses. Yet, there were seven statues around us.

I couldn’t identify which statues represented the Lords of the Sun and Moon houses.

However, two of the statues showed the most signs of weathering. These were the two oldest statues among them; this place had existed when the Vampire Lords of the Sun and Moon clans were around. Plus, there was a statue of Eleris.

This confirmed that Eleris was indeed the head of the House of Fire.

Though Ellen and Harriet hadn’t discovered anything, I had, because I knew.

‘How long had this place been around? And why exactly is it no longer in use? What happened to the remaining five Vampire Lord Houses, excluding the Moon and Sun houses?’

As I pondered these questions, Harriet was also deep in thought, examining every nook and cranny of the pantheon.

Suddenly, Ellen tugged at my sleeve.

“There.”

“Huh, what? Did you find something?”

Ellen pointed at the statue in front of me.

“You think so too, right?” she asked.

“... Think what?”

‘What’s she talking about?’

Ellen leaned closer and whispered into my ear so Harriet wouldn’t hear.

“This looks like Ms. Rellia, doesn’t it?”

“Huh?!”

‘Wait a minute. Oh yeah, I forgot!’

Though Ellen didn’t know Eleris, she had spent time with Eleris while she’d been in disguise and using the name Rellia. Even though Eleris had altered her appearance slightly, the statue still bore a resemblance to her overall look.

The statue, which was a slightly weathered representation of Eleris, bore an uncanny resemblance to Realia.

“Ms. Rellia said she was a dragon, didn’t she?”

And Eleris had told Ellen that she was a dragon...

“Y-Yeah... Right.”

When asked why she was pretending to be a weak mage, Eleris had come up with the absurd excuse that she was a dragon, who was out in the world for her own amusement.

And now, in this mysterious and ancient castle, we had found a pantheon with seven statues, one of which resembled Rellia, who claimed to be a dragon.

This place was centuries old, but had undoubtedly been an elegant palace.

Ellen had never fully believed Eleris’s lie, instead believing her to be a powerful mage with some secret.

However, coming across the statue of someone who looked like her in such an unexpected place washed away Ellen’s lingering doubts.

A mage who claimed absurdly to be a dragon... An ancient castle, clearly holding some profound secret, which held a statue resembling her.

Faced with these intersecting pieces of evidence, Ellen could no longer doubt it. She slowly nodded, accepting her conclusion.

“This place... it belonged to dragons,” she remarked.

Ellen now seemed utterly convinced of the existence of the fantastic dragon species.

‘Eleris... Your little lie has ruined Ellen... She’s now going to live her life believing this place was a dragon’s lair. If anyone ever says that dragons don’t exist, she’ll say, “No, I’ve seen one myself.”

‘You’re the one who made her like this!’