Haunting (part 1)

Ch. XXII - Haunting (Elice)

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It is… very dark.

Luckily the person standing next to me is the infamous Paladin hero, a light mage.

Rake conjured a bunch of golden white balls of light in the air around us. It does give away a slight bit of heat from going near it, and I feared that it might burn my robe due to it touching.

"Don't let these things touch me."

I said coldly, but Rake ignored me. It seemed that he was too afraid to say anything, or he was just being silent.

You really can't tell when dealing with an antisocial person like him. Why is he silent? Was it because he's scared? Was it because he just wasn't talking? Was it because he is holding his poop?

Of course the most likely situation was that he was scared. He told me before we entered that he disliked the darkness, so it makes sense if he is silent because he is scared.

But come on… isn't he super strong? Why be scared of ghosts when you can wipe out an entire race?

Speaking of ghosts, this guy probably has the largest count haunting him at this very moment. We're talking about an entire race, here.

Not that I care. I'm the last survivor of the said race, surely the ghosts of ethelens wouldn't mind me. Right?

We walked in the dark for about fifteen minutes, and we were very close to losing our minds from the silence and darkness. But it seems like we have arrived.

The first thing we saw was the reflection of the light in the distance. The light was from Rake's light balls, and the reflection seemed to be coming from glass.

We approached closer, and Rake spawned even more of his light balls. He moved them forward, far into the distance.

Finally…

A haunted house.

It looked very old. Possibly as old as the church from the orphanage, but since the material was different, this one looked so much worse than the orphanage.

The material is a type of wood that doesn't seem to get eaten by termites, but is still molding from moss. The outer appearance looked green, and it doesn't seem that ugly up close. But it is dirty, for sure.

"This is it…?"

I asked monotonously, but what exactly was I expecting? It's a damn old abandoned house in the middle of the forest, naturally it will be very dirty.

But still, it is surprisingly big. Even though it has aged a lot, this place seems like it can still stand for another decade.

What I'm saying is, it is bad. But, not as bad as one may think.

Is it possible to live here? Only one way to find out.

I began taking the steps forward, but Rake stopped me from moving. I turned to him and was about to ask why, and then he lifted his shuddering hand upwards. His finger is pointing at something, and I follow where it is pointing.

He was pointing at a broken window, where a lot of moss seemed to be covering it and leaving barely any glass to view. But what he was actually pointing at is something behind it.

Behind the moss… behind the glass,

is a pair of yellow eyes watching us.

"Hi-Hiiikkkkkk-----!!!!!!"

I suddenly freaked out and made a loud noise, which then made the eyes disappear. My voice definitely caused it to move away, and now we have no way of knowing where it is anymore.

At least we know now…

This place is haunted indeed.

"L-Let's just get out of here--"

I was about to say, but Rake is already walking forward.

The way he walks is like he is being confident about something. It's like when you were previously doubting yourself, but you found a new light and immediately knew how to solve the situation.

That's the way he walks right now. He mightily marched towards the front gate.

Rake opened the front gate nicely and kept on marching until he arrived at the front door. I was following behind him since he was the one with the lights. If he left me, then it would just be me and the darkness in this dense scary forest. I have to follow him, I'm forced to.

Rake arrived at the front door, and he took a few seconds before opening it. He turned to me, and found that I am currently being absolutely terrified.

"What's wrong?"

He asked calmly, and I couldn't look more confused.

"Huh? What's wrong!? Maybe your brain?? Did you not see that thing's eyes??"

"… I was the one who pointed at it."

"Yes!! And you still ask what's wrong?"

Rake still looked confused even after all that, and I let out a sigh of giving up. He turned back to the door and opened it, and I panicked immediately. He entered, and I had no choice but to follow.

The insides were… surprisingly clean.

I was expecting this place to be filled to the brim with moss and dust. But it seems like it's not as bad as one expected.

Although, it is still quite old. There are quite a few holes on the floor, so I need to mind those.

I was already terrified of the boots, but Rake seemed like he was looking around. His face suddenly became tense as he turned towards the stairs.

"Get ready."

Huh!? For what!?!

TAP!!

"Hiiii!!!!!---"

Steps can be heard coming from the stairs. I followed Rake's gaze and turned to the stairs as well, and wondered what was coming out from the darkness of the steps.

"Grrrr…"

Hmm?

Hmm?? What was that sound???

"RROAAAA!!!!!!!!!"

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeekkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!

BRESHH!!!!!

The sound of liquid spraying to the ground was then heard, followed by a thud. It was quite dark since Rake suddenly removed his light balls, but after he reconjured them, I now realized what the entire fuss was about.

Laying on the floor is a dead body of a green-skinned being. From the color of the blood, anyone can tell that this thing is neither human nor ethelen.

I have not seen them in person before, but I know for a fact that this thing is a type of orc. A humanoid monster with a face resembling a pig.

"What's an orc doing here…?"

Rake studied the corpse of the orc, while I was still trying to catch my breath.

I was so stalled in the whole idea of a ghost actually existing here, that I had no thoughts whatsoever about it not actually being a ghost. Like, who would've thought that orcs had yellow eyes when they saw them in a haunted house's window??

It was normal to be afraid, but it was not normal to stay afraid. The orc is dead, and I must calm down.

I also approached the orc's corpse, and Rake suddenly turned to me. Worn on his face is a really… really annoyed expression.

"W-What?"

"You were screaming so loud… my ears felt like it gone deaf--"

"I'm sorry. It was a new experience for me."

"… Didn't know it was that scary."

Huh? What was that, punk??

Before I could complain, Rake stood up and turned his gaze around the house again.

"The house is empty now. It seems to be reasonable enough to stay in, at least. Just need a lot of cleaning up to do."

Rake declared as he approached the walls. He tried touching it and found a massive amount of dust on the wall. I turned my gaze towards the floor that we are stepping on, and found our footsteps that were made due to how thick the dust is on the floor.

"Do you… have any magic that can speed up the cleaning process?"

"I know a magic that can destroy the entire house--"

"Not helping."

Rake chuckled from my sudden reply, and he turned away to study more of the deeper areas of the house. Meanwhile, I still had my eyes locked on him, fully surprised.

Did he just chuckle at me?

A-Anyway, we need a ton of clean ups. 

This might… take all night. Not even sure where to start, honestly.

We then began planning on how to do the cleaning up process. We started on the most problematic issue we have at hand, which is the corpse of the orc.

Rake agreed that he will take care of the corpse, but I must be the one cleaning the blood from the floor and ceilings. I can't even reach the ceilings, and I did complain to him.

"Then, you want to deal with the corpse instead?"

"…"

I didn't reply.

We then moved on to the house itself. There are two floors in the house, three bedrooms, and one bathroom on the first floor. There's a kitchen, living room, and a dining room, all complete with their furniture.

Every single one of those rooms are dirty. Rake and I decided to just split them in two for each of us to work on.

I took all the bedrooms and the kitchen while Rake will deal with the living room, the dining room, and the bathroom. Technically I'm dealing with one extra room than him, but since the ones I'm doing are much easier than his (I'm absolutely not cleaning the bathroom), I was tasked with four rooms instead of three.

And so… the cleaning process began.

We first light up the entire house with a crystal light that Rake somehow had with him. At least with this crystal light, we can see the entirety of the house just fine.

As for the cleaning tools, we were… forced to use what we have in our storage.

Truth be told, we barely had enough to clean up a house, especially when it's an abandoned haunted house such as this. And to make things worse, both of us are not a commoner's blood.

Neither of us knew how to clean shit.

"You're supposed to broom it backwards. That's how you broom, dumbass."

My complaining voice was heard throughout the living room, but the following was only a sigh of a young man.

"The butlers have shown me multiple times that you broom forward."

"You were looking at it wrong!"

And… neither of us actually know how to get along.

Fun night. Absolutely 10/10 would rather die alongside my entire people.

Rake absolutely sucked at cleaning. His whole experience is based on him watching his butlers and maids do the cleaning, while I have some experiences myself. Not that much, but at least it's something valuable at this moment.

I managed to clean one room earlier before him, but he was almost done with the bathroom as well. He wanted to finish the most difficult one earlier, so he went with the bathroom first.

Also he said he wanted to puke so many times for unknown reasons, which is part of the reason why he wanted the bathroom to be done first. Apparently the bathroom is where the orc used to eat the humans that came here. The orc would capture those people, and drag them all the way to the bathroom.

Not sure why the bathroom, though. Pretty sure he can just eat it in the living room just fine.

Three hours in, and I have only finished cleaning two bedrooms and the kitchen, while Rake has already finished with the bathroom and the living room. We purposely spared the last two rooms that we probably won't use for tomorrow, since we are quite tired.

The last two rooms are the third bedroom and the dining room. We don't need a third bedroom, and we don't need a dining room since we can eat temporarily outside. The living room is the center of the house, and the kitchen speaks for itself.

Damn… I'm exhausted.

The air in the house was quite dirty as well thanks to the dust. So I went outside for some air, but then realized it was like super dark out. The moonlight is there, but the forest is still super eerie.

I shielded my thoughts to exit the house immediately. So, I went to the bedroom on the second floor, and I just sat down next to the window. I found this spot to be quite fresh with air, since the window is pretty much broken and air can flow nicely all the time.

And also, I can view the skies like this.

The stars have returned to view, and the moon is also shining downwards and bestowing us with light. It was so beautiful tonight, because the last two nights weren't as pretty due to the dark clouds continuously covering the skies.

The night, huh…?

Come to think of it, that 'thing' also happened on a night like this.

I've never once had some peace of time to think about. The first day I spent my thoughts on surviving, and so is the second day until I met Rake. And finally today, the moment I had some peace.

It was all thanks to him. All the peace of mind I have now, I wouldn't be having this if he didn't save me that time.

He is… fully supporting me. Betraying his kingdom, spending money, even bribing the damn guild just so he can request a mission that will help us.

Or rather… to help me, specifically.

Why is he helping? For what reason does he have, that he is willing to sacrifice his normal life just to keep me alive?

Was it my looks…? That shouldn't be it. I know my looks aren't bad, but that shouldn't be it. He was there at the jail cell, as if he knew that I was locked there by the knights.

He came just so he could save me. A person he has never seen before.

Or… has he actually met me?

That shouldn't be possible. I can't think of a single moment where I met a human like him. Which means… his reason was…

… No way, right?