After listening to Riona’s story, I became anxious.

The day after the holiday, I rushed to tell the Captain about it—

—however, a member of the knights visited me.

I was told not to pick him up from his office, but to go directly to his quarters instead.

…

I opened Captain’s room and peeked inside—

—in the room, I could see not only Captain Ranbic, but also Vice Captain Dortmund, and even Herez.

Basically, everyone whom was aware of the ghost.

They all wore a troubled expression.

A bad premonition swelled in my chest—

—at the same time, Captain Ranbic spoke;

“Ms. Walter… the ghost has appeared in front of a person other than me.”

Everything became clear at once—

—aah… Riona was telling me the truth yesterday, wasn’t she?

No doubt about it—the person that Captain meant was none other than her aunt.

…

It was a week after the Star Festival had concluded.

It was just time for the Royal Castle to return to its peaceful state once again—

The Queen, the princess, and their attendants were the ones who encountered it—

—besides that, not one, but two people had reported that they had witnessed a dark shadow.

Amongst them was Riona’s aunt.

At first, the two thought that they were mistaken—well, that was only natural. Of course, they didn’t say anything about it to anyone.

However—life energies were slowly being drained out of their bodies. To the point that the toll on their bodies was obvious to the eye. Their friends were worried and decided to come forward to the Queen;

—the two did see something.

—they weren’t mistaken at all and that entity was threatening them.

“The Queen then consulted to His Majesty. When I asked the attendants about the ghost’s appearance, I came to a conclusion that it was indeed the same ghost.”

Captain deliberately cancelled this morning’s walk because he wanted to survey the situation. He also wanted to see if any changes occurred after having me by his side.

“Please wait. So, when I wasn’t there, did the ghost appear before the Captain again?”

“Yes. It seems to be a natural thing. I asked Bock to accompany me but he rejected rather severely…”

“—well, what the difference is it going to make, anyway? It’s scary, you know. If it were to appear, I’ll be the first to run—I guarantee that.”

“You’re cruel… well, it can’t be helped, then.” Captain shook his head.

That was how terrible the ghost was.

Captain continued. “You were by my side the entire time during the Star Festival. It made me forgot how horrifying of an existence she is. However, I’m more confident, now. There’s no mistaking it, the attendants saw the same thing as me.”

The time those attendants encountered the ghost also matched.

However, even if both the Captain and the attendants did see the same ghost, there was nothing good about that.

After all, the ghost that until now had only appeared in front of the Captain had shown herself to others. It was probably because she could no longer appear in front of Captain.

“As usual, it doesn’t do anything fatal, but still… not only aiming our Captain, but also those gorgeous attendants… it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”

Vice Captain Dortmund was bitter—there was no trace of his usual carefree attitude.

“Besides that, the other attendants whom were also there at the time are strangely fatigued, too.”

“Are you saying that’s also because of the ghost?”

“We don’t know, yet.”

Captain Ranbic encountered the ghost quite often, but wasn’t immediately sick or anything.

Meanwhile, I did certainly get sick, but I recovered after one day—so, it shouldn’t have much to do with the ghost.

“Well, it’s certainly unfair to compare the physical strength of a knight leader with a female attendant’s. But it should also be taken into account, is what I’m saying.”

Until now—we perhaps misunderstood something.

That was what everyone felt.

…

“But… what could it be? What did we miss?”

“I don’t know. All we can conclude is that it never approaches Tina.”

“Yeah, there’s that, too…”

Captain dejectedly lowered his head.

—in the first place, I also didn’t know why it didn’t show itself to me.

Herez had even told me before, in a serious face. “Maybe the ghost dislikes your smell?”

…If that’s true—if this young maiden me indeed has a smell that’s hated by ghosts, that’s certainly a little saddening…

“Well… the priests should be doing a thorough investigation after this, especially after victims have fallen. How about we wait for the result, first? —huh?”

However, a knock interjected Captain Ranbic’s words.

“—excuse me.”

Having said that, a man emerged from behind the door without even waiting for a reply.

The man was of a higher stature than even the Knight Leader.

“How convenient, everyone is gathered together like this.”

The man smiled.

“—let’s exterminate the ghost.”

The man was none other than this kingdom’s ruler’s son—Prince Stout.

---

***T/N: One more chapter and we will caught up with the raw x(

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