Chapter 9

Translator: Yonnee

—

Julia packed her talismans in her bag and got on a horse. Patrick also rode his own horse next to hers and looked around.

“The Duke isn’t coming with us today?”

“I haven’t even seen him all day.”

Julia tried to visit Leo earlier because she had something to talk about with him regarding the talismans, but when she couldn’t find him, she had no choice but to retreat for the day.

“When I asked Baron Doria, he just said he didn’t know where the Duke is… Let’s just go for now.”

Patrick nodded. The two left shortly afterwards and headed towards the refugee shelters that became cemeteries to look around each tombstone again. They mounted off their horses a short distance away from the shelter and walked the rest of the way.

It looked dreary in the evening, but during the day, there was a certain warm, cozy feeling to the place because there were countless pilgrims and the bereaved families visiting.

This would change in the evening when the tombstones would exude dark energy. While looking around, Julia took out her talismans from her bag and gave about half of it to Patrick.

“Put these on the back of the tombstones just like last time. If you put it in front, the dead wouldn’t like it.”

“Why?”

“Think about it. The tombstone is like your face when you’ve died. How would you feel if someone suddenly came and put this on your face?”

“…They wouldn’t be able to see properly, right?”

“It’s similar. It’ll be dawn soon, so stick them on.”

As Julia ordered, Patrick ran around and affixed the talismans onto the tombstones. It wasn’t easy to stick them on because there was no glue on them. After attaching the talismans, Patrick stretched out his back and looked around.

“Are you done?”

“Yes. Are we going to the next location now?”

Julia shook her head as she observed her surroundings.

“Let’s hide for now.”

Julia led Patrick away towards a place nearby where the grass was tall. Some time passed as they hid themselves there, and the area became darker despite daybreak approaching.

As they hid quietly, even the sounds that the bugs had been making hushed and faded away, and a gloomy atmosphere rose from the graves. Julia’s eyes glimmered.

One by one, the rising energy took shape. They looked like people on the surface, but if anyone took a closer look, they all looked translucent. Julia stood up, trying not to make a sound, then signaled Patrick to stay still while the ghosts were here.

At the rustling sound she made, the ghosts looked sharply at her. Their eyes widened at the sight of Julia, then one of them shouted.

[ Fxxx! You startled me! ]

“…”

It was like an assembly of cowards.

When Julia first came to this world, one of the things she noticed was that the ghosts here had diverse personalities. In her past life, the ghosts there were known mostly for their scary and gloomy presence.

Truthfully, the spirits of the dead were just hovering around. While they’re wandering aimlessly, they would sometimes absorb the stray thoughts of living people, and this would change their nature. There were some cases when a spirit that only used to like playing pranks, after absorbing people’s consciousness, would change into a malevolent spirit.

If that was the case here, then ghosts would flock to where society was to absorb more of those thoughts, but people were too far away from here for that to happen.

In this world, such ghosts were very rare. Meaning, there were very few malevolent spirits. At best, they’d just crack their own necks, remove their heads and put them back on, or twist their limbs upside down. But since living people rarely even saw them, they didn’t even do these either.

But the nearby friendly(?) ghosts, who liked to play pranks a lot, knew that Julia was looking at them, so they came out to tease her a bit. But Julia knew about their intentions, so the prank wouldn’t work on her.

[ W-What’s this! You showed up so suddenly! I thought you were a ghost! ]

[ You idiot! Aren’t you a ghost?! ]

[ Ah, you’re right. ]

Their intelligence seemed to have declined a little. Julia looked at the four ghosts and spoke to them.

“Are you guys the owners of these graves?”

[ Oh? She’s talking to us. I guess she can see us. ]

[ Yep. And it looks like she’s staring straight at us. ]

Julia’s words were drowned out by their giggling. Her eyebrows twitched. The ghosts who were ignoring her kept on joking around. Then, the first ghost who acted like he was frightened before looked at Julia.

[ If you could see us, why’d you have to pop out of nowhere? You almost scared the life outta me! ]

“You’re already a ghost, so what life could you possibly lose?”

[ That’s what I’m telling you. ]

“But why are you acting so surprised? Is it your first time seeing a person?”

[ First time? Nah. I was a person, too. ]

“But why were you surprised?”

At Julia’s question, the ghosts exchanged glances. She tilted her head to the side. They looked like students hesitating because they didn’t want to be scolded.

Julia continued to stare at them with her arms folded.

“What is it? I need to know so I can help.”

[ Help? ]

Rattled, the ghosts made a commotion. Julia pressed her temples, suddenly getting a headache that she didn’t have before because of their loud voices.

“Stop being noisy and just speak one at a time. No, you, the mister who got surprised earlier. You tell me. What’s the problem?”

When Julia pointed at him, he started to explain the upsetting situation.

[ Our friends keep disappearing these days! ]

“Disappearing?”

Tilting her head to the side once more, Julia used her forefinger to point up to the sky, asking wordlessly if they’d ascended to heaven. But the ghost just shook his head.

[ They would have told us if they left that way, but they suddenly just vanished one after another. ]

“…How many?”

[ …Thirty at most. ]

“Thirty?”

Julia was shocked by the number, her eyes growing wide. The ghost nodded and continued.

[ Some of my friends disappeared, too. One of them had a son who he raised all by himself. He said that if he sees his son grow up and raise his own children, he’d move on. But suddenly, he just disappeared. His son isn’t even married yet, so he wouldn’t have gone to heaven. It’s impossible that his love had faded. ]

“Certainly… That should be the case.”

[ And every time one of my friends disappeared, people showed up around here. ]

“How many?”

[ Dunno. If I knew that, maybe I wouldn’t be here anymore. I might’ve vanished, too. Anyway, I got surprised because I thought you’re one of them. I almost had a miscarriage. ]

The ghost didn’t seem to realize that men couldn’t conceive in the first place.

“Hmm…”

Julia placed a hand on her chin. The ghost stared at her with a frown, seemingly in agony. Her eyes and hair were covered by the shadows of the approaching daybreak.

“…Ghosts suddenly disappearing…”

[ By the way, did you stick those papers on? ]

Julia nodded, and the ghost wordlessly expressed his confusion.

“This is a graveyard, but it doesn’t have any dark energy. Even if there were no dead people buried here, it’s rare for a land to have no yin. That’s why I used the talismans to bring it out. What do you think? How do you feel?”

[ Ah, so that’s why I didn’t have energy these days. I thought I was about to vanish, but today, I felt energized. It’s because of those talismans. ]

[ Right, right. I also felt like that. You guys, too, right? ]

[ Yup, yup. ]

Julia sighed when the ghosts started chattering again. There’s a saying that the dead tell no tales, but that was, in fact, a lie.

The dead were much more likely to open their mouths than the living. It’s because they could finally say all the things they couldn’t say while they were alive.

Thanks to that, this was the kind of noise that shamans had to endure all the time. Julia pressed her furrowed brows with her hand, trying to straighten them.

“Now, now. Be quiet. Let me ask you a few more questions.”

[ What is it? Is there even enough time… Oh? ]

The ghost who was answering Julia’s questions widened his eyes as he looked up at the sky, and Julia followed suit. She was about to say something more, but the ghost started looking around him with anxious eyes. Then, with a contemplative expression, the ghost looked at Julia.

[ I think we should go. ]

“Why?”

[ I don’t know! But I have a feeling we shouldn’t be here. A very dangerous energy is coming. ]

“…Dangerous energy?”

Julia frowned. She tried to spread out her senses to see if she could feel it too, but nothing came up. She turned to find Patrick, wondering if he had revealed his strength, but Julia couldn’t even feel his presence because he was hiding it well.

When she looked back at the ghosts again, they were all restless, nervous expressions on their faces. But then, with a shriek, they all vanished.

At their disappearance, Julia searched her surroundings with urgency. She quietly called out to Patrick, who tiptoed towards her and whispered.

“Are the ghosts gone?”

“They’re gone, but can you feel anything?”

“Feel what?”

“Signs of impure energy or a living person’s presence… something like that.”

“No, there’s nothing here.”

Patrick shook his head, and at this, Julia bit her lower lip. Of the people she knew who could feel energies, Patrick was leagues ahead.

To be honest, he could have been a mage, but unfortunately, his brain didn’t want to cooperate, so he swung a sword instead of trying to figure out how to use his abilities.

But he still made use of them by sensing energies around him. Sometimes, he could feel a ghost’s energy if it’s strong enough.

If even Patrick couldn’t feel it…

“There’s two possibilities.”

“What are they?”

“One, the presence here is strong enough that it could hide from you…”

“Or?”

Julia smiled coldly and stared at the deserted cemetery.

“Or, it’s a god.”

[ HIIIIIIISSSS!! ]

Along with the tremendous sound, a large astral body appeared at the other side of the graveyard. On reflex, Julia hurled a talisman at the snake that appeared. The East’s binding. This talisman was used for limiting the movements of astral bodies.

The snake, shocked by the talisman flying towards him, turned away to avoid it quickly, flicking its tongue in the distance.

Julia smiled despondently as she stared absent-mindedly at the snake. It looked very familiar. She touched her forehead and muttered.

“Why is the Seasonal God here?”