94
The two began moving in earnest in the middle of the night, after the sun had completely set. In the deep darkness where the only light to rely on was the faint moonlight, two figures moved silently.
There were several reasons for choosing the nighttime, but the main one was the villagers’ intense wariness.
When walking on the streets, eating meals, having casual conversations… Even when visiting graves to pray for show, they felt someone’s gaze. As if monitoring whether they were doing anything strange.
They didn’t openly show hostility. But despite outwardly pretending to be kind, they couldn’t completely hide the faint antipathy and suspicion lurking in their eyes. With not just one person but the entire village looking at them this way, it would be difficult to move freely away from those gazes.
“Is this the right house?”
“Yes. Let’s enter through the window.”
Their steps were confident, as if they already had a destination in mind, which they did. They had taken note of this house when they first arrived in the village, specifically when they briefly looked around while heading to the village chief’s house.
The malevolent wraith energy could be felt evenly throughout this village. This was limited to the village’s ‘land’; nothing special was felt from the surrounding forest, buildings, or people walking around.
But this house was unique in that intense wraith energy leaked from inside. Moreover…
“It seems someone definitely lives here alone.”
Arpel recalled as he heard Rohan’s quiet mutter.
This evening, after a simple meal, Arpel had taken Rohan on a lap around the village. It was to filter out places where wraith energy emanated from inside buildings, like the house they first discovered.
They found about 6 houses. They speculated these were homes of people who had been ‘cursed’. However, despite finding so many houses, their destination for tonight was the first house they had seen. The reason was quite simple. There were fewer signs of life inside.
Unlike other houses where they sensed two or more presences, here they felt only one. In other words, a cursed person was living alone in this house.
Click.
A shadow, honed thin enough to seep between the window frames, unlocked the latch inside, and the two melted into the darkness, entering without a sound. It was a perfect infiltration deserving praise, except for the tiny noise inevitably made when opening the aged window.
Perhaps because it wasn’t a very large house, befitting someone living alone, they found the owner quicker than expected. A thin figure lying on a shabby bed. Judging by the rougher than expected breathing, it seemed their time was near.
“…I didn’t expect a wraith to be treated as a god.”
Arpel, quietly observing the man’s condition, uttered a brief impression.
God’s punishment. God’s curse. The state this man, and by extension the villagers, were in didn’t deserve such grand names. If anything, they were being played by a mere human’s tricks.
“Arpel. Then is this man also like those people from back then…?”
“No. That’s not it.”
Rohan’s face had long since frozen like ice. Arpel easily guessed what he was recalling. He was probably thinking of those writhing in pain, craving death, whom they had seen in the Salvation Church’s human experimentation site.
Compared to those with grotesque appearances that could hardly be called human, the man sleeping before them looked almost peaceful.
Those people had ‘wraith’ itself flowing within their bodies. But this man was different. Something thin and fog-like had sprouted inside his body, too faint to be called a wraith.
While the energy was relatively weak and docile, so he probably wouldn’t feel much pain, the reason he couldn’t wake up and remained asleep was likely because this fog-like substance was consuming his ‘life’. At least, that’s how it appeared to Arpel.
“Unlike those who underwent human experimentation, the energy is floating inside the body. It seems like it could be absorbed if…”
“Arpel.”
A warm, affectionate voice with a faint hint of laughter. Arpel, who had been diligently reporting his findings, stopped abruptly like a broken machine at that gentle call. His gaze, which had been examining the man, quickly turned to Rohan. It was an unusually swift action for Arpel.
Hands slowly approached and grasped both of his. Although he could easily break free if he wanted to, why did it feel so firm, as if shackles had been placed on him?
“We agreed not to do this kind of thing, right?”
His mind went blank for a moment at the tone, as if soothing a stubborn child. Fingers interlaced, and by the time he sensed a faint anger between the gently curved eyes, his halted thoughts began to move again, albeit awkwardly.
Something welled up from deep in his chest. He had just been spitting out all the facts he could observe about the man’s condition, not saying he would actually do it.
Hadn’t they made a promise in the first place? The life of an unknown human and his promise to Rohan were not even comparable to Arpel. It was a simple matter. His priority had always been skewed towards Rohan.
“…It’s unfair.”
While various thoughts popped up in his mind, in the end, only a single grumble-like word came out of his mouth.
There was no follow-up. Arpel, who had expected at least a question about why it was unfair, slowly raised his downcast gaze when there was no response. The first thing he saw was golden eyes, round as if in surprise.
And lips moving as if wanting to say something.
Just as a faint voice was about to leak out…
—!
As if by a lie, they sensed someone opening the door. Rohan’s face contorted as if caught off guard.
While they weren’t immediately visible from the door, that was as far as it went. The house was too small to hide, and if they tried to escape through the window, the creaking sound of reopening the closed window would surely be heard.
Sneaking out was impossible. Calmly concluding this, Rohan soon thought of the next best option.
‘Let’s subdue them.’
The decision was extremely quick.
The presence felt from beyond was similar to that of an ordinary person. So subduing them without showing their faces shouldn’t be too difficult.
Even if they realized belatedly that they had been attacked, their identities wouldn’t be revealed. It was obvious that they, as outsiders, would be viewed suspiciously, but without evidence, they couldn’t be interrogated.
Just as Rohan was about to put this thought into action, a white hand suddenly extended into his view. He couldn’t ignore the hand beckoning as if to grab it. Immediately after taking the hand as if entranced, the floor right in front of them began to darken as if black paint was spreading.
As the expanding area reached their feet, it swallowed their bodies whole. When even the black floor returned to its original color, the room looked so pristine it was hard to believe anyone had been there.
Right after, a man entered.
“Hmm.”
After briefly surveying the interior, he immediately approached the bed. His gaze was calm as he looked down at the person sleeping with ragged breaths. His eyes appraised various things as if evaluating an object, while his hands deftly searched inside his clothes, showing familiarity with the action. When his hand emerged from his pocket, it held a small orb.
The transparent orb rippled as it got closer to the sleeping person, then gradually changed color starting from the end. A murky, dark blue color. Seeing this change, a satisfied smile bloomed on the man’s face.
“This one doesn’t have much time left either.”
The great work was near at hand.
Muttering this, the man pocketed the orb and left the house again.
After the man had completely left, only precarious breathing sounds lingered in the house.
***
“Are you feeling a bit better?”
“…Yes, I’m fine.”
The method they chose to escape that situation was to hide in the shadows and then slip out after the man disappeared. The problem was that this ‘shadow’ was the same space that Arpel and Rohan often used when catching criminals or members of the Salvation Church.
An abyss resembling pitch-black darkness where nothing could be seen, heard, or felt. While Arpel, not being human, wasn’t greatly affected by the inability to sense things, it was different for Rohan.
Because of this, from the time they safely returned home until now, Arpel had been carefully embracing Rohan and patting him. Seeing his trembling hands right after emerging from the shadows, he couldn’t just leave him alone.
Only after Rohan’s breathing became more stable did Arpel bring up various topics. Most were extensions of their last conversation, expressing the unfairness he had felt.
“I misunderstood… I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. It can happen.”
The softly scattered laughter, the head nuzzling as if throwing a tantrum, and the gently uttered words all indicated that Rohan’s condition had definitely improved. While patting his back and stroking his head with the other hand, Arpel thought to himself.
‘Leriana could probably do it…’
She was the one who had purified the wraith energy that clung to bodies even in the human experimentation site. Although the subject being treated had died because their body couldn’t withstand it, given the better condition now, she might be able to purify quickly.
However, he didn’t voice this thought aloud. Let’s postpone the rest of the conversation until tomorrow, since it’s already tough enough. Instead, he decided to ask what he had wanted to ask all day. Although it felt strangely like an excuse… he ignored that feeling completely.
“Rohan, you know, there’s something I’ve been curious about.”
“Something you were curious about?”
He glanced out the window. The perfect night, pitch black outside. It was just the right time to ask about his curiosity. While staring at Rohan, who was blinking in confusion, he continued speaking.
“You said… sounds could be heard at night. What kind of sounds are they?”
