Chapter 81: Educating the Virgin Ghost (01)

- Heehee... Sob sob... -

Returning to her bed, she couldn't stop crying and was terrified.

'I usually should be the one terrified of ghosts, shivering in fear. Why has it turned the other way around?'

Thanks to Shuru, I was freed from sleep paralysis and immediately checked my physical condition.

Although my condition was ruined due to mana backflow, luckily, I was released with Shuru's help before any disastrous event of my testicles bursting occurred, so there was no serious issue with my body.

- Whaaa...... -

She looked like a fully grown noble lady, but there she was, crying like a child, hugging a pillow in her room.

'Why do I have to suffer this? I just wanted to reach spiritual enlightenment and go to my mother...'

She seemed to calm down a bit compared to earlier, so I attempted to talk.

"If you have calmed down, may we have a conversation? My lady."

- Sniffle... -

After crying for nearly an hour, she put down her pillow, soaked with her tears.

'The tear stains... they're disappearing?'

Clearly, when she was holding it and crying, the pillow had translucent tear stains, but as soon as it fell from her hands, the tears left no trace, and even when she ran her hand over the surface, only a dry dust feeling remained.

'Is she really a ghost?'

I had heard of zombies or skeletons resurrected by necromancy, but I never thought I'd encounter a ghost.

Ghosts, unlike zombies and skeletons that can be created with just a corpse via necromancy, are more difficult to control because they involve dealing with the spirits of the dead, and their abilities had become manageable only recently with uniform mana-armament, making them vulnerable to attacks, unlike before when physical attacks were futile and they were feared. Ghosts had quickly become obsolete because clerics and paladins could easily defeat them, considered less threatening than common monsters.

Even illegal necromancers found ghosts of little forceful use and avoided controlling them as they always sought the warmth of the living and attempted to possess bodies, often posing a greater risk to the necromancers themselves.

Thus, the ghostly lady I was seeing was a truly rare existence in the kingdom.

"If you have calmed down, let us speak, my lady. I am Ban, affiliated with the Magic Knights."

- The Magic Knights... the largest and strongest in the capital? -

It seemed that 50 years ago, the Magic Knights' prowess was immense.

Even a noble lady who was a gravekeeper here knew their name.

- I belong to the Cordelia family that manages this crypt. My name is Lien. -

The ghostly lady introduced herself, seeming a bit reassured by the title, and I mentally noted the noble family name.

'I have memorized the noble families of the capital region, but I haven't heard of the Cordelia family.'

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That meant one of two things.

Either the family had been wiped out, or they had moved away from the capital region.

"How long have you been here?"

- I don't know... There's no way to tell the change of seasons here, and I can't feel either hot or cold... -

"When did this mansion become like this?"

- Was it five days after my 19th birthday? I suddenly got a fever and lost consciousness... When I came to, all the servants had disappeared, and I was alone. -

"What happened to the other family members?"

- I heard my father calling me occasionally, whispering from afar, but I've never actually seen him... The first person I've seen since I woke up is... -

Was I the first person she'd seen since becoming a ghost?

"Then... what was that act earlier?"

Referring to her licking my sleeping body.

Initially, I thought it was a hostile act by a ghost trying to drain the vitality of a living person, but her reaction did not seem overtly aggressive toward people.

- ... -

At that, the ghostly lady Lien bowed her head and remained silent.

"If it's difficult to answer, you don't have to... huh?"

The lady held a book in her hand, through her translucent fingers, I could make out the worn title partially.

'Maid ...tale? Could it be the infamous 'Erotic Maid Legend'?'

The 'Erotic Maid Legend' was a well-known series of risqué novels, which Dane also owned.

It was quite an old classic erotic tale; the story involved a seductive maid entering a noble family, leading to conflicts between the father and son, and even the discontented lady of the house becoming entangled in an unhealthy relationship with the maid, ultimately leading the family to ruin. The artistic quality of the story was not high, but the process of their downfall was vividly described.

'Looking closer, this isn't an original but a counterfeit.'

Naturally, being a famous work, there were numerous counterfeits made to look similar. Looking closely at the cover, it said 'Maid Legend Side Story' with a nonsensical subtitle about love and destruction born on the battlefield, indicating it was likely produced by another publisher trying to capitalize on the popularity of 'Erotic Maid Legend'.

- Here in the book, it says that if you die a virgin, you become a ghost doomed to wander forever, but if you have relations with a man before that, you can reach spiritual enlightenment comfortably... -

'Was that part of the content?'

I recalled a folklore tale where unmarried deceased men and women tried to marry the living, but when the living vehemently refused, they ended up marrying each other as ghost groom and bride, and those who were their living counterparts also ended up marrying after finding each other compatible.

'But was that story true, can a pure virgin ghost really achieve spiritual enlightenment through sexual relations?'

As far as I knew, the salvation for souls turned ghosts was either through purification by clerics or by being forcibly erased through pure mana from a mana saber...

- Sniffle... I just believed that sleeping with a man would help me achieve spiritual enlightenment... -

"But earlier... you seemed quite shocked when you saw my... What do you understand by that?"

- Of course, I know! If a man and a woman share a bed and hold hands, that means... -

Shuru, Mollang, and I simultaneously looked at the ghostly lady with a look of pity.

- ...Why are you looking at me with such pitiful eyes? -

"Ah yes... Then why were you licking my chest?"

- Because the novel said if you share a bed... it's written right here... -

I took the novel from the ghostly lady to inspect it; although the book was old and the pages yellowed and frayed, the content was discernible.

'Hmm... It looks like this part is torn out.'

It was common for erotic novels to be handled roughly in this way.

Usually, the explicit parts of the pages were torn out for personal keeping, a practice common everywhere. Because of this, Dane always insisted on buying and keeping his erotic novels.

Sometimes Levin sneakily tore out pages, leading to arguments.

Indeed, not only Levin but also in the library, whenever new books arrived, some of my peers would start checking the contents, and if rumors spread about explicit scenes, they would quietly tear out those parts and take them.

This book too was torn right where the scene was describing a woman starting to lick a man's chest, and he was beginning to respond ardently.

"So, you thought by licking my chest and then sleeping beside me, that it would mean we had sex, and you would no longer be a virgin?"

- Yes. I apologize for not asking for permission, Sir Knight, but being in this form, people run away in fear, so I thought I would tie us together while sleeping... -

'So naive.'

- So, could you please just help me out? I'll just lick and then we hold hands to sleep... -

This was getting frustrating.

"Do not take sex lightly."

- Yes... Sex... what? -

"Sex is the act where a man and a woman combine genitals, and semen produced from the testicles is inserted into the woman's uterus for procreation or pleasure sharing."

If the ghostly lady's face could change color, it would probably be turning pale now.

- I... didn't know... Genitals, that's... that's a dirty part... Earlier, you even shot something white from that dangerous organ... -

It felt like giving sex education to a child.

She had died well into adulthood, and even as a ghost, she had lived for decades. Was it necessary to show her all this?

'I need teaching materials for this...'

Luckily, I had Shuru and Mollang as potential teaching aids, though Mollang, with her changing body, was not ideal for this purpose, so I turned to Shuru.

"Let's start your education to stop being a virgin ghost."

- Is education necessary? Can't we just hold hands and sleep? I'll lick your chest to make you feel it's time to sleep... Ouch! -

I grabbed Shuru's legs right in front of her, spreading them to show the ghostly lady.

"Meow?!"

Startled, Shuru tried to cover her lower half as I gently rubbed her abdomen, preventing her from covering herself, forcing her to submit to my touches.

"Let's start studying this part."

Since Shuru's anatomy, though different in size, was structurally similar to humans, I sat her between my legs, spread them, and started showing the ghostly lady.

"This is the vagina."

While there were more polite terms like vulva or female genitalia, I opted for a crude term for the sake of expedited education.

- Va... Vagina? Is that the normal term for it? -

"Yes. If you go outside and say vagina, everyone will know what you're talking about."

- But that's where urine comes from... -

"You must have been raised too delicately to examine your own body closely, but this is where it comes out, and this is where it goes in."

- Goes in? -

"Didn't I say? Inserting a penis into the vagina is what sex is."

- Right... But it looks so small, can it really fit? -

Ah, I forgot, I don't have a shrinking potion to show her properly.

"It's possible."

At my gesture, understanding what was intended, Mollang snuggled into my hand, readying herself, and I immediately started unbuttoning my trousers in front of the ghostly lady.