I wasn't gonna say that I wasn't spooked earlier, but now.. I am scared. When did this woman follow me?! I thought she was going to be with one of the male lead?! Is she going to dragged me back to the manor? I can't go back without seeing anything! Quick! I need to think of something to bribe her!

" BEFORE YOU'RE GONNA SAY SOMETHING, DON'T… say anything to anyone, please..especially Holly … I'll do anything for it."

"…Anything?"

"YES! Anything! Just don't drag me back to the manor yet!"

I said that in a quick hurry without thinking, I hadn't pay attention to her expressions at that time and later..I'll soon learn to regret my decision…

"If that's what you wish for my lady, that I'll obliged, but what are you doing here alone… in these woods.."

"We-well, I.. heard an interesting story that there's a haunted cemetery somewhere… so I wanted to go investigate it.."I said nervously, will she think I'm an idiot believing in such a thing? so-So what! Who to say anything in this fantasy world anyway!

"Is that so? Well you still shouldn't have come alone. It's dangerous around here, especially with what's been going on.. you should have called for me, my lady, and I would have been glad to come along."

Yeah… you would be the last person I wanna be with alone…

She came closer and tilt her head down to look at the map, her head almost pressing against mine..

"And.. my lady, the cemetery would be to the right, we'll end up at the waterfall if we went to the left."

" Ahh is that so?" Damn it! She must be thinking that I'm an actual idiot who can't even read a map!

"Let me accompany you there, my lady"

"Al-Alright.."

We walked in silence for awhile, I started to hear the sound of crickets around the path, animals howling in the distance, the wind breeze blowing through my body, it would be chilly right now, but why does my face feel so hot? I need to say something…

"..You do know your way around these woods, huh?"

"Mmm.. it would seem so, I used to come here a few times to the cemetery actually-"

"What!? Really! Tell me more about it!"

Ah.. I was too excited to hear about it. Irene looked surprised by my reaction.

"… These woods are called Conium's Woods, and just like these woods, the cemetery here is named Conium's Cemetery. A few decades ago, these woods was full of hemlocks, they were extremely poisonous plants, and were used in the war against the enemy. The soldiers, who died in that war, was buried here... Soon enough, others began to bury other dead bodies here too and it became the Conium cemetery… About the haunted part… I don't think that such rumor was true."

" I see.. so these are the Conium's Wood.."

"… I thought you'd knew about it my lady.. since it's been around the Corvus manor for forever now."

"Pfft of-of course I knew that!…"

Yep she's definitely think I'm dumb for not knowing the way around my own house.

"… So when did you follow me? Aren't you supposed to be with my brother or something?"

"… I do not know how you know about that, but I just had a small conversation with Sir Galium, and went straight to my room. On my way there, I saw you running in to the woods, so I followed along."

"Right…"

So there wasn't any romantic scene between them happened? Did the storyline changed? or did nothing happen yet?… well whatever.

"We're here."

Finally we're at the gate of the cemetery. It has Conium, branded over it, the metal is black and rusted, it looks like it was gonna fall apart anytime soon. The area around the cemetery has such thick fogs that my range of sights would only be 6 feets around my body. Yep! Definitely spooky as the rumor said!

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"Let's go in."

..For some reason, it's freezing in the cemetery, and the trees surrounding the area looks dead, no leaves or whatsoever, and there are all kind of gravestones around here.

"My lady.. What exactly are we looking for here?"

"Mmm this and that.. they said those guys left their stuffs here, if we can find it, then that proves that the rumor might actually be true…"

We walked around for awhile, and at one point, Irene stopped at a gravestone.

The name on that gravestone was almost erased completely off the stone, but at the end, you can at least see it spelled Briar on it.

"Is this.. one of your family's gravestone?"

"…Yes, it's my grandmother's."

So this was where her grandmother was buried… the story mentioned her a few times, she has a big influence on Irene's life, her parents wasn't around when she was little, so her grandmother was the one that looked after her. When she passed, she was adopted by some local couple, they weren't rich or anything, but they were able to raise her well.

"..It's been awhile grandma. It took me a bit too long to visit this time, didn't it? I'm sorry I couldn't brought you any flowers… life has been busy lately, but I am doing well.. I hope you're not too lonely over there also.."

she said such words, but her eyes, it looks like they were the one that was all alone..

it was kinda bothering me…

"Greetings Irene's grandma! My name's Kannavis Corvus, Irene's acquaintance, ya know she is a really good girl, she's SUPER talented, and has a kind heart. Everyone adores your granddaughter, she's gonna be a GREAT figure one day, so I hope you don't worry… too much."

I looked at Irene and she looked astounded by my words.. then she let out a small laughs, she didn't think I would start blabbering, didn't she?

"Right.. grandma, as of this moment, I'm fulfilling my service for the house of Corvus , and this is my lady's, Kannavis who is also my schoolmate. She's a really great master and a great friend! she has always treated me really well. If it wasn't for her kindness, I don't think I would be able to work there for this long." She said, ALL this while having the most genuine smile.

Haha…! Ohh thank you Irene, your words are too grant.. why don't you dig my grave and just put me here next to her? I'm not living up to your words at all! Gosh! I hope these stuffs won't have to stuck with me to the afterlife, how could I bare to show my face to your grandma like this?

She continued- " …There might be some rough times here and there with miss Kannavis.. but with her around, I didn't feel too alone. I feel like I did back then when I had you around, grandma."

Her face showed true joy while saying that.. did.. she really enjoy my company around her? Me? The villainess?.. Is she being sarcastic? ..Yes that must be it..but maybe because now I haven't bothered her in awhile, she completely forgets about it? ..No she doesn't have a pea brain like mine…Every possibility was running through my head at that point that I started to stared into the void…

!

I came back to my senses when she grabbed my arm and pulled me closer to her. Dear God.. her hair smells nice… like lavender… freaking hecks what am I doing!

"It was great seeing you again grandma! I'm sorry I can't stay a bit longer, but we'll have to move along here before lady's Kannavis ghost runs away."

…Sh*ts this kid keeps making fun of me! We'll see who's laughing when an actual ghosts showed up! Don't come crawling to me when you get scared!

I pulled myself away from her and started walking, Yep she's definitely smiling behind my back.. grrrr! I walked for a good distance away from Irene,Then suddenly.

!

Huh! I heard something from over there.. I started to approach the sound, it was a graspy voice, but as I walked deeper, the voice was getting louder. Wait… that.. isn't it those people equipments?

Some torn-off clothes was there, scattered on the ground infront of a big tombstone. There were some headgears, a few pickaxes and a shovel, all left behind … They really did left everything behind, didn't they? The voices was in my ears at that point. I bent down, and searched on the ground, looking for the source of the sound.

It was clear to me.The voice was begging for me to find it.

"Over here… please.. I'm down here.."

I searched around that tombstone, my hand was deep in the soil. Then I touched something wooded-like.

The voice was clear this time. "Yes! Yes! You Found me!! Please… Take me with you!"

I picked it up, brushing off the dirt on it. It seems to be like a totem?… it's painted black and has a shaped like crow..

Suddenly! I heard a loud voice screaming at my direction!

" MY LADY!!!"

Irene? She's running towards me right now..Why are you screaming?

*plobs..*

Huh..

Some.. liquid… fell on my head.. it smells.. and the area around me seem to be overshadowed by something…

I turned and looked upward… what's staring back at me was a giant- lizard looking creature, its eyes was glowing red.. like the devil. Ahh.. that's not a ghost at all…