“Look at your hand, shining brighter than a star.”

“Oh yeah. It would be even more than that if you had hundreds of unwashed dishes.”

Lim said as he sat on the sofa opposite Felix. He spoke nothing and Felix had his eye glued to the book.

“Here.”

Lim said as he chucked a pair of glasses to Felix.

“I don’t think I have bad eyesight. I eat my green veggies and carrots daily.” Felix said

“It’s one of the rewards the book gave me, for saving Tyson,” Lim said. It’s a simple night-vision glass, and if you infuse your mana, you can even see further up to a kilometre. But it makes you dizzy.”

Felix wore the glass. The field of vision became narrow, and everything was mixed in a layer of green hue.

He poured more mana into the glass, as his vision expanded, so much that he could see the small pimple under his lips. However, his mana repelled and everything was back to normal.

‘It would be handy only if I could make proper use of it.’

“ This is the only reward?” Felix asked Lim to pass the glasses to Lim.

“No. I got this.”

Lim took out a silver bracelet, rusted in the middle, from his jacket’s pocket.

“It doesn’t have a name, but it expands my mana tank and mana recovery speed by 2x.”

“Two times? What rank is it?”

“D-rank. And I got it for 1000 Lira. The rust blocked this small green gem on it, which made it worthless.”

Lim said as he wore the bracelet.

Felix nodded as he closed the book and set it on the table “So, any idea how we are going to catch this ghost?”

“Hmmm…..how about we use that Sense of yours?”Lim said” We could walk around Arcadia, and with the Sense….you know detect where it is. I don’t think my night vision glasses are useful for transparent and invisible beings.”

Felix shook his head.

“That could have worked if I had control over my Sense. It only activates when I am in danger or have a bad form in my training.”

He stopped and looked at the ceiling.

“To be honest, I don’t have a plan, but we just can’t sit around and do nothing. I think we have to follow your plan, but not search for it together……kind off. The ghost might attack us if he spots us alone. But don’t move too far from me. The Sense might not alert me if you are too far. You don’t even have a weapon to defend yourself.”

Felix was fine without a weapon. He was well trained in hand-to-hand combat…..maybe not against ghosts, but he knew his way.

But a mage like Lim, needed a staff to make their spell accurate. Without it, a mage found it hard to channel mana out of their body into the surroundings, because the mana without a proper outlet, could explode the mage’s hand. Only a B-ranked mage or higher above cast accurate magic spells without a staff.

“Don’t worry, I can have a way,” Lim said as he took out a pen from his pocket.

Felix frowned. He looked at the pen and then at Lim.

“You're planning to poke the ghost’s eye-” Felix stopped talking. He noticed some magic circuits drawn on the pen.

“It might not be as effective as a staff but this can do the job.”

Lim said. He left the room first, and after five minutes Felix followed.

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As he closed the door, he watched Lim, strolling on a path on the far right with trees planted on the sides.

Lim acted to crack his neck and turned to Felix’s dorm. He gave him a thumbs up and walked.

‘He trusts me.’

Felix's main reason for them acting separately wasn’t so the chances of ghosts attacking them were high. He didn’t want to be seen with Lim together and hoped nobody saw him get out of his room.

Many eyes were always on Felix. He was a noble after all, a powerful one at that. Everyone watched every action he took. Society made a big deal of anything he did. Felix was used to this, but this reputation of his should never reach Lim.

Felix wanted Lim in the shadows until whatever was to happen was over. Lim, a commoner being friends with Felix, a Star and a high noble wasn’t the best to shroud him.

The attention Lim would get wouldn’t be positive. Everyone would get interested in him, and with so many eyes watching, he would have to be careful of every action he took. His newfound reputation would only bring unwanted enemies.

Felix was to help Lim and eliminate any obstacle in his path and this was the best action he could take.

‘My name itself is a hindrance to him.’

Felix didn’t feel good lying. He wasn’t the best at reading expressions but knew Lim trusted him. And there was guilt eating him, why couldn't he have the same trust?

Felix shook his head. He could think about this kind of stuff, next time. He walked, maintaining a distance where nobody suspected he was following Lim.

As Felix reached the same path, he saw some students in groups of two.

‘It hasn’t even been a week since classes started. Their asses must have been itching with love.’

Even though he thought like that he was jealous. Being able to love someone, even just for their status, money or face, he couldn’t imagine what that was like.

It wasn’t like he was dead on the inside. The curse had haunted him so much, that talking, a normal human activity and became a survival.

Sometimes he heard whispers of being called handsome but what did that mean? How could he tell when he couldn’t look at himself or others?

Felix didn’t have many wishes, but maybe…just maybe someday he too could do the same. Bring his partner, let her lean onto his shoulder and hold hands.

‘Haa…why am I this cringe all of a sudden-’

Ting

The Sense activated. Felix was pulled out of his thoughts. He focused and tried to figure out where the Sense was leading.

‘To my left.’

Felix gestured to Lim, who had been looking back to see if Felix found something. He walked behind a tree, away from people's view as Lim approached him.

“Is it here?”

“I can’t tell if it's the ghost,” Felix said. “But we have to check.”

The Sense alerted him of danger, but not what the danger was. It was telling him not to go further, but he couldn’t afford to do so.

Lim nodded as he wore out his night vision glasses. The area they were headed to was the same forest where they always had their lunches, but at night the air around it was too cold and silent to enjoy a good meal. The forest was relatively safe, except for maybe occasional cases of squirrel bites.

“Are you sure you can see?” Lim asked, worried. Even with the night vision glasses, he was having a hard time walking through the forest, bumping into branches and tripping on rocks.

“I can’t, but I just know.” Felix’s Sense didn’t let him see in the dark but it alerted him before he hit anything.

Felix walked closer to where the Sense directed him and it kept getting stronger and stronger. Not just the feeling, but a stench, the smell of blood and rotting loomed around the area.

Felix stopped. What the Sense pointed at was ahead of him. He pinched his nose and asked.

“Do you see anything?”

But there was no response.

“Lim?”

He felt a tuck behind his collar

“Run, Felix.”

He said as he pulled Felix. The Sense grew larger and something was coming towards them. It was the ghost, but why did it stink of rot and blood?

Felix ran in the dark, without being able to see anything. All he could hear was Lim panting beside him, and the rustle of leaves as they ran.

Next thing he knew, the ghost was just about to attack Lim. Felix turned his body and struck his elbow in the air. Again like before, he felt like hitting something, as the vibration of his attack broke some branches.

Screech

There was a low screech, and it confused Felix.

‘A ghost that has a smell and it makes a sound. Is it the ghost we know?’

“Lim, can you see it?”

Again there was no answer. It was a stupid question because ghosts were invisible, but the way Lim acted, it was as if he saw it.

Lim showed no signs of stopping and kept running as if he was in a trance-like state.

They were almost out of the forest, as they stopped at the same place where they were before.

Once they were out, the lights on the pavement made Lim’s face visible. He was pale, and his eyes had lost their usual brown colour. They were grey and hollow, just like how the illusions in Felix’s vision looked like.

He took off Lim's glasses and slapped him.

“Hey.”

Lim touched his cheek as the colour returned to his eyes. He looked at Felix.

“What happened-”

He couldn’t finish his sentence. Going over to one of the trees, he vomited and kept on doing it for five minutes. And it wasn’t because of what Felix gave him for dinner.

“The ghost-” Lim spoke as he wiped his mouth. “It was eating. With the glasses, I only saw its silhouette in red and yellow, but what it was eating was clear.

He paused for a moment and looked at Felix.

“It was feeding on a human and the corpse wore the academy’s uniform.”

‘Sh*t’

Felix wore the glasses and held Lim’s shoulder.

“If I don’t come back in ten minutes, tell the professors about the ghost.”

He didn’t wait and ran inside the forest again.

“Wait.”

He could hear Lim saying something, but for now, he had to act in a rush. If the corpse of a student was there, then they had made a mistake hiding it from the professors.

Felix reached the spot. He knew because Lim’s pen was on the ground. But what Lim said he had seen wasn’t there. However, there was a circle on the ground that didn’t have a single leaf on it.

‘Something was here. Either it was moved or devoured in seconds.’

Felix threw a stone at the circle to check if it was a trap. Nothing happened. He walked and stood in the circle. The leaves around it didn't seem to want to enter, even though the ones around it moved because of the breeze.

Felix moved around the forest for a few minutes but he spotted nothing nor did his Sense. He walked back and Lim was there sitting beside a tree

“You are too reckless, Felix,” Lim said, his face still pale.

“I had to find out. After all, I can’t let a one-in-a-lifetime chance to see a ghost. But there was nothing, not even a single drop of blood or flesh.”

Lim just nodded. He was tired, mostly afraid.

“I can’t sense it anymore. Let’s go for now.” Felix pulled up Lim and put the glasses in his pocket. He felt almost weightless and too weak. The usual atmosphere around him was gone. What he saw must not have been pretty.

“Get some sleep, it helps with getting rid of nightmares.”

Felix said. He knew it better than anyone.

Lim nodded as he looked at the sky.

“Again, I couldn’t do anything.”

That’s all he said as he walked away without waiting for Felix.