"The scary thing is not that you die, but how it's going to happen." -Charlotte Yurei

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With a bunch of corpses scattered around the block, I was in shock by the fact that Sachi’s Inn was gone. I was hoping that she wasn’t in the neighborhood at the moment this happened so I hoped for the best.

“Rukito, don’t you have her phone number?” Asked Kasai.

“No, she never had a phone.” I walked around trying to see if I could see her body. Luckily I didn’t see her. I decided to ask the police to see if they have seen her.

“Sir, have you seen a girl around this tall, black hair, black eyes.”

“No, when we all arrived everything was like this, and there isn’t a single witness. We will have to check some cameras.”

“Oh, alright.” I know that even though she might be missing, we can't waste time. I have to get Kasai’s voice back and get the king before more killings like these happen. I guess I’ll find out if she is dead or not after I come back…

We all decided to head to the carriage rental shop since there aren’t any trains departing to Yellow Dolphin port.

“How much is it again?” Said Shizuka.

“200 Crystalis, I understand if it’s a little too expansive ma’am, you see the fact is that recently we have been-” Shizuka showed them her pink star diamond ring, and said,

“That’s no problem!”

“W-W-Whaaaa” The man’s jaws dropped to the floor. “The famous pink star diamond!”

“Come on, I don’t have all day.”

“Y-Yes ma’am!” They took a scanner and scanned the ring. Suddenly, the scanner said, ‘You will be making a purchase of 200 Crystalis, eye scan to confirm the purchase.’ She put her eye in front of the scanner, and the purchase was complete.

“Thank you miss, the carriage is already here, you may enter and tell the coachman where you are going to go.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Well damn, I knew the Aizawa family had money, but not this much.” Said Hachimura.

“You’d be surprised…” I said. We all got in the horse-drawn carriage. As the gentlemen that we were, my master and I let the ladies enter first, but then, I soon realized that was a significant mistake… they both sat on opposite ends… so I had to choose who to sit next to.

“Hmm? What’s wrong Rukito?” Asked Kasai.

“I uh…” Thinking of the fact that I slept with Shizuka last night, I believe Kasai deserves it more; she is my girlfriend after all. As soon as I sat beside her, I could feel Shizuka’s green stare of envy squashing me down.

“Where shall I be takin’ Y'all?” Asked the coachman.

“Oh! Yellow dolphin, please!” I said.

“Sure thin’.” The carriage started moving. It was silent for a couple seconds, it began to get really awkward, so I decided to break the ice.

“S-So master, why don’t you tell us a bit more about yourself?”

“Wha? I’ve actually said quite a lot about myself. Why don’t we hear from Lady Shizuka?”

“Me? There isn’t much to say about me.”

“Awww, come on! I’m sure you’re quite an interesting girl.”

“Ah, you flatter me.”

“I’m serious though!”

“Alright, Alright.” She took a deep breath and then said, “Before meeting Rukito, nothing much happened in my life. I was annoyed by the fact that every boy in my school knew that I was rich, so that didn’t help with finding a boyfriend in high school since I wasn’t sure if they just wanted me for my money or for my face.”

“Huh, so you never managed to find one?”

“No, not really. I wanted someone that liked me because of my personality, not just my face or my money.”

“She is right! She is the most beautiful girl in our school after all!” I said. She blushed and started twirling her hair.

“That’s not true!”

“Aw come on now. You have guys head over heels for you; you’re smart, benevolent, beautiful, and are more than stable. You’re everyone’s pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”

“Y-You think so?” She looked down and gripped her cloth. Then I heard her mumble, “Well maybe… I don’t want to be their pot of gold.”

“Huh?” Said, my master.

“Oh, I said that maybe I don’t want to be a pot of gold.” I understood what she was trying to say, and it did quite sadden me.

“Yeah, I can understand that you get a lot of unneeded attention, huh?”

“Yes.”

“I hope he finds me as amazing as he finds her… I’m not nearly as smart as her, and she definitely is more educated to be a woman than I am.” I heard Kasai’s thoughts in my head. I looked over to her and saw her also looking down. Oh boy… the dilemma I’ve gotten myself into.

“Kasai.” I looked at her with a smile.

“Hm?” She looked at me. She just needs a kiss to bring her back to her confident self… but I can’t in front of everyone, so I had to think of something quick. Coincidentally, I remembered that both my master and Shizuka have arachnophobia.

“Watch out! A spider is on the ceiling!” They both squealed and curled down closing their point of vision of us. “It’s alright I got it! Give me a second.” I quickly but gently pulled Kasai onto me.

“R-R-Rukito, wha-!” Then, I gave her a soft and slow, silent kiss, while caressing her burning red cheeks. I slowly backed off and gazed at her eyes.

“You know… sometimes I think that I don’t deserve you. You’re exactly what I ask for in a girl and more.” I didn’t tell her I heard her thoughts so she would be more confident about my statement.

“I-… I…” She quickly also curled down in embarrassment.

“I-Is it d-dead?” Said my master with a shaky voice.

“Yes, it’s gone.” They both got up and took a breath of relief. They looked at Kasai, then, my master asked me,

“Is she also scared of them?”

“Y-Yeah, I think she is a bit more traumatize.”

“Kasai, it's dead, you can sit up.” Said Shizuka.

“It’s fine, give her sometime… I can understand her pain.” Said, my master. He kept chatting up with Shizuka while Kasai and I started communicating.

“Y-Y-You dummy, what if they saw us?!”

“Then I probably would have been dead.”

“B-But why take the risk?!”

“Hm… I don’t know, I just had this strong urge to kiss you at the moment. Can’t let you forget that we are a couple, you know?”

“Why love me so much? It’s not like I’m perfect you know.” I chuckled and said,

“That’s exactly why I love you.”

“H-Huh?”

“You keep trying on living and going forward even though you were born without money, without a school, without friends or anything! And that determination and hope… I just fell in love with it.” I started caressing her shoulder. “And that’s what I needed in my life, all I want you to do is give me lots of hope and happiness. When I see you smile… when I see the girl that has gone through the worse imaginable just at least faintly smile at me… really makes me love you even more.”

“R-Rukito…”

“And when I had the choice of going either with your or Shizuka, I easily knew who to go with.”

“W-What do you mean?”

“Come on… not to sound selfish or anything, but since I liked both you of the same amount; not anymore, of course, I asked myself, who would deserve me the most? Shizuka is rich, she is very popular in school, she is cute, she basically has everything a girl could ever wish for. Plus it wouldn’t be hard finding another guy with the number of things she has. Compared to a girl that was going through life alone, looking for someone to help her, and never had any of the privileges that Shizuka had.”

“So you are saying you choose me out of pity?”

“No, I picked you out of benevolence… I knew that you needed help more than anyone, I was and still am extremely in love with you. How could I have not chosen you?” She looked up at me with tears running down her cheeks.

“Thank you so much, I owe you my life.” She said with a wholesome smile.

“Oh I know, that’s why we are getting married.” Shizuka and my master stopped their conversation to notice Kasai crying.

“Kasai? What happened?” Asked Shizuka.

“Wow, is she really that traumatized?”

“Yup…” I said. Little did they know, they were tears of joy.

“Y-You know… this is my first-time c-crying, I was never hydrated enough before to cry, and I learned not to after I got older and hold everything in… but…” A load bunch of tears was running down her cheeks even more. “You managed to break me down… in a good way.” She started sobbing. I had no idea what to say at that moment, my only instinct was to pull her closer to me and let her rest on my chest.

“I’m so lucky I found you.” She said.

“No, I’m the lucky one here. It’s not so common that an extremely hot girl with an amazing personality and a mature mind appears in your living room. Sure, I had to work my way to you, but it was all worth it.”

“Hey!” Said Shizuka.

“Awww come on, I slept with you last night, so you better chill down. Plus, she is traumatized from spiders, give her a break!”

“D-Don’t say that in front of Hachimura!”

“Wait, what?”

“She was sick, I was just taking care of her,” I said.

“Oh, if you say so…”

“I swear! That’s all!” Said Shizuka.

Half the day passed, the sun was setting. The coachman recommended us to get a shortcut to the way there so we would arrive a bit earlier. We were almost arriving at our first stop when suddenly, it starts getting really foggy.

“A bit foggy out hea’, we might run into some trouble, I’m goin’ to slow down a bit.” Said the coachman.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” I said.

“This specific spot is always known’ to get foggy, there’s myths and legends of why this happens, but I never really told anyone before.”

“Oh really? Mind telling us?”

“Oh, sure. Well, it goes that in these hills and woods there is a girl named Charlotte Yurei, but she ain’t a normal girl, she is-” He suddenly stood silent. We didn’t have a vision to him, so we didn’t know what he was doing.

“Is everything ok?”

“…Pardon me, Charlotte.” We suddenly heard a loud ‘Boom!’ and the horses squealing, the carriage started rolling down which seemed to be a hill. I out of instinct grabbed Kasai and closed her into my arms to prevent her from getting harmed since Shizuka has my master’s singularity on. After rolling for 6 seconds, we finally reached the bottom, and the force of my body and Kasai’s hitting the floor was all put into my right shoulder. After some time, I slowly got up and said,

“I-Is everyone ok?” Breathing heavily at my side I noticed that my masterfully enveloped Shizuka with his singularity in an instant, even her head, but he soon released the head barrier so she could breathe, my master also had his singularity, so he was also fine, but on the other hand, I was sure I broke my shoulder. I was not feeling pain at the moment because of the adrenaline still running through my body. But it doesn’t matter, all that it matters to me was that Kasai was ok.

“W-We’re ok, I’m more worried about you two.” Said, my master. I looked down to Kasai, and she seemed to be fine, I move my left arm from on top of her so she could get up, she slowly got up but looked at me super worried.

“R-Rukito! Are you ok? Oh my god, I was still in shock by what you told me! This caught me by surprise!”

“Y-Yeah I should be fine, how about you?”

“I’m completely fine… thanks to you, I was about to hit my head on the pointy iron lamp until you pulled me.”

“Thank god.” Having fast reflexes finally paid of use. I tried getting up with my right arm, but a shock pierced my shoulder like if a thunder just landed right on it.

“Gaah! Come on…”

“W-What’s wrong?!” Asked Shizuka.

“I think… I fractured my shoulder.”

“I’ll go outside and see what happened!” Said, my master.

“We need to get you to a hospital!” Said Shizuka.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“N-No, we can’t prolong this any further. The more time we take, the more people to die by a black tombstone.”

“Shut up! We are going to get you checked on!”

“… I can heal you Ruki.”

“Aw come on Kasai, I thought I said not to call me that!”

“Hahaha, I think it’s cute.”

“How about something like a baby? Or my prince, or something a little nicer?”

“I’ll be right back!”

“W-Where are you going?! I have a fractured shoulder woman- GAH!”

“I know, that’s why I’m going to heal you Ruki.”

“She released her singularity and walked out.”

“Huh?! What’s that?!” Shizuka asked.

“It’s her singularity ‘Spirit Vamps.’ Right, you’ve never seen it.”

“What does it do?”

“It’s… a bit complicated to explain. Just use your Wisdom-World on it when you can.”

“Alright. That aside, can you get up?”

“I can try, mind helping?” She grabbed my left arm and softly pulled me up.

“It stings like a fucking tarantula hawk fused with a bullet ant!”

“That kind of pain would probably kill you.” My master walked in the upside-down caravan on the floor and said,

“You won’t believe what just happened…”

“Hm?”

“The coachman seemed like he shot himself in the head, the horses got scared and ran off, while the caravan somehow got detached from them and just rolled off the cliff.”

“Why would he shot himself? He seemed like a nice guy, and he was in the middle of saying something.”

“I don’t know…” Kasai also walked in and told me,

“All the vegetation… trees, plants, flowers, anything that gives off positive energy… even the sun is blocked by the mist! Nothing is here Rukito.”

“What do you mean?”

“Remember how I told you that I can absorb positive energy?”

“Yes.”

“Well I can decide not to convert that energy into negative, and if I keep it as positive energy on my daggers, I can release the positive energy in you and heal you.”

“Oh wow! But you’re saying that there are no plants you can take positive energy from?”

“No…”

“It’s fine, I’ll deal with it for a while, let’s try and get out of here so-” I looked towards her and see her taking out her singularity again, the blindfold appears, and she slices her own palm.”

“Kasai! Don’t be stupid!!!” I yelled.

“What is she doing?!” Asked Shizuka.

“Hmm?” My master looked curious.

“Don’t worry, this little slice will only take 1 year off my life. You saved my life not too long ago, and you also saved my life by helping me when I first arrived, so I need to repay you back one way or the other.”

“It’s not worth it! Don’t worry about me I said!”

“Can you fucking shut up?! I’m trying to be helpful here! I also want to help you, so stop being selfless and ungrateful!” I stood silent, I’ve never seen her pissed at me before, so it surprised me. I’m usually not a selfless person, but she and Shizuka are the only persons in this world that have higher priority than me.

“…fine.” She got close to me and said,

“Don’t worry, this won’t hurt much.”

“Are you sure?”

“No, but at least it won’t hurt more than the fractured shoulder.”

“Great.”

“Do me a favor and turn around so I can see the shoulder.”

“Alright.” She lifted up my shirt and moved her ‘hope’ dagger closer to my shoulder.

“Ww-w-w what are you doing!?” Said Shizuka while looking away.

“Oh wow, you sure have gotten better Rukito.”

“All thanks to you.”

“Hmm.. if it wasn’t for this blindfold I could see his muscles…”

“I heard that.”

“W-What?!”

“Kasai don’t tell me you are…” Said, my master. She started writing something on my back with her dagger.

“Tch- damn it burns.”

“It will be over in a second, I promise.” Seconds pass, and she was done.

“What does that mean?” Asked my master.

“It means life in the ancient language.” Said Shizuka.

“Did you write a symbol on my back?”

“Yes, I need to do this to heal you.”

“Well I don’t feel any-” Green particles start surrounding me, I suddenly fell a warm and calming feeling on my shoulder, as if I just got done a 5-star massage. “Oh wow… that feels amazing.”

“You’re welcome.” She said while giggling.

“Wow! That’s awesome!” Said, my master.

“Kasai, mind if I read about your singularity?” She shook her head. Shizuka took out Wisdom-World and scanned her singularity giving her a page of notes about Spirit Vamps. I took some bandages out of my bag and wrapped Kasai’s palm with them.

“Thank you, Kasai… but please don’t do that again, I want to live with you as much as possible.”

“Ok Ruki.” She said while smiling.

“Stop…”

“Haha, ok, ok. How about… dear?”

“I don’t know, sounds like we are a married couple already.”

“Even better!”

“So, what do you think, Shizuka?”

“Amazing… this singularity is by far the strongest I’ve ever seen.”

“Yeah same here!” Said, my master.

“Right?!” Shizuka took a deep sigh and said,

“We should get out of this forest.”

“Yes, let’s go.” We walked out of the carriage.

The environment was dry, colors were dead, and it was also quite a bit foggy. It didn’t smell like anything, a forest would usually smell like flowers and vegetation, but everything was dead, trees had no leaves, and the grass was dry. We looked at the front and saw the body of the coachman covered by a blanket.

“I covered him, so you guys didn’t see it.” Said, my master.

“Should we bury him?” I asked

“Do we have a shovel?” Asked my master.

“Sadly, no..” I felt Shizuka getting closer and closer to me and said,

“R-Rukito… I don’t have a good feeling about this.” She started shivering. “This place… this place…”

“This place is filled with negative energy… it’s quite overwhelming.” Said Kasai.

“It’s about to be night time in any second now.” Suddenly, in the distance, we heard a weird screeching noise that sounded like 100 horses dying with a high pitch.

“W-w-what was that?!” Said Shizuka.

“I don’t know… Shizuka, mind scanning this place with Wisdom-World?”

“I… I c-can’t move. I have a terrible feeling!” She got really close to me and grabbed onto my arm.

“Aw come on, don’t be so scared now.”

“Promise me you will protect me.”

“Well of course, but why are you so scared?”

“I… I heard of that noise before, it was said to be-” We suddenly heard the same noise again, but this time it was closer. “Aaah! Please, Rukito!” She got even closer and hugged me tightly. I looked over to Kasai, and she said,

“Give me a second, I’ll grab some lanterns before it gets too dark to see, I got my bag in the carriage.” She walked back into the carriage to grab her bag. As soon as she entered we heard something that sounded like a very heavy horse running towards us, it definitely sounded like a four-legged creature, but it was cumbersome as the steps were loud.

“R-Rukito! We need to run!”

“By what I’m hearing… I don’t think we can outrun whatever that thing is.”

“Please!”

“Just give me a page of this place! Maybe it can help us figure out what that thing is and why is everything dead!”

“Alright, Alright!” She quickly scanned it and gave me the page.

“The land of Charlotte Yurei…” But before I got the chance of reading it, a silhouette appeared in front of us in the mist. The creature screeched again, and the fog cleared up, the beast was a chimera: a creature that is composed of more than one animal part. It was standing on four legs, it seemed to be 2 meters tall, it had the head of a rat and the body of a lion, it had the back legs of a horse and the front legs of a bear with a tail of a scorpion.

“Oh no! It’s real!”

“What is that?!” I felt a fear envelop me, but I wasn’t going to back down from defending Shizuka.

“That’s a chimera! They call it ‘The Death Wanderer.’” My master took his katana out, and I took my Spirit Daisho out. I stepped up with my master and said,

“Stay back!” The chimera stood on its two legs somehow, it was now double its height… 4 meters.

“They usually stand on two legs to intimidate their enemies!” Said Shizuka.

“THEY?! ARE YOU TELLING ME THERE’S MORE?!” Said, my master.

“Yes, but not many. Don’t worry, there’s only one per dead forest.”

“Oh great, finally some good news,” I said.

“Is it excellent news?” Said, my master. The creature screeched, and his breath smelled like rotten fish.

“He could really use some mint pills,” I said.

“I don’t even think that would help.” Said, my master.

“They like attacking with their tails! Be careful!” We saw the scorpion tail quickly rising up and getting ready to attack.

“Here it comes!” But the creature faked the attack and instead attacked with its sharp bear claws.

“Rukito! Watch out!” My master pushed me away and gave me his barrier while touching me so we wouldn’t have gotten damaged by the chimera.

“Hachimura! Sorry, I didn’t think it was smart.”

“Yeah, to be honest, I didn’t think so either.”

“But please, leave guardian angel on Shizuka.”

“Are you sure?”

“More than sure.” He changed his guardian angel singularity and gave it back to Shizuka. We got up, and the chimera was starting to dash towards us. I moved to the right, and my master moved to the left to see what it would do, it suddenly stopped and used the momentum to do a 360° spin on the place and hit both off with the tail. We managed to jump over the attack, while airborne I notice that its tail was red at the end, it seemed as if it was pumping.

“Shizuka, do they have multiple hearts or something like it?”

“Actually the Death Wanderer have 5!” Alright… five hearts, one of them is at the end of the tail, he at least must have 2 in his chest and 1 in the head… if my guesses are correct. But where would the last one be?

“Master, he has a heart in its tail, he definitely has one in its abdomen, could you try and pierce it there?”

“Of course!” I unsheathed my tanto to dual wield. We both started running around it to check for all the hearts, and as I predicted there was 1 on the right side of its stomach, there should be another one on the parallel end. The creature turned towards my master and started attacking him with its claws, while it struck me with its tail, I managed to dodge all the attacks while looking for an opening to cut its tail. But wait, I can’t really cut too many things with my wakizashi… I tried pulling the katana out.

“Please!” But nothing, it still didn’t want to budge. “AAAH!” Whatever, I got my tanto and threw it towards the end of the tail where the heart was like a throwing knife. I’ve practiced this a lot I hoped it didn’t all go to waste. The knife was flying towards the tail very fast, it pierced the tail, and the chimera started bleeding purple blood from its tail.

“Yes!” But as I was falling the chimera turned around fast and swung its bear claws at me. “Crap! I can’t dodge that midair!”

“Rukito!” Yelled Shizuka. I managed to slightly move inwards towards its paws, so the claws didn’t scratch me, but I still got slammed meters away, but luckily I landed in a bush.

I got up and looked off onto where I was. I lost vision because of the fog. Wait… a bush? I thought all the vegetation was dead! As I look at it closer, I notice it also has flowers, and the ground was unleveled. Is this… a hole was once dug here. I looked to my right and saw something glowing aqua-green behind a tree. Hmm? I decided to get closer, but then I realized that I still had the note of this place from Shizuka. “Ah right!” So I decided to read it to see if I could find anything useful. “Uhh… a girl… Charlotte Yurei… wait…” I kept reading and couldn’t believe what I was reading. “W-What…” I decided to go to that glowing thing behind the tree and realized it was a spirit of a little girl looking at me from behind the tree.

“C-Charlotte Yurei… is that you?” As soon as she heard her name she hid back behind the tree. Then I heard a voice echoing,

“Leave… I want to be alone…”

“I’m not here to hurt you, Charlotte.”

“That’s not true! Leave!” I kept walking towards the tree slowly.

“Charlotte… I understand bad people did horrible things to you that you didn’t deserve. But those bad people are not here anymore Charlotte.” I kept saying her name to make her feel a bit more comfortable. Then, I heard crying. “I’m not one of those mean people Charlotte. You can trust me.”

“H-How can I trust you?! You’re hurting Ollie!”

“Ollie?” I understood now that Chimera is actually her… pet?! “Well, Ollie started hurting us first, so we didn’t have a choice.”

“Ollie likes to protect me…”

“Then come with me, I’ll tell my friends to stop hurting him.”

“… ok.” I ran back to the fight and saw my master and Kasai fighting the Chimera off.

“N-NO! Guys! Stop!” As I was saying that, my master pierced one of the Chimera’s hearts. It started squealing. “NO!” Charlotte was looking at the whole thing and yelled, “STOP HURTING HIM!” Suddenly, the trees started moving, and the branches extended and grabbed each one of us by the throat and raised us up.

“Gah-” I was trying to pull the branches out, but nothing happened. On the other hand, Kasai managed to cut her branches with her daggers stopping them from grabbing her. “K-Kasai… stop… listen to me.”

“Rukito! Have you gone crazy?”

“Trust me… this is the only way.” She let the branches grab her throat. We were all in the air suspended by these branches. “S-Sorry Charlotte, we will stop fighting. See? N-no one is attacking.”

“Charlotte? What are you talking about Rukito?” Said Kasai.

“R-Rukito! Free yourself!” Said, my master.

“Rukito, I’m scared.” Said Shizuka. Charlotte walked in from behind a tree, she had a long beautiful ripped dress; she had long hair with ribbons on them, and she seemed to be around the age of 10. She ran towards the chimera worried while saying,

“Ollie! Are you hurt?!” Every second I felt my breath going away. Shizuka and my master should be fine since they have guardian angel on them, but Kasai and I were slowly getting suffocated.

“C-Charlotte… Please… I promise to heal him if you let us go.” She looked back at us with a face of hope.

“Will you really?”

“Y-Yes… Just… let us go…” I closed my eyes. As soon as I did, we all hit the ground. She walks over to me and kneels.

“You promised mister, now could you heal him?” I slowly got up not to startle her and said,

“Yeah, I just need that girl over there.” I walked over to Kasai and asked,

“Hey, are you ok?”

“I thought that was my last breath.”

“Me too… but I need you to heal the chimera.”

“EEEHH?!”

“I know, just trust me.”

“I don’t have positive energy; those things don’t have any.”

“I found some flowers and a bush, is that enough?”

“It’s good enough, the rest its body will heal it automatically.”

“Alright, come with me,” I said. “Charlotte, could we go to that bush over there?” I pointed towards the direction I first met her.

“N-no… that’s…”

“Hmm?” I pulled out the Wisdom-World page and finished reading it. “Ah… I see.” I walked towards Charlotte and kneeled down.

“Then how about this?”

“Hm?” She looked at me.

“I’ll make a nice little grave for you ok? I’ll even bring you gifts and flowers every once in a while! How does that sound?”

“R-Really?!” She started jumping out of happiness.

“Yes… I promise!”

“Oki Doki!” We walked back to the bush and Kasai used her singularity to get the positive energy from it, we walked back and healed the chimera with it.

“He should be feeling better in a day or two. For now, I just regenerated his hearts.” Said Kasai.

“…” She quickly ran behind me.

“What’s wrong Charlotte?” I asked.

“I don’t like talking to that lady! She is scary!”

“What?! What did I do?!”

“She is really strong… she is scary.”

“Don’t worry Kasai, she is just shy, that’s all.”

“I’ve never been good with children…” Said Kasai.

“I on the opposite hand, am actually pretty good!”

“Thank you, mister.”

“You’re welcome. Now let’s make your grave.”

“Oki!”

“Uhm, is all this fog your doing?”

“Y-Yes, I kept it here… I’m shy, so I don’t want people to find this place, or to come near.”

“Ah, I understand.” I walked towards Shizuka and my master.

“I think she fainted…” said my master.

“Yeah, she doesn’t like ghosts.”

“I’ll keep an eye on her, you guys do what you got to do.”

“Alright.” Kasai and I went around finding materials and rocks to make a little grave for her.

10 minutes later we were done with everything, right on top of where the bush was we made it, on it, it said, ‘Rest in Peace, Charlotte Yurei.’

“So what’d you think?” She started crying.

“T-Thank you, mister.”

“Ghosts can cry?” I asked Kasai with telepathy.

“I have no idea…” Suddenly the mist was instantly gone, and the moonlight shined inside the forest again. Now plants, flowers, and trees were able to grow again in this land. I put pebbles on the grave to show respect to her, then I asked Kasai,

“Mind praying with me?”

“I’m not really that good at it.”

“Come on, just repeat after me if you can’t.”

“Ok” We kneeled down and did a small prayer.

“T-Thank you so much, mister!” Said Charlotte with tears running down her cheeks. I still can’t get by the fact that a spirit is crying.

“It’s getting late Charlotte; my friends and I have to leave ok? I promise to bring something when I come back, I also promise to visit you as much as I possibly can when I have the time ok?”

“Y-Yes!” She ran up to hug me, but she just went right through me. She giggled and said, “R-Right.” We all ended up chuckling together. We went back to my master and Shizuka. She woke up and looked at us.

“W-What happened?”

“Long story, I’ll tell you later. Let’s get out of here.” The chimera got up and looked at us.

“AAHH!” Yelled Shizuka.

“Hey, Ollie! Go back to Charlotte, she is waiting for you.” He quickly got up and ran away.

“What?...” We were back on the trail walking towards the Inn ahead that was just a mile away.

“So can you explain what happened Rukito?”

“Yeah, sorry if I didn’t explain. If I did, then I would have been dead.”

“Huh?”

“Charlotte Yurei was a shy girl around the age of 10 that used to like playing with animals in the woods where she once lived, but since the mystical war happened 118 years ago, she has been dead in those woods.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah, she always said that she wanted to be a veterinarian when she got older that’s probably how she managed to tame a death wanderer.”

“Awww that’s so nice.” Said Shizuka.

“A huge amount of mist was released in these woods by the elves long ago so the vegetation died and everyone would have been forced to move from this forest, but people would not leave it.”

“That’s why it was so foggy!” Said Shizuka.

“So that fog has been there for 118 years?!” Asked my master.

“Yup. Delusional priests around the land were saying that if they buried alive a well-healthy child to the land, they would be freed from the mist and the ground will start growing vegetables again.”

“Oh no…”

“They choose Charlotte because no one liked her in the town, she was shy, so people mistook that as being ignorant, so bullies also started gossiping about her. They opened a hole in the forest for her. They lured her in with a fake replayed sound of a cat crying in the hole.”

“How cruel…” Said Shizuka.

“When she went there to peek into it, she was kicked in the back by an adult and fell in the hole. She started screaming while people started filling the hole up with dirt until it was completely filled… her screams stopped. They all went home. It was said that some could still hear her screams and cries at night.”

“Oh my god…”

“Some adults even killed themselves as from regret to what they did to the poor defenseless little girl. The mist didn't disappear, everyone still managed to starve, this time even faster. Some say it was the death wanderer who killed them before starvation ever could.”

“But why did that coachman kill himself?” Asked my master.

“Here’s the thing, everyone who is heard by the spirits telling her story in the mist, is said to be killed. but not any normal way, they are said to be possessed by all the regret from the past adults that buried her and kill themselves while saying 'Pardon me, Charlotte.'”

“Wow… that’s rough for a little girl.”

“Yeah… I’m glad I made her happy though.” Kasai looked at me while smiling and said,

“You’re a kind person, Rukito.”

“I did what anyone else would have done.” I yawned. “I’m sleepy.”

“We’re almost there!” A few minutes later we got into the inn, we quickly got 4 separate rooms and were about to say good night in the hall.

“That was quite the intense day…” I said.

“Yeah… I think I’m done with spirits.” Said Shizuka. My master yawned and opened the door to his room.

“I’m going to go. Good night!”

“Can I slee-”

“NO! Kasai… I want to sleep alone for once.”

“Augh, alright.” She entered her room.

“Good night, Rukito.” Said Shizuka.

“Good night!” I entered my room and started taking a shower. I took a deep breath and said, “So relaxing…” I heard the door slightly open, and my eyes quickly widened. I thought I locked my room…

“Kasai, if you’re going to join me in the shower I’d advise you otherwise, I would 100% not be able to constrain myself into not jumping on you.” Suddenly out of nowhere, Charlotte appeared.

“Hey, mister!”

“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!”

After all of that, I sat on my bed with my clothes on.

“What are you doing here?!”

“It’s going to take a while for Ollie to feel better, so I thought I would be with you for a quite some time!”

“Oh by the grace of the seven gods… have mercy on me.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll leave in 2 days!