51 – Episode 51
# 51
Ian explained his plan simply.
The deceased Talien Viscount. And the graveyard. Unauthorized intruders.
If you combine them well, you might produce a gloomy result.
In other words, it was about pretending to be the ghost of Talien.
“Oh ho. The idea is good, but… won’t we get punished for it?”
“Punished?”
Belenka was slightly worried about Ian.
The idea of scaring the enemies by pretending to be a ghost in the graveyard was fine.
But wouldn’t it be dangerous?
Ian’s actions felt like a kind of sorcery.
By following Ian’s fake ghost act, a real ghost might appear.
But Ian didn’t seem to care at all.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. It’s just pretending, right?”
“Hmm. Is that so?”
“Are you a magician? I am a magician.”
Belenka nodded her head.
Ian’s words were right on point. Ian was the magician, not Belenka.
Lucy also agreed with Ian’s plan.
“If the real ancestor shows up, I’ll try to calm them down, whatever!”
“…”
Ian looked at Lucy with suspicious eyes.
Wouldn’t the ghost of the ancestor get angry when they see Lucy? I’m not sure.
“It must have gotten dark enough. Let’s give it a try, or we can back off.”
Ian summoned darkness with a light heart.
The magician’s trick had begun.
#
Ian’s plan was simple.
It was impromptu and didn’t involve any special techniques, so he wasn’t very confident in its success.
But Ian believed in the medieval mindset more than his own plan.
If a living, moving ghost appears in front of them, would the medieval people fall for it? Or not?
No, even modern people would be startled if a black darkness moved in human form. How much more so for medieval people?
“Ian! I lit a bonfire!”
“Great.”
Ian stood in front of the blazing bonfire.
Behind Ian, with the light source in front, a long shadow was cast.
Ian closed his eyes and focused his mind on the voice of darkness cast by the shadow.
“Hey guys! It won’t be ticklish if you hide here!”
“hehehehe. Okay. Here.”
The light of the bonfire engulfed, darkness hiding behind Ian’s back.
It was a shadow.
Ian projected his will onto the shadow.
“Move…!”
At the same time, a mysterious magical language flowed out of Ian’s mouth.
“[Shadow! Move!]”
[Move?]
[Hmph. I don’t like the light…]
[We just want to stay here.]
“…”
Hey, listen to me, you guys.
The darkness felt like dealing with stubborn kindergarteners.
They enjoyed hiding from the light, liked gathering among themselves…
[But Ian asked us to…!]
[Right! We have to move now to play again at night!]
Play? Me? With you guys?
Ian was taken aback, but the darkness continued to chatter.
“Wow. It’s moving.”
“… Magic is truly fascinating,” Luci and Belenka whispered softly.
When Ian memorized the spell, his shadow began to move on its own.
[New skill acquired!]
[Shadow Art: Shadow Manipulation]
[Makes the shadow move and perform actions. Great for shadow play.]
Regardless of the process, Ian was able to create a black silhouette by moving his shadow.
As Ian raised his arm,
The shadow raised its arm too.
“Wow.”
“Dance! Ian!”
When Lucy shouted, Ian unintentionally danced – he became Ian.
Ian’s shadow also danced happily.
“Are you trying to imitate a ghost with this?”
“Yeah. Belenka. Do you have a helmet? Can you lend it to me?”
“… For you to use?”
Ian wanted to try using the voice modulation function (?) attached to Belenka’s helmet. It was perfect for producing a gloomy voice.
But Belenka hesitated and refused Ian’s suggestion.
“Never mind. I can just speak.”
“Really? Hmm. As long as you’re okay with it. I thought you might dislike it since I have to use a male voice.”
“…”
Belenka alternated her gaze between the helmet and Ian. It was a bit awkward to have a male voice. However, she didn’t want to lend him the helmet.
It’s not like I’m consciously aware of Ian…
But his lips and breath touch the object she carries on her face…
“As expected, my helmet is not something I lend to others!”
“Yeah. Alright. Then you can play the role of the ghost.”
Belanka. Winner of the ghost role.
“Ian! What should I do?”
“Hmm… cheer?”
“Got it! Cheer up, Ian!”
“…”
It doesn’t really give me much strength.
Lucy. Winner of the cheerleading role.
Ian sent the shadows to the thieves guarding the area.
Belanka, who concealed her appearance, also secretly approached the enemies.
On a night when the sun had completely set.
The ghost of Viscount Talian came to his own grave…
#
People in the Middle Ages believed in many superstitions.
It was due to the imbalance and uncertainty of information.
There were very few scholars who specialized in studying certain phenomena, and these scholars did not share the information they discovered with the public.
Monopolizing knowledge was commonplace in this era.
The internet society of modern times is strange. It is normal to have exclusive information.
Think about the scam advertisements that occasionally come through text messages.
“What? There’s a special stock that earns 10 million won per month?”
“It’s information that is specially shared only until this month?”
Wow! I want to make money too! … Only a very small number of people fall for it, but most people know that such enticing information is false.
If there is such valuable information, I would use it myself. Why would I give it to someone I don’t even know?
That’s why YouTube was a mutation. With the goal of increasing views, all sorts of information abound, and about 80% of it is useful.
But YouTube, like the internet, does not exist in the medieval era.
The absence of information sharing and the lack of accuracy in information have formed a disastrous collaboration…
“Hey, what are you doing there?”
“I’m drawing sacred sentences. Why?”
Medieval people have developed a bad habit of believing something is true if it looks convincing on the surface…!
A grave robber crushing something on the ground.
If Ian were to see those characters, he would be surprised. The text resembling the drawing the grave robber was writing was none other than Mado language, Maronius language.
It wasn’t a character that was so accurate as to attract mystical interest, and the strokes were a bit off, making it look strange. But it was Maronius language.
It was the character for “Asha,” meaning God.
“What is this?”
A common grave robber wouldn’t have received proper education.
The reason he knew Maronius language was because he paid a lot of money to a peddler in the market to learn the “sentence that drives away ghosts.”
“Now! If you write this character on the ground, the ghosts won’t be able to do anything!”
[Oh! Thank you! Diviner!]
“You said it was a sacred sentence. You ignorant bastard.”
“Yeah. You’re showing off because you studied a bit.”
The tomb raider chuckled.
He was an elite medieval who had studied at [school] in his youth.
To be precise, he was a noble’s servant who had learned a few letters while running errands, but…
He never forgot to introduce himself as someone who had studied at [Bautryche Academy] when he was young.
He was not one to lie.
Although he hadn’t learned any knowledge, he had learned the behavior, speech, attitude, and atmosphere of intellectuals.
Thanks to that, he knew how to win the favor of intellectuals.
That was why he was able to learn the characters for exorcising ghosts.
“Since the tomb is close, draw this when it’s night. That way, you won’t be haunted by ghosts.”
“Oh.”
The exorcising sentence that the tomb raider drew was, unfortunately, a fake. It was a skull relic from Wonhyo Daesa.
But being fake doesn’t mean it’s useless. Didn’t the skull relic also give enlightenment to Wonhyo Daesa?
When he drew it… he slept really well. It was because his mind became peaceful.
As he worked as a tomb raider, he became extremely afraid of ghosts and curses.
He knew very well that his own job was dirty and filthy.
“Phew. Honestly, I don’t really like this job.”
Perhaps thinking that the exorcising sentence was something like a barrier, another tomb raider nearby slumped down.
A brief chat session began.
“Tallian is quite an old noble family. I heard that the former Marquis had some kind of relationship with the Fairy Queen…”
“Oh, really? Is that just a legend?”
“What’s the story? Do you know anything?”
They neglect to guard the tomb.
While the high-ranking individuals are digging up the tomb, other tomb raiders spread tales.
It’s a common practice to gossip about the boss and collect the monthly pay when they’re not around, whether in medieval times or now.
Once you try it, you get hooked and can’t easily quit.
Wow! Get paid for gossiping!
“The Marquis received a proposal from the Fairy Queen, but he rejected it…”
“The fairies placed a seal on the tomb…”
“The Queen used necromancy to bring the deceased Marquis back…”
All sorts of rumors and stories were rampant.
Some were stories that simply replaced the protagonist of another legend with the Marquis, and there were even stories that coincidentally guessed the correct answer.
Although it couldn’t be confirmed whether they were true or not, the tomb raiders were simply delighted.
Time passes quickly…!
If they continue to gossip like this, they will fall asleep and wake up to find the job finished.
Then they can get paid and go home!
Raiding tombs is so easy.
“…So, the ghost of the Marquis…!”
“Hey, hey. Look over there, just for a moment.”
It was in the midst of telling a thrilling story.
Someone pointed into the darkness.
“…What’s that?”
The grave robbers were all plunged into confusion almost simultaneously.
Something was moving slowly in the darkness.
No matter how much they looked, they couldn’t figure out what it was!
But judging from its human-like shape…?
“A, a ghost…!”
“Not a ghost? That thing?!”
The grave robbers all proudly exclaimed, pointing to their own eyes and saying, “I saw it clearly! I trust what I saw!”
If one person saw it wrong, then it was that person’s mistake.
But if everyone saw it wrong, then it wasn’t a matter of mistaken sight, but rather seeing something that shouldn’t be seen.
“Everyone, come here! Gather over here!”
The grave robber trembled as he shouted.
Under his feet was inscribed the phrase “Chasing away ghosts.”
Something rose up from the darkness with a swishing sound.
Certainly, it was something that had taken on the form of a human.
From head to toe, it was pitch black, as if looking at a moving shadow.
The grave robbers trembled as they tightly held each other’s hands.
When times were toughest, they were true friends who gave me strength. They were all true friends.
At that moment, the shadow shouted.
From Noble mtl dot com
[What… are you doing on my… land…!]
One frightened grave robber picked up a stone and threw it.
“You, get out of here!”
But the stone passed right through the shadow.
It was an intangible entity.
This fact terrified the grave robbers to the extreme.
[How dare you… attack the owner of this land…!]
Whooosh!
The wind swept through, blowing away all the torches.
The grave robbers lost their senses.
“The Viscount! It’s the Viscount! Talien Viscount has returned!”
“Run!”
“You fools! Where do you think you’re running to? If you run, you’ll die!”
Unlike reality, this world was filled with supernatural creatures casually roaming about.
Every creature in the field was like a duck-billed platypus.
They believed without a doubt that the black humanoid mass was the Viscount’s ghost.
“Leave now… you cursed beings…!”
The Viscount’s ghost exploded in anger.
And then, most of the grave robbers dropped their weapons and ran away!
“We’re sorry! We’ve committed a deadly sin!”
“We promise to live a good life from now on, please spare us!”
“Oh, great soul in the heavens! Protect me!”
The grave robbers knew that they were doing something immoral. How proud could those who rob other people’s graves really be?
In such a state of weak mental fortitude, when the ghost appeared, they couldn’t gather their senses.
Only one person remained.
A grave robber who couldn’t escape because his legs gave out.
He muttered the perfect exorcism that could be in a textbook.
“I have seen the name of God, so go away. I have seen the name of God, so go away. I have seen the name of God, so go away…”
It was the incantation taught by the fortune-teller who taught him the “Ghost-Chasing Sentence.”
He was told that any ghost would retreat if he recited this sentence while showing them a written sentence.
The ghost of the Viscount stared silently at the man murmuring the incantation.
“Please…!”
Then.
Something unbelievable happened.
The ghost turned around and walked away!
“What… what?!”
The grave robber was startled and jumped up.
It worked! The ghost actually retreated!
“Ah, the gods of the sky have protected me!”
The tomb raider was moved by the overwhelming rush of faith and knelt down.
I’ve done terrible things, never prayed!
But still, the heavens haven’t forsaken me!
“Thank you! O heavens! From now on, I will pray a lot and give offerings!”
The tomb raider shouted.
Someone whispered in the tomb raider’s ear.
[Hey. There’s a limit to being conscienceless. Do you think I’ll help someone like you?]
“… What?”
[And those characters, they’re wrong. Four strokes are missing. Did you skip them because it was too bothersome to write? What’s the matter?]
The darkness disappeared.
Dim moonlight illuminated the tomb raider’s surroundings.
There, stood…
“If you surrender obediently, your life will be spared.”
A maid in a majestic dress, with long blonde hair tied up, was there.