Chapter 16
Come to think of it, Elterion Academy is incredibly big.
When the original said the academy grounds were absurdly vast, or that you couldn't even tour the whole place in a full month of walking, I thought the description was a bit exaggerated.
But once I actually became a student and walked around on my own two feet, it really was huge.
It feels much bigger than the forest village where I lived until recently. They didn't call it an "academy city" for nothing.
Since the grounds are so vast, there were quite a lot of abandoned or neglected buildings around the outskirts of the campus.
The old building right in front of me is one of them.
A decrepit library building with a gloomy atmosphere.
"This is the clubroom of the Ghost Story Club."
Claire smiled brightly and pointed at the door that was one step away from falling apart.
"...This looks like a place where a ghost or undead would pop out."
As I gently pulled the doorknob, the old door gave a creak and screamed.
The stale smell of old books mixed with a dusty, musty odor wafted out.
Three or four faint magical lamps floated in the air, casting a soft glow, but that wasn't enough; parts of the room still remained dark.
...Even better.
It was exactly the kind of lighting perfect for a short, solid power nap.
If I ever skipped class and got too lazy to go all the way back to the dorm, it seemed like a fine place to come and sneak in a quick nap.
"I brought a new recruit back with me~"
At Claire's bright voice, the two people buried in the darkness snapped their heads up.
The first to rush out was a pale-faced girl.
The dark circles under her eyes were quite deep, but perhaps because her eyes sparkled, she didn't particularly look tired.
So this is what they mean by decadent beauty?
"Really? Who is it? Did you bring me a cute one?"
"She's called Lunaris. You know her too, don't you, President? The top freshman!"
"Ahh~ Of course I know her. So that's her?"
She strode over and suddenly took my hand.
"Welcome to the library where scary stories gather! I'm Sylvia, a third-year from the Department of Magic. I'm the president of the Ghost Story Club!"
President Sylvia said cheerfully, shaking my arm up and down.
"And over there is Thomas, a second-year from the Department of Political Science. He's our vice president."
The male student crouching beside the patch where mushrooms had sprouted opened his mouth with a very tense expression.
"W-welcome..."
He seemed like the kind of person who'd be moved on before the ghost itself if he ever met one, so I felt oddly sorry for him.
"But it's really amazing to see the subject of all those rumors right in front of me."
President Sylvia suddenly stuck her face close and grinned.
"Scoring full marks on the entrance exam, or being an advanced mage at only sixteen—honestly, that's absurd, isn't it? I was thinking of making you our club's next research topic, you know?"
"President, but you know what? Those rumors are all true."
"Aww~ don't tease me, Claire. I may be obsessed with ghost stories, but I can still tell real things from nonsense."
After laughing for quite a while like that.
"Ha ha... ha, ha?"
She tilted her head when she saw Claire just smiling knowingly in silence.
Her lively gaze then turned to me.
I also awkwardly looked away and let out an embarrassed smile.
At our subtle reactions, President Sylvia's expression also became subtly strange.
"...No way, it's true?"
Silence fell for a moment.
In the silence, the human mushroom let out a squeak, then the sound of hiccuping slipped out.
What broke the awkward atmosphere was President Sylvia's lively nyahaha laughter.
"Well, whatever. Even better! Wow~ it's such a relief that a tiny, precious talent like you came to our little club!"
Saying that, the president suddenly gave me a tight hug.
Ugh... can't breathe... too stuffy...
"So, President? I brought her back well, right?"
"You did great, Claire! Now we just need to find one more person."
"How long was the club-disbandment grace period again?"
"The student council sent word that they'd only let us off until the end of this month."
"Wow... that's kind of tight."
"Come on, though—we've got the top freshman in the entire first year now. Wouldn't the student council extend the period a bit?"
Watching Claire and President Sylvia chatter excitedly and noisily, I felt something strange.
I don't recall ever submitting an application form.
When exactly did I become a member of the Ghost Story Club?
*
"You came at just the right time, Lunaris! Actually, we were planning to go out and do an on-site investigation to verify a ghost story tonight."
I whipped my head around and glared at Claire.
I thought this was an indoor club that gathered in a room and talked about ghosts?
You never said it was an outdoor club that ran around looking for ghosts.
"Don't worry, Lunaris! We're just going to take a look at the atmosphere, that's all—the atmosphere."
You said it wouldn't be scary if we were all together.
Claire struck a fighting pose toward me.
No, the problem isn't that it's scary; the problem is going out.
And at this late hour, too.
"At midnight, it's time to sleep..."
"What are you talking about~ It's the perfect time to meet ghosts."
I see why President Sylvia, despite being a bright and cheerful extrovert, had such a decadent vibe.
This person was basically a hyperactive beagle, running around both day and night.
"Now that we've got a new member too, today is sure to yield results!"
President Sylvia smiled and spread all sorts of materials across the desk.
"By the way, have you heard? The story about senior Veronica."
"Who is that?"
"A senior who went missing at the academy a few years ago."
Under the dim lamplight.
President Sylvia lowered her voice and continued with a meaningful expression.
"Actually, that senior, after failing to get selected for a scholarship and falling into despair, ended up... Waaah!"
"Kyaaaah!"
"Aaaagh!!"
At the president's vivid storytelling, Claire and the vice president screamed at the same time.
This person is pretty good at dramatic narration.
It's a little rude to say, but the ghost story was awfully bland.
President Sylvia was scarier, honestly.
Talking about someone dying in such a matter-of-fact voice, while her eyes sparkled brighter and brighter, was downright unhinged.
"After that, senior Veronica became a ghost and is said to wander the academy every night. There are supposedly more than a hundred people every year who claim to have seen her, you know?"
As I quietly listened, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
I'd definitely never heard the name Veronica before, but the ghost story itself felt strangely familiar.
"We didn't know exactly when or where that ghost appears, but this time we gathered solid witness testimony and were able to pinpoint the location and time. Every Friday at 9 p.m., the place is—"
"The old building that used to be Sepia Hall, or something like that?"
"Oh? That's right!"
At my careless remark, the president's eyes widened.
"The fact that Sepia Hall was newly built is something freshmen would hardly know, so where did you hear that?"
"Just... I happened to hear it outside."
I was too lazy to explain, so I gave a suitably vague answer.
"Anyway, then it must also be true that a ghost appears there."
At my indifferent, offhand remark, everyone began looking at me with shocked faces.
"Well, I mean... it's just something I heard too..."
If I had to brush it off, it was because mentioning the source would be a little awkward.
How could I say I knew because I'd seen it in the original story?
Kyle from Edelweiss Hall went to meet the heroine in Sepia Hall, and then, because he went to the closed old building of all places, did he run into a ghost?
Come to think of it, this was my first time learning that the ghost's name was Veronica. I didn't particularly want to know, though.
As President Sylvia said, Veronica had taken her own life.
As for why she was marked missing, it was nothing much.
The academy's big shots, worried about their reputation taking a hit, buried both the incident and the person.
In a world ruled by a class system, one commoner disappearing doesn't even count as news.
What was scarier than ghost stories was.
It was always people.
*
In the end, I got dragged out after all.
My plan to show my face briefly and then leave as a ghost member was completely blown apart.
Of course, it wasn't as if I was being forced to go.
This was, above all else, a preemptive trial run of the incident in the original story.
Better to be a little inconvenienced now than to have things become ten or twenty times more troublesome in the future.
If I rehearsed in advance, then even if an emergency happened in next year's main event, I'd be able to somehow clean it up.
...It's absolutely, definitely not because I was scared I'd go back now and end up doing a midnight maid shift even scarier than a midnight ruin expedition.
The night air in the academy's outskirts was colder and more biting than I expected.
Not just the weather, but the atmosphere too.
The silhouettes of the Gothic-style buildings lit by moonlight loomed eerily. It really was the sort of place that gave birth to countless ghost stories.
"Today I miss you even more... my bed..."
I grumbled softly as I moved my heavy feet.
"Doesn't it make your heart race? It feels like we're going on an adventure!"
Claire at my side couldn't hide her excitement, like some tempestuous teenage noble lady.
"W-walking around this late at night... isn't that against the school rules? I-if we get caught, we'll definitely get scolded..."
Vice President Thomas was already completely frightened.
"How can you investigate ghost stories if you're afraid of getting scolded? If we get caught, we'll just gloss it over as club activity~"
"But today's patrol... I checked, and it changed to Department Head Raymond..."
"What? The department head himself? Why on earth?"
I could roughly guess the reason.
It seemed he'd been disciplined by the chairman for thoroughly wrecking Linnea Hall yesterday.
I could easily imagine him grumbling as he patrolled, and before I knew it, laughter burst out of me.
This is why people shouldn't throw around words about taking responsibility so carelessly.
Even so, for someone who was a department head, getting punished with manual labor did feel kind of tacky and pathetic.
"Hmm, it does seem like we need to be careful. If it's Department Head Raymond, he's not someone you can talk your way out of it with."
"Still, if it's four on one, I think we'd win."
At my offhand remark, Claire burst into laughter.
"Aha ha—no matter how much of an advanced mage you are, how are we supposed to beat the archmage department head?"
"I fought him one-on-one yesterday, and it was manageable. Add three more people and it's enough."
Shrugging as I replied, Claire stopped laughing and stared at me blankly.
"...Lunaris, I suddenly think you're scarier than the ghost."
As we walked and chatted about this and that, we soon reached the closed old Sepia Hall building.
The medieval stone building showed clear signs of having been left neglected for a long time.
Most of the windows with broken glass were boarded up.
The exterior wall, tangled with brick and ivy, gave off a creepy feeling.
The sound of branches rustling and the wind seeping into my ears deepened the ominous mood.
"This is it. The place where senior Veronica's ghost is supposed to appear."
The moment President Sylvia raised the lamp high and whispered—
-Kyaaaah—!!
A sharp scream rang out.
We looked at one another and froze in place.
"U-um... should we g-go back even now?"
Yep, the mushroom vice president had finally said something truly constructive for the first time.