Chapter 17
Our ghost club set out on an ambitious expedition.
But the scream that suddenly rang out stopped us dead at the door.
Thomas, the vice president, was so pale he looked like he might faint any second.
Claire looked perfectly fine, but the fact that she was clinging tightly to me made things much worse.
"Ugh, it's cramped..."
"S-sorry!"
Claire flinched and quickly let go.
-Whoooosh
"Kyaaah!"
...Claire clung back to my side at the sound of the wind and wouldn't let go.
"W-who screamed? Could someone else be in here besides us?"
"A ghost... Senior Veronica's scream..."
Thomas was shaking so badly his teeth chattered.
"Y-you really think we should go back?"
"We can't turn back now that we've come this far! This is our chance to see a ghost in person!"
The only one full of energy right now is President Sylvia.
Those sparkling eyes are pure madness.
I don't know who she'll end up dating, but that person's in for a rough time.
Even if I let her win during the day, I'd have to beat her somehow at night, and she just happens to get stronger then. This is not going to be easy.
"All right, let's go in!"
President Sylvia grabbed the doorknob and turned it hard.
-Rattle, rattle.
It didn't seem locked at all, but the door wouldn't budge.
The hinges must've rusted and warped from being left alone for too long.
"What... why won't it open?"
"Wait, let me try."
We needed to look around quickly and get back to bed, so we couldn't waste time here.
I peeled Claire off me and stepped forward.
I stood in front of the door and placed my palm against it.
If it's just some basic magic...
-BANG!!
...would've been enough, I thought, but that was way too much.
The door was torn off in one piece and rolled across the floor, leaving an awkward silence behind.
Even the screams and wind stopped; the ghost must be watching from somewhere and hiccuping in shock.
"Whoa... as expected of the archmage. That's seriously tough."
"Well—if it's open now, isn't that okay?"
*
I slowly made my way down the dark hallway.
Dust piled thick on the floor and pricked at my nose.
I felt like I was about to sneeze, so I rubbed my face with the back of my hand.
Beyond the lantern's dim light, faded portraits hanging on the wall caught my eye.
Were they the people who attended this academy long ago?
Maybe it was just my imagination, but it felt like the eyes in the portraits were glaring at us.
In this kind of atmosphere, there was no need to investigate separately; no matter what time we came in, we'd probably run into a ghost.
"Ugh... I'm already scared..."
As we were climbing the stairs, Claire whispered in my ear.
The eerie mood had completely overwhelmed her, and she seemed to be genuinely scared.
When we left the club room, she was the toughest girl around.
Where did that tough girl go, and what's this clingy little thing hanging off my back?
"What do you mean? You said it felt like an adventure earlier."
"S-sorryyy...! I didn't think it'd be this terrifying!"
Saying that, Claire hugged me tight again.
Wait, hold on... my chest... Even if my body doesn't really distinguish between places things go in and out, that spot's sensitive... Eek!
If you're going to grab me, at least grab my arm or waist...!
Then President Sylvia, who had been leading the way, turned around to look at us.
"We're on the third floor."
...Huh? Already on the third floor?
In the original story, Kyle seemed to have been put through hell by the other ghosts on his way up here, didn't he?
"The place where Senior Veronica was last seen is right over there."
President Sylvia lifted the lantern and pointed toward the end of the hallway.
Beyond the faint edge of the light, a door could be seen swallowed in darkness.
That's the room Senior Veronica stayed in when she was alive.
The hallway was silent as a grave.
The four of us slowly approached the room.
Just walking without saying anything made every small sound around us hit our ears even louder.
Even the sound of swallowing echoed; that says it all.
At some point, President Sylvia stopped walking.
We, who were following behind her, froze in place as well.
"P-President... why did you suddenly stop...?"
"Y-you're not trying to play a prank, are you...? I-I won't fall for it anymore... I got tricked several times last year..."
The very moment we were holding our breath and looking around.
-THUD!!
Somewhere in the darkness.
A dull thump of something falling rang out.
"Eek!"
Claire jumped and clung to me even tighter.
Thomas, the vice president, had slumped down on the spot and muttered with a look like he'd lost everything in the world.
"D-did you hear that just now...?"
"Sounds like it came from the end of the hallway?"
With trembling hands, President Sylvia raised the lantern high.
The wavering light tried to push back the darkness at the end of the corridor.
We quietly stared at the far end where the light reached.
For a moment.
A faint shadow flickered beyond the dust-laden air.
It flashed by in an instant, though.
It definitely had the shape of a person.
"Did you see that?!"
President Sylvia said in a voice thick with excitement.
"Something just passed by over there, right?"
"Y-yes... I saw it too... Wait, President? Where are you going now?!"
"Since we've come all the way here~ we might as well go into the room and back out."
One person who insisted on going all the way to the end.
Two people who had been dying to go back since earlier.
One person who was starting to get sleepy and didn't really care anymore.
If we went by majority vote, we'd probably be heading back around here.
Sadly, this was a primitive medieval fantasy world, so we had no choice but to go along with the president's stubbornness.
What's more, that woman is holding the lantern hostage. Even if we went back on our own, we'd just be stumbling around in the dark.
You could say, why not just light the way with magic?
But Thomas, the vice president, can't even use a single spell properly, and Claire is in no condition mentally or physically.
And if I light it up, this building'll turn into kindling in an instant.
After forcing our feet forward like that, we reached the end of the hallway, in front of the problem room.
For some reason, the door was slightly ajar.
Had it been open from the start?
Or... had someone gone in?
President Sylvia pushed the door open with trembling hands.
-Creeak.
The rusty hinges let out an ominous scream.
Inside the room, where moonlight faintly filtered in, old furniture like a bed, mirror, and desk still remained as they were.
The air was strangely chilly.
"President... let's get out now, okay? We've already confirmed there's nothing here."
Thomas, the vice president, said in a frightened voice.
Claire had forgotten even how to make a sound and was just nodding over and over.
But the president had already stepped into the room.
"You two come in too. The air in here is completely chilly, and it feels amazing!"
President Sylvia's face was flushed red enough to be obvious even in the dark.
It was the blissed-out expression of someone who looked like she'd lose herself completely if the excitement got even a little stronger.
"Heehee, huhu... room condition preserved, sharp drop in temperature, human-shaped silhouette... all of these could be signs of a spirit's presence..."
President Sylvia even set the lantern down on the desk and took out a notebook and fountain pen to start taking notes.
This woman is first-rate. She's really enjoying this situation.
I looked at her and shook my head.
Brave, or just fearless.
Maybe she's already possessed by a ghost.
"President... we really need to get out now..."
It was just as Thomas squeezed out the last of his courage and tried to speak.
I sensed a strange presence behind me, from one corner of the room.
A bead of cold sweat dripped down my forehead.
I reflexively spun around.
...Nothing.
Just an empty corner, and darkness.
I was sure there'd been something there...
Then Claire let out a small gasp.
"Huh?!"
Claire's gaze was fixed on the mirror on one side of the room.
I looked at the mirror too, dumbfounded.
Five figures were faintly reflected on the surface of the cracked full-length mirror.
There were five, not four.
"Something... doesn't it seem like there's one more?"
A pale, blurry girl.
It was someone in the darkness beyond the mirror, quietly staring at us.
Her eyes and nose were hidden by the long hair hanging down.
The mouth exposed below was stretched into a long grin.
For a split second.
Claire and I both stopped breathing at the same time.
"Kyaaah!"
Claire screamed and yanked at my clothes wildly.
"Aaaaah!!"
Thomas, the vice president, also suddenly screamed.
At the same time, the silhouette in the mirror vanished somewhere.
As if nothing had ever been there to begin with.
"Wait! Calm down!"
The only one who seemed remotely okay was President Sylvia.
But the president's voice was trembling too. She must have seen something reflected in the mirror as well.
"Senior Veronica, right? Are you there?"
President Sylvia strode up to the mirror and carefully called out.
Her voice cracked, but both eyes were glittering with convinced madness.
"If you're there, please show yourself. Let's talk."
But the mirror silently reflected only our figures, and nothing changed.
President Sylvia's shoulders slumped.
Maybe because her expectations had been so high.
Or maybe the fear from what she'd just seen was only now catching up to her.
"Kyaaah! G-get away!"
Claire's shrill scream rang out again behind us.
The stack of books piled in one corner had come crashing down and scattered at Claire's feet.
"W-we really have to get out now!!"
Thomas, the vice president, was screaming while sitting on the floor.
Maybe he'd hit a corner of furniture or something; he had collapsed onto the floor and was crawling backward.
"G-ghost... there really was one... sob..."
His tear-soaked face had turned completely deathly pale.
Claire was hiding behind me, shaking all over.
The hand gripping my clothes was trembling violently.
...We're almost there.
"There it is! Senior Veronica, come out already! Hurry! Haa... haaah...!"
If only I could do something about that full-blown ghost otaku.
-CRASH!!
A door-slamming sound much closer than before rang out.
It was such a loud noise it felt like someone was deliberately trying to scare us.
At the same time, the books in the room.
The furniture.
Floated up into the air.
"Kyaaah!!"
Claire screamed and bolted out of the room just like that.
"R-run away!!"
"Poltergeist phenomenon! So there really was a ghost after all... w-wait! Where are you dragging me?!"
Thomas, at least being a club officer, hurriedly helped the president escape and ran off in a panic.
Just like that, I was left alone in the room.
No, to be precise.
-...You're kind of mischievous.
I was left alone with the ghost, just the two of us.
-Using high-level magic like telekinesis just to scare kids is too much, you know.
"But if I hadn't done that, President Sylvia would've kept camping out here, even if nobody else did."
-That's true, though.
The chuckling voice sounded more resigned than eerie.
-So why are you staying here instead of going back with your friends?
"Ah, I still have some business to take care of."
-Business? What, are you going to send me on my way or something?
"Not exactly..."
I picked up the lantern left on the desk and let out a sigh.
"I stayed behind to do a pre-opening check on the attraction."
-???