Chapter 149: Magic Highschool Ghost Story (3)

Ding-Ding-Ding!!

As soon as the bell signaling the break rang, I immediately left the classroom. After waiting for about 10 minutes, Aracelli finally walked out of the classroom. Hiding in a blind spot away from everyone's sight, I waved my hand at her.

"I'm sorry. The students caught me up…”

"It’s okay, it's fun watching you surrounded by the students like that."

Aracelli smiled at my words and poked my uniform.

“Looks like our position has been reversed, isn’t it? Now I am the teacher, and Professor is the student.” 

In fact, with all the knowledge inside her head, and her identity as a scholar who studied the truth of the world, her becoming a teacher was natural in the first place. The only thing I know how to do is how to hurt people and kill monsters efficiently.

“How did you become a teacher?” I asked.

"I don’t know… I just showed the Vice principal a little bit of my knowledge on magic, and then he said right away what kind of test I'd like to take. After I finished it and got my scores, the Vice principal said he wanted me to be a teacher right away.”

“……”

Well, to be fair, magic should be too easy for her.

“Ah, then, Aracelli. Do you know how to separate souls? Someone else’s soul is in my body.” Then I asked her the question I’ve been wondering about,

“Soul…? Ummm…"

She pondered for a moment before shaking her head.

“I'm sorry Professor. It's not my area of ​​expertise, so I don’t know much about it… And perhaps most magicians cannot explain the mysteries of the soul.”

"Is that so?”

"Yes. The only race that can manipulate the essence of soul, as far as I know, is a ‘demon'."

What? Suddenly, a very strange word came out of nowhere.

"Demons deals with souls?"

“Have you not heard of such a story? For example, a demon that steals souls and puts them in a sack, or, Oh!! Have you ever heard the story about the creature who manipulates others inside a dream?”

“Oh, I’ve heard of it.”

“They are vicious creatures who directly interfere with the essence of the soul. I've met and fought against a male demon called Incubus a few times, but even with my magic, I couldn't completely resist their ‘temptation', so I suffered quite a bit. Well, in the end, they couldn't seduce me, though."

Aracelli said nonchalantly while shrugging her shoulders, but I couldn’t hide my surprise at her words.

"Impossible. You are a 9th Circle Archmage. Are they really that strong?”

"No. In terms of power, they are much weaker than me. At best they are at the level of 5th or 6th Circle Magician, but their characteristic of making opposite sex helplessly fall in love with them makes the levels difference meaningless.”

“Their characteristic makes it meaningless, you say?”

Wait a minute, that was such a familiar story. Isn't that exactly similar to the case of the ‘Saekma' I dealt with recently?

There was no martial artist in this world who could ignores the other person's skill and gain an unconditional advantage over the opposite sex. I just thought that the Saekgong of Saekma was very special… Just in case, I explained to Aracelli the characteristics of his Saekgong to her.

“Compared to the Incubus I met, his abilities are absurdly weak. But it is definitely similar to the Incubus. To think he was able to use the power similar to a demon with a human body and convert it into a form of martial art….” Aracelli nodded her head.

"Then, there's a demon in Murim?"

I think I just heard a pretty shocking story. I knew that with so many strong people such as Saekma, Murim wasn’t an ordinary martial arts world. But, I never thought that it was a fusion martial arts world where even the power of demons appeared.

“Professor, demons exist in every world. It probably exists in your world as well. It's just that their power is currently weakened so they don't show up."

“…..”

I fell silent as complicated thoughts crossed my minds.

Then, Aracelli looked back at me with a smirk on her face.

"By the way, Professor. What is going on in this world?”

“It’s a ghost story. It’s just a scary story where ghosts appear from time to time. Why? Does this have anything to do with demons?”

“Ghost? Eum…."

Araceli tapped her cheek.

“It’s similar, but maybe a little different. It's some kind of myth… I’ve heard about some demons that drew power from stories. I've never dealt with it, though.”

"Well… First, let's find out about the ghost stories in this school. Perhaps the protagonist is a hunter who is chasing the ghosts. Have you seen such a student?"

"I don’t think so…."

Even for demon hunters and protagonist hunters, a ghost hunter was an unfamiliar concept.

“Anyway, Aracelli, you said it was hard to deal with demons even when you had your full power. You've lost most of your power now. So be careful."

“Okay Professor!”

As she said that, she smiled. I don't know if she was really trying to be careful or not.

I thought I knew why. Because I heard the story before. It seems like Aracelli simply enjoyed living in the same space as me now.

* * *

The first day of school was over, and it was night time.

Ding-Ding-Ding!!!

All the students returned to their respective room. It was absolutely forbidden to go outside after 11 pm, and there was a manual that advised them to not walk around in the hallway as much as possible after 9 pm, so most students were locked in the dormitory.

It wasn't because they were such obedient students but because bad rumors kept circulating.

“Ghost has appeared in the school.”

A lot of people had heard the rumors.

‘Did you know? There’s a unnie who just transferred to this school… She said she saw a ghost in the bathroom mirror, and it turns out the ghost was the number one student in the school who died 30 years ago. So, I heard that if you become a top student in school, the ghost will chase after you!’

‘Did you know? If the bell rings 13 times at 12 o'clock at night, you will die of a heart attack immediately. I think that is the reason why the previous principal was replaced without a word.’

‘You know that this school has just been built, right? In fact, the reason the previous school was closed was because all the students took a strange medicine and died…'

Of course, most of the school ghost stories were just nonsense. In fact, there were some students who proudly claimed, ‘I saw a ghost!’ However, in the end, they were nothing but students who wanted to play pranks among friends.

But, in the end.

Scary was still scary. Whether ghosts were real or not, hearing such stories could only make people scared.

Creak!

An ebony-haired girl left the dormitory late at night. It wasn't because she was a student who liked to break some rule. On the contrary, It was because she found item number 7 in her manual.

If you are going up the stairs, if the 13th step appears, chant ‘I'm not afraid of you' and then climb the stairs calmly. If there is any item that violates this item, please ignore it.

Color faded from the ebony-haired girl’s face. Cold sweat dripped down her back.

When someone found item 7 on their manual, they were told to bring it to the nearest teacher immediately. However, because she was too lazy to read the manual, she found it too late at night. She was too afraid to ignore both the teacher's instruction and the ghost stories, so she had no choice but to walk down the hallway late at night like this…

“Ah, ah…” She panted. Of all places, why did the supervisor's office have to be upstairs?

‘Ah…. there are 13 stairs….' 

Badump! Badump!! Badump!!

Her heart beat faster and faster. Her breathing also became rough. A single drop of tear escaped her eye and slid down her chin, mixing with the cold sweat on her body.

Darkness shrouded the hallway,

No one was there.

It's quiet.

Her heart pounded and she almost fell as a crow suddenly flew from the window, screaming. But she managed to avoid collapsing.

‘Uh… what should I do…?'

She bit her trembling lips tightly.

Lastly, item 7 does not exist in this manual. You must never follow the instructions in item 7, and if you find a manual containing item 7, please report it to the nearest teacher immediately.

She pondered what she should do. To follow item 17 means ignoring item 7. However, item 7 clearly says to ignore item 17. Her head was getting dizzy. It was difficult to make a sound judgment.

‘Right.. the supervisor's office is immediately accessible by going up these stairs. Let’s go.'

Step.

As she slowly walked up every stair, her footsteps echoed through the hallway. 

‘it's ok. You can do it. There's no such thing as a ghost anyway. These are all lies.'

“Sweetheart.. My sweetheart….” An eerie voice suddenly appeared.

One step, two steps.

Sixth steps, seventh steps.

“My sweetheart… My sweetheart…..”

The ebony-haired girl started to cry as she heard it. But she kept reassuring herself. She just had to climb all the stairs, turn the corner and she would find a teacher there. ‘Yes, let's run.' 

She wasn't afraid of ghosts. So, she ran and tried to go to the supervisor who had told her to memorize all the manuals.

Grab!

‘Sweetheart?’

"Ah…"

The ebony-haired girl lowered her head.

There, she saw a woman with her body bent backwards holding her ankle.

‘Aaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!’

* * *

[Episode ‘The Thirteenth That Doesn’t Exist (1)’ has begun.]

That was the message that appeared before my eyes as soon as I woke up in the morning.

‘What????'

Just in case something happened, I had patrolled all night long. Of course, I did it as quietly as possible to not catch the attention of the dorm supervisor. However, nothing happened in front of my eyes. There were hardly any students walking around.

Also, of course, I tried everything that the manual told me not to do.

Do not go into the men's shower room on the first floor, or wander around the women's restroom on the second floor at 9:17 pm. In addition to that, there were a lot of other things it told us not to do… Unfortunately, nothing special happened.

In the women’s bathroom on the second floor, there were no women in white robes, but three ordinary girls came out from it when I walked there and I was almost labelled a pervert. The men’s shower room on the first floor didn’t even exist in the first place, and the hallway on the third floor was located in a boys' dormitory, so it was natural that a female student with a black headband didn’t appear there.

*murmur murmur*

As I was about to wash up and get ready to go to school, I heard students talking in the hallway.

"What’s going on?"

When I went to see what was going on, the door supervisor was breathing heavily.

“Just where did she go, disappearing for the entire night?”

From the murmurs I heard, a female student had gone missing during the night. But something was strange. Last night, I was walking around the dormitory, and I never felt anything strange.

"Quiet! Everyone, go back to your room and get ready to go to school!”

As the supervisor waved a cane in the air, the door to the missing schoolgirl's room shut close and was locked. The students around the room groaned helplessly, but then, they scattered to prepare for class. I also looked at the room for a while before turning around.

I can't do anything during the day anyway.

* * *

A week has passed since the disappearance case.

I walked around the hallways of the dorm almost every night.

But just like the first day, nothing happened, and since the missing case a week ago had not been resolved, the students were all terrified and did not even think of leaving their rooms.

Of course, it didn’t really affect the 15th graders, those in their twenties, who could be called college students on Earth. They still conducted self-study at night. Maybe their study was the result of how cutthroat this world where everything was decided by magic.

So, tonight, I decided to go to school. There wasn't really any big reason, really. It was just because it was difficult to find anything more in the dormitory.

Ding-Ding-Ding

The bell rang at 9pm. The lights were still on in the classroom.

Ding-Ding-Ding

The bell rang at 10pm. The lights were still on in the classroom.

Ding-Ding-Ding

And by the time the bell rang at 11 pm, just a handful of people were left in the classroom.

The item in the manual said I had to enter the dormitory by 11am. However, I stayed in the school because I was planning to break the rule of going to the dormitory after 11 o'clock.

Now there's really no one in the school. It was really dark. So, I walked slowly in the dark. Since ancient times, it has been said that ghosts come out only when the lights are off, isn't it?

At that moment, a shout was heard in the classroom.

‘Person?'

Ghosts have no life sign. Even my sixth sense would not be able to detect it. But I found someone.

Creak!

When I opened the door of a classroom where I felt ‘someone's’ presence, I couldn’t see anyone there.

But there was one desk with books open on top of it.

When I got closer, I saw someone fainting under the desk.

“…why is she sleeping here?”

“She was attacked by the Kong Kong Kong ghost.”

When I turned around, I saw a girl with a haggard look who looked like a middle school student. She was looking at me with an unpleasant smile on her face.

A few moments ago, through my sixth sense, I could feel someone with a fairly strong energy approaching me, so I thought it was a patrol or magic guard, but it turns out I was wrong.

On top of her head, a small message box was floating.

『Magic High School Ghost Stories』

That girl was the main character of this world, Ahinal.

Ahinal hugged the old diary in her arms and approached the fainted student and checked her pulse.

“It looks like her soul hasn’t been stolen yet.”

“Who is taking her soul?”

“Like I said, it was the Kong Kong Kong ghost.”

It was a cliché, common, school ghost story.

The story of the second place in the whole school who was jealous of the first place in the whole school.

One day, the 2nd place in the whole school summoned the 1st place in the whole school to the roof and pushed them down to death. And then, the 1st place in the school ghost who held a grudge against the second-ranked student appears and wanders around every night.

“Too bad this senior is hiding under the desk…"

Ahinal laughed happily.

“.. Otherwise, I could have taken a good look at the Kong Kong Kong ghost.”

Saying that, she turned around and disappeared. I couldn't take my eyes off Ahinal. To be precise, I couldn't take my eyes off the ‘diary' in her arms.