Chapter 48
Is he more tolerant of magic than ghosts? His standards are so strange.
I felt a bit dumbfounded, but now wasn’t the time to joke around with him.
Because I witnessed ghosts making a fuss and fleeing behind Leonard’s back.
The ghosts were making a commotion and running away somewhere. When they reacted like this, it was usually one of two things: either Senior Noah appeared or an evil spirit showed up.
I naturally thought Senior Noah had appeared.
But surprisingly, the person who appeared was Dante, whom I had encountered at the fountain yesterday.
‘Huh?’
This time was different from yesterday.
Dante had his eyes closed. Just as if he were sleeping.
“Hah. What should we do with this guy? Why did he suddenly develop sleepwalking and make people tired?”
Leonard muttered beside me.
It seems the roommate he came out looking for was Dante.
‘So it really was sleepwalking.’
Leonard linked arms with the floundering Dante and took him away. As I approached them—
‘Wait.’
The closer I got to Dante, the more I felt something was off.
‘What is that?’
Because it was dark at night, I couldn’t see from far away, but as I got closer, I saw something pulling on Dante’s wrist.
No. To be precise, something like a black mass was attached to it.
“Why is he walking with his hand like that?”
Leonard also expressed doubt.
It was natural. What was pulling Dante’s hand wasn’t human.
I instinctively grasped the cross hanging around my neck.
‘It doesn’t look like there’s an open door or medium.’
If so, it must be a wandering spirit.
Usually, wandering spirits could be dealt with by sprinkling holy water, pressing a cross to the forehead, and reciting an exorcism prayer, like Father Cesario did.
However, I didn’t have holy water prepared as I hadn’t anticipated this situation.
‘What should I do?’
Leonard approached Dante first.
At that moment, the black mass attached to Dante moved.
To be precise, it raised its head.
As it turned out, long hair was wrapped around its entire body, hiding its face.
“W-wait a moment!”
I grabbed Leonard’s arm as he reached out towards Dante.
Meow.
At that moment, I heard a cat’s meow.
A black cat that jumped in at my feet had a necklace with a glass bottle in its mouth.
A black cat with blue eyes. I recognized it as Senior Noah at a glance.
He put down the glass bottle on the ground and looked up at me.
[Melody, now’s the time.]
At those words, I reflexively picked up the glass bottle and uncorked it.
‘Is it okay with Leonard watching?’
But I couldn’t just leave Dante like this either.
“What’s that? Why are you suddenly acting like this?”
Leonard looks at me with a confused face.
Instead of answering, I immediately ran to Dante, sprinkled holy water on him, then firmly pressed the cross to his forehead.
“You, descendants of Abaddon, shall not be aided by the god of Klutha, nor shall you receive the salvation of Kritovan.”
As I recited the liberation prayer,
“Aaargh—!”
As expected, the wandering spirit quickly disappeared. Soon after, Dante slowly opened his eyes as if regaining consciousness.
“Why am I here…”
He muttered, looking around with a surprised face.
As expected, my forearm stung, and a cross tattoo appeared then disappeared. The wandering spirit had been vanquished.
Drip drip—
This time too, I inevitably got a nosebleed.
“Another Melo-nosebleed.”
Leonard took out a handkerchief from his pocket and plugged my nose.
It seems the boys at this school always carry handkerchiefs.
“Thanks.”
I answered in a nasal voice and used the handkerchief to stop the flowing nosebleed.
Once the nosebleed subsided somewhat, we took Dante and sat on a nearby bench.
Senior Noah, in his black cat form, quietly followed us.
Dante looked at me with gaunt, hollow eyes and asked,
“Hastings, don’t you need to go to the hospital?”
“I’ll go tomorrow. Thanks for worrying.”
At my answer, Dante scratched the back of his head sheepishly and said,
“I didn’t know I had sleepwalking.”
“You didn’t originally. It suddenly started last week.”
Leonard responded nonchalantly to Dante’s words.
I hesitated for a moment, thinking neither of them would believe me if I said a ghost had possessed him.
That’s when Leonard added.
“Remember when you stayed up all night partying after winning the international cricket championship? It started after that.”
International cricket championship win? He was even more amazing than I thought…!
I think there was a buzz about it on the school bulletin board. But I forgot quickly because I wasn’t interested.
Dante stroked his chin as if recollecting.
“I think so. It was a party the Dean hosted, and curfew was lifted that night, so I remember playing with my teammates on the mountain behind the school all night.”
I tilted my head curiously at Dante’s words.
“The mountain behind the school?”
Is it normal to have an all-night party at a place like that? And of all things, a party hosted by the Dean.
After hearing from Senior Noah that Raven was using students who were easy to manipulate, I’m starting to feel suspicious.
“Yeah, why would they have a party on the mountain?”
As Leonard echoed my doubt, Dante nodded as if it was natural.
“There was something like a strange villa there, but it was too big and fancy to be called a mountain lodge. Anyway, I think I’ve been suffering from sleepwalking since that night.”
“Wasn’t there anything else unusual that day? Anything strange?”
At Leonard’s question, Dante again wracked his brain, trying to recall.
“I don’t think so. I’m not sure.”
Leonard and I both looked disappointed at Dante’s answer.
“If you remember anything later, let me know, Wellington.”
Dante nodded obediently.
Meow.
The cat at our feet meowed, its eyes gleaming.
[The Dean is indeed suspicious. We should investigate the villa on the mountain.]
It seemed it was time for the Ghost Story Investigation Department to act again after being quiet for a while.
“Why is this cat meowing so much? It’s so noisy in the middle of the night.”
Leonard said, looking at Senior Noah with disapproving eyes.
It seemed that to their ears, the senior’s words still sounded like cat meows.
Senior Noah glared back at Leonard. His glare was quite fierce.
[I don’t want to hear about being noisy from that guy.]
It’s the first time I’ve seen him express likes and dislikes towards a person.
Regardless, Dante, who had no way of knowing the black cat was Senior Noah, asked me:
“By the way, Hastings, why did you sprinkle holy water on me?”
“Ah, well, that’s…”
As I stuttered for a moment in confusion, Leonard chimed in.
“Look, Hastings sprinkled holy water, and you came to your senses. It seems she has some special ability.”
“I think anyone would wake up if they suddenly got water in their face.”
Dante replied as if in disbelief. Of course, Leonard didn’t seem to pay much attention to that.
Leonard was even more friendly towards me than before.
It seemed he now viewed me as ‘a strange kid who needs looking after.’
“Whatever the case, thanks to you, I came to my senses. Thank you, Hastings.”
Dante thanked me.
“You won’t experience sleepwalking anymore.”
I continued, shaking the empty glass bottle.
“This was holy water. Holy water helps with sleepwalking.”
It was nonsense. Both Dante and Leonard didn’t believe me and laughed it off.
🐈⬛
Two days later.
Arriving early at Class 2-F, I started my morning review in a refreshed mood.
Ghosts still floated around, trying to get my attention, but I focused on my textbook as much as possible.
Students started arriving one by one, and it was just before class was about to begin.
Bang!
Suddenly, the front door opened roughly, and Dante entered the classroom with an excited face.
He strode towards me and asked,
“The sleepwalking really disappeared. Are you really a magician like Leonard said?”
🐈⬛
Thank you for reading! ♡
