TGBAP 41

“There are spare toothbrushes and other things too!”

Just then, Lucian came back. When he briefly exchanged words with Ria, the stone tablet floating in the air returned to its place.

“Now, let’s keep touring the mansion.”

“Um…… did Ria go?”

“Yeah, she said since a guest came, she has to put in some effort for dinner.”

A ghost cooking was still hard to imagine, but after seeing her write on the stone tablet, he got the general idea.

Suddenly, Dio became curious.

“Lucian, aren’t you scared of Ria?”

“Ria? Hmm…… I was scared when I first saw her.”

“Really?”

“Yeah! Ghosts are scary, you know. But living together, she turned out to be way kinder than anyone I’d met before, and she really cares about me. So now I’m not scared at all. Rather, Ria is the best thing in the world.”

While talking, Lucian seemed to think of something and pulled Dio somewhere.

It was a room about the size of Dio’s living room, filled with antique furniture.

“Dio, you can’t see Ria, right?”

“Right?”

“Ria looks like this.”

What Lucian showed him was a painting of a woman.

Even in a painting, you could tell she was an incredible beauty.

“She’s even prettier than this, actually.”

“Prettier than this?”

“Ria can’t see her own face, so she drew it the way I told her. If you fix her eyes and nose and chin a bit, it’ll look even more like Ria. For now, this is the picture that looks most like Ria.”

Dio examined the painting again. He’d seen many people, but even the one people called the village’s greatest beauty couldn’t compare to this.

And if Ria was even prettier than that…….

“You spoiled bastard.”

“Huh?”

“Other than being a ghost, she’s a perfect bride.”

“Hehehe, you think so too, right?”

Whatever lingering fear he’d had disappeared completely.

All he felt was envy of Lucian, talking with and living with such a beauty.

“Can’t I see Ria too?”

“Hmm…… maybe?”

“What do you mean, maybe.”

“You’ve eaten all the snacks Ria packed for you.”

“Yeah?”

“Even after eating them, if you still can’t see Ria, then you just can’t. Me and Kaiser started seeing Ria after eating her food.”

“Huh? That hyung can see Ria too?”

“Yeah, hyung is Ria’s longtime friend!”

Dio stared at the painting of Ria, recalling Kaiser. Then he looked back at Lucian.

Unlike the picture-perfect handsome man and beautiful woman, Lucian was still just a little kid.

“You should be careful. What are you going to do if that hyung steals your bride?”

“Steal who! Ria is my bride!”

“For that, the age difference looks huge at a glance, doesn’t it? Maybe Ria doesn’t see you as her groom, but as a kid?”

“Th-that’s not it! Ria said she likes me the most too!”

“Hm…… well, if you say so.”

But maybe Dio’s words lingered with him, because Lucian was seething, and yet his face darkened.

Dio stopped there, thinking Lucian would sulk if he went further.

“Alright, alright. Show me the rest of the mansion.”

“……Come this way.”

Lucian puckered his lips, but soon cheered up again and started showing Dio around the mansion.

“Haa, this is the best…….”

Steam rising off his body, Dio lay face-down on the soft bed.

After touring the training ground that was perfect for practice, eating a feast of dinner and dessert, playing chess with Lucian, and then taking a bubble bath in a massive bathtub right before bed, this place was heaven.

“Lucian, I want to live here too. If your house was this good, you should’ve brought me sooner.”

“Right? Dio is always welcome.”

“Can I come play often?”

“I have to get Ria’s permission…… huh? As long as I don’t tell anyone, it’s fine?”

“Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely! I won’t tell! I won’t tell my parents either! So can I come here again?”

“Ria says it’s okay!”

Kkareureuk-!

Dio and Lucian clapped their hands together and laughed brightly.

“From now on, we should train here. People won’t see us, we won’t have to watch anyone’s mood, and it’s spacious.”

“Ah, right? That would be good.”

Excited, the two of them began discussing how they’d use this place like a secret base from now on.

Just as they were having that lively conversation, Kaiser came in.

“Brats, it’s bedtime.”

“It’s only ten o’clock.”

“It’s ten, so hurry up and sleep. If you sleep late, you won’t grow tall, you know?”

“Tch…….”

As Lucian wriggled under the blanket, Dio followed him in too.

Kaiser turned off the light and left only a single lantern by the head of the bed.

Dio watched everything as Kaiser personally prepared their sleeping arrangements.

At the intense gaze, Kaiser turned to Dio.

“Got something you want to say, kid?”

“N-no……!”

“Then why do you keep staring.”

Dio fidgeted, then pulled the blanket up to just under his eyes.

“……Because hyung was cool.”

Kaiser flinched, and Lucian made a sly smile.

“I heard from Lucian. He said hyung is really strong.”

“K-khmm, Lucian said that?”

“Yes! So maybe…… if you have time tomorrow, could you watch my swordsmanship a bit?”

Kaiser first made an expression like it was annoying, but when he saw Dio’s sparkling eyes that looked just like Lucian’s, he got awkward for no reason.

“……Fiiine. Watching isn’t hard.”

“Waaah! Lucian, did you hear?”

Dio and Lucian whispered among themselves, excited over who knew what. Kaiser snickered and pulled a chair over to sit by the bed.

“If you want to spar with me tomorrow, you’d better sleep early.”

“Yes—”

“You answer well, don’t you.”

Both of them were full of life in their eyes.

Lying in bed, the two kept chattering on. Kaiser sat on the sofa beside them, reading, keeping watch over them.

Time passed, and there were twenty minutes left until midnight.

Kaiser checked the time and left the room.

Then, when he activated the magic circle he’d prepared in advance, a strict barrier spread out around Lucian’s room.

Kaiser went down to the first floor just like that.

“Ria, everything’s ready.”

[…….]

There was no answer at all. Kaiser stiffened his expression and looked at Ria in the living room.

She was blankly staring out the window.

He slid over beside her and moved his hand in front of her eyes, but she looked as if she couldn’t see anything, her focus caught somewhere else.

He’d seen her blank out a few times, but if you spoke to her closely, she’d always come to her senses quickly.

But now it felt like she couldn’t hear or see anything at all.

To make matters worse, her body grew even more faint, repeatedly vanishing and appearing.

“Don’t worry. I’ll keep watch.”

Kaiser silently stayed by Ria’s side, preparing for the long-awaited event that would happen in a few minutes.

* * *

Clatter— clatter—

The sound of chains clashing rang heavy.

Javier and the trainee priests frowned at the condemned man walking ahead of them.

“……Just where are they taking this guy?”

“Are they going to execute him?”

“At this late hour? And while walking through a tunnel where we don’t even know where it leads?”

“Shh, the bishop will hear.”

By the bishop’s order, Javier and the other trainee priests were walking through a dark tunnel, escorting one condemned man.

He’d never imagined there would be a place like this in the Grand Temple. The tunnel was so long that no matter how much they walked, they couldn’t see the end.

“Are you uneasy?”

When the bishop walking in front spoke, the trainee priests behind sucked in a sharp breath.

“N-no!”

“No, you say. I can feel how uneasy you are.”

The trainee priests only exchanged looks with each other. In the middle of that silent game, Javier mustered courage.

“Where are we going right now?”

“To carry out an important duty.”

“……A duty?”

“Yes. One of the rituals we’ve performed since the Grand Temple was built. It is very important, so only a handful know. And from now on, you must take over after me and carry it out yourselves.”

They were pleased that such an important duty was being entrusted to them, and yet some couldn’t shake an unpleasant feeling.

“Before coming here, you received baptism, didn’t you? That is a kind of insurance device. If you so much as mention today’s affair outside, you will not escape death.”

The excited atmosphere sank in an instant. The bishop gave a little laugh.

“As long as you don’t speak, it will be fine, so don’t be so afraid. We’re almost there.”

Had they been walking for over thirty minutes? At the far end, a door came into view. When the bishop threw it open, a small space appeared beyond it.

It seemed to be a basement.

“Once every ten years.”

As Javier looked around, he turned to the bishop at his words.

The bishop dragged the condemned man’s chains and opened a door across the way.

“For the sacred ritual we will perform here, we must offer a sacrifice.”

“……Pardon?”

Before he could even understand, blood splattered everywhere with a slash—!

Gurk—! Grrrk—!

The condemned man, blindfolded, collapsed without even being able to scream.

Blood slowly seeped from where he fell. As the thick stench of blood bored into their brains, a blue light emerged from the floor beneath the condemned man’s body, revealing something.

It was a magic circle filling the entire floor.

“How can you kill a person!”

Amid the panic, the most righteous trainee priest shouted furiously.

The bishop looked at him coldly, then lightly nudged the condemned man with his foot.

“He is a condemned man anyway. Sooner or later he had to die—so is it something that must not be done?”

“Even if he’s condemned, not like this! What kind of sacred ritual is this? You’re offering a living person as a sacrifice!”

“W-wait. Calm down—”

Unlike the trainee priest who couldn’t hold back his anger, the others sensed the ominous atmosphere.

Especially Javier—he realized the bishop’s eyes were not the benevolent eyes he had known, and he stepped back.

“Yes, Ethan. You can never tolerate injustice, and you are more devout than anyone here—making you the most suited to be a priest among all of us. But do you know? People like you are the biggest thorn in our side.”

Something ominous flickered in the bishop’s hand. Then Ethan clutched at his throat and crumpled on the spot.

“Ghk! Kehh……!”

His face grew paler and paler like someone who couldn’t breathe. Fear filled Ethan’s eyes as the bishop approached him.

“What we want is a dog that listens well, not a dog that bites its master.”

Slash—!

The bishop mercilessly swung the dagger he had used to kill the condemned man at Ethan.

Focus vanished from Ethan’s eyes, and he too soon became a cold corpse, collapsing onto the floor.

At what happened in less than a minute, the remaining trainee priests froze, staring at the bishop with terror-stricken eyes.

With the look of someone swatting a fly, the bishop crooked a finger at two of the nearby trainee priests.

“You two there, toss this one into that room too.”

The two, unable to take their eyes off dead Ethan, didn’t answer, and the bishop frowned.

“Do you want to end up like him?”

“N-no!”

They answered hurriedly, then with trembling hands, dragged Ethan and shoved him into the room humming with blue light.

Until the moment they placed him inside, they looked at their former colleague with devastated expressions.

“Do you know why I called only five of you, out of about fifteen trainee priests?”

Seeing them frozen and speechless, the bishop gave a short laugh.

“Because you are orphans, and no one will care if you disappear from anywhere.”

Just as the bishop said, including dead Ethan, every trainee priest gathered here was an orphan raised in the temple.

“With no backing and nothing at all, how far do you think you can climb no matter how much you struggle? Become a bishop like me? Ridiculous. Once you’re born and raised as an orphan, even if you die and come back, you’ll never rise above being a mere priest.”

Their eyes wavered—those who had dreamed of being bishop or archbishop.

They didn’t need to ask if it was true; the bishop’s eyes spoke only truth.

“I was an orphan just like you. And now I have become a bishop. Do you know how I climbed this far?”

The trainee priests, trembling, shook their heads.

“Because I silently handled the temple’s dark underside, like today. Pretend you didn’t see what you saw, pretend you didn’t hear what you heard. If you simply carry out the tasks given to you well, you too can become a bishop like me, and gain great power. How is it? Isn’t it easy?”

When no one answered, the bishop clicked his tongue as if disappointed.

“If you refuse to cooperate like this, I’ll have no choice but to deal with you too.”

“Deal with us, you say…….”

The bishop looked at the two corpses fallen atop the magic circle. The trainee priests went pale and trembled.