Nighttime Encounters - Chapter 2
Feeling the refreshing breeze that awakened her senses, the woman asked a question softly.
“Do you recognize me?”
No one answered. The woman made a face, grimacing like a mad person talking to thin air.
“Do you recognize me or what?”
When the woman raised her voice to ask the question, the cat that had been sitting on the windowsill elegantly rose to its feet.
“Meow.”
As the slender cat’s meow pierced the night air, the woman, her patience at its end, finally burst out.
“Didn’t I tell you not to enter a corporeal body while I’m working?”
Sensing the unease in the woman, the black cat, with its bright yellow eyes, blinked and then trembled.
The air around the cat seemed to ripple at that moment, revealing a faint presence even subtler than the wind.
[Rosia. You’re particularly cranky today.]
The man, who grumbled with a dissatisfied expression, possessed a face that could make a passerby stare.
From his silver hair tinged with moonlight to his deep gray eyes, his ethereal appearance sparkled like a ghost.
Ah, a ghost, indeed.
Rosia, who had just realized the presence before her, furrowed her brow.
“This isn’t the time to be playing around in a cat’s body.”
After slipping out of the black cat’s body, Luperne floated in the air, unable to find any footing.
The man, dressed white robes, was so clear and transparent that he passed by unnoticed by the people on the street.
An ethereal being visible only to Rosia’s eyes and audible only to her ears.
Rosia glared at the thin air where Luperne’s spirit floated and taunted him.
“What are you going to do in a cat’s body that can’t even hold a sword? Are you going to play yarn with a demon?”
[Warm and fuzzy, isn’t it?].
“So now, you’re going to leave all the demons to me, and you’re just going to stand aside and have fun?”
[When did I pass them on? I am still the guardian protecting the Escalona Empire.].
“If the Protector of the Empire is going to sit in a cat’s body and watch, I’m done with this!”
Luperne snarled in response to Rosia’s threat.
[You’re quite cheeky for someone so young.]
When the wrinkle-free Luperne blurted out the word “young,” Rosia shot him a displeased look.
To be fair, Luperne wasn’t entirely wrong. He had lived for 28 years with a living, breathing body and 670 years as a spirit. Altogether, he nearly 700 years old.
Luperne had accumulated enough years to call Rosia “the young one”.
“Then I, the young one, will step aside, and you, the old distinguished gentleman, can deal with it.”
Rosia raised both hands mockingly, and Luferin frowned and grumbled.
[Do you have no respect for an elderly and feeble master? Back in my day, I even feigned death when the elders addressed me.]
Rosia chuckled as if she couldn’t believe Luperne’s complaints.
“With a face as youthful as yours, why are you even talking about being old and feeble?”
Rosia delivered a pointed remark as she gazed at Luperne, the spirit.
One in ten million.
Those were the odds of a human being being born with a weak link between body and soul.
She was the child who had defied the odds.
Because of this, she could see them, hear them.
Even though she didn’t want to.
[It’s all in vain. And I taught you with so much love and care.]
Luperne grumbled, staring wistfully at the fleeing cat, and Rosia gave an offhanded reply.
“And that’s why I’m helping like this. There’s hardly a kinder disciple than me.”
With a mischievous grin, Rosia clenched her fist tightly, causing the winds dancing around her fingertips to disperse in an instant.
It was time to focus on the task at hand.
“So quit the chit-chat and give me the situation. That jewelry box is the most likely suspect, right?”
Luperne nodded, gathering energy into his hands and materializing his sword. The guardian’s sword, now as tall as a man, emitted a vibrant blue glow.
[The guardian spirit of the Fischer family is certain that they saw the evil spirits of Andalus follow the man].
Rosia listened to Luperne’s words and rubbed the back of her neck with her hand.
[And the only thing he carried from there to here is that jewelry box.].
Rosia’s slender fingers touched the chain of her necklace. Her fingers trailed down the peculiarly shaped pendant resting at the center of her collarbone. Rosia’s dark eyes flashed bright as she grasped the pendant.
“At this point, it should be okay to enter, right?”
Rosia lowered her voice, biding her time.
“What about security?”
[A security alarm is installed in the study’s sculpture.]
Rosia clung to the building’s exterior, inching closer to the window.
As she gripped the intricately sculpted window handle and looked upwards, she noticed a thick iron grating fixed to the upper part of the window frame.
[If you trigger the security alarm, the enchantment will activate and the bars will come down, making escape through the window impossible.]
“You can make it possible.”
[Best not to trigger the alarm in the first place.]
Rosia carefully opened the window, the creaking of the rusty latch sent her heart pounding. After ensuring that no one was around, she leaned further inside the study. Her shadow stretched long in the moonlit room.
[There are three binding magic circles on the floor.]
“This is quite difficult.”
Rosia whispered as she counted the numerous runes obstructing her path.
“After this is over, you have to tell me where to get the book, ‘Randel’s Teleportation Magic’.”
[Understood. But be careful if you want to read that book safely.]
Rosia stepped quietly over the windowsill and into the study.
She leaped over the magic circles on the floor, landing with perfectly muffled footsteps.
Her night was about to begin.
