“That child is back again.”
On the first floor of the apartment, the hardworking Mrs. Maggie wiped her damp hands on her apron, grumbling unhappily as she walked towards the apartment door. One look at the swaying bow outside the kitchen window, and she knew something was wrong.
“Wait.”
Before she could open the door, a hand patted her shoulder from behind, stopping her. Then, a broad back moved in front of her, blocking her way: “This child might bring trouble. You stay back, I’ll handle this.”
“Okay.”
The response from behind sounded a bit strange, making Lynch turn back in confusion. He found his landlady obediently following behind with her head down, her cheeks slightly flushed, and her eyes seeming to shimmer with a watery sheen.
Lynch had rushed over, with the two ladies following behind. He had already realized the problem; there were no coincidences in the world of the occult. This brat had been searching for a real mystery ritual last time, and now she was suddenly trying to rent a room by herself, which was against all reason. If he ignored the possibility of a connection between these two events, he would truly fail his forty-plus days of transmigration.
Lynch strongly suspected that the brat had gotten into some trouble because of a mystery ritual, which led to her unusual behavior. Mrs. Maggie and little Martha were both survivors of mysterious events and were already prone to attracting such incidents, so letting them casually interact with this person would be too dangerous.
But her reaction was a bit off. It was baffling. Women were truly strange.
Clearing his throat and adjusting his tie, Lynch gripped his cane, then opened the door. The bustling Villa Avenue and Charles Square appeared before him.
Good, he had no urge to pounce and bite, so he was recovering well and didn't need a leash when going out.
Everything was as usual, except for the little girl still sneaking around and peeking nearby. When she saw Lynch open the door, she looked like she wanted to run but also wanted to come over; her hesitation was quite obvious.
Lynch snorted inwardly and waved her over. The girl hesitated for a moment, then immediately ran over.
“Shut up.”
Seeing the girl about to speak as she ran over, Lynch immediately stopped her. His landlady and little Martha were right behind him; he couldn't let her speak freely. The establishment of a mystery correlation often didn't require any substantial action; often, just a sentence or even a thought was enough for the correlation to quietly form. Just like the request to rent a room earlier, once he nodded and agreed, a weak correlation with mystery might be established, leading to subtle erosion.
He looked the girl up and down. He didn't detect too much mysterious filth on her, nor did his Mystery Intuition pick up anything strange. Only then did Lynch feel a little relieved, and he led the little girl into the apartment.
The two ladies still had things to do and took the opportunity to leave. Lynch, meanwhile, took the little girl directly upstairs to the second floor, tightly closing the living room door.
“Tell me, what exactly happened?”
“Sir, I just want to rent a room, I…”
“I don't have time to play games with children. You and I both know I've recognized you, so either get straight to the point, or leave immediately. No matter what problem you're facing, there's no way I can let you move in here.”
The little girl bit her lip, pulled out the business card Lynch had given her earlier, and suddenly burst into tears with a wail. Clutching Lynch's wrist, she trembled like a leaf in the wind:
“Help me, Sir, something strange is following me. My friends are all terrified and won't talk to me. Sob, I wanted to ask you to help me, but I was afraid you'd refuse, so I thought I could move in and hide. Your place can protect me. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to harm anyone, please help me, I'm going crazy, I don't want to die, sob, sob, sob.”
Ignorance is bliss.
You courted death and now you're getting it. What were you doing before? I warned you. Lynch watched the little girl tremble like a leaf in the wind, but he couldn't bring himself to feel much sympathy. The greatest kindness was to swallow the words “you deserved it” instead of saying them.
But seeing her desperately clinging to his hand, like a drowning person clutching at a last straw, Lynch's heart softened. After all, this child was just foolish, not evil. Her dying from foolishness wasn't exactly innocent, but watching indifferently still caused some psychological discomfort.
Sigh. Lynch sighed, helpless about his own soft heart. He handed her a handkerchief and offered a few words of comfort, letting the little girl sob out the details.
The girl's name was Monia, daughter of Sir Lister from the Treasury, so she came from a very wealthy family. Sir Lister's ancestors had produced a few Soul Severers, but the past two or three generations had been ordinary people. After several family members died, they gradually disconnected from the world of the occult, but some family stories were still preserved. For example, the Knowledge Library, the Dwarves' Steam Workshop, and the Coven.
Monia had read these stories and developed a curiosity about the world of the occult. Thanks to her family's wealth, her pocket money was comparable to a middle-class salary, and she could always ask for more. She actually learned a lot of low-level mystery knowledge from all sorts of odd places, and thankfully, she hadn't gotten into much trouble. Especially after starting school, a group of young girls gathered together, and driven by curiosity, recklessly tried various mystery rituals for fun. While most of them were fakes that Lynch could conjure up eight of in a single night, there was a proverb that said, if you keep strolling by the River Styx, one day you're bound to encounter a ghost.
About ten days ago, after her failed transaction with Lynch, Monia visited the Knowledge Library again. This time, she actually found a few handwritten notes inside a normal old book. The little girl immediately recognized it as her great-great-grandfather's handwriting. He was the last Soul Severer in the family and the protagonist of most of their family stories.
Through the notes, she found scattered clues in the family's private library. After solving riddles repeatedly, she finally found a set of unknown mystery rituals.
Listening to the little girl's narration, Lynch narrowed his eyes and stared intently at her, scaring her into stopping. This story bore too many signs of being fabricated, not like a real adventure novel. It was almost like an adventure story tailor-made for a naïve child. Lynch believed that few twelve or thirteen-year-olds could resist such temptation.
“Don't be afraid, I'm thinking about other things.” Realizing that someone might be secretly plotting against Monia, Lynch's tone softened considerably. “Continue. After you got the ritual records, you took them to school to play with?”
“Yes.” Children were the most sensitive. She immediately sensed the change in Lynch's attitude and quickly leaned closer to him, her expression becoming even more aggrieved. “The ritual was very complex, and there were many incomprehensible incantations. We performed it several times these past few days, but it never had any effect. Everyone was a bit disappointed, wondering if this was fake too.”
Lynch immediately recalled his experiences right after transmigrating, and that so-called ritual in the catacombs five days ago. He sighed, “What kind of effect were you hoping for?”
“At the very least, there should be sound and light effects, or something should appear, right?”
“Something did appear, you're just scared to death.” Lynch shrugged. “What happened after you were disappointed?”
“We stopped then, but starting the day before yesterday, I noticed something was wrong.”
The little girl swallowed hard and said timidly, hugging her arms:
“When it was quiet, I'd always hear the sound of sand sprinkling by my ears, and the scuttling of insects and mice, but if I looked, there'd be nothing. At first, I thought there was something wrong with the school dormitory, but no matter where I went, as long as it was quiet, I could hear it, as if something invisible was constantly following me.”
Lynch stroked his chin, looking Monia up and down, but still didn't find any major anomalies.
“And now? Are there still sounds?”
“No.” The little girl suddenly became very agitated. “I was wandering around nearby earlier, afraid you'd refuse me and I wouldn't dare come in, but about an hour ago, I suddenly noticed that the sounds stopped when I got close to here, which made me want to hide here.”
Hmm... Lynch immediately understood after checking the time. It must be the effect of the Book of Purification. A disaster grade mystery relic is quite formidable.
“Only sounds?”
“No, the most terrifying thing is that ever since I started hearing the sounds, something strange has been happening around me. Several times now, things near me have suddenly turned to dust. This terrified my classmates; no one dares to come near me.”
Oh?
Lynch's face darkened as he realized the problem. The person shouting outside earlier, wasn't it because their secondhand clothes had turned to dust? It seems that wasn't someone else's prank at all. Something really was following her, and it had already reached the vicinity.
Anyway, I'm in no rush to meet Howard, and I planned to let him stew for a day or two. Since I have nothing else to do right now, I might as well take on a temporary commission. I'm not going soft; I'm doing this to get that Flash document from her. That's right, that's it.
Lynch abruptly stood up and put on all his miscellaneous equipment: “I'll take this commission. Let's go now; take me to your school. I need to see the ritual site first. Where is your school?”
“Lillia Women's Academy.”
Hmm? A girls' school?
Rate on N.U.
