It has been two months since Mikael's Horror House started business, but he had yet to find anyone suitable to become his partner.
'Aaahh… Am I asking for too much? Why isn't there anyone who fits my criteria? Aaaah!' Mikael was slowly losing hope of ever contracting with someone.
Even the mischievous kid, George, had been asking him almost every night why he hasn't formed a contract yet.
"But I don't want to settle with just anybody… the contract is non-terminable, you know? I'll be with my partner until he dies so, what if I get stuck with a weirdo?"
"Your standards are too high, Mister. But then again, you even rejected an offer from ME so I guess you won't be easily satisfied." George smugly commented when Mikael visited him one night for a chat.
In his defense, Mikael even subtly helped the test takers that piqued his interest by guiding them toward the goal but most of them were dimwits or just muscle-heads that gave up halfway through the exam.
Although some were turned away right at the front door, Mikael thought that he was fairly lax with his judgments.
And now, he had spent two months just haunting the forest. He spent his free time either subjugating monsters, decorating his horror house, or chatting with George and the other kids.
In this time, he had successfully leveled up five times, collected 70 karma points for protecting the villagers by monster clear-ups, and had 50 Karma points taken for scaring the test takers and public unrest.
Clip. Clop.
Mikael heard the faint sound of horse hooves as he was lounging on a low-hanging branch.
'Oh! Visitors! I hope this one's got guts.' He swooped in just as the two men unmounted.
Nehehehehe!
The horses freaked out with his presence and suddenly bolted away.
'Aah… my bad…'
Mikael embarrassedly scratched his head. For some reason, he had this effect on animals.
He watched as the two men conversed and excitedly gasped when the older man called the young boy 'Prince'.
'Oooh! I like you! At last, a rich visitor!'
As usual, the forest's sinister winds were cooperating nicely with Mikael's stage.
However, Mikael wondered why such a noble person would come to his orphanage when he doesn't even need a treasure.
'Why? What is his purpose? Anyway, there's only one way to find out.' Mikael decided to eliminate the guard and directly ask the prince.
He controlled a fist-sized rock and threw it to the guard's temple. The guard silently slid to the ground, unconscious.
'Well, let's see if you can pass the blind audition…'
One month ago, Mikael discovered the use of his blessing of the mist skill. Surprisingly, when he used it on people, he could see how much karma that that person has accumulated by the amount of haze oozing off their body.
As people on Earth usually say, only newborn babies were free of sin.
Consequently, a bad person would appear with a thick dark smoke while a good one with a thin gray mist.
Mikael looked at the prince closely and was pleasantly surprised. Out of all the challengers of his house of horror, the prince had the clearest view through the skill.
'Nice! You passed the audition with flying colors!' Mikael was truly excited at the prospect of having the prince as a partner, but for now, he had to do his job as an examiner.
Mikael schooled his expression and used reverse clairvoyance on the prince.
"Here to take the test?" he asked in a threatening manner.
The prince reacted like all his previous guests – asking around if anyone else heard his voice.
'Next, let's check your decision-making skills.'
Mikael extended his hand toward the door and pulled it open. After which, he presented his brutal choices.
Mikael rationalized that even though a person appeared good, it may just be because they were never plunged into situations where they had to make cruel decisions. As such, a good person may actually make terrible choices when under pressure.
Mikael knew – from experience – that one must never hastily judge a person based on external evidence. Just as he was unjustly sentenced to hell, Mikael wanted to avoid evaluating others the way he was treated.
'So? Which is it? Will you be a selfless prince or a cruel master?'
Seeing that the young prince was conflicted, Mikael counted down to help him make a decision.
"Five… Four… Three… Two…"
"Wait! I'll go! I will go! So please don't kill him!"
Mikael smiled as he felt proud of the Prince's choice, "A fine choice. Good."
He then led the young man inside and presented his scripted scenario.
At first, Mikael was extremely embarrassed to say the lines written by George. The mischievous boy was responsible for most of the gimmicks in the Haunted orphanage. He had excitedly brainstormed with the other kids and helped Mikael set up his test.
'Ugh. This prince is so slow. I only know the first half of this piece!' He thought as he watched the prince go up the stairs while playing a soulful rendition of Beethoven's For Elise.
'I wish I paid more attention to my piano lessons.' Mikael thus added another regret to his growing list.
After 3 agonizingly long minutes, the prince finally greeted his first obstacle – the Annabel phase, based on the popular Earthen horror story.
Mikael stopped playing the piano and flew beside the prince.
'Let's see if you truly have the heart of gold.'
He controlled the doll and did his best to imitate a young girl's voice, "Big brother… save me…"
Mikael almost choked in shame at his awful high-pitched voice. Thankfully, his visitor was so immersed in the scenario that he did not find anything odd about the doll's obviously faked voice.
"What are you--? H-how?"
'Uhh… what was the next line again?' Mikael struggled to remember the lines in his script, 'Oh. Whatever. I'll just repeat the lines like a broken recorder.'
"Brother. Help me…" Mikael channeled his extreme anguish about having to do this humiliating impersonation of Annabel into his voice.
He then threw the porcelain doll to the prince's neck and dramatically sobbed while splashing its eyes with red juice.
"W-wait a minute! Tell me how to save you!.. AAAAHHHHH!!"
Mikael shook his head in disapproval as he watched the man throw away the pitiful doll, 'How cruel… don't you know how much dolls like that cost on Earth? Well, at least you thought to save her so I'll give you a passing score.'
"Brother… why did you leave?.. BROTHEEER!" he screamed as he went after the prince.
Thud!
The prince stumbled over his freshly hunted monster that he forgot to put away.
'Oops! Sorry…' Mikael internally apologized since his blunder caused the prince to run around the building without candlelight.
He drifted beside the prince as he entered the sacrificial room, 'Ugh! You sure are unlucky to pick the worst out of every room that we prepared.'
Mikael nervously watched the prince sniff the walls splashed with juice, 'Huh? Did I get caught? I knew I should've painted them with real blood!'
This room was the culmination of all his Earthen Horror film knowledge and George's mischievous mind; the pentagrams and the random words might have looked scary to the examinees but to Mikael, it just looked silly.
'It's time.' Mikael controlled the goblin corpse as the prince chose his weapon.
As per his third requirement, Mikael wanted a partner who can defend his own, hence, the purpose of this room was to test the guest's combat strength.
'Nice!' Mikael admired the prince's Spearmanship and wanted to test him more so he continued to chase the poor prince until the latter kicked the door open.
'Ah! He might think something's off if the doll just lay outside!' Mikael followed the prince out, "Brother?" he asked, just for the sake of it.
'Ouch! That must hurt…' Mikael flinched every time the prince helplessly stumbles, 'Ah… I really have to apologize later.'
Finally, the prince arrived at the third-floor staircase.
In order to guide test takers to the third floor, Mikael placed three puppets at strategic places: Another goblin corpse, an identical doll, and a white blanket with daggers.
He made them approach the prince from different directions, so the prince was forced to go up.
Mikael warmly gazed at the prince, elated that a suitable contract partner finally arrived.
'This is the last test. Do your best, partner.'
Mikael waited until the prince found the office before following him with his puppets in tow.
He passed through the door and silently cheered for the prince.
However, he grew frustrated when the prince double-checked the pens in his hand, 'Argh! It's not there! Look at the door, you *@#$%!'
'This won't do. He has to look at the door!' Mikael decided to give the prince another hint.
He controlled the doll that was right outside the door and knocked, "Brotheeer~ where are youuuu?~"
'LOOK HERE! PUT THOSE THINGS DOWN AND LOOK AT THE DOOR @%$#' Mikael mentally cursed as he continued his impromptu Annabel imitation.
" Are you here? Come play with us!"
But when he saw the resignation in the prince's face, Mikael panicked, 'Hey! Don't you dare give up on me!'
'one last push! Maybe he just needs one last push!' he thought as he said his last line, "Brotheeer! We know you're in there! We're gonna come in, okay?"
Finally, the prince noticed the silver pen taped to the door.
Mikael's eyes gleamed in excitement as the prince shouted, "I FOUND IT!"
"Congratulations, Partner." Mikael smiled, feeling both proud and relieved at the prince's achievement.
--Chapter end--