Chereads / Umbra, Lord of Shadows / Chapter 106 - Chapter 102 Spirit

Chapter 106 - Chapter 102 Spirit

Eliot was wandering the school hallways with a pondering look. After hearing Vires' story, he was determined to help him out. 'But how can I possibly prove his innocence when even he said he didn't know any method? Sir Vires has to attend some meetings now and warned us not to get involved. He's probably scared that we would leak some information, but if any of them did, I'll ruin their life.'

Eliot wasn't just determined, he was dead set on protecting his beloved teacher. What Micheal was to the people in the slums, Vires was to Eliot. Without him, he would be a worthless scumbag. As long as he could finish his education, he could become one of the strongest mages in the surrounding area, perhaps even take up a function as general for the Frigus Kingdom. The tensions with the Holy Kingdom were rising anyway, so he could easily get his application confirmed.

Even though he wanted to follow Vires' instructions, he wanted to see what was happening with the investigation and report it to him later on. 'That's what a good student would do!'

Navigating the hallways with his map in hand, he easily found the way outside, 'I still can't grasp the reason behind the map, without it, we would be lost and with it, we look stupid.'

The hallways appeared to be static, but in actuality, they are constantly moving around, only with a detailed map can one figure out the way forward. That or they would need to subconsciously understand the way the building moved around, which for any beginning student was a waste of time.

Making his way to the outskirt of the school, he arrived at the scene of investigation.

'What the hell is happening here?!'

Eliot arrived thinking he would find a bunch of old-looking priests who were useless at anything besides preaching, but what he saw was something he had never seen before. The surrounding air not only looked cold, but actually was. The air was tinged in a darker blue, to make way for someone else.

A dark blue silhouette of a young girl was floating in the center of the tinged air. She was surrounded by countless tiny blue flames of a brighter color. She didn't have eyes and many details were gone, but the humanoid form stayed. 'Huh? Isn't that teacher involved with the Demonic Cult? That bastard is helping the priests? Why? This doesn't make any sense!'

"Ah, the ritual is complete, you can all turn around now. Though I'm impressed, I didn't know you would be so bound to this world to appear in a humanoid form. Introduce yourself to these guys, will you?"

"That's okay sir Gilbert, we'll take it from here.", Leo took charge of the questioning, he didn't trust Gilbert enough to let him do the talking. For all he knew, he manipulated the spirit to his own desires.

The coldness the ritual created would make anyone's hair stand on end, but Duma chimed in with another perfectly timed spell that encapsulated the three priests, giving them warmth and shelter from the cold. Gilbert looked on with a disdaining look, thinking the priests had to be a bunch of wusses if they couldn't withstand just this level of cold. 'Hah! Then they shouldn't even think about going to the Lich up north, hihihi, they would piss their pants.'

Being in a good mood again, Gilbert moved aside to give them space.

"Hello everyone, my name is Rita Venirat, I was a student at this school.", her voice had a strange echo-like attribute, but the weirdest part was that the voice was still very close to the original, even Gilbert made a surprised expression. "It's not often I find such an intact soul to play with, would you mind giving it to me after you're done?"

"Absolutely not, you heretic!", Leo didn't even have to say anything as Guriel and Duma took the words out of his mouth. Focussing back on the girl, he felt something was off. Her mouth moved a tiny bit, but the source of her voice wasn't located at the same place, it felt like the center of her body was speaking. "If you're wondering about her mouth, it's merely her soul that's too attached to the mortal realm, mimicking her previous behavior. The center of the soul is still the 'brain', so to speak, the rest are mere decorations."

Not bothering to thank Gilbert for his explanation, there was still something bothering him. "Why are you so composed since coming back from the dead?"

'Would every soul be so relaxed and prepared when materializing? I don't think so!'

"Well, although I haven't had a body to communicate with, I was still here watching you all this time. I know that your name is Leo, for example, and that you're a priest for the Order of Light."

"I see, so you're saying that you've been observing us since your untimely death?", to which the ghost nodded. 'That still doesn't explain why she was so calm when being materialized, even if she knew it would happen, it would be like waiting for a prize only to receive it with a straight face.'

"Hmm, then tell me about yourself, who are you?", the question might've seemed unnecessary, but Leo wanted to do a complete investigation of the girl in front of him. He had a deep mistrust of Gilbert and speculated the ghost could be someone else or a puppet, to poke holes in his theories, he needed solid proof of her knowledge about the victim.

"Uhm, well, I'm Rita as I said, and I was a student that kind of kept to themselves. My parents loved me to the bottom of their hearts and paid a big prize to let me enroll here under teacher Vires. He was a wonderful teacher who..."

The story continued on and on, making Gilbert yawn at a certain point, even unwanted spectators were starting to get bored by the girl's tale.

"That's enough, can you provide me a single secret that only Rita could've known? Then we'll move on to the murder.", all the information the girl gave were correct, but if Leo could find it through his own investigation work, then anyone could with enough time. Thus, if the girl would know something that even he couldn't figure out, then he would lay down his suspicions for a while.

The equivalent of a blush appeared on the ghost's see-through face, making the darker blue light up a bit. "I.. I can't just share a secret of mine!"

"Why not, it's not like you're alive? What's there to lose?", Gilbert jumped in the conversation as he wanted to go back to his classroom. He liked people begging him for help, but the outside sun proved to be too much of an annoyance.

"Sir Gilbert, please stay quiet.", Duma said without any hesitation in her voice. "Fine, I'll tell you something, but only you can hear it!"

Leo agreed within a second, after listening to her secret, he nodded and moved back to stand with his priests. "Now that we've confirmed that you are actually Rita, let me ask you. Why were you here when you died?"

"That's! I received a letter from my beloved teacher Vires, but it wasn't any normal letter. It was a love letter, from him!", her blush reappeared. Her demeanor and movements told Leo that she did truly love him, but that would make it seem as if Vires was the perpetrator. Coupled with the fact he lied to their faces, Leo couldn't help but pin Vires as the prime suspect.

"The letter said to meet here at the bench on the outskirts at nightfall. The skies were glittering with stars, while the cold air started to envelop me. The bench was already warm when I sat on it, making me think that he was hiding somewhere and wanted to surprise me... I don't remember much of what happened next, but I can recall someone placing their hands on my face. They were very warm, but the heat kept increasing! In panic, I pushed the hands aside, and I caught a glimpse of his face, Vires looked extremely bloodthirsty."

Her speech ended on a somber note, her form started to crawl in a ball, and light blue tears started to stream down her cheeks. Leo was sure that Rita loved Vires and her actions now proved to him that what she had said had a very high chance of being the truth. His previous suspicions started to break down in front of him, his gut feeling stood strong, even if there was still an obnoxious something nagging at the back of his mind. 'Sigh, I wish Brother Micheal was here, he's clearly more suited to this work than I am.'

"That's complete bullshit!", a red-haired boy, came running. His face was filled with anger and disgust. "Shut your trap you lying bitch!", before he could come close to the ghost, he got blocked by Duma. "Calm down sir, you're not allowed to interfere here!", she put her hands together for a moment and chains of light started to appear to hold him back.

"Let me go! That girl is lying!", he started to work against the chains, but didn't use any magic. He was agitated, but realized that fighting wouldn't help in the slightest. Duma saw Leo shake his head and approach, "Let him go, Sister Duma."

"But Brother…"

"No worries, this is Eliot, one of the stronger students in this year. He's been brought back from the downfall to reach new heights, all because of sir Vires. So it is no surprise he wants to defend his teacher. Tell me, boy, what kind of evidence do you have to disprove the victim's testimony?"

Leo wasn't someone who would just believe someone at their word, he was a just man that wanted the best outcome.

Eliot knew that his chance had come; this was his moment to protect the one who saved him. Yet, he couldn't come up with any reasonable evidence that could disprove anything. "I... I can't disprove her testimony, but I do want to mention that although Vires did give that letter to her, he was asked to do so."

"Oh, and how do you know that? Because if you've learned that from your teacher, that would mean he had been withholding crucial evidence in this case. This is also something that could in the end help sir Vires' case, yet he never said anything to us and rather told a bunch of children? Do you expect me to believe your words?"

"No, no, no, I saw it happen!", with that statement Leo got serious again. "When did you see this happen?"

"It was during one of our classes, before it started, they asked teacher Vires aside and gave him that letter. Not long after, the same letter was given to her. Since this whole investigation started, every student was asked to not interfere as to not disrupt your work, but I knew I couldn't do nothing. I even went to the teachers' council and talked about it there."

"And what came of it?"

"They said that it was a trail of instructions, the student who asked got asked by someone else and so on. The trail ended at a homeless man that didn't dare to say anything out of fear and the consequences if he did."

"And why does this matter?", Eliot blanked out for a moment, 'Why does it matter? Because it changes the whole scenario!'

"If what you're saying is true, then it means that the homeless man you talked of was so scared that the teachers of this school weren't powerful enough to gain his information. So then I would like to ask, who is more powerful than the teachers here? We could probably stand our ground, Brother Micheal would win, and who's left? The director and the mayor of the city, and as far as I know is sir Vires the strongest of the teachers here."

"That doesn't matter we just have to torture the homeless man to gain his information then!", although he did have a point, his methods were simply too brutal for a group of priests that preached the light.

"You're almost as despicable as the necromancer.", Duma said with a loud enough voice for Gilbert to hear it. Gilbert simply put his hood up and was already sitting on a chair of bones waiting it out, he got bored halfway through and started to read in one of his books. Duma clicked her tongue upon seeing that her comment didn't have any effect.

"Let's put that aside for a moment, say that it was true, what do you make of Rita saying that she saw his face before perishing?", although Leo had already made his decision, there was nothing wrong with entertaining a few other theories. Sadly, Rita's testimony was too strong to be disproven because if the trail of the letter was true, what would it disprove or prove? That someone wanted to frame sir Vires perhaps, but if he was the perpetrator in the first place it would simply be a distraction.

"She's obviously lying, she was blackmailed... or bribed! That creepy teacher probably just did something to her to make her lie!"

Leo found that to be somewhat improbable, since she would've been a great actor otherwise. 'Hmm, she did show a form of emotion, which would mean there is a desire, if that's the case, they could be persuaded to do certain things.'

With a glint of suspicion, he directed his attention at the man sitting in his chair. "What?", Gilbert noticed the stares at him, but he hadn't been paying attention to what was happening. After another explanation coupled with an insult from Duma did Gilbert understand what they wanted to know.

"If you're wondering if they can be blackmailed or bought, well, in theory that would be possible. When someone dies but still has a strong desire, they can turn into a lingering soul. Depending on the desire, the soul can be competitive or extremely helpful. If one of your saints were to die with love for the people in her heart, she could be a guiding spirit for the next generations, for example. I can't possibly know what she wants, so just ask her. Rita, what do you truly want?"

The priests were unhappy with Gilbert's example, but they had to focus their attention on the deceased first.

"What do I truly want? I want to be... I don't know exactly. I... I always wanted to be a hidden vigilante that helps the poor in need like my family was helped by such a stranger, but on the other hand I just want to live a normal life. I don't want to avoid all struggles, but I don't want to be overwhelmed by them, I.. I just want to live."

The tiny blue flames around her started to glow a little brighter, Leo couldn't confirm if that shows she was speaking the truth or that her desire came to light, but it had to mean something. "I think I only have a single question that I want to ask you, Rita."