Halkara's project moved forward on schedule until finally it was almost time for operations to begin.
Even though this was a factory, it didn't have a host of gigantic pipes running through it or a production line manned by the latest robots. This wasn't that sort of civilization. At its heart, it was no different from an ordinary shop.
It felt like a slightly expanded version of home manufacturing, and they pasted the labels onto the bottles by hand.
As far as the construction of the factory itself was concerned, Laika had called in some dragon acquaintances and had them help out, so in a mere five days, the work was just about finished.
Halkara had said, "I have construction funds left over, so I'll reimburse you for that expensive liquor from the farewell party…," but she didn't need to worry about that.
Just treat me when you start turning a profit.
That said, they'd completed only the building, and the factory wasn't operational yet. For a little while, Halkara was extremely busy making arrangements for the equipment and systems to bring in the necessary materials; she worked from early in the morning until almost midnight and completely wore herself out.
Laika, in her dragon form, took her to and from work.
It would have been pretty dangerous to have Halkara and her wayward body out on the road at night.
"Um, don't you think you're working too much? Whatever you do, don't work yourself to death…"
"No, no, even if I'm tired, I can keep up the fight a while longer if I drink a bottle of Nutri-Spirits. It's just that, lately, I've been going through more bottles per day…"
That was clearly a bad sign! I couldn't stand by and not interfere just because she was an adult!
"Starting now, make sure you're home by eight in the evening! That's an order from your teacher!"
"Umm… If I do that, the work will be delayed…"
"Then hire people and figure something out! If you push yourself and try to handle everything on your own, you really will collapse! Collapsing isn't even the worst that could happen; what if it kills you?!"
"Madam Teacher, you just won't compromise on that, will you…?"
Halkara's eyes were wide in the face of my vehemence.
"Well, I've died of overwork once myself…"
In my previous life in Japan, I'd just keeled over one day. When I told her about the regret I'd felt, Halkara's expression turned appropriately grave.
"I understand. I'll ensure that my staff members can balance their work and home lives! I'll take proper days off as well!"
And so, having half forced Halkara to improve her abysmal labor conditions, I thought the factory would begin operating without incident.
However…
"I just can't seem to get a staff together."
Even though it was morning, Halkara was wearing the expression of an elf at a wake.
"Why not? Are your wages that low?"
"Of course not! On the contrary, what I'm offering is clearly higher than average over there."
In that case, there must have been some other reason.
Were people steering clear because the profession was unique? Maybe people were more conservative there, since the area was rural.
"It keeps popping up. Apparently, the place is famous for it."
"Popping up? You mean spring water?"
"No, we'd be in trouble if we didn't have that. I mean a GHOST…"
Halkara intentionally said the words in a creepy voice.
"A ghost, huh? Do things like that really exist?"
Frankly, I wasn't convinced.
"I thought they must be pulling my leg as well. However, yesterday, I saw it, too. I was working at night when a girl with bobbed hair who seemed to be about fifteen…"
And so Halkara explained…
Several hundred years ago, a merchant who'd gone bankrupt had apparently lived on that land. The merchant had tried to get money by selling his fifteen-year-old daughter to a red-light district, the story went. Up until immediately beforehand, the daughter had apparently been told that she was being married off to a wealthy nobleman and was giddy with excitement. But when the day came, she found out about her fate. They said she succumbed to her despondency and hung herself.
As a result, even after a different building was erected on that site, the ghost of the girl apparently haunted it and caused disruptions.
That was an awful lot of apparentlys and hearsay, but it was nearly impossible to get clear information regarding stories like that, so there was no help for it.
The tale was notorious in the town of Nascúte, and the mere idea of working in a place like that was enough to keep people away.
"I thought it was odd that the land was so terribly cheap…"
"So they fobbed off a troublesome piece of property on you, hmm?"
She might be a talented administrator, but Halkara tended to be careless about things like this.
"In other words, if that ghost disappears, everything will work out just fine! I want to do something about it!"
"In theory, that's what would happen, yes."
"So, Madam Teacher, would you help me?"
"Huh?"
My reply sounded pretty reluctant.
"I'm…not good with things like that. You know, situations where you might get cursed…"
I just had no immunity to scary stories. Things about hexes, say, or cursed villages.
"But you're a witch! You'd be fine! Besides, when someone's as strong as you are, Madam Teacher, even a ghost will run away! Exorcise it, please!"
She says that like it's so easy…
I didn't have any exorcism-related spells. Wasn't that a job for the clergy?
Maybe I should ask someone who knows about this stuff.
…And so I asked Shalsha, who'd studied the humanities extensively.
"In academic parlance, ghosts are called 'disembodied anima.' It's the general term for souls that have left their physical bodies."
"That's too technical and hard to understand. Break it down a bit for me."
"Disembodied anima fall into two categories. One type is tied to the spot where it died and is very nearly incapable of movement."
That would be a type of location-bound ghost, then.
"The other is relatively free to move and can fly anywhere it wants to. In this case, all sightings have occurred in the place where it died, so I assume it belongs in the first category."
"In other words, it's a location-bound ghost. Is there a way to deal with it?"
"It would be possible to use a cleric's item and expel it by force, but unless it shows clear hostility toward humans, clerics won't do things like that. The act is said to desecrate the soul."
That meant we'd just have to handle it ourselves…
I went back to Halkara and told her what Shalsha had said.
"All right. Let's go over at night and take a look."
"Thank you so much, Madam Teacher!"
"—But only if a helper comes with us."
"A helper?"
"I'm calling Beelzebub."
Since she was a high-ranking demon, there was no way she'd be scared of ghosts.
I'd already been taught the spell for summoning her.
Actually, she'd told me there was a spell to call her and had taught it to me when we first met. I hadn't used it before, but she had dropped by of her own accord when we'd opened the café, and I figured she probably wanted me to invite her to things anyway.
Earlier, Laika had observed, "Since she's a very important person, I would imagine it's difficult for her to make friends with other demons. She has authority as well, so people may try to ingratiate themselves to her, but it's probably hard to find genuine friends." That might be pretty accurate.
As a result, I didn't hesitate to call Beelzebub. I went outside, drew a magic circle, and performed a special chant.
"Vosanosanonnjishidow veiani enlira!"
The words sounded enigmatic because they were in Demon, and the ancient version of the language at that.
I didn't really know what it meant, but with chants, you only need to get the pronunciation right anyway.
An ominous, blackish miasma rose from the magic circle, which meant it probably worked.
Thinking that this spell felt about as witchy as you could get, I waited for a response.
And waited.
Patiently.
Five minutes passed.
Well, it's not as if this is the door owned by a certain cat-shaped robot. I guess she won't show up immediately…
"I'll go back to the house for a bit."
When I went inside, I found Beelzebub. For some reason, she was soaking wet from head to toe.
I thought I'd probably bungled things somehow, so I softly closed the door.
It promptly opened again.
"Hey. You summoned me. Why are you avoiding me?"
"I just… I thought maybe I'd made some sort of mistake…"
"Indeed you did! Thanks to that, I met a terrible fate! Your pronunciation was sloppy and summoned me to the wrong place!"
I see. So that demon spell summoned her directly.
"And why was your bathtub full of lukewarm water at this time of the morning?! It was a calamity and a half, being dropped in there!"
"We keep the previous day's leftover bathwater and use it to water the field. Pretty green of us, huh?"
"Be as green as you like, but don't summon me into it!"
The words to that chant had been in ancient Demon, so pronouncing them was never going to be easy. There were several different types of inflections, too.
By the way, Beelzebub was fluent in our language; Demon was a completely different language, and it was also pretty difficult to write.
"I'm sorry. I'll practice more next time."
"Hell's bells… Still, it's strange that a human was able to use a demon spell at all after only being taught once. You really must have a prodigious talent for it…"
Was that my level 99 advantage?
Halkara hastily prepared a drink for Beelzebub. Apparently, she hadn't thought Beelzebub would be here so soon, either.
"And? What did you want?"
Beelzebub was soaked and in a bad mood. This was the worst possible time to be asking for favors.
"Halkara will tell you about that."
"What?! Madam Teacher! Please don't put me on the spot!"
This is your problem, actually, so throw me a bone.
"I won't get angry, so say what you want to say."
"In that case, I'll tell you. I'm setting up a factory in a nearby town, but…it's haunted, and I'm having trouble, so… Um, we…we thought that, if the demon Beelzebub was there, the ghost might get scared, and maybe things would work out somehow…"
"You went to the trouble of summoning me for such a petty trifle?!"
"You said you wouldn't get angry! It's not fair to get angry now!"
On that point, Halkara was correct. However, parents always promise not to get mad if you tell them the truth and then get mad anyway, don't they? My parents used to split hairs and explain that they weren't getting mad, they were just scolding me.
"Argh, for the love of… You summoned me right out of a meeting about agricultural promotion, and over a thing like this… The bureaucrats are surely going to read me the riot act later."
Not only that, but apparently, we'd called her in the middle of a pretty important meeting.
"Well, I'm here now, and there's no help for that. Show me to this factory. I'll thrash your ghost for you."
If it was the ghost of a little girl, I'd rather she didn't actually do any thrashing.
"Um, ghosts only come out at night. Do you think you could wait until then, please?"
"In that case, would you at least wait until evening to call me?!" Beelzebub exploded again.
"I'm sorry. It's just that no one told me I'd be summoning you directly."
"That's true… It's all my fault… Let me borrow an empty room until it's dark. In the meantime, I'll draw up something to share at the conference that nobody will be able to complain about."
We waited quietly for night to fall.
As an aside, Beelzebub lamented, "If night had come a little later, I would have finished the materials…" Apparently, she'd worked the whole time.
Like Flatta, there wasn't much foot traffic in Nascúte at night, and it was quiet.
Actually, maybe the towns of Japan had been abnormally bright. Naturally, nothing like neon signs existed in this world.
Night was when people slept. It was a mistake to work during times like that. That's why I was against overtime. When the sun sets, stop working! …Drat. More memories from my former life…
The factory was so hushed that it was creepy.
"Listen, Azusa. You've been alive for three hundred years yourself, which makes you practically a monster. What do you need me here for?"
"I'm bad with ghosts and that sort of thing. If it doesn't have a physical body, I can't defeat it."
"But Falfa and Shalsha are made from the collective souls of slimes… Well, there may not be any logic to things like this."
Beelzebub strode inside.
I knew I'd chosen the right person for the job.
Since nothing in this world ran on electricity, deserted buildings were perfectly silent at night.
If we'd at least had the sound of a refrigerator or a ventilator fan, I probably could have relaxed a bit, but…
Since we didn't have the courage to press forward through pitch darkness, we'd brought hand lanterns.
Come to think of it, I was pretty sure there was a spell that illuminated dark rooms. Maybe I'd study that one.
"Ngh, it feels like this place is haunted…"
"Are you an idiot? Isn't this haunting why you called me? We can't defeat the ghost if nothing shows up."
Quite the pragmatist, this demon.
"Listen, Beelzebub, can I hold your hand?"
"Hold my hand…? Hmm, hrrn… Do as you like. It is embarrassing how it makes me feel like a young lass, but…it's not as if I'll lose anything by it."
As she spoke, Beelzebub reached back with her right hand. She really was a reliable older-sister type.
"Madam Teacher, hold my hand, too, please!"
Halkara took my right hand. As a result, all three of us ended up holding hands as we advanced, which looked pretty strange.
Walking side by side would have made it hard to maneuver, so we angled our bodies sideways as we advanced deeper into the building.
"Linking up like this has made us a lot heavier. It feels as if we've turned into a human centipede demon—a demon with several bodies joined together. The first time they see it, most people are terrified."
"N-no scary stories!"
"Yeah, yeah, all right. Even if this puny ghost shows itself, it won't beat me, so you don't need to worry."
I couldn't really tell, since I was staring at the floor, but Beelzebub seemed to be looking around as she walked.
"By the way, Halkara. Where does this thing manifest?"
"It appeared when I was working in the room just up ahead…"
"I see, I see. In that case, we'll focus our investigation there."
"Um, that place scares me, so could we please not do that?"
"Would you two quit it already?! You summoned me to look into this, so why are you trying to call it off?!"
Logically, Beelzebub was entirely correct, but there was nothing rational about things like this… I wished she wouldn't blame Halkara.
"We'll go look in that innermost room."
"N-no, don't! Let's at least save it for last! Please! Please!"
"Halkara might have a point. Why don't we play word games here until we've got the audience warmed up, and then go?"
"Both of you are morons. And do you honestly think word games would warm up an audience? That's what groups of girls do when they can't find anything to talk about."
In the lead, Beelzebub charged ahead like a berserker.
At this rate, it might have been okay to just let Beelzebub handle the whole matter alone, but at this point, we were just as scared to turn back without her, so there was nothing we could do.
Then we stepped into the notorious haunted room.
Just as we did, for some reason, the lantern flames winked out.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!"
"Yeeeeeeek!!!! Madam Teacher, please save meeeeee!"
Halkara and I both screamed at the same time.
"Shut up, would you?! You two are more of a nuisance than the ghost!" Beelzebub yelled, adding another voice to the mix. "Oh. But there's a ghost, too," she added casually.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!! There's a ghooooooooooooost!!!"
"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm gonna wet myself or worse! I can't hold it iiiiiiiiiiin!!!!"
"You're far too noisy! Cool your heads a bit, would you?! It's just a ghost! The soul of a dead woman! What's scary about that?!"
"No, that's the scary part! Hey, why are you fine with it?!"
Possibly because she was irritated, Beelzebub shook off my hand. Don't! It's much scarier now!
"I'll wager you're frightened because you can't see her. In that case, I'll do something about that for you. Sit tight."
"Huh? What are you going to do? Is there some spell that will get rid of terror?"
"No."
There was no such convenient spell.
"Hey, spirit woman! Show yourself! You can manage that at least, can't you?! You've stayed here all this time, so I won't let you say you can't! Hey! Girl! Answer me!"
Beelzebub started yelling at the darkness.
"I am Beelzebub, a high-ranking demon. I'm the demon kingdom's minister of agriculture and as such, I possess the authority to make your grave a site for dumping horse manure!! I'll dump horse manure on every last place where you have fond memories!!"
That was blatant, horrendous harassment!
"On top of that, inflicting damage on a spirit is a walk in the park for a demon of the upper echelons. You shall suffer more than you did when you died! Are you okay with that? Show yourself before I count down from ten, or I'll slaughter you!"
She's threatening to slaughter a ghost!
"Ten, nine, three, two, one, zero!"
And she just skipped a bunch of numbers! She didn't even count all the way from ten!
At that, a table-esque piece of furniture in the room began to clatter.
"Eeeeeeek! The ghost is angry!"
"Oh-ho, so the table's moving, hmm? So what? What's so scary about a moving table? If the table moves, does it put me at some sort of disadvantage? Tell me that, ghost!"
Beelzebub's voice sounded menacing.
"If you have something you wish to say, then come out. No matter what sort of past you had, if you willfully frighten people who come here, then you're no different from a pest. I'll exterminate you without a shred of hesitation."
Beelzebub was way too strong. I was so glad I'd brought her along.
It felt as though my own fear was rapidly fading, too.
Oh, and Halkara was clinging to me for dear life and trembling: "Gods, gods, I beg you, save me… I'll do anything, anything…" Although we're depending on a demon right now, not on the gods.
"What's this? Do you object? Would you like to try cursing me, then? It won't work. No mere spirit woman could curse a high-ranking demon. Would you rather I cursed you with magic instead?"
If anyone out there was troubled by ghosts, I highly recommended taking a high-ranking demon with you. Now that I was thinking about it calmly, it wasn't even possible for a ghost to be scarier than Beelzebub, was it?
"Oh? You intend to run? I won't let you! You won't escape!"
I guess the ghost is scared, too.
"Hold it right there!"
Beelzebub spread her wings and flapped up toward the ceiling. It was dark and I couldn't see clearly, but that was what I could make out.
"What is it?! Are you fighting?!"
"No! I'm slaughtering her, that's all!"
What a fiendish thing to say! Oh wait… She is a fiend.
"All right, puny spirit, now you'll pay for making a fool of me."
How odd. For some reason, I was starting to want to cheer on the ghost. That poor spirit…
"Um, I'd rather you didn't do anything that's going to get us cursed…"
"Never fear! Curses happen because the ghost exists. If I destroy it, the entity doing the cursing will vanish, so no harm will befall you, either!"
Argh! This really does seem like murder!
"Okay, I've caught her! Light the lanterns!"
Halkara and I both did as we'd been told.
"Aaah! There's something there!"
There was a new person at Beelzebub's side.
Well, I wasn't certain whether it was accurate to call her "a person." All I knew for sure was that the individual was a girl of about fifteen or sixteen, on the verge of tears.
"Sp-spare me… I didn't think a devil like her would show up…"
The girl spoke in a quivering voice.
"Madam Teacher, for some reason, I seem to be seeing something I shouldn't be able to see…" Halkara sounded dazed. "Do you suppose I drank too much and am beginning to hallucinate…?"
So she's aware that she drinks enough to worry about that?
"I can see her, too, so I don't think that's it."
"Did you drink too much as well, Madam Teacher?"
Let's get away from blaming things on alcohol.
Beelzebub descended, still holding the ghost in a full nelson.
"Humans ordinarily can't see spirits, but the spirit can make itself visible. This one must have decided that seeking help from you two was the wisest move."
"Um, Beelzebub, do you mean to say that that individual is the ghost?"
Even though we could see her now, Halkara was hiding behind me.
"If you want details, ask her."
Something felt odd about asking a ghost if she was a ghost, but we weren't likely to get anywhere if we didn't.
For now, we had the apparition sit down on a chair.
From time to time, when the light struck her a certain way, she looked translucent, but that was probably because of her spiritual nature.
"What's your name?"
"Rosalie… I'm the ghost of the girl who offed herself in the house that used to be here."
She was terribly brusque.
Then she began to tell us about herself.
"They told me I'd be getting hitched to an aristocrat. In my town, I had a rep for being all sweet and ladylike, and I believed it could happen even if it did sound like a dream. But my damn old man and the damn old hag made up the whole damn thing…"
The poor girl. Even her parents had betrayed her.
"The men in town used to hit on me all the time… Would I have been happy if I'd just up and run off with somebody? Well, whatever. It's too late now anyway."
"We understand what happened, but I mean, were you really ladylike?"
The way she spoke was rough, and even now, she was sitting with her legs really wide apart.
"Once I was a ghost, over time I…went kinda rogue."
Apparently, it was a little embarrassing for her to say she'd turned rebellious, given the way she averted her face.
"You know, that sounds plausible. Being betrayed by her parents could change an adolescent girl to this extent," Beelzebub commented.
"This is my turf. I've protected it this whole time, thinking outsiders should make like outsiders and keep their distance… And then you people came."
That wrapped up her story, for the most part. We knew the ghost's identity now, and she'd surrendered, so the incident should have been pretty much resolved.
"So… Rosalie, wasn't it? What do you want to do now?"
"Huh? …What do you mean, 'do'?"
We hadn't heard a thing about the girl's future yet. We'd heard only about her past.
"Oh, I'll erase her in the blink of an eye, so she won't suffer."
"Proposal rejected."
This helper had no qualms about saying some terribly mean things!
"Why? She feels pain and stays here because she has a soul. If I erase her existence, she'll be released from all suffering. If you return to nothingness, the pains of birth, sickness, old age, and death don't exist for you."
"I'd rather you didn't use force to make Buddhist ideas a reality."
"In that case, go to the church and have a cleric offer prayers for the repose of her soul. That should purify her, and she won't stay in this world any longer."
In other words, we'd be making her pass on properly. That did sound like the correct answer, but…
Rosalie hugged herself tightly.
"No…" The word sounded strangled. "I don't want to be snuffed out yet…"
Her voice was trembling a lot more than ours had when we'd been afraid of her ghost.
Well, sure. Of course she wouldn't want to disappear.
"It's not rational for ghosts to stay in this world to begin with. You make some rather selfish requests."
Beelzebub was too much of a pragmatist. It just wasn't that easy to come to terms with some things.
"Well then, Rosalie, why not stay here?" I offered, as if it was perfectly normal.
If she was afraid of disappearing, that was just about the only alternative.
"D-do you mean it…? I'm in the way, though, right?"
Rather than being happy, Rosalie answered with astonishment.
"Of course, if you're planning to wreak havoc, I'd say, 'No, hold it,' but you aren't doing any harm just by being here, are you? You don't cost anything in food, light and heating, or taxes. In that case, no harm no foul, right?"
"Hmm. No harm, huh? If the ghost maintains an appropriate attitude, I suppose it might turn out that way."
Beelzebub seemed to have no particular objections.
"What…? You mean the ghost would be here at my workplace?"
Halkara was obviously shaking. I supposed she hadn't yet conquered her fear.
In my case, those feelings had faded significantly as soon as I'd laid eyes on the ghost. Beelzebub's idea that things weren't scary once you saw them seemed to have been correct.
"Why not? If thieves got in at night, she might chase them off for you."
"That may be true, but… When I'm not sure if she's there or not, it's hard to relax."
"Why not have her stay solid all the time, then?"
"That would be weird, too! And! Besides! Merely having a ghost on the premises is making ordinary people reject this place and refuse to work here!"
"Oh. Now that you mention it, that's right."
A fun workplace environment, complete with ghost! Please come and join our team— No, that probably wouldn't fly. This was a factory, so if we didn't resolve the haunting issue, the place couldn't do business. Even if Halkara got used to the situation, it wouldn't solve the fundamental problem.
"I guess it's really not okay for me to be here… Ghosts are a pain in the butt, aren't we…?"
Even Rosalie was turning pessimistic. I wanted to tell her that that wasn't true, but it was a fact that she was hindering factory operations. We had to find a solution.
"Wait. Come to think of it, can't you go anywhere besides this factory?"
"Nope. I've never left the lot of the house where I killed myself."
As Shalsha had said, location-bound ghosts really couldn't go elsewhere.
"There is a way," Beelzebub said.
"Ugh, you're so right, there's really no good way, is there? —Wait, there is?!"
"There is. When it comes to soul research, demons are far ahead of you people. If the spirit can't leave this place on her own, we simply have to move her out of it. No need for any complicated measures."
If she couldn't move, we just had to carry her. As a theory, I understood it. The problem was how.
"Tell me! What do I have to do?!"
Rosalie seemed interested, too.
"The spirit has to possess a living person, then use that person to travel somewhere else. Once they've reached an appropriate spot, yank the spirit out. It's like moving house, using a human."
"Hmm. So she just has to possess somebody, huh?" I said. "I don't really want to be possessed, but…"
"Any spirit should be able to attempt possession. However, she is not the only one involved, and it's not as if a ghost can possess absolutely anybody. For example, it's near certain that it wouldn't work on you, Azusa."
Then Beelzebub's eyes went to Rosalie.
"I've never tried possessing anybody before…"
"Make like you're diving into the other person's head. Give it a try. Even if you fail, it won't kill you."
"All right. I'm ready. Go whenever you want to."
I closed my eyes and braced myself.
"A-all right, well, here goes nothing."
Spak!
There was a sound inside my head as though something had bounced off it, and then Rosalie was breathing raggedly in front of me.
"What was that? I'm beat… I haven't been this wiped out since I was alive."
"To make a long story short, people with exceptional abilities don't leave any openings for possession. People with absolute confidence in themselves are also tough. Unless the person is weak willed and easily swayed by others, possession is hard to manage. In other words—"
Beelzebub's eyes went to Halkara.
"Um… Why are you looking at me?"
"She should almost certainly be able to possess you."
"Wha— Huh?! Was that a stealth insult?!"
"I'm not being stealthy. You seem weak willed, and you are practically vulnerability incarnate."
"That's really too mean, in a variety of ways!"
Slowly, Rosalie closed in on Halkara.
"Sorry 'bout this, but help me out a sec."
"No! I'm no good with psychic phenomena! I won't be able to go to the bathroom when I wake up in the middle of the night!"
"So I'll possess you and walk you to the bathroom, then."
"That's what makes it so scary!"
Before Halkara was finished speaking, Rosalie dived into her head and winked out of sight.
Did that mean it had worked?
"Hey, I can move this thing."
The voice was Halkara's, but her tone was completely different. She was moving her hands awkwardly, like a robot.
By all appearances, Rosalie had gotten in.
"It worked! That's terrific!"
"I haven't had a body for a while, and it makes me feel antsy… Plus, this one's got an incredibly heavy chest."
Halkara (?) put her hands under her bosom and lifted it. Meaning she had enough of a bosom that this was possible.
"Yes, good. Now all you need to do is leave the factory and we're all set."
True, we'd be able to move Rosalie out of the factory, but we still had a problem.
"So where are we taking her?"
We hadn't even thought about that.
"...Your house. Where else? You were the one to suggest saving her. Take responsibility."
"You're right. Besides, we're chasing her out for our own convenience. And so—"
I held out a hand.
"Rosalie, would you like to live at my house?"
"C-can I? It won't cause you problems or anything?"
"You were unhappy until you died, so why not become happy now, after death?"
I'd learned too much about this girl to just abandon her.
Moving Halkara's hand clumsily, Rosalie shook mine.
"It's a deal, then. Let's get along with each other!"
As I shook Rosalie's hand, I gave her my very best smile.
After all, she had to be nervous, and she'd been all alone for an extremely long time. Emotionally, she should be handled very gently.
"Y-yeah… Thanks…" Rosalie expressed her gratitude, flushing red.
"I have lots of rooms at my house, and even a ghost should be able to have a nice life there. I haven't told any of the other residents yet, but they're all kind people, so it'll work out."
Then, for some reason, Beelzebub heaved a sigh that sounded like profound resignation.
"Azusa, you are a con woman. Not only that, but the fact that you hardly realize what you're doing makes it difficult to deal with."
"Huh? I don't really get it, but are you disgusted with me?"
"It may not sound like it, but I am praising you, in my own way. One can spot the calculations of a schemer, but you don't calculate anything. That's the most pernicious type."
If she's going to praise me, I wish she'd do it in a way that's easier to understand.
"U-um… You're Miss Azusa, right? Can I call you Big Sis?"
"As far as appearances go, I look like the older one, don't I? Sure. You can call me anything you like."
"I'll follow you forever, Big Sis. If something happens to you, I'll protect you with my life!"
"Protect me? But you're already dead."
I'd only taken it as a joke, but—
"Nah, if I borrow a body like this, I can use it!"
As she spoke, Rosalie puffed out her chest.
Since the chest was actually Halkara's, the gesture had considerable impact.