Chereads / I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level / Chapter 16 - Chapter 5: The Halkara/Rosalie Separation Maneuver

Chapter 16 - Chapter 5: The Halkara/Rosalie Separation Maneuver

Now that we'd settled the matter, it was time to return to the house in the highlands.

Halkara couldn't fly. Consequently, Beelzebub went to call Laika so we could have her ride on the dragon's back. Once she'd explained the situation to Laika, Beelzebub immediately went to sleep in a guest room. Thanks for all your hard work so late at night.

After a short while, Laika arrived at the meeting spot outside the town.

"I'm Rosalie the ghost. You're Sis Laika, right? It's good to meet you!"

"Hearing that from Halkara's mouth feels very strange… The look in your eyes is different."

"I'm only in here for now. Once we're at the house, I'll get out."

It wasn't long at all before we were back. Laika's ability to fly was a huge help.

Falfa and Shalsha hadn't gone to sleep yet, so I introduced them to Rosalie.

"Thanks for helping me out like this! You're Big Sis's daughters, aren't you?"

"Uh-huh, it's nice to meet you!"

"I've never met a spectral being before. How intriguing."

It seemed the girls weren't the least bit afraid of ghosts.

Falfa and Shalsha were something resembling amalgams of the souls of vanquished slimes, so in a way, they might be related to ghosts. Both could be called "spirits," anyway.

"I want to see your face, Rosalie. C'mon out."

"I'd like to observe a ghost with my own eyes."

"Sure thing! Okay then, I'll show you my true fo Ungh…"

Rosalie's face—technically, Halkara's—had gone very pale.

"Rosalie? Did something happen? From your expression, I'm guessing it isn't good…"

"Big Sis, I possessed her all right, but… How am I supposed to get out?"

That was a terribly basic problem.

"Huh? Can't you do it easily, sort of like closing and opening a lock?"

"See, I've never possessed anybody before. That means I've never left anybody, either."

Was it like an octopus trap? She could get in just fine, but she couldn't get out…

Still, this was no joke.

"Are bad things going to happen if you stay like this?"

Halkara would probably be upset about being possessed for a long time, and it was likely that she had plans for tomorrow.

Immediately, I went to wake up the sleeping Beelzebub.

"Uuuuuhn… What is it? I just got to sleep…"

"We want to get Rosalie out of Halkara's body. How do we do that?"

I assumed Beelzebub would know how to deal with it.

"What? Can't she just come right out?"

Aaaaargh! She doesn't know any more than I do!

"Come here! Come on! Help me think about this!"

"Don't pull on my arm like that! Ow, ow!"

I took Beelzebub over to Rosalie-and-Halkara.

"I can't get out. It's like I fit into a box perfectly, and I can't get loose."

"I wonder if your affinity was too good… I've never heard of anybody being unable to get out."

"Hey, is this going to damage Halkara's health somehow?"

"If a different soul is in the body for a full day, it does put a strain on it. In the worst case, the body will die."

This is incredibly bad!

Immediately, we arranged a family meeting at the table.

"All right. Apparently, the time limit for bringing Halkara back alive and safe is about twenty hours. I want us all to pool our knowledge and resolve this. Seriously, please, everybody help."

Rosalie's color had gotten even worse.

Well, sure. She might end up becoming a murderer.

"I don't want to kill somebody who helped me… If I'm going to end up doing something so shameless, I'll hang myself and die again instead!"

"No, you can't! If you do that, you'll just kill Halkara!"

I talked Rosalie down. There, there, there. Easy, easy, easy.

From the look of things, we were going to be up all night racking our brains.

"Um, what about this?" Laika raised her hand first. "If this is similar to an object getting lodged in a box, couldn't we get it out by hitting it?"

"Would a physical blow expel a ghost?"

Beelzebub crossed her arms, cocking her head. True, that was the method they'd used to fix TV sets way back when. But—

"It's better than nothing. Let's try it!"

"Lady Azusa! If you aren't careful about striking her, Halkara will die!"

Oh, right… At times like this, having a status that was too high made things tricky.

And so we decided to have Shalsha administer the blows.

"Hit softly, all right? But hard enough to knock her soul loose."

"Those are difficult terms…"

Even I thought so, and I was the one saying them.

"Here I go, then. I'm sorry, Halkara."

Whap! Whap! Whap!

"Yeow! Owwww!" Rosalie felt the pain, too… Although the body taking damage was Halkara's.

"Well? Do you think you can get out?"

"I kinda don't think so… Ow! Yeowch!"

"Shalsha, stop! We're not using this plan anymore!"

This time, Falfa's hand went up.

"Here, over here! Let's scare her! If she's startled, the Rosalie lady will come out!"

When startled, people always say, "I thought my heart would jump out of my chest." If we surprised her, her spirit might leap out. The problem was how to scare her. And that Rosalie was listening to us talk about it.

"Falfa's got a great idea!"

We decided to put that "great idea" into action.

Using Levitation, I rose unsteadily into the night sky and took Halkara-and-Rosalie along for the ride.

"B-Big Sis, for the love of all that's holy, stop here, okay? This is insanely high…"

"By the way, do you think you can get out now? Or are you still stuck?"

"It's no good… I can't get out of Halkara."

Altitude alone wasn't enough, then.

"No way around it. I'll move on to Stage Two."

"Huh? There's a Stage Two?"

There was no point if Rosalie wasn't startled, so we hadn't told her.

"Mmm-hmm. I'm going to drop you."

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?! P-please, no, anything but that!"

"It's fine. Laika's in dragon form, and she'll catch you."

"S-save me! I-I'm gonna die! The fear will kill me!"

"No worries there. You're already dead, Rosalie, so you won't die of shock… I'm sorry. Halkara's life is riding on this! Oh, if you struggle like that, you'll fall."

"You're going to drop me anywaaaaaaaaaaaay!"

That was true.

And so I let go.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

After a nerve-shattering scream, I heard Laika call, "She's safe!"

I descended slowly and checked on the situation.

"Did it work? Did they separate?"

"I thought I was gonna wet my pants, Big Sis…"

Rosalie, her face pale, was sprawled on top of Laika. Her body was still Halkara's.

"So that didn't work, either…"

We tried all sorts of things.

For example, when morning came, we called the village cleric and had him perform a sort of exorcism.

He chanted the blessed words in an indistinct murmur. In Japan, the equivalent would have been having a Buddhist monk come and read a sutra.

"Aaaaaaaargh! I'm dying! This is gonna kill me!"

Since there was a danger that Rosalie would be destroyed before she came out, we stopped him.

It was almost noon, and we still hadn't come up with a fundamental solution.

According to Beelzebub, "Unless we get her out soon, there's a risk that it will start to have a negative effect on Halkara. It all depends on the strength of Halkara's soul, but—"

"We don't have time, but we also haven't slept, so it's getting more and more difficult to think."

Laika was looking droopy, too. How could it be this hard to find a solution?

Falfa and Shalsha were about as drowsy as they could get, so we'd sent them to bed ahead of us.

"I'm tired, too. Still, if we fall asleep now, Halkara's going to die… Wait a minute."

I might have stumbled onto a clue.

"Laika, when Halkara drinks, she always passes out, doesn't she?"

"Yes. At the buffet party, she ended up lying on the floor."

"If we put her to sleep when she has two souls, do you think Rosalie's soul might fall asleep on its own and switch with Halkara's?"

I had no academic basis for saying this. It had just occurred to me.

"True, she has been awake all this time, so having her go to sleep is worth an attempt."

In any case, we had to try everything we could think of; there was no other way. It was the "try or die" mindset.

We gave Halkara's body—currently in use by Rosalie—lots and lots of liquor.

"I've almost never drunk alcohol before…"

"The body's Halkara's, so it's fine. Drink enough for a bath!"

Halkara usually conked out around the fourth glass.

That day, possibly because she'd stayed up all night the night before, or maybe because her body was hosting Rosalie, her face flushed faster than it usually did.

"Huh…? There're five of you, Big Sis…"

She had to be pretty drunk if her vision had gone funny.

Right after she started on her third glass, Rosalie slumped forward onto the table.

After she fell, we watched her carefully, and before long, she slowly raised her head.

"Hmm? I don't remember drinking… And on top of that, it's broad daylight. What's going on?"

"It's Halkara!" "You've returned!" "Oh-ho, so it worked!"

"Huh? Why is everyone looking at me so fondly when I just woke up after getting drunk? …Come to think of it, my body is incredibly heavy. It feels as though something's clinging to me…"

Yes, that's because it is clinging to you.

"If Halkara's mind becomes even clearer, this could work. Possession should be difficult under those conditions."

"But what can we do, specifically?"

We were almost there. We were just one step away from a solution.

What could we do to make Halkara's mind assert itself more strongly?

"Leave that to me! I know how to wake you up to a maddening degree!"

Beelzebub seemed to have hit on something. She immediately pulled on Halkara's hand.

"C'mere a second. Right now!"

"What? But that's the bathroom… Yesterday's bathwater will be cold already."

"That's what makes it so perfect!"

Beelzebub grabbed Halkara and hurled her into the bath.

Kersploooooosh!

Water splashed up, and Halkara's face promptly popped above the surface.

"What are you doing? Oh, honestly! I'm wide awake now!"

"Yes, you are. And that's why you've managed to separate properly."

Rosalie's transparent body was floating behind Halkara.

"Huh…? I'm out?"

As she spoke, Rosalie looked stunned.

"Hooray! The separation maneuver is a success!"

***

In the end, the method that had done the trick had been to put Rosalie's mind to sleep so Halkara's side would emerge, then do something that sharpened her awareness.

All we'd needed to do was create a situation where Rosalie's consciousness relinquished control due to drunkenness or sleep. When she switched places with Halkara, who'd been behind her, Rosalie wouldn't be able to stay there anymore.

Once we knew the logic behind it, it wasn't that surprising.

"I'd like to investigate a little before we try it again, but it's possible that if we'd simply put Rosalie to bed and had her fall asleep, Halkara would have been the one to wake up, and we could have dealt with it that way. Working all night really wasn't a good idea. It's less efficient."

"Still, if I hadn't materialized in the bathroom when you summoned me, I might not have hit on that last idea. My injuries turned out to be worth it. And since my injuries were hardly injurious, I call this a win-win."

Beelzebub was wearing a hugely triumphant expression. After that achievement, she'd earned the right, so I didn't mind.

With that, the matter had been safely resolved, but—

"I think we're all tired, so let's sleep until five this evening. Everything else can wait."

My opinion was well received, and we all obediently climbed into our own beds to slowly wake up again that evening.

"All right, let me introduce you one more time. This is Rosalie the ghost; she's going to be living here with us."

Everyone had gathered around the table for self introductions.

Despite being incorporeal, Rosalie sat in a chair conscientiously.

Since she was able to make herself visible at will, everybody could see her right now.

"I'm Rosalie. I'm really sorry for all that trouble! Let's be friends, okay?!"

Everyone welcomed Rosalie with applause.

Between this and that, the members of this household were highly adaptable, so before long, Rosalie would probably be able to live here without feeling out of place.

"By the way, are you able to move around inside the house?"

"Yes, I can go anywhere on the property, garden included. Actually, I went outside the garden, too. I'm not sure, but I think I can probably go as far as I want now."

Huh? Weren't location-bound ghosts unable to leave buildings?

"When we moved her, her attachment to the place where she died probably lost its effect. She's got nothing to do with resentment now. She's just a spirit."

True, this place had no connection to Rosalie's grudge.

"Well, that should make things easier for you. Let's see… Go ahead and use an empty room on the second floor of the log cabin area. I say 'use,' but you're a ghost. We'll put things there or take them away to suit your preferences."

"All right! Thank you so much, Big Sis! I won't forget the favor you've done me as long as I live!"

It was a mystery what length of time "as long as I live" actually denoted when the person in question was already dead.

"Um, I don't want to be forward, but… Will there be any changes to the cooking shifts?"

Laika really was earnest. A class-president type.

"The cooking shifts? I doubt Rosalie can cook in the first place."

She could do it if she possessed someone's body, but if the person being possessed got tired, that would defeat the purpose.

"I can, though. Technically."

A cup rose lightly from the tabletop.

"If I can move knives and plates like this, I can cook. I haven't eaten in a really long time, though, so I can't swear it'll taste good."

"I see. It would be helpful if you could cook for us, but… Hmm. Would it really have to be a duty?"

Something about that bothered me a bit.

"Mom, we ask people to take cooking and cleaning shifts because they eat and get the rooms dirty through the course of daily life. Rosalie is a ghost, so she doesn't eat, and she won't make anything dirty. Consequently, it wouldn't be right to give her duties like that."

Shalsha had spoken formally, but that was exactly what had been nagging at me.

Just because Rosalie could do it didn't mean she had to, did it?

"Big Sis, that ain't proper! I'm taking shifts for everything, too!"

Rosalie stood up from her chair. Well, to be accurate, she floated out of it.

"I'm going to be living in this house. Even if I'm a ghost, I'm still living here! In that case, I need to repay the debt I owe by doing that!"

Rosalie's eyes blazed with passion. She looked so lively you'd never have thought she was a departed soul.

"I'm sorry, Rosalie. I had the wrong idea. In that case, we'll have you do what you can do."

True, if someone told you, You don't have any obligation to us, you'd feel more guilty than happy.

It was healthier to handle things in ways that didn't leave anyone feeling indebted, and we should be able to get along for longer that way.

"Yes please, Big Sis! The rest of you, too. If you need anything, just say the word! There may be things only I can do because I'm a ghost!"

"Uh-huh, thanks in advance!"

"I'd like to hear more views that are unique to spirits." Shalsha seemed likely to start doing full-fledged paranormal research and write something on the subject.

"The same goes for you, Rosalie. If there's anything you don't understand, do ask us."

"Um… Please don't possess me very often, okay?"

After all, to Halkara, it was a matter of life and death… Still, ghosts were scary because you couldn't see them, and now that Rosalie was visible, Halkara had probably come to accept her.

"If I run across any more information on ghosts, I'll look it over and bring it to you. Well, for the time being, I doubt you'll have trouble."

"We're in your debt again, Beelzebub. And you were busy, too; I'm sorry."

"I was the one who resolved this, so you made the right choice in calling me."

I'd better give Beelzebub a present next time. I think she'd be really happy to get a year's supply of Nutri-Spirits.

"All right, that's settled for now. Why don't we have a party to celebrate our new family member?!"

Still, before I got up from the table, Rosalie distracted me.

She was crying. Actually, it was fair to call it "wailing."

"What's the matter? What happened? Did you remember something bad?"

"It's just… My own parents betrayed me, and you saved me even though we aren't blood relatives…"

Her tears of joy fell to the floor.

However, they disappeared the second they made contact. There was no physical moisture in ghost tears; they existed simply as a manifestation of Rosalie's emotion.

You know, this house really may be a space for misfits.

After all, I was an irregularity myself, so if somebody strange came along, I was able to extend a helping hand.

As a matter of fact, I intended to go on making sure I did just that.

"If you live long enough…really nice things happen to you, too, don't they? I'm so happy…"

"I believe you mean, 'If you're dead long enough.'"

Beelzebub landed a flawless verbal jab.

***

That night, we threw a party to celebrate Rosalie in earnest.

We'd bought quite a lot of things in large quantities for the earlier party for Halkara, so it was easy for us to hold another one.

However, since the guest of honor wasn't able to eat, we kept the food simple.

"There are places that are hard for human hands and eyes to reach, you know? I can use a rag to wipe them down!"

Rosalie was making a point of identifying the ways a ghost could come in handy. Everyone had something they could do. It probably wouldn't be long before she was indispensible to our highland cottage.

After that, Rosalie went over to Halkara and gave a deeply courteous bow.

"I put you through some awful trouble, Sis Halkara! I'm real, real sorry about that!"

"Oh, it wasn't so bad… I was unconscious, and I don't really remember what happened to me anyway. Although I did dream about Shalsha hitting me a lot and getting dropped out of the sky."

Those things actually happened…

"Um, Sis Halkara? Please hit me until you're satisfied."

Rosalie stuck her head forward.

"I-I'm sorry; what is this about?"

"I caused you trouble, so if you don't hit me, the scales just won't balance!"

"Honestly, don't worry about it! Hitting isn't really my thing…"

Halkara was embarrassed. Rosalie really did have the temperament of a gang member.

"Go on, Halkara, hit me!"

"I told you, hitting people holds no interest for me! Frankly, I think I'd prefer being hit."

What was she saying?!

"Er, well, I've only had that thought about eight times in my entire life! It's an aberration!"

That was a strange number of times…

"Also, you're a ghost, so I can't hit you anyway. That means this conversation is over."

Halkara wrapped things up cleverly. Yes, that was about the neatest possible way to shelve the matter.

"Besides, if you want to make amends, I'd rather you did something that benefitted me. Rosalie, you can see places that other people can't because you're a ghost, correct?"

"Yes, if it's something like that, I can do as much as you want."

"In that case, help me when I go to gather medicinal herbs. In the forest, there are many places I don't notice right away, and there may still be some herbs I haven't seen yet."

"Yes'm! I will most definitely help you out!"

Ooooh! Nice job, Halkara! She's got a proper understanding of Rosalie's unique talents!

Then my daughters approached. People seemed to naturally gravitate to Rosalie.

"Say, Miss Ghost? Is there anywhere you want to go? Falfa will take you there!"

Come to think of it, Rosalie had been in that house all this time, so she hadn't seen the outside world in ages.

"Let's see… I've been shut up inside, so I'd like to go someplace with a pretty view. I think I'd like to travel, too."

"Uh-huh! Come take a trip with us, then!"

I didn't know whether you could call her "shy," but for a girl who'd been cooped up like Rosalie, someone as outgoing as Falfa might be perfect.

"I'd like to hear more details from you about how ghosts see the world. I'm very interested. And intrigued."

Yes, that was what would be on Shalsha's mind.

After all, there weren't many opportunities to talk with real ghosts this way.

"Actually, I think I'd like to visit the spirit world."

"That's scary, so be a little more careful, would you?!"

I couldn't have Shalsha dying on me, so I broke into the conversation.

"It's fine to be interested, but make sure you come home, all right?! It's not okay to just stay gone!"

"Yes, journeys are possible precisely because one has a home to return to."

That was all well and good if it was true, but researcher types really did tend to take things to their natural extremes.

"Either way, I don't know anything about other ghosts, so I can't really introduce you. I was always on the lot where my house used to be, by myself."

So Rosalie really had been truly alone.

In that case, I should probably let her meet lots of people.

"Okay! I can't call it a journey, but let's start by tackling something close to home."

***

Right away, the next day, I took Rosalie to the village of Flatta.

If I'd said I wasn't nervous, though, I would have been lying.

After all, most people had never seen a ghost. They might be frightened. Maybe they would avoid Rosalie and make her feel bad.

Even so, I didn't think it would be good to keep her hidden away. In this case, if we were going to get people to understand her little by little, it would be better for us to move quickly. After all, it wasn't likely that people's attitudes toward ghosts would abruptly soften ten years from now.

Possibly because Rosalie understood that as well, she seemed tense.

"Do you think they'll accept me, Big Sis?"

"Frankly, I don't know. Which means I think we'll just have to try it. After all, if you only go from being cooped up in one place to being cooped up in the house in the highlands, you'll be lonely, won't you?"

"No, compared to the days when I was all by myself, there's a world of difference. I'm grateful to all of you."

Rosalie's reply made me happy. Curses! If she had a physical body, I'd be hugging her right now! How could she be un-huggable?! It's fraud!

As it turned out, Rosalie and I were worried for nothing.

"Oh! So you've added a ghost to your family this time, have you?"

"How 'bout that. If she isn't another beauty!"

The villagers received us quite naturally. They weren't the least bit scared.

"Big Sis, is everybody in the world this friendly? I feel like a moron for spending so much of my time as a ghost in that building by myself…"

"You know, I was fairly sure they'd be a little less welcoming than this, but…"

Rosalie and I looked at each other, nonplussed by how well it was going.

Afterward, when we went to greet the village chief and I told him about it, he laughed. "Ha-ha-ha! Well, of course. After all, none of you folks has ever been normal, you know? No one would be scared of a ghost this late in the game. To us ordinary mortals, you're all birds of a feather."

"Frankly, I'm pretty sure you're right."

Rosalie seemed likely to blend in to the village without any trouble at all.

Very soon, Rosalie began going down to the village or into the woods whenever she found some spare time.

Since she'd been shut inside for so long, everything seemed unusual and novel to her.

Oh, and since we couldn't put Rosalie in charge of a cooking shift right away, we had her help the rest of us during our shifts.

At first, she'd only been able to chop vegetables roughly, but her technique was getting better and better.

Being able to wield a knife easily also gave her some pretty powerful combat specs.

"Yes, those are nice thin slices! At this rate, you'll be able to make an onion salad, too, with a little improvement."

"It's all thanks to your teaching, Big Sis! Damn straight!"

What's this "damn straight" business…? I'm still not used to delinquent culture. And wait, she was alone all that time; I wonder where she learned about delinquent culture to begin with. Is it something you acquire automatically all by yourself?

"After this, I'll tackle the space above the ceiling! I'll use a wet rag and clean it properly!"

"That ability is a tremendous help. Please keep it up!"

Thanks to Rosalie, the sanitation in this house was on track for some major improvements.

When you thought of a witch's house, you tended to picture an eerie place in a gloomy forest, but I preferred mine to be thoroughly clean, open, and airy.

We'd experimented with setting up terrace seating at the café, and it might have been nice to have a lunchtime tea party out there.

Besides, if you could become a bit of a celebrity simply by having a tea party on the terrace, it wasn't a bad thing at all.

***

While Rosalie was beginning to get used to our house—

Halkara was also doing battle in a new environment: recruiting an opening staff for her factory in Nascúte.

However, it sounded as though it still wasn't going well for her. Yet again, she came home with drooping shoulders.

"Ooooh, I see nothing but trouble ahead…"

"Why? We cleared up the Rosalie incident. It's still no good?"

"I am telling people that the ghost problem has been resolved, of course. It's just that no one had actually seen the ghost in the first place, so I can't seem to get them to trust me."

That was a pretty tricky problem.

If there was a big rock in the middle of the road obstructing traffic, the moment you got it out of the way, everybody knew. However, it was hard to get people to understand that a place generally considered to be haunted was now ghost free.

"In that case, why not just show Rosalie to everybody? If they can see her, she won't be as scary, and they'll understand that she isn't there anymore."

"That's it!!!"

Halkara's voice was incredibly energetic.

"Understood, Big Sis! Time to get back to town in style!"

Rosalie, who'd been floating in midair, also sounded enthusiastic.

I don't think "in style" is quite what we're looking for here…

I was worried, so I decided to go along, just to be on the safe side.

And so, in Nascúte, we held a presentation ceremony for a ghost.

"'Sup, people! I'm Rosalie; I killed myself on that street over there, way back when. Right now, I'm living with my big sis, the Witch of the Highlands! I don't live here anymore, so don't go acting like I do!"

"There you have it! She's the genuine ghost who committed suicide on the factory lot! You can see for yourselves how adorable she is; she's not frightening at all! In fact, since we've confirmed that there are no other wandering spirits, you could even say it's safer than working somewhere else! Come one, come all, come work at the factory!"

Rosalie and Halkara were walking around the town, shouting.

"Hey, what's that, what's up?" "They said she's a ghost." "Now that you mention it, she does seem kinda see-through…"

What they were saying was pretty strange, so people had mistaken them for entertainers of some sort, and a crowd had gathered.

"They took the bait. Rosalie, do you mind if they touch you?"

"I'm untouchable."

"No, that's just fine!"

Halkara seemed to have thought of something.

"Anyone who'd like to touch a ghost, step right up! She's authentically incorporeal!"

At that, an old man brought his little granddaughter to touch her.

"Oh, I went right through her!"

The paranormal experience made the girl giddy with excitement.

"See? Don't you go dying, kiddo. Stay healthy, got it?"

"Okay, ghost lady!"

Possibly due to the little-girl effect, the surrounding crowd was looking on warmly. They seemed to have begun realizing that she was a good ghost.

"She ain't the least bit scary, is she?" "She doesn't seem like an evil spirit at all."

Her approval rating was rising. This was a good trend.

Then Rosalie seemed to hit on an idea.

Spotting an elderly couple, she flew lightly over to them.

"Say, you two. Is there anything you're having trouble cleaning?"

"Yes, we can't get at the higher areas of the windows… Even if we stand on chairs, we can't reach."

"In that case, I'll use a rag and wipe those down for you!"

The old couple's faces brightened.

"That would be a great help! Thank you!"

"Go ahead and tell me your address! I'll get that done right now!"

Other people called to Rosalie: "Could you do our house, too?" "There're cobwebs on the ceiling at my place…"

"All right, okay! I'll get to 'em in order, so just sit tight!"

Rosalie's face was shining. It wasn't clear how she was speaking, but I could hear her energetic voice clearly.

"Halkara, even as a ghost, it's possible to live for people, isn't it?"

"Madam Teacher, she is a spirit, so she's not living."

"Don't nitpick."

"It's obviously more fun to have people appreciate you than it is to be hated. I'll work to manage my company to benefit the town as well."

Halkara was sounding like a decent entrepreneur.

In the end, her factory had made one person happy.

After that, Rosalie began visiting the town once a week and helping out by being a tourist attraction.

Go on, work to become the liveliest ghost in the world!