Behind the mine. There's a woman looking at me, her hair a mysterious blend of gold and white, fluttering in the wind.
"Oh my."
Elise, wide-eyed, feigning surprise.
I felt a momentary headache.
"What is it now?"
"What do you mean, 'what'? Shouldn't you apologize first? I fell because of you."
She pointed at the fragments of the mana stone. I clicked my tongue.
"…When did you start listening?"
"I have good ears."
That meant from the beginning.
As I sighed, Elise shook her head in what seemed to be contempt.
"Threatening Soliette with Knightmare for money? Why are you even alive? Just overdose on mana stones and die."
"…It's not just about the money."
I know quite a lot about Soliette. Probably more than Soliette knows about herself.
The woman I loved in the future is the same person who is connected to this present.
"Not about money? Do you like her?"
Elise snorted.
"…"
For a moment, I was at a loss for words. I couldn't think of a rebuttal.
Then Elise's mouth opened slightly. Her expression was filled with shock, contempt, and horror.
I quickly changed the subject.
"…That's not it either."
There are people who rot from the inside out, who kill themselves, if you don't reach for them, if you don't forcibly bring them out.
That's Soliette.
That's why I deliberately provoked her.
"You need to objectify yourself. Do you think you're objectively better? Soliette-"
"I'm in it for the money, okay? And keep it down. It's so hot."
I started to take off my miner's uniform, then stopped.
"Oh, no. Why is it cold?"
The wind was chilly. So cold it felt like the sweat all over my body would freeze.
I put the miner's uniform back on.
"…Did you hurt your brain?"
Elise sighed and looked up at the ceiling.
"Soliette went up there, didn't she?"
"Can't you do it?"
"I'm not a High-Flyer. I'm not even a knight aspirant. Besides, could you stop talking?"
"You started talking first, you know? Got a hole in your brain?"
That's when it happened.
Sssssssss…
A strange breathing sound echoed from somewhere.
"…"
"…"
Both of us froze.
Sssssssss…
A wind sound, like a cry, swept through the underground. An abnormal chill froze our bodies, and our breath fogged up with each exhale.
Elise swallowed calmly. I looked into the darkness of the mine. My body flinched almost instinctively.
"…It's a ghost."
A magical entity was detected in the 「SZX-9500」.
An indistinct outline and faint form. A chill radiating like an aura. An unstable magical energy glowing red like eyes, a power resembling a human.
More accurately, a power trying to 'mimic' a human— a ghost.
"…A ghost?"
"Shh."
I carefully moved my foot.
Thump-
I kicked a piece of rock. At that moment, the ghost turned to look this way.
Elise spoke in a tone that suggested she was in agony.
"Why don't you just kill yourself?"
"…Hmm."
I looked at it. Its aura was already dyed red.
Ghosts instinctively detest the 'living', and one that has taken on such a human form would be difficult for me to handle at my current level.
I'd likely be cursed the moment I come into contact with it. Now that I've been spotted, I can't run away either.
I looked back at Elise. She smirked confidently.
"What are you looking at? Handle it yourself."
"…Am I the only one here? You're here too, aren't you?"
"I can run away on my own."
She really has no manners.
Well, I'd rather die than beg her for help….
Just then.
I saw 'something'.
"Wait."
A faintly glowing blue dot within the ghost's ethereal form.
It's tiny, almost like dust, but it's definitely 'visible'.
The magic core.
I picked up a pickaxe. Elise furrowed her brows.
"A pickaxe… That's just like you. So like you."
Ghosts are magical entities.
Therefore, the way to confront them is through 'magic'.
"The weak point of a ghosts are their magic core. However, it's too small to observe with the naked eye, and it constantly moves around like a fluid, so it can't be destroyed with physical force."
I recited verbatim what I had once read in a textbook.
It's all true. There's no falsehood in textbooks.
"The textbook says so."
"Go get yourself killed."
Elise looked disgusted, but right now, I can see it. The magic core, no bigger than a grain of sand, floating within the ghost's magic, is clearly visible to my 「SZX-9500」, clearer than a pebble.
"…Hey! Come at me, you bastard!"
I shouted at the ghost.
"Ha."
Elise let out a hollow laugh as if she was amazed.
——!
Almost simultaneously, the ghost shrieked, filled with mana.
I gripped the pickaxe tightly. I activated 「Perion」 throughout my body, including my dynamic vision.
The ghost charged, cutting through the air. Its leap was like a gust of wind. But with my amplified nervous system, it was enough time for me to strike it.
Screeeeech——!
The moment it came close, I swung the pickaxe.
Pinpoint.
The pickaxe blade precisely hit the magic core.
Whoooosh….
The ghost, having its magic core pierced, immediately dispersed, and with a thud- something fell to the ground as it vanished.
It was the remnants of the magic core. I put it in my pocket.
"…What."
A dull sound echoed from behind.
"Where, did it go."
Huff, huff- Elise was turning her head left and right. It seemed like she was looking for the ghost that had already died.
I spoke to her.
"Ghosts also have magic cores, you know. I saw it and stabbed it."
"That's nonsense-"
"Ah, no need for a thank you."
I am your benefactor, after all.
Elise was momentarily stunned, but soon furrowed her brows and took a step forward.
"But if a ghost appeared, then that means-!"
She stumbled over something.
Nearly falling over, she irritably looked down.
"What…!"
Her eyes widened in surprise.
"…Ah."
Elise, who was stepping back in shock, stumbled.
I approached the spot. Something was buried in the dirt.
I looked closer.
"Something… happened here."
It was a corpse.
The skeletal remains of a person, dressed in miner's clothing.
"Ugh, ugh, clean that up."
Ignoring Elise, who seemed to be having trouble breathing, I noticed a notebook in the pocket of the miner's clothing. I picked it up and opened the pages.
It was worn out, but the writing was legible.
"March 1, 1995"
1995.
It was a work log from 18 years ago.
"[…Next week is my son's birthday. The little rascal seems to want some expensive sneakers, but what can I do? I'll just have to scrape together some overtime pay.]"
"What are you looking at?"
Elise, who had covered her nose and mouth with a handkerchief, approached.
"A work log. The name is Hans. A man. He has an eleven-year-old son. It's 18 years ago, so the child would be about twenty-nine now."
Elise responded indifferently.
"Accidents are common in mines."
"…Indeed."
I flipped the page with a furrowed brow.
"[Lately, there are guys who claim to see strange things in the mine. We've been working overtime a lot lately, so the inexperienced young ones are bound to be tired. I decided to take over from today. What could happen from a few days of overtime?]"
The warning signs were already there, but Hans volunteered for overtime to earn money.
And the result was….
"[It's a ghost! I saw a ghost! A ghost is haunting this mine! It's definitely a ghost. Those guys who said they saw something were right. No, it wasn't something. Damn it!
But my family will come to save me. If I just wait a little, Libra will——]"
The following pages were hard to read.
The handwriting became more and more rough, the hunger that seemed to eat his own flesh, the guilt and longing for his family, the resentment towards Libra, the self-blame for volunteering for overtime…..
"A haunted place… can't be used as a regeneration mine."
That's when Elise spoke. I snapped back to reality.
Ghosts are beings made up entirely of magic. They often occur in places with a high concentration of mana, such as under the ground, in the mountains, in the deep sea, and on remote islands. Legally, mines haunted by ghosts are closed.
It's because of the amendment to the human rights law 20 years ago.
The curse of a ghost is even more vicious than cancer.
"That can't be."
I shook my head.
The Libra of the past 'already' knew that ghosts were haunting this place. The person in charge of the mine, or someone from the Libra family, would have encountered a ghost while searching for Hans. And they would have briefly contemplated.
Whether it was a day, two days, or if they didn't contemplate at all.
As a result, Libra chose to bury the living between the upper and lower floors.
"'That can't be'? Do you even know what the law is?"
Of course, Jade wouldn't have known about that past.
The process of inheriting Libra's succession started 7 years ago, and that rascal didn't even know what he had in the first place.
"It's a reclaimed mine that's about to open soon. Libra will never give it up."
So, the development from here is obvious.
Libra, Jade, will try to cover up this fact again, by any means necessary.
Instead of that.
"No, they can't give it up."
I bit my lip. I gripped the pickaxe tightly.
Thud——!
I smashed it down on the remains.