Volume 4, Chapter 6 – The Ghost of the Snowy Mountain

Night’s curtain had fallen over the Nishimine Mountain Range.

The snow, falling relentlessly as ever, dyed our vision white.

“Haa, it’s not letting up at all, is it?”

“But at least the wind has died down. That makes things much better.”

“True. Can I rest after we finish dinner?”

I had been maintaining a Barrier since noon, so I was starting to get a bit tired. At this rate, we wouldn’t have to worry about the wind blowing the tent away.

“You’ve been keeping that Barrier up the whole time, Fiene-sama. Please, get some well-deserved rest.”

To be honest, I was grateful for Chris-san’s words.

After eating the leftovers from lunch’s stew, I quickly wrapped myself in my sleeping bag and drifted off to sleep.

◇ ◇ ◇

After a while, I suddenly woke up.

Beside me, Lu-chan was fast asleep in her own sleeping bag.

She had such a happy, mumbly expression on her face that I figured she must be dreaming about food.

“Munya… ramen…”

See? I knew it.

Apparently, Lu-chan had taken quite a liking to ramen.

That was when it happened.

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From out of nowhere, I heard a sound like a woman sobbing.

Sob, sob, sob, sob…

For a moment, a chill ran down my spine.

“Chris-san?”

I hurried out of my sleeping bag and checked outside the tent. The snow was still falling steadily.

“Oh? Fiene-sama, are you awake?”

Sitting in front of the tent, keeping watch and tending the fire, Chris-san noticed me and called out.

“Yes. I ended up waking up.”

Sob, sob, sob, sob…

There it was again. Startled, I looked around, but there was no sign of anyone.

“Fiene-sama? Is something wrong?”

“Eh? Chris-san, did you hear something just now?”

“No? I didn’t hear a thing.”

Hmm? Could this be one of those “ghost” things?

Sob, sob, sob, sob…

“Ah, I heard it again. I feel like I can hear a woman crying… Chris-san, you really don’t hear it?”

“Nothing at all. Though, you don’t exactly seem like you’re sleepwalking.”

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“Hmm, I feel like it’s coming from over here…”

I walked a short distance and checked behind a tree, but there was no one there.

“Well, there’s definitely nobody here. Maybe it was just my imagination.”

I turned back toward Chris-san and started walking to her. When I looked at her, she was cowering on the ground.

Wait, why does she look so pale?

“Chris-san, what’s the matter?”

“F-F-Fiene-sama! B-b-be… be… be…”

“A cow?” ¹ うし (Ushi) = Behind. 牛 (Ushi) = Cow

“B-B-B-BEHIND YOU!”

I spun around at Chris-san’s shout, but as expected, there was nothing there.

“What? See, there’s nobody there after all.”

I turned back to Chris-san. But she seemed to see something I didn’t, and was backing away in terror.

“Hieeeeee! P-p-p-purifi—! Purifi—!”

Chris-san tried to use Purification Magic in a panic, but of course, nothing happened.

It seemed she had been studying the book I gave her, but she hadn’t quite sprouted the Holy Magic Skill yet.

Still, even if she was panicking, I don’t think shouting “purifi” like that is going to help.

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Well, if Chris-san is acting like this, it must mean she saw something ghostly.

But for a ghost that goes through all the effort of sobbing to get attention, disappearing the moment I turn around… is this ghost shy?

Or is she just an attention-seeker?

Or maybe she wants to play a game of Red Light, Green Light?

I looked back once more, but again, nobody was there.

“Why don’t you just come out already? I don’t know what you want, but I’m willing to at least listen.”

There was no answer. The sobbing had stopped, too.

“Hmm, this is troublesome. This ghost seems to be the shy type, and she isn’t doing us any harm, so let’s just leave her alone. If she needs something, she’ll come back.”

Besides, using wide-range Purification Magic would be exhausting.

“With that said, I’ll set up a Barrier, so Chris-san, please go get some rest.”

Having lost interest, I cast a Barrier around the tent that would purify the inside.

With this, that ghost from earlier shouldn’t be able to get in, and even if she managed to sneak in, she’d be purified.

“T-thank you so much, Fiene-sama!”

“Don’t mention it. Now, go get some sleep. Good night.”

After seeing Chris-san hurry into the tent, I sat down by the fire and killed time by Enchanting small pebbles, just as I always did.

After that, the attention-seeking ghost never came back.

Yep, problem solved. All’s well that ends well.

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◇ ◇ ◇

The next morning, a small mountain of pebbles had piled up beside our tent.

Wondering how it ended up like this?

Of course, the culprit is right here. Me.

With nothing else to do, I had spent the entire night repeatedly Enchanting pebbles with Purification Magic and tossing them aside, and before I knew it, they had reached this volume.

I don’t know why, but since my MP showed no signs of running out, I got a bit carried away and enchanted way too many.

It didn’t bother me in the middle of the night, but looking at it again now that it’s light out, it’s a bit of a horrific sight.

I’ve probably enchanted about 2,000 to 3,000 of them.

Thanks to that, I’ve used up almost all the pebbles in my Storage.

Since you can’t re-enchant stones, I’ll have to pick up more pebbles somewhere, or it’ll interfere with my Enchant practice.

“Onee-sama, you certainly made a lot of those last night.”

Looking at the mountain of pebbles, Lu-chan had an indescribable look on her face.

“Ahaha. I was bored, so I went a little overboard.”

Chatting away, I pulled a pot of miso soup from my Storage and set it over the fire.

The gentle aroma of miso and dashi began to waft through the snowy white world.