Prologue: The Search for a Home Came First, or So It Was Told

Renya hated taking on debt.

More generally, he disliked the act of buying something with money that one didn’t have. Of course, paying with imaginary money tended to be frowned upon, so said buyer would have to borrow money from somewhere else. It was the nerve of these people, using money they didn’t own, that rubbed him the wrong way. However, even he conceded that there was a time and place for such a thing.

That time was undoubtedly now.

The total amount of reward money they received from their dungeon campaign earlier came to 100 gold. They gave half to Azu’s party, so Renya’s party was left with 50. This arrangement, however, met with fierce opposition from Azu, who argued that they were complete dead weights when it came to defeating the demon, so they had no claim to the dungeon core’s reward. Renya did not back off either, insisting that they split the reward equally. Ultimately, Azu caved and Renya emerged the victor of their stubbornness contest.

From Renya’s perspective, they had all put their lives on the line and braved the same danger together, so both parties deserved an equal reward, and Azu was wrong to refuse his share.

“We didn’t even function as meat shields, you know?!” Azu exclaimed as he stepped closer.

“So?” responded Renya in as flat a voice as he could muster. “I think this is appropriate, and that’s all that matters. Or what? Are you going to claim that I could have taken on that demon all by myself? Just so you know, Azu, there is such a thing as too much flattery.”

He took care to appear business-like, keeping all traces of emotion out of his voice and expression. Otherwise, Azu would realize there was more to this than a simple negotiation between two parties. He had become fairly good friends with the mage, and the process of keeping up a poker face in front of him was not at all enjoyable. Nevertheless, he willed every muscle in his face to help keep his look blank. After a short period of mutual staring, Azu broke the silence.

“Fine… We’ll take it this time… Sorry,” he murmured, lowering his head in a deep bow. Then, he declared that he had to inform his party members about the reward and walked away.

After seeing Azu off, Renya let out a long sigh. It was obvious that Azu’s party needed the money more than his. Even if they wanted to continue adventuring, his four guards had lost almost all their equipment. Buying everything new would cost them far more than what they earned this time. Similarly, if they quit adventuring, they would need a sum of money to keep them going until they found their next job, and if that job was starting a business, the money had to last them until the business became profitable. In either case, the more money they had, the better.

In comparison, while his party’s objective in taking jobs was to make money, there was no urgency to their endeavor. So long as they could pay for food and lodging, everything else could be left for later. Knowing this, he would have been fine giving all of their reward to Azu, but his position as leader of his own party and the lack of a decent reason aside from sheer pity prevented him from forcing the issue. In the end, he settled on splitting the reward half-and-half as a compromise.

Moving on to other matters now.

Out of the 50 gold that Renya received, Shion and Rona each requested only 2 gold each and told him to hold on to the remainder, leaving him with 46 gold. As he strolled through the streets of the city, wondering what his current assets could buy, his eyes lingered on a place that resembled a real estate office. Posted in the office was a piece of paper displaying a certain property that was on sale.

The property was situated in the Commercial District. Once occupied by the owner of a sizeable business who used it as a combined storefront-and-residence, it was somewhat removed from the city’s center. Perhaps due to its remote location, it was a robust structure made of stone that boasted not only an expansive garden but also a workshop and storehouse. On top of that, the old storefront section of the house faced the street. It was the ideal property. The problem was the price.

The place was selling for 80 gold. With a 40-gold down payment, he could pay the rest in installments, the specifics of which could be negotiated with a large degree of lenience for the buyer. Renya was absolutely clueless about average market prices, but he remembered hearing that properties like these would cost him at least a platinum. Granted, it depended on the size of the building and plot. Based on what he could gleam from the data, though, this place — the word “big” alone seemed insufficient to describe its size — should have been worth even more than a platinum.

No matter how he cut it, 80 gold definitely was on the cheap side. He couldn’t buy the place outright, but he had enough on hand for the down payment. Though he hated the thought of taking out a loan, this was a chance he simply could not pass up.

“Is there a property that interests you?”

The way Renya stared at the poster on the wall probably tipped the salesperson off. Figuring he had a potential sale on his hands, the middle-aged man approached Renya with a meek smile.

“This property… doesn’t it seem a bit too cheap?”

“Ah, you mean this one…”

The man’s expression clouded as soon as he glanced at the paper Renya pointed at. That look was all Renya needed to figure out what was going on: this property had some issues. The man leaned toward him and, in an ominous voice, whispered in his ear…

“There’s something about this property, you see…”

“Yeah?”

“It’s in the air. You can feel it… the malice.”

For a moment, Renya’s mind went blank. He wasn’t sure how to respond. As though propelled by some subconscious intent, his hands moved by themselves, reaching for the katana that hung from his waist. The sight of his sudden gesture caused the salesperson to lurch backward in a panic. His momentum carried him past his point of balance and he toppled to the ground. He hit the ground in a roll and, with a surprising amount of dexterity, managed to flip himself into a prostrated position, ending his tumble in a touchdown of forehead to ground.

“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. It was a joke!”

“…Yeah, I figured as much.”

Praising himself for the restraint he displayed, Renya slowly released his grip on the katana and lowered his hand. He had come this close to running the guy through. Had he actually done so, he doubted he would have felt any guilt, but he would have to deal with being arrested for breaking the law. The shock of hearing such cheesy rubbish — the kind that nobody in his original world would ever attempt anymore — in this entirely new world was too much for his unprepared ears, and he had reacted almost entirely reflexively.

“B-But, I must point out that it wasn’t complete nonsense…”

“Hngh?”

“If there’s one thing this property is known for, it’s the rumor that it’s cursed.”

The person who had lived in that house was a wealthy merchant. He had a beautiful wife and a clever child. Many employees served under him, and he ran an expansive business that was considered one of, if not the largest of Kukrika. He paid his employees generously and looked after them with care, so there was never any shortage of people who came to his home seeking to work at his store. He was also well-regarded by fellow merchants, and it seemed that his store would continue to flourish for a long time to come. Then, everything changed.

It happened a few years ago. There was an incident in which multiple women of a young age went missing in the city of Kukrika. Girls in their late teens simply went missing one after another. The city guards worked day and night searching everywhere for the missing girls, and a notice was sent out cautioning women to avoid walking alone. Eventually, the investigators of the incident happened upon one element that all the cases shared: all the victims had either been working at the formerly-mentioned merchant’s store or been interviewed for a position. They found the thread that connected all the victims. Once they realized, the guards immediately rushed to the merchant’s house for questioning. When they arrived, they saw…

“They saw?”

“The very sight that surfaced in your mind right now,” said the salesperson in a low, hushed tone. Presumably, it was for effect, as the story had reached its climax.

Renya was not impressed in the least; nothing about the story grabbed him. The guy sounded like just another serial killer. What was so special about him? Sure, it was a tragic story, but if he started giving examples of similar incidents from his original world, they’d be here all day. If that was all it took for a place to be cursed, his whole freaking world would have been cursed multiple times over. Besides, if there were ghosts roaming around the guy’s house, they should have been popping up in the dozens.

“Well,” said the man, who seemed rather disappointed by his potential client’s profound disinterest, “so goes the story about the place, anyway.”

“That’s all there is to it? Just a story?” said a distinctly unamused Renya.

“Ah, well, as I’ve heard, they really do appear…” The man lowered his voice and tried for the ominous air again, but Renya was not interested in playing along.

“What’s ‘they’?”

“Ghosts, apparently. So far, every one of our clients who moved in to that property has terminated their contract, claiming they see them as soon as night falls.”

This time, Renya found himself genuinely surprised by the man’s words, which served as a stark reminder to him that things truly were different here. It seemed that in this world, unresolved grudges and grievances really could give rise to ghosts. His memories of his previous world remained missing, but he was fairly sure he had never come across any ghosts or spiritual beings there. This wasn’t a baseless assumption; until now, he didn’t believe they existed at all. Had he ever experienced a ghostly encounter, he should have at least believed in their existence. The fact that he didn’t implied no such encounter ever occurred.

“Do those ghosts only come out at night?”

“Yes, that appears to be the case.”

Apparently, some things didn’t change. Even here, he wasn’t going to behold any ghosts strutting their ethereal stuff in bright daylight.

“Can I take a look first? If I don’t find anything wrong with the place, I intend to purchase it.”

Renya eyed the poster again — a bargain-priced property with a past history of ghost sightings — and found himself, of all things, fascinated. In fact, he had half a mind to put his money down right then and there. Of course, he wasn’t yet sure if they truly appeared or not, and he still had the good sense to realize that if they did, he needed to first ascertain how dangerous they were.

“I see…” said the man with a nod, “we do at times meet clients with… more exotic tastes such as yourself. In such cases, we do allow for a one-night stay, during which the client may have a look-over of the property. Do note, however, that no furniture or bedding will be provided. It’s in the same state as the merchant left it. Will that be fine?”

“At least clean the place… You’re trying to sell it, right?”

“We’d love to, but it’s too creepy and nobody wants to go in.”

“Huh. Fine. On a side note, what happened to that merchant?”

“Of course, they arrested him and brought him to trial. He was sentenced to death. But, so that the souls of those women so cruelly murdered may rest in peace…” The man paused, presumably for dramatic effect, then lowered his voice again and continued in a hushed tone, “They took him to the mansion’s garden. There, they beheaded him.”

The man laughed, his voice meant to be low and unsettling. Even now, he was still determined to add a touch of horror to his story. Unfortunately, Renya, who was entirely uninvested, started speaking with an air of total nonchalance and ruined the man’s efforts to create some atmosphere.

“Damn, the clean up must have been a nightmare. I don’t know how people do beheadings in this world, but it’s harder than it looks. The neck’s wrapped in muscle and the bone’s thick, so it’s fairly tough. If you swing wide, there’s a chance you end up hitting the shoulder or the back. And if some fat guy shows up, it’s like ‘where the hell is your neck, even?’ and it degenerates into a farce sometimes. Also, it doesn’t matter if you use a sword or an axe, if you can’t lop it off with one swing, the convict’s going to suffer. I’ve heard about cases where a shoddy executioner hacked at a convict’s neck a bunch of times and still couldn’t cut through, and the guy was just writhing in pain the whole time… I mean, you could argue that was part of the atonement process, but imagine if it were you in that situation. Now there’s a thought that’ll keep you up at night, huh? The reliable way to do it is to get them onto the beheading stand, hold an axe over their neck, and slam the axe down with a hammer. That way, even a novice can do it in one go. However, if the guy swinging the hammer hesitates, the axe can get lodged in the neck halfway through, and then you’ll be in a pickle. Did you know that?”

As Renya rattled off his encyclopedic knowledge of the intricacies of beheading techniques, the man’s face turned deathly pale — far paler than from any ghost story — and scurried to the back of the store to get Renya the keys to the property. With the grin of a bully, Renya called out after the man.

“Where I’m from, they say that if you bury a dead body under a tree, beautiful flowers will blossom there. That guy’s body isn’t buried in the garden, is it?”

“How the heck would I know? Just take your key and go already!” shrieked the man.

He who told the ghost story was scared out of his wits. Renya shook his head and smiled a little. The irony was not lost on him.