STM 19

A curly furball hung midair.

The thing looked like a head because two small ear-like bits stuck out each side. It moved a lot. Its flaps beat incessantly. Are these wings !?

Anyway, the shape looked cute enough that even someone who feared ghosts would calm down.

“Why are you doing that?”

[Hiiing.]

The furball split open down the middle like a mouth. The gap grew almost as big as a face. Thick black slime fell from the gap like strings.

When its mouth was closed it looked like a Bichon’s rear, and when it opened it turned into a horror-movie monster. I spoke politely without meaning to.

“Are you human?”

Flap flap The Bichon butt flapped its wings twice.

[He…lp.]

Please, I wish that mouth would stay closed. I missed Mo’s filter so much it almost brought tears to my eyes. I fought the urge to look away and forced myself to hear the furball.

Help? The voice sounded childlike and clumsy, so I asked again.

“Do you mean ‘help’? Do you want help?”

Flap flap The wings answered with another flaps and I let out a sigh.

This felt familiar. The fairy that asked for help used a similar tone. At least this one kept its words short.

Whoosh!

“Ugh!”

A strong gust shoved me back into the wall. The thing pushed me with wind because I did not answer. Hands first, words later, huh?

“Okay, who must I help?”

Before I finished asking, the secret opened from the wind. The Bichon butt ran in and out like it had urgent business.

The furball guided me near a third-floor room and then stopped.

I felt that something stronger than the furball lived inside. Two guards stood at the door like bodyguards, so whoever was inside must hold high rank.

I did not know what was going on there, but the big shot inside likely had no problem. If trouble had come, the guards would move first.

I chose to slip past the guards and hide. I covered half my face with a handkerchief. To enter through a window, I would use the next room’s corner.

Fortunately, a large tree had branches that reached the other room’s terrace.

Could I climb that?

It took me a second to make a decision. I moved to the tree. When I stepped on the last branch and rose onto the terrace, something cracked.

Thud.

My foot sank like the floor gave way.

I had one foot on the terrace, so I avoided a fall.

Phew. I breathed out.

But I could not use that route again. I hoped I would not need to flee in a hurry. I hoped the furball’s mistake would mean no big deal.

I looked through the window and froze.

What the hell is that?

People live the same everywhere. That also meant the same assholes live everywhere. The scene in that room featured exactly one such asshole from our world.

A long-haired man straddled a bed, half-naked, on top of a brown-haired man. The brown-haired man’s arms and legs hung loose.

He looked fresh-faced, barely twenty. Strange thing: his body hung limp but his eyes remained open.

His mind seemed awake but his body would not move. Fear filled his eyes.

Our gazes met. His eyes were silently screaming.

Help me!

I opened the terrace door and ran in without a second thought. The bastard held his ugly cock in one hand and did not notice me come up behind him. I spotted the right thing.

There, the candlestick near him. I grabbed that candlestick and brought it down on his head without hesitation.

If he fell, I could save the brown-haired man.

I thought the situation would end like that.

I hit him hard, and he did not block me. I had no pause.

But.

Bang!

A compressed air burst exploded and I flew back.

The bastard I hit had an unexpected protection.

At impact, a blue light spread like a shield around him. The candlestick hit the shield and bounced off.

Ugh!

The force also threw me across the floor.

Luckily I wasn’t the only one made to look ridiculous. The bastard dodged the candlestick but he staggered and fell.

The blue jewel on his brooch cracked and fell to the floor.

“Ugh, who are you?!”

He shouted, long blond hair flying, and I stood with the candlestick and lunged at him.

“I don’t have time for you, you pervert.”

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There definitely had been a presence. The instant he noticed it, the presence vanished like smoke. Duke Kun left his friend and walked out into the second floor corridor slowly.

A few people leaving their tryst rooms saw him and stepped aside, bowing.

Yet his eyes saw nothing else. He raised his Swordmaster senses and focused on finding the presence he’d missed.

The original rat had been human.

So what erased the rat’s traces? Something transcendent. A spirit, a fairy maybe, or a divine beast.

Not a divine beast, though. If it were, he would have noticed for sure. That left a weaker being, maybe a spirit, but that felt wrong too.

Those things exist everywhere even if you can’t see them. But to sense them, humans who communicate with them are needed. They act like ties between the invisible world and the human world.

Does that mean a spirit-summoner is here?

Duke Kun’s eyes gleamed. He had more reason to find the rat. If not the second floor, then another floor…

“Your Grace.”

A retainer approached and scanned the area.

“Who are you looking for?”

Duke Kun ignored the retainer and kept moving, then remembered another rat.

“Where is Brons now?”

Duke Kun named the person he had escorted today.

“The last time I saw him before I came up to the second floor, he was in the first floor hall.”

“Go back and look with your own eyes. Montaine Bilge could have come.”

The retainer froze.

“Yes, I’ll confirm right away…”

But he couldn’t finish before an unexpected noise stopped them.

Clang! Crash!

Something shattered and fell. Duke Kun and the retainer looked up at once. Third floor?!

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Bang! Bang!

“Lord Bilge!”

Seconds after my candlestick attack failed, two guards who’d heard the noise shouted and pounded the door from behind.

Maybe the door locked, because a latch clicked.

The bastard realized his allies had come and opened his mouth.

“Hurry and come in… ugh!”

I charged before he finished.

“You what… ugh!”

My candlestick sliced past his nose by inches.

Ah, Lu’s arms are shorter.

I moved at a distance I was used to and misjudged. It hurt my pride, but something good came from it. The candlestick had broken his shield.

“This time I’ll do it right.”

I promised, clenched my fist and swung it.

“Gah!”

He screamed and his face turned ninety degrees. I moved in fast and landed a hook.

Pow pow. He staggered like reed in wind with every hit. Huh, he’s holding up. I aimed for his jaw to finish him.

Whoosh!

My arm cut through air. The jaw turned with a smack, but I missed the chin. Bad distance again.

Damn, I need to adapt to this body fast.

I jumped onto the fallen bastard and grabbed his collar. Get ready, pervert, I’ll smash your jaw…!

Hmm.

Before my fist hit, my body froze like ice.

Something appeared in the air opposite me.

Red eyes?

The instant my gaze met the eyes that stared straight at me.

I got goosebumps all over my body.