DMHS 95

The inside, left abandoned for years, felt scarier than expected.

White cobwebs stretched across the ceiling connected to the walls. Through the broken windows, fog from the lake seeped in, and the half-torn curtains swelled and sank over and over like something breathing.

Even Mila, who had entered so confidently, felt the urge to step back.

‘Maybe this place really is scary…’

And to make things worse, Barbarnos started hiccuping.

Hic!

‘Should I tell them we should go back?’

As Mila quietly turned around, her eyes met Isabella’s bright, cheerful ones.

“This place is so much fun. I bet something even more interesting is waiting in Room 404. Let’s hurry up and go!”

Isabella grabbed the back of Barbarnos’s collar and pulled him forward.

Mila rubbed her arms covered in goosebumps and followed behind.

‘Even the little girl is walking bravely in front. I shouldn’t get scared just because of the atmosphere. I should be brave too.’

Mila didn’t know that every student who came to check ghost story number 58 had turned back at the door, so she climbed the stairs guilty of comparing herself to the wrong people.

They found Room 404 easily. The door wasn’t even locked, so they entered the classroom without trouble.

“The fourth seat in the fourth group is right here.”

Excited, Isabella sat down on the dusty chair covered with a thick gray layer.

Barbarnos immediately grabbed her hand and pulled her up.

“You shouldn’t sit so carelessly when we don’t know what might happen. Hic! I, I’ll drop the pen first, so you two just watch, hic, okay.”

Despite his confident words, Barbarnos’s face was deathly pale. His eyes said clearly, “I’d rather fall from the top of the tower than sit in that seat and drop the pen.”

“Are you sure you’ll be all right?”

“Of course, hic, I will. I’ll begin now.”

He sat at the seat and took a pen out of his inner pocket. Pretending to write something on the desk, he pretended to lose grip and let it fall to the floor.

“……”

“……”

“……”

Because everyone held their breath, the silence felt even heavier.

Isabella noticed something strange, she bent down and looked under the desk.

“The pen’s gone.”

“That can’t be.”

Barbarnos turned to the side and checked under the desk too. Mila joined in and searched the classroom, but they couldn’t find the fallen pen anywhere.

A shiver crawled up Mila’s spine. The air felt colder, and she swallowed dryly.

‘What’s happening?’

Isabella’s cheerful voice echoed through the cold atmosphere.

“Wow! The ghost knows how to do tricks. This is so fun! But I guess once isn’t enough. Try again, uncle.”

Barbarnos, whose face had turned pale to the point of blue, bit his lip and straightened up.

His hand trembled clearly as he pulled another pen from his pocket. He didn’t even hiccup anymore.

“I’ll, I’ll do it…”

He dropped the pen again under the desk. There was no sound of it hitting the floor. Naturally, there was no pen rolling across the ground either.

As the other two were frozen speechless, Isabella raised her voice loudly.

“I saw it clearly just now! The pen slipped through under the drawer and vanished! Do it again, uncle!”

“If we repeat what we were told not to… might get angry…”

Isabella didn’t heard the“the spirit might get angry” and misunderstood.

“You get angry too often, uncle. Maybe this is a good chance for you to calm down. So try again.”

“Huuuh…”

Even though she hadn’t known them long, Mila understood their relationship perfectly.

‘Mr. Barbarnos can’t win against Miss Isabella.’

Natural enemies didn’t exist only in nature. They existed in human relationships too. The pair in front of her, Barbarnos and Isabella, were proof.

In the end, Barbarnos pulled out another pen. His trembling hand didn’t even need to pretend to drop it.

“It disappeared!”

Isabella shouted with delight like a child.

“Huh? But uncle, something just flashed inside the desk drawer. Step aside, I’ll check it.”

“No… it’s fine. I can look myself.”

Barbarnos bent down and looked into the drawer. Then, still in that position, his body suddenly collapsed to the floor.

Thud.

“Uncle, are you okay?”

Isabella grabbed the collar of the fallen Barbarnos and pulled him up. His eyes had rolled back white, and he was unconscious.

“Uncle? Uncle!”

Mila checked his condition. Thanks to her grandfather, who had once been a physician, she knew how to take a simple pulse.

“He’s fine. He just fainted from shock. He’ll wake up after some time.”

“Huh? What could possibly make him faint like that?”

Isabella genuinely seemed unable to understand why Barbarnos had lost consciousness.

“Then I’ll try it this time.”

Isabella laid Barbarnos on the floor and sat down in the chair.

Clatter.

The sound of the pen rolling stopped, and Isabella stuck her head into the desk drawer.

Then a white mist appeared from nowhere and wrapped around her head. When Mila reached out her hand, Isabella had already vanished without a trace.

Mila rubbed her eyes.

‘What just happened?’

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Her heart beat so fast it felt like it might explode. As Mila searched around the desk and chair, she looked down at Barbarnos.

‘Wherever she went, I can’t leave Miss Isabella alone.’

Kian also asked her to look after the girl. With Barbarnos unconscious, it was up to her to protect Isabella.

Mila sat down with her legs together and placed a pen on the desk.

As if pulled by an invisible string, the pen began to roll in one direction without the desk tilting.

Clatter.

Mila held her breath and turned toward the drawer.

Flash.

She saw a pair of eyes gleaming inside.

She desperately wanted to look away, but she thought of Isabella and opened her eyes wide.

Then the eyes opposite her slowly closed, and a voice flowed into her mind.

“Heh-heh-heh. I guess that dark mage bastard got some money lately. He replaced all his stationery, so we made sure to break them properly.”

“Right. New ones are much better to break than old ones.”

“I don’t even get why he carries around a pencil case if this keeps happening.”

“Probably pride, or something stupid like that.”

“You tore up my pencil case, I’m so sad, boo-hoo-hoo.”

“Ah, shut up, you idiot.”

“I’m Joseph from Delia. Let’s be friends.”

“Why do I never get tired of that? It’s always so damn funny. Puhaha.”

When she lifted her head, ghosts were floating in the air. They had the shapes of people, but their transparency was so high that the objects behind them were visible.

The problem was that the ghosts in academy uniforms were slowly floating toward the seat where Mila sat.

“So, let’s see how pretty Ivan’s pencil case looks now.”

Only then did Mila realize her desk was a mess. The surface was covered with knife marks, and broken pens and pencils spilled out of a damaged case.

“Shh. Over here, big sister.”

When she turned around, Isabella was pressed against the wall in the hallway. Mila silenced her footsteps and slipped beside her.

Isabella whispered.

“It looks like it’s showing memories connected to the desk.”

“That could be right.”

“It’s exactly the kind of setup ghost stories love. A student can’t endure bullying anymore, takes their own life, then comes back for revenge one by one. The main character should appear now. Look.”

The boy Isabella pointed at entered through the front door.

A small-framed boy with long bangs covering his eyes froze when he saw the students occupying his seat.

“C-class is about to start.”

“So what, you’re telling us to move? You giving us orders?”

“N-no, I just…”

“If you kneel and beg, I’ll think about it. Say, ‘Please move, Lord Joseph,’ and beg for it.”

“This is my seat.”

“Are your ears clogged? I said beg.”

At that moment, the front door opened and a girl with purple hair entered.

She glared at the gathered students as if she was looking at something disgusting.

“Get out.”

The student at the desk sighed.

“Don’t you think you’ve played the hero long enough, Laura?”

“And don’t you get tired of playing filthy villains?”

“What’s the point of acting righteous when even the professors pretend not to see?”

“What else could it be? My peace of mind. You can’t improve your mana unless your heart is calm. And I warned you before. If you keep acting like this again, I’ll report what your families and towers did.”

“Oh, scary. But people outside will understand. This guy’s a dark mage. Everyone will praise us for bullying him.”

“Maybe internally, sure. But no one will dare defend you openly. I have proof of what you’ve done right here.”

The girl called Laura lifted a magic stone.

The tense atmosphere instantly changed. The students kicked at random things and went back to their seats.

Laura sat beside the boy.

“Ivan.”

“Y-yes.”

“If they bother you again, tell me. Don’t hide it like last time.”

“I’m fine.”

“I’m not fine, that’s the problem. Do you understand?”

Laura clicked her tongue as she looked at Ivan’s pencil case.

“Use this for notes today.”

“It’s fine.”

“Stop saying that. You don’t have to give it back either.”

The professor entered, and class began. While the students wrote in their notebooks, Ivan only stared at the chalkboard.

The class continued quietly.

“…”

Then Ivan suddenly gripped his pen so hard that the veins on his hand bulged.