Chapter 2327 Window <TOC> Chapter 2329 Overlook the Glass Surface
Translator: SumTLMan
Was there a rustling sound behind him?!
Little Seim shivered with cold, contemplating a dire possibility.
Could it be… the ghost of the farm owner, lurking behind him?
He turned around tremblingly.
There was nothing behind him, only the desk was slightly shaking, making a crisp sound as the wood touched the ground, “creak, creak.”
Looking down, it turned out that a foot pad wedged under the corner of the desk had been knocked aside.
The desk in this room was an old piece, reportedly used for decades, existing since Little Seim’s mother was alive. It often received waxing, so its exterior looked relatively intact; however, the castle’s proximity to a lake meant that damp air seeped into the desk day after day. Its core had become somewhat moist and prone to erosion, and one of the desk’s corners had started to deteriorate, causing it to wobble over the years. After moving in, Little Seim had placed a paper foot pad under the corner of the desk to maintain balance for his daily reading.
Now, the foot pad had been knocked aside. It seems it was moved when he stumbled earlier.
The absence of the foot pad, coupled with his collision, had caused the strange rustling sound just now.
Little Seim looked at the shaking desk and breathed a sigh of relief; he had previously mistaken it for the ghost of the farm owner playing tricks behind his back.
Speaking of the ghost of the farm owner, Little Seim couldn’t help but turn his head towards the window. But at that moment, no shadow was cast on the window, let alone a face.
Perhaps, he was too tired from reading, leading to hallucinations?
Little Seim shook his head and stood up, cautiously looking around, seeing nothing unusual. Recalling that the knights and Wizard Drew had inspected the room, stating there was no issue, Little Seim thought he might have been overly anxious.
Due to the fall earlier, his ankle seemed to have been twisted. Little Seim limped to the chair behind the desk and sat down.
Rubbing his sore ankle, Little Seim’s gaze inadvertently fell on the —Soul Records— book on the desk, its pages fluttered by the wind.
He had caught a glimpse of an illustration in the book earlier, remembering it depicted a ghostly figure with blood-red eyes in a standing mirror.
This was somewhat similar to his own experience.
He too had seen a ghostly figure in the glass, resembling a mirror.
Little Seim glanced at the explanation next to the illustration and subconsciously read out loud, “Special ghost… Mirror Wraith…”
Just as Little Seim uttered the words “Mirror Wraith,” he felt a chill surrounding him, as if the temperature had dropped.
“With a unique ability to intervene directly in the material world through mirrors.”
“It uses them not only as a place of refuge but also as a means of transportation, enabling special spatial jumps through the reflective surface.”
“The most effective prevention method is to cover all mirrors with cloth…”
Gulping, Little Seim recalled a scene he had witnessed in the lobby downstairs earlier, where Drew and his knights arrived at Star Lake Castle, fervently searching for mirrors to cover with velvet cloth and remove from the premises. This action strikingly resembled the precautions described in the book, suggesting that the knights’ efforts were aimed at warding off the Mirror Wraith.
“If you’ve already seen the Mirror Wraith, be wary, for it might be hiding around you, possibly behind you or even above you…”
The air around him seemed to grow colder, whether from his imagination or an actual drop in temperature.
“Perhaps behind you, or maybe above you.”
Swallowing hard, Little Seim slowly turned his head to find silence behind him; looking up, the ceiling offered nothing but tranquility.
“It seems I’m just being overly sensitive,” Little Seim sighed in relief.
However, before he could fully relax, a colder, more bone-chilling presence crept up from below. At the same time, something seemed to grasp his ankles under the table.
Little Seim stiffened and looked down, only to see a shadowy outline that had appeared under the table. As he looked, the shadowy figure lifted its head.
Scarlet eyes, a sinister face, and ghastly heavy breathing…
This scene before him made Little Seim’s heart feel as if it had stopped beating for a few seconds, before it suddenly erupted into a rapid, thumping heartbeat that leaped to his ears.
Little Seim was unsettled.
Or rather, anyone who suddenly sees a terrifying ghost face appear under the table would be unsettled.
Not to mention, this ghost face was that of the farm owner!
The ghost of the farm owner had not disappeared. The ghostly figure he had seen at the window was not an illusion; everything was happening for real. He just hadn’t noticed before that the ghost of the farm owner had already left the window and entered the room!
Although Little Seim’s heart was thumping rapidly, he had experienced encounters with ghosts before and had even dealt with the ghost of Lady Sheila, a transformed spider ghost.
Even though his face turned pale with fright, he immediately took defensive and evasive actions.
However, just as Little Seim kicked the chair away, intending to flee backward, a tremendous force pulled him back by the ankle.
It was the ghost of the farm owner, who had grabbed his ankle.
His ankle was already twisted, and now being targeted and pulled back, Little Seim lost his balance once again and sat back down on the chair.
Even though his ankle was restrained, Little Seim was not one to sit idly by and wait for doom. The more critical the moment, the more he knew he must not panic. He forced himself to ignore all external factors and pondered how to deal with the current situation.
His thoughts raced, surpassing everything else.
Perhaps it was a subconscious thought, or maybe it was a plan formed after careful consideration.
In less than a second, Little Seim came up with a new response.
During his initial fight with the ghost of Lady Sheila, he could use his own blood to attack because she was a relative. However, this strategy was useless against the ghost of the farm owner, who was a stranger to him. Therefore, Little Seim decided to grab the oil lamp on the table, remove the lampshade, and smash it down hard on the ghost below.
Fire is also a form of intense energy surge. An energy clash might not harm a ghost, but Little Seim didn’t intend to use the fire from the lamp to injure the ghost. He needed just a moment.
A moment to escape.
Little Seim was well aware that he was far from being a match for a ghost, let alone a potentially special one. Escaping was clearly the best option, especially since Wizard Drew and a large number of knights were just outside.
Little Seim’s response was very decisive and timely.
When the flame touched the ghostly hand of the farm owner, which was dark as night, the hand that was gripping his ankle noticeably contracted.
In that fleeting moment of contraction, Little Seim found his chance to escape. With his uninjured leg, he fiercely kicked the table, using the reaction force to propel himself forward in a leap, landing several meters away.
Rolling upon landing, Little Seim didn’t look back to see what was happening behind him. Enduring the pain in his ankle, he dashed towards the corridor’s main door.
It took merely a second for Little Seim to reach the door’s lock.
With a twist, the lock was immediately opened.
Seeing the door crack open, hope surged in Little Seim’s heart.
“There’s a ghost attack!” “Help!” Without hesitation, Little Seim pushed the door open while shouting loudly.
Unexpectedly, when the door opened, instead of the familiar corridor, he found himself looking into a room… his own room.
He could even see the overturned chair and the skewed table in front of him, the very mess he had caused when he leaped.
But if the room in front of him was his own, and the room behind him was also his own, then where was he?
Little Seim was momentarily baffled. Hesitantly, he turned to look at the room behind him, identical to the one in front.
It was as if he was caught between two mirror-image spaces.
The ghost of the farm owner, in a bizarre and inhuman posture, slowly emerged from the skewed table.
Both rooms presented the same eerie scene.
“Two ghosts as well?!” Little Seim was profoundly shaken, wondering if it was an illusion.
Little Seim couldn’t care less at that moment. If one of the rooms was an illusion, he believed it had to be the one in front of him. Steeling himself, he charged forward.
However, as he moved forward, he distinctly felt that everything around him seemed real.
Whether it was the fallen chair, the walls on either side, or the touch of the other furniture, nothing felt illusory.
Even the chilling aura emanating from the ghost of the farm owner in front of him felt indistinguishably real.
Had he made the wrong choice?
As doubt began to creep into Little Seim’s mind, he failed to notice the ghost of the farm owner nearby, curling into a sinister smile.
With a swoop, the ghost rushed in front of Little Seim, its hands with long black nails, directly grasping Little Seim’s neck.
Before Little Seim could react, his slender body was lifted high by a tremendous force.
Struggling for breath and suspended in mid-air, Little Seim writhed incessantly to no avail. The spectral figure of the farm owner, with a cruel smirk etched on its visage, mercilessly slammed Little Seim onto the floor.
A sudden, sharp crack echoed through the air.
It was the sound of Little Seim’s ribs breaking in his chest.
While Little Seim was still dazed from the fall, footsteps sounded from behind him.
Another spectral figure of a farm owner from the room behind approached Little Seim, its tongue, serpentine and flickering, slithered across its lips. A sinister smile, filled with an inexplicable blend of cruelty and satisfaction, adorned its face.
Its nails, sharp as beast’s claws, lunged viciously towards Little Seim’s chest.
Little Seim, enduring the discomfort, shifted slightly. Although the spectral hand missed piercing his chest, it still tore away a large chunk of flesh from his right hand.
Blood spurted out, the absence of flesh making the white bones underneath appear even more ghastly.
Given the terrifying force, had it penetrated his chest, the outcome would have been unimaginable.
Even though Little Seim narrowly escaped death this time, hope seemed far out of reach. Trapped between Two Rooms, with a spectral figure of the farm owner in each, both appearing as tangible as reality.
Incapable of confronting even one, let alone two, and now severely injured.
Was this truly an inescapable predicament?
…
When Angel arrived at the location of the lumber mill, the sky had completely darkened.
In the past, the factory was always brightly lit, with some carpenters working under the lights for rough processing. But now, apart from a few lit areas, the rest of the factory was deserted.
Angel slowly made his way towards the factory’s main entrance.
As he reached the door, a soul with exceptionally severe dark circles under its eyes slowly rose from the ground.
This soul was Freud, who had been waiting here for some time.
“Lord Pat,” Freud greeted respectfully, his eyes involuntarily drawn to the “palm face” peeking over Angel’s shoulder, Dangros, as well as the swirling breeze around Angel.
He faintly sensed that the palm and the omnipresent wind seemed to be elemental creatures.
Could they be Lord Pat’s elemental companions?
As Freud speculated, Angel’s mental power had already scanned the entire factory.
“There are no ghost within the factory. Some areas have remnants of death aura, with the highest concentration near mirrors,” Angel paused, then turned to Freud, “It seems your conjecture was correct; this spectral figure of the farm owner is indeed a Mirror Wraith.”
Freud replied, “Yes, I’ve also checked and found no trace of it. I wonder where that ghost has gone.”
“The soul entity of the Mirror Wraith possesses a highly unique ability to transfer swiftly through mirrors. As long as there are mirrors available, its mobility can even rival that of some formal wizards, so it’s quite normal that you haven’t noticed.”
As long as mirrors exist, the Mirror Wraith can move rapidly, and indeed, this kind of mobility is quite terrifying.
And mirrors are daily necessities in human life. It can be said that while the mirror surface might have average capabilities in the wilderness, in areas where humans congregate, it becomes quite formidable, and its ability to hide is very strong.
“The best way to deal with a Mirror Wraith is to ensure there are no mirrors around.” Freud said, “I’ve already had the knights dismantle the mirrors in the factory, all but two have been taken down.”
Freud pointed towards two doors not far away, corresponding to two warehouses, each containing a mirror.
The reason not all were dismantled is because without any mirrors, the Mirror Wraith wouldn’t come at all. By leaving two mirrors, they could effectively limit the Mirror Wraith’s range of movement.
Angel had previously used mental power to inspect and had already discovered the two mirrors in the warehouse. Both had remnants of death aura, indicating the Mirror Wraith had been in those mirrors before.
“Your thinking is correct, but are you really sure that only two mirrors were left?” Angel asked softly.
Before this, Freud was very certain, but Angel’s question made him doubt. Could it be that there were other mirrors not dismantled?
“There shouldn’t be any other mirrors.” Freud hesitated before speaking. Although the dismantling of the mirrors was done by the knights, Freud had also checked personally and was sure no mirrors were left.
Angel did not reply but walked briskly towards the interior of the factory.
Freud immediately followed.
Upon entering the factory, they were greeted by a narrow corridor leading to a large wood processing area at the end. On both ends of the corridor were various functional rooms and stairs leading to the upper floors.
Angel didn’t enter the processing area but randomly opened a room on the side.
The room showed signs of life but was empty.
Angel walked directly to the window of the room, and through the glass window, one could clearly see the deep forest outside.
“Do you see it?”
“Ah?”
As Freud was puzzled, Angel stretched out his finger and gently tapped on the glass window.
The crisp tapping sound seemed to directly penetrate into the depths of Freud’s thoughts.
Chapter 2327 Window <TOC> Chapter 2329 Overlook the Glass Surface