I focused and created a small ball of light.


    But the moment the ball manifested the ck thing screamed in a very high-pitched voice so loud, I felt my eardrums would burst, but after what my ears went through, no such thing happened.


    The voice did resemble a girl''s though. And yet the thing still wasn''t attacking us.


    Since I had holy, basically the stuff that beat shadow, I had to take this one, whether I liked it or not. "I''ll take the lead." I walked ahead and Ve moved away. The thing was slowly backing off. It didn''t have feet or hands. It was just a typical round spiky thing with ck mist falling from it and disappearing: there was nothing typical about it though. "Do we know what it is?"


    I didn''t care though. I just wanted to get this over with and get out of here.


    "A malicious spirit, kill it before it-"


    I was looking at Alisa through my peripherals but just as her voice stopped, something touched me. Something cold- touched me.


    I felt like all my blood was being sucked dry. And Biteria was squeezing too tight. Were these two things trying to kill me or something?


    The floating spiky thingy was at least a meter away from me, and yet, somehow it had connected and memories started to flow in, blurry memories of torture, cries, and pain.


    I wanted to scream so bad that I literally felt my throat croaking a little. But no sound came out. Taking the front like this was a bad idea.


    I immediately threw the ball straight at the ck thing and it connected.


    The ck thing disappeared and so did the cold and the pain. "What was that?" My voice return.


    "-does that." Alisa sighed pped her forehead.


    "Does what?" I felt weak but nothing serious.


    "Now you''re contracted. Congrattions." Alisa red and boy was she angry.


    "But I just killed it." Probably.


    "Why do you think they form contracts? It''ll just regenerate."


    "Then how do I get rid of the contract?"


    Being contracted with that ck thing?


    Yeah, I didn''t think so.


    "That''s the tricky part: I don''t know. If it were a normal spirit, you could have just asked. But not with this one." She sighed again. "Now, what about the pervert?"


    Well, that was one hell of a way to change the subject.


    "Let''s wake him up, I guess?"


    I tried tapping, calling his name, and even shaking the dude. But he was too busy dreaming. He had a smile on his face and he was enjoying things. He wasn''t having those types of dreams, right?


    Next, I let Ve handle it. I had enough.


    Ve sat down next to Dick and a secondter Dick woke up. What miracle did she conjure? p him of course.


    ssic.


    "Wh-wha-what! What happened!" he looked around, finally settling his gaze on me and giving me a dull stare. "What are you doing here?"


    "My question, exactly. What are you doing here? Weren''t you supposed to go to Dracona?"


    "About that-" He chuckled and scratched his ears. Yeah, I saw where this was going. "Anyway, where''d she go?"


    "Who?"


    "The hot chick, I was with. You know, red eyes, ck here, amazing skin." Halfway through he started daydreaming again.


    "He must be talking about the spirit," Alisa whispered.


    "That ck thingy?" I could almostugh.


    I actually did chuckle.


    "What ck thingy?" Dick was confused, way too confused.


    "Oh boy." Oh boy indeed. I sighed. "Let''s get out of here. I feel rather ufortable here. We''ll fill you in outside."


    He grimaced a little but gave in. "Fine." I got the feeling he didn''t want to leave this ce.


    I looked back at the bald guy and he was still sorting through his thoughts of what just happened. All this time he was too quiet.


    "Well, we got rid of the spirit, so all is okay. I kind of broke your door, so yeah, please use that money to fix that."


    I really hoped he wouldn''t charge me for this. After all, I was paying a lot of money just to be here.


    He sighed and gave me six coins. "I''ll take one for fixing the door and seven for my business. But I''m paying you six for getting rid of that thing. I''d been hearing a lot ofints and my customers aren''ting back. I never knew such a thing was here."


    Basically, I only lost two silvers over all this. It was better than losing eight.


    Maybe this guy wasn''t so bad. I took the money, smiled. "Good day. You might want to renovate and at least make the ce a bit cleaner." I didn''t wait for his reply and started walking.


    "Was it always like this?" Dick mumbled. He had a cloth over his mouth and nose and looked around as we walked out and heard the numerous screams.


    I had no idea how he didn''t notice all this before.


    ***


    We were still in the alleyway but Dick refused to take another step. "What happened? And you better exin yourselves!"


    That was my line but oh well.


    "You were possessed by a shadow spirit of a former adulteress? That would be my best bet," Alisa said.


    I guess even she wasn''t sure.


    "Oh, you could see that thing back then?" I asked and both Alisa and Ve nodded. No wonder they were so hell-bent on going after that.


    "What do you mean? Do you know how beautiful that girl was? She probably even looked better than Daarc!"


    Seriously?


    That was not theparison I was looking for. "Yeah, but apparently you were unconscious and the thing was probably about to suck you dry." I still didn''t know what malicious spirit even did but I took a guess anyway.


    Because no matter how I thought about it, I felt a lot more than just cold back then when it''d connected to me.


    I also took a side nce and Alisa nodded, meaning, I wasn''t too far off the mark.


    "It was still fun though." He almost cried. "I almost went as far as to undressing her too."


    I guess he really was having a good dream. Poor guy.


    "Anyway," Ve red at him like he was some sort of bug. "If you''re done, do return to yourrades and secure our things." Did not expect that of her. I thought she''d just bat her eye and forget about this without an issue. "Because of you, we have more problems now." I guess I was wrong.


    "That being?" He asked.


    "That thing forced a contract between it and Daarc. And every night that''lle and try to suck his life force."


    Now Dick just red. "You''re contracted to that beautifuldy!" My god, what was wrong with this guy''s brain? "And you''re going to do it every night!?"


    I sighed. I had too much of this. "By the way, would it harm me in any way? This life-sucking business really sounds terrible."


    "If you let your guard down, yes. It can change your mindset, fill you up with negative emotions, and could potentially make you evil." Alisa looked at me with pity. "And if it sucks your life long enough, you might not make it past forty."


    "Sounds like a drag." A major drag. I wasn''t sure if I was ever going to have my 21st birthday or not, and forty? Yeah, I didn''t have that many ns.


    Actually, I haven''t really kept up with the dates. I knew it was somewhere around December but I didn''t know the dates. Well, there went my birthday. If I didn''t know the dates, how was I even going to think of a celebration? But then again, I never saw anyone in this world do such things. I hadn''t even seen a marriage ceremony let alone a birthday celebration.


    "But still, such a beautifuldy!" Dick again almost cried. And then he noticed something. "What the hell is that?"


    I could just sigh all day. "Dick meet Biteria, Biteria, meet Dick." Actually, Biteria for once was being awfully docile and didn''t make a fuss.


    But still.


    Why the hell would such a thing happen to my lovely bunny? I really wanted to know that.


    "Huh?" At first, Dick thought it was a joke but then he examined Biteria''s ears and then finally burst outughing. He couldn''t stopughing and almost fell to the ground too. "Justice is served!"


    Justice in what reality, exactly?


    I really wanted to punch this guy''s lights out but oh well. "Anyway, be on your way and I think we''ll be on ours." But just at that moment, Biteria jumped out of my shoulder towards Dick.


    This was definitely going to end well… very well. I was happy inwardly, but outside, I showed concern.


    "ARGH… AHHH… ARGHGHGF!" Dick screamed around as BIteria bit his head and finally, after a minute of pain he mmed the bunny at the ground and before he could kick her, she climbed back my neck and hissed.


    Biteria was small, half the size of Alisa and though it looked awfully old, the thing was actually more agile than before.


    I wanted tough but oh well.


    "So, you''ll help them?" Dick asked a bit serious. He was bleeding but he pretended like nothing happened.


    "Yeah." I also pretended like nothing happened. It was impossible to keep my chuckles in control though.


    He turned around. "Good luck." He started walking. He didn''t even wait for my reply and walked fast, out of sight.


    "What was that about?" I mumbled. All this time, he was acting like a crybaby and now he just left? I guess the pain was too much for him.


    "Perhaps we shouldn''t trust him too much." Ve said.


    "I agree," Alisa said.


    "Trust me, I don''t trust anyone enough to blindly believe them. But yeah, I do trust Dick somewhat, as I do you two."


    "Being betrayed twice, wasn''t enough for you, apparently," Alisa mumbled and moved on.


    I didn''t actually want to tell her that it wasn''t just twice.


    Oh well. I started walking too.


    Next stop, the castle- manor- building?


    I had no idea.