Compared to the other lively areas, Fyxestroll Garden always felt noticeably more desolate and eerie beneath the cover of night. Even the breeze that drifted through the ancient trees seemed colder here, whispering through the tangled branches as it carried an unsettling silence that lingered over every moss-covered stone path and every forgotten corner.
In this quiet garden, Huohuo carried a dim yellow lantern as she carefully made her way along the weathered stone path. Soft patches of moss covered the uneven stones beneath her feet, forcing every cautious step to be measured while the lantern's faint glow struggled to push back the surrounding darkness.
At present, she was a judge-in-training of the Ten-Lords Commission, and tonight's patrol had been assigned entirely to her. Although she was terrified down to her bones, it was still her duty. No matter how much she wanted to turn around and run away, she could only grit her teeth and force herself to keep moving forward, one careful, cautious step at a time.
"Tsk, hurry up! Why are you moving so slow like some little old lady?"
An impatient voice suddenly sounded beside her, breaking the suffocating silence.
It was none other than Tail, a sealed heliobus.
"What's there to patrol in this lousy garden? It's nothing but rocks and trees. I-I mean... there's not even a single... not even a single thief..."
Huohuo instinctively shrank her neck, her shoulders hunching as her voice trembled as though she were on the verge of tears.
"T-Tail... I keep feeling like... something's watching us..."
"What are you scared of, you big dummy?!"
Tail snapped impatiently.
"I'm the biggest deal around! What're you scared of with me here? Stand up straight! Don't make me look bad!"
Even with Tail trying to reassure her, Huohuo could not stop glancing around nervously.
Every patch of darkness looked as though it might suddenly produce a pale hand or a ghostly face. Every rustling leaf, every swaying branch, and every distant creak in the night made her heart skip a beat, while her grip around the lantern's handle unconsciously tightened.
Gradually, without realizing it, they had wandered into the deepest part of Fyxestroll Garden, approaching the secluded residential district that almost no one was willing to visit after dark.
"Whoa, that mansion up ahead's got some crazy dense energy! Who's fighting over there? Gotta be one hell of a battle!"
Tail let out a surprised shout.
Heliobi were especially sensitive to spiritual energy, allowing them to sense the powerful fluctuations emanating from somewhere ahead clearly. Even from this distance, the surging waves of energy were so intense that they were impossible to ignore.
Huohuo stopped and pointed toward a large mansion whose outline was barely visible beneath the moonless sky, not far away.
"A-Ah, that's Lord Lucian's residence... Ms. Jingliu, Ms. Baiheng, and Master Diviner Fu Xuan all live there too."
"Ohh... no wonder the energy's so intense... so they're the ones fighting..." Tail let out a sigh as realization hit him. "Hm, then this has gotta be the safest place around. What ghost would even dare show up with this many big shots here?"
"Lord Lucian is really brave..."
Huohuo spoke, her voice carrying a trace of admiration.
From where she stood, her lantern's weak glow barely reached the front gate, leaving most of the spacious mansion swallowed by darkness beneath the moonless sky. Rather than feeling warm or lively, the enormous residence gave off an almost lonely atmosphere as it stood quietly amid the vast Fyxestroll Garden.
Yet despite its silence, it somehow felt reassuring, like a solitary beacon standing undisturbed within the haunted garden, calmly overlooking the endless night.
"He actually dared to buy a house and live in seclusion in a place like this... I could never do it... what if there's... you know—"
"What 'you know'?!"
Tail interrupted Huohuo, deliberately raising his voice.
"You're talking about heliobi, right?! What's so scary about them?! I'm the boss of all heliobi—the strongest heliobus out there! Got it?"
"All those pathetic little runts would piss themselves just hearing my name! Besides heliobi, what else could possibly be here?"
"I'm telling you right now! Ghosts don't exist in this world! People just freak themselves out! And if there really is a ghost? Hah! I'll stand on my head and eat crap right then and there!"
Just as those boastful words left Tail's mouth, an icy wind suddenly swept through without warning, weaving between the ancient trees and carrying several fallen leaves skittering across the stone path with a dry, unsettling rustling sound.
*Swish—*
At the same time, the icy wind also caused the lantern in Huohuo's hand to flicker violently, its dim flame swaying back and forth as though it might be extinguished at any moment.
As a result, the shadows around them stretched and twisted with every flicker, making the already desolate garden feel even more sinister.
"W-Waaah... Tail, don't say things that'll jinx us... I'm so scared..."
"Shake it off! C'mon, smile! Just smile, and you won't be scared anymore!"
"O-Ohohohohoho~"
Huohuo forced an awkward, tearful laugh, but the trembling corners of her lips made it painfully obvious that she was anything but reassured.
Just as the frightened girl and the boastful heliobus were desperately trying to calm themselves, Huohuo's peripheral vision suddenly caught something standing before the entrance gate to Lucian's residence.
At some point, without either of them noticing, a lone figure had silently appeared there.
It stood perfectly still, as motionless as a statue, without the slightest sign of breathing or movement. Yet the strangest part was that, despite there being neither rain nor sunshine in the middle of the night, the figure quietly held a dark umbrella tilted slightly downward, concealing almost its entire body.
Only a slender silhouette dressed entirely in black and a faint glimpse of a pale chin beneath the umbrella could be seen. In their eyes, the figure's presence blended unnaturally into the darkness, as though it had always been standing there, patiently waiting to be noticed.
Seeing that figure, Huohuo's breathing stopped instantly.
A freezing chill shot down her spine, making her scalp tingle violently as the blood drained from her face. Her fingers trembled so badly that she nearly lost her grip on the lantern, and it almost slipped from her grasp.
'I-Is that... just a passerby?'
'Or... one of Lord Lucian's guests?'
'B-But... that outfit... and at this hour...'
Countless frightened thoughts flashed through Huohuo's mind in an instant.
Summoning the greatest courage she had ever possessed, she ultimately forced herself to speak.
"U-Um... e-excuse me... w-what are you doing here?"
Her voice was so soft that it was barely louder than a mosquito, trembling so much that it nearly disappeared into the cold night air.
Unfortunately, no answer came as the umbrella-bearing figure remained completely motionless, like a sculpture frozen in place, showing no sign of having heard her question. It neither looked at her nor acknowledged her existence in the slightest.
Huohuo's eyes quickly filled with tears as panic rapidly overwhelmed her, throwing her thoughts into complete disarray.
Almost instinctively, she turned toward Tail, hoping he would tell her what they should do. However, the instant she turned her head, an unbelievably pale, bloodless face had appeared almost right behind her, practically pressed against her head.
Two crimson eyes, as red as congealed blood, stared directly into hers without blinking, but their gaze held neither hostility nor warmth, only detached curiosity wrapped in an icy indifference that chilled her to the bone.
In her eyes, that face was so close that Huohuo could almost feel its frigid presence brushing against her skin.
And that face... it was unmistakably the very same face belonging to the umbrella-bearing figure who had been standing silently at the gate only moments earlier.
"EEEEEEKKKK! A GHOOOOST—!!!"
Huohuo's sanity instantly shattered as she let out a heart-rending scream, every hair on her body standing on end as an overwhelming wave of terror consumed her.
In an instant, she completely forgot about maintaining the dignity expected of a judge as the lantern slipped from her trembling hand with a loud clatter, smashing against the stone path before its weak light flickered twice and went out completely, plunging the surroundings into even deeper darkness.
Right afterward, without even thinking, she scrambled away on all fours before stumbling back to her feet, fleeing in the opposite direction as fast as her limbs could carry her. Tears streamed from the corners of her eyes, scattering through the air like strings of broken pearls as she desperately ran for her life.
"Holy crap—! You scaredy-cat, get back here!"
Even Tail had been startled by her sudden outburst and immediately rushed after Huohuo.
Because he was sealed in Huohuo's tail, Tail could not stray too far from her, no matter what happened. No matter how unwilling he was, he could only chase after the utterly panicked girl.
Huohuo sobbed uncontrollably while sprinting for her life. At the same time, she frantically pulled out every talisman she carried and threw them behind her without even looking, as though simply tossing enough charms would keep the unknown horror away.
"Back! Back! Back!"
"It's not chasing us! Stop running! Get back here!"
Tail's furious voice echoed from somewhere behind Huohuo, but it was completely drowned out by the pounding of her heartbeat and the sound of her own terrified cries.
Worried about Tail's safety despite her overwhelming fear, Huohuo instinctively glanced back.
However, that single glance nearly scared the life out of her.
At this moment, the woman dressed in black and holding the umbrella had not given chase and still stood exactly where she had been.
Yet her figure flickered in an unbelievably bizarre manner.
She was not moving quickly from place to place. Instead, she resembled a faulty light bulb or a projection suffering from a poor signal, becoming solid one moment before turning blurry the next. Sometimes she disappeared entirely, only to abruptly reappear several steps away without the slightest warning, as though space itself had skipped over several moments.
Nonetheless, one thing was certain: without making a single sound or even disturbing the air around her, she slowly drifted closer and closer to them.
In normal people's eyes, the sight was so unnaturally horrifying that she looked exactly like one of the soul-hunting ghosts described in horror stories, a wandering specter that ignored the laws of the living world.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHH—!!!"
Huohuo screamed even louder and ran with every ounce of strength she had left.
However, in her blind panic, her foot slipped against the edge of the moss-covered stone steps. Unable to keep her balance, she pitched forward and tumbled head over heels down the long stone staircase.
By this point, even Tail had no idea whether the mysterious figure was a human or a ghost.
Nonetheless, the bigger problem was that Huohuo was dragging him down so badly that he had no chance to properly observe the figure. Just chasing after the Huohuo rolling helplessly down the stairs while making sure she did not accidentally get herself killed was already enough to leave him utterly exhausted.
"How the hell did I end up stuck with someone as hopeless as you?!"
===
Meanwhile, Evernight quietly remained where she stood, silently watching the little girl disappear around the end of the stone path while practically rolling the entire way in her desperate attempt to escape.
A trace of boredom mixed with faint confusion flickered across her crimson eyes as she tilted her head ever so slightly.
'I just wanted to find a local and ask about Lucian's reputation around here... why did she react so strongly?'
'First she screamed, then she ran away...'
Evernight slowly withdrew her gaze and curled her lips in mild disdain.
'Forget it. I'm not asking anymore. The locals here are really strange.'
With that, Evernight casually adjusted the umbrella above her head. Her slender figure flickered once again like a wandering phantom before silently dissolving into the deeper darkness of the night.
Without making the slightest sound, she continued her aimless stroll through Fyxestroll Garden, her footsteps blending seamlessly into the deathly silence that blanketed the desolate garden.
===
At the same time, after stumbling, tripping, and practically rolling her way across half of Fyxestroll Garden, Huohuo finally made it back to the Ten-Lords Commission. Panting heavily and completely out of breath, she hurried through the entrance before finally finding her superior.
"Madam Hanya, there's a ghost! A ghost standing outside Lord Lucian's residence!"
Huohuo cried out with tears streaming down her face. Her frightened voice echoed through the otherwise quiet hall as she pointed frantically toward the direction of Fyxestroll Garden, her entire body still trembling from the encounter.
"???"
Hanya could not help but tilt her head in confusion, a bewildered expression gradually appearing on her usually expressionless face.
===
[A bonus chapter for reaching 300 Power Stones]
[Support and get early access to upcoming chapters at: patreon.com/VALRRR]