After returning to the base, where the old manor had once again taken on its half-ruined appearance for the sake of disguise, the three girls and Grey ran into the teenagers.
At that moment, they were finishing their third set of squats, following the training program Grey had left for them exactly. However, they looked frankly terrible: pale, sluggish, and exhausted.
Grey frowned and approached the most responsible among them, the one whose words he could trust without the slightest doubt or reservation.
"Reus, what happened? Why do you all look like you haven't slept for a week? I understand that you were worried about the cultists, but it shouldn't be this bad."
Reus looked at him as if he were a savior from some legend, but immediately pulled himself together and uncertainly looked away.
"Boss, I'm glad you're here, but I'm not sure I can explain everything properly. You should ask someone else. Allen or Kai, for example."
Grey raised his eyebrows in surprise but didn't argue.
He walked over to Kai and asked the same question, but received a similar answer before Kai quickly disappeared, claiming that he had something urgent to take care of.
Eventually, he had no choice but to grab Allen by the shoulder and ask again what was going on here. This time, he used a commanding tone.
The young Swordsman candidate was visibly nervous. His eyes darted from side to side as if he, too, wanted to pass the conversation off to someone else. It seemed terribly awkward for him to even bring up the subject.
But after a short pause, Allen finally forced himself to speak:
"Grey, I mean, Boss... How long ago did you find this manor?"
"About two months ago. Why?"
"And you're sure it was empty?" Allen carefully asked.
"Of course. Sunny, Lily, Cheryl, and I inspected every room here. There wasn't even any animal droppings, let alone people."
Grey was beginning to lose his patience. Why was every other person trying to make things mysterious today instead of getting straight to the point?
"So what's going on here? Did you find something strange? Are there any problems?"
Allen nervously swallowed.
"How should I put this... Lately, we've been really scared to go to sleep."
Grey stared at him, trying to figure out whether he was joking.
Sleep problems weren't unheard of. After all, the cultists had been breathing down their necks all of last week. It would have been strange if the teenagers hadn't felt anxious.
But things shouldn't have gone this far.
Right now, they looked more like the dead than living people, even though they continued to carry out their assigned tasks. Their condition could no longer be explained by ordinary nervousness or widespread panic.
It looked almost unnatural.
Which raised an obvious question: what exactly was he missing?
From the look on his boss's face, Allen understood that he wouldn't be getting away today until all the questions had been settled.
Although the problem was real and needed to be addressed, talking about it directly was, to say the least, awkward. Even a straightforward person like Allen knew what embarrassment was. He wanted to explain everything as plainly as possible, but the story itself sounded like some ridiculous ghost tale used to scare children at night.
Allen obediently closed his eyes and finally began to explain in a hesitant voice:
"Ever since we came back here, the manor has seemed different. The atmosphere feels wrong somehow... Ominous and tense. Everything is fine during the day, but something strange happens at night. Doors creak, the wind howls like a pack of ghosts, and objects suddenly fall over. Sometimes, it feels like someone is walking through the corridors. As if there really is some stranger wandering around the manor."
Allen awkwardly scratched the back of his head, fully aware of how ridiculous his own words sounded, but he continued nonetheless:
"I know it sounds stupid. Even childish, like someone is trying to play a prank on us. At first, I didn't believe it myself and just thought I was hallucinating from exhaustion, but it's been going on for a week now...
I talked to the others, and they confirmed that they'd experienced something similar. The only problem was that the timing never matched. It's as if the sounds have their own rhythm. They only appear when we're left alone, while everyone else is asleep and notices nothing unusual.
And the worst part is that no matter how much we've searched for the source, we still haven't been able to find anything."
Grey narrowed his eyes and studied Allen's face carefully, as if trying to figure out whether his subordinate was playing a prank on him.
And yet, no matter how closely he looked, Allen seemed nothing more than embarrassed, frightened, and exhausted to the point of death. There wasn't the slightest hint of a joke in his expressions or gestures. On the contrary, the young man appeared genuinely worried, confused, and embarrassed.
Grey gave him an encouraging pat on the shoulder and assured him that he would try to get to the bottom of everything.
However, he didn't rush to deal with the matter right away.
Instead, Grey took the other teenagers aside one by one, away from the group, and questioned each of them personally. And almost all of their stories came down to the same thing: strange sounds in the middle of the night, terrifying nightmares, and the howling of ghosts coming from the darkness.
It had to be said that at that moment, Grey felt more confused than panicked.
He didn't deny the possibility that ghosts existed. In this world, such things were perfectly real and even commonplace. But the more he listened to the teenagers, the less what was happening resembled the actions of a real evil spirit.
Too... strange.
Why would a spirit limit itself to creaking doors, falling objects, and eerie noises at night? What was the point of doing all that?
From what Grey knew, restless souls did exist.
Sometimes, they clung to the world of the living because of deep resentment, unfinished business, or hatred. Sometimes, they instinctively tried to possess someone else's body. Sometimes, they attacked people who came too close to the place of their death.
But none of the cases he knew resembled a cheap ghost story.
Real spirits didn't play with their victims for weeks on end. They didn't put on theatrical performances just to scare someone with the creaking of floorboards.
If a ghost wanted to harm someone, it did so. If it wanted to possess a body, it tried to possess one. If it was too weak to do either, it usually didn't manifest at all. It simply wandered somewhere nearby like an ethereal shadow, keeping itself hidden.
Meanwhile, something entirely different was going on inside the manor.
The teenagers were frightened. They were clearly not getting enough sleep. But in an entire week, no one had been hurt. No one had been possessed. No one had disappeared. No one had even seen the source of these strange occurrences.
It was as if something was deliberately playing with their emotions, trying to undermine their team spirit.
So Grey did the best thing he could think of in this situation: he turned to a professional, or at least someone more experienced than himself.
"Lily, you heard everything they said. What do you think? The longer I deal with this, the more it seems like the work of an amateur prankster rather than a real ghost or some other dark entity..."
Lily gave him a sly smile and looked at Grey as if waiting for him to say the magic words.
One glance was enough for Grey to understand what she wanted, and he gladly played along. He had absolutely no desire to waste time here.
"Come on, Lily, please help me. You're a real demon, after all. I'm sure it'll be much easier for you to sense whether there's some evil entity lurking around here."
Hearing his polite and pleading tone, Lily lit up like a blooming begonia.
She liked the fact that whenever Grey encountered a problem beyond his abilities, she was the first person he turned to. He was never an arrogant or conceited guy who thought he knew everything, and he knew when to make concessions. So she was happy to return the favor when she was in a good mood.
"Come on, give me a little tour of the old manor. I'm sure a lot has changed since the last time I looked around. I'll try to sense any anomalies, and if I find anything strange, I'll let you know right away," Lily said, taking Grey's arm.
Her suggestion seemed reasonable, so Grey went along with it.
Together, they moved from room to room, inspecting every corner.
The manor had indeed changed since they first discovered it. The interior had been tidied up, and the rooms no longer looked abandoned. The place even felt cozy, provided one ignored the large gaps in the window frames.
They spent about half an hour looking around, but couldn't find anything noteworthy.
It looked exactly like an operational base where a group of teenagers lived should look. There were no obvious irregularities or signs of anything supernatural.
"I can't sense anything. Not here, nor in any of the other rooms," Lily concluded after they finished inspecting the last room.
"Should we check the basement?" Grey asked, though he wasn't particularly enthusiastic about the idea.
"I don't mind, but I doubt we'll find anything. I've already scanned the entire manor with my senses. If there were any creatures connected to dark forces here, I would have sensed them by now..."
"So you're saying this is either some kind of prank or a case of mass panic and paranoia?" Grey asked, wanting her confirmation.
"Not necessarily." Lily shook her head in disagreement. "You know, demons aren't the only ones who feed on other people's emotions, especially fear... For true creatures of the Dark Continent, methods like these are considered ineffective and pointless."
Grey raised his eyebrows.
"Why?"
"Fear is too unstable a source of nourishment. Today, a person is afraid, tomorrow they're angry or fall into apathy. True demons will always prefer dark desires and vices. They'll toy with their victims' minds and make deals with them rather than frighten them."
"That makes it sound as though humanity is nothing more than livestock to you," Grey commented.
"Many of them think so..."
Grey momentarily forgot about their search and gave Lily a teasing look.
"What about you? Do you also consider us an inferior species?"
Lily looked away.
"I prefer cooperation."
Grey pondered for a moment before saying, "You know, I think your kind is very strange."
Lily realized that he wasn't judging her in the slightest. As she tried to sense her friend's emotions, all she could feel was complete indifference mixed with a touch of curiosity, but nothing more.
No fear, no anger...
There were none of the emotions any other person would experience upon hearing such contempt for their own kind.
Was it because he didn't consider himself human?
Lily couldn't be sure.
She was curious to hear his point of view. After all, ever since she had discovered his true identity as a creature of darkness, they had never brought up the subject again.
"What do you mean? Why are we strange? Because we consider ourselves special?"
"No." Grey shook his head. "On the contrary, that kind of worldview seems perfectly natural to me. Who in their right mind would consider someone their equal when they could easily make a meal out of them?"
"Then what is it that bothers you?"
"How should I put this..." Grey looked at Lily again and pondered, trying to find the right words. "I've given a lot of thought to your abilities, and I inevitably came to the conclusion that your race is wasting its potential."
Lily narrowed her eyes dangerously.
She couldn't agree with his words. After all, succubi were considered one of the strongest demonic races. They were among the finest representatives of a species far superior to humanity in every way.
Of course, their methods could be considered questionable and immoral from a human perspective. Humans took the greatest pride in their moral principles and were constantly trying to judge others. There was nothing surprising about that attitude.
However, calling demons' methods ineffective was downright ridiculous. Only a fool who didn't know his place would dare say such a thing.
And yet, Lily knew Grey.
He wasn't a fool. On the contrary, intelligence was the only advantage he could truly take pride in, apart from his attractive appearance.
A man like him wouldn't say something like that without a reason.
She crossed her arms, emphasizing her developing breasts, and looked at Grey with sparkling purple eyes.
"So what exactly are you trying to say?"
=========
Before we move on, Iust want to remind that you can support me with a like, a comment, or a review.
The book is completely free right now, and your engagement is the only thing helping me move forward. So please, don't hold back. =)
If you're enjoying this book, you can also support me on my Patreon.
https://www.patreon.com/cw/CircleGray
Big hug to all my dear readers!