I Was Reincarnated as the Villainous Knight Commander Who Betrays Everyone at the End, So I Plan to Leave the Fake Hero’s Party with the Exiled Girl Who’s Actually the True Hero! ~While Watching Over the Protagonist Up Close, I Somehow Ended Up Destroying the Whole Scenario~ - 14

Chapter 14: The Villainous Knight Commander Exorcises Evil Spirits with Brute Force

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That day, it was raining. The blue sky was covered by thick clouds, and large raindrops beat fiercely against the windows. I heard the rumble of thunder in the distance.

It happened while we were steadily preparing to open the Mofumofu Potion Shop, making the sign and other arrangements. Mofumaru looked up at the ceiling and let out a low growl.

“Grrrrr…”

“Mofumaru? What’s wrong, why are you growling at the ceiling?”

Mofumaru bared his large fangs, clearly on guard. But looking closely, I noticed he was also trembling slightly with his fluffy tail tucked between his legs. Ciel gently patted the shivering Mofumaru.

“Mofumaru, it’s okay… Lars-san.”

“Yeah. Must be the rumored ghost.”

Time for an exorcism.

“Mofumaru, bring the special weapon.”

“Waf!?”

“Why do you think I made that thing from the scrap wood left over when we built your doghouse? That’s right, to send the so-called ghost to the afterlife.”

“…Oof!!”

The ghost rumored to haunt this house must have some serious regrets tying it to the mortal world. In that case, I would make sure the ghost wanted to pass on by beating it until it let go of those regrets. That was our way of showing consideration as the living.

“Waf!!”

What Mofumaru brought back from the storage room looked like a big board with a stick attached. The best way to describe it was an oversized flyswatter. I had one shaped like a spear with a long handle, Mofumaru held one like a sword in his mouth, and Ciel had two regular flyswatters, one in each hand.

“You remember what I told you before, right?”

“Wafoof!!”

“He says, ‘Ghosts can be taken down with physical attacks!!’”

“That’s right.”

Monsters like wraiths and ghosts were resistant to slashing because they were like mist. But on the other hand, they were extremely vulnerable to gusts of wind or wide area attacks.

“Come out already!! This place belongs to Ciel now!!”

“Grr! Grrr, grrr, bau!!”

“If you’re going to squat here, pay rent to Ciel!! If you won’t pay, then get lost right now!!”

It was a bit of a rough approach, but most wraiths and ghosts reacted to noise. I didn’t know the reason myself.I believed I came up with some setting where they sought out the living by sound to drag them into undeath… But honestly? I couldn’t remember much.

There was a time I wanted to include undead in a story, but I got tired of writing the details and dropped the idea. What I did know about handling undead came from my experience in the knight order. Why they attacked the living didn’t matter. What mattered was that a suspicious being of the ghost variety had taken up residence in Ciel’s house. My goal was to lure it out and exorcise it.

“…Ah…ah…won’t…forgive…”

“There!!”

“Gau!!”

Mofumaru and I reflexively swung our flyswatters. In front of the stairs leading to the second floor, a black mist in the shape of a person drifted there, and our attacks distorted its form.

“…For…give…ah…”

“Mofumaru!! There!! Keep smacking it!!”

“Waf!! Bau!! Gau bau!!”

“…Aah…S-stop…Stop…My form…Falling apart…”

“That’s it, Mofumaru!! Don’t let it pull itself back together!! Keep going until it passes on!!”

“Waf!!”

“Ah, um, w-wait, please stop!! I’ll…ascend!! I’ll ascend to heaven if you keep going!!”

“Hm?”

“Waf?”

Mofumaru and I realized someone had spoken and stopped our hands.

“Ciel, did you say something?”

“No, it wasn’t me. It was… her? That woman over there.”

We looked again at the spot in front of the stairs to the second floor where Ciel pointed.

“Sniff…What is with you people, it’s weird that you’re not scared of me…”

“This woman…”

“Is she a ghost….?”

“Waf?”

The ghost, who was quietly sobbing, looked like a young woman in her early twenties. She had a figure rivaling Tiana’s, with curves in all the right places.

Her hair was chestnut-colored, and although her overall vibe looked plain, but her face was beautifully sculpted.  Even though she was right in front of us, I couldn’t feel any presence from her. And above all, she was translucent—there was no doubt she was a ghost.

In that case…

“I must subdue her.”

“Waf.”

“Eeep!? What kind of monsters keep attacking someone who’s already crying!? Can’t you be a bit more gentle!?”

Seeing Mofumaru and me raise our flyswatters, the ghost woman burst into tears. Maybe feeling sorry for her, Ciel timidly raised her hand and spoke up.

“Um, she looks so pitiful… Couldn’t we at least hear her out first? I think she’d be happier to move on by talking than by being beaten.”

“…Well, you have a point…”

“Oof.”

The problem was, the woman in front of us was undoubtedly a monster like a wraith or ghost. Undead always attacked the living. But it was also clear to see that this undead had enough intelligence to hold a conversation.

There was no helping it. If my employer wanted to try helping her move on peacefully, it was my duty to comply.

“If you attack Ciel, I’ll resume the exorcism.”

“Lars-san!!”

I went quiet when Ciel scolded me.

“It’s okay now, Ghost-san. Would you like to talk with us?”

“…Uu, mama…”

“I’m not your mama.”

This ghost is…She’s seeing some kind of maternal aura in Ciel…

“Sniff…I used to run a general store here. For about three months.”

“Three months? That’s…Pretty short.”

“Uu, I wanted to keep the shop open much longer!! But after I opened it, I got a boyfriend who ran off with the shop’s money!!”

“T-that’s…Awful…”

“And!! That guy used the money he stole from me to start dating a girl who was my friend!! After playing me for a fool, he said, ‘I only dated you because you were good in bed, but plain girls aren’t my type (sleazy face).’ And my so-called friend even thanked me for ‘funding their wedding’ (sleazy face)!!”

Oh…That’s…Her story is way more tragic than I expected…

“I lost my money and my boyfriend, and when I tried to start over, I found out he’d taken out a huge debt in my name. I just gave up on life, drank myself into oblivion, and died. Sniff…I still wonder what was the meaning of my life…”

“Um…So you still have regrets?”

“Sniff, ah, no, I don’t anymore. I already cursed them all to death.”

“…Eh?”

Wait, what?

Ciel’s eyes, which had shown sympathy until now, instantly turned to bewilderment.

“I cursed my ex-boyfriend and that friend who betrayed me. Slowly, over time. I made their loved ones suffer enough to isolate them completely, then took away what they valued bit by bit. Like causing an accident that left them paralyzed, then having their precious baby eaten alive by a monster right in front of them…”

“That’s a full-on vengeful spirit. Ciel, I think we should exorcise her after all.”

“Waf!!”

“Uu, I know I went too far!! At the time I had just become a wraith and lost all self-control, so I hurt people indiscriminately!! But I regret it now!!”

“…I see.”

I had a good idea why this ghost retained her intelligence. She wasn’t just a normal wraith. She must have evolved into an elder wraith—a higher form of undead.

Monsters often grew stronger the longer they survived, evolving and gaining greater intelligence over time. But that raised a question.

Elder wraiths were powerful undead that couldn’t simply be exorcised by physical means. Even high-ranking clerics needed careful preparation to cleanse them completely. Yet she said she’d finished her revenge and no longer had any regrets tying her here.

Normally, an undead in that state should vanish. So…

“Is there still…Some other regret keeping you here?”

I was pretty sure my guess was right. She’d taken revenge, but revenge alone wasn’t the only thing binding her to this world. Hearing my words, the Elder Wraith looked startled, as if realizing something.

“W-well, actually, yes, there is something…”

“Ghost-san, please tell us. If there’s something we can do, we’ll do it.”

Ciel reached out to take the Elder Wraith’s hand—but it passed right through. Well, she was a ghost after all. But it looked like Ciel’s words alone were enough for her.

“The truth is…I want to run a shop again. I want to sell things people need here, like before…”

“Then let’s do it together!! Let’s run the shop!!”

“…Eh? Ehh!? Um, shouldn’t you hesitate a bit? I mean, I’m basically a genuine vengeful spirit, you know?”

“That’s true, but…You’re not going to randomly hurt anyone anymore, right?”

“Well, no, I used up most of my power on my revenge, so now I can barely move things around inside this building…”

So she’s basically like a poltergeist now.

“Then it’s fine. I’ll still be the shop owner, so you’ll have to follow my directions, But… Would you like to work with us?”

“Y-yes!! Please let me work here!!”

And so, the ghost became the newest member of Mofumofu Potion Shop. Well, if we had asked a cleric to exorcise her, she’d just hide and refuse to come out. If she was already stuck living in this house and couldn’t be driven away, maybe Ciel’s idea wasn’t so bad after all.

“Well…We’ll make it work.”

If it came down to it, Mofumaru and I could always resume the physical exorcism. Even an elder wraith would probably disappear if we smacked it around the clock with flyswatters. Probably.

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