Chapter 236: A Mysterious Ghost
Chapter 236: A Mysterious Ghost
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Frank walked through the streets of the capital of Westwind, around the streets where most of the shops were stationed.
The party noticed many families, especially young Magus kids that were going around with their parents, as they were rewarded with a little treat after the academy.
“Oh, those uniforms are from the Magus Academy…” said Gwendolyn.
“Magus Academy, I wonder if there is any point in going there anymore?” wondered Frank.
“Not anymore, we are all way stronger than before, and much more knowledgeable. You can also just ask magic classes to the Gods themselves. Going there would be an utter waste of time,” said Vheslia.
“Right… though, didn’t Reuberto said something about gathering us in such academy? Wait, if he plans that all of us join a class together… that would be way too stupid,” sighed Frank.
“Yeah… I think he planned that. But it’s not like we can’t tell him to fuck off, right? We can tell them together to change his stupid plans. I also believe the same as you, it would be simply better to gather in a different building and train together than going to a stupid academy…” sighed Gwendolyn.
“Though, it was within my plans to enter it to meet some young Magus of the Eastgrande family and get some possible connections with them so I could get the whereabouts of the Jewel of Eternal Life that they supposedly have within their grasp,” said Frank.
According to Axitl’s information, the Eastgrande Family was the one who possessed the Jewel of Eternal Life, which was cataloged as a family relic given to them by the ancient hero of beast-kin long ago.
Now, the strong family of aristocrats is keeping such a precious item for themselves, instead of sharing it with the people and use it as it was originally intended, as an item that could heal others almost instantaneously and make a life for the beast-kin easier.
Frank was obviously enraged by such a thing, and he wasn’t someone that would be playing games anymore… instead of simply trying to build up connections with a random kid, he was aiming to spy on the family through his team of spies, led by Zero.
Through this month and the previous six months where Frank slept, Zero evolved and became even stronger, alongside being an even better assassin.
After killing Gaspian and destroying the Thief Guild, a lot of former thieves who were orphans ended in her care.
And even as an undead, she took care of the young kids, who had now joined Frank’s Divine Realm and were training every day to become even better and more efficient spies and assassins.
Many of such young people were experiments like Zero, their bodies were modified through mage craft and many of them had many Mana Cores within their bodies.
This coupled with the System that Frank finally shared with them a month and two weeks ago, helped them develop rather quickly, many of them now had shadow abilities that could help them meddle within shadows and camouflage more easily.
Frank simply called them “The Spies” or “Zero’s Team”, but his subordinates had begun to request him to give them a proper name as a squadron.
He planned to use them to spy on the several aristocratic families within these days, and in fact, he had already sent them in the middle of the day, as they had begun to spread and scout the capital in more detail while merging with the shadows of the large buildings.
But alongside that… Frank was using another help.
Dead Spirits.
This capital was enormous, and there were at least five different graveyards… people also died every day here as it seemed that behind the facet of a peaceful city there were constant wars between criminal organizations of the underworld.
Which brought to Frank Dead Spirits all around.
Some were pretty old being at least a few hundred years old.
Others were just freshly killed yesterday.
And others were even just the souls of little bugs, rats, or street dogs.
As he walked with everyone else while letting his companions buy sweets and other food from these shops they went around, Frank was constantly speaking with the Dead Spirits.
“My lord! To the left! There was a guy that killed me! I owned him a ton of money!”
“Woof! Woof!”
“GRRRYAARRR! GRRRRRRAAAAAAAAARRRR!”
“AAAAAAAHHH! MY HEAD! MY HEAD HURTS! MY LORD, HELP ME! HELP MEEEEE!”
“I know a little about that place, the old man living there is an asshole, don’t buy his stuff, he sells spoiled meat…”
The Dead Spirit of a thug who was just killed last night, a dog who had died of starvation, an old man who seemed to have died horribly and could not stop screaming incessantly, a woman who had her head burned by a fire attribute spell, and a young thief who died by being stabbed in the stomach spoke to Frank, among many others.
Frank, for some reason, felt instinctual compassion to such souls, and patiently heard all of what they had to say, which at the same time helped him gather the information that he might not know about.
He fed with Mana those that were in bad states due to having died quite terribly such as the old man and the burned woman, calming them down slowly through soul therapy that he did on the go without even paying much attention, and then saving them inside of his Shadow.
Alongside this, he had his own parents at his side.
“Frank doesn’t trust these Ghosts, they are all pretty shady…” said Amelia, Frank’s mother, who seemed rather healthy as a soul, now that Frank had used a bit of divine power to nourish her.
“Come on… Amelia, they are not so… bad…” said Okita, Frank’s step-father, who was now able to talk more eloquently, and his appearance was not as terrible as it originally was.
“I don’t know but that old man screaming really freaked me out…” said Amelia while petting Frank’s head.
“They are tormented souls… People like us…” said Okita, he was more compassionate of a man.
“Oh… I guess… Well, you’re doing a nice job healing them…” said Amelia with a gentle smile.
“I don’t really mind their presence. I like to help them. Something within me feels soothing whenever I help souls in pain or despair,” said Frank.
“That must be your instinct as a God of the Underworld descendant such as me!” said Hades, emerging at the side of Frank as a skull that no one could see but him and his parents.
“Hmm… Maybe that is it? Well, they are helpful too and can bring me a lot of info. In fact, there is already someone that knows about the Eastgrande family,” said Frank.
“Frank, I will go buy an Ice cream, want some?” asked Gwendolyn.
“Oh sure,” said Frank, seeing Gwendolyn walk towards the rest of the party that was enjoying their ice cream already.
As Frank saw Gwendolyn go buy an ice cream made through a magic artifact in a shop that sold sweets while sitting in a public chair, he heard the young woman-looking soul that had emerged at his side, who had said that she knew about the Eastgrande Family.
“My young lord, you have to be wary of the Eastgrande Family!” she said, her appearance was that of a girl on her 15 to 16, and her hair was blonde and long, with pale white skin and lifeless and lightless eyes, she wore a beautiful dress that only rich girls would wear in medieval times.
However, it was clear that she died quite horribly, as she had a large wound in her neck as if someone had used a sharp knife to slice through her neck, revealing the flesh inside and even blood dripping from it constantly.
Of course, such things were not real blood nor flesh, but the appearance of the soul, it was how they saw themselves after having an impactful death.
“I kid of being, they are the biggest in the city… But tell me more,” said Frank.
“Of course! What happened to me was horrible! Do you see my neck? My older brother sliced it through like this! Just because I was my father’s favorite girl! What a horrible man! Sniff, I never thought that my brother would be such a rotten man! Even worse now that he had already reached Rank 4 Magus! He’s plotting something!” said the woman, who casually spoke about a truth that might create an enormous scandal in the entire city…
Even Frank raised his eyebrows a bit… this was too much.
“I see… It must have been quite horrible… What’s your name?” asked Frank.
“Ah! I almost forgot… My name is Henrietta Eastgrande… I was killed a week ago! My father and mother are still mourning my death… Sigh… I never thought I would meet someone that could see me, and I thought I would wander the streets of this capital until the day I dissipated into nothingness…” sighed Henrietta, she seemed to be a Lynx-kin Beast-girl, as she had long and pointy cat ears and a long tail.
“Well, it was quite fast to find someone that could be a good insider about this whole deal… So why exactly did he kill you? And what is the deal with your brother? What’s is he planning?” asked Frank.
“He killed me because he was envious of me! As the next heir that my father preferred, I would soon receive a territory for myself, but he seemed to be envious of such a thing, so he killed me!” said Henrietta.
Frank felt that this was kind of awkward… He knew that such a feeble reason was not really the truth, but as Henrietta was just a young woman that seemed rather ignorant about the true intentions of her brother, this was the best she could come out with as a reason for what he did.
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