The Weeping Echo

"----Waaah----Waaah----Sob sob----"

That faint crying sounded as though it were right beside them.

"What was that?" Kade spun around, his hand gripping his sword hilt.

Sera stopped complaining as well, frowning. "A child crying?"

To his companions' astonishment, Xia Lin reached into his Space Bag.

He pulled out a palm-sized music box.

It was the [Ghost Box] he had obtained after purifying the high-level phantom spirit, Echo.

And now—

"Waah----Sob sob----"

The crying was coming from the music box.

"Is it?" Kade lowered his voice. "Hadn't it been quiet all this time?"

Holding the music box, Xia Lin could feel it trembling faintly, as if the soul inside were shaking in fear.

"Let's find somewhere quiet," Xia Lin said. "We'll see what's going on."

The four quickly found a secluded corner by the harbor, where several wooden crates used for storing fishing nets could shield them from view.

Xia Lin placed the music box atop a crate.

"I'm opening it."

He gently lifted the lid.

"Click."

The moment the lid opened, an icy chill rushed toward them.

Inside the music box, where mechanical gears and a music mechanism should have been, there was now a mass of translucent mist.

The mist slowly swirled inside the box, and a vague humanoid shape could faintly be seen within it.

It was a tiny figure curled up in the corner.

It hugged its knees, burying its face in its arms, its body trembling slightly.

"Waah----Sob sob----"

The crying became clearer.

It was the kind of despairing sob that broke one's heart.

Celia covered her mouth, tears filling her eyes.

"Oh heavens—this—this is a child—"

"It's a ghost," Sera said calmly. "A ghost trapped inside a music box."

Kade gripped his holy emblem tightly.

"I can feel it—it is suffering terribly."

"Hey?" Xia Lin