"At that moment, I only felt my heart skip a beat, and then I couldn't help screaming.
"Before long, all the servants woke up. Then we lit the oil lamps and discovered that the figure on the beam was my dear friend, who had hanged herself.
"Rose was only sixteen. She shouldn't have died so young."
At this point, the maid's voice grew choked with sobs.
Dick comforted her softly. "All right, it's all in the past. People should look ahead.
"So, after she hanged herself, a day passed before the ghost appeared.
"Then how can you be sure this ghost was what your friend Rose had become?"
"Because Master Odin was furious that night and ordered someone to wrap Rose's body in tattered sackcloth and take it away. I don't know where they dumped it.
"When I suddenly woke up at midnight the next day, I saw a figure swaying on the beam above my bed again.
"This time, I couldn't stop myself from screaming again. Then all the maids sharing our room woke up and lit the oil lamps. But..."
"But what?" Dick asked.
"But the figure on the beam had vanished. We looked all around and couldn't find it anywhere, as though that figure had only been my imagination."
"And then?" Dick pressed.
"A gust of wind came from nowhere and actually blew out the oil lamp's wick.
"I swear by the gods, that oil lamp had glass fitted into an iron casing. The wind couldn't possibly have blown it out so easily.
"And we'd shut all the windows tightly at the time. Where could that wind have come from?"
"Go on." Dick's heart tightened at her words. He already had an answer in mind:
Could that dead girl have harbored such strong resentment that she became a Nightwraith?
Most Nightwraiths were evil spirits that people filled with resentment before death had a certain chance of becoming after they died. They had no physical form, and even a silver sword could barely deal with them.
"Then, after the lamp went out, I felt a chill behind me. I turned around and, by the moonlight, saw that it really was my friend Rose. But she was hidden in the darkness, her figure flickering in and out of sight in the air, her hair hanging loose, her face pale, and her tongue actually dangling down to her belly.
"I screamed and immediately scrambled backward on my hands and feet, then ran out the door with the other maids. None of us dared enter the room that whole night.
"Did Baron Odin know about this?"
"Of course he did, but he only had us move somewhere else for the time being and said he'd find a professional to solve the problem. And now he's found you, hasn't he?"
Dick nodded. "Thank you for your cooperation, kind lady."
The maid's cheeks flushed slightly at that. "I'm no lady. I'll get back to work, then."
"Go ahead." Dick waved a hand.
After the maid left, he paced back and forth, thinking over the matter:
He could essentially confirm that the girl had transformed into a Nightwraith after dying at night. As for Baron Odin driving a maid to her death, that was simply normal in this era.
They were called servants, but they weren't much different from slaves. They had no freedom and no dignity, but they could get something to eat.
Dick had no desire to ponder who was right or wrong. The most pressing matter was how to deal with the vengeful spirit.
To deal with a monster like this, he had to make it manifest-turn its incorporeal form into a physical one. Only then could he destroy it completely with a silver sword.
To make it manifest, he would have to rely on one of the Signs-Magic Trap.
With that thought, he took a notebook out of his belt pouch. It was the monster-hunting journal.
Dick had already brought it along before heading out so he could study in his spare time.
He sat in a chair beside the long table and searched through it carefully. A short while later, he found some useful information.
This senior brother of mine really was meticulous. Even knowing that the body's original owner was ignorant and unskilled, he still recorded the skills and how to use them in detail. He even illustrated how to cast Magic Trap with simple drawings.
As Dick read the information, he silently considered how Magic Trap worked.
As a modified, stripped-down version of a sorcerer's spell, the Magic Trap Sign could interfere with the workings of magnetic fields to make evil spirits manifest.
Monster hunters who had undergone the Trial of the Grasses could easily store mana within their bodies, allowing them to learn Signs with low casting requirements.
Dick repeatedly studied the knowledge about Magic Trap recorded in the journal. At a certain moment, he seemed to grasp something, and a clear framework of how the Sign worked formed in his mind.
At the same time, a new entry appeared on the panel:
[Signs]-Magic Trap (Novice)
A hint of delight appeared on his face. At least this would keep him from being too badly cornered when facing the Nightwraith.
He looked up to find that Kebi and Xiya had long since stopped chatting and were both looking at him instead.
Kebi looked curious, while the sorcerer's apprentice seemed thoughtful.
"Why aren't you two still chatting?" Dick asked.
"I wanted to keep going, but Miss Xiya thought you were acting strangely, so we had to stop." Kebi actually sounded a little aggrieved.
That was hardly surprising. At seventeen or eighteen, when a young man met a woman he liked, he naturally hoped she would have eyes only for him, too.
"Xiya, what do you think is strange about how I'm acting?"
Xiya shook her head slightly and said, "Dick, you're becoming less and less like your old self."
Dick was startled, thinking the sorcerer's apprentice had noticed something. He hurriedly said, "How am I different?"
"In the past, you would never have focused on reading the journal in your hands like a diligent student."
"After all, what we may be facing is very likely a Nightwraith. Without mastering magical Signs, I won't be able to complete the commission, and then I won't get my commission fee."
"Ah, so you're still doing it for money. It seems I overestimated you after all," Xiya sighed.
"Living in this world, how can you live well if you don't work for money?
"Besides, while I earn money, I also solve the client's problem. Isn't that the best of both worlds?" Dick explained.
"That's true. As long as you can complete the monster-hunting commission, I don't care whether you're doing it for money or for some other reason.
"What should we do next, then?"
"Naturally, we'll go inspect the maids' room and investigate the details."
"Dick, the maids' room isn't inside the castle. It's in a building outside the castle, next to the stables. Besides, a ghost just haunted that place. Aren't you afraid you'll run into it if you go now?"
"Don't worry about me, Kebi.
"Night ghosts usually appear after eight in the evening, and they grow stronger as midnight approaches. We just need to avoid the hours between eleven at night and one in the morning, then kill it. It won't appear at this time of day.
"So that's how it works. I never imagined there were such intricacies to this monster." Kebi seemed to understand something. "Come to think of it, you monster hunters seem to need specialized knowledge, too. You don't receive much less training than we knights do."
Dick said no more. He glanced at the two of them and headed toward the door. Understanding his intent, they both rose, ready to head to the maids' quarters.