Three figures stood in a dim room lit by flickering candlelight. One was a skeleton clad in a butler's suit. The second was a young swordsman whose body was translucent from the knees down. The last was a woman in a stark white robe with its hood pulled low over her head, her face covered in numerous paper charms.
"Milady, it appears several individuals who look like students are heading toward the estate," the skeleton butler reported.
"Do they intend to live here?" the white-robed woman asked with a solemn expression.
"No, there are quite a few of them, so it is likely something akin to a test of courage."
"How foolish of them!"
Her hushed cry was laced with sharp indignation.
"What are your orders?"
"Naturally, we cannot simply leave them to die. You must ensure they turn back safely, no matter what. However—"
"Lady Lucile, don't you worry!" the black-haired young swordsman with translucent legs chimed in, clenching his right fist tight. "I'll give those wet-behind-the-ears brats a good scare and chase them right off!"
"Please do. But you must make absolutely sure they come to no harm."
"Leave it to me!"
Seeing the translucent youth's cheerful reply, Lucile gave several satisfied nods.
"And above all, that thing must not find out—"
Just as she tried to give her stern warning, a deep, raspy voice echoed directly into their minds, cutting her off.
"A decree has been granted by the King of Curses! Gather in the first-floor parlor at once!"
"He's caught wind of it...?" Lucile squeezed out through gritted teeth, biting her lower lip in frustration.
"Milady, let us go."
At the skeleton butler's urging, she gave a firm nod.
"Yes... let us."
With that, she turned and started toward the lower floor.
Just as expected, an entity clad in a black robe with its hood pulled completely over its head sat sprawled across a tattered sofa in the dim parlor. Before it, Lucile's companions stood with expressions as hard as stone.
This black-robed man was Kernel. He was an outsider undead who had recently wormed his way into the good graces of the terrifying, hair-raising entity that reigned as the absolute ruler of this estate.
"It seems intruders have set foot upon these grounds, haven't theeeey?"
"Yes, so it seems," Lucile answered curtly.
The black-robed figure rose with unnatural, jerky motions, glaring down at her with bulging, bloodshot red eyes.
"Theeeen there should be only one thing for you to dooo! Namelyyy—lure them into this mansion and offer them as sacrifices to our King of Curses!"
He shrieked at a deafening pitch, making Lucile's undead companions gathered in the room shrink back in terror.
"..."
Lucile bit her lip in silence. The black-robed man narrowed his bulging, bloodshot eyes, glaring at her for a moment. Then, with an exaggerated shrug, he shifted his gaze toward one of the twin girls trembling in the corner.
"Ho, ho... you over there, you don't look very well, do youuu?"
Flashing a sleazy, lingering grin, he vanished and reappeared behind her in the blink of an eye, seizing both her shoulders with hands of skin and bone.
"Eek?!"
As the little girl cowered, Lucile cried out in sheer panic.
"Beto!"
"See how your color changed? Until the rest of them properly fulfill their mission, you shall rest with me in the back room."
"Kernel! W-Wait a moment!"
Ignoring Lucile's desperate plea, Kernel snapped his fingers. Men in black robes with completely translucent bodies surged from the sofa's shadow on the floor, surrounding the young girl.
"Beto is a strong girl. So I'll be okay."
Though trembling, young Beto managed a faint smile.
"Beto!"
Her twin sister, Din, cried out in anguish, but the translucent men dragged Beto out of the room regardless.
"It is merely a little rest. Once your mission is complete, she will return safely, you knooow," he threatened in a sickeningly sweet tone, gesturing dismissively with his chin.
Beto was family. Lucile could never allow her to be sacrificed. At the same time, it went against everything she believed in to sacrifice the living for the sake of the dead. There was still a way. With her abilities, she could resolve this crisis without losing anyone.
Of course, if they made even the slightest suspicious move, they risked being discovered by that fiend who watched their every step. On top of that, the area of effect for Lucile's ability was limited. To deceive the enemy, she would first have to deceive her allies. It would be best to instruct everyone to offer only two or three individuals with strong magical power as sacrifices, while driving the rest away. As long as they offered up substantial magic, Lucile and her companions would retain their utility, and Beto would come to no harm.
Her ability was effectively a form of scapegoating. It would place a heavy burden on Lucile herself, but as long as they could safely weather the storm for now, it was a price worth paying.
(I will see this through!)
"Let us go."
Steeling herself as if to confront a cruel fate, Lucile urged her companions forward and stepped out of the room.
Once they had gone, Kernel raised both arms high into the air.
"The desire of our great King of Curses is a chain of curses! To curse, to be cursed, and to curse yet again! Such a magnificent world of curses is precisely what my King thirsts for! Now, lure those foolish intruders to their deaths and birth a new curse!"
His voice rang out, howling with pure, unhinged ecstasy.