Ch.1616. The Sound of Money Rolling In

Ring-ring.

As the unfamiliar alarm sound rang out, Erika Bright habitually waved her hand.

Thud.

Clatter.

The alarm clock fell to the floor.

She had already replaced it with a sturdier one after breaking it several times.

“Nngh.”

After turning off the alarm on the fallen clock, a moment later.

Erika forced herself awake, rubbed her eyes, got up from bed, and headed to the bathroom.

She undressed and started her morning shower. As the warm water poured down from the sunflower showerhead, she tried to forcibly forget the nightmare she had dreamt today, but.

The more she tried to forget, the more vividly the dream came back.

Actually, rather than a dream, it was the past.

“Hah.”

Too recent to be considered the past.

A memory from just two months ago, late at night.

“……”

In her memory, she was walking through Robern Academy, shrouded in thick darkness.

Moon-watching was just an excuse she had made up.

In truth, she had heard rumors that her fiancé patrolled the academy alone late at night, and she had harbored slightly mischievous intentions.

Unlike what she had heard in rumors, he was more caring than she had expected.

For Erika Bright, he was the first man she wanted to know better.

The strategic engagement arranged in childhood had always followed Erika like shackles, but when she actually met him, he wasn’t as bad as she had thought.

It had only been a month since he came to Robern. Erika had privately realized she was unexpectedly falling for her fiancé, and had pretended otherwise while clearing her throat.

‘……’

She walked through the academy with hurried steps, looking for him.

She had heard rumors that ghosts appeared at the academy late at night, but that was no problem for the fearless Erika.

Rather, the quiet atmosphere was not bad for enjoying a date under the pretext of moon-watching.

Perhaps, could she naturally hold his hand?

She never thought the day would come when she, always evaluated as a confident, capable, and cold-headed professor, would have such girlish thoughts.

Erika clicked her tongue at herself while carefully removing the white gloves she was wearing and tucking them into her pocket.

Click-clack click-clack.

Creak!

A strange noise interjected between her footsteps. Walking down the corridor, Erika realized it came from a nearby classroom and slightly quickened her pace.

Professor Deus Verdi is there.

Sensing a presence inside the classroom. Standing in front of the door, Erika carefully touched her cheeks.

Wondering if her expression had softened too much.

If her usually cold impression suddenly changed, he would be surprised.

Forcing a blank expression, Erika opened the classroom door, and.

There was Professor Deus Verdi, struggling while hanging by his neck.

Die!

Die!

Die!

The sight of him shouting at himself to die was like-

Click!

She turned off the faucet, stopping the hot water pouring over her head. With that, the memory of that time swirled away with the water flowing down the drain.

“Phew.”

After drying herself with a towel, Erika began preparing for work.

With a white shirt and navy coat, she had transformed from Erika into a professor.

“……”

Looking at herself in the mirror, she steeled her resolve once more. Her eyes naturally drifted to the papers plastered all over the wall next to the mirror.

At the very top line was written ‘Robern Grounds Cemetery List’.

She hadn’t understood at the time, but after being at the center of various incidents at the academy, she belatedly became certain.

The reason why he returned to his normal self in the morning.

The reason why he had no memory of that time.

How he could make sounds while being strangled.

She seemed to understand it all.

“That was probably……”

* * *

“Possession.”

As I turned the page and came to this conclusion by myself, Findenai, who was doing push-ups beside me, jumped up and raised his hand.

“What?”

I frowned slightly at his reaction and cautioned him.

“I’ve been thinking about this before, but either speak informally or formally. Don’t mix them.”

“Sorry, formal speech just doesn’t stick to my tongue. So what are you talking about?”

So he chose to speak informally in the end.

Fine, forcing a leash on a wolf will only create resentment.

“The skeletal centipede in the family’s basement is called an ‘Bone Worm’.”

“Bone Worm? That’s a magical beast I’ve never heard of.”

Of course not.

“Because it’s not a magical beast. It’s a legendary creature passed down through oral tradition.”

“…A legendary creature?”

“To be precise, it should be considered a legendary monster.”

Findenai crossed his arms with a strange expression. He still didn’t seem to understand properly, but remembering what I had said earlier, he pressed on.

“So what’s this about the Bone Worm’s possession?”

“The girl I saw in the basement was in a state of being possessed by the Bone Worm.”

Findenai nodded with an “Ah.” I closed the journal containing the family secrets that Darius had given me and put it back on the bookshelf.

“Is that recorded somewhere?”

“Yes, a very long time ago. Several mages commissioned by one of the heads of the Verdi family conducted experiments in the basement.”

The list of names was neatly recorded as well.

Maalks, Rapok, Armen, Winnie, Sien, Kotobero, and so on.

Looking at the extensively long list of researchers, I couldn’t help but be appalled.

“At the time, the head of the Verdi family, fearing an invasion from the Republic of Clark, demanded experiments on summoning monsters using human bones, and they complied.”

“…Hmm?”

Findenai tilted his head with his arms crossed, looking somewhat displeased. She too sensed something was off.

I ignored it and continued speaking. The part I was about to mention would probably irritate Findenai the most.

“The research material needed to create the Bone Worm was, of course, human bones. And in Norsweden, it’s not that difficult to find living people.”

“…Foreigners. Us, right?”

Findenai gritted her teeth.

For her, this would be motivation enough to save the girl in the basement.

They had been capturing foreigners trying to cross the Norsweden mountains and continuously experimenting on them.

It wasn’t just foreigners, but most of them were.

However, in the end, the Republic of Clark never invaded, and the research ended inconclusively with just the basement being sealed, but.

The remnants left in the Verdi mansion’s basement gathered together, and only after everyone had left did they succeed in the experiment.

‘The girl was probably the last one alive.’

And the girl became the vessel for the Bone Worm, offering her heart and becoming possessed by the monster.

Afterward, she lived there for many years, buried in the pungent smell of preservatives.

“But possession? Does such a thing really exist?”

At Findenai’s reaction of hearing this for the first time, I nodded slightly.

“It’s possible. Especially if it’s a vengeful spirit with a strong sense of self or a grudge, it can inhabit a body despite the host’s resistance.”

“Oh?”

“In such cases, it can even control the original owner’s memories and emotions. They become a completely different person.”

Findenai, who had been stretching with interest, paused and looked at me. Then, with a hint of suspicion, she asked.

“Have you experienced it?”

I didn’t bother to answer, but Findenai knew that silence was as good as confirmation.

With an expression that suggested she regretted asking, she grumbled while looking away.

“I don’t know how spiritmasters live with such creepy stuff.”

Well, I think this is something that ordinary spiritmasters wouldn’t know about.

Knock knock.

Just then, there was a knocking sound from outside the room. I ordered them to come in, and a hesitant maid approached me carefully and handed me a letter.

“Y-young master. A letter has arrived from Robern Academy.”

“…A letter?”

“I-it has the principal’s seal on it, and the hawk that brought the letter is waiting for an early reply.”

“Hmph.”

Quite rude, but I immediately realized the situation was urgent.

I opened the envelope right away and skimmed through the contents.

“Tsk.”

The content made me click my tongue.

Starting with the fact that they had lost all the countermeasures I had left behind for the abnormal situation.

A brazen request to rewrite them and an unappetizing bait saying they would consider reinstating me if I did so.

Normally, I should have told them.

The enrollment of first-year students is just around the corner. It’s essentially the time when the protagonist enters the academy and begins their growth.

But what if it’s been ruined by evil spirits?

The future of this world was obvious, but.

Whoosh.

Without hesitation, I burned the letter and replied.

“Tell them to learn polite phrasing.”

For the principal to personally send a letter to me, who had been dismissed, they must be quite desperate.

The maid was startled by my resolute decisiveness, bowed deeply, and backed out of the room.

“I’d like to be reinstated since going to the central continent would be good for me too.”

For a scrap dealer, being at the central continent’s academy would be much more convenient for raising funds or gathering information than being at the border.

“There’s still a problem to solve.”

“The Bone Worm? Ah, good. I’ll get my axe.”

With that, Findenai opened the window and jumped out. Despite Deia’s repeated warnings, that habit of hers never changed.

There were many situations overlapping.

The monster called the Bone Worm doesn’t exist on Earth. In other words, it’s a monster that has been passed down solely through the oral tradition of the continent’s people.

‘I have a lot to learn.’

I prided myself on having extensive knowledge about monsters, but it seems that’s of little use now.

That’s fine.

I’ll be able to learn plenty, and I can restart my spirit magic research that had been stagnating due to lack of family support.

Because Robern Academy will pay for everything.

“I definitely provided a solution before I left.”

But if they lost it, there’s nothing I can do. Regrettably, from now on, it’s going to cost them.

Clink! Clink! Clink! Clink!

I feel like I can hear the sound of gold coins rolling in from somewhere.

That’s right.

It was the sound of my price as an academy professor skyrocketing.