Ch.166166 – What Happens When You Don’t Lock the Door

# 166 – What Happens When You Don’t Lock Your Door

I returned to my room excitedly with the ink and completed the magic circle I had been drawing.

With my veteran knowledge, I had already memorized the entire magic circle. Now with all the materials prepared and mana accumulated from diligently consuming stat stones, ta-da!

<Curse Magic Circle>

<Curse of Binding – Ghost Ring Binding>

<Curse of Restriction – Ghost Movement Range Limitation>

<Titosoga’s Friendship Ring (Bound)>

Rank – Unique Grade 6

Description – A gift from Ghost Papa commemorating Titosoga’s unwavering friendship. If the current ring wearer is unwilling, other individuals cannot gain effects from wearing the ring.

Effect 1 – Health gauge check

Effect 2 – Life force transfer

Effect 3 – When within 20m of another ring owner, all abilities increase

Effect 4 – Instead of activating Effect 1, stores ghost collective (fake Lin) in the ring

Effect 5 – Instead of activating Effect 2, prevents ghost collective (fake Lin) from leaving beyond 20m from the ring

Appraisal Value – 150 gold coins, 15,000 points

Through a complex process, I bound fake Lin to the item and tightly restricted her movement range.

The item rank decreased as a result, but considering that fake Lin isn’t a high-combat ghost powerful enough to replace the life force transfer function, this outcome was expected.

“…Is 20m too long?”

I placed the ring in a corner of the room and sat in the opposite diagonal corner, barely exceeding 20m.

Swoosh.

Fake Lin emerged from the ring and repeatedly stumbled and fell while trying to walk on two feet.

As the range restriction placed spiritual chains on the ghost’s walking ability, she awkwardly crawled along the floor like someone who had forgotten how to walk.

Tug.

Fake Lin felt her ankle being pulled by the chain and suddenly couldn’t move forward anymore.

“It’s 20m! Sing will worry if you wander too far, so from now on you need to stay within that range. Got it?”

Fake Lin looked up at me with an expressionless face that somehow seemed a little angry.

Thump! Thump!

“Ow, ow! Don’t hit me. Don’t hit meee!”

Fake Lin was hitting my head with her fists.

Though ghost fists should pass through empty space, perhaps due to the life force supply, they <Materialized> and delivered real impact. While she wasn’t professionally trained in martial arts so it wasn’t extremely painful, it definitely couldn’t be called baby punches or cotton fist hits.

“Siiiing. If you don’t sleep, you won’t grow taller!”

Fake Lin defiantly lifted one leg, demonstrating the chain as if demanding I do something about it.

Of course, I wasn’t about to release her, and I ended up being tormented by the ghost all night.

But as I stayed up all night, a random question suddenly occurred to me.

‘Did I lock the door when I went out to get ink?’

Ah, whatever. It’s probably fine.

If someone had come in, baby Mandragora would have cried “waaah waaah” to let me know.

Surely nothing happened.

* *

Hestia wasn’t particularly skilled at cooking.

A mercenary’s cooking always prioritizes quick preparation and high calories.

The soul food of mercenaries is a hodgepodge stew made by dumping hunted game meat and whatever ingredients everyone brought into a pot and boiling it until everything loses its shape.

‘I want to serve Oknodie a proper meal as a token of gratitude, but this kind of food won’t do!’

Normally, with her Berserker class characteristics, she would have lived a lonely academy life without friends, but thanks to class co-valedictorian Oknodie’s protection, Hestia’s academy life wasn’t too bad.

Even Lotta the fighter, who once picked a fight with her, maintained a lukewarm relationship as they stayed in the same group, and their other teammate Zigoku had acknowledged her as a comrade.

“Be good to her.”

“Suddenly? What do you mean?”

“That little Oknodie follows you around quite a bit.”

Zigoku the pirate hunter, who roamed all over the academy wearing a pirate captain hat with an indifferent expression, armed with a gun and a knife.

Despite his gruff personality, his affection for Oknodie matched her own.

“I know. I’ve received plenty of help from Oknodie. That’s why I’m thinking of serving her a home-cooked meal.”

“Oh? You can cook too? Let me taste it. I’ll give you my review.”

Hestia ambitiously showcased the cooking she would do during camping when there was ample time and abundant supplies.

Not the barbaric hodgepodge stew where all ingredients are dumped into a pot, but a ‘grilled’ dish where meat is cooked directly over fire!

Sizzle, sizzle.

The well-cooked meat gave off a strong gamey smell.

Though she had seasoned it with salt, there was no denying its quality was inferior compared to the academy’s meals.

“It’s edible.”

“Are you picking a fight?”

“Do you think Oknodie cares about taste? She’ll eat it as long as it’s edible. She even eats rocks.”

“…You’re right.”

Encouraged by Zigoku’s review, Hestia prepared skewers with meat she had grilled outside in advance, timing it for Oknodie’s return.

‘I want to see her eating food I made.’

She would have preferred to hand over the food in person, but Oknodie’s return was quite late.

Just as she was thinking that Oknodie must be doing something strange that only she understood, a bone carriage led by a skeletal horse stopped outside the window with an eerie aura.

Oknodie alighted from the carriage carrying a large sack, while a suspicious person sat silently in the dark carriage, seeing her and her friend off.

“…What on earth have you been doing?”

Though she had mountains of questions, she worried that being too nosy might annoy Oknodie.

While hesitating due to her timidity, Oknodie went out again.

‘Sigh. I’ll just leave the food at her door.’

This was a hallway for advanced class students, so surely no one would steal it.

Even if someone did, it was the kind of taste that would make them want to put it back after one bite.

As she was placing the plate at the door, she noticed that Oknodie had forgotten to close her door properly.

“This girl is so careless. Where did she leave her mind?”

Thinking that it was understandable to be absent-minded after riding such a scary carriage, she went to close the door when she saw something strange through the gap.

A suspicious, partially drawn pattern on the floor.

She shouldn’t enter someone else’s room.

Oknodie would surely be angry.

But even knowing it’s wrong, humans tend to break taboos.

‘I’m just going to take a quick peek. Really just a quick one.’

Opening the door with this poor justification, Hestia was shocked by what she saw.

There was a magic circle.

In a room already piled with ominous things, an unidentified suspicious magic circle.

‘Oknodie… are you really trying to become a demon lord?!’

Hestia quickly entered the room and closed the door.

No one else should see this.

More importantly, this shouldn’t be done.

Such an obviously suspicious magic circle.

Could it be for summoning demons?

It gave her chills.

Judging by the cursed aura emanating from the room, it was truly ominous.

The magic circle was emitting such a chilling aura even though it wasn’t fully drawn!

“Waah.”

She heard the sound after regaining her composure and a bit more time had passed.

In the dim interior.

A suspicious bottle containing some liquid in one corner.

A strange creature with a human face floating slowly inside.

Hestia covered her mouth.

Otherwise, she felt she might scream.

‘Oknodie… what on earth are you raising in your room?!’

Mandragora, an ultra-rare plant.

Even Hestia, a veteran mercenary, didn’t know what it actually looked like.

Most mercenaries don’t know how to safely extract mandragora.

Those who don’t know what it looks like are better off.

Those with superficial knowledge attempt to harvest this expensive plant out of greed or rely on incorrect information, only to die with blood flowing from their ears.

Either live without knowing and avoid greed.

Or know and die from greed.

Hestia belonged to the former category.

To her, mandragora was an unknown creature.

Something unbelievably inhuman with a human face on a plant body.

“You… are you perhaps human? Were you human but got trapped in that body?”

“Waah.”

“Say something!”

The mandragora pointed at something with its rootlets.

It was the plate Hestia had brought.

“This? You want this?”

Pat pat.

The mandragora tapped the water surface with its rootlets, urging her to place the plate before it.

Hestia put down the plate and firmly believed it was human as she watched the mandragora pick up and eat the skewered meat.

“Did Oknodie make you like this?”

“Waah.”

“No?”

“Waah.”

Though communication seemed impossible, Hestia roughly grasped the baby mandragora’s meaning.

A mercenary who can’t read an opponent’s next move or hostility by intuition when facing a monstrous creature with just an axe in a foreign land won’t live long.

<Skill – Eye Measurement>

<Skill – Guesswork>

It’s not a monster created by Oknodie.

The baby mandragora’s reaction suggested that Oknodie had rescued it.

But where did Oknodie bring this horrific experiment subject that was once human but lost its human form?

Hestia could only think of one possibility.

Visitation.

Butler.

Foundation.

A drama unfolded in Hestia’s mind.

Late at night.

The butler who reportedly had a meeting with Oknodie.

Oknodie asks him, tilting her head.

“Where’s the friend who was supposed to come with you?”

Oknodie nods with an innocent face.

The butler smiles sinisterly and takes out a bottle.

“Ah… you mean this?”

Before entering the academy.

A prospective scholarship student raised in the foundation just like Oknodie.

But unlike Oknodie who was accepted, the friend failed to get into the academy.

This was the price.

A tragic result of losing human form.

Oknodie, unable to contain her grief, wails in anguish.

The butler gives her a cruel warning.

“Do not defy the foundation’s will. You could be next.”

The butler leaves, and she is left to live with her friend who has become a monster.

And she begins to search.

Even if it means boarding a suspicious carriage, she is determined to break the curse placed on her friend.

‘The ominous cursed aura in the room, the suspicious magic circle, rushing out without even remembering to close the door—it was all for her friend!’

Hestia struggled to hold back tears.

Clack clack.

As the mandragora placed the finished skewer on the plate, Hestia collected the plate and promised with a tear-filled voice.

“You wanted meat? I’ll bring you more next time…”

The mandragora splashed excitedly in the liquid, experiencing food other than culture medium after a long time.

Seeing its innocent behavior, Hestia finally shed silent tears and hurriedly fled the room.

“Waah.”

And that concludes what happened overnight because Oknodie failed to lock her door.