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The door opened, and a little kid entered Jeong Ha-yul’s room.

As usual, she was tightly hugging a pillow.

“…Is it a ghost again today?”

“…I’m telling you, it’s real. I don’t know why the sound disappears every time you wake up. It’s really there!”

Jeong Gyeoul, who came today saying she heard ghost sounds again.

Jeong Ha-yul just found it cute.

In fact, she thought the ghost was just an excuse, and that Gyeoul was doing this to sleep with her.

“I think I’m going to go crazy… Sister, catch it for me.”

“Huh? You want me to catch a ghost?”

“Aren’t you the Demon King? You’re stronger than a ghost. You can do it, right? You can’t even do that?”

“Is… that so?”

Jeong Ha-yul tilted her head, falling for the simple gaslighting.

But when she met Gyeoul’s expectant eyes, she had no choice but to go along with it.

“Alright, let’s go.”

According to Gyeoul, the ghost moves as if teleporting, ignoring floors, and opens all sorts of doors.

“But how do we catch it?”

“It’s a door-opening ghost, right? If we open all the doors and leave just one closed, won’t it come to open that one?”

“…You’ve got it all planned out, huh?”

Jeong Ha-yul was slightly surprised by Gyeoul’s surprisingly good strategy.

‘She could even be appointed as the commander of the monster wave later.’

Like any parent, Jeong Ha-yul looked at Gyeoul with pride, thinking her child was the best.

Honey was practically dripping from her eyes.

Though she didn’t actually believe in the ghost…

Jeong Ha-yul would wake up immediately if she heard any unusual sounds while sleeping.

But according to the explanation, all sorts of doors creaked open, and even the ghost’s footsteps were loud enough for Gyeoul to hear.

There was no way Jeong Ha-yul couldn’t hear those sounds.

She just thought it was a scary nightmare in her sleep.

After a moment of thought, Jeong Ha-yul decided to play along for Gyeoul’s mental well-being.

“My face is going to wear out at this rate, let’s stop looking and go catch the ghost.”

Gyeoul, as if to say she’d go too, grabbed Jeong Ha-yul’s hand.

“Shall we go together?”

“It’d be a bit much to tell you to go alone. You might be scared of ghosts too.”

“Pfft, you’re worrying about the wrong things.”

It was both endearing and funny.

“I’m the Demon King, the ghost should be scared of me.”

“Wow, sister, you’re so cool, you’re the best. Let’s go quickly.”

Her tone was like reading a textbook.

Whether she was serious or teasing, Jeong Ha-yul couldn’t tell, but Gyeoul praised her and dragged her along.

They went down to the first floor and opened all the doors.

They went back up to the second floor and slightly opened Kang-woo and Eun-chae’s doors, while opening all the others wide.

The third and fourth floors were the same.

They couldn’t go up to the fifth floor because Grundel had told them not to, so they left it alone.

The battlefield with the ghost was set on the fourth floor.

There was no particular reason.

It was just the last floor after opening doors on the way up.

Instead of going back and forth, they could close the doors on the way down after everything was over.

‘We’ll close the first floor tomorrow.’

They closed one door on the fourth floor and, just in case, closed another one across from it.

It was a simple thought that if only one door was closed, the ghost might not come.

“But… will it really come? Whenever Gyeoul runs to your room, it always disappears.”

“I have a feeling, it’ll come one more time today. I can’t explain it, but my head is telling me I’m right.”

It was Gyeoul’s intuition, activated after a long time.

As soon as Jeong Ha-yul heard the explanation, she realized it was a super-sensory area.

A strange, hard-to-explain feeling.

It could be seen as foresight or insight.

A common ability among the Awakened, called super-sense or sixth sense.

Jeong Ha-yul, as a Hero, knew about it, so she had no choice but to believe Gyeoul.

‘Was the ghost story real…?’

Jeong Ha-yul looked at Gyeoul and around the fourth floor with a strange expression.

Gyeoul was also looking around the fourth floor.

Whoosh—

The wind blew strongly outside, shaking the leaves.

Because all the doors were open, the moonlight stretched into the hallway, creating a scene.

At the same time.

“Ahhh!”

A scream was heard.

But it wasn’t Gyeoul.

The scream came from behind her.

‘A ghost?!’

Startled, Gyeoul turned around to see Jeong Ha-yul gathering magic power.

“…Sister, what are you doing?”

“Huh? Oh?”

“Are you trying to blow up the house?”

Only then did Jeong Ha-yul withdraw the magic power from her fist, pretending to be nonchalant.

‘If the person who’s supposed to catch the ghost is more scared than me, what are we supposed to do?’

Gyeoul looked at Jeong Ha-yul with a pitiful gaze, making her slightly annoyed.

“It’s my first time with a ghost too! Everyone has a first time…”

“…You said ghosts aren’t scary, that you’re stronger.”

In truth, Jeong Ha-yul had never seen a ghost before.

She was just acting tough in front of Gyeoul.

She’s still a 22-year-old young woman.

Still at an age where she’d be scared of ghosts.

“And, I was just testing your senses. If I gather magic power right behind you, would you notice or not…”

“…It’s already too late.”

Jeong Ha-yul, who was standing right next to Gyeoul, screamed and hid behind her.

Not only that, but she also gathered magic power in her fist, rambling about how it was her first time with a ghost and everyone has a first time.

Now, saying she was testing her senses didn’t work at all.

“…But don’t worry, if it really comes out, I’ll beat it up.”

Only then did Gyeoul start to worry about the mansion.

If the Demon King was that scared of ghosts, she’d probably release excessive magic power, and then…

‘The mansion being half-destroyed is a given.’

She was thinking of turning back now.

Creak—

“Ahhh! Gyeoul! Gyeoul!!”

“….”

Jeong Ha-yul, hiding behind her, was making a fuss, so Gyeoul missed the timing to be scared.

“Hehe… It was the fifth floor?”

“You’re really useless…”

“Useless? Sister, you’re hurting my feelings…”

As Gyeoul was scolding Jeong Ha-yul.

Creak—

Another sound was heard.

This time, it was the fourth floor.

“It’s in front!”

The ghost wasn’t pushing the door from the hallway towards the room, but pulling it from inside the room.

“Sister! The right door opened!”

“Let’s go!”

“Okay!”

“….”

“You said let’s go…”

“Yeah, we should go…”

Jeong Ha-yul didn’t move an inch from her spot.

Creak—

Meanwhile, the ghost opened the left door.

“Ahhh! It moved! From the right to the left in an instant!”

“….”

Gyeoul, who had let go of Jeong Ha-yul’s hand, ran forward.

‘Damn it, I’ll catch it myself, trusting someone like this to come here…’

“Gyeoul! Don’t go, Gyeoul!”

The desire to protect Gyeoul and the fear of ghosts.

The two fought in Jeong Ha-yul’s mind for a while.

The desire to protect Gyeoul slightly gained the upper hand, and she slowly moved forward.

But Gyeoul had already reached the left room.

Bang—

“Ahhh!”

With a strange sound, the door slammed shut.

“Gyeoul!”

Jeong Ha-yul ran forward at a speed completely different from before.

Her legs were already infused with magic power.

The hallway floor where Jeong Ha-yul had been standing caved in as she instantly reached the door.

Crash!

As soon as she arrived at the door, she broke through it as if the doorknob was just decoration.

“Gyeoul!”

She quickly scanned the room, looking for Gyeoul, but…

“Sister!”

“…?”

She was facing off against a cat.

A pure white cat with heterochromia—one gold eye and one blue eye.

In the dark, its eyes would have looked like those of a wild beast, but the moonlight clearly illuminated its appearance.

The cat, startled by Jeong Ha-yul’s sudden appearance, lowered its body, ready to jump somewhere.

Gyeoul, not taking her eyes off the cat, urgently shouted.

“Sister! Catch it for me!”

At her request, Jeong Ha-yul’s body reflexively jumped out.

With cat-like agility, the cat jumped in the opposite direction Jeong Ha-yul charged, kicking off the walls to dodge.

But Jeong Ha-yul moved her arms with even more agility than the cat and eventually caught it.

At that moment.

The cat’s body blurred and disappeared.

“…!”

Gyeoul’s eyes widened in surprise, but Jeong Ha-yul’s senses had already located the cat.

Fifth floor. Right above.

Jeong Ha-yul jumped up, breaking through the ceiling, and grabbed the cat.

She wrapped it in magic power to prevent it from using its abilities.

“Meow! Meeeooow!”

The cat, trying to escape Jeong Ha-yul’s grasp, scratched her arm with its legs and bit her hand.

But Jeong Ha-yul, already clad in magic power and wearing her Hero Suit, was unfazed by the cat’s scratches.

But then…

Right in front of her, Grundel, in his pajamas, was staring at Jeong Ha-yul.

“…What are you doing?”

“T-this is your room, Butler. I’m sorry…”

“Sister!”

Gyeoul, with magic power in her legs, also jumped up through the hole Jeong Ha-yul had made in the ceiling.

“…Butler Grundel, why are you here?”

“Well, this is my room?”

“Ah…”

Jeong Ha-yul in her Hero Suit, holding a cat.

Gyeoul in her pajamas.

And Butler Grundel, also in his pajamas.

Silence filled the room.

“Meow!”

The cat seemed to break the silence, but…

“Loki, be quiet.”

Grundel silenced the cat as well.

“Meow…”

 

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