Foxtails and Fairytales: Facades and Fables of the Phantom Prince

[Arc 14] Ch.9 Ghosts. Where?

{Sebas]

Becky laughed at that, "just don't go swinging it around too much. Druidic clubs and canes are built special and are deceptively heavy. I've been hit enough times to know. Have you ever slung spells in a party before?"

"If you are asking if I will hit you by accident then..." Talisa stood up straight and tapped the bottom of the staff/club on the ground. A dozen wind blades crisscrossed around us and cut the branches of the trees that were on the other side of use. Even I have to admit it made me sweat a little. "...I think you should be fine as long as you're not the enemy, teehee." she giggled innocently as if she hadn't just shown off a cheat like accuracy and control.

"Good enough for me, Kaina?" Becky looked at her friend.

"A well-rounded party. It appears you aren't just an airhead after all, Amanda." Kaina said. "So why don't you tell us about the details of this quest while we travel there?"

"It's super easy, it's a B-ranked investigation quest. We just have to find out the cause of the disturbance of the Bucannon Villa." Amanda said.

"ARE YOU CRAZY!" Kaina threw her case at Amanda's head. The solid case bounced off leaving a comically sized lump even though it didn't appear to phase Amanda much. "I don't do ghosts!"

It was the most animated I'd seen the cool beauty who now shouted angrily at Amanda.

I felt a shivering hand grasp my shoulder painfully. Becky seemed to be cowering behind me. "Nobody said anything about ghosts~."

"Ghosts are too expensive! Do you know how much a dozen silver bolts costs!" Kaina yelled.

"Do you need silver to fight ghosts?" Talisa asked as she wrapped herself around my free arm.

"There are lots of ways, it depends on the ghost. Silver works for most cases though. Holy water is hit and miss depending on who it was blessed by and the former religion of the spirit. Since each god is so temperamental it's hard to know. Salt is also very good, but you need either pure rock salt or large quantities of sea salt." I answered. "There are even more ways, but I'd have to inspect the site or do research on the ghost first."

It was silent for a long time.

"Why is everyone looking at me funny? This is basic survival for a Monster Hunter. Do you know how many tombs I've been in?" I rolled my eyes but then I felt something soft rubbing my shoulder and noticed that Talisa was snuggling it almost like I was some kind of precious object.

Why was she being so cute?!

How does she smell so good?

*

On the way to the Villa, I explained some more things to look out for with ghosts. Usually, the unknown is what scares people to most, so I gave a small bag of salt to Becky and taught her the basic draw a circle on the ground ritual to ward off evil. That seemed to calm her down a bit.

Talisa was being clingy in the meantime. Not that I minded it. It was cute and she seemed to be impressed with my vast knowledge and confidence... which to be honest was a bit embarrassing. It was as if she was encouraging me to ramble.

Kaina was asking me questions while she was prepping her weapons. She looked like someone cleaning her gun as she tuned her crossbow. It turned out that she had two, a large long-range one and a smaller repeater which could fire up to twelve bolts in quick succession. It kind of reminded me of a primitive version of the one from the 'Van Helsing' movie with Hugh Jackman or something from a fable game.