Tyler miscalculated. He had assumed that since they were sisters, there must be an age gap. However, he didn’t anticipate that Elle and Avril were actually twin sisters.
Yet, this minor miscalculation was within Tyler’s margin of error; he realized after a bit of contemplation that it wouldn’t cause any significant problems.
(Through the appraisal of the Divine Eye of Transcendence, I have yet to encounter “Elle”… assuming she is indeed still “alive”.)
“So, if they look exactly the same, how do you distinguish between them? Furthermore, if Elle is a ‘ghost’, shouldn’t her appearance remain that of a 13-year-old? Wouldn’t there be a noticeable difference compared to the now 16-year-old Avril?”
Tyler questioned the inconsistencies in Daed and Beeken’s narrative. Though the brothers weren’t lying, their story was riddled with ambiguities.
Unexpectedly, Daed and Beeken easily justified their claims.
“Elle and Avril have significantly different personalities. Elle is impulsive and extroverted, while Avril is gentle and shy. Moreover, Elle’s hair is longer and usually tied in a ponytail, whereas Avril lets her hair down. When they first arrived in the village, this is how everyone told them apart.”
“As for appearances, don’t you know that ‘ghosts’ can age too?”
Seeing Daed and Beeken’s nonchalant demeanors, Tyler suddenly realized that the “ghost” they were describing might not align with his understanding of the term from his Earth World experience. In that context, a “ghost” is typically an intangible being meant to frighten, hardly capable of physically killing someone with a large pair of scissors.
However, the “ghost” Daed and Beeken referred to seemed more akin to an entity existing within the same spatial dimension, something that could be physically touched. Furthermore, if it were a “ghost” as per Earth World’s concept, it wouldn’t possess a concept of “residing” somewhere. Yet, Daed and Beeken had the village chief search Avril’s house.
·
This “ghost” is not the “ghost” of old.
·
“Hold on, when you say ‘ghosts’, are you referring to a type of demon?” Tyler inquired.
“Indeed, what else could it be? In some regions, ‘ghosts’ are also known as the living dead. You must be aware of this, yes?”
“Ah, so it’s the ‘living dead’… That clarifies matters.”
To avoid revealing his identity, Tyler refrained from pursuing the subject further.
The so-called “ghosts” in Parallel World No. 77: Prison Star were a commonly known type of demon.
“I comprehend the situation now. I will investigate whether these ‘living dead’ appear at night.”
The conversation concluded with Tyler’s assurance, leaving Daed and Beeken ecstatic, celebrating wildly in the workshop holding large rocks. They didn’t even notice Tyler’s quiet departure.
As the Rain Praise Festival approached, the villagers of Ira Village were bustling about cheerfully. As Tyler moved among them, he didn’t perceive this to be a village haunted by “ghosts”.
(Silly Nissen: Why not-o question Daed and Beeken a bit more?)
(Tyler: Didn’t you notice they’re somewhat deranged?)
(Silly Nissen: Eh?)
Thanks to Daed and Beeken, Tyler noticed a weakness in his mind-reading ability: if the subject is insane, the ability becomes meaningless.
Tyler believed that the information provided by Daed and Beeken was somewhat tainted by their delusions. They might have been unable to distinguish between hallucinations and reality due to a long-term sense of guilt and living in fear, thereby diminishing the credibility of their words — the thoughts of a madman are equally insane.
Imagine, in a village of about 50 people, a living dead hid for nearly three years, occasionally emerging to kill at night. Yet, not only was the murder undiscovered, but only Daed and Beeken had ever glimpsed it; none of the other villagers had noticed. How low are the odds for such a scenario?
Tyler’s rational thinking made it hard for him to fully believe Daed and Beeken’s words.
However, not everything Daed and Beeken said was madness. The fact that the village chief searched Avril’s house is objective. This leads to an unexplainable contradiction: Avril didn’t know what was in the locked room and she didn’t lie, yet she did open the locked room with the village chief.
To confirm this, Tyler sought out the village chief, Woodall. After reflecting, Woodall told Tyler that there were no locked rooms during the search of Avril’s house, just ordinary rooms. As for whether Avril later locked any room, he was unsure.
(No, I overlooked a possibility.)
━━━━━━━━━
——Avril: (But… I wonder what’s inside the room my sister locked? I’ll take a look if I ever find the key.)
━━━━━━━━━
Upon recalling Avril’s thoughts, Tyler realized there was another plausible explanation:
Elle did indeed die, and Avril acknowledged this;
Avril knew Elle turned into a “ghost” and accepted the “ghost Elle” as her sister;
Avril helped ghost Elle to continue living in Ira Village;
Ghost Elle didn’t kill anyone, and the murder scene was an illusion caused by Daed and Beeken’s excessive fear;
The room was indeed locked by ghost Elle, who didn’t let Avril know what was inside or where the key was;
Ghost Elle had been missing for a while, so Avril’s thoughts at the time were ”I’ll take a look if I ever find the key ” instead of ”I’ll ask Elle where the key is”.
To substantiate his conjecture, Tyler’s most straightforward approach would be to seek Avril’s face-to-face confirmation. However, he was reluctant to abandon his progress in winning Avril’s favor midway. An inquiry about “Elle’s matter” to Avril might potentially shatter the relationship he had painstakingly established with her thus far…
Thus, Tyler resorted to an alternative, seeking Granny Kana.
·
Granny Kana was congenial, and from her, Tyler acquired knowledge about the “ghosts | undead”, incidentally gleaning intelligence on the “Rain Praise Festival” and “Ira Forest Cemetery”.
The so-called “ghosts | undead” (hereafter referred to as ghosts) refer to certain human corpses that have a particular propensity to attract an accumulation of magic energy. Upon reaching a certain threshold, the corpses would undergo a transformation. Post transformation, the corpse would “resurrect” into a ghost, not only retaining the deceased’s memories and wisdom but also capable of further growth. However, ghosts possess an uncontrollable urge to kill, posing a significant threat to humans. Therefore, in areas with high magic density, corpses are cremated, including those of magic users and priests, professions with high magic affinity. Only in regions like the Wester Kingdom, where magic density is low, the custom of burial in the ground is still preserved.
Having obtained the intelligence, Tyler thanked Granny Kana and then left Ira Village briskly, heading straight for Ira Forest.
The silly loli somehow discerned Tyler’s intentions and tremblingly queried Tyler.
(Silly Nissen: Ty-Ty-Ty-Ty-Tyler… where… where are you going?)
(Tyler: To the cemetery.)
(Silly Nissen: Ah! Wha… what-o are you going to do-do-do-do… at the cemetery?)
The silly loli, out of fear, enunciated each word clearly. 𝗈𝒱𝗅xt.𝗰𝐎𝓂
(Tyler: To check if Elle’s remains are still there.)
