Volume 3 Chapter 29 The True Identity Of The Ghost Revealed By The Withered Pampas Grass
Two days after the Void Walker battle, it was the afternoon. As promised, Randy and the others gathered at the Occult Research Club.
"Sorry! Class ran long──."
Annabelle burst in through the door, almost breaking it. Randy raised his hand and replied, "No, we just got here too."
"Well, let's start discussing the mystery of ghosts."
Excited, Annabelle placed the wraith they caught the other day on the table. It looked so faint that it almost seemed like a ghost, but at the time they caught it, it was definitely a wraith.
After refreshing their minds during yesterday's break, they planned to talk about the definition of ghosts today. Once they came up with a hypothesis, they would move on to testing it. Since they could only catch one creature per expedition for now, they decided to first create a hypothesis and then test it.
"Can I go first?"
Everyone turned to look at Randy, who raised his hand.
"I have one question... Is this a wraith or a ghost?"
Randy pointed to the container on the table that held the wraith. The difference between a wraith and a ghost is mainly how they look.
A ghost looks like a single color mist.
A wraith looks more solid.
Ghosts that look like this can become stronger, and if they use magic, they become specters. If they can communicate, they become spectral wraiths. The stronger ones are called rage revenants, and they keep getting stronger.
Even though there are definitions for each, the wraith in front of them clearly seemed to be in between a ghost and a wraith.
"I was wondering about that too. Isn't it strange that it got weaker from being hit?"
Cecilia was referring to the time Luke hit the wraith to weaken it. It would make sense if they used holy water or holy magic, but for it to lose strength just from being punched is odd for a solid being.
"When you hit it, you were covering your fist with magical power, right?"
Randy and Luke nodded at Cory's question.
"If you don't cover it with magical power, you can't even touch it."
Luke's words made Randy nod again.
"If you're covered in magical power, that means you're touching the spirit... or the soul, right? That doesn't add up."
Liz raised a good point. If that hypothesis is true, then attacks or magic with magical power could damage not just the body but also the soul. A strong hit could go through both the body and the soul.
"Well, but... the soul and the ghost are different things, right?"
"You have a reason for saying that, don't you?"
With a sigh, Cecilia listened as Randy talked about the woman's soul he met in the light. He felt strongly that ghosts and souls are definitely different.
"The soul and the ghost feel different... Normally, that opinion would be dismissed, but──"
"He's a guy who lives by his instincts."
Luke shrugged with a mischievous grin, and Randy raised an eyebrow, saying, "It's a refined 6th sense."
"Come on, don't change the subject. You two idiots."
Randy snorted with a smirk, and Cecilia clenched her fist while Liz tried to calm her down. Ignoring them, Randy spoke again.
"I'll explain the reasons later, but I think ghosts and wraiths are probably just collections of magical essence."
"Magical essence?"
"A collection?"
Annabelle and Cory repeated Randy's words, and he began to explain what he was thinking.
Magical essence is like the basic material of magical power found in the air.
Magic works with one's own magical power to interact with the magical essence in the air, creating various phenomena and supernatural events in this world.
"So, you're saying ghosts are a type of magic──?"
"To put it boldly, yes."
Randy shrugged, and Liz fell silent, deep in thought. The idea that ghosts are magic was wild, but since Liz didn't speak up, no one could deny it.
"Yeah, I definitely felt some kind of magical power from the ghosts and wraiths."
Liz said this quietly, and Cecilia raised a question.
"If it is magic, then why can't we touch it directly? Some types of magic can be touched."
Cecilia made a good point. There are many kinds of magic, like fire and water, that can physically interact with things. Yet, we can't touch ghosts with our bodies.
"Maybe it's because of the difference in density."
"Density?"
Cecilia tilted her head, and Liz explained that the concentration of magical essence is lower compared to magic. Magical essence exists in the air, but we can't grab it. However, we can interact with magical power.
So, Liz thinks that ghosts and wraiths are made up of a collection of magical essence that isn't as dense as magic but still has enough density to appear in this world.
"If that's the case, then what is shaping the magical essence?"
Luke crossed his arms, and everyone fell silent. Even if magical essence is the real thing, it's unclear who is shaping it and for what purpose.
As everyone pondered, Randy started explaining that before he met the woman's soul, memories flowed into him.
She was originally weak but still went to school and enjoyed her life, even finding a boyfriend. Unfortunately, one day she fell ill.
Despite her boyfriend's concern and care, she passed away, but she had one regret. She wondered if her boyfriend would find new happiness and move on.
Now just a soul, she visited the school building where she spent time with him, hoping to tell him to keep going.
But what she saw was her boyfriend still lost in sadness.
He was slumped over the desk where they used to talk, and she wanted to cheer him up. So, she broke the rules and appeared before him.
The ghost of her boyfriend appeared in the twilight school.
It was natural for him to be captivated by her. They used to have fun conversations during twilight every day. But that time didn't last long.
Another student found out about her ghost and spread rumors that he was being haunted by an evil spirit. Even when he denied it, the rumors kept spreading.
The rumors grew, and soon people said he was trapped in a nightmare, unable to escape the ghost of his girlfriend. By then, her soul was being pushed down by a powerful evil force that started to take over that classroom.
The story that follows is part of the 7 mysteries.
You shouldn't go near there at twilight. If you do, you'll get trapped by an evil spirit and wander forever.
This rumor spread widely, filling the area with fear, hatred, and malice, until even her boyfriend stopped going near. Eventually, the woman was consumed by that malice, and the next thing she knew, she was standing in front of Randy and the others.
"The cause of the 7 mysteries is that soul, but she isn't the root cause... it's the evil that came from somewhere."
"So, that means──."
"Yeah. The magical essence is shaped by people's malice and fear, those negative feelings."
Before the woman was consumed by malice, strange things were already happening. This means that ghosts and such can appear just from imagination and rumors. It's likely that the strange occurrences pulled in the original soul, evolving into a being called a Void Walker, and she couldn't move from that place because of her influence.
"Imagination... so you're saying we are creating ghosts?"
Cecilia tilted her head, and Randy replied, "It's just a hypothesis." If that's true, then the 7 mysteries of the old school make sense. The soul of the girl, who shouldn't have been evil, was pushed into a corner by some evil force and twisted into something else.
If that malice came from the unfounded fear and rumors about the girl, it explains why she looks evil and why she wears the current school uniform.
Over more than a hundred years, the rumors piled up, and each time, she probably changed her appearance a little without anyone seeing.
And this connects to the mystery of a strong enemy in the school that seems impossible in a game.
This isn't a game; it's real life. Over a long time, many fears and rumors have built up, making something grow so powerful that it can even swallow souls. That's how the Void Walker came to be.
"But if magic energy is the source and imagination is the power, then ghosts could appear anywhere in the world, right?"
Just like Liz said, if Randy's theory is true, it wouldn't be surprising if a ghost showed up right here. But that hasn't happened, and there's no sign it will. Luke, who had been quiet for a while, finally spoke up.
"It's probably the miasma. The vibe of that old school building felt a bit like the Beast Forest or a dungeon... The magic energy affected by the miasma and our imagination... that might be the key to creating ghosts."
Luke lightly tapped the container with the wraith inside. The container tilted but then returned to its original position. When the rattling sound stopped, Annabelle spoke up, saying, "Oh, that might be it," and shared a story about a ghost that appeared in a graveyard.
Someone saw something ghost-like in the graveyard.
There were rumors about who had recently died and been buried, and it was concluded that it might be Jimmy, the tool shop owner. So, people who encountered the ghost in the graveyard kept saying, "Jimmy has become a ghost," which led to Jimmy's son going to see his father's spirit.
What he found there was a ghost that looked like his dad, but he thought, "This isn't my dad."
If the ghost looked like the Jimmy everyone imagined, then it makes sense why the son said, "No, that's not him."
After a moment of silence, Annabelle broke in again.
"Also, this could explain why only student spirits appear in the old school building."
Everyone exchanged glances at Annabelle's words.
"That's true, as Lady Annabelle said. If the souls are taking shape, then there haven't been many reports of students dying in this school in the past. Plus──."
Everyone's attention turned to Liz as she paused.
"Plus, all the ghosts were wearing current student uniforms."
Liz's statement made Randy nod in agreement. The only one who looked different was the last female spirit that appeared. If someone said it was an old design of a student uniform, it would make sense.
"So, that means the fears and imaginations of the current students are showing up in that form," Luke said.
With Annabelle's story and the student ghosts in the old school, everyone started to accept the idea that ghosts might be products of imagination.
"The stronger and bigger the imagination, and the longer it lasts, the more power it gains. So, the difference between a wraith and a ghost is the strength of the feelings given to the magic energy. That's why hitting it with a magical power-filled punch weakens it. The phenomenon similar to magic, which is imagination packed into magic energy, gets canceled out."
"The reason we can't tell if it's a ghost or a wraith is that I hit it and blew away the various things packed into the magic energy. So, its existence itself got weaker."
Luke tapped the container on the table again.
"Holy water works because it drives away the miasma, right?"
When Liz added that, Randy nodded, and everyone stared at the shaking container on the table again.
"So, we can think of it as the magic energy affected by the miasma gaining consciousness... is that right?"
"Probably."
Randy nodded at Luke's words.
"It keeps events in the world... indeed, it shapes people's imaginations and fears into something real."
"That fits with the last sentence too."
Liz and Cecilia nodded, and Cory and Annabelle silently agreed, marking the end of their hypothesis, even if it was still unproven.
"Oh, leave the rest to me. Once we know what it is, we can change the experiment methods."
"I'll help too. If we use connections from the magic tool research club or the magic theory research club, we should be able to find a way to crystallize the miasma-mixed magic energy."
Their enthusiasm might be a way to make up for not being able to do anything back then. Randy nodded, thinking it would be better to trust them and let them handle it.
"Then, I'll leave that to you. We'll work on the camera prototype."
As Randy stood up, Annabelle and the others nodded eagerly, saying, "Leave it to us."
"Once we finish the camera, let's check out that new moon tower."
"Is that okay?"
"Of course! I'm way too curious about it."
Annabelle smiled back at Randy with her biggest smile of the day, and the meeting wrapped up.
...Two days later, a mix of crystallized miasma and magic energy arrived at Randy's place. Proving the hypothesis really sped up the camera-making process.
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