Dawn- An age of Darkness

Dick was a weird guy. I\'d known him for almost a month and a half. At times, he openly showed his jealousy, and at other times, I felt like maybe he hated me or something. Not to mention he was annoying. 

But now that he was gone, I did kind of miss him. 

"Hey, isn\'t that Dick?" And now, I started seeing him too?

Ve and Alisa followed my gaze and a second later they started to walk in that direction without a word. 

So much for team play. 

I just quietly followed them.

Dick was actually walking down an alleyway. He was certainly in a good mood. It almost felt like he was with someone, but I didn\'t actually see anyone. 

Probably just my imagination. 

This whole thing reminded me of a certain incident and I didn\'t like this déjà vu feeling. 

\'Please don\'t be what I think it is.\'

Just thinking about what happened last time, kind of reminded me of a lot of things I wanted to forget. Why the hell was I thinking and traumatizing myself for no reason at all? 

I didn\'t know. My brain worked in weird mysterious ways.

The alleyway led to another alleyway, and within due time, Dick was gone: he never even considered that he was being followed. 

He didn\'t just disappear completely though: It was more like he entered a building. But this building really, really bothered me. 

Honestly, I didn\'t want anything to do with that building. Why? Because it had the same sign as the one I saw in Moire- \'Be virgin no more.\' But that wasn\'t even the worst part of it. 

An old two-storied building and looked like it was haunted or something. The atmosphere around the place was dark and there wasn\'t anyone around. 

I really had a bad feeling about this and I didn\'t want anything to do with this. Dick could have picked anywhere else in the world, but he just had to pick this one. 

"Let\'s go back. The Earl is waiting." I had a Biteria to carry, and it probably wasn\'t the best idea to bring in two girls and a hag into a place like that. 

But then again, weren\'t all three of them hags in the first place?

"There\'s something there."

"Yes, something sinister."

However, both of my companions had something else in mind. Something sinister?

Over and over, I kept getting the déjà vu feeling. 

"Yeah, that\'s why I\'m saying let\'s go." After all, I didn\'t need to worry about Dick and I didn\'t want to either. I already had my hands full with the shit I\'d gotten myself into. I didn\'t need nor want more. 

Ve just looked at me with a dull look. "There might be a spirit there."

"A sinister feeling spirit? You mean an evil spirit?" I smiled. "Let\'s go." As in go back to the manor- castle, whatever. 

I just wanted to get out of here. 

Alisa still walked ahead anyway. "Well, Dick already went in, so we have to at least see what he\'s up to." 

Neither of them listened to my pleas. 

Why the hell was Dick doing this to me? First, he had to go to a goblins nest, now a brothel with a malicious spirit? Was he trying to get killed or something? And was he trying to kill me in the process too?

But in the end with a sigh, we all entered the two-storied building that looked like a hellhole of sorts.

***

"Welcome." A bald man grinned victoriously as he welcomed us in. his eyes were a bit too fixated on Alisa. "We can provide for you three, but for the little miss, I\'m afraid our policy won\'t allow it."

It wasn\'t as shabby inside- at least that\'s what I wanted to say, but unfortunately, it was worse. There was a moldy smell in the air and the whole place was old. 

Even places like these had standards I guess. Wait, was he seriously going to allow Biteria but not Alisa?

What the hell?

I controlled my thoughts and looked at Ve, because frankly, I didn\'t know what we were doing. Though I had doubts she knew either. 

"We would actually like a room for ourselves. You see, the inns weren\'t enough." 

I stood wrong. Ve knew exactly what she was doing. I really wished she hadn\'t done this though. 

The man grinned again and showed his teeth. "Through the hallway second floor, room 202. Two silver a piece for a day." His smile was totally aimed at me. I really didn\'t want to be here, like seriously. 

We had a pay eight silvers upfront. The inn cost about 5 with food. So yeah, definitely not a steal. 

With a sigh, I paid, took the keys, and started going up. I was questioning my life choices all over again. 

Alisa pulled on my sleeves. "It\'s actually down the hallway and left. I think Mig is there too."

I really didn\'t want to see whatever was there though. 

Why did we decide to go ghost hunting in the middle of the day, anyway? It was better than hunting in the night, right? Wrong. There was no sunlight in here, and the whole place was lighted by lamps here and there: there were no windows, shadows and darkness was everywhere. So it was probably pretty much like night. 

Did I forget to mention, I did not want to be here?

We reached the second floor and needless to say, the moans and smell in the air weren\'t pleasing: the moldy smell only intensified. Ve wasn\'t affected and neither was Biteria. But Alisa grabbed one of my sleeves and just stayed close. I almost felt like I had a little sister now. 

I wanted to cover my nose. But the moment I tried to, Ve grabbed my hand and whispered something. "Don\'t use mana haphazardly."

I didn\'t know what that meant but I didn\'t use the ring. 

The floor creaked as we moved forward. It wasn\'t just the moans though, there were other sounds too- sounds of torture. I guess people liked a lot of stuff I didn\'t want to know about. And I certainly didn\'t want to know them, ever. 

And then there was the rotten smell in the air. This place had a lot more going than just plain pleasure hunting. 

I wanted nothing to do with all that. But sadly, no one listened. 

We reached the end of the hallway and then turned left. There was just one door and it was closed: room 213. 

"What now?" 

"We go in." Ve knocked. 

Was it me, or was she being too bold?

Biteria grabbed my neck a bit tighter. Now that I looked carefully, she wasn\'t bound anymore and was just hanging down. I really hoped she wouldn\'t bite. 

There was no apparent sound coming from the other side and strangely, there wasn\'t any sound in this place and smell either. Well, it probably wasn\'t that strange, considering there was probably a malicious spirit just inside this door. 

I felt a bit strange but I didn\'t let my guard down. 

Ve knocked, again and again, nothing. "We should break this door."

It was a wooden door. So the cost probably wasn\'t going to be that high. But- seriously- breaking into the wrong door of a brothel? I\'d probably have loads of rumors about me after this. 

But oh well. "Yeah, let\'s."

At that very second, Ve transformed her hand and punched the door. The wood wasn\'t strong enough. 

I wished she\'d taken a bit more delicate approach, but oh well. 

The door was broken and it kind of fell on the other side. Finally, we saw two things. One- Dick was on the floor, having sweet dreams, and two- a floating black spiky-misty thingy. 

Yup, both of our targets were right in front of us. 

For a second I could swear I saw a face in the middle of that thing: a face with red eyes. But after looking carefully, I saw nothing. 

"What happened!" The bald guy from downstairs came running with a club and he was about to hit me too, with an angry face, but then he saw inside the room. "What the hell is that! Who are you people?"

Well, this was going to be a pain. I didn\'t think he\'d come running. I\'d just assumed he\'d ignore everything that went by. Obviously, I was wrong. 

\'What the hell do I say now?\' For a second I thought hard. "Oh," I had a plan. A grin surfaced. "A first-class adventurer. I sensed that there was an evil spirit nearby and came to your rescue." 

Both of my companions shrugged. I guess it was a bit too much. 

"Head\'s up." Ve took the front and fired small blasts of fire, enough to not damage the building by mistake. But the thing just dodged and it was definitely fast. 

But it wasn\'t actually attacking us. I didn\'t know why but its eyes were a bit too fixated on my bunny, or bunny-like thingy and me, even though Ve was attacking.