Chapter 62: The Haunted Incident.
Two minutes earlier.
Around eleven at night, the seaside hotel had long since reached lights-out time for students.
The vast hotel was empty and quiet. The dim, gloomy lights cast a murky glow, with most of the interior space still shrouded in darkness, making the originally quite spacious corridors exude an invisible sense of tightness and suffocation.
However, the appearance of a certain young girl brought a point of light to this dark corridor.
"Hm hm~?"
A beautiful silver-haired Dragon Girl with a petite and adorable figure, hugging a pink heart-shaped pillow, wearing thin, lightweight pajamas, softly hummed a cheerful tune as she lightly walked through the empty corridor.
No one knew this Dragon Girl's real name.
But at Chaldea Academy, as well as in the Fairy Kingdom, everyone usually called her Melusine.
Or rather, Fairy Knight Lancelot!
"I've already observed carefully, you know—the room at the end of the corridor should be Eikou's room~"
Melusine giggled like the tinkling of silver bells. Her beautiful feet in slippers stepped on the corridor floor, producing footsteps so light they were almost imperceptible.
It was not for nothing that she had deliberately kept an eye on Eikou's movements, especially the moment when he returned to his room before lights-out. Thanks to that, Melusine had already memorized Eikou's room number.
This seaside stay had rather lax regulations. The management between rooms was not as strict as at Chaldea Academy. In other words, even if one were to secretly leave their own room, no one would really care.
This had given Melusine a rare and precious opportunity.
At last, it was time to carry out the wicked plan she had been harboring for so long...
That's right—now was the perfect moment to launch a nighttime raid on Eikou!
For the past two days, Melusine had acted extremely discreetly. During this rare seaside stay, not only did she refrain from disturbing him, she had even appeared before Eikou only very rarely.
All of this was to lower Eikou's guard, so that tonight she could completely "devour" the innocent boy who was utterly defenseless!
"Hm hm~?"
Just thinking about the good things that were about to happen tonight made Melusine's exquisite face bloom into a smile full of delight.
Of course, she didn't think that anything too excessive would really happen with Eikou tonight. After all, there should still be other roommates in his room, which would make things inconvenient.
But as long as she could hug the one she loved and sleep together in the same bed, that alone would already satisfy her immensely.
And if the other party's instincts were to erupt and he asked for a more "deep" relationship, she wouldn't refuse either.
"..."
Just as Melusine was thinking this, the lights in the corridor suddenly went out.
The vast and empty corridor was instantly plunged into complete darkness.
She froze slightly.
A power outage?
This sudden blackout didn't cause Melusine any inconvenience; it only made her feel a bit puzzled.
Immediately after, she quickly broke into an adorable smile, wearing an expression of "Just According to Keikaku".
Very good—the power outage really came at just the right time. Later, if Eikou were to ask why she entered his room, she could simply say that when she went to the restroom, the power suddenly went out and she got lost, so she accidentally walked into his room, accidentally lay down on his bed, and accidentally crawled into his blanket, ehe～☆
However, right after that, Melusine sensed an abnormal flow of magical energy spreading through the surrounding air.
As if something had just appeared.
At first, Melusine only gave it a casual glance. That magical fluctuation was originally not worth her concern at all.
But immediately afterward, her beautiful golden eyes suddenly widened.
All that could be seen was that within the long, dark, and gloomy corridor, a suspicious silhouette suddenly emerged from the far end and slowly walked over. There was not a single sound—hard to grasp—like a faint sigh of the darkness itself. Its existence seemed to carry with it a deathly atmosphere that made one suffocate.
Time seemed to stop flowing, and the atmosphere within the darkness became far heavier and more oppressive than usual.
And Melusine immediately noticed that strange figure.
A grotesquely distorted skull, its entire body wreathed in dim blue flames, radiating a terrifying aura that struck fear into the heart—just like a demon from the underworld come to claim a life!
"G-g-g-g-ghostttttt!"
She couldn't help but let out a girl's scream, clutching the pillow tightly to her chest as she turned around and ran without hesitation.
...
Present.
Hearing a burst of hurried footsteps outside the door, Eikou's heart instantly leapt up into his throat.
So you've finally come for me, you bastard!
But he still wasn't completely sure in his heart, and it wasn't convenient to wake the two brothers sleeping beside him, so he only stuck half his body out of bed, gripping Gawain's Galatine at the head of the bed, preparing to give the ghost that was about to charge in a solid blow.
Thump, thump, thump.
Eikou heard it clearly—the hurried footsteps ran straight toward his room door and then stopped right in front of it.
"..."
Despite the turmoil in his heart, he still forced himself to stay calm, and at the same time noticed that the other party was wearing slippers.
What, ghosts wear slippers too?
Click.
Before Eikou could think deeply about this detail, the tightly locked door was opened.
His entire body instantly tensed up.
Immediately after, a figure entered his field of vision.
That figure was small and adorable, with neat silver hair shimmering under the gray-silver moonlight. The petite body was dressed in very thin, lightweight white pajamas, both hands clutching a pillow tightly. In her panic, a shoulder strap had slipped down, revealing delicate collarbones and half of a smooth white shoulder beneath the moonlight, making the girl look both youthful and pitiable.
And on the lovely, adorable face of that "ghost woman," there was clearly an expression of terror, as if she had truly seen a ghost.
This ghost woman...
No, wait—this isn't Melusine?!
However, Eikou had never seen her show such an intensely frightened expression before.
It was obvious that seeing this naughty dragon so scared was truly a rare sight. Even when playing Love Slepping right in front of Morgan, she had never shown the slightest fear.
"Ei, Ei, Ei... Eikou!"
Melusine's adorable face was pale as if she were about to cry from fear.
All he saw was her rushing straight into the room at top speed, without hesitation slipping inside and diving straight into his blanket.
That soft, beautiful body, giving off an alluring fragrance, directly burrowed into his blanket.
"Th-there's a ghost outside!"
Eikou was startled by her diving-into-the-blanket action:
"Wait a second, then why did you come sneaking into my room in the middle of the night?!"
"I… no, I wanted to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, then suddenly ran into a ghost on the way, so I ran to your room to hide for a bit!"
"Who are you trying to fool—who goes to the bathroom hugging a pillow?! Were you planning to sleep in the bathroom or what?"
You're definitely here for a night raid, right?!
I even thought Melusine had become more well-behaved these past few days—who knew she had other plans! This naughty dragon really is aggressive when it comes to these Lancelot-type matters!
Eikou was a bit at a loss for words.
But Melusine's frightened reaction didn't look like she was pretending.
So it was very likely that on the way to his room, she had really encountered a ghost.
"..."
Eikou helplessly rubbed his forehead.
Then he immediately climbed out of bed and discovered that the door lock and padlock had both been broken by her.
"Did you do this?"
"I don't remember what I did. I just pushed lightly and it opened."
"That's way too strong! You're the scariest existence here! How about you just use that momentum to go deal with that ghost instead?"