"I remember leaving without turning the oil lamp off," he thought suspiciously, peering into the dim room.
Inside, it was pitch black, making it hard to make out anything except the vague outline of some furniture.
A chilly wind blew from inside onto the corridor.
"Did I not close the window?" Feeling the cold breeze, Little Sem grew more suspicious, reluctant to step into the darkness.
He sensed something wasn’t quite right.
Although he wasn’t yet a formal apprentice, his understanding of the Extraordinary World and recognition of his own talent had significantly enhanced his memory.
At least, he could still completely remember things from a few minutes ago.
Especially when, before leaving the room, he had been sitting at the table by the window, reading the "Soul Chronicle" by the light of an oil lamp. Whether the lamp was extinguished, and whether the window was closed, he was perfectly clear.
Did someone enter his room? Little Sem had this suspicion in his heart, otherwise why would the oil lamp be extinguished and the window be open?
Was it those knights? But hadn’t the knights already taken the mirror out of the room before, why would they go in again?
Or was Adar playing a prank? That didn’t seem right either. If it was Shanni playing a prank, it might be possible. Adar seldom did such things. Adar and Little Sem were very close, so there was no reason for him to scare him.
With endless thoughts swirling in his heart, Little Sem hesitated about whether he should go in and take a look.
Just as Little Sem was wavering, he heard the sound of footsteps echoing from the nearby corridor.
Little Sem turned his head to see Drue, leading a few knights, coming up from the corner stairs.
Drue instructed the knights to check different rooms for any missed mirrors, while he himself walked towards Little Sem.
"You look very serious, what’s wrong?" Drue asked. Having cultivated for more than seventy years, although his strength had reached a bottleneck, his skill in observing others had become ever more refined. He approached Little Sem because he noticed that there was something off about his eyes.
Hesitating for a moment, Little Sem still said, "I don’t know if it’s my illusion or not, but I feel like someone went into my room."
Little Sem shared his suspicions and judgments.
"Is that so? Then I’ll ask around to see if any knights went into your room and forgot to mention it." Drue replied with a smile on the surface, but inwardly he became instantly alert.
He knew very well that the rampant ghost’s target was Little Sem.
Although he hadn’t sensed anything out of the ordinary at the moment, the current situation was crucial, and anything concerning Little Sem was no small matter.
To avoid really missing something, he immediately summoned a few knights and inquired once.
However, the knights responsible for searching this floor all denied having entered Little Sem’s room.
If no knights entered, could it really be related to that ghost? But, wasn’t it still down the mountain, and how did it get here with all the defense lines on the mountain?
Drue was somewhat skeptical, but with no evidence at present, he still needed to go into the room and take a look.
To be cautious, Drue instructed three strong knights to go in first and investigate.
The knights, clad in light armor, carrying an oil lamp, directly entered the pitch-black room.
After waiting for a while, light appeared in the room.
Little Sem peered in and saw that the three knights had lit all the kerosene lamps in the room and were searching for something nearby.
After a while, they came out and reported to Drue, "Nothing found, the window is indeed open, but no signs of human interference. It might have been opened by the wind."
Drue turned to Little Sem and asked, "Didn’t you lock the window latch?"
Little Sem recalled for a moment, his expression turning slightly awkward, "It seems so..."
Upon confirmation, Drue sighed lightly in his heart: it seemed to be a false alarm.
But to be on the safe side, Drue still went in personally, carefully sensing for a moment, and found nothing amiss. The wind tonight was indeed quite strong, with the castle backed by the mountains and near the lake, and the mountain breeze with the lake wind could easily blow the window open.
The oil lamp on the table also had a vent, which happened to face the window, and the wind blowing in to extinguish the lamp was usual.
Once confirmed, Drue then came out.
Little Sem was somewhat embarrassed at this point, feeling that he had made a fuss over trivial details. He thanked Drue and the knights, returning to the room with a face full of embarrassment.
The room was brightly lit, with no trace of anything sinister.
The ’Soul Chronicle’ on the table was open, with the window still not shut, and the cool night wind flipping the book pages continuously.
Little Sem quickly went over and closed the glass window, latching it shut.
As he closed the window, the flapping pages of the ’Soul Chronicle’ on the table finally came to a stop, landing precisely on one page.
And on this page, there was an illustration, showing a ghost with crimson eyes in a lavishly carved standing mirror.
When Little Sem turned back after closing the window, he happened to see this illustration.
"Huh, I remember this is the Special Undead Chapter..." only the Special Undead Chapter would have illustrations. Back then, Lady Cilla, who turned into a ghostly spider, was also the prototype Little Sem found in this ’Soul Chronicle’.
Little Sem curiously looked over, wanting to see the words beside the illustration clearly.
But just as he approached the desk, he suddenly felt a chill down his spine, as if someone was watching him with a cold, icy gaze.
But, behind him was a wall, was a window.
And outside the window, there was no balcony, no place to stand, so how could someone be staring at him?
Was it an illusion?
Little Sem wanted to turn around to check, but a sense of danger rose from the depths of his heart.
Previously outside the room, when he looked at the dark room, he felt a similar feeling, and later the knights and Drue proved that the room was perfectly normal. Now with the same sense of danger returning, Little Sem thought maybe he was being overly suspicious.
Thinking of this, Little Sem dismissed the warning in his heart and turned to take a look.
Then, he saw a face.
A face reflected on the glass window, a ghostly face with red eyes.
Little Sem’s eyes widened in shock; this face... this face he knew all too well...
It was the owner of the Holy Resonance Farm!
The same person whom Little Sem had personally ended the life of back then.
Even though he had already died, and died by his own hands, why would he appear here?
Little Sem felt as though his mind had half-shut down, retreating continuously, and in his backward movements, not aware of the desk’s corner, he staggered and fell directly to the ground.
When Little Sem looked up again, the face reflected in the window was gone.
"Could it have been an illusion just now?"
As this thought formed in Little Sem’s mind, a strange rustling sound came from behind him...