Chapter 62

The strange atmosphere that had been emanating from inside the house had completely disappeared.

It seems that simply having Mastema in the house worked wonders.

“Next time, let’s visit the tomb of the cursed royal family of the ruined kingdom together.”

Arnella and Noel, using Mastema as a shield, inspected every corner of the house. There were drag marks all over, as if something had been dragged along.

Occasionally, when there was a black shadow left behind, Mastema would step on it, grab it, and promptly put it in her mouth.

“Spit that out! Spit it out!”

Arnella tried to make her spit it out, but Mastema swallowed it without a care. Apparently, ghosts and the like serve as snacks for demons.

When asked, Mastema explained that they could be turned into material for magic power.

It’s likely that spirits and the like fled from the house, taking their vessels with them, rather than being eaten.

I’ve never heard of exorcism like this. I wonder where those spirits moved to. Well, it doesn’t really matter as long as they don’t come back to this house.

Finally, when we went to the bathroom, a hand extended from the ceiling and grabbed Mastema’s head, trying to pull her out.

It had tremendous strength. If a normal person were grabbed by that hand and pulled upwards, their head would be torn off, or their spine would stretch and they’d die.

But the one it grabbed was Mastema, an upper-rank demon.

No matter how much strength the hand exerted, it couldn’t move her at all, despite Mastema not even resisting.

Instead, Mastema grabbed the hand and pulled it toward herself. The ghost with the long arm was slammed into the bathroom floor without a hint of struggle.

The ghost writhed in pain, flailing about on the floor.

It was a female spirit. Although she was beautiful in appearance, her unnaturally long arms gave her a grotesque aura.

She must have killed countless people. I could feel an intense amount of cursed energy. Noel and Arnella were so terrified by the sight of the ghost that they hid behind me.

Perhaps feeding off that fear, the ghost seemed to regain some strength and stood up. She was taller than me, and her unbalanced form certainly looked like that of a malevolent spirit.

“You don’t look like you’ll taste good.”

Mastema closed the distance to the female spirit. The ghost grew several more arms, trying to grab and tear Mastema apart, but… she didn’t budge.

It seemed she hadn’t learned from earlier.

Mastema grabbed all of the ghost’s hands together and crushed them. Since it was a spirit, there was no sound of bones breaking.

Then, Mastema spat out a small black flame from her mouth, hitting the ghost with it.

The black flame spread only over the female spirit, and the parts consumed by the flame were sucked into it.

Soon, the ghost was entirely engulfed by the fire, and Mastema swallowed the slightly larger flame.

Mastema’s magical power increased noticeably.

Ah, so that’s how it works.

“There aren’t any more of those things in this house. Even the smaller ones have run away.”

Mastema puffed out her chest proudly in front of Arnella, clearly wanting praise.

“Thank you, Mastema.”

Arnella praised her, and Noel patted her head as well. Mastema looked incredibly smug.

Well, she was helpful, so I suppose that’s fine.

Still feeling afraid, Arnella kept Mastema with her while cleaning the house. Meanwhile, Noel dragged me around in place of Mastema.

Seeing Noel on the verge of tears, I couldn’t refuse.

I guess it can’t be helped… If we don’t tidy up the house, we’ll have nowhere to sleep. The dormitory is out of the question.

Shared living arrangements with others mostly require patience.

In the early days of being an adventurer, I had no money and no choice but to live like that.

It still brings back unpleasant memories.

But with the people here, that won’t be an issue. Mastema is only slightly annoying and spoiled, but still within tolerance.

Even if I leave most of the chores to the slaves, Mastema is someone I’ll have to take care of myself.

The house was smaller than the ones from the Imperial era, but it’s still spacious enough for four people.

Since it was a magician’s house, there were several rooms for experiments, which is probably why it’s so large.

We somehow managed to finish cleaning before dark.

As for groceries, there’s a place like a food market within the magic academy.

Some students seem to cook for themselves in the dormitory to save money. I’m sure there are some who struggle financially.

The tuition fee isn’t a big deal for me, but it’s not the same for everyone.

Now that I think about it, Kasugal said he worked part-time in dungeons during the holidays to earn money for tuition while completing assignments.

For now, I bought groceries at the market and returned home.

As expected of a magical nation, the house was equipped with mana stones.

Arnella replenished the fire mana stone in the kitchen, and Noel refilled the water mana stone with magic.

“Since we don’t have much time, is something simple okay?”

I nodded at Arnella’s words. I’m not particularly picky about food.

Noel prepared the vegetables, and Arnella filled a large pot with water and put it on the fire.

As long as it tastes good, I have no complaints. Mastema, who was holding a fork in each hand, seemed to feel the same way.

… Why does she have two forks?

What came out was a large serving of pasta.

The side dishes included a salad with smoked meat, and plenty of boiled sausages.

The pasta was topped with red paste made from ground meat.

In the soup, flavored with broth from the sausages and seasoned with salt, were plenty of thinly sliced and cooked onions.

Simple indeed.

Before Mastema could start drooling, we all sat down to eat.