Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi

The wisps have changed completely from where they were inside Flantica.

They went from simply being black lumps to nearly human-shaped.

I approach the one with the sharpest presence out of the bunch, or to phrase it another way, the one I feel the strongest hostility from.

「Hey. Can you hear me?」

（Uuuuu, uuuuuuu.）

She doesn't answer and instead moans in a voice you wouldn't think a person could make.

Just when I thought her unstable shape had settled into a human-shape, she enlarges only the face portion to an abnormal size.

All I know is that her appearance is creepy and she has the strong presence of a curse, but somewhere in there is a girl in her twenties.

「Let's talk.」

The moment I extend my hand, the wisp instantly turns into a human-shape and shrieks like a vengeful apparition.

What used to resound solely in my mind became actual noise that everyone could hear, causing the handsome men to scream and take a step back.

「His Majesty! Call His Majesty! Aah, it hurts. It feels like I'm being stabbed! My face is hot like it's being burned! My face is melting into an ugly mess! Aaah, why is His Majesty not coming!?」

The ghost screams as she scratches her body.

Perhaps it was because she was thinking back to the time she was alive, but she briefly took a distinct human form where the skin on her body is beginning to boil and her old-fashioned but beautiful face is melting.

Considering her scream, I can understand why she became a vengeful ghost.

I forcibly hug her close to my chest.

「Your Majesty, where are you? Damn that adulteress, she poisoned me……just because she was jealous……aah, nobody is coming……does that mean His Majesty knew……Your Majesty, whhyyyy!!!!?」

From that point on, she would continue wailing meaninglessly.

I don't like to lie to women, but right now she needs a kind lie.

「Give me that.」

I pull the cape off the handsome royal guard and wear it, then I gesture to the other handsome men to leave the room.

……everyone ran out. Man, they don't seem very reliable.

Anyways, I flip my cape and stand imposingly, and speak to her in as arrogant of a tone I can muster.

I'm only wearing underwear, but it can't be helped right now.

「What are you fussing about? I am here.」

When she looks up, her face is already badly disfigured, her hair has partially fallen out, and her eyes are a cloudy white from her skin bubbling. This must be what she looked like in her final moments alive.

「……Your Majesty?」

I nod and sit down.

「Who else do I look like? I came to see you.」

I don't know if I look like the king in the past but a girl like her who has lost her reasoning likely won't know either.

And I can imitate an arrogant king pretty well.

My experience acting as a tyrant with Mel and Lilian is paying off.

Tears of blood drip from her melting eye.

Although disgusting, I also feel sorry for her.

「I didn't realize things got like this. Poor girl, if only I noticed sooner.」

「W-weren't you going to throw me away? You colluded with that woman to poison me, no……?」

I bark out, calling her an idiot.

「Of course not. I wouldn't abandon someone as beautiful as you, my beloved.」

The girl's face, which was warping into a monstrous form, returns to a more human appearance.

「B-but my face is rotting from the poison……I can't show it to Your Majesty.」

She takes out a hand-mirror from her bosom.

It's bloody, cracked, and doesn't reflect objects properly, but I'm sure as a ghost she can see herself.

It's a matter of feeling, I guess.

「W-what is this horrible face……almost like a ghost……oh that's right. I decayed alone in my bed and died……don't look, Your Majesty! How could I……!」

Her frenzy stopped when she learned her current state. Now's my chance.

「Calm down, you don't have to hide your beautiful face. Come on, show me those blue eyes of yours.」

Her whitened eyeballs regained their shine.

……they were green. I'll have to press on and gloss over my mistake.

「That silky blonde hair of yours, you combed it everyday for me didn't you?」

Her hair, of which more than half had fallen out, returned.

Her silky……it was black. I'll also have to make an exaggerated gesture here to get past my error.

「Your clear white skin, there wasn't a single blemish.」

Luster returned to her damaged skin.

How pretty……oh, it's tanned.

Not good, I'm getting everything wrong.

Well I'm already this far, I can only keep going.

「You mustn't make such a scary or sad face. Smile, I like it when you do that.」

Her face which was warped in negative emotions reverted to normal.

Phew, I got through somehow.

Anyways, she's quite pretty.

I guess it's natural considering she caught the eyes of the past king enough for her to be invited into the inner palace.

It's too sad for a lovely lady like this to be smeared with ugly grudges.

I know my goal is to ask about the mechanisms in the palace, but if all of them are similar to her, I have to save them all.

The girl checks herself in the hand-mirror, which also seems to have been repaired to its pristine condition, and looks at me in surprise with a hand on her face.

Her voice which echoed throughout the room quieted down, and it can once again only be heard in my mind.

（Your Gracious Majesty. Please call my name.）

Oh no. It's finally come to this.

I can only bet on my luck.

「Hahaha, what are you saying? How can I forget the name of my wife, Seraphine?」

（Hohoho, Your Majesty is always excellent at telling jokes.）

Crap, I was wrong.

What other noble-sounding names are there?

「Emilise.」

（Hohoho.）

Not good, at this rate she'll turn back into a vengeful ghost.

Time for a battle of numbers.

「Clerian! Geneliva! Mercotte! Kiara! Pess! Pochi!」

I'm not getting it. Why?

「Casanoa!」

（That is the name of the toxic woman who poisoned me, Your Majesty.）

My misfire went in the worst direction.

Now that it's come to this, I have to talk to her body.

Just as I put a hand on my cloak, I see the girl shaking.

Looking closer, I see she isn't mad. She's actually giggling with a hand over her mouth.

（It's Neisha. Your Majesty is a liar.）

「Was it that obvious? Sorry.」

I first apologize and then adjust myself into sitting cross-legged, observing Neisha who is now maintaining a stable human shape.

She is still translucent because she's a ghost, but her bright green eyes, black hair and tanned skin compliment her high nose and slightly thick red lips.

Her height is around 150 cm and she has a modest chest and ass, making her barely distinguishable as an adult.

On the contrary, the beauty of her narrow waist and slender limbs stand out.

Her unique outfit and decorations are unlike the clothes of Goldonia, and are similar to those of the southern empire I traveled to before. Of course, what Neisha is wearing is far more gorgeous.

She's been in the inner palace for quite a long time though, so the year in which she was alive is unknown. The culture back then was different than what it is today.

Neisha lowers her head and averts her gaze when she makes eye contact with me, covering her mouth with a paper fan.

（Now that I'm calm, you don't look alike at all. The king I knew was radiantly beautiful and shorter than me. Fufu, you are someone I have to look up to and a savage with bulging muscles, you can't pretend to be His Majesty.)

It's impossible for me to disguise myself as anyone under 160 cm.

「Hmph. Well it doesn't matter how beautiful he was, anyone who lets a lady like you die can't call himself a man. You should get over him for me. Look how manly I am.」

I remove my cape and highlight my muscles.

Neisha shrieks and hides her face in embarrassment of my nakedness. What an innocent reaction.

「I know it's too late to say this, but I'm the one who resents all of you becoming ghosts. If I was alive during your time, I could have saved you. Why was I born after a worthless king who let such beautiful girls die?」

Neisha looks as if she wants to object by glaring at me, but covers her face when I emphasize my muscles again.

（I-it has already happened. Are you seducing the dead?）

「Ghost or spirit or whatever, a woman is a woman and a pretty girl is a pretty girl. You are truly beautiful.」

When I kneel before Neisha, she reflexively offers the back of her hand to me.

As expected of a consort, her movements are automatic.

I give the back of her hand a kiss, but I don't stop there, I pull her in by the arm toward my chest for a hug and even kiss her on the lips.

「Wh-wha-!?」

She immediately makes a sound that isn't in my mind.

Oh so she can choose how to use her voice.

（My lips! How dare you steal the lips of a queen! No matter the age, it is unforgivable――ah.）

Neisha rages in my mind, but when she looks down at her body and realizes her shawl and headdress are gone, she crouches.

Ghosts are like bare souls without a body.

Their appearance depends largely on mental state and can vary from that of a crumbling vengeful ghost like earlier when overwhelmed by resentment to a duplication of their former life when calm.

Excluding weapons and magic that can exorcize demons, their shape is not affected by physical stimuli but rather change by their own soul and mind.

Casie can be flattened and dyed, but she's probably an exception.

「In other words, your clothes disappeared because……」

I circle in front of Neisha and show her more of my body.

（Stop! S-such disrespect!）

Her bellow is fruitless as the cloth around her waist comes undone.

Neisha is getting closer to being naked when she sees my body.

That means she is yearning for a man.

I'm wearing a single pair of underwear and I'm sweaty from that romp of a fight.

I continue to approach her.

（Aah, you must not. That practically naked body covered in sweat is so barbaric.）

Her outer garment disappears like a white mist, causing her to cover her humble breasts with her hands, but her skirt disappears next.

I squat and lift the curled-up Neisha by the back and legs, and then her underwear disappears.

The fully naked Neisha slumps her shoulders and conversely becomes calm.

（How are you able to carry a ghost?）

「I don't know the logic, but I've been able to touch ghost since I was young. That's why I can also carry them.」

I say as I toss the translucent body onto the bed.

（I am married.）

「A man who murders his wife is not a husband. You belong to me now.」

I declare, climbing onto the bed.

（To begin with, didn't you have an important reason for returning me to my senses?）

「I do. But I want to lay with you first. We can talk after.」

Black wisps surround the bed like a fog.

They aren't clamoring much, it seems they just want to watch.

「Now let's make love, woman of the past.」

I stand imposingly and get naked.