Alice Baskerville had arrived in the morning into Magnolia and in the Bed & Breakfast where she had stayed a couple more times. She was sitting at the kitchen table where she was sitting there to read a newspaper at the moment. While reading the newspaper she was tapping her cheek with her right hand and her left hand holding onto a cup of coffee. It had been a while since she had coffee and she was rather satisfied for being able to drink it again. There was no one else in the Bed & Breakfast at the moment, or not that she knew. Her companions were both curled up and sleeping infront of the fireplace where a nice fire was burning to keep the people inside warm. It looked like outside there was a storm brewing, apparently the wind was making loud noises and knocking on the building but Alice didn't care for as long as she could stay inside.

She turned the page of the newspaper and took a sip of coffee. She wondered even though she was reading the newspaper, what she should do. She came to Magnolia with not really a plan and now she was sitting here, not doing actually anything. As if she needed another holiday, she hadn't much things the last couple of weeks. She turned another page of the newspaper and stared at a black and white picture of a girl, the title of the newspaper said that she was found dead in strange circumstances. She quickly read it, apparently she had been the only one alive in a mansion and since no one knew, she probably died on having no food and all. She found it a bit creepy and also very sad to read. She took a deep breath and closed the paper, if only people would investigate more, she thought from time to time. For now this case, it was too late.

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Today was just like any other day, the weather was dull with a gentle constant gust of wind heading eastward lazily pushing the low-hang storm clouds that concealed the glare of the rising sun from the public of Magnolia town. Most were still fast asleep with thick blankets draped over them for warmth with the weather still bitterly cold. Kon however was not the greatest of sleepers with him choosing to fair the storm out for a moment on the porch of the bed and breakfast he was staying in. Truth be told he had chosen this establish for his temporary residence in the hopes to see Alice as she had appeared to have left hargeon town before him without leaving a message.

Looking outward to the storm itself, he slid his hand through into the interior sleeve of his suit retrieving a silver flask, Leaning on the railing of the porch with his elbows resting on it, he twisted off the cap before drinking directly from a silver flask containing an unknown liquid. Sighing heavily, he returned the flask into his jacket before heading back inside. Much to his surprise upon entering the interior of the building he spotted someone, his pregnant wife to be Alice. Wanting to surprise her, he sneaked his way over to her a relatively easy task with him wearing dress shoes and the floor being that of a rich carpet which unlike wood floors concealed all potential squeaks which might occur on such a surface.

Step by step he drew closer to her as she remained distracted by her reading, it was only until she closed the newspaper that she was reading that he pounced on her from behind with a hug clasping completely around her upper torso before giving her a gentle kiss on her left cheek. “Hello Alice, I noticed you started travelling again?”

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Had she just finished the newspaper and the next thing happened and she couldn't help but let out a yelp before she felt a kiss on her cheek and heard Konstantin! "You must be very glad that I don't use Requip magic and suddenly summon a spear." She said but she couldn't help laughing and grinned from ear to ear because she was happy to see him. "I did, I wanted to make sure that I could do jobs again and there was something about a carnival in Worth Woodsea. Jupiter protected me very well." She said as she turned in her chair to look at her fiance. "I needed to see what it was about for the Knights. They didn't seem to be very happy with me the last couple of weeks." Which made her not look at Kon for a second before turning back to look at him. She wasn't entirely sure what she was trying to proof, "I am able to use magic again though it is not requip. It is.. I don't know I call it Solar Magic. Since it seems to represent that."

She stood up to lean against the table when she noticed something behind them. And yet she thought she had seen everything in the carnival. She quickly went to sit down and opened her mouth to say anything, "Right.. for a second I thought I saw a ghost.. like the girl I just read in the newspaper." Which wasn't but a dream or anything, the ghost of the little girl moved closer towards them, around Konstantin so she would be above the kitchen table, "You are not dreaming. Here I am. I just noticed you read the article about me. I need help." Alice couldn't help but stare at the child, would she be able to help a ghost? She wasn't entirely sure if she still wasn't dreaming so she looked at Konstantin to make sure he was seeing it too.

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Fortunately for the holy knight, Alice took his little joke lightly responding with similar enthusiasm willing to even joke about her own shortcoming as she now lacked a key component of old herself. Even now though she was guarded by her companions thus acting as a substitute until she had gained something that she herself would be able to use which much to Kon’s surprised had occurred; Alice obtained “solar” magic how she got it and what it could do wasn’t mentioned so he followed up with Alice’s comments including those explaining her disappearance. “Interesting, solar magic hmm?, What made you decide to call it that?, And sorry did you just say there’s a carnival...in a forest…?” His confusion wasn’t unfounded even with the strange oddities that were spread out across the country things like that still amused him.

Before he could get a response, he watched as Alice left her chair albeit with slight difficulty due her increased size and made her way over a nearby table only to promptly sit on it with amazement written all over her face commenting about a ghost. Chuckling to himself not recognising the matter with the ghost approaching them silently from behind him, he responded while motioning his head left to right to try and get a clear view of any potential spirits. “I don’t see anything?, Are you feeling okay?” His questions were swiftly cast aside with the ghost revealing her presence and requesting their hand. Feinting surprise he stepped back raising his hand to gesture an attempted concealment of amazement. “Oh my a ghost.”

Considering himself a friend to good spirits particularly now, he would be more than willing to aid the ghost of a child with her needs. “What is it that you need from us?” With some tears running down her face she explained how she used to live in a mansion here at Magnolia town but had died after her family were murdered by a rival criminal organisation that later torched the mansion while she was inside playing with her toys. Wondering what she wanted from them, he questioned her bluntly. “What do you need from us?”


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While she wanted to explain more and say more, she was distracted. A ghost appeared and Alice had never seen one before, she did not really understand why it spoke to them. The girl or well the ghost mentioned that Alice had just read an article about her and her hazel eyes looked at the paper. She had not want to read the article for it sounded terrible and she had only looked at the title before shutting the paper. Did ghost hear thoughts when it was about them? It all felt very creepy and for a second she only tried to focus on one thing in her mind: the golden ring around her ringfinger but the ghost wad obviously still there.

Compared to her, Konstantin remained calm and it was while she was looking at him that she recalled the magic he used to work with. He probably had seen hundreds of spirits. She did not say much, let him do the talking. As he asked why the ghost needed help, the child started to cry and Alice felt so sad for her. She took a step closer to stand directly next to Konstantin and hold his hand. Without thinking she gave a soft squeeze when she heard the story that she had tried to avoid a minute ago. Kon asked the child what she needed them for and the child answered while still sobbing; "I want my teddy. It has been with me forever. Please get it out of the house and bring it to my grave. I tried to find the most capable people and that is how I came here." Which made Alice stare at her, "Capable for what? I bet everyone could find your teddy bear if you point out the house where they need to go." she said in a friendly voice. However the child started to sob again telling her the house was haunted. Oh great it would be a bit of a different task than. She looked at Kon, wondering what he thought before she carefully said: "We could always try, don't you think?"

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While he spoke to the ghost, his attention switched from the hovering entity to his fiancee who approached him only to hold his hand as the ghost responded, revealing that she needed her teddy bear of all things requiring them to enter her former home, obtain the teddy bear before placing it on the grave. Curious about what made them worthy of being able to do such a task Alice question the girl with her revealing that her toys were the things which had been haunting the mansion, promptly him to sigh heavily in respond before exclaiming. “Well this will be fun…” Alice meanwhile seemed to take a far more positive stance of the matter, wanting to see that request in the same light, he reevaluated the job weighing up the difficulty and their potential to work past such hardships. “Okay, I think we can do this, now I don’t exactly know where this mansion is would you able to tell us, or better yet lead us to it?” Twirling around happily a few times before stopping and looking at Kon, she nodded agreeing to take them there, Turning in the direction to the exit, she called them out and into the storm with her merely phasing through the door that separated interior from the weather.

While he was no longer a Neko and thus less affected by weather such as this, he recognised Alice as still being one, because of this just before he opened the door once more, he pulled out an umbrella from a stand and thrust it towards her. “Here you’re going to need this.” Assuming Alice would take this, he would simply retrieve his cloak that still slung over a hook on a wall and donned it swiftly. “Come we must hurry before the ghost runs off too quickly.” Ready to endure the full brunt of the storm, he opened the door once more and stepped out onto the porch. Fortunately the ghost was waiting for them at the edge of the porch tapping one of her feet nervously against the floor. “Let’s go, let’s go.” The impatience of the girl was questionable, but he refrained from making any comments to Alice at least for now. Wanting to begin the journey himself, he waved his gloved right hand upward at the ghost, “After you.” With a smile the girl jumped up and beginning to hover once more before racing off to the right. “Oh crap, she’s fast.” Sprinting off after he hoped that Alice would be able to keep up with them both, but even with the pregnancy she was still the strongest and fastest of the couple. Eventually they would reached the front of the mansion with Kon’s cloak soaking wet from the constant downpour of rain, wanting to get out of the wet clothing he would comment to both the ghost and alice once they both arrived. “Bloody hell let’s get inside I’m soaked to the bone.”


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She wasn't entirely sure if she was able to do it but Konstantin should be able to be much braver than was she was. Besides, she wanted to help the child. She felt so sorry for it. She listened to the rest of the story but the idea of a Haunted Mansion didn't make her a very happy neko. She didn't want to show this cowardly side, so she simply said that they would take the job and looked at Kon to see his reaction, which she couldn't entirely read. She was glad that he wanted to take the job as well, asking the kid if she would lead them towards the mansion, which made the ghost very happy apparently. Alice couldn't help but smile but that changed quickly when they had to follow the ghost outside and she noticed the weather. Blergh: rain.

She looked at the downpour with a rather sad expression before she quickly grabbed the umbrella that was thrown in her eyesight, she looked at Konstantin with a warm smile, "Tha.. you are no longer a neko?" how had she not noticed, she still had wanted to thank him and said that, before she had to agree that they would have to hurry outside. Because Kon was right, the ghost would go quite quickly outside. She ignored the rain and whistled once for Jupiter and Hecate to follow her, they didn't like the rain as well. The Ghost waited at the edge of the porch and didn't look all too happy to be waiting. For a second Alice doubted her motive until she simply understood that if your goal was so close in hand, you could no longer wait and she hurried after the ghost, which was quite difficult with an umbrella and the wind. She should have taken her leather jacket with her.

The ghost of the small girl easily disappeared inside the house, not bothered by the door and Alice looked at Konstantin and she felt the way he looked: drenched. So she opened the door and took a deep breath; she didn't like haunted things for obvious reasons. However she stepped into the hallway, no idea where the girl named Annabell had been. With one last look at Konstantin she shuffled forward to be careful to make too much noise, when she opened the door from the huge hallway towards the next room, she couldn't help but yelp: a ghost had tried to scare her. She took a few steps back, "Oh great." But she noticed Annabell, being very quiet and sitting at the stairs, "Up here." so she followed.

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Little to no hesitation was placed with the ghost simply phasing through the door of the mansion just as she had in leaving the bed and breakfast, while Alice took the lead on their part choosing to have him follow up behind which he didn’t mind as even in her condition with her new magic she would be much better off fighting head off instead of him. Regardless of the circumstances at the moment Kon was little more than a supportive mage as he no longer had armour nor a weapon which left him rather vulnerable. Interestingly upon entering the mansion Alice was spooked by another ghost most likely a brother of the ghost that they had been following. Only a handful of words were shared between the party with the ghost only revealing the location of her room by pointing upward to the stairs about 10 meters away from them before going upward herself with Alice going after her. Kon gave them a wider berth instead choosing to close the mansion door and follow them as they reached the top of the stairs.

Reaching the top himself revealed something rather odd about the building, as it had been torched many years ago he suspected it to be in a state of decay and disrepair confused about this he commented it to the two of them. “Uhh why is everything all new?” Rolling her eyes the ghost turned to look at the holy Knight explaining how sometimes people would try to restore the place though would be quickly spooked out of their by her room. Walking past many closed doors, the condition of the hallway grew increasingly damaged with a fine dark smoke gradually forming below them. “Uhh, what the fuck is this?” Shrugging off the unusual smoke the ghost merely said it’s just bob. “What or who is bob?” A cheeky grin drew on the girl’s face as they continued onward to her room while noticeably loud footstep charged their way from their rear. “That’s bob.”

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Bob? What or better who was bob? That's when she felt the floor rumbling and she stared at Konstantin with big eyes, she didn't like this at all. Why was she such a coward lately! She turned around to look at a huge bear, "That's the thing we have to bring to you?" she said surprised while Jupiter hished at it and Hecate growled as well. How would they do that! She stared at it, for it didn't seem to plan to attack them, boy she wished she could be holding on to a spear right now and she was on the verge of using her claws but tried to be nice. "Can't it walk to you?" she asked, avoiding the word grave. "When it gets outside, it won't be able to walk anymore." Of course not, that would make things far too easy. "Well I guess it wants to reunite with you, should it walk to the door so we could bring it to you?"

If everything would go according to her plan that would save them the problem with the stairs and Annabell would be able to guide the huge Bob to the front door. "Please tell me it stopped raining?" she asked Kon but she would have to simply do with not being able to carry the umbrella and Bob at the same time. If only they could spell him into walking but she would have no idea how. If the plan was to carry him to Annabell her grave, she would lift it and let Jupiter and Hecate walk underneath the middle to make sure the teddy bear wouldn't touch the ground. Unless Kon had a better plan she was up for that.

But at least they would get the teddy bear to her and Annabell thanked them and even though it was some sort of weird charity works, she was rather satisfied they did that. "Let's go back to the bed & breakfast. I want to hear how you stopped being a neko." she said and giving him a smile, "I would tell you about my magic in return."

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Exit

Fortunately the stomps were only that of the girl’s bear that seemed to have a spirit of its own which initially alarmed him but after giving it a moment of thought he understood that considering that the child had been turned into a ghost it only made sense for her toys. It seemed that the spirit of the bear only remained active when it was inside meanwhile the ghost seemed freely able to move about anywhere regardless of circumstances though their cases were different. With the teddy found, the party would return downstairs with Alice question kon about the weather evidently concerned about the rain due to her still being a Neko. Interesting Alice seemed to want to pick up the teddy bear herself though wanting to relief the otherwise over encumbered Alice he simply upon exiting the mansion while underneath the porch cast down Seraphiel from the skies, and had it fly the teddy bear for them. “See that might be a bit easier.” The trip to the graveyard was bittersweet with the ghost finally being able to rest at peace albeit with her life being cut short due to unforeseen circumstances. Wishing the two of them goodbye as Kon had his summon land the teddy bear on the graveyard, he responded promptly to Alice’s recommendation. “Yes, let’s go back.”

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