100CIM - Chapter 223



Simone, who heard Jace's story, said with a serious face.

“Is the song that the girl is playing ‘Für Elise’?”

“Huh? El...Lize...?”

Oh, I guess not. I was just saying.

Simone looked at the main building, smiling sheepishly as if nothing had happened.

When it comes to music room ghost stories, there are usually stories about the piano being played by itself when no one is there. But surprisingly, she's never heard a ghost story about a student playing the piano.

'Anything goes.'

Simone dusted the plaster off her shoes and headed toward the main building.

“Hi.”

“Simone, are you very tired? Well, rest for a bit, and then...”

“I can rest here after I finish my work.”

After absorbing all the ghosts in the Academy, unless the Demon King is sealed again or Abel arrives earlier than expected, well, even if she doesn't have time to faint, she'll have at least some time to sleep.

The reason Simone is so stressed is that it's such a waste of time to go back and forth between the academy and the mansion twice.

But.

“...”

Simone looked up at the sky. The sun was slowly setting.

It's like she's been running around and exercising all day.

She wants to wash up quickly and go to sleep.

She feels a bit dizzy because she can't seem to get into the possession of the villainess Young Lady.

It was when Simone was looking at the clear sunset and she couldn't help but laugh out loud.

“Lady Simone.”

Jace called her softly. When Simone saw him, Jace stared at the main building, or rather, the main building's window, and said.

“Can you hear the music?”

"Music...?"

Simone listened intently, her eyes widening in surprise.

“The sound of the piano...”

The sound of a piano could be heard from the main building, where everyone had evacuated and no one was there. Simone turned her head to check the Academy's clock tower.

It was now early evening. If Anasis hadn't shown up, it would have been quite some time after all classes had ended.

The sound of a piano is occasionally heard in the locked music room after school.

Even today, when so many students have died, the sound of the piano that has become a strange rumor can still be heard.

Simone walked to the main building indifferently. It was a good thing. She had been wondering how to uncover the rumors and bring out the ghost, but she never thought it would come to her on its own.

Jace, who had been absentmindedly listening to the piano performance, suddenly ran over and hugged Simone.

“I think he’s the ghost of a student who was good at playing the piano.”

“Oh. I don’t think so.”

Simone said, stretching her body in a relaxed manner.

“Isn’t that too bad for that?”

“Yes? Um...”

Jace smiled, his face showing that he didn't understand what Simone was saying.

“I guess it’s because my knowledge of music is still lacking. To me, it sounds like you play really well.”

“Heh heh.”

Simone shrugged her shoulders as if she didn't agree at all.

“Well, there are differences in taste.”

Simone stopped in front of the music room and covered her ears tightly. Then she took her hands off.

'Ouch, my ear hurts...'

The sound of the piano in the music room is so loud it hurts her ears. This noise...

Simone opened the door to the music room with a frown.

Squeak-

As the old iron door opened, the sound of the piano became clearer. Simone quietly looked toward the place where the sound of the piano was coming from.

Then he quietly asked Jace.

“Do you see... something?”

“Yes... I can see it, Simone.”

“What do you see?”

At Simone's question, Jace turned his head and looked in the direction of the piano.

“I see a student in a school uniform... With long hair... Oh, and there’s blood flowing from her fingers. He looks exactly like the ghost in the rumors.”

“What kind of posture is it?”

"... Yes?"

Simone asked again, her eyes fixed on the piano.

“What posture does it have when playing the piano?”

“What kind of posture is it...”

Jace looked at the piano-playing ghost with an expression that said he didn't understand.

She just sits upright, her head bowed and continues to play with blood dripping from her hands.

"Just..."

Just say it.

Simone looked at the ghost and asked again.

“What is she playing?”

“It sounds like an ordinary sonata. I don’t know the title of the piece though.”

“So, Master Jace, you’re saying that it sounds like... a performance?”

“Huh? Yes, did I say something weird?”

Simone's reaction was very strange. When Jace asked her while watching her expression, Simone stared at the ghost again and said.

“It’s strange.”

“Uh, what is it...”

“To me, it doesn’t sound like playing, it just sounds like a lot of tapping noise.”

Not only that. Contrary to Jace's statement that she was just playing the piano, the ghost was watching the two of them.

She was sitting facing away from the piano, looking at Simone and Jace with bloodshot eyes, and playing the piano with her arms completely bent behind her back.

Since she is playing with her back to the piano, it is obvious that she is not playing the piano and it just sounds like she is hitting the piano wherever her hands are.

What the two people saw and heard seemed to be very different.

“...Well, it doesn’t matter.”

Simone looked at it for a moment, then took the amulet and stepped forward.

She doesn't look particularly aggressive, just in terms of her appearance, and even if she were to attack, it would be at a level where it could be easily subdued when her energy level was low.

If you don't have time, you don't have to think too much, just absorb it...

“Don’t come!!!!!!!!!”

Simone took a step back without realizing it at the loud noise.

The ghost screamed and yelled for the building to fall. Jace hurriedly came over and stood next to Simone.

“Um, why is that all of a sudden...”

Simone patted him, who seemed very embarrassed, and looked at her expressionlessly.

She would shout with a surprisingly loud voice, enough to drown out the sound of the piano, but despite her threatening appearance, she didn't look like she was going to attack.

'Then let's just watch for a little while.'

Simone's posture became a little more comfortable.

Unless it's a very dangerous situation, there's no need to be rude and call her a ghost. But she can't wait that long. Simone's body can't hold out for that long.

As soon as Simone stopped approaching, the ghost also became quiet. She was still staring at the two of them, but instead of shouting anymore, she was just busy playing the piano.

How did she end up playing the piano here all this time? What is the story?

Why on earth did she play so hard that her fingernails fell off and her fingertips split open? The blood that flowed from the woman’s hands soon seeped under the wooden floor.

A little time passed like that. The woman who finished playing took her hands off the piano with a faint smile on her face, as if she was satisfied.

That was it. The girl was quietly absorbed into Simone's magic stone, and no one would hear the sound of the piano after school anymore.

“What on earth could that spirit be?”

Jace asked, looking at the empty piano. Jace also didn't seem to understand the ghost's actions. The student was absorbed after just playing a piano piece.

Of course, the soul seemed to have no other thoughts than playing the piano.

Simone looked down at the floor in silence. The wooden floor that had soaked through her blood.

Yes, blood had soaked through the floor. The traces were strangely clear.

If it was a ghost, then it would be natural for any traces of it to disappear as soon as it is absorbed into the magic stone.

'Then that bloodstain...'

Simone uncrossed her arms, trying to endure the noise, and approached the place. She then pressed down on the marks a few times and tried to tear them off with her hands.

“Simone! Your hand hurts! Let me do it!”

Jace ran over and grabbed the board from Simone's hands, threw it away, and checked her hand.

Then he started to tear off the area around the board that Simone had torn off. Then suddenly he stopped when he saw a white envelope underneath the board.

“Simone, here’s an envelope. Shall I take it out and hand it to you?”

“Oh, thank you.”

When Simone held out her hand, Jace took out an envelope, shook it out, and handed it to her. Simone flipped the envelope over and over, then ripped it open without hesitation and took out the contents.

What came out was a piece of paper that appeared to be a will.

[Everything in the family belongs to the older brother who will become the head of the family.

I know that. But at least music wasn't fair to all brothers.

Even if the family fortunes are in decline, why would the Lord take music away from all the brothers except for my older brother?


Why do you forbid my brothers from playing and tell them to yield everything to him?

And even after all this, can we still call our Illax family the family of musicians of the empire?

I don't know. I really don't know.


The Lord must know that taking away my instrument and forbidding me to play it is no different from destroying my life, which I have devoted all my time and effort to the piano to become a musician for the palace.

Now, no one will listen to my playing anymore.


Could there be a more hopeless and unfortunate life than this?"


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