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Finally, the main dish.

I, Lady, smile as I watch Lucia wander through the darkness.

The area is shrouded in thick darkness. The corridors are barely illuminated by the moonlight, making it difficult for even the most skilled Hunters to see through them. That is…… Unless you have special eyes like Saya Kuromizu.

Lucia’s face is drained of color. She is not crying or screaming yet, but her movements indicate a strong sense of tension and fear.

I feel my lost strength slowly returning.

I have no intention of killing her. If I wanted to kill her, I would not have used so much power to separate Saya and Lucia. I want her to stay in this space as long as possible and savor her fear. There aren’t many Hunters who react so well just from having their feet grabbed by sprouting hands.

It seems that Lucia is using Magic to check her surroundings. It is useless. In this Treasure Shrine, presence detection and life detection don’t function properly. However, she probably hasn’t noticed that yet.

I sent Lucia to a different location in the field that closely resembled Zebrudia Magic Academy, where she had been until now. If I wanted to completely separate her from Saya, it would have been better to send her to a prison or another area, but I chose to send her to a location familiar to her. It is still some distance from where Saya is, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

The fear that arises precisely because it is a familiar space is undeniably real. In addition, if it were a completely unknown space, there was a possibility that she would turn from being a frightened girl to being a Hunter facing the unknown.

Lucia cannot be subjected to 『Nightmare Cage』. That is because the thing that frightens her the most is not easily reproducible. However, even without using that, Lucia has already lost her composure. She still has a little bit of sanity left, but if there is even one trigger, she would collapse and scream.

The only thing left to decide is who would scare Lucia, but――.

“………………” (Lady)

Before I know it, a large number of Phantoms created by the 【Star God’s Miniature Garden】 have gathered around me.

Within this Treasure Shrine, I have a strong authority in order to investigate fear. However, I have no knowledge of the Phantoms that appear within it.

That is decided by the Star God.

The Phantoms in this Treasure Shrine, recreated using Mana Materials based on memories of past horrors, are truly diverse.

There are many Phantoms shaped like humans like me, but also monstrous types shaped like Monster Diggy. There are beasts whose existence is incomprehensible, such as Demon Shark, as well as incorporeal entities such as ghosts and inorganic creatures such as killer robots. Of course, not all of them are effective against modern humans. Especially in this era, with the existence of Monsters and Phantoms, half-baked monsters cannot even scare ordinary people.

A Phantom that cannot inspire fear has no value in this Treasure Shrine. If they are not feared for too long, they will lose their power and disappear.

Everyone, is desperately trying to intimidate people because they don’t want to disappear.

“What, you lot? You didn’t even show up when we were fighting Saya.” (Lady)

“…………” (Phantom)

When I turn my gaze toward them, children with identical faces stare back silently. A blood-soaked woman constantly crawling on the ground chasing after her target, and a monster in a white coat wearing an Oni mask and carrying a sword. A bear whose body parts have been mechanized and possesses human-level intelligence, known as the man-eating Blue, and an orchestra composed of translucent ghosts floating in the air. A creature that mimics the form of a baby, startling you the moment you pick it up. Other Phantoms that make one wonder if they are really symbols of fear, all look at me as if they have something to say.

You never show up when I need help, yet you expect to take all the good parts for yourself.

“I am the one who cornered them all the way here. You lot should just quietly sip the fear from the captives!” (Lady)

Even if I make a concession and share Lucia with someone, it would be with Monster Diggy. At least he is working.

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“………… Fresh, fear……” (Phantom)

The child monster mutters this. I frown at those words.

“We――” (Phantom)

“We’re doing as we’re told……” (Phantom)

“Grr…… Rrrh……” (Phantom)

Fear becomes familiar. I have instructed these timid Phantoms, incapable of much to frighten the captured people, but the amount of fear they gain diminished with each repetition. This is especially true since we do not physically harm the people we capture. Killing one or two of the captives in front of them as a warning would produce intense fear, but I, who is in charge of the whole operation, am not the type of monster whose main job is to kill, which is probably another reason why the others are accumulating stress.

The hard-to-use murder-seeking types are currently on their way to eliminate Saya, so those protesting here are still relatively reasonable.

For me, the fear I can take is greater if I monopolize all to myself, but in this case, it would be better to share. Given Lucia’s potential, she would still be pretty scared.

“…… It cannot be helped. Fine. But we have to go in order. Attack to the point where she is on the verge of fainting. Don’t make her too angry――” (Lady)

Of all the people I have kidnapped so far, Lucia is definitely one of the most scaredy-cats. I don’t think we will need to resort to tricks like I did when I approached Hugh. However, if we overdo it, she might end up breaking down mentally.

I have said to Saya that I would destroy Lucia’s mind to shake her up, but I have no intention of doing something so meaningless. After all, a broken mind yields no fear.

§ § §

The more I looked into the Spirited Away case, the more I had a bad feeling about it. However, I never imagined that something like this existed behind the scenes――.

It feels absolutely awful. However, no matter how reluctant I am, I have to keep moving forward.

I, Lucia Roje, carefully navigate my way through the strange world modeled after Zebrudia Magic Academy.

The muscles in my face are tense. And I can feel my heart beating hard.

Ever since I was old enough to understand things, I have been afraid of darkness like this. Still, if I have someone with me, I can still somehow manage it, but when I walk alone, I find myself thinking about silly things.

I thought I would be able to overcome this in order to reach higher heights as a Hunter, but in the end, I am unable to do so. I have learned many Magic spells and gained combat experience, but I remain bad at things that I am bad at. Even so, if it had been a normal monster, it wouldn’t have been a problem, but the ones that appear here are the worst match for me.

This is probably, a Treasure Shrine. The girl who appeared is most certainly a Phantom too. I know this in my head, but my emotions just won’t follow.

Thanks for reading! So many variety of Phantom, it is true that sometime if you take the monsters that show up in video games or movie out of their context and just look at them they can be less scary You really need the mood and atmosphere that goes with it for them to be scary So when I read Lady side of the story, I just can’t see them as something scary but more like a bunch of kids trying to scare people

Also have you seen Strange Grief Episode 15? Looks like first part was from the Short Story with Tino and the Sand Rabbit. I’m kinda mixed about that as it is new content from the short story! But at the same time, it is content from a short story… I want plushies of the chibi Strange Grief that Cry created! Mask Tino being trying to take her Master~ for herself and yelling at Liz and Sytry was funny Altobaran has a female voice actor so I was seriously wondering if he was a girl or not but I am pretty sure he is a man and their introduction to Arnold was so dramatic XD And of course the toilet escape and Ark big head mod loool! This episode was meh as it was more setup than anything but next episode will be the beginning of Cry’s vacation, let’s gooooo!