Haunted Village: Frightened Family

It was early morning, so Mozuta had expected the villagers to be working in the fields or preparing to do so, but there was no one around. They walked around with Leontina and knocked on some doors, but nobody answered.
“They’re scared,” someone replied. Mozuta turned around and saw a familiar head of blazing red hair. The man from the cemetery had come after them. The boy sighed, but decided to ask the man to find out more.
“Scared?”
“Yes, there’s a ghost,” he answered.
“A g-g-ghost?!” Leontina's excited voice came from under her mask. “What kind of ghost?” She ran to the man, looking him in the eye as she waited for his answer. Her eyes, shiny and honey-like, showed her excitement. The redhead found himself reflected in their golden glow, which captivated him for a moment.
“Umm,” the man said, taken aback by her behavior, and took a step back. “There was a murder recently. A young girl’s body was found in the fields,” he replied.
“A-a-a-and they think that this girl's ghost is the one scaring them?” Leontina came closer to him.
“Scaring is not the right word.” His eyes darted around, trying to avoid her curious gaze. “One of the villagers went to work and never came back. His body was found massacred in the same fields where the girl’s body was found.”
Leontina’s eyes darkened and her hands fell down.
“Did the ghost kill someone?” If the spirit was indeed harming the residents, she had to get rid of it as soon as possible, especially if it resulted in death. 
“Apparently.”
Mozuta gulped as he listened to their conversation, while liho curled up in fear on the ground.
If it killed someone, it could only mean that it’s another Heavy Spirit.
“Do you know more?”
The man shrugged and shook his head. Leontina lowered her gaze in disappointment. They would have to ask the people around them somehow.
“Do you want to learn more?” the man from the graveyard asked. He leaned down towards Leontina and looked into her eyes. Seeing his face reflected in them, he smiled mischievously as he stood up. Mozuta looked at him suspiciously. Meanwhile, the redhead approached one of the doors and stood before it.
“Hello there! Sorry to interrupt your breakfast!" he announced cheerfully, kicking down the door, which fell off its hinges and into the house. An elderly couple and a young man were sitting at the table and froze in fear at the sight of a noble-looking stranger breaking into their house through the front door.
“Oh, right!” The redhead turned to Leontina, Mozuta, and the shivering liho, snuggled up to the Soul Guide's leg. “I am Dargorad. Pleased to meet you!” He grinned and bowed elegantly. “And for you…” He then turned to the family who were hugging each other in fear inside the house. “We’ll have some questions,” he said, beaming.

“That man is crazy,” whispered Mozuta. Leontina and liho both nodded in agreement.
“What are you waiting for? Come in!” The man who had introduced himself as Dargorad came over to them, stepped behind their backs and pushed them inside. The family looked at them with their eyes widened.

“There's no need to be scared. These nice people just have a few questions for you,” said Dargorad, smiling as he stood up straight and pointed at the trio. “I’ll introduce them for you. First, a suspicious girl in a mask, her child servant and a troublesome cat.” He then gestured towards the scared family. “And the three people here are poor villagers who think they’re going to die of a heart attack.”
“Stop the jokes,” Mozuta scowled at the man. “You scared them.”
"I made a space for us to talk. You should be thankful,” Dargorad smiled.
Liho looked at Dragorad irritably and snorted. Then it cuddled up to his leg, and when he was walking into the house, he tripped up on the threshold.
“I hope you’ll like the dusty floor,” grinned Mozuta.
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t dusty. Just very hard,” the redhead answered as he stood up.
Leontina sighed and extended her hand towards liho, which jumped onto it and nestled around the girl’s neck.
“I-I’m t-t-t-truly sorry,” she said, lowering her head in apology to the family. She put her hand on her chest and took a deep breath to calm her voice. “I-I heard there’s a ghost h-here. I-I can help you with it.” They were still taken aback by her and the others, and were visibly trembling. Leontina bit her lip. How could she make them less afraid of her? They had just burst in through the forced-open door and demanded information about the ghost that had killed someone. Wait, perhaps... She took a deep breath, crouching down in front of the three terrified people huddled under the table.
Her hands were shaking as she took off her mask for a second. She didn’t reveal her whole face, only half of it. Her beautiful eyes, shiny skin, and gorgeous dark locks, which came out of the hood, captivated the family. When they focused on the beautiful face gazing in their direction, Leontina smiled shyly at them.
“I-I apologise f-for this u-unwelcome intrusion i-into your v-valuable family t-time this m-morning. I-I t-truly mean it. B-b-but I need you to tell me s-something about the ghost. I-I can t-take care of it.” Leontina managed to express what she wanted to say. However, she couldn’t bear to have her face exposed, even partially, any longer. She hid it behind a mask and pulled the hood down over her head.
Why had she shown them her face? Perhaps if they saw that she was human underneath it would reassure them. Thank goodness she looked like one during the day. But what if they were stunned by her beauty and wouldn't be able to say anything?
That’s how Mozuta interpreted Leontina’s uncontrollable shaking.

“See? The girl is nice and wants to help,” Dargorad joined in. “Why don’t you tell us what you know about the dead girl?”
The people stood up and moved towards Leontina, ignoring the red-headed man completely.
“Are you a Soul Guide?” asked the elderly man, helping the girl stand up.
Leontina looked up at his wrinkled face. His eyes were full of worry.
“Y-yes, I am,” she replied.
Dargorad’s eyes darkened at her answer. He gritted his teeth, left the house, leaned against the outside wall and listened in.
Mozuta gazed after him. His suspicions about the man from the graveyard remained strong.

The family felt that the strangers would not leave them alone until they revealed what they knew. So, they invited Leontina and Mozuta to join them at the table. Liho hid deeper in Leontina’s hood. Then one of the plates fell. They all flinched at the sound.

They will need to have the conversation quickly before liho can cause any more damage.

“That girl was our daughter,” said the old man, his eyes misty. His wife embraced him, trying to comfort him, even though she was clearly suffering too. Her eyes were red and ringed with dark circles.
“And my would-be wife,” the young man added, his voice breaking. He didn’t look up. His gaze was fixed on his tightly clasped hands. The older woman extended her hand and patted him on the head.
“We don’t know what happened. We found her there one day and...” The elderly man cast down his eyes and started weeping. Just by looking at him, the other two had tears pouring down their cheeks too.
“We buried her last week,” the elder added. It was still a fresh memory for them.

“I’m sorry to ask but do you know anyone who held a grudge against her?” Mozuta kept asking. He would prefer to leave them but he knew he had to help Leontina learn as much as they could.

“I don’t know. She was a nice girl. How could anyone hate this kind soul?”

Leontina lost herself in thought. Suddenly, she stood up and started looking around. Mozuta and the family, two elders and their would-be son-in-law, stared after her.

For a village house, the room was quite spacious. Usually, people living in villages had no more than two rooms, not counting the small hallway where they kept water and farming tools. But here it was different. Immediately after Dargorad kicked the door down, they found themselves in a spacious guest room with a fireplace and a table with stools, not a small hall with rakes. The white walls were decorated with colorful floral paintings. The window was quite big and hidden behind a lovely white curtain. There were also two doors leading to other rooms. When she was in Mozuta’s house, there hadn't been any other doors besides the one leading into the house.
This could only mean one thing. Despite being villagers, they were quite wealthy.

“W-what d-do you do for a living?” she asked the elderly man. Her eyes glistened.
“I am a miller,” he replied, surprised by her question.
She clapped her hands.
That checked out. Millers had an important job grinding raw crops into flour used to make food such as bread. They were essential to the local economy and constantly interacted with farmers, bakers and lords. Although some people looked at them suspiciously, fearing they might cheat them by skimming extra grain or short-changing them, they still earned enough to be considered wealthy. This house was proof of that.
“Where’s the m-m-mill?” she asked, sitting down at the table and locking eyes with the elderly man.

“At the end of my would-be son-in-law’s field.”

Leontina’s eyes flashed, and she turned her gaze to the young man.
“W-w-w-were you two supposed to marry to join your lands?”
The young man looked at her angrily. “Yes, but we really loved each other!” he shouted and declared his feelings for the deceased girl. “I loved her!”
The man was offended and averted his gaze from the people who had broken into his house and were asking about his deceased loved one. He was clearly irritated, and his mood affected the elderly people accompanying him. Suddenly, another plate fell. Leontina took this as a sign that they should leave the property.
“T-t-thank you for your time,” said Leontina, getting up from the table. “S-s-s-sorry for making a mess of your home. H-here,” she said, putting her hand in her bag and taking out two golden coins, which she placed on the table. “I-I hope it’s enough to fix the b-b-broken door.” She bowed to them and left their house, Mozuta following behind her.

“Did you learn everything you wanted?” asked Dargorad, who was waiting patiently outside. Leontina shook her head.
“T-t-there’s something I need to know, b-b-but I wouldn’t be able to get the answer from them now.”
“Then what now?” Mozuta raised his head to look at his mistress.
Leontina pondered for a while and extended her hand to the small animal, which was hiding in her hood.
“C-can you stay here a-and observe this family?” she asked the animal, which squeaked happily in response.
Dargorad laughed at her question. “And how exactly will it answer you, even if it sees something suspicious?”
Leontina felt her ears turn red. That’s true. How could she talk to a small animal, even if it was a magical demonic creature?
Dargorad sighed and approached the liho. He moved his hand towards it, ignoring its hissing. Instead of patting it, however, a small black flame appeared and gently caressed the creature’s small head. When Leontina saw this, she looked at Dargorad in shock. She motioned towards Mozuta, forcing the boy to move away from the redhead.

“Don’t worry, I won’t do anything to you.”

“H-h-h-h-how can I believe in chort’s words?” she said, her tone freezing. Chorts are demons' human servants. They helped the demons capture souls and take them to the Selew. Their methods differed from those of the Soul Guide.
The Soul Guide dealt with souls that had reached the point of no return and turned black, gray or white.
Chorts, on the other hand, targeted the living.
As long as a person was alive, there was still a chance to change the colour of their soul and save themselves from Selew.
However, the hhorts ignored this and cast the souls of living people into Selew by means of contracts laden with hidden traps.
What is more, the people they targeted weren’t limited to the evil ones.

“The soul of that child from the graveyard vouched for me,” Dargorad answered with a mischievous smile.

Leontina recalled holding the dead child’s hand. Its soul was already in Weles, but she could hear it's voice, thanks to the close contact to their body, and it said that the man they had met had helped it. He buried the child's body near his dear parents and punished the one who took his life. She herself had said that they could trust him.
But he still was a chort.

She sighed.

“O-okay. W-what did you do?” she asked, pointing to liho’s head, which had been touched by black flames just a second ago.
“I joined its senses with mine,” he replied, stroking the animal's head vigorously. “Whatever it hears or sees, I will too,” he explained, as a pigeon pooped on his left shoulder. He scowled and raised his hand. “Lihos are really the worst sometimes,” he said, snapping his fingers. Instantly, black flames consumed the dirt.
“I-I’ll try my b-best to trust you,” Leontina said.
“And I’ll keep an eye on you to see if you do anything funny,” added Mozuta, casting an unpleasant look at the chort.
“Okay, do what you want,” conceded Dargorad, raising his hands. “What now?”
“W-w-we’ll inspect the scene,” announced Leontina, looking intently at the fields beyond the village.