A of Astral Projection
Gowther had to admit, the four years old Gwen was a fascinating girl. Smart one. Couldn't forget it.
"Astral Projection (or astral travel) is a term used in esotericism to describe an intentional out-of-body experience (OBE) that assumes the existence of a soul or consciousness called an 'Astral Body' that is separate from the physical body and capable of traveling outside it throughout the universe", Gwen put down the book in her hands on the table before whispering to Gowther "nee, Uncle Gowt, can you do this Astral Projection? This is kinda cool. Wonder if mommy, daddy, or one of the Sins can do it too or not?".
Gowther intrigued with her reaction "unfortunately, I can't, Gwen. I also don't know about the other Sins".
Gwen seriously learned about Astral Projection and Gowther only observed her. Who knew what kind of trouble it would lead after it?
The Sins said in unison "a ghost?".
Diane shivered "uh, I'm not too attached to this kind of story, so can you just tell us the details?".
King agreed with Diane "like... I mean, a real ghost? Really?".
Ban rolled his eyes in disbelief "oi, Zara, Dreyfus, Hendrickson, you seriously gather us all here just to discuss it?".
Being his day self, Escanor scoffed and boldly said "Humph, a mere ghost won't scare me".
Gowther said with the peak of interest "interesting. We never take care of the 'ghost' case previously".
Meliodas caressed his chin "so, Baltra asked the three of you to gather us, just to take care of this ghost issue... but why should you ask us? I think Hendrickson as a Druid can take care of this kind of case, not to mention this ghost also never brought harm to the Castle's occupants, right?".
Merlin shrugged and lifted her Aldan "I agree with the Captain".
"Okay, I believe you guys have heard about the rumor, right?", Hendrickson lifted the candle which it shadowed his face from below to dramatize the scary tension "rumor has it, a ghost of a little girl who wears white dress has been wandering around the Castle. When you hear the sound of a bell chimed in, she appears. She always appears around midnight, singing a requiem as she carried a doll, looking for her parents. If she knew you can see her, she would approach you to ask: 'do you see my parents?' with tears of blood streaming down from her eyes".
King and Diane shrieked in fear, holding hands with their cheeks against each other. Meliodas, Merlin, Ban, Escanor, and Gowther only stared to Hendrickson, unaffected.
Dreyfus cleared his throat "so, His Majesty asked us to investigate this ghost. Although this ghost never brought harm to the Castle's occupants, it doesn't mean that it won't scare the Castle's occupants, right? Especially the princesses".
Zaratras admitted shyly "well, actually... it's just like you said, Hendrickson was supposed to be able to take care of this kind of case. We even patrolled last night to find this ghost, but...".
"Please, don't tell us, this ghost of a little girl scared you away too?", Ban intended it as a joke, but when three adults averted their eyes with shame, Ban jaw-dropped and his eyes widened "SERIOUSLY!?".
"so, to put it simply, because you can't take care of this ghost, you asked us to", Meliodas hummed and nodded his head "I understand, but can you tell us what happened last night?".
It was a shame, indeed. At first, Hendrickson wanted to do the exorcism as usual. They waited on the spot where they heard this ghost usually appeared, but the poltergeist phenomenon happened. All things on that place were flying around and the three of them ended up knocked out by those flying things. It was a shame, really. The first one who lost consciousness was Hendrickson who got hit by a chair on the back of his head before he collapsed forward, lying flatly on the floor. Zaratras was buried under a ton of books, scrolls, and dictionaries. As the only one who was still conscious but unfortunately had no ability on the exorcism terms, Dreyfus only could carry the unconscious Hendrickson and Zaratras over his shoulders like a sack, running away from that place before this ghost could bring harm on his unconscious comrades.
"though, before I ran away from that place... I have seen this ghost even if just for a glimpse", Dreyfus described how he saw it from the corner of his eyes "for a second, I thought I saw a blonde-haired girl with blood covering her head. She wore the white dress, holding a broken, blood-stained bear doll. I did hear she was singing a sad song, sounded like a requiem. Though, I don't know what language it is and... I thought I heard her crying in misery".
This time, King and Diane hugged trembled in fear while the five others were having a serious face.
Zaratras tried to find another alternative "if any of you guys can't handle it, maybe you know someone who can help us with the exorcism?".
Merlin tapped her bicep "say, Captain, how about we ask her to come here?".
Meliodas rolled his eyebrow "which one?".
Merlin smirked cunningly "who else? An Exorcist and a Nun of Canterbury Cathedral".
Meliodas dropped his head on the table before mumbling exasperatedly "for our sanity's sake, Merlin... please, don't... you know if you invited her here, it only would end up with her trying to kill someone because of her tendency".
Ban twitched his eyebrow "what tendency?".
"tendency to kill and see the blood especially at the night", Meliodas suddenly looked like he had an idea on his head "how about asking him, then? That cheeky brat, your—".
Merlin froze Meliodas's head, elbowing him before she clasped her hands and smiled with hostile aura around her body "how about we patrol together this night and try to see if we can handle it ourselves?".
Diane, King, Escanor, and Ban had a hunch feeling that they couldn't ask her anything about it from how hostile the aura around her. Gowther noted to himself that he could ask Merlin and Meliodas about it later. Meliodas melted the ice on his head with his Hell Blaze before mumbling how she overreacting every time it came to that person. The Sins (Escanor especially) were curious about who was this person that Merlin and Meliodas had mentioned.
(actually, Merlin mentioned about Meliodas's daughter and Meliodas was about to mention Tristan).
Later at the night, because the Sins were patrolling on the Castle, Gwen was brought as well and she was sleeping with the princesses because Elizabeth dragged her to sleep with her.
Meliodas knitted his eyebrow because they had to patrol on the hallway near the library to the throne room "are you sure, that ghost usually appears here?".
Hendrickson nodded "we're sure, Sir Meliodas".
Zaratras explained "from the report, it seems this ghost always appears on the library, walking down on the hallway to the throne room before she disappears. She always walks on this route".
Dreyfus shushed them all "shush, do you hear it?".
While the others were confused because they didn't know what the meaning behind this song with the foreign language, the only people who reacted, no one other than Meliodas and Merlin who froze in their place. No wonder they didn't know what language was this. This song used the language of the ancient Belialuin, after all.
"hush, child~ darkness will rise from the deep and carry you down into sleep, child~ darkness will rise from the deep and carry you down into sleep~ you won't understand the cause of your grief, but you'll always follow the voices beneath~ loyalty, loyalty, loyalty, loyalty, loyalty, loyalty, loyalty, only to me~".
"this lullaby...", Meliodas sucked in a shuddering breath "...how?".
Diane gasped "what? This song is a lullaby?".
"Captain, how could you possibly know this creepy song as a lullaby?".
Ban was totally lost at it "what is it, Captain? You know this lullaby?".
Meliodas didn't answer, he lowered his head further with his bangs masking his expression. Of course, Meliodas knew this lullaby. This lullaby was a cursed lullaby, a lullaby fulfilled with the magic spell to make a child who heard it to always obey the person who singing this lullaby to her for 49 days. The lullaby that Lilith whispered to Sophia.
To save her Captain, Merlin added in "and it seems I know who is this ghost. I can't believe this".
"what? how? Who is—?", Escanor rubbed his eyes "um, I'm not the only one who sees it, right?".
"don't worry, I've got this", Merlin came out of their hiding place with levitating herself to approach the ghost. In the ancient Belialuin language, Merlin hummed "isn't it lovely, all along?~ Hello, welcome home~".
When Merlin crouched beside the ghost who stopped abruptly after she heard Merlin's humming, the ghost turned into less scary.
Merlin smiled and reached out her hand "here you are, child. Let's go home. Time to sleep".
The ghost turned into her real form, no one other than Gwen who blinked away her tears and accepted Merlin's hand "mommy".
Gwen's transparent hand only slipped through Merlin's hand before Gwen disappeared. Merlin snapped her fingers and they teleported to Elizabeth's room. They all saw it when Gwen's Astral body came back to her real body.
As usual, Elizabeth snapped her head and jumped to Meliodas "Mel-Mel, Gwen's crying in her sleep. I wonder if she's having a nightmare?".
It turned out that Gwen had learned and practiced Astral Projection (from what Gowther observed) but when Gwen was on this 'Astral Projection' state, she was unaware of her own state, thinking this was a mere dream.
Lifting his shining finger, Gowther who had peeked into Gwen's head, went to explain "it seems she reminisced her old life when she was on the Cameliard Kingdom, thinking that she was dreaming while in fact, she was in 'Astral Projection' state and she was unaware of it. It explains why did she form to turn into that scary and her behavior in her 'Astral Projection' state. She wandered around from the library to the throne room because on the catastrophe, it was the route that her parents, the King Leodegrance, and his Queen took. The broken bloodied doll and her bloodied form were the manifestations of her state when the catastrophe happened".
"Gowther, can you use Rewrite Light to her, please? Sometimes, it's better if you can just forget the painful memory. Gwen is still too young to remember about that painful memory", Merlin sat on the edge of the bed and narrowed her eyes, caressing the sleeping Gwen's head "I will close her ability to do the Astral Projection, so she will not do it again. I apologize for the trouble she created".
Zaratras waved his hand "well, we know it's unintentionally, Lady Merlin. No need to apologize".
Hendrickson mumbled "still, I wonder why she attacked us yesterday night?".
Dreyfus shrugged "who knows? I'm more amazed at the fact she could attack us in that state".
Gowther answered "it seems she thought the three of you were the assaulters, thus she attacked you in an attempt of her self-defense".
Elizabeth gasped "wait, so the ghost is Gwen?".
Meliodas nodded before he lifted his forefinger to his mouth "yes, but Ellie can't say it to anyone. It's our secret, okay?".
Elizabeth lifted her forefinger to her mouth and winked "okay".
A/N :
Okay, with my story 'The White Enchantress' is gonna reach the last Arc (The Sign Of Holy War Arc), I decided to write some side-stories. If any of you wondered 'what do you mean with the last Arc?', take it easy, you will find the answer on the next chapters of that story. I just want to add our cinnamon-roll because we seriously need it guys. That being said, I hope you enjoy the story and feel free to ask me if you have a prompt for the next letters. In case I haven't had the prompt for the letter, perhaps I will take some from my readers (if there's someone kind enough to leave the prompt you want in the review box, feel free to comment).