After wandering around for about a few hours, the Hunter found a location that would suffice as shelter for a time. A huge, and obviously abandoned, mansion overlooking a small village, though unlike the mansion, the village didn't appear to be abandoned as some of the homes in the village had smoke exiting the chimneys. Meaning that people were living there.
Upon entering the mansion, Maria took note of the various paintings on the walls of the hallways. All of them covered with dust. And given what the paintings were depicting, the previous owner was very rich, a very proud hunter, evidenced by the numerous trophies of animals hanging on the walls, and a very cruel man, which was proven by a few paintings depicting what the Hunter assumed were once residents of the village below in clearly miserable positions. The males were depicted being tortured by the previous owner. The females… let's just say that they were considered lucky if that was all he did to them… no wonder why the place is abandoned. The villagers had clearly killed the previous owner in retaliation for his cruelty, leaving his mansion abandoned since, only serving as a dark reminder of a cruel past.
Maria walked past a bedroom with an open door with a pair of ghosts who appeared to have been victims of the previous owner, if the resemblance between the ghosts and the various people in the paintings were anything to go on, doing… things not safe for work inside that caused Maria to take a few steps back to do a double take, only for the ghosts to be absent. Maria would probably have massaged her temples in confusion and possibly frustration if she wasn't still carrying the still unconscious Elizabeth in her arms, so she simply settled on raising an eyebrow.
"What the hell?" Muttered the Hunter in confusion, before shrugging it off. An action that caused Elizabeth to start regaining consciousness, stirring as she did so. Seeing as the young Blood Mage would probably wake up soon, Maria simply carried Elizabeth to the bed in the bedroom, put the girl on it and started searching her own inventory for something that could probably cauterize the wound of Elizabeth's severed limb, permanently stopping the bleeding in the process.
"Poor thing." Exclaimed a clearly female voice suddenly from behind the Hunter, causing said Hunter to ready her pistol and aim it in the direction of the voice in surprise, only to put the gun away as the voice turned out to belong to the female ghost Maria noticed earlier, who was, unlike earlier, wearing a rather torn nightgown.
"It seems that I wasn't seeing things."
"You do not appear to be surprised by the visage of a ghost."
"After what I've seen, haunted mansions and ghosts don't surprise me. And trust me when I say this, you don't want to know what horrors I've seen."
"Okay? What happened to the young one to cause such a wound?" The ghost didn't receive an answer from the Hunter, who had returned to searching her inventory for something that could cauterize Elizabeth's wound. And Maria found something that could probably be used to do so. A Fire Paper. An enchanted item that imbues a Hunter's weapon with the mentioned element, setting the dangerous components of a Hunter's weapon, in Maria's case the blades of the Rakuyo, on fire. Any further attempts to continue the conversation were put to an end as Elizabeth released a groan as she truly regained consciousness and sat up.
"Urgh. Now THAT definitely hurt." Groaned Elizabeth out while throwing her arms around, or at least what she had left of her left one. Seeing as the young Blood Mage didn't seem to be entirely lucid, Maria simply rolled her eyes as she pulled out a throwing knife and cut her own right hand open across the palm, after removing her glove.
"I'm sorry for this, cause this will hurt. But you'll probably thank me later for this. Hold still as I cauterize your wound." Exclaimed Maria in a serious tone as she smeared out her own blood on her right hand, before using the Blood Arts of the Cainhurst Vilebloods to set the blood on her hand on fire and grasping Elizabeth's stub of a left arm. Which understandably caused the girl to scream in pain before passing out from the pain… again. Once the Hunter was finished, she removed her hand from the girl's now cauterized stub, extinguished her burning blood and wrapped her hand in a cloth napkin, with some effort seeing as she had to use her mouth to tighten the knot of the napkin. As Maria was about to leave, intending to either explore the haunted mansion and make an acquaintance with the ghosts or find a room for herself to catch some shuteye, Elizabeth grabbing onto the Hunter's coat with her right (and only) hand in her sleep prevented her from leaving.
"Please. Don't leave me." Muttered Elizabeth in her sleep, causing the Hunter to frown slightly. Something that caused the ghost to let out a giggle at Maria's expense, which earned her a glare from the Hunter.
"This was the master bedroom. The bed is more than big enough for both of you. Go ahead and get some sleep. I'll make sure that the other spectral residents of this mansion does not disturb the two of you." Stated the ghost before leaving. With a shrug, Maria removed her coat, boots and her hat before joining the young Blood Mage in the bed, albeit on the opposite side of it.
