NOVEL NEXT Chapter 275: A Helping Hand (1)
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「Why was this sofa placed in the corner like this?」
It was easier to ask the owner than to think about it herself, so she turned around and posed the question. The owner grimaced slightly, looking slightly uncomfortable as he began to explain.
That sofa had been placed out of view like that because it had been bought in the past, only to be returned a few days later. And that had repeated two times.
「As you can see, it’s in perfect condition and its design and color are modest, making it an easy fit for most places. It wasn’t the cheapest item on stock at the time, but one of my regular clients bought it shortly after I first got my hands on it.」
Eventually, he regained his usual cadence, telling his past with the sofa, only for his voice to become somber as he continued, 「And just a few days later…」
It did not take long for the client to return with the sofa. He had really liked it at first, so the owner asked him what had made him change his mind, and he replied, 「Somehow, I feel like I’m being watched and it makes me uncomfortable.」
「In my line of work, sometimes we come across items like that. You know, haunted antiques.」
The very nature of antiques meant that they had a lengthy past with them, involving all sorts of people, and all sorts of life events. Sometimes, people would die near those items, or become imbued with negative emotions.
Sometimes, that would lead the items to become haunted or cursed when exposed to too much. Later on, they would start to attract bad luck, or make strange noises at night, and in the worst cases, the new owners would start to die in eerie ways.「Because of things like that, we antique sellers always employ a pair of spellcasters, an exorcist and a monk, who usually can cleanse most items.」
「Hmm, I see.」
In this world, things like jinxes and hexes were real, but ways to deal with them also existed. That meant that haunted items could be cleansed as well.
「But therein lies the issue. I have both of them inspecting every single item that passes through my shop.」
That was common in antique shops, making sure that whatever a client chose to buy was safe. In other words, the sofa had already been inspected before it was returned the first time.
So it was not possible for it to be haunted. The shop owner was confident of that, but the client’s words still bothered him, so he had the sofa inspected again.
The result was that there were no issues with the sofa, so maybe it was just a mistake from the client. Still, the owner had them perform a cleansing just in case, and then put up the sofa for sale a second time.
「Another of my regulars got interested in it a few days later and took it. But would you guess it, the sofa was returned a few days later again. And strangely enough, the reason was the same, the client felt like he was being watched.」
The owner told the story with a somber voice, like he was telling a ghost story. But in his case, it was more of a horror story all antique dealers wanted to avoid.
He was also deeply concerned when the sofa was returned twice, as he knew that if there were rumors stating he sold a haunted antique, his whole business would crumble. He had even tried hiring a specialist in haunted items, but that yielded no results either, truly stumping the owner.
「Two different clients returning the sofa for the exact same reason doesn’t sound like a coincidence, so I thought there might be another reason for that. Maybe someone had planted a peeping spell on the sofa.」
His voice turned somewhat disinterested as he added that checking for such spells was extremely easy, taking out a loupe from his pocket and looking at it. Then, he glanced rapidly at Mira, as if waiting for something.
Mira played along, asking what that was, and the owner happily replied. It was a lens that saw through hidden spells.
「But I couldn’t find anything like that when I searched with this.」
The owner looked disheartened as he said that, adding, 「For a while, I even considered getting rid of it,」 but after a short pause his voice rose again.
「However, this sofa committed no sin!」 He seemed overcome with emotion as he continued talking loudly. 「So I swore I would rescue it, one way or another!」
He raised his fist as he said that, clearly lost in his own world.
He had a tendency to get carried away when he spoke, but his dedication to antiques was clear. Then, he added that he had come to the conclusion that the sofa was not haunted.
The two spellcasters working for the owner were skilled enough to deal with most haunted items. There was a chance that whatever curse was on the item was more powerful than them, but that did not make sense to the owner.
If there was something so powerful within the sofa, then something much worse would have happened to the clients, who simply felt watched.
Still, he could not think of anything else that could cause those issues with the sofa, so he paid out even more money so the two spellcasters with him would bring over their teachers, a master exorcist and a saint.
「When they came, they clearly sensed something on the sofa.」
Before the owner could tell either of them what the item was, they quickly pointed at the sofa, saying they felt a faint presence on it. They also mentioned that they had encountered similar situations with antiques in the past.
That made the owner think that maybe it was haunted after all, but his hope was quickly shot down as the two teachers revealed a harsh truth.
「I asked them to cleanse the sofa, but they told me that would be difficult. They had encountered similar antiques many times in the past, and had tried all sorts of spells and rituals, but so far none had worked, and they told me they could not help me.」
The owner’s voice was saddened as he told that. Still, he did not feel like getting rid of the sofa, so he decided to just leave it in a corner where it would be hard to find, hoping that one day someone would be able to cleanse it.
「Hmm, I see.」
Mira nodded along as she listened to the story, impressed by those two teachers.
While they had not known what it was, they had managed to feel the presence of the spirit. The Spirit King had described furniture spirits as being incredibly hard to notice, as they would never make their presence felt or come out, merely staying within the furniture and gently watching over the owners that used the furniture with so much love.
‘They aren’t powerful spirits at all either, so I doubt many know about them. Almost no one can notice their presence unless they’ve interacted with spirits and formed ties with them as much as you have, Mira. And I’d even wager that you’re only aware of them because of your connection to me.’
The Spirit King sounded proud of himself as he spoke to Mira, who played along saying, ‘Right, it’s all thanks to you, Spirit King.’ That seemed to put him into a good mood, while she just shook her head a bit.
Because of those peculiarities, regular spellcasters could not notice or know about furniture spirits at all. Those with a lot of experience had a chance of sensing them, but only to a small degree. So the fact that those two teachers had noticed meant that they had strong ties to spirits and were very experienced.
But it was not enough for them to know it was a spirit. Or rather, they did not consider that option as furniture spirits had never stood out enough for anyone to know exactly what they were.
「By the way, you mentioned that those two teachers had seen antiques similar to the sofa. Did they happen to mention what happened to those antiques?」
There was something else Mira had noticed from that story. They mentioned other antiques in similar situations, and the teachers recommended getting rid of them. That made her wonder exactly what that entailed, getting rid of an antique that could not be cleansed.
「I also wondered the same thing, so I asked them.」
The owner had also felt the same uneasiness as Mira back then, so he asked the two teachers about that.
The answer was that usually the church would take them in, as they had special chambers to contain cursed objects, so those antiques could be kept there safely as well.
The teachers had also suggested to the owner to take the sofa to the church, but he believed that the antique itself had done nothing wrong, and he could not bring himself to treat it like it was a cursed object.
「Hmm… So it’s that place with restricted access.」
Mira knew those chambers. She had seen them many times when visiting the churches of large cities. They were called Purgatory Cellars, and cursed objects from all ages and places would be sealed within them.
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