With a wide, toothy grin, Lynga began her tale.
“It was a night just like this, hot and muggy...”
“You’re stealing my opening line!” Zophia protested.
“Ahem. In the face of true fear, all you can do is laugh. That’s what happened to me that night,” Lynga continued, ignoring the lizardwoman’s retort. She gradually lowered her voice as she spoke. “I was once an avid gambler. Before opening my own casino, I used to frequent gambling dens of all sorts. That night, I was on my way to play a game of dice—players had to guess whether the two dice they rolled would add up to an odd or even number.”
Thinking back on that day, Lynga tossed two pebbles into the fire as though rolling a pair of dice.
“Even or odd... On my way to the den, while thinking about where to place my bets, I saw a pair of birds perched close together on a tree branch. Then, two cats crossed my path. I looked up to see two stars floating in the darkening sky. Signs from the gods, I thought, that even numbers were in the cards that day.”
“Uh, Lynga?”
“I bet on even. I lost. But that was okay. The dice were bound to add up to an even number eventually. I doubled my wager, and bet on even again.”
“Um, can I just—”
“But I lost again. Dang it! Still, it was fine—the gods were on my side. I kept doubling my bets on even, until eventually...!”
Lynga suddenly stood up and let out a dry laugh.
“I lost everything I had...”
“Hey—”
Ignoring everyone’s repeated attempts to cut in, Lynga hugged herself, trembling in terror.
“Horrors await unsuspecting gamblers who venture inside those dens...”
“That’s just a story about losing at gambling!” Zophia snapped.
“What the hell did we just listen to?!” Loewe demanded.
Lynga puffed her cheeks in protest. “Seven odds in a row! There’s nothing scarier than that!”
Loewe was next, slowly pushing to her feet. “Now for the star of the show—my story!”
For some reason, just seeing how confident she seemed made Zenos uneasy.
“Are we actually getting a ghost tale this time?” Carmilla asked.
“Of course. It was a terrifying experience! I feared for my life that day.”
With a self-assured nod, Loewe continued.
“It was a night just like this, hot and muggy...”
“You guys need to come up with your own openers, damn it!” Zophia shouted.
“Listen, I need to set the mood,” Loewe said. She cleared her throat loudly, then folded her arms. “I need to be honest with you all: I may not look it, but I’m quite the glutton.”
That was so obvious nobody bothered to comment.
“Maintaining my magnificent physique requires a great deal of energy. And that day, my stomach started to rumble. I looked around, hoping for something to eat, but of course...there was nothing in sight. My mind fogged by hunger, I wandered through my hideout in search of sustenance. Never did I expect what happened next...”
Loewe’s muscles quivered for dramatic effect as she continued.
“‘Food... Food...’ I muttered like a madwoman as I wandered. Then, finally, there it was. Tucked away in a wooden box, I finally found...a rice ball.” She lowered her voice and looked over the group. “It looked a little charred, but in the face of my ravenous hunger, such details were meaningless. My powerful stomach can digest anything! A bit of mold or spoilage would pose no issue. And so, I stuffed the rice ball into my mouth with abandon.”
“Um, Loewe?”
“That was when I noticed something was wrong. Very wrong. There was an unmistakable crunch as I bit down—it did not feel like a rice ball.”
“Wait, is that—”
Sensing where this was going, Zenos tried to interrupt, but Loewe continued, uncrossing her arms as she shouted into the sky.
“Indeed! It was not a rice ball at all! It was an Explosion Stone that I had mined with my very own hands!”
“I knew it!”
This had happened shortly before Zenos had first met Loewe. Orcs had asked him to come to their stronghold after their chieftain had mistaken an Explosion Stone for a rice ball and accidentally swallowed it. He’d had to surgically remove the manastone to save her.
“Bah ha ha! How was that?! Terrifying, right?! Imagine having a volatile explosive in your stomach, not knowing when it might blow. Nothing can be scarier than that!” Loewe declared with a proud snort.
Zophia spoke up gently. “Look, Loewe, I’m sorry, but...that’s not a ghost story.”
“Yeah,” Lynga agreed in a similarly soft tone. “That was just you being stupid.”
“Why are you two looking at me with pity...?” Loewe asked.
Meanwhile, the wraith Carmilla was holding her stomach with laughter, wiping at the corner of her eye.
“Pfft! None of you told ghost stories—only silly tales! Though I must admit that your ridiculous expressions of pride make for a very amusing contrast with the complete nonsense you have been spouting! Hee hee hee!”
The three demi-humans all puffed out their cheeks in protest.
“Then why don’t you tell a ghost story, Carmilla?” Zophia demanded.
“Yeah, you do it!” Lynga agreed. “I bet my story can beat up your story!”
“Make us shiver, then!” Loewe said. “Go on!”
“Oh? You dare provoke me? Amusing lot,” Carmilla remarked. She brought a sleeve up to her lips and chuckled darkly.
To be fair, her very existence as a floating spirit was by itself a major ghost story, but by this point, everyone seemed desensitized to her nature.
Carmilla gazed into the void, seemingly trying to settle on a story to tell.
“Tales of lesser undead would be quite dull, so...I shall tell you a tale from long ago.”
With that, she turned her gaze to the fire.
“You have heard of the Great Human-Demon War, have you not?” she asked.
“Yeah, the war between humans and demons from way back, right?” Zenos replied.
Originally, humans and demons had lived on separate continents. But about four hundred years ago, the demon lord had led an invasion from the southern continent into human lands. The demon invasion was horrific, with settlements pillaged and massacred, but humans fought fiercely in resistance. The war, which had spanned the entire continent and nearly a hundred years, had finally ended three hundred years ago with the defeat of the demon lord and his forces, restoring peace at last to human lands.
“’Twas a brutal time, but many new technologies arose as humans devised methods to counter demon attacks: devastating offensive spells that could level mountains, magic circles for teleportation, and weapons imbued with magical power, to name a few.”
“Wasn’t it a hero of some sort who defeated the demon lord?” Zophia asked, sipping the wine she had brought. “Though the way people tell it, it’s more like a fairy tale than history.”
Indeed, despite the hero’s monumental feat of ending a century-long invasion, there were curiously almost no records of the man himself remaining.
“Must’ve been one hell of a guy,” Zophia concluded.
“Bet he was a lot like Sir Zenos!” Lynga ventured.
“Makes sense to me! The guy saved the world, after all!” Loewe added.
“Maybe don’t imply a back-alley healer is on the level of a world-saving hero,” Zenos pleaded, clearly uncomfortable with being compared to such an illustrious figure.
Carmilla narrowed her eyes at the flickering campfire. “So that one is a hero now, is he...?”
“Huh? Carmilla, you knew the hero?” Lily asked, surprised.