"No." Andrew replied expressionlessly.
Christina watched Andrew cautiously.
"I think this is wrong. He’s making us lie and deceive others." Christina said, "It’s wrong. If we haven’t expelled the ghosts here, we shouldn’t tell everyone we have."
"He just wants to sell the house, maybe at a high price." Andrew shrugged. "This task is really easy for us. We just need to stay one night, and two hundred gold coins will be ours. And even if we discover ghosts later, we can say we didn’t notice them while we were here. Maybe the ghosts are scared of us, who knows?"
Christina looked at Andrew eagerly.
Helplessly, Andrew had to change his tone: "Alright, I used to be a Mercenary Corps Commander with a strong sense of justice, and I wouldn’t do anything to damage my reputation. However, we can still take on this task; we just need to find out the source of the mysterious sounds in one night. If it’s ghosts, we’ll expel them."
"Ok." Christina nodded happily.
Walking to the side, Andrew extended a hand to shake with Eugene: "Mr. Eugene, our commander has decided to take on this task. We’ll handle everything."
"Thank you so much!" Eugene finally breathed a sigh of relief, grinning broadly: "By the way, can the payment really not be reduced?"
As night fell, after finishing dinner, Andrew lit a fire in the mansion’s living room fireplace, casting the entire room in a dim red hue. He then relaxedly held a newspaper, sitting on the sofa and reading.
Christina lit a candle and wandered around, from the balcony to the cellar, checking every place. Finally, having no other options, she returned to the living room and sat next to Andrew.
Putting down the newspaper, Andrew whispered: "How is it? Did you find anything?"
"No, I didn’t find anything." Christina blinked at Andrew: "Maybe Mr. Duru should have a look? Perhaps you’ll find something if you go."
"Maybe we should stay here and wait. The employer said there were strange sounds, but we haven’t heard any. This means we definitely won’t find anything by searching."
"If we can’t find anything, what should we do?"
"Maybe you could try releasing the dragon’s might. If there really are spirits, the dragon’s might will definitely work."
"Then what? How do we make sure the spirits are scared away by me?"
"There’s no way to be sure. If there really are spirits, using the dragon’s might will already solve it. If there aren’t any spirits... even if there are problems, it’s not our problem. Let’s just wait for the sounds." Andrew silently picked up the newspaper and continued reading, leaving Christina in endless dilemma.
Time slowly ticked away.
Gradually, the night deepened.
The house remained quiet except for the howling wind outside. There were not even the usual sounds of snakes, insects, mice, or ants at night, given it was winter.
Having finished the newspaper, Andrew simply wrapped himself in a blanket and fell asleep on the living room sofa. Christina paced anxiously in the living room.
"Awooo~——! Awooo... Awooo~——!"
Suddenly, a strange sound came, resembling both the howl of some wild beast and the sound of someone crying, continuously echoing.
Andrew’s eyes shot open and he sat up immediately.
Christina was delighted: "The sound! The strange sound!"
Without saying a word, Andrew directly cast a wind magic spell, rushing towards the direction of the sound at high speed.
The sound was coming from the courtyard.
Soon, he saw a shadow in the yard, climbing over the wall, seemingly trying to escape.
With another short incantation, a gust of wind, like an invisible hand, wrapped around the shadow, forcibly pulling it back and suspending it in mid-air.
"Let me down—! Let me down! I don’t dare anymore!"
"Alright, it’s a person. Not a spirit." Andrew slowly breathed a sigh of relief.
With a soft snap of his fingers, the person dropped with a "thud" in front of Andrew, half-buried in a snow pile.
The person struggled to get up from the snow.
In the moonlight, it was clear that he was a young boy, about fifteen or sixteen, with short hair and wearing shabby clothes.
At this point, Christina finally arrived in the courtyard, looking on in terror.
Kneeling in front of him, Andrew asked softly: "Speak, who are you? Why did you do this?"
"I... I, I just wanted to scare him a bit."
"But he doesn’t live here."
"Then why do you say you want to scare him?"
Faced with Andrew’s questioning, the young boy was clearly bewildered, his eyes darting between Andrew and Christina.
After a while, he muttered: "I don’t want him to sell the house."
"This house should have been mine. He tricked it away with despicable means! He..."
Oh, sounds like a tale of decline and feud in a once wealthy family.
Before he could finish, Andrew grabbed his collar and dragged him inside.
"No! He’s truly a villain! You shouldn’t help him!"
"We only fulfill tasks. Whether he’s a villain is a matter between you all."
"No, don’t do this! Don’t hand me over to him! He’ll beat me to death! I won’t dare anymore!"