Dearest Anonymous, Let Me Be

Chapter 35: ARC 2 - The Woman in the Painting

Apparently, living with Lucian under the same roof wasn't as terrible as Umi thought it would be.

Besides the fact that he was a great Spiritual Energy provider, he hadn't said anything that would irk her or done something that would annoy her.

Perhaps the reason for it would be because Lucian hadn't moved since the night of the ritual, or because he hadn't woken up since then—either way, Umi was satisfied.

Lucian had proven that he was a great version of a sleeping beauty.

It had already been a week, and except for that pain-inducing ritual before, everything has been pleasant for Umi.

However, as a teeny tiny revenge for putting her in that horrible ritual, Umi, like any other proper adult out there, didn't do much that would hurt him.

She just pulled some of Lucian's hair.

Well, that—and a few bruises here and there. Also, she may have plucked all his eyebrows, gave him a wet willy, dislocated a finger, sprained an ankle, and that's about it…well, at least for what she had remembered committing.

Really, it wasn't much. Umi claims she is not that petty. Doing those were only a simple way to calm her nerves down. For goodness sake, she had other better things to do!

Because of the abundant Spiritual Energy oozing from Lucian's untouched body that was still situated on the floor, Umi's strength as a Shadow Hollow didn't waver even though she was practicing her skills for the whole week.

Every Hollow has their own unique abilities despite the ranking system. In Umi's case, in addition to her 10% [Psyhokinesis] skill and other advantages of being a ghost like having supernatural strength, being able to possess weak-minded people, or the ability to pass through walls easily, she can also utilize Vera's original ghostly power—which is a bit random if she may add—and that is the ability to cry tears of blood.

Technically, hollows do not have blood, except if one died in an unfortunate way and turned into a hollow with blood permanently glued on their body, but if they were to be wounded after becoming a ghost, then blood wouldn't gush out from their wounds.

But for Vera, every teardrop will be made of dark red blood. Perhaps because it was for character, as the original Vera was truly a pitiful lovesick woman, or perhaps because she was already a Shadow Hollow which is an overkill considering that they are powerful on their own.

Hence, for the whole week that Lucian was hugging the floor with chalk drawn to outline his figure, which only made the room like a decent crime scene simply because Umi thought it was funny, the new Hollow was busy getting used to passing through the walls as a proper exercise.

When Umi first did it as a test, it was a nauseating experience, but after two days of constant practice, she was an expert already. She celebrated for a while by dancing around Lucian's body. Sadly though, after a few rounds of silly dancing and making funny faces, she was immediately bored to tears, not because she missed having Mochi around, but mainly because it is a bit tiring thinking about the future.

She still has six years before Ezekiel's brother would officially transfer into the town. Considering that she still has to find rare ghosts, it's not that long.

Pulling away her foot from Lucian's back, Umi's Spiritual Energy for the day is finally filled to the fullest. After releasing a contented sigh, Umi hummed as she walked towards the master's bedroom of the Malcolm Manor, where there were still a few clothes left in the Lady Malcolm's closet.

She had discovered the closet when she was venturing around the manor, and fortunately, she also salvaged a properly working sewing machine. And thus, during vacant times, she would sew herself a dress, because unfortunately, Lady Malcolm was two sizes bigger than her, and also, Lucian's money wouldn't be able to buy her a decent one.