Having returned to the palace from Rufk, Yuusuke explained Sun’s circ.u.mstances to Violet and obtained her approval. Krielov also had no objections and gave his written approval. Due to the construction of the Deernook fortress and the exemplary service during the Paula incident, Yuusuke’s request for permission to construct a residence in the n.o.ble’s district was approved without any issues.

As soon as the arrangements were completed, he would be ready to welcome Sun. During his time between his duties and ordinary tasks, Yuusuke was preoccupied with thinking of any additional measures that would help Sun. As he was thinking of Sun, it occurred to himself that he could also improve his own ability. (TN: took him only 31 chapters ><>

“Can I really do it?” (Yuusuke)

In the [Item Customization Creation System] that was the basis for his customize create ability, there was a so called gimmicks feature that worked along the status and shape customization.
It was a function that was used primarily to create vanity items, such as wings that sprouted from your back. Although they looked real, it was an item that was made for enjoyment and display and did nothing aside from displaying the flapping motion. (TN: the ability itself is called gimmick feature/motion creation thus i will use gimmick for the ability itself and motion items for the item type. Blame the author for the confusing names~)

According to the game, one could add these features by consuming customization points and there were some players in the game that had become [gimmick artisans]. These players created elaborate gimmicks (gimmick data) and were trading it through uploading and similar means. (TN: either item RMT or game model/addon trade)
As Yuusuke had used almost all of his customization points to strengthen his equipment, he did not have a lot of experience in creating vanity items. Thus it occurred to him that he should try creating motion items should he come upon suitable base materials.

“If it actually worked out, it would be pretty interesting…” (Yuusuke)

In order to test his ability Yuusuke procured a toy wooden horse and a toy wagon that were of a suitable size to be joined together. He the remodeled each of the wheels of the carriage and the horse with gimmick customization to make them move on their own.
Although he was able to see the motion of the objects within the game screen that usually showed the schematics of the customized object, there was no practical use for such customization. However, although it was just an entertainment function in the game, the customization that made the wheels move on their own was actually a pretty advanced feature in this world.

“This actually has a lot of potential.” (Yuusuke)

It was impossible to make the items perform complex movements, but several simple movements could be joined together. Yuusuke also added an on/off switch, like the one used in the elevators, for his convenience and he imagined his room overflowing with high tech gadgets while he was doing that.
One of the limits of this customization was that the speed of movement could not be reset once the customization was complete. Yet it might be too dangerous for a vehicle to be moving too fast.

“Yuusuke! Are you awake? Whoa! What is that?” (Violet)
“… is it befitting of a princes to openly show her surprise like that?” (Yuusuke)

Violet barged into Yuusuke’s room as she usually did, kicking the door flying open without knocking… and froze in amazement as she saw a toy carriage running in circles atop of Yuusuke’s bed.
Divine arts craftsman could also create items that could move on their own, however for a wooden horse to display such vivid motions and move at the speed of a person, walking at a fast pace, was something the princess saw for the first time in her life.

“That scared me, I thought I saw a ghost.” (Violet)
“Why did you think of a ghost?” (Yuusuke)
“Uhm… actually —“ (Violet)

Violet began telling Yuusuke about her real reason of barging into his room as she picked up the moving toy and closely inspected it.

There were rumors of a ghost crawling out of the underground city of Sanc Adiet every night. (TN: for explanation on underground city read chapter 4) The rumors remained rumors for a while, however recently additional rumors emerged about hearing human wails or children disappearing between the sunset and the dawn.
There were also stories about a person dressed in old style clothes that enters an alleyway with no exit only to disappear there.

“So Sanc Adiet has a ghost problem?” (Yuusuke)
“That’s right, however as the rumor has not been confirmed yet, the knights have not yet been ordered to deal with the issue.” (Violet)
“So, you came to me to do an investigation on it?” (Yuusuke)
“That’s right~” (Violet)

Nodding, Violet showed a thrilled smile. At least it seemed that the ghost was not of an aggressive kind.

“So, this is a dispatchment order for the darkness G.o.d corps!” (Violet)
“Yeah, yeah~” (Yuusuke)

Yuusuke carelessly replied to Violet and headed towards the corps common room.
Violet followed Yuusuke for a while until she got caught by Krielov, who took her away telling her that it was time for her studies. Apparently, Violet had tried to use this issue for the sake of running away from her duties.

“A ghost you say? I remember that there were rumors several years ago about a voice that could be heard in places without humans.” (Shaheed?)
“That reminds me, I have heard of some rumors similar to that in the middle cla.s.s district.” (Fonke)
“There were certainly rumors like that some time ago. Whether it is a ghost or not, that might be the cause of this rumor.” (Vermeer)
“I haven’t heard much about it in the commoner or the artless districts, but… those that went to the middle cla.s.s district for their cleanup duties have certainly mentioned having heard such rumors.” (Isotta)

When Yuusuke talked to his subordinates in the meeting room, it seemed that everyone in the darkness G.o.d corps have at least heard of this rumor once. Soldiers from the other corps also seemed to have heard one thing or another about the ghost, especially those who had been living in the middle cla.s.s district.

“So, middle cla.s.s district it is? What about you, Aisha, have you heard anything about it?” (Yuusuke)
“Eh?! I-I am not interested… in these kind of things so…” (Aisha)

Somehow Aisha’s reaction was very obvious. Yuusuke, not wanting to push further, continued on in a gentle voice.

“Then let’s start by going out into the city and checking the places where the voice was heard at.” (Yuusuke)

Having inspected the entire city structure in his customization menu, Yuusuke expected that the origin of the voice would be a breeze flowing through crevices and cracks between the surface and the underground portion of the city.

[“It’s the sound of the wind or echo of the voices of people talking somewhere else.”] (Yuusuke)

“Aisha, do you want to remain on standby?” (Yuusuke)
“N-no! I am alright, I’ll go with you!” (Aisha)
“Is that so? Well I don’t believe that it would be something silly like an unnatural phenomenon. Most likely it’s just a natural event that got blown up by people’s imagination and fear.” (Yuusuke)

Yuusuke was thinking that it is not necessary to push yourself if one is overtaken by fear, but the diligent Aisha could not allow herself to forfeit her duties due to personal reasons and made Yuusuke change his mind. The youth, remembering his life in modern j.a.pan and basing hit logic on scientific facts, believed that there was nearly no chance that an actual ghost was the cause for this rumor and tried his best to calm Aisha down, but… (TN: Yuusuke pls… you are in an alternate world, had your soul stolen from your body, and now you tell us that there are no ghosts??? Give us a cute little j.a.panese version of Lily, pretty please~)

“Ghosts are attracted to water arts, right? All the night singers that claimed to have seen the ghosts were water arts users, moreover they were of healing type.” (Fonke)
“?!!” (Aisha)

Fonke once again brought up chaos in a glorious manner.

Aisha and Shaheed, Vermeer and Fonke. Having formed the groups, the members left towards the middle cla.s.s district to investigate the sources of the rumors. In the meantime, Yuusuke, following Isotta’s intel, descended down to the commoner district to talk with the artless that had heard these rumors while performing their cleaning duties.

“You seem to be unfazed by ghosts?” (Yuusuke)
“I… I am used to hearing various sounds.” (Isotta)
“I-is that so?” (Yuusuke)

Yuusuke thought that a communication type wind arts user was hearing a lot more “voices” than other people, was what Isotta meant when she said that. However, the “voices” were not limited to that, and wind arts users could also hear presences similar to human voices when inspecting murder (crime) scenes.

In this echo, strong emotions and feelings were imprinted in the voices, making this echo to be something like thoughts imprinted in the s.p.a.ce/air. When Isotta froze when her comrades opened the gates to the bas.e.m.e.nt of the Gearhawk fortress, it was because she heard the echoes that were pleading for death.
Isotta’s face became dim after she answered and Yuusuke gently stroked girl’s green hair.

“I seem to have made you remember bad memories, sorry.” (Yuusuke) (TN: he said that as a fact, but it looked better to me with uncertainty)
“N-no please don’t worry about it.” (Isotta)

Isotta’s face became red, her fingers twitching as she struggled to force the words out. Realizing it was bad to stroke the head of a girl around Isotta’s age, Yuusuke lifted his hand. Thus, enveloped in an delicate air around them, the captain of the darkness G.o.d corps and his subordinate walked through the commoner district towards the place where the artless lived.

“Uhhm, Yuusuke has sure become popular with women lately, right?” (Violet)
“Princess, your tutor is waiting for you. Please worry about the investigation of the undercity later.” (Krielov)

Violet was spying on the investigation through a telescope, similar to those in the Deernook fortress that was bearing the mark of the darkness G.o.d corps, from a terrace at the upper floor of the palace where she reluctantly stepped down and returned to the room.

Darkness G.o.d corps members started putting together the information on the rumors of the voices, which they had collected in the morning. It seemed that the voices were most often heard in the upper part of the middle cla.s.s district, mainly inhabited by the earth arts users. Afterwards, they concentrated on investigating the alleyways where suspicious figures were said to have disappeared in.

“It seems to be a wonderful place. Has no one really gone to investigate it?” (Fonke)
“Well, ordinary people would not try to approach such place” (Shaheed)

It was a place close to the upper cla.s.s district that was abandoned when the wall of the upper cla.s.s district became higher, blocking off all sunlight. Ruins of a mansion stood there, abandoned in the alleyway close to the huge wall. Surrounded by a narrow alleyway from both sides, the area imposed an oppressive atmosphere.

Having been bad enough when sunlight still reached the place, now one could not see the end of the pa.s.sage even during the day, as it was surrounded by perpetual darkness.

“You said that there were reports of missing children. Weren’t there any requests to investigate this place?” (Aisha?)
“Eee, it seems … to have been written off as rumors.” (Vermeer) (TN: uhm… wat? OO)
“… So you want to search for them…” (Fonke)
“!!” (Aisha)

Aisha asked Yuusuke about the reason for investigating this place and if there was any information, such as damage reports. Fonke answered her in a ghost-like voice that there might be a single source that is the cause of the rumors. (TN: I am sure the original text had a different meaning) The guy used this as a pretense to scare Aisha even more.

“If I wanted to search myself, I would go out into the city night after night…” (Fonke)
“H-hey, you have gone too far.” (Isotta)
“Fonke, stop fooling around!” (Vermeer)
“Fuhihi, I’m sorry~” (Fonke)

Disappointed, Yuusuke let out a light sigh. Currently he was investigating the map data of the alleyway and the area surrounding it in his customization menu. As they finally stated their designated duties, he was silently watching his subordinates.

“Nn?” (Yuusuke)
“Di-did you notice something?” (Aisha)
“There seems to be a shaft at the side of the alley.” (Yuusuke)
“A shaft? You mean a pa.s.sageway to the underground?” (Vermeer)

During his inspection of the map data, Yuusuke found a gaping hole that connected to the underground, right around the corner of the alleyway. It led to the interior of a building that was buried after the former city level was abandoned. There were a lot of pa.s.sages of the former living quarters like that, which were abandoned as they were. (TN: without being buried)
These buildings were different from the Volance palace that was built level upon level at the same place. The buildings of the residential areas were scattered through the different levels thus creating a maze that was even more complex than that of the palace.

Vermeer, was casting the fire art providing the group with light to proceed towards the direction of the entrance to the pa.s.sage. Forcing their way through the overgrown, unattended bushes at the side of the alleyway, they found the entrance and a rope ladder that stretched down into the darkness.

“It doesn’t look that old to me…” (Fonke)
“There are clear signs of someone having come here recently.” (Yuusuke’s corps member)
“Maybe it’s some kind of fellow that is living underground?” (Yuusuke’s corps member)
“But then the rumors about hearing human voices, can they be…” (Yuusuke’s corps member)

There was a possibility that people above ground could be hearing voices of other people talking below ground. Because the layer separating the two “floors“ was thin here, there was a decent probability that people above ground could hear the voices from below ground if they were loud enough.

“Hmmm… For the time being, let’s climb down and check.” (Yuusuke)

As Yuusuke and his corps were debating about their course of action in front of the hole with the rope ladder in the abandoned alleyway, the city was slowly changing into its evening colors.