Noticing the small energy to fight arising from the man before him, Sail took a sigh of relief and a little wave of satisfaction came over him. He had been banking on leaning into his passive title to make it work. As for stirring up a will to fight in a man sat in his own gloom, he had not much hope in just his own character doing anything.

  He had nothing in terms of experience in motivating another and certainly not in being a leader. If he had to give a definition of a sovereign he would say a decently cool sounding ruler perhaps? But after reading such a title, from the start he had wanted to make use of it. Even though he may not really need to do anything a passive is still to be used correctly.

  Throughout his continued talks with Shilling he learned various bits and pieces but never anything about titles. Sail considered it something worth hiding as a trump card for now along with a fair few other things and thus didn't immediately ask "Whats your title?". If titles were commonplace then he wouldn't be so surprised, but considering Shilling didn't seem to mention such a thing, it seemed likely he didn't have one and thus it was another unique piece to be worth holding on to. It was therefore also probably something strong and worthy of trying to get going as soon as possible. Such was Sails conclusion. Without a grade letter attached to it, who knows where its limits lie.

  "Whats the time left on your bell?"

  "58 minutes left."

  "The cooldown again?"

  "10 hours"

  "So your done soon...How long do you think this room will remain safe.. the 17th.."

  "Well no room is every truly safe. The thousand knots will be back in about 20 hours or so. this is usually how long it takes for them to recover but it may be sooner due to its strength.. As for the others, the ghouls are never fully confined to anywhere. Its just that they are often tethered and located in their rooms. As for the odds of something forcing us to move I would say quite high within the next 20 minutes"

  "Why, Who's coming?"

  "The springer from room 12, the gurgling throat slitter from room 6, the winding lung from the 3rd. All are quite mobile and make the rounds.. But anything can come. The velvet scissors may still be coming for me..."

  The names certainly gave Sail a certain few flashes of horrific visuals but he tried working up this wave he was riding in his heart. Although finding will and bravery was something he could never muster up when dealing with his father or applying for a job. Facing a foe and managing a new power was a kind of struggle that evoked something in him. A novel pain was no challenge, simply a game. He managed to put his head towards the challenge as a manor of avoiding his fear. So long as he didnt think about the face of those orbs he would be able to put up a solid face perhaps. He didnt know if this kind of act would help in the inspiring and leading aspect he was trying for but he tried. Perhaps the only reason he could think in such a way was because the title itslef had given him a slight layer of bravery and heroism. He doubted it as his insides and stomach was still a host for butterflies but still

  "Pass me a bozo"

  "You mean the teru teru bōzu?"

  "Yes, you said they can defeat ghouls right. They defeated the knotter here from this room right? And its gone all day now. You think one of these counts as the exorcism on the host at the end? How do you even use it?"

  "I dont know.. I.. I very much doubt it.. There has only ever been one ghoul we exorcised permanently and we're still figuring out how we even did it. The running theories are that there is some possessed object we destroyed, or some certain set of actions that gave solace to the spirit, some even say we defeated it so bad it mentally give up. Basically there is no idea yet except that there is indeed some practice to removing them permanently, we just haven't found it.. As for a bozu, they are like projectiles. You extent the glowing blade and toss. If it gets embedded in the spirit it retracts and pulls it together before banishing it otherwise it fails and turns to ash"

  "Perminant erasure huh.. My skills. One of my B rank skills is vision"

  "..."

  "It states that i can see into the nature of my foes and their functionality"

  "Really? Huh. Wait, you don't think that maybe.."

  "Yeah. Of course. It says i can find out all of how my enemy ticks. All their nuts, bolts and diguises. Ha ha, no worries. See, surely it'll show me the weakness of something simple like a ghoul. They're already done for i assure you. Just follow suit and ill exorcise them all. If i need to, i can get close with the bozu and never even worry about taking damage because i can just.."

  Sail became obsidian and his open mouth froze and shone with a dark shimmer before smashing back out into human flesh and continuing

  "become invulnerable. Get up, if you knew that ghouls from all over were still coming you should never have sat down. You really had given up hadn't you."

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  "...Gastin.." Shilling laughed a little and his smile went from cracking to breaking.

  Sands lip twitched slightly

  'Oh right.. Gastin, yeah my name here is Gastin. Reminds me of beauty and the beast. As for wretched vision..'

  Sail made a little prayer in the confines of his mind for this to work. His conjecture for such confidence in talking highly of his skills as though he had actually used a single one was mostly built on how powerful the shreiking bell was. Any skill which matches the rank of that ear bleeding thing must do its job fairly well. Surely.. Not to mention its tiny usage duration and massive countdown. In those 10 minutes it must be strong. Why else would it exist. And what was Shilling?, 7th? With a single B rank and a C rank skill. Confidence is key, and how can i not have confidence when I look at this. Yes all my current efforts have resulted in failure or a net gain of nothing thus far, but i am built to succeed here i just need to remain calm and execute accordingly. Even if i die i may just return as a reincarnate. There is no need to worry. No need. Youve already surpassed the misery check. And you havent fallen. As for my skills actually helping me unravel and exorcise a ghost... yeah lets just.. just hope'

  "The duration is... 10 minutes.. The cooldown is 5 hours"

  "For a vision skill?? Thats crazy. What are you looking at exactly??"

  "Ive never used it before so i dont really know. Hopefully my brain doesnt short circuit"

  "10 minutes and then 5 hours.." Shilling leant back. "If we go under the conjecture that you can actually see the weakness of a ghoul... under such a scenario we would need to solve the threat within those 10 minutes right? We cant test it and would thus need to use it in the feild straight away. It sounds incredibly risky"

  "Well maybe it gives me a blueprint and then i can just keep using it after the 10 minutes? Like.. give the velvet scissor the ability to give the haircut they always wanted to give. Set up a fake barber shop and exorcise the spirit?"

  "Gastin.. You really need to see these things for yourself.."

  "I did, i was licked and bitten all over by that emptied Gacha machine.."

  "The what?"

  "Basically just a lot of orbs. Like when looking at space"

  "What are you even talking about?"

  "Im just trying to lighten the mood. Nevermind, whats important is that we can get this done just fine. If we want to use your bell in the fight we need to get going as soon as possible. A ten hour wait is to much. Ill look into the velvet scissor and find its weakness in those ten minutes. We should go before you have chance to get psyched out of this"

  "I wouldn't say I was ever psyched into it.."

  Sail was desperately trying to find the right line of reasoning and pragmatic action in these scenarios. The kind of actions he'd often critisize horror and light novel protagonists for not having was now being put to the test

  "Tell me all about this ghoul. So far, I gather that it decapitates people and its strong enough to defeat you and the rest of your team. I imagine its a type of deep red with scissors that has a ghostly snipping attack. Anything else more important tell me now"

  Sail looked out back at the "guests" at the ball, breathed in and pushed open the door slightly from which they came. With a teru teru in his hand he looked out into the coiling abyss that was the corridor of Ringright manor. The 26th floor of the tower of ascension.

  "Ahh.. ok... ok." Shilling was surprised at the sudden surge of action but readied himself in response.

  ".. was it right or left for 18."

  "right from here.."

  Sail began running and sweat forged its way down his brow. His mind constantly flew around with ideas and doubt at what he was doing but amidst it all he still managed to act for what he thought was decisive and correct in response to the information he had.

  Running across the slightly titled ground, he watching as gravity seemed to be having its first indecisive phase about which way it swings in life. He saw the candelabra and chandelier he first lived with for 10 minutes above him. By running forward they were soon to the side and then behind him. He kept pulling up his skills and reading back through them. Trying to memorise all the duration and cooldown times to make certain he was sure.

  "The velvet scissor is a ghoul that floats with quite a long female body but much longer scissors. They have this wet hair which cycles around in on itself like an escalator. They uhh.. They have scissors that look like they haven't been cleaned in years.. The scissors turn fully red and drip with deep blood. They spin faster and then split into two. The two scissors after split then telekinetically fly about and drip with a goopy wet blood. They always aim for the head and splatter blood everywhere as they spin about. Other than that, The main body can summon the scissors back to it at any point and uhh charging the blood upon the scissor takes a short time."

  "You know an escalator but not a Gacha machine?"

  "What?"

  Sail looking at the crooked metal that forged the number 18 upon the door above him in the distance. The door was much thinner and less grand than room 17.

  'The servants quarters huh'.

  Sail gave one last check in the corridor but found nothing and quickly opened the door.

  Shilling shut the door behind and gave it a strong push several more times well after the door clicked into place.

  The room was tightly stocked with various bunkbeds all down its sides and many more rooms ahead with the doors all hung open. There were about 8 different doors on each wall other than the one they came from. Some looking out of place and blocked by bunk beds but all leading to seemingly random locations at a first glance. Various forms of kitchens, lounges, lavatories and dining rooms were inside.

  "Shilling. Those are all... all part of room 18?"

  Looking back briefly Sail saw Shilling's face contort.

  "These.. these doors weren't ..."

  Sail spun back to see an amalgamate of feather, blood and wood.

  A giant red scissor span rapidly and shredded through a dozen bunk beds splattering blood, pillow feathers and bed frames in a mad crash of sound. The red scissor moving at an obscene speed then pinged of a sudden obsidian statue and stuck right into the ceiling.

  Undoing ever noir Sail quicky muttered "Dash"

  He briefly looked up at the scissor that had been lodged into the ceiling leaving his neck quite open just for a second. As he quickly flipped his view back to his right, in a trailing arc like a boomerang another giant crimson red scissor came and honed in on his neck like a magnet.

  "ROCK! Now!"

  "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG"

  The scissor jolted middair and staggered before falling and clattering onto the floor while keeping its momentum. It slid across the floor before tapping against the foot of an obsidian statue. The obsidian statue was holding an elegant black diamond of a teru teru bōzu. Breaking out of the statue, the figure came alive, dashed forward and frantically looked around. Sail had ran to the point where he had already crossed the entire room already. He almost crashed into the wall.

  "Wretched vision"