"You know, you can go easy on me. No matter how tough I am, pain is still pain."

Sheila groaned under her breath while gently rubbing her bright-red left ear, along with a pout on her face. The culprit for her pain, Ria, just harrumphed before looking away. To her, the punishment is fair and not as exaggerated as Sheila claimed it to be.

"Mom, look, Ria is bullying your cute daughter."

Seeing she didn't get as much reaction from Ria as she had expected, Sheila decided to seek for a reliable reinforcement, which is her actual mother, Sara. But as someone who understood her daughter so well since she was ugly as potato, Sara also decided to keep her mouth shut. Honestly, even if no one knew anything about her, they would also ignore her call of help since it was clear that she got what she sowed. Seeing both didn't give any reaction to her acting, Sheila heaved a sigh and spoke.

"You two are no fun."

"We're here not to have fun, Sheila."

Ria said, receiving an approving nod from Sara.

"Moreover, you were boasting about how great the shop is that it has all kinds of almighty items in there but, could you even afford them?"

"Eh, the answer is obviously no. What do you think I am, a prodigy?"

Sheila nonchalantly replied, staring at Ria as if she were looking at an idiot.

*Snap!*

"Uh, no. I do, indeed, have enough gold to buy a few purifying items if that is what you're asking, Ma'am!"

Before Ria could turn into a devil known as the evil incarnation, Sheila immediately surrenders herself. It seemed it isn't a good time to joke around; she just understood it now. While Ria was watching her, Sheila was browsing through the shop, staring intently at the screen of her phone. Because there was a search and category system, she didn't need to go through the trouble of searching among the endless items. A few seconds later, a talisman made of paper appeared on her hand.

『 Cleansing Talisman 』

『 Grade: D

A talisman made from the blood of an angel as the ink, the hide of an unknown beast as the paper, used for cleansing a powerful evil spirit. 』

"What a stingy system, a mere talisman to cost so much of golds."

Sheila grumbled under her breath at the unfairness. Though she had managed to amass plenty of gold after many times of grinding, the cost for the talisman she just bought did give a bit of pain to her, mentally. As a gamer who was addicted to gacha games, Sheila always felt a bit downcast upon noticing the funds decreasing. It doesn't matter if it's RPG or reality, losing capitals always kept her on edge. In essence, she's stingy.

"What is that paper in your hand?"

"It's a talisman, a cleansing talisman, used to purify a powerful evil spirit, exactly what we needed."

"You only have one with you? Is it enough? I thought you are the type to prepare more than one."

"You knew me well, but yes, I only have one with me. However, I do prepare more than one way to defeat the evil spirit, so no worries."

Sheila smiles after saying her words. In fact, she didn't just purchase the talisman from the shop, and since she thought it wasn't of any importance, she didn't tell Ria about it.

"So, do you want to follow me to the mansion, or wait with my mother here?"

She asked. Ria took a moment to consider the pros and cons before shaking her head and said.

"I'll wait."

"Wise decision. And just in case, [White Tiger!]"

Suddenly, the two, Sara and Ria, were hit by a powerful blast of wind that almost sent them flying if not for Sheila protecting them with her aura. Looking up, they saw a beautiful yet prideful white tiger that emerged from a whirlwind that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"Could you stay here for a while, and protect those two while I'm off for a business?"

The [White Tiger] nodded its head to her words. She cuddles with it for a moment before deciding to head to the mansion, leaving the two with a powerful bodyguard. Although they are far from home, it is still within the same district, which was why she could summon it. If not for the fact that the cost required to maintain their corporal form is cumbersome, Sheila might have summoned all of them at once.

After bidding farewell to the two, Sheila stepped forward, heading toward the mansion that emitted a chilly and dark aura. To ordinary people, the extravagance mansion is nothing but extravagance. If they were a bit more observant, they would have noticed the difference, in the atmosphere between the outside, and that of the inside of the mansion. Unfortunately, all the previous owners of the mansion are just nothing but ordinary people.

Upon stepping into the mansion, Sheila could feel a slight cold breeze sweep her whole body, causing her to shiver due to the cold. It reminds her of the horror games or movies, which most would suddenly speak of having the same thing as she did for some unknown reason. She had thought they were just saying it to turn the situation into a spooky one, but upon experiencing it personally, she knew she was wrong.

"Interesting, the mana here is a lot more attuned to the water element than elsewhere."

Sheila couldn't help but mutter upon sensing something with her mana eyes. After inspecting the whole floor on her own, the evil spirit is still nowhere in sight, nor did it attack her. Since she didn't find anything of importance, Sheila decided to went upstairs to the second floor. Upon arriving on the second floor, she started to notice that the atmosphere here feels a lot more chilly than downstairs. Room after room, still no shadow of it. But the closer she is to the end of the second floor, the colder the atmosphere felt to her. As if the sign couldn't be more than apparent, Sheila immediately took the talisman out of her pocket and prepared herself for the situation ahead.

"Come out. I know you are there."

Sheila called out as she slows down her pace toward the last room, at the corner of the second floor. But no one responds to her call other than the sound of her footsteps thumping softly on the marble floor. Suddenly, Sheila remembers the detail about the mansion that Sara spoke off while she was driving the car on the way here. Although her mind was out of the world during that time, her ears were half-intently listening to her words. The previous owner of the mansion before Sara bought it, told her that no matter what, she should never unlock the room at the end of the second floor. He didn't specifically tell her the reason, but based on the grim tone and his serious expression, Sara took his words seriously.

Sheila quickly understood that the locked room at the end of the second floor must have been the place that the evil spirit dwells. If that's the case, Sheila paused for a moment to take a couple of deep breathes and continues once she was ready to face the evil spirit. The closer she is to the room, the colder the atmosphere. When Sheila is right in front of the door, she could faintly hear noise from within the room. She couldn't tell what sort of noise it is but was sure she isn't mistaken about it.

"Sigh, well, here goes nothing."

With her right hand holding tightly onto the cleansing talisman, she slowly opened the door with her right hand.

*Creak!*

"Huh. It looks surprisingly normal. I was expecting the inside of the room to be dirty and all, but it was as clean as it can get. I must be—Guh!"

Before Sheila could continue her words, she was suddenly pushed out of the room by an invisible force. After stabilizing herself, she looks up and saw a dark, shadowy figure of a human floating in the air. Lowering down her gaze, Sheila can only see a wisp of haze covering its lower body part instead of legs. No doubt about it, this is the evil spirit that lives within the mansion.

"Do you understand my word?"

"....rr..."

"Yes?"

"...rr...grrr...GROWL!"

"As I thought, you're no exception either!"

When the evil spirit tried to pounced at her, she avoids it by rolling to the side before willing a small ball of flame to materialize in reality and flew toward the evil spirit. But as expected, the fireball passed through it and exploded when it hits the ceiling, yet the evil spirit was still unharmed from the explosion. She had thought a real 'evil spirit' could get hurt from a magic attack, but as she could see, there isn't a single wound on it.

Sheila immediately went downstairs once she was given a chance as the evil spirit ferociously give chase right behind her. It tried to invade into her body from time to time by pouncing at her, but Sheila calmly dodges it with a quick yet sharp movement. The more it fails to do so, the angrier it became. But what can it do? The female human is just too agile. Just as she thought it would continue, the evil spirit suddenly stopped midair, which also halts her movement as she turned out to look at it.

"u...uu..ooohh!"

For the first time, she felt a sense of danger coming from it. Sheila quickly put a defensive stand as if expecting it to attack her with some physical or magical attack, but what she gets was a loud and shattering screech from the evil spirit.

*SCREEEEECH!*

"Damn it! I didn't expect that, did I?"

Blood could be seen trickled out of her ears as she cursed under her breath. Seeing she was visibly hurt by it, the evil spirit was ready to launch another one, but Sheila interrupted it by charging toward it fearlessly. And within the blink of an eye, she jumped toward it before throwing the cleansing talisman straight to its face.

"Have a taste of this, you bastard!"