13 A Body
The body I was currently possessing, was actually not a real body but instead, an artefact. The only reason it was termed 'a body' was because.. well.. that was its function. To serve as a body for new souls. This body had primarily two main functions other than the obvious physical attributes.
First one being, to nurture. That's right. The artificial body had two cores, one which I saw earlier when the shopkeeper slashed open the tummy and another one embedder inside the head. The soul, or my ghostly self, was stored inside a glowing disc-like structure inside the head. This disc was similar to the one in the tummy, only smaller and having multiple gems but violet in colour. This gem had the ability to nurtured soul. And this is where I am currently.
Rhe second function was obviously to protect. The environment itself is the biggest enemy of ghosts and specteres. Just basking in the sun for an hour should be enough to kill of weaker ghosts. So no matter how powerful a ghost is, they still need some kind of protective covering.
As for the second disc, it was used to control the movements of the body. It felt similar to controlling a video game character. And being the only person in the 21st century who was literally a tech-cripple, this was a challenging task. The shopkeeper even thought that there was something wrong with his products.
The high tech design of the artefact ensured that I was able to operate it without much trouble, albeit clumsily and after 3 hours.
Back to the scene where the shopkeeper hoodwinked me into taking a huge loan.
The shopkeeper explained all details pertaining the function, maintenance and other things regarding the body in detail. Even though he was shady, he was very professional once I had signed the IOU.
He instructed me how to possess the body, how to move around and even gifted 4 sets of clothes. Since I will already be paying sooner or later I asked another question which has been troubling me for quite some time.
Why did the academy want poor people to spend so much on a body even though it was not necessary.
That was when he explained those two reasons that I said earler. But there was also another major reason which prompted me to think twice about joining this academy.
The reason the academy enforced this rule was that Ghosts were the weakest of the undead until later stages. The academy consisted of both the living and the dead. There were many kinds of living people. Some friendly to undead, but others not so much. The bullying of the weak undead was a problem in the academy and everywhere else in the middle realm.
I guess school bullying can happen here too!
Since most undead doesn't have relatives so to speak any guardian to ask around if they mysteriously dissapeared someday, the academy had to enforce several rules to ensure the safety of all the students.
Safety first! was their motto. Even though I doubt if it plays a significant role in stopping the bullying itself.
Next, I decided to move towards the dorms. The dorms were situated behind the academy. There were two smaller castle like buildings and there was a circular plain field separating the tree buildings. If seen from above it would seem like the buildings was three corners of an equilateral triangle with a circle in the middle.
The dorms for the undead were in the left from the academy building. I walked at a relaxed clumsy pace on the footpath surrounding the circular field taking in as much of the scenery as I could along the way. This was a new place, and seeing new places was my favourite thing!
The field had green grass covering its ground with few trees with flowers in full bloom along the footpath. There were a few wildflowers, butterflies and hopping bunnies too. The scene was very relaxing, reminding oneself of the beauty of life.
Few zombies were sunbathing in the middle of the cobblestone footpath as I was walking. I passed them without disturbing, even though I had no idea if zombies need to sunbathe. I gradually got close to the building. It was a big castle, even though it was smaller than the academy building. IT looked almost similar to the one on the right belonging to the living student's. The only difference being dull blackened walls, the marks left behind by the passage of time and some wild weeds popping out here and there showing the lack of maintainnance. A strikingly stark contrast to the other building with its pristine white walls and a beautiful rose garden.
Shaking my head and being glad about whatever I had, I gradually moved towards the front door. 'It looked like Count Draculas Home!' I thought to myself. While I was alive, I had once visited Bran's Castle, or also known as Count Dracula's Castle in Romania. Even though it burned a burning hole through my wallet but it was a trip worth taking. The same aura was being excluded by this castle tooo. As if someone was peering out silently from one of those darj windows.
The Dorm itself was built on a small hill. It was not known whether it was man-made or natural, it looked already harmonious with the surroundings. Evidence that it had been here for a long time.
I walked towards the front door of the building walking through the cobblestone steps. There were many cracks and weeds growing out of them. I was really afraid that I would slip and fall on my face since I was not good at controlling mu body yet.
Finally, I was in front of the door. I was huge. The height of the door itself was several meters, as if made for giants. The door was made of wood with iron spikes coming out of them, just as I've seen in many of the medieval castles back on Earth. I gently pushed the door open. The door made an eerie creeking noise but there was not much resistance even with the humungous size of the door.
I stepped inside the dark corridor of the building hesitantly. It was dark, with only the light from a dimply lit gas lamp lighting the way.
"Hello?" I enquired. At the office, I was told to meet the Warden, who was supposed to be the caretaker.
The only reply to my call was an echo of my own voice. I looked behind the door just to calm my paranoid heart. I was a ghost now! I am not supposed to be scared! I said to myslef.
I started walking inside. It was not somebody's house after all, but a public place. The corridor was spacious. There were many marble carved statues of angels, giants, and weird looking things by the wall. also many other decor, like paintings and stag heads. I also saw an impressively big claymore. The floor was covered in a red carpet which looked at least a century old and had many torn areas as well and stuff on it. "Stuff" means unidentified disgusting things on the floor.
I walked through the dimly lit corridor as I observed the statues, portraits, paintings and whatnot decorated in the corridor. Soon I was in a spacious hall. The hall had a semicircular wooden desk in the middle with two spiral staircases at the back. There were piles of dusty books, a huge Globe like thing, some candlestands as well as other miscellaneous things on it.
Behind the desk was a statue of a robbed humanoid person. There was a hood covering his/her face and he was sitting on a globe with his arms wide open (as if asking for a hug). There was a lifelike owl sitting on the right arm of the white marble statue and a coat and a hat hung on the left. There were also myriads of things littered all over the place.
As I was keenly observing the place, I heard the sound of rummaging. I curiously searched for the source of the noise. After some time I pinpointed the noise being generated from behind the huge desk.
"Hello?" I asked again since I thought it would probably be the warden. But there was no response from the other party. I stepped closer to the desk and slowly took a peek behind the messy desk.
