章 31: Family P 2

Elder P had four other siblings. Three older brothers and a sister. No wife. No kids. His father still acted like a matriarch who has retired and had a firm grip on his children hiding in the dark.

Elder P was the youngest out of all Elders. His father retired a few hundred years before Min became the new Ghost King. All of his siblings were dissatisfied with their youngest topping them and becoming the Elder.

However, they didn't voice any oppositions. That was before a new Ghost King appeared and being an Elder had more meaning and usefulness. They all now tried to snatch the Elder position from Elder P.

It has been ten years now that Elder P was able to push back his siblings and protected his position as the leader of his family. In a sense, Elder P was a sad being.

From his childhood, his parents pitted their children against each other in order to push a child to the top, worthy of being an Elder. It was quite a vicious competition and as Elder P got the position, he was glad he didn't have to face his siblings' retaliation.

Elder P was still fairly young. He wasn't bad looking either however his mocking and degrading personality with a tinge of being twisted was the result of his parents' strict control, made him unattractive and undesirable with a lot of women who knew of him.

Elder P wasn't interested in any romance either, he also didn't care about having an offspring that would continue his family line. He could worry about that later. What he cared about was to get rid of his leeching siblings that refused to move out of his mansion as well as his still controlling father.

His mother left after having enough of the marriage and selfish children. Elder P wasn't close with her and he was glad he had one parasite less to deal with.

He frankly thought it didn't matter if his family died or just left on their own. He just wanted them off his back. Now that the Ghost King appeared, they all wanted his position more than ever.

Elder P had, on top of that, the task from the Ghost King to lead a facility to create ghosts. At first, he was annoyed to deal with it but then a brilliant idea came. He could use this opportunity to get rid of his family.

So, he proposed to have a competition like in the old times to establish who was superior to see who would produce the most vengeful ghosts in the largest quantity. If by accident the ghosts would end up killing them, wasn't his problem. He wouldn't be able to prevent it.

Elder P laid in a room. His bare chest was revealed and soon a hand trailed it up and down. Next to Elder P laid a beauty. Elder P was, after all, a still young and energetic man. He didn't care about romance but he still had to release some of his natural desires too. He wasn't a monk.

Right now, he was in the Red Light District. He didn't dare to go there too often as he was an Elder but tomorrow was finally the day when the facility opened up. This had to be celebrated.

Elder P stroked the beauty and got hard again. Her pleasant giggles echoed in his ears as he towered over her. The night was still young and he had a lot of energy left. He needed to charge himself before tomorrow.

***

In the quiet room, Lia sat in front of her mirror. Her fingers ran through her long hair. Absentmindedly, she stared at herself before making up her mind.

She took the pair of scissors and cut her hair. The loose strands fell on the ground and laid pitifully in front of her. Another look in the mirror revealed now shoulder-length hair with choppy bangs covering her forehead.

Satisfied with the messy result, she picked up a pair of fake glasses and put them on. The bangs fell over her glasses making her eyes barely visible.

When she stepped out of the room into the living room, Noel who sat on the sofa jumped in fright.

"Dammit, you look like a ghost! Like those in the mortal films, like a teenage girl who just got-"

"Shut up," Lia's sharp voice cut through him.

Noel just looked at her astonished, "Why?" was the only thing he could say after a while.

"A shame," he mumbled after another few seconds.

"Some countermeasures," Lia lightly replied yet just like she thought, Noel didn't stop his questions,

"For what?"

"In case, I'll get recognised," there was always the possibility of running into Elder P who knew her.

Even if her appearance changed slightly, after closer observation, those who knew her previously could immediately figure her out.

Noel just nodded. He understood what she meant. He still didn't know her identity, not even her name, but it didn't matter to him.

"Shall we?" Noel walked out of the door and soon both of them were on their way to the mountains.

It was still morning and they had to be there at noon for the staff assembly.

On their way, Noel briefed Lia about her role, "Your name's Kim."

Lia threw him a look.

"My name's Tim. Easy to remember right? Kim, Tim. You'll be assigned to the floor with the third oldest brother of Elder P, no clue what floor that is and I'm with the sister, also no clue what floor."

Lia threw him another look and wondered if he wasn't lonely. To be fair, she would've liked to work for a female. She had enough of men.

"Basically what we gonna do is wait until the basics or foundations of the facility has been established. We also need to gain their trust and do our work well before then we won't do anything. The most important thing's to find the purpose of the facility, got it?"

Lia nodded. Even though she wanted to kill Elder P the most, she couldn't let her hatred cloud her judgement and allow Min to get away with whatever he had planned.

"We'll meet up hopefully soon anyways to talk about our situation. After we figured out everything we can start taking them out."

"Alright, let's do what you say," Lia didn't have any problem playing a waiting game. It was even better if the ghosts would kill everyone than throwing herself into the spotlight.

In case of anything, she had the talisman with her. Either way, ghosts or weapons, as long as they could kill someone, she could use her power.

But suddenly she realised something, "As staff, what do we have to do?"

"Create ghosts?"

"Why does it sound like you have no idea?"

Lia and Noel were rushing across the city to the mountain.

As the wind blew in their faces, Noel didn't look at her and remained quiet for a second. Just for a few seconds before recollecting himself to answer that devastating hit, "Do I?"

"You don't!" Lia was angry, "You had so much time to prepare and you couldn't figure out what we are supposed to do?"

"It's top secret! They'll let you know at the briefing. Calm down!"

Noel himself was a bit worried, he just hoped it was something manageable.

For the rest of the journey, Lia ignored him. Any attempt of him to talk was quickly shot down by her.

She wasn't that worried, it was just since the last fail with Elder Z she wanted to be more prepared but here she was again rushing blindly into something with only the bare minimum of understanding.

At least this time, she had an ally. She threw him another look. A questionable ally.

The area with the mountains reached deep into the end. There were paths that led up each mountain and connected them. It seemed like Noel had been here before as he took the lead again and walked across the paths.

The mountains were steep and the paths narrow, yet here and there some villages appeared, showing just how large the area was.

The more they ventured inside, the darker and crowded the path became. It wasn't until they just stood in front of a crossroad. Three paths leading ahead or down and one path leading up the mountain that was in the far back.

The path up reached half of the size of the mountain and showed them an open area that was surrounded by the mountain walls. There were a few houses and one large building. It was obvious that this area was fairly hidden and without someone knowledgeable about the place, there was no way that anyone could find this spot.

The village seemed abandoned and desolated weren't it for the fact that all of the buildings looked newly built.

"Let's go," Noel walked to the largest building that was a white rectangle with six floors. It looked like a hospital that could house a few hundred patients.

From the outside, it looked fairly normal and Lia had doubts that this was the right place and even if what could be done in such a small place?

However, upon entering Lia knew how wrong she was and narrowed her eyes. This was… illusion magic.

The same as the one used for the Red Light District. The exterior was only there to fool others but the interior was what signed the deal.

Lia instantly figured out that this facility must've been in talks for a while now after all Fourth from the Z family was able to use his power to create this. Seeing how loyally he supported Min, it was no understatement he would do his best.

Noel whistled at the sight. Just from the entrance, it was clear that it was immensely huge, its end nowhere in sight.

There were light brown ceramic tiles gracing the floor, the entrance area looked modern and elegant and had the hint of the feeling they were about to enter a spa.

Several plants decorated the place and from the huge windows, light flooded in. No matter where one looked, to the right, left or straight forward, it wasn't clear just how huge the building actually was.

As they stood there a female in a white attire, like a doctor, greeted them, "Are you here for…"

"Yes, the creation," Noel replied and the woman nodded, showing them around.

The creation. What a cringy codeword. Lia almost had the urge to laugh.

While they were led through this huge maze, the woman gave them a brief overview.

The building had 6 floors. The ground floor belonged to the staff and housed their rooms to stay in as well as a cafeteria, shopping mall and various entertainment options.

The more they saw, the more Lia thought that this was exactly like a city centre. It literally was a city centre!

Each floor from one to five belonged to one of the Family P's members. They each had the same setup and were used to create the ghosts.

Elder P had the highest floor and from there it was ranked down. The eldest son had floor 4, the second eldest 3, the third eldest 2 where Lia was and the sister was floor 1 where Noel was.

Before the woman opened the room to the assembly, she turned to them and sternly said,

"There are only ten staff in total. Two on each floor, so please make sure you do your best."