Chapter 1

“Guideline number seventeen for new mail carriers. Don’t be too startled when you see a ghost.”

Margopy Sparrow muttered with her nose buried in a palm-sized instruction booklet. The musty smell of parchment stung her nostrils.

“A mail carrier’s extreme reaction might hurt the ghost’s feelings……? Lily! Are you messing with me right now?”

Margopy cried out loudly, directing her resentment at her boss.

“Why would you put the most important thing at the very end!”

She flung the booklet with all her might. It hit the glass window and dropped to the floor with a thud. She then grabbed an old Bible with both hands and hoisted it into the air.

But she couldn’t bring herself to throw it. No matter how furious she was, she couldn’t treat a client’s keepsake carelessly.

「Oh, my dear sister. A wise decision.」

A faint voice echoed from above her head. She snapped her gaze upward and met a pair of bloodshot eyes. A ghost with a crushed skull stared down at her.

Margopy recoiled in shock at the sight of the ghost floating beneath the wooden ceiling, its wedding vestments soaked in blood.

“Get away from me!”

She ended up hurling the Bible straight at the ghost after all. The ghost flinched and reached out toward it.

「Sister! Tossing my keepsake aside like an apple core… that’s truly too much!」

But his transparent hands passed right through the book, and the worn volume sailed out through the wide-open window.

「Please retrieve it at once…… Sister? Sister!」

Margopy stared blankly at the ghost stomping in distress, then toppled backward. The ghost’s pale face slowly faded from her dimming vision, and she lost consciousness.

＊  ＊  ＊

“Get away from me!”

Froy Ratel snapped his head up at Margopy’s scream. He swung the telescope he’d been using to sweep the area around Lily Express and immediately zoomed in on the staff dormitory where a light was burning.

His teeth ground together with a short, sharp sound. All manner of wild thoughts surged through his mind.

That easygoing young boss had finally laid his hands on the sparrow. Today was the day he’d break every one of that pervert’s fingers.

Froy trained his telescope on the corner room on the first floor where Margopy’s room was. Right on cue, something flew out through the window.

He lowered the telescope toward the object that had landed in the sand. An old Bible, splayed open.

“D*mn it.”

Froy dropped the telescope and snatched up his rifle, launching himself to his feet. The camouflage blanket fell onto the rock with a soft thud.

He leapt from the high boulder and rolled into the dry scrub below, then slid down the sandy slope and charged onto the wide grounds of Lily Express.

He vaulted the flimsy wooden fence and sprinted past the stable, where the horses that had been awake in the dark let out high, startled whinnies and stamped their hooves.

“Who’s there!”

The boss’s irritable shout rang out from the main building with its high ceiling. Lamplight flickered behind the window of the office.

“More horse thieves? You bastards, let’s see if I let you off tonight!”

The boss’s shadow flashed briefly in the window as he scrambled for his gun. Froy threw up a middle finger toward the office and kept running toward the staff dormitory.

Then it suddenly struck him that Margopy was the only employee at Lily Express’s western branch. Which meant she was the only person in the dormitory right now, while the boss was all the way over in his office grabbing his gun.

That left only one answer. Some piece of wilderness trash had slipped into the dormitory. And without a shred of fear, no less, to *ssault his sparrow.

You’re getting hanged. No, I’ll string you up at the entrance to the lawless lands as an example.

By the time Froy reached the window of Margopy’s dormitory room in a single sprint, he’d already worked out a plan to gut the unknown intruder and hang the body at the entrance to the lawless lands.

“……Margopy?”

He leveled his rifle into the room and pushed open the glass window swaying in the night breeze. Margopy lay half-draped off the bed, unconscious.

The sight of her pale face framed by light brown hair sent a chill down his spine, but she was breathing softly. Her limbs hung limp, though she didn’t appear to be injured. There was no sign of an intruder either.

Froy exhaled with relief and lowered the rifle. He swept the room again, but still found no intruder. No one was hiding under the old bed, and the door was firmly locked from the inside.

“Margopy. Who exactly did you tell to get away?”

He muttered as though pleading with someone, and draped both arms limply over the windowsill.

“Don’t tell me you had a nightmare…… D*mn, I feel like I just lost years off my life.”

He bowed his head and let out a long breath, then kicked something at his feet. The old Bible he’d spotted through the telescope.

He picked it up with two fingers, hopped through the window, set the rifle and the Bible on the floor, and crossed to the bed in a few long strides. He gathered Margopy into his arms first.

She slumped against him and breathed out a thin sigh. He brushed the back of his hand across her drained, white cheek for a moment, then lifted her and laid her carefully on the bed.

He combed her tangled light brown hair back from her face, pulled the blanket over her curled body, picked up the rifle, and slowly turned around.

「Beautiful brother with blue eyes.」

He came face to face with a man standing directly behind him, and his mind went sharp in an instant. A young priest in a bloodstained wedding vestment, dark red blood seeping from his head.

“D*mn it!”

Froy cursed and raised the rifle at the man, but the young priest calmly pointed at the Bible lying at Froy’s feet.

「If you can see me…… would you mind picking up my keepsake and placing it on the table?」

Bang! Froy pulled the trigger on instinct, and the sharp crack split the night air. The bullet passed straight through the man’s face, crossed the room, and punched through the wooden wall.

Froy’s eyes went wide as he stared at the man’s transparent face with a bullet hole through it.

“……A ghost……?”

「Excuse me, brother. Shooting someone the moment you meet them is rather poor form. Have some manners.」

The young priest rubbed his nose where the bullet had passed through and grumbled.

「Then again, I suppose I can’t expect manners from someone who sneaks into a woman’s room uninvited.」

Froy stared blankly at the priest’s body floating in midair, then clenched his jaw.

Sparrow, how on earth did you end up in a place like this. This is a fraudulent job offer.