Alen did not move from his hiding spot. He decided to watch a bit more. Abhi was a witch. So Alen wanted to know what Abhi was going to do with the ghost. There were two ways to handle a ghost. The first was to send it to rebirth. If the ghost is willing, then it was an easy task. If the ghost is not willing, then it can be forcefully sent to the rebirth cycle. However, some ghosts have strong regrets and attachments that they could not be sent to rebirth through normal methods. They had to be sealed. All over the world, there were different methods to seal these kinds of souls. Alen was curious and observed the situation carefully.
Abhi gave the ice cream to the little girl.
"It's cold," Maala complained after receiving it.
"What are you talking about? Ice cream is always cold." Abhi replied as she opened her ice cream and started licking it.
Maala looked at Abhi. She followed Abhi's steps and ate the ice cream.
At the same time, Alen was stupefied. 'You dumb witch!... That's a ghost! You are supposed to seal ghosts, not feed them ice cream. Don't feed ice cream to ghosts.' Alen screamed in his mind.
"It's sweet... and cold." A smile appeared on Maala's lips.
Abhi noticed the issue in her words. "Is it your first time eating ice cream?"
Maala nodded vigorously.
Abhi froze for a few moments. She felt bad. How poor must her family be if she had never eaten an ice cream before? According to Abhi, ice cream was the tastiest thing she had ever eaten. Even the sweets of heaven paled in comparison to ice cream. Gods had extremely long life spans, and they didn't care about trivial matters such as desserts. Compared to that, the short lives of mortals were eventful and colourful.
"If you like it, your elder sister will buy it for you every day."
"Every day? Are you rich?"
"No. But some girls in my class are rich. They will give me money."
'Uhhh... This dumb, stupid girl is going to extort her classmates so that she can feed ice cream to a ghost. Did she hit her head in that accident? Tina and her gang are going to get bullied again.' Alen, who was secretly listening, felt a new headache coming.
"Here. Put it on." Abhi gave the footwear to Maala.
'Sandals for a ghost? Just when I thought it couldn't get worse.' Alen sighed. He had to struggle a bit to prevent himself from screaming at her.
Maala put it on. Then she stared at it for a while.
"What are you looking at? Your ice cream is melting." Abhi reminded.
"Ughh..." Maala made an uncomfortable sound. Then she ran.
She ran to the shrubs and disappeared in a moment.
"Maala..." Abhi tried chasing her. But by the time she reached, Maala was long gone.
"Did I say something wrong?" Abhi wondered.
After waiting for a few more minutes, Abhi went home.
At the same time, Alen was shocked. He clearly saw a sad expression and a drop of tear from the eyes of the ghost.
'Is she really a witch? Why can't she recognise a ghost?' Alen was confused.
'At least she is not a vengeful ghost. I don't have to worry about her hurting mortals. She still holds emotions. She can also interact with physical objects. Those are not easy for ghosts. I wonder what made her a ghost.'
"Now I have to keep an eye on a witch, a witch hunter and a ghost. I came to Earth to have some peaceful days. Not to join a high school drama." Alen continued lamenting as he returned to his home.
Abhi got more and more used to school life. But at the same time, she found it really difficult to stay awake in the boring classes.
She also realised that a bunch of youngsters were keeping an eye on her. One was the same youngster who had offered her ice cream a few days ago.
So she went to Alen to get more information. He seemed to be the boss of the largest gang in the school and the all-knowing guy.
"Ahh... I know those rascals. They are witch-hunters. Just ignore them." Alen said.
"Witch hunters?"
"You don't even know about witch hunters?" Alen was a bit taken aback.
"The witch hunters are the oldest family of witches on the earth. The strongest as well. Centuries ago, witches started killing humans for multiple reasons. It led to the secret war between humans and witches."
"To everyone's surprise, the strongest family of witches joined humans and became witch hunters. All the witches will have their power suppressed when they face them. So humans easily won the war. Ever since then, they have been strictly imposing the rules."
"Why would they do something like that?" Abhi was confused.
"For survival. No one knows the details. But according to the legends, the head of their family had divination power. He foresaw the future, and then he decided to side with humans. The best guess anyone had was that he saw the complete annihilation of witches and wanted to avoid that. They also created the group called the Eight to keep the balance."
"What is the Eight?"
"It is a secular group formed by strong humans and witch hunters to keep an eye on everything."
"How do you know all these?"
"I know someone from the inside. So I came to know all these."
"What is the name of the family?" Abhi asked questions one after another.
"I can't say. They will sense us the moment we say it. They are a real pain in the ass. So let's not talk more about them. Understood?"
"Yes. They will cause pain in your ass." Abhi replied absent-mindedly.
"That... no... Forget it." Alen shook his head and decided not to correct her.
"Just remember this. They also have to follow rules. As long as you don't make trouble for normal humans, they won't do anything. So just don't use your powers carelessly." Alen warned her.
"Thanks." Abhi left after thanking him.
'This is weird. I cannot feel that smell of a witch on her. I seriously don't want to get involved with this. But I cannot let any harm come to her. She is quite dumb.' Alen felt helpless.
***
That evening, Abhi saw the same van parked at a turn. There were two youngsters watching her from the van.
When Abhi looked at them, they waved their hands in a friendly manner. But she decided to ignore them as they were up to no good.
"Hey... Do you want ice cream?" The boy jumped in front of her and extended a cone of ice.
"Th- Thanks." Abhi instinctively grabbed the ice cream.
"I have kept it chilled for you."
"Thank you." Abhi awkwardly bowed a bit and walked away with the ice cream. After talking to Alen, she was no longer afraid of the witch hunters.
She wanted the ice cream, but she didn't want to get close to the witch hunters.
Once she was far enough, she opened the ice cream and started licking it. She also used her divine power to check for poison and made sure it was safe.
The ice cream was really tasty. It was even tastier than the usual ones she used to buy. This surprised her a bit, and she started eating it happily.
"She... she's licking it!" The girl in the van looked at Abhi in disbelief.
The boy was also watching the scene with his mouth agape. He even forgot to breathe.
"Did you really use holy water to make it?" The boy frowned.
"Yes. Absolutely. I even burned my arm a bit." The girl showed a red spot on her hand.
"Then why is she licking it like a puppy licking a bone?"
"I... I don't know. Maybe she is a masochist who is into some weird fetish."
"Or... She is not a medium-grade witch as we thought. She could be a higher grade witch with resistance to holy water."
"What do we do then?"
"We just make it even more holy." The boy said resolutely.
The poor witch-hunters had absolutely no idea that Abhi wasn't a witch. They were feeding holy water to a divine entity. This was like adding nuts to the ice cream. It made the ice cream taste better for Abhi. On top of that, unknown to Abhi, the holy water was increasing her body's capacity to handle divine power.
Just like that, another misunderstanding started growing.
Abhi finished the ice cream in no time. Then, for a moment, she contemplated going back and asking for more. But in the end, she decided against it.
That evening, she met Maala again.
"I want to talk to your parents." Abhi declared.
"Why?" Maala was alarmed.
"Because I don't think you are going to school. I want to make sure you are enrolled in a school." Abhi was meeting her every day. So, she was pretty sure that Maala wasn't going to school regularly.
"I am going to school every day." Maala protested.
"Which school?"
"You don't believe me?"
"No. I don't."
"..."
"I will take you to them tomorrow," Maala replied after thinking for a few minutes.
Abhi left after bidding goodbye to Maala.
Maala was a bit troubled. She didn't have parents.
"This is troublesome..." The little ghost murmured as Abhi disappeared from her vision.
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