Transmigrated as a Ghost

Wade looked at Marcus understanding that someone from the people he had rescued must be important to him.

"Yeah, I know that they are in refugee camp five but other than that you will need to locate them yourself. The camp is located in large park on the west side of the town."

After getting the location Marcus started to head on out when Wade stopped him and said, "Wait, take this, it is a badge to identify you as a royal investigator. For the remaining duration of this crisis, I will have you working under me so try not to get into any trouble. Also, report back to the office tomorrow morning at the latest since we will have some work to do."

Nodding his head Marcus moved towards the stairs and as he was leaving heard Wade say under his breath.

"Now I need to report that I was the one who caught the mysterious big fish."

Hearing this Marcus felt a chill down his spine and quickly ran out of the army headquarters building.

Finding himself back on the empty streets Marcus quickly turned back into his ghost form and floated above the buildings.

When he caught sight of the vibrant green area that could only be the park he was looking for Marcus floated towards it.

Once he got closer, he could see hundreds of tents set up with people milling about, most of them headed for one large tent that appeared to be an emergency kitchen.

'Now then I need to find Lilia and make sure she is doing okay. I did not go through all the trouble of recuing her just for her to end up killed by some ants.'

Floating down to ground level Marcus began his search for Lilia checking the people walking around outside and eating at the large dinning area set up outside of the kitchen.

Unfortunately, Marcus was unable to locate Lilia from among the mass of people and began searching through the tents.

After, poking his head through around three hundred tents in the refugee tent city, Marcus found the little girl he was looking for.

Laying on a small mat in the tent was Lilia bundled up in some cheap blankets.

Marcus moved over above her and noticed that she was breathing unsteadily, and her face was flushed.

Frantically Marcus resolidified and put his hand on top of Lilia's forehead and could feel that she was burning up.

He quickly began casting his tier two healing spell lesser restoration and after a dozen casts felt that her temperature was beginning to recede.

She then shakily opened her eyes and when she saw Marcus she said in a weak voice, "Big sister Irene?"

When he heard this Marcus immediately realized his blunder since he had not taken the time to switch his form back over to himself in his rush to cure Lilia.

Quickly moving out of Lilia's view Marcus switched his form over before going back to her side and saying, "Sorry, I am afraid I am not Irene, but your big brother Marcus is here to help you in her stead."

Lilia finally breaking out of the daze her fever had left her in blinked her eyes a few times and stared at Marcus.

For a moment she felt incredibly sad as the hole in her heart of losing her sister felt reopened, but she soon felt a warm feeling as she looked at Marcus the mysterious man that had come to save her at her sister's behest.

After lightly coughing a few times, Lilia managed to get herself together and say, "What are you doing here big brother Marcus, I thought you had other things to attend to."

Hearing Lilia call him big brother, Marcus felt his heart strings being pulled and he said, "I finished up my business and when I heard you were in trouble, I rushed right on over to make sure you were okay. It is a good thing I did too since you were in pretty rough shape. How did you get this fever anyway, you were in fine health when I left you?"

However, before Lilia could say anything the tent's door was opened and a woman that Marcus recognized as the de facto leader of the group Marcus sent Lilia with walked in and began saying, "Lilia I managed to get some warm soup from the kit…"

However, when she saw Marcus crouched over Lilia she immediately froze and, in her shock, dropped the bowl of soup she had.

Seeing the soup falling Marcus reflexively shot forward and grabbed the bowl out of the air before it could touch the ground.

The woman who was taking care of Lilia then stared at Marcus with a look of utter dread remembering the threat he had given her about keeping Lilia safe.

Marcus gave the woman a quick look before taking the soup over to Lilia and handing it to her and saying, "Here the lady that has been taking care of you got you some soup to eat, make sure you finish it all otherwise you will not get better."

Lilia slowly got up and Marcus could here her stomach rumble and here face blushed a little embarrassed by the loud sound.

She then quickly took the soup from Marcus and began scarfing it down since now that her fever was nearly gone her appetite had come back with a vengeance.

Seeing how hungry she was Marcus took out a loaf of bread and some jerky and handed them over to Lilia who began devouring them as well.

Marcus then stood up and walked over to the woman who had brought the soup and said, "Maybe you can tell me how Lilia got sick."

A glimpse of fear ran through her eyes, and she looked back towards the tent's exit before squashing the idea of trying to escape.

After seeing how fast Marcus moved, she knew she had no chance of escape if he really wanted her dead.

With a look of resolution coming over her face she recounted the events that caused Lilia to end up sick.

When Marcus heard what had happened, he immediately felt incredibly bad since it was in many ways his fault that Lilia had gotten sick.

From what he heard Lilia got sick because she slipped into a deep depression when she found the urn Marcus had left under her seat in the cart.

In her heart while she knew that Irene was dead, she still held onto a small sliver of hope that she was alive.

This was until she found the urn and the letter Marcus had left with it. She then slowly stopped getting out of the carriage to stretch her legs and move her body like everyone else and would barely eat.

Eventually her body got too weak, and sickness overtook her when they were unable to proceed home and were put into the refugee camp.

'I thought giving her the ashes of Irene's body would help give her some closure, but it seems to have had the opposite effect. I should have known not to have given something like that to a child that is barely eleven and expect them to react like I would.'

Mentally kicking himself Marcus knew he needed to make this better somehow and decided that he would need to make sure Lilia was taken better care of from now on.

Turning around and seeing that Lilia was still munching on the bread he left her Marcus said to the woman that had been taking care of her, "Thanks for looking out for her I know it must not have been easy. I am not going to do anything to punish you since she got sick mostly because of my thick headedness. Now I need to talk to her alone for a bit but once I leave make sure to keep looking after her for me."

The woman shook her head in agreement before exiting the tent waiting for Marcus to finish up whatever business he had with Lilia.

Steeling himself Marcus walked up to Lilia who was just finishing up the last piece of bread Marcus gave her.

Crouching back down to be eye level with Lilia Marcus said, "Lilia there is something important I need to show you."

Lilia then turned her head back towards Marcus and when he saw that he had her undivided attention he switched his form over to that of Irene and Lilia stared at him with a look of disbelief.

She looked at Marcus dumbfounded as even though the scar was gone, and his hair and eyes were a different color the face was exactly like her sister.

Seeing this Lilia began crying harder than she ever had before as she through her arms around Marcus and between her crying kept saying, "Sister Irene, Sister Irene."

Marcus continued to hug her back as he allowed her to cry her eyes out for a good five minutes before pulling her out of his embrace and saying with tears in his eyes, "Again I am sorry Lilia, but I am not actually your sister, she died that day in the woods when the slavers took you all away but even in death, she could not allow her little sister to suffer a fate worse than death."

After he said this the happy face on Lilia's face began to recede but before she started crying again Marcus said, "I am going to tell you the full story of how I came to inherit your sister's will. I happen to be from another world and when I died there, I was reborn on this world as a ghost, I wandered around the lands while trying to find a purpose for my new pitiful existence. At one point I came to your little community in the woods and found the body of a young woman who had died. However, her regret at not being able to save her little sister was so strong a fragment of her soul stayed behind and latched on to me. This fragment begged me to save you and shared the experiences you had together with me. After seeing the love you had for each other, especially when Irene stopped the pot of boiling water from hitting you, I was moved and vowed to rescue you no matter what. I may not be your sister but a part of her still rests within me along with her memories, so I will do my best to take her place."

Lilia was staring at Marcus intently as she listened to his entire story and when he was finished, she through her arms back around him and began crying again half out of sadness and half out of happiness.