“Again? You missed them again?”

“By the time we arrived, they’d already run. Every last one.”

“Hm.”

At Ludville’s short report, the Duke of Sorpel clicked his tongue again and again. He’d lost count of how many times this had happened.

“Rats.”

Ravi, seated with them, didn’t bother hiding his displeasure either. With a deeply furrowed brow, he shook his head over and over like he was sick of it.

They’d thought the leader of the Eva Faith—his death—meant the end of everything.

But it wasn’t.

Because remnants of the Eva Faith were still scattered all over the empire.

There were far too many people living on after seizing other people’s bodies. If they wanted a clean ending, they had to find them all and deal with them.

“It’s laughable. Eternal life, my ass.”

Even now, the Eva Faith were luring people in with promises of “eternal life,” then slipping deeper and deeper into hiding.

“If they really put their minds to disappearing, it’s hard to find them.”

Jacter, the Duke of Sorpel’s aide, let out a long sigh as if he was just as frustrated.

On the surface, they looked no different from ordinary people, so even when they discovered a base, they missed them as often as not.

“Wouldn’t it be better to ask for Miss Camilla’s help?”

Jacter cautiously offered a suggestion.

“They say she can tell Eva Faith members apart immediately, so it would definitely help—”

But he couldn’t finish.

The eyes of the three men—who’d looked a little worn out—turned cold in an instant.

Under their murderous stares, Jacter had to swallow down his dry spit.

“Hahaha... r-right. Of course we should handle it ourselves.”

“Obviously.”

“Do you have no shame? How could we bring a child somewhere that dangerous?”

“And what’s a kid supposed to do anyway?”

“.......”

...She’s insanely good with a sword, though.

And her divine power is overflowing, too.

And I heard Miss Camilla is the one who caught that cult leader bastard this time.

He had a lot he wanted to say, but Jacter could only clamp his mouth shut with an awkward smile.

Because he already knew from experience: when it came to Camilla, there was nothing you could say to these men that would get through.

Knock, knock.

Just then, with a faint presence, someone stepped inside.

“Aren’t you all hungry?”

It was Camilla.

“I made some snacks.”

She was carrying a tray herself, laid out with cookies and assorted tea treats. The moment they saw her, the three men’s icy expressions melted as if they’d made a promise.

“You’re not even in good shape—why are you making crap like that?”

“How long are you going to keep saying that?”

Seeing Ravi nitpick for no reason, Camilla let out a short sigh.

It had already been three months since the leader of the Eva Faith died. They were trying to stabilize things around Crown Prince Edsen, but because they still hadn’t completely eradicated the Eva Faith, the empire remained in an uproar.

Tsk.

Watching the three men who’d been fighting a battle-that-wasn’t-quite-a-battle for three straight months, Camilla shook her head lightly.

“How many followers do they even have?”

“There’s no end to them.”

At Camilla’s weary question, Ravi shuddered like it made his skin crawl.

She’d expected it, but the roots the Eva Faith had sunk into the empire were deeper and sturdier than she’d imagined.

“Yeah. They’ve existed for a very long time.”

“That cult leader said he’d been alive for more than five hundred years, didn’t he?”

“Yeah.”

Not only House Sorpel, but House Jevillan and House Sephra were pouring manpower into wiping out the Eva Faith remnants as well—yet tearing them out by the root wasn’t easy.

If they’re that stubborn, that’s why they managed to survive Mars back then, too.

Hadn’t there been a war long ago, too?

Back then, everyone had been convinced the Eva Faith no longer existed.

But look at this now. “Eradicated,” my ass—they even stole the emperor’s body.

“Cockroaches.”

“At least you can tell bugs apart. These things are beyond saving.”

The biggest problem was that once the leader died, the Eva Faith members seemed to have completely lost their reason and started thrashing even harder.

The sacred object the imperial family secured.

No—calling it a “sacred object” felt wrong.

It should’ve been called a contraband relic.

They’d been able to find everything the Fable Emperor—the one who’d been the leader of the Eva Faith—had hidden away in secret. Who found it, you ask?

Who do you think?

Obviously me.

The souls that had clung to the Fable Emperor’s side. After John Carter disappeared and they came back to themselves, she’d gotten all kinds of information from them.

Some of them even knew exactly where the contraband relics were hidden.

Anyway, we found most of them like that.

The problem came after.

Once word spread that the imperial palace was holding the contraband relic that had belonged to the leader of the Eva Faith, an endless stream of people started scaling the palace walls.

They were Eva Faith followers.

[If they don’t have it, they’ll all be dead soon.]

According to Aisla, the Spirit King of Winter, if the leader didn’t use his power through that contraband relic, the amount of time they could maintain the bodies they’d stolen grew shorter and shorter.

Even if their true name hasn’t been called and their soul hasn’t been forced out of the body, their flesh rots like a corpse anyway.

So of course they were bloodshot with obsession, trying to steal the contraband relic back no matter what.

[But I still don’t see that relic this time either.]

A snow-white dragon fluttered down and settled lightly on Camilla’s shoulder. Aisla shook his head as he continued.

[There’s one more contraband relic that only the leader can have. You saw it back then, right? His shattered body regenerating. That was the relic’s power.]

Unlike the contraband relics that distributed power to ordinary believers, that one was an object that granted power only to the leader.

[Mars couldn’t find it either. Looking back, it’s probably because the leader who died back then was a fake, so there was nothing to find. But why isn’t it here this time, either?]

Right. Why isn’t it here?

It left a bad taste in her mouth.

Does it really exist?

No one had ever actually seen it. Its form and how it was used—nothing was known at all.

Only the leader knew, they said. But John Carter had already died and been dragged off by a reaper, so she couldn’t exactly ask him.

What am I supposed to do with this uneasy feeling?

[Still, John Carter—that bastard really is gone, so don’t worry too much.]

After learning the Eva Faith were stirring the world up again, Aisla hadn’t returned to the spirit realm and had stayed by Camilla’s side.

And it is winter right now.

[A-Aisla. Why are you already here? Ah, we still have a while before it’s winter......]

[Because I felt like it.]

[Uh... right. Because you felt like it......]

Of course, the fact that the Spirit King of Autumn—the little red dragon—had shrieked and run the moment Aisla appeared wasn’t important.

What matters is wiping out the remnants, fast and clean.

So what should she do?

Camilla’s gaze returned to the three men seated across from her.

With dark circles etched deep beneath their eyes, they made her click her tongue without meaning to.

The Eva Faith really were something else. If they could wear these three down like this.

“Do you want me to help?”

If she—someone who could easily distinguish Eva Faith members—went with them, wouldn’t things move faster?

“If you really would—”

Jacter, brightening at Camilla’s words, had to shut his mouth again. The stares aimed at him this time were even more vicious than before.

“Leave us.”

“Yes, y-yes!”

At the Duke of Sorpel’s order, Jacter hurried out.

Thud!

Only after the door closed completely and they confirmed he was gone did the Duke of Sorpel let out a short sigh and lower his voice even further.

“Camilla.”

“Yes, Father.”

“...Are they still next to you?”

It was a scattered question, but no one there failed to understand what he meant.

Back when she’d woken up after collapsing in the imperial palace, Camilla had told the Duke of Sorpel and the rest of the family everything—that she could see the dead, and that she could speak with them.

She didn’t have a choice if she wanted to explain what the Mirror of Truth could do.

Except I left out the part about possession.

If she told them her body sometimes developed abnormalities as a side effect of possession, she’d end up under a suffocating level of supervision on top of their worry—so she ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ kept her mouth shut.

And that had been a very wise choice.

Because even hearing that she could see ghosts alone had made the three men’s expressions a complete spectacle.

“There’s one next to me.”

[What? Me? Why am I dead? I’m not one of those things—I’m a spirit. And not just any spirit. A Spirit King! It pisses me off when you lump me in with those things.]

Spirit or ghost—if they can’t see you, it’s the same thing to them.