Laila and Elisha ran straight to Camilla, clinging to either side of her and tearing up. They said it had been too scary, that she absolutely must not go in.

“We were the ones who were more scared, Elisha. Miss Laila... do you work out separately or something?”

I’m the one who thought I was going to get beaten to death in there.

Watching the two of them, Petro and Juella shuddered with stunned expressions.

All while making a vow never to go into a place like that again with those two ever again.

A little later.

“Wheeheeheeheeek.......”

“.......”

“.......”

“.......”

“.......”

“Wheehee......?”

The person dressed as a ghost in the first room, the one who greeted Camilla’s group, faltered when they saw the four people giving absolutely no reaction.

A moment ago, after seeing Elisha and Laila recoil in terror at their ghost act and even burst into tears, they had been overflowing with confidence. But faced with Arsian and Camilla’s utterly flat expressions, they hesitated and took a step back.

“H-hhh.......”

“Big sister, why is that big sister crying?”

“...Because she’s in pain.”

“Huh? Really?”

Even so, the person kept making sobbing noises to the very end, but at Rio’s worried gaze, they had no choice but to stop.

“Big sister, are you hurting a lot?”

Rio looked at the woman dressed as a ghost with eyes that looked ready to cry at any second.

It had been too dark to tell before, but when he came closer and looked carefully, she even had blood running down her head, so she really did look badly hurt.

“Does your head hurt?”

“N-no... just a little.......”

The woman answered without thinking, then immediately realized her mistake, but she simply could not ignore those eyes that looked as if they might start crying at any second.

“I’ll give you this.”

“Huh? Ah... thank you......?”

True to his title as a candy missionary, Rio pressed handfuls of candy into her hands, and in the end the person playing the ghost let out an awkward smile.

“Please make sure you get treatment.”

“Mm.......”

And then, as Rio walked away with worried eyes all the way to the end, she even had to wave at him.

After that, Camilla’s group’s tour of the haunted house continued very quietly and very smoothly.

“Kraaaah!”

“.......”

“Kr... ah? Ah... hehe, the stamp is over there.”

There was even one person who leaped out of a wall closet screaming, only to immediately tell them where the hidden stamp was after meeting Arsian’s murderous stare.

“Wheeheehee.......”

“Big brother, want some candy?”

“...Huh? R-right, thanks. Want me to stamp it for you?”

“Yes!”

There was also one who got hit by Rio’s candy attack and ended up bringing the stamp over personally and stamping the sheet for him.

“But Camilla.”

“Yeah?”

“Is a haunted house a place where sick people are?”

“...Yeah.”

It was not exactly wrong. Ghosts were people whose hearts hurt so much they could not leave this world.

“I see.”

As though he had finally understood, Rio nodded vigorously. At that moment, the haunted house became a house of patients.

“Big sister, I think that’s the last room! Can I run and get the stamp?”

“You want to?”

Rio ran quickly toward the last classroom, his face glowing with excitement.

Still, seeming worried about sending him alone, Arsian quietly followed after the child.

“.......”

Naturally, that left only the two of them. Camilla’s gaze turned to Sena. As expected, their eyes met, and the girl immediately looked away.

“Sena.”

At Camilla’s call, the girl cautiously lifted her head.

“Is there something you want to say to me?”

Remembering how, from the very first time they met, the child had been unable to take her eyes off her, Camilla gazed steadily into Sena’s eyes.

“.......”

But the child said nothing again. Can she really not speak?

Camilla’s gaze shifted to the place where the child’s wrists were hidden.

The places wrapped up tightly beneath her clothes.

When she had first met the child, she had definitely seen them.

The vivid bruises visible here and there through the loose clothes. A sight that was far too familiar.

“Hiding it and enduring it no matter what isn’t always the answer.”

The child, with her lips pressed shut, thoroughly shutting herself off from any relationship with others, looked exactly like someone Camilla knew, and without realizing it, she let out a sigh.

Remembering what the result had been for someone who had endured like that and hidden everything away all alone, Camilla gently stroked the child’s head.

As though comforting a child who looked exactly like herself from long ago.

“.......”

At that touch, the girl’s eyes widened slightly, and those eyes that had held no emotion at all began to tremble nonstop.

“Should we head out too?”

Seeing Rio in the distance, already returning with the stamp and walking back in quick little steps, Camilla moved first.

Tug.

“......?”

But then a hand lightly caught the hem of her clothes. Camilla stopped and lowered her gaze.

Dark green eyes staring straight at her.

Seeing those eyes that looked as if they had so much to say, Camilla lowered her head slightly and met the child’s gaze more closely.

“...Um.”

At that moment, sound spilled from Sena’s mouth for the first time.

Camilla barely held back her exclamation at the clear resonance of her voice, and then Sena’s voice reached her ears again.

And at the short question that followed, Camilla could not help but be startled.

“Do... do you not remember me?”

*****

“It was really, really scary.......”

“I thought I was actually going to faint.”

Elisha and Laila stared with naked envy at Rio, who had come out with the fastest time and won a teddy bear.

That bear was the one we recommended as the prize. We picked the cutest one because we thought we’d be the ones getting it....... 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

“Especially the third room!”

“That’s right! The third room! That woman ghost with just her head floating there!”

“I seriously almost collapsed.”

“That was one of the magic effects Lord Arsian set up too, right?”

As they all moved to another place to eat dinner together, the two of them looked at Arsian at the same time with expressions full of impressed amazement.

“The ghost with just the floating head?”

But Arsian’s reaction was a little strange.

The man who had cast all the magic used in the haunted house shook his head as if he were hearing about it for the first time.

“I never set up anything like that.”

“Wh—what?”

“No, but...? The third room. There was definitely a ghost there with only its head floating.......”

“I said I never did anything like that.”

“I didn’t see anything like that either?”

“There was something like that?”

After Arsian’s firm reply, Juella and Petro, who had gone in with them, also kept tilting their heads in confusion.

“.......”

“.......”

Elisha and Laila looked at each other.

“Gyaaaah!”

Their faces gradually turned white, and screams burst out of both of them at the same time.

Watching the two of them, Camilla lightly clicked her tongue to herself.

Looks like they saw that ghost from earlier.

One of the many reasons she did not like places like haunted houses.

Real ghosts are drawn to places where people talk a lot about ghosts and think a lot about ghosts.

Was it the power of words and thoughts? No, saying negative energy gathered there was probably the ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) most accurate way to put it.

Ghosts got excited and flocked to the negative energy drawn out by fear.

That did not mean everyone could see ghosts, but sometimes cases like that happened. Their energy had grown sensitive from extreme fear and momentarily matched a ghost’s wavelength, so they ended up seeing one.

Still, that’s a relief.

They only saw one.

Camilla looked toward the haunted house, now already a little farther away, with fresh eyes.

Seeing the ghosts stuck here and there along the windows, all waving at her with great enthusiasm, she slowly shook her head.