Laila.

Pretty. Kind. Good-natured.

She was the only one who approached Camilla first, spoke to her, and smiled at her when everyone else shunned her...

‘I really hate you!’

‘I wish you’d just die!’

‘Get lost! Get out of my sight!’

Camilla disliked Laila intensely. No—she hated her.

‘From where I stood, it was jealousy.’

There was a likeness between Laila and Camilla.

Both had lost their birth parents young and grown up under adoptive parents.

But the outcomes were utterly different.

It wasn’t a house as grand as the Ducal House of Sorpel, but the baron couple who adopted Laila cherished and loved her like their own daughter.

She grew up a lively, beautiful young lady, and people always crowded around her.

Everyone liked Laila. Even Petro, whom Camilla had chased after, showed interest in her.

Same circumstances. Both raised by adoptive parents, not birth parents—so why was Laila different?

Camilla must have been mad with envy at how easily Laila took the affection of people that Camilla had wanted so badly.

‘But she wouldn’t have wanted to admit that envy.’

The moment she admitted it, she would feel all the more wretched.

Camilla protected herself by tormenting Laila and firing off hurtful ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) words.

The more she did, the harsher the rejection toward her grew—but even as she knew it, Camilla could not stop.

And in the end...

‘Father!’

‘...’

‘P-please spare me!’

“Ugh, this is so annoying.”

At the scene rising unbidden, she raked her fingers roughly through her own hair.

Affection that had never been given to her.

But Laila had all of it.

In a surge of violent emotion, Camilla even kidnapped Laila and tried to kill her, only to be caught and suffer a grave ordeal.

And that was the final line. Because of that, everyone turned their backs on Camilla.

Even the Duke of Sorpel shook off the last shred of feeling he had left under the pretext of family.

Ravi, her only blood kin, was the same.

It was why he had dragged Camilla in without hesitation when he laid his plan to kill Ludville.

Effectively isolated, Camilla could not refuse when Ravi reached out to her, however little that hand was worth.

I remember grabbing soda and gulping it down after watching that sorry sight each time. I was so stifled I couldn’t stand it.

“Are you Miss Camilla?”

Camilla, enduring the pain in her ankle, glanced absently at Laila, who was beaming a bright smile.

‘Come to think of it, she transferred around this time of year.’

A person who endlessly provoked Camilla—and Camilla had completely forgotten her.

“Um...”

When Camilla said nothing, Laila’s expression turned cautious. Camilla took one step closer to her.

Ssslide.

Then held out a hand.

Laila stared, a little dazed, at Camilla’s white, slender hand.

“Are you going to stay like that forever?”

“Ah!”

Laila smiled again and at last took Camilla’s hand carefully.

“Ugh!”

As she tried to stand, pain seemed to shoot from her now badly swollen ankle and she staggered. Camilla caught her with her other hand and steadied her.

“Thank you.”

“If you’re thankful, then from now on, even if that kind of man asks to see you, don’t follow him out to places like this.”

Can’t you tell at a glance? What did you trust to trot after someone into a secluded wood?

“I didn’t follow him...”

“Then?”

“I followed you, Miss Camilla!”

At her shy smile, Camilla’s face went blank with disbelief. Since when did you ever see me to be following me?

“You were heading toward the woods, so I wondered what was going on... Going alone might be dangerous, you know.”

What a meddler.

“Do you... know me?”

“Yes! I know you!”

You do?

“Everyone talks only about you, Miss Camilla.”

“About me?”

“This morning they were saying what dress Lady Sorpel wore. What jewelry she put on. How her hair was like this or that. By the afternoon I can hear even what you did during class.”

“...”

“Everyone’s very interested in you, Miss Camilla.”

She had faintly sensed that gazes were gathering more than before.

Unlike in the past, she was enjoying the surrounding neglect and cold shoulders with perfect ease; that must have looked very strange to others.

‘I didn’t know they were commenting down to my hair.’

She had overheard that the shops responsible for her clothes and accessories were doing very well lately.

“I very much wanted to meet you.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“...”

There was such a bright, eager light in her eyes.

‘I know that look very well.’

When acting beginners first saw Camilla, their eyes were exactly like that.

“Camilla.”

Ludville walked up to her slowly. Only then did Camilla return her attention to the scene around them.

“Ghk.”

“Sniff...”

“Ugh...”

Four men were kneeling on the ground, groaning in pain. One of them was even sniffling.

‘...What on earth happened in that short time?’

They all looked a fright.

One had an arm and leg flopping as if bones were broken, but not one of them dared to rise from their knees. As if that posture was the only way to live.

‘When did he get down?’

Even Juid, whom she had hung from a tree, was now on the ground, kneeling and groaning.

When she raised her head, she could see the branch he’d been hung from had been cut clean through. It had to be Ludville’s doing.

How did he even cut something that high up?

“This.”

The moment Camilla looked at Ludville, he held something out.

“Huh?”

A bracelet. Her bracelet.

Except...

“It’s broken.”

The bracelet that had bound Juid had been forced open and shrunk back to its original size, but one end was snapped.

“Sorry.”

Hearing Ludville offer the apology so evenly, she could tell this too was his work.

How did he break something this solid? Ravi said it could bind even most monsters fast.

“It can’t be helped. I’ll have my older brother Ravi fix it.”

“Ravi gave it to you?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Why? If you insist on asking why...

“I don’t know either.”

Camilla let out a brief laugh.

“Still, maybe he looked after me because I’m his sister. He is my brother.”

The sight of Ravi—unlike himself—awkwardly tossing her the bracelet came to mind afresh, and Camilla’s eyes curved softly.

“...”

Crunch!

‘Hm? Crunch?’

What was that sound... Hey!

She was about to reach out to take the bracelet back when an unfamiliar noise came from Ludville’s hand, and her eyes flew wide.

Something that had shone brightly turned to powder and sifted to the ground. Easing the force in his grip, the man handed it to Camilla and declared with perfect composure,

“Sorry.”

Camilla stared at Ludville in disbelief as he apologized again.

Avoiding her gaze, Ludville pressed the broken bracelet firmly into her hand.

****

“How strange...”

In bed, Camilla once again lay awake with a tangle of thoughts.

The sudden encounter with Laila had her head in a knot. Things around Camilla had grown more subtly different since Laila’s appearance.

‘Especially Ludville.’

He, who had no interest in people or things, not even in himself, for the first time revealed an attachment—toward Laila.

But today the two of them were very unexpected. Distant, not even sparing each other a glance.

In the lives that repeated, the two she had seen felt a strong pull from their first meeting and showed great interest in each other.

On top of that, other men—led by Ravi and Petro—would join in, and a love front would unfold into utter chaos...

‘Is it because their first meeting didn’t happen where it was supposed to?’

Their meeting today came about because of something Camilla had never done before: she went to Spirit Lake to find the Guardian’s egg.

‘Originally they met at the market, didn’t they?’

As today, Laila would get herself in trouble with the wrong sort of men, and Ludville would happen to see it and save her. Then they would grow close in a rush.

“...I don’t know. I should just sleep.”

Camilla let out a long yawn, tossed and turned a little, and soon fell into a deep sleep.

How much time had passed like that?

[Young lady.]

“Mmm...”

At long last sunk in deep sleep, Camilla had to open her eyes with a soft slide at a familiar voice waking her.

[Would you sit up for a moment?]

“Ah, go away...”

[Sit up, I said.]

Sleep fled her in an instant.

Because of the person—no, the ghost—standing by her bedside, looking down at her.

If it had been a ghost she’d never seen before, or some other ghost, she would have let it pass. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen ghosts suddenly appear at night like this once or twice.

“How did you come all the way here?”

But if the visitor was a Bound Spirit, that was another story.

[Well now, I don’t quite know myself.]

It was Hersel who had come to see Camilla.

A man who had become the Bound Spirit of his own grave and couldn’t move was suddenly right here. There was no way not to be startled.

‘How on earth?’

It was her first time seeing a case like this; it was fascinating.

[I waited and waited to hear news from you, and suddenly today I felt my body grow light.]

...Do ghosts have weight?

Camilla let out a small sigh.

It had to be that his resentment eased when it finally became possible to find the Guardian.

‘And the desperate wish to tell me to hurry and find the Guardian must have played a part.’

Clearly he had decided that hounding the butler ghost, Derrin, every day wasn’t enough. Hersel must have wanted to come here himself and prod her on.

Even if it meant loosening the binding force that had tied him for life.

[When exactly do you intend to take out the Guardian’s egg?]

“It’s not so simple.”

[I showed you the place—what’s so hard about it?]

“Haah.”

Camilla let out another short sigh.

Now, following Derrin, would Hersel come find her like this every day?

They would sing the same refrain, telling her to hurry and get into the lake to find the Guardian’s egg...

‘So much for sleep from now on.’

The fatigue was already washing over her.