Heading for the most secluded spot at the Academy—the Spirit Lake—Camilla eventually had to stop again.

When she turned her head, the student ghost Amy was standing there with a gentle smile.

“What? Why do you keep following me? I told you I don’t want to get tangled up with you.”

[That’s harsh. I’m so happy to finally have someone I can talk to.]

“Go play with other ghosts. Ghosts should play with ghosts. Why are you trying to play with a human?”

[The ghosts at this school are all boring.]

You’re boring to me, too.

“So what? What do you want me to do?”

[Just talk with me a bit. I’m so bored.]

“Do I look like someone with that kind of free time?”

I’m busy staying alive! I need to make money!

“So? Where is that man?”

Where’s my payday.

[Over there.]

Over there?

Camilla, without thinking, followed where Amy pointed. And then she froze. Not far from where she stood, Arsian was there, staring blankly at her.

‘Since when?’

[From the start.]

As if reading Camilla’s thoughts, Amy whispered softly.

‘Then he heard me yammering with a ghost from beginning to end!’

Camilla hurried to school her features. As naturally as possible!

“Ah, I just like talking to myself.”

...Did that land?

“...”

Like hell it did!

Seeing Arsian give his gaze precisely to where Amy was, the one she’d been speaking with, Camilla let out a small sigh.

“So you can see them after all.”

After all?

At Arsian’s low, musing words, Camilla snapped her head up.

“You can see them too, right? Those things.”

“S—see what...!?”

Wait. She started by bluffing, then noticed something off in his phrasing and her eyes went round.

“Just now you said, you too...”

Seeing Arsian’s eyes grow even colder, Camilla couldn’t speak for a while.

****

‘Brother...’

‘Eat.’

‘I—I don’t want to!’

‘Eat. You have to eat to live.’

‘You... it’s already been a week... Hrk.’

‘If you don’t eat, I’m throwing it away.’

A shard of an old memory.

A memory he must never forget, and never wants to forget.

Thap!

At the sudden sound, Arsian opened the eyes he’d had closed. The person standing before him with a soft smile.

“I’ve got something good. Want to take a look?”

That woman. The woman who had recently caught his eye.

‘Why is she here?’

Arsian stared right back at the woman standing before him with that bizarre smile.

He waited, thinking she might say something else, then, after watching her press her lips shut a moment longer, he rose.

A spark of interest had flickered, then died into boredom.

“Huh?”

He caught the flicker of her fluster, but didn’t stop. He headed for the edge of the Spirit Forest where few people went.

“Come to think of it...”

He’d seen her here too. His steps toward Spirit Lake faltered.

Perhaps he should confirm it. If his hunch was right, then she too...

He turned to go back toward the classroom building.

“What? Why do you keep following me? I told you I don’t want to get tangled up with you.”

Her voice. It was her.

“Go play with other ghosts. Ghosts should play with ghosts. Why are you trying to play with a human?”

A woman, talking and talking at empty air. Arsian watched her in silence for a long time.

“So what? What do you want me to do? Do I look like someone with that kind of free time?”

She even wagged a finger, scolding someone.

“So where is that man?”

Then she looked straight at where he was.

Her eyes rolled for a beat in fluster, then she smoothed her face like nothing was wrong and smiled.

“I just like talking to myself.”

“...”

It wasn’t monologue. It was conversation. Arsian looked to the woman’s side.

“So you can see them after all.”

Those things that writhe like black smoke.

The things that have followed him all his life.

“You can see them too?”

Watching her expression harden, Arsian stretched his hand toward the black smoke.

****

“What do you think you’re doing!”

Camilla, who’d gone blank for a second at his ‘you too,’ darted in front of Arsian to block him as he reached toward the girl ghost Amy.

“So you can see them.”

All that to confirm it, you threatened a ghost?

‘You were just seething with killing intent!’

You lunatic!

“Haa.”

With a short breath, Camilla turned her head to Amy. Amy was trembling for real.

Do ghosts feel killing intent? You’re already dead—what’s there to fear? No matter how a human strains, they can’t kill a ghost.

“You okay?”

[I... I’m not okay! I thought I was going to die!]

“You already died.”

[I thought I was going to be completely erased! I knew it in theory, but that man—someone like me, he’s a natural enemy.]

A natural enemy?

Camilla’s gaze went back to Arsian.

“You can just snuff ghosts out, like that?”

“You can actually talk to those things?” 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

“...”

“...”

The two of them asked at the same time and stared in silence for a moment. Camilla spoke first.

“You can’t just snuff out ghosts. They all have their stories. Once their grudges are resolved, they ascend on their own, so don’t waste your strength.”

“Why would I bother with something that tedious.”

Wow... you were the one radiating murder to kill a ghost just now.

“Can’t you see how pale her face is?”

“...You—can you see faces, too?”

“What?”

Camilla stared at him, incredulous. He’d been going on about whether he could see ghosts or not, and now he’s asking if she can see their faces?

“What nonsense is that?”

“Can you see them?”

“Of course I can. Can’t you?”

“...”

Huh?

“You can’t?”

“To my eyes they’re all just black smoke.”

Black smoke? Camilla looked anew at Amy. So that’s not how she appears to him?

‘So what does that mean?’

That he can’t see ghosts’ forms exactly? That he can perceive some spiritual presence, but not their full appearance?

“Hey!”

Camilla scolded him again.

“Then you all the more can’t just leak that kind of aura. How do you know what kind of ghost you’re dealing with, flaring killing intent like that!”

It’s not like she’s a vengeful spirit.

“Should you really do that to an ordinary ghost? She’s a young student too! Look how you’ve scared her!”

She’d never thought there’d come a day she’d take a ghost’s side, but this wasn’t it. They’ve got surprisingly decent sides to them!

For a moment, the butler ghost Derrin and the chef ghost Ferrol, who were helping her, and Hersel, who had left with a smile not long ago, came to mind, and she snapped.

“...”

“...”

...Sorry.

Meeting Arsian’s piercingly cold black eyes as he stared straight at her, Camilla let her gaze slide down. She’d briefly forgotten his rotten temperament. What possessed her to yell at him.

“Then can you see this too?”

His voice came, lower still. When she looked up, he was staring fixedly at one spot.

Right beside where he stood.

Camilla gave her gaze there as well. She finally met the eyes of the presence she’d been trying to avoid.

Without meaning to, Camilla bit her lip hard. The reason she’d avoided looking wasn’t just because it was a ghost.

A child so thin there was hardly any flesh at all, with huge eyes as if they might spill tears any moment, wearing rotted, tattered clothes.

A little boy who looked pitiable at a glance was gripping Arsian’s hem.

‘Who are you?’

Who are you, to be in that state?

****

‘Who in the world...’

Even after coming home, Camilla was consumed by one thought.

When Arsian asked about the black smoke that clung to his side, she told him the truth.

That the black smoke was a scrawny boy who looked about seven years old.

‘But then...’

At that answer, Arsian’s cold gaze—and his expression—changed in an instant. As if hit by a heavy shock, his emotions flared, and he fled that spot.

‘Why was he so shaken?’

Does he know the child?

“Haa.”

A short sigh slipped from Camilla’s lips. The little ghost’s face from today rose up anew.

How does a child that young die to end up like that? The image of those bony limbs kept catching her eye.

“Damn it.”

This is why I hate kids! The small ones—if they look even a little off, they keep snagging my mind.

[Mrr?]

At her grumbling, the white cat—no, the tiger Guardian—looked up at her with a small cry.

Still too young to know how to hide its presence, the Guardian remained in a summoned state, and while Camilla was at the Academy, the Duke of Sorpel had looked after it. She couldn’t take a Guardian to school.

“King.”

[Mrr!]

Guardian or not, the youngster already understands speech alarmingly well.

Not long ago, by a quasi-order of the Duke of Sorpel, she’d personally named him.

Something simple: “King.”

It meant: grow up to be the finest among Guardians. The Duke of Sorpel had been satisfied.

Ravi had mocked her for having no naming sense, but isn’t it better than “Chocolate”?

[Mrr!]

“Right, you like it too?”

Camilla lightly stroked King’s head.

As King purred with a pleased sound under her touch, Camilla drifted back into thought.

‘It’s probably too much to go after him again, huh?’

She’d better give it some time before seeking Arsian again. His eyes at the end weighed on her mind.

If she pushed more there, she had the distinct feeling something serious would blow up, and she didn’t have the nerve to chase him again.