Bang, bang, bang!

“Open the door! Open it now!”

I pounded on the tightly shut door until my hands could have burst.

“The child is sick! Open it now!”

What I’d feared finally happened. My younger brother, whose body had always been weak, at last began to waste away.

Finding the child limp, I struck the door even harder. My hands felt torn, but I didn’t care.

Bang, bang!

“Open it!”

BANG!

“Please, open it......”

“B... brother......”

At the child’s call, weaker than usual, I slowly turned my head.

For the first time, I felt grateful for this darkness. The child wouldn’t be able to see how despair had stained my face.

I carefully took the small hand stretched toward me. A moment ago it had been burning with fever; now there was no warmth at all.

My heart plummeted. I gripped his hand tighter.

“Good.”

“...What is?”

What about this damned situation is “good”!

I wanted to shout, but my mouth wouldn’t open.

“Now you can leave, brother.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

“I’m sorry, brother.”

“Shut your mouth.”

“I’m really sorry.”

“Don’t waste your strength on nonsense. Someone will come soon. So stay still.”

“Brother.”

A bad feeling made my whole body tremble. My younger brother squeezed my hand tight.

Was it my imagination? Even in the dark I thought I could see a faint smile at the corner of his lips.

“Brother......”

“......”

“B-brother......”

Just as he tried to say something, his body suddenly went slack.

“Sier?”

I called the child’s name carefully. But there was no response at all from him anymore.

“Sier!”

That was the last time I called that name.

“...Sier.”

I never imagined I would speak that name again after ten years.

****

“Hey, what’s he saying?”

A touching reunion between brothers — fine, sure. Having learned of his brother’s existence again after ten years, how dear it must feel. I can understand that.

“I said, what’s he saying.”

I can unders... No, but why do I have to be stuck in the middle of this!

“...Candy.”

“What?”

“He says he wants more candy!”

Damn it! Do I really have to work as a ghost interpreter now!

Camilla slanted a glare at Arsian, who kept talking with the child across her like she wasn’t there.

She hated that she couldn’t openly glare. But she shoved down the temper trying to burst out as past memories of his brute ignorance rose up.

“Candy?”

He hurriedly patted himself down. As if candy would magically appear.

Sure enough, his gaze swung back to her.

“Do you have candy?”

Brazen bastard.

I’m giving it because the kid is cute — that’s all.

It is absolutely not because you scare me!

Camilla took out all the remaining candy in her pocket and held it out to the boy. In an instant, the candies crumbled like smoke with a soft fff— and vanished.

Sier nibbled “candy,” smiling sheepishly. Since Arsian had recognized him, there had been a smile on the child’s face more often.

He really is pretty.

He looks even cuter when he smiles. Isn’t there any way to put meat on a ghost? If his cheeks were just a bit plumper, he’d have the perfect look for a child actor.

“Can I go now?”

“No.”

Rotten man!

“I’m out of candy!”

“I’ll go buy some.”

As he hurried to rise, Camilla grabbed him in a rush.

“Talk first.”

“Talk?”

“Yeah, talk.”

“What talk?”

“Sit. Sit.”

My head hurts, so sit down. She reached out, grabbed him, and tugged him back into his seat.

“......”

Arsian stared at her silently for a moment, then sat again.

“Since when?”

“What?”

“Since when have you been able to see beings like that?”

He hesitated to answer. Soon his gaze turned to where his younger brother, Sier, was.

“After this child died.”

After that, there was no more abuse from his father. Sensing the energy of the dead — that was the result his father wanted.

“Hm.”

Camilla nodded.

“So you left it alone even though you knew a ghost was at your side?”

It was a little curious. He couldn’t see and hear fully like I could, and yet he just left it alone? And it wasn’t like he had a gentle personality.

Last time he’d reached out toward the girl ghost Amy with killing intent; that image was still vivid.

And yet, without even knowing it was his brother, he’d simply watched that kind of being stick to his side?

“Do you perhaps not know how to erase them?”

Well, not just anyone can erase a ghost.

“I know.”

“Huh?”

“All direct blood of the House of Sephra can erase beings like that.”

Because they are those who rule the darkness.

At the unexpected answer, Camilla asked in surprise, “Then why did you leave him?”

“...Just because.”

“Just because?”

That damned method apparently really had worked: starting from Sier’s death, he could feel the energies of those strange beings. When he saw something like black ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) smoke, he either erased it without delay or ignored it.

“Yeah.”

But strangely, he could not do that to the black presence at his side.

“I just... wanted to leave it as it was.”

Maybe, deep in his heart, there had been a faint hope. That the dead Sier might be at his side.

He was the kid who had always trailed after him since they were small; he wondered if he would do so even in death.

But...

It really was Sier.

“He says he’s hungry.”

If not for her, he would never have known.

“Go buy something to eat.”

“......”

“Just wait a bit. Your brother’s going to buy you food.”

The way she spoke gently to the child stuck out to him. It was the first time he’d ever felt envy of someone. He envied her.

I want to see him too.

I want to see that child — my younger brother — so badly.

“Well? Aren’t you going?”

Prodded by Camilla, Arsian quickly got to his feet.

Screeeek—

The eyes of Class 3-C swung toward the front door as it swung open hard. The one drawing more attention than anyone lately, Camilla, strode into the classroom.

Step.

Without hesitation she headed straight for Arsian, who had largely set the tone for Class C’s atmosphere.

Thak!

Exactly as before — her palm came down firmly on Arsian’s desk.

Only, unlike last time, there was a sheet of paper in her hand. Camilla set the paper where Arsian could see it and smiled brightly.

“Sign it.”

“—Kuh!”

I-in informal speech?

At that one short line, the reaction around them swelled even bigger. Her way of talking to Arsian had become absurdly casual.

“......”

What happened next was even more astonishing.

Scritch.

Arsian, without a word, simply picked up a pen and signed the paper Camilla held out.

“Huh? Without even reading it?”

Now it was Camilla who was flustered. She hadn’t expected him to sign that easily.

“You said I’d do anything.”

“Oh.”

I’ll upgrade your credit score to top tier.

Camilla gave a small laugh, seeing Arsian repeat the very words he himself had spoken.

The document’s content wasn’t much: a simple statement that he would actively help in recruiting Black Mages.

Even a scrap of paper like this — you keep one on hand so there’s no backtracking later.

“I’ve got something to show you. Let’s go.”

“Something to show me?”

“Let’s just go first.”

It wasn’t something she could carelessly pull out here.

Camilla took Arsian by the arm and pulled him up as he looked puzzled. Her heart was light — she had finally grabbed a golden thread for building an escape nest egg.

She had no idea. That with that one small act, the classroom had frozen over as if doused in ice water.

“Is that really Arsian?”

“Doesn’t seem like it......”

“He’s out of his mind.”

The students watched Arsian allowing himself to be led out by Camilla with the same vacant expressions — like they’d just seen the impossible.

“Did Arsian just get dragged out by the arm?”

“Ha.”

That man who loathes physical contact itself to an extreme!

There wasn’t a soul in the room who didn’t know it.

One student, who had once — truly by mistake — put a hand on Arsian’s shoulder and had his arm promptly twisted, let out a hollow laugh.

“He said he’d do anything?”

“Are my ears broken?”

Of all people, to hear such words out of Arsian Sephra’s mouth.

Amid the turmoil, one person stared quietly at the space where Camilla and Arsian had disappeared: Petro.

****

“Hi.”

[Yes.......]

Well now. One day apart and you’re shy again?

Arsian’s younger brother, Sier, peeked out from behind his brother just like the first time, offering a greeting with only his head poking out.

I figured this would happen, so I came prepared.

Camilla took a small pouch and brought out a handful of cookies — cookies she had made herself with help from the chef ghost, Ferrol.

“This big sister prepared these for you.”

[T-thank you.]

Only then did the child come closer, picking up cookies and nibbling. He was very amazed that he could “eat” even though he was dead.

Fff— 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Just like before, the cookies his fingers touched turned black one after another, crumbled, and quickly vanished into the air.

I just want to keep feeding him.

Was it because he was so scrawny, or because the way he squatted and nibbled looked like a hamster — she just kept wanting to give him food.

“What is it you’re going to show me?”

After watching the two play for a moment, Arsian spoke quietly.

Only then did Camilla take a black ore from another bag she’d brought. The instant Arsian’s eyes fell on the ore in her hand, they flashed.

“It’s a mana stone.”

“Oh? You recognize it right away?”

“Let me see.”

“Here!”

Camilla immediately handed over the black ore.

“The mana inside isn’t that...?!”

His eyes suddenly widened. Camilla’s mouth fell open as well.

The moment it touched Arsian’s hand, the mineral’s color changed — from pitch black to a bluish hue like the evening sky.