In the real world, Cecilia had been unable to find out the truth about Summer Silver’s death. The temple had been unhelpful and her early Saintess responsibilities had been obstructive. Every lead she had followed had eventually crumbled into ash and speculation.

But in this world, surely it was different. With the technology, the data, and everything else, she might’ve been able to find some clues.

Cecilia reached for her phone and, still sprawled on the grass beside the gravestone, snapped a selfie of herself lying next to Summer Silver’s name.

Her hair was tangled with bits of dried grass, her sandwich was long gone, and her belly made a small, round hill beneath her shirt.

"Just wait. I will ask everyone I know about what killed you in this world." She whispered, her thumb brushing the edge of the gravestone. "Even though I am a broke cheating whore, I still have lots of good connections. I’m your girl, after all, Doctor."

When suddenly, she burst into a sudden laugh. "Pfffft—just that when I Googled your name here, what came out is a speedy white hedgehog!"

Cecilia kept talking.

"Ah, you are right about miasma too! Apparently, fog can be considered an aquatic environment enough to susta—"

"The hedgehog I told you about, it is a video ga—"

"Bacteria—"

"My husb—"

She chattered for a long time, the words tumbling out of her endlessly. It was like a meandering stream of consciousness.

She spoke about the dam and the dragons, about her husbands, three men who were hers in every universe, of how they filled a government facility with karaoke machines and throw pillows, then about a research she read in passing.

She spoke about the pregnancy, about the tiny, greedy egg that was eating her mana and demanding pickles at three in the morning, then about her research about beast pregnancy.

She spoke about Arzhen and Ruby and the divorce decree that had arrived faster than anyone had expected, and her plan for a new invention...

She spoke and spoke and spoke, seemingly unable to run out of topics, until her voice grew hoarse and her eyelids grew heavy. Her words began to blur together, softer and slower and finally... silent.

She fell asleep on the grass beside the gravestone, her hand still resting on the cool stone, her breathing even and peaceful.

Night descended before she realized. When she opened her eyes again, it was completely dark.

Cecilia stretched lazily, her back protesting the hard ground, her mind still fuzzy with sleep. "Doctor... I fell asleep..."

That was when she heard it.

JAB—Ssshhh...

JAB—Ssshhh...

Goosebumps erupted across her body, racing up and down her spine like a colony of startled ants. The sound was rhythmic and metallic. Was it something sharp being driven into earth? In a cemetery... in the middle of the night...?

"System! System!!!" She whispered, her voice shrill with panic.

[Yes? What’s wrong, Cecilia?]

"C-c-can you detect ghosts? Are there ghosts in this world? At cemeteries...?!" Her hand was already reaching for her inventory. "Ah, just let me drink one mana potion just to be sa—"

JAB—Ssshhh...!

"Hiic!"

Cecilia pinpointed the source of the noise, and the source of the faint, intermittent flashes of light that had accompanied it. She peered through the darkness toward a spot not far from Summer Silver’s grave.

Two figures. Two figures with shovels! Digging!

She covered her own face with both hands and pressed herself flat against the grass. "Gravedigger ghosts?!"

[C-c-c-calm down, Cecilia! C-calm down! W-we-we don’t know about ghosts! We were not programmed with that knowledge!]

"Ah, why didn’t you wake me up before it got late?!" Cecilia hissed at the System, her voice barely audible.

[But you looked so peaceful...]

"R-right, let’s call someone to get us..." Cecilia fumbled for her purse, her fingers closing around her phone. She pulled it out, and the screen blazed to life in the darkness. She clamped her hand over it desperately. "Fu...!"

Cecilia wanted to cry. If there was one thing she feared above all else, it was horror stories. No matter how good or philosophical they were, and usually the ones that captured her interest were the very good ones, she still couldn’t handle them. They were too—too existential—

JAB—Ssshhh...!

Ah fuck, fuck, fuc—

No. No, wait. What if they weren’t ghosts? What if they were just ordinary grave diggers, working late to prepare for tomorrow’s early burial?

But usually, in this world, they used heavy machinery to dig graves, right?!

She had seen it on the internet. Now, they did it with excavators, or backhoes. Not two people with shovels in the dead of night!

Or—or—or they were grave robbers?! Organ thieves?! Cultists performing midnight rituals?!

Cecilia took one mana potion and drank it with the last shred of bravery she possessed. If they were criminals, she would seize them. If they were ghosts, she would fly away, as far and as fast as her mana could carry her, immediately.

She stood up, her legs trembling, and aimed her phone’s flashlight directly at the two figures. "FREEZE!"

The two figures froze.

The flashlight beam cut through the darkness and illuminated them in all their horrifying glory.

The first figure was tall, its body twisted at an impossible angle, a vertical mouth stretching from the top of its head all the way down to its belly, just a nightmare of teeth and darkness and wrongness.

The second figure was a woman with long, blonde hair, her face—her face was missing, a smooth, featureless expanse where features should have been—

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH—huh...?"

Cecilia blinked. Her flashlight wavered.

The vertical mouth resolved itself into the folds of a white t-shirt, worn by a tall man who had been bending over his shovel at an awkward angle.

The faceless woman turned her head, and the light caught the curve of a cheekbone, the glint of blue eyes and the devastatingly cosmic beauty of a face.

Just... an ordinary man...? And a devastatingly beautiful woman....?

H-holding shovel... In a cemetery... In the middle of the night.

Cecilia stared at them. They stared back at her.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—"

"Sssshhh! Sssshhh! Please, shushhh!"