Not just Rumi but all the first-year students were too shocked to say anything.

  "What's even more tragic is that because she received such a severe curse, her soul became corrupted and turned into an evil spirit. It's truly regrettable that such a thing happened at the start of the semester."

  "What? But that's impossible, last night I clearly saw her..."

  Rumi felt something had gone seriously wrong.

  While it was shocking that the talkative Medina had died so easily, what was truly strange was that Rumi had seen Medina wandering the corridor until dawn today.

  "I must emphasize again. Breaking the rules leads to such unfortunate endings. How sad. Medina was the first smart student I'd met in a long time...

  Though I pray her soul finds peaceful rest... that seems unlikely."

  Principal Pierre spoke in a neutral tone without even pretending to be sad.

  "Is... is this possible?"

  Rumi muttered with the most disbelieving face of all.

  "That means..."

  Raoul also quietly responded, seeming quite confused.

  As soon as mass ended, the students rushed to Professor Myers.

  No matter how curious they were, the thought of questioning the principal directly was unimaginable.

  "Professor, when and how exactly did Medina die?"

  Rumi asked first.

  "That's difficult to share with someone who isn't part of Medina's family.

  Just know that she died last night when the curse spread."

  "Last night? when exactly?"

  "You... why are you curious about exactly when she died?"

  "Professor, is it true Medina became an evil spirit?"

  "How did she get cursed?"

  Other students started asking questions too.

  "Professor, what about that black book? Where did that cursed book come from? Was Medina carrying that book?"

  And Raoul joined in with questions.

  "The book has been identified as a Grade 2 Dark relic.

  We're still investigating where she got the book, but circumstances suggest it was one of the books Medina herself was carrying."

  "What do you mean... So Medina lost her life getting cursed by a book she brought herself?"

  Rumi asked while scrunching her face.

  "I'll say again, the investigation isn't over yet. The only thing clearly revealed is that numerous Dark relics were found in mass among Medina's possessions.

  Most were Grade 4 or lower, so having one Grade 2 among them isn't that strange."

  "Professor, what happened to Medina's soul? Did she really become an evil spirit?"

  "Sadly, as the principal said, her soul has vanished.

  Given how severe the curse was, we can only conclude she became an evil spirit. Kids, I understand your curiosity about your dead friend, but... class is about to start."

  Rumi didn't know what to do about the fact that she had clearly seen Medina this dawn.

  She couldn't ask more questions since being awake then was itself against the rules, and the fact that the Medina she saw this dawn was dead, meant the teachers were hiding something.

  Moreover, Professor Myers was suspecting Rumi herself as the culprit.

  "Aah, what am I supposed to do!"

  Rumi started pulling at her hair.

  "What's wrong, Rumi? Are you okay?"

  Niel asked.

  Rumi spotted Niel and immediately grabbed her, dragging her to the bathroom.

  Rumi pushed Niel into the bathroom, then quickly checked inside and outside before speaking.

  "Remember I said I had something suspicious to check yesterday?"

  "Yeah..."

  "Listen carefully. Don't tell this to other students or teachers... but last night, no, this dawn, I saw Medina wandering in the corridor."

  "What? This dawn...? But Professor Myers said Medina died last night...!"

  Niel spoke too loudly in surprise.

  "Shh, keep quiet..."

  Niel looked around and thought for a moment.

  "Are you sure you what you saw was Medina not her ghost or something?"

  "What? Medina's ghost...? Didn't you hear? They said Medina's ghost became an evil spirit. So..."

  Rumi realized she didn't know what it meant for someone to become an evil spirit.

  "What exactly does it mean to become an evil spirit? Do you know?"

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  "Well... they say the curse was so severe she lost her sense of self... but wouldn't she still maintain some form of her original soul?"

  "Really...?"

  "Yeah, so if Medina really became an evil spirit, what was wandering around this dawn could have been the evil spirit."

  Rumi thought for a moment.

  It was quite possible. But one thing that bothered her was that the girl wandering around a week ago couldn't have been a ghost...

  Plus, the knocking sound at dawn...? A ghost knocking made no sense.

  "But let me tell you something strange. Last night Medina knocked on our dorm door. A soul can't knock, right? And that's not all - actually, I saw Medina a week ago at night too."

  "What?"

  Niel asked somewhat dejectedly, wondering why she was only hearing about this now.

  But Rumi continued speaking without paying much attention.

  "Then it was human Medina... and this dawn was ghost Medina...? That's strange too."

  "But... will Medina appear tonight too?"

  Niel commented.

  Rumi perked up at Niel's words.

  "Gasp! It would be amazing if she appears tonight too. If she appears again tonight, we could talk to her directly. So we should wake up at dawn and check it out."

  "What are you two plotting?"

  Suddenly Eve's sharp voice came from somewhere in the bathroom.

  "Becoming an evil spirit means losing your sense of self. It’s a state worse than being insane. Do you think you can have a conversation with an evil spirit?"

  Eve opened the stall door right next to where Rumi and Niel were standing and revealed herself.

  "What? Why are you eavesdropping on others?"

  "Are you two really planning to go out to the corridor tonight to look for ghosts?"

  Eve continued speaking without listening to Rumi.

  "That's not it... we..."

  Niel mumbled.

  "Are you both completely insane?"

  Rumi squeezed her eyes shut in stress hearing those words.

  Why did they have to get caught by a paranoid person like Eve of all people...

  "You can't understand our circumstances, so please just pretend you didn't hear and go away? Why were you in the bathroom of all places..."

  "Do you understand why the rules exist?

  Going out to meet the ghost of a student who died from a curse at night is like asking everyone to die together.

  So I’m not letting this slide this time. I'm telling the teachers right away."

  Eve tried to leave the bathroom.

  At that moment, Rumi knew very well she had to stop Eve.

  "Wait, Eve! Don't you think this is strange too?"

  "What do you mean...?"

  "Suddenly a student had a strange book, got cursed and died.

  The Medina that Professor Myers took to the infirmary appeared wandering the corridor at dawn, then was suddenly announced dead in the morning - doesn't that seem very fishy?"

  "What are you trying to say? Are you suspecting the teachers?"

  "That's not it... I'm saying it could be dangerous for you to talk carelessly when we don't even know who the culprit is."

  Rumi spoke very cunningly.

  Eve bit her lip hard.

  "Ha...! Do you think such nonsense will work on m-me? Not trusting the teachers... the teachers...!"

  Though Eve spoke that way, her face clearly showed fear.

  "Hmm... then go ahead and tell any teacher you want. If a word of this reaches the culprit's ears, you might die too, since you've already know too much."

  "What?"

  "And one more thing, we haven't done anything yet. If you tell them what we just talked about, we'll just deny everything. Right, Niel?"

  "Um... Yes."

  Niel reluctantly agreed.

  "Niel... even you..."

  Eve looked at Niel with disbelieving eyes.

  Rumi decided not to stop here but to completely break the spirit of the stubborn Eve so she would never interfere again.

  "And even if we do go out of the dorm at night, if you tell anyone, I'll curse you myself. You saw me use black magic!"

  "...!"

  Hearing those words, Eve looked at Rumi as if seeing a ghost.

  "Or I'll summon Medina's ghost into the dorm while you're sleeping.

  You seem very sensitive to curses. No, more than that, aren't you already a bundle of curses yourself? Honestly, it's hard to sleep with how noisy you are having nightmares."

  Rumi deliberately made a threatening face.

  "You're... really cr-crazy? How could you think... Huffing."

  Eve's eyes shook severely. Eventually her eyes glistened with tears, and she suddenly ran out of the bathroom.

  Rumi sighed in relief seeing Eve like that.

  "Whew... that should stop her from interfering, right?"

  "Probably... but wasn't that too harsh? Eve seems more fragile than she looks..."

  "What are you saying? Have you already forgotten? We have work to do.

  People who meddle like that need to be dealt with quickly.

  It's almost certain now. This definitely involves uncovering the school's secrets Bertin mentioned."

  Rumi spoke very deliberately as if brainwashing Niel.

  "Yeah... you're right."

  Niel nodded while hunching her shoulders.

  "Oh, by the way, I'm telling Raoul about this too. We're all going to look for Medina tonight."

  "What? Why Raoul?"

  "That's... he somehow found out I'm an outsider and curse-immune... And unlike someone, Raoul is smart so he'll be helpful."

  "..."

  "Well, I'm going first."

  Rumi left Niel.

  Then she went straight to Raoul in the his dorm room.

  But no one was visible on the ground floor of the dorm room.

  Rumi was wondering if Raoul had gone somewhere with Malcolm while checking the loft.

  But then, to her surprise, Raoul was sprawled out on a strange patterned carpet in the loft.

  Rumi started to suspect Raoul might be lazier than she thought.

  He slept in a lot, and now he was sprawled out in his room too.

  "Raoul, wake up. I have something to tell you!“

  "...Anyway, the most suspicious thing is that I saw Medina at dawn, whether it was Medina's ghost or whatever."

  Rumi had just finished telling Raoul everything that happened at night.

  After listening to Rumi's words with complete focus, Raoul asked seriously.

  "So you want to leave the dorm rooms together tonight to look for that ghost?"

  "Yeah!"

  "Too dangerous to tell the teachers. So planning to break the rules instead?"

  "Yeah..."

  "... ..."

  Seeing Raoul's unreadable expression, Rumi started to regret telling him.

  "Then I’ll join you. Someone needs to assess the situation, so letting just you and Niel go makes no sense. But we go fully prepared. Not only are we breaking rules, but we'll be wandering around looking for an evil spirit."

  "Of course!"

  Rumi smiled. As expected, she thought Raoul would come along.

  "But hey... how do we all wake up at dawn? You said between 2 and 4 AM right?"

  "Yeah, but no worries, I'll wake up automatically at that time if I sleep without drinking water.

  But to wake you up, should I get up first and come to your dorm?"

  "Then I have a good idea. Malcolm recently discovered something interesting."

  "What is it?“

  Evening mass ended and free time arrived, and Rumi was busily feeling along the right wall beside the second floor bed.

  Soon Rumi discovered a small sunken iron door handle in the wall.

  Rumi knocked on the door and shouted.

  "Raoul, can you hear me?"

  "Yeah."

  Raoul's voice barely carried over the dorm wall.

  "When I count to three, we open together! I'll push and you pull!"

  "Yeah!"

  "One, two, three!"

  'Clank'

  A small iron door opened in the wall and Raoul revealed his pleased face.

  Rumi found herself grinning widely.

  "Hehehe, it opened."

  The door that just opened seemed to be a connecting door between dorm rooms, apparently made for escaping to the next room in emergencies.

  But what was strange was that paint had been applied over the door to make it hard to find.

  Meanwhile, Eve sitting at her desk couldn't hide her pained expression as she watched the suspicious door open.

  "So we check between 2 and 4 AM tonight."

  "Yeah, but are you sure it's okay with your roommates? Eve behind you doesn't seem happy about it."

  Rumi turned to look at Eve who appeared full of discontent.

  Eve quickly turned her head away.

  "She'll be asleep by then, it's fine."

  Rumi whispered to Raoul.

  "Oh, and Malcolm here wants to come along tonight too."

  Raoul moved aside to show Malcolm in his dorm room.

  Malcolm showed his face through the door. He was the unpleasant one who hadn't returned Rumi's greeting before.

  "Why?"

  Rumi asked.

  "..."

  Malcolm again said nothing to Rumi.

  "Niel, you know him right? Why is he like this?"

  "Um... actually I asked him to come along."

  "What? You, did you tell everyone everything without telling me again?"

  "No, I only told Malcolm. Malcolm could be helpful."

  Just then Raoul cut in to explain.

  "That's right, Rumi. Malcolm's Chrysos family has practiced sacred sword techniques for generations, so he always carries a sacred sword. If any ghosts or monsters appear he could be a big help, is it okay if he comes?"

  Rumi checked the golden sacred sword at Malcolm's waist through the door.

  "..."

  The sacred sword looked more impressive than expected.

  "...Do you not have a mouth?"

  "Just as you heard."

  Malcolm answered very briefly.

  "Hmm... then tonight, we uncover all the truth by meeting dead Medina's ghost!"