Rumi didn't drink even a sip of water before going to bed tonight.

  And Rumi woke up at dawn like a biological clock.

  The time she opened her eyes was exactly 2:22 AM.

  Success.

  Rumi immediately came to her senses and approached the corridor, checking outside through the round window.

  As expected, an eerily beautiful singing voice could be heard.

  But again, Medina wasn't visible in the corridor right now.

  But that was fine. Today's plan was to go out into the corridor to look for that Medina ghost anyway.

  First, she approached Niel sleeping in the bottom bunk.

  And shook the shoulder of Niel, who was deeply asleep while tied in restraining straps, completely unaware of the world.

  "Wake up Niel..."

  But Niel didn't move at all.

  "What...?"

  "Niel, wake up! What are you doing? We need to go look for the ghost."

  No matter how much she shook her, Niel showed no signs of waking up.

  Rumi lightly slapped Niel's cheek.

  "Hey wake up. I said wake up!"

  Niel showed no response even when slapped.

  Rumi panicked, wondering if Niel had died from a curse too, and put her ear to her body. She could hear her heartbeat, though very slowly.

  Rumi hadn't known Niel was such a deep sleeper.

  Having no choice, Rumi thought she should at least wake Raoul next door and knocked on the side door.

  'Knock knock knock'

  But there was no response no matter how much she knocked.

  Finally, she groaned as she opened the door herself and crawled into the next room, calling out to the sleeping Raoul.

  "Raoul, wake up, it's time."

  "Raoul!"

  Oh no, for some reason Raoul showed absolutely no signs of waking up either.

  Malcolm sleeping below was the same.

  Rumi couldn't understand why they all wouldn't wake up together.

  This was definitely strange.

  As Rumi shook Raoul one last time, a chilling voice came from behind.

  "You really are insane, Rumi."

  Rumi was startled by the sudden voice and turned around to see Eve standing beside the bed, with dark circles reaching down to her neck.

  "What? You... why are you awake?"

  Rumi couldn't believe her eyes. Of all people, the one she had hoped would be asleep was the only one with both eyes wide open.

  "You, are you really going to go look for ghosts alone? Even with everyone sleeping?"

  "Of course!"

  Rumi came down from the bed with a grimace.

  "What about you? You know better than anyone that being awake at this hour is against the rules. You're always going on about rules..."

  "It would be crazier to sleep after hearing such things in the bathroom. Come to think of it, I woke up just now because you were being so noisy."

  "Ugh... why of all people are you awake?"

  Rumi pulled at her hair.

  At that moment, she saw Eve wearing a satisfied smile for the first time.

  That expression looked like a ghost smiling after completing its revenge.

  "...What? What's with that expression?"

  Rumi showed her discomfort while gathering the Y-shaped cross, holy water bottle, salt, scripture and other items she had prepared on her desk.

  "Whatever, don't try to stop me. Even if you go tell a teacher right now, I need to find Medina's ghost."

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  "... ..."

  Eve said nothing.

  So Rumi deliberately ignored Eve and went to the dorm room door.

  Though Medina's ghost wasn't visible yet, she planned to wander the corridor alone.

  Rumi grabbed the dorm room doorknob.

  But Eve quietly watching beside her was bothering her.

  "What...? Are you not going to stop me?"

  "I'm just gonna watch."

  Eve said concisely with no change in expression.

  Rumi found this situation irritating.

  So she grabbed the dorm room doorknob and turned it defiantly.

  'Click'

  When the door opened, it felt like some sacred barrier had broken.

  The dark corridor visible beyond the door was simply eerie.

  Though no school ghosts were visible, it would be a lie to say she wasn't a little scared.

  Rumi swallowed hard and slowly stepped into the darkness of the corridor.

  'Creak thump'

  Just then the door behind her closed.

  Eve had closed the door.

  "...!"

  Eve stood with her arms crossed beyond the round window.

  This... wasn't a situation Rumi had expected...

  "..."

  But having already come out to the corridor alone, she had to do what needed to be done.

  The first thing she noticed was that the singing was a bit clearer out in the corridor.

  This strangely beautiful singing - Rumi thought Medina might have come out here because of this singing too.

  Like trying to find the owner of the voice...

  So Rumi decided to move toward where the faint singing sounded clearer.

  But no matter where she went, the sound was too quiet to tell where it got louder.

  "Damn..."

  Rumi decided to first move east where the cafeteria was.

  The school at night was very different from during the day. During the day it just felt like an old, worn building, but at night it was just like a haunted mansion.

  And coming out to the corridor, she learned for the first time how many strange sounds there were at night.

  The sound of wind blowing, water dripping, things falling, and occasional laughter.

  Ghost shadows flickered outside the distant windows, creating tension like they might pounce at any moment.

  Rumi started to slightly regret coming out alone.

  But with Eve being like that in the room, she just couldn't not come out.

  Approaching the cafeteria, she heard a 'chop chop chop' sound.

  It sounded like meat being chopped.

  Rumi recalled the cafeteria rules.

  '*The cafeteria is off-limits after 7 PM.'

  "..."

  Having already broken two or three rules, Rumi wondered if breaking one more would make much difference.

  So thinking Medina's ghost might be in the cafeteria, she carefully stepped inside.

  The cafeteria wasn't much different from during the day, except for being dark and feeling like something might jump out.

  But the kitchen was dimly lit with an orange glow.

  Just then a 'bang' sound came from inside the kitchen.

  Rumi hunched down in surprise.

  And as she stayed that way watching the kitchen serving counter... suddenly the zombie cook revealed her grotesque face and stared at Rumi like she would kill her.

  "Aah!"

  Rumi was terrified seeing that green monster-like face and immediately fled the cafeteria.

  Rumi ended up back in front of dorm room 49.

  Honestly, she wanted to just go back inside the dorm, but knowing Eve was standing there with crossed arms, her pride absolutely wouldn't allow it.

  Finally, Rumi started walking toward the central lobby, opposite from the cafeteria.

  Since she had always found Medina near the lobby, she was confident that if she was anywhere, it would be aorund here.

  But no sign of life, no, spiritual presence was felt from the lobby either.

  It was the same even reaching the front of the cathedral.

  If she couldn't find anything on the first floor she would need to check the second floor or basement, but even Rumi wasn't very keen on that...

  But she found herself already climbing the stairs to the second floor without realizing.

  Then she discovered someone's back reflected in the huge mirror hanging between the first and second floors.

  "...!"

  Rumi immediately lowered her posture and confirmed it looked like Medina's back.

  She had finally found Medina. And more easily than expected.

  And since there was a mirror, she could judge whether Medina was a ghost or not right now.

  The method of using mirrors to judge whether something visible was a ghost or not was simple.

  If you can see it only in the mirror or only in real life, it was a ghost.

  But strangely, the Medina in the mirror was visible in real life too.

  "...?"

  Rumi was confused again for a moment. How could a ghost be visible in both the mirror and real life...

  But it seemed there was no need to think more now. Now that she had found Medina's ghost, she just needed to talk to find out.

  Rumi carefully spoke.

  "Medina, is that you?"

  The Medina ghost didn't respond.

  "Medina?"

  Rumi called out again while climbing the stairs.

  Rumi got right next to Medina.

  "You're... Medina right? How did you die? Where did you get that book from..."

  Though Rumi tried to force her voice out, she felt her words losing strength standing before Medina who could be an evil spirit.

  "It's you again."

  Medina answered without showing her face yet.

  The voice itself didn't seem very different from the real Medina. Still, it had an unpleasant quality with some low tones mixed in.

  'Whoosh'

  But suddenly the Medina ghost whirled around and grabbed Rumi's arm.

  "Eek!"

  Intense pain shot through the grabbed arm.

  "Aah!"

  Rumi tried to pull her arm away in panic because it hurt so much, but at that moment she discovered another strange thing.

  The fact that the ghost could grab Rumi's arm strongly enough to crush it meant this wasn't a ghost.

  Realizing this chilling fact, she looked up at Medina's face.

  Medina looked dead.

  Her face was so pale white she didn't look alive at all.

  She was literally Medina's living corpse.

  Rumi suddenly realized her life was in danger.

  "What... what are you? Are you a zombie too? F-Frankenstein?"

  Medina made no expression and gave no answer.

  Instead, Rumi's captured arm just kept hurting more.

  "Aaah!"

  Seeing the situation was more serious than expected, Rumi decided she needed to do something.

  And with her other trembling hand, she pulled out a bottle of holy water from her bag.

  'Whoosh'

  Rumi threw the holy water bottle hard at Medina's face.

  The bottle shattered and white smoke erupted from Medina's corpse.

  Medina's face burned up as if scalded where the holy water hit. But she showed no intention of letting go of the arm.

  Damn, Rumi's arm felt like it would be crushed - was a living corpse's strength normally this strong?

  "Aaugh! It's me, Rumi. I saved you before! Let go already, ack!"

  "Rumi, you're wandering around breaking rules again. You should be sleeping at bedtime."

  The zombie Medina suddenly reached out her other arm and grabbed Rumi's neck, pushing her back.

  Rumi fell backward from the powerful force and hit her head on the floor with a 'thump'.

  "Ugh!"

  After that, the Medina corpse let go of Rumi's arm and started strangling the fallen Rumi with both hands.

  "Gaaack, somebody help!"

  Rumi shouted thinking she would die now, but her voice wouldn't come out properly as she was being strangled.

  Meanwhile, Medina's face was eerily cold and peaceful.

  She was absolutely not that talkative Medina.

  And not an evil spirit either.

  But what mattered now was that the crazy zombie Medina was truly strangling Rumi's neck like she would kill her.

  While her vision gradually darkened.

  Rumi panicked and thrashed realizing she would soon die at this rate.

  "Mmmmph mmph!"

  But at that moment, with a 'sizzle' sound, white smoke rose from Medina's back.