Over the next few days, with Raoul busy, Rumi had to eat lunch alone for the first time.

  Raoul had gone somewhere saying he had someone to meet, and Niel had been called in by Professor Myers for falling behind in classes.

  Finding herself alone during free time after lunch, Rumi headed to the central lobby where that incident had occurred at dawn, as if she'd been waiting for this chance.

  She had something she wanted to check.

  But today, the path to the lobby felt very different from the school's usual atmosphere.

  Perhaps because of the warm weather and bright sun, it had a drowsy feeling.

  In that atmosphere, Rumi sat down on those stairs where she had been strangled.

  From far away came the sound of students' laughter, rarely heard inside.

  The good weather seemed to have drawn students outside.

  Rumi, feeling somewhat drowsy herself, started going over what had happened that dawn.

  What she wanted to check here was the direction the Medina corpse had fled.

  The Medina corpse that had descended the stairs and fled down the north corridor.

  Rumi wondered what was in the north corridor that made her flee that way.

  Actually, the north corridor was a place people rarely went.

  First, the north corridor itself had no notable classrooms, just the infirmary and the entrance to the circular gymnasium.

  Moreover, ghosts were visible through the wide windows on the corridor walls like fish in an aquarium, so it wasn't somewhere you'd want to go.

  Nevertheless, Rumi had to investigate, so she soon got up and entered the north corridor.

  Between the dark corridors, Rumi first headed to the circular gymnasium entrance.

  She stood at the entrance looking at the gymnasium's name.

  'Arena of Dance and Song'

  "What kind of arena?"

  Rumi wondered if they just called gymnasiums arenas in this world.

  But just then came the sound of metal clashing from inside the gymnasium.

  'Clang, Clang, Clang, Clang'

  Feeling suspicious about the sudden metallic sounds, Rumi felt a strong urge to go inside and look.

  But there was one thing holding her back from just going in.

  The rules.

  The rules stated that new students must not enter the school gymnasium...

  "..."

  That meant non-new students could enter.

  Which meant Rumi was no longer a new student, but an outsider.

  Rumi nodded, convinced by her perfect logic.

  Actually, she had already broken all the rules she could break, and what mattered now was checking if Medina's corpse could have escaped through this arena.

  Rumi boldly opened the gymnasium door wide and tried to enter... but even before entering, she could tell this gymnasium was a strange place.

  Though Rumi was clearly entering indoors, it felt like she was entering outdoors? Like entering some kind of jungle.

  Dense leaves were visible ahead with more green light shining beyond them.

  Rumi first pushed through the thick trees in front.

  But either something was wrong with Rumi's hands or the leaves felt somewhat like touching paper.

  Passing through the trees revealed what looked like a green hill.

  A low hill had formed in the center with a large white tree planted in the middle.

  And blue sky was painted on the circular walls while the floor was covered in green grass.

  No... looking closely, this was clearly artificial turf.

  Feeling something strange, Rumi touched the trees she had passed through earlier and found they too seemed to be fake trees made of something like plaster and plastic.

  Adding the artificial spring water flowing down from the top of the hill, it could be called a very artificial indoor hill.

  Rumi couldn't understand why the school gymnasium was set up this way.

  But now that she was inside the gymnasium, she couldn't hear the 'Clang, Clang' metallic sounds anymore.

  Not only that, but there didn't seem to be anyone here.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Rumi started looking around in case people were hiding between the trees.

  Just then she thought she glimpsed something human-like from inside the gymnasium.

  Rumi approached thinking that's probably where the metallic sounds had come from.

  'Sheek... sheek... sheek...'

  But as she got closer, harsh breathing sounds came from something that had looked human, and it started to appear less and less human.

  Rumi tensely checked what was hiding behind the tree...

  A monster with pure white skin and frog-like protruding eyeballs was catching its breath.

  The white skin was glossy and shining, with abnormally long limbs, and a face attached directly to the body without a neck - a monster about 1 meter in size.

  "Ugh..."

  Rumi had never seen a monster that looked like this before.

  While she was thinking 'Why is something like this inside the school building?'...

  "Keek keeeeek!"

  Suddenly with a strange cry, the damn monster latched onto Rumi's face.

  "Aaah!"

  And opened its mouth wide as if to devour her.

  Rumi desperately tried to push away the unidentified monster with her arms and get it off her body, but the slippery monster's hands were gripping her head tightly.

  "Aaaah get away!"

  Rumi shook her body frantically trying to detach the monster.

  'Slash'

  At that moment a blade pierced through the monster's body.

  "Ah!"

  Rumi screamed in surprise seeing the blade tip emerge so close to her face.

  The monster was lifted by the blade that had pierced its body and thrown aside.

  "Guack!"

  Rumi looked down at the fallen monster with a dumbfounded expression.

  The monster was bleeding cyan blood.

  Standing before Rumi was Malcolm wearing what looked like knight's armor and holding a sacred sword.

  "Huh? Malcolm? Why are you here?"

  "What about you, why are you here? You shouldn't come in here carelessly."

  Malcolm countered.

  "What is this place for? The rules only said new students couldn't come. I... I just came in as an outsider! But wait... aren't you a new student too?"

  "Ah, there was a rule like that? Anyway, I guess you really are an outsider. You're probably the only student in the whole school who would voluntarily enter the arena."

  "What are you talking about? The door was open so...

  Wait, did Niel tell you I was an outsider too?"

  "...?"

  Rumi finally got up on her own, brushing herself off, and looked at the monster bleeding cyan blood.

  “Are we not allowed to come in because of that monster? Is it dangerous?”

  "..."

  Malcolm had just been frowning without answering.

  "This place is strange too... what is all this, really?"

  Rumi looked around slowly while making idle comments.

  "If you know it's dangerous, stop asking unnecessary questions and leave."

  Malcolm said irritably.

  And Rumi was irritated by Malcolm's always brusque way of speaking.

  "Why do you always talk like that? Do you talk to Niel like that too?"

  "You really think so? You should stop being so forceful with Niel all the time, not me."

  "What? Look who's being Niel's boyfriend."

  Rumi frowned.

  "Malcolm, you should be nice to your friend."

  Just then a relaxed, gentle voice came from behind Rumi along with the scent of scented candles.

  Senior Sariya, whom she had seen in the cafeteria on the first day, appeared smiling in her nun's habit.

  "We're not friends."

  Malcolm retorted in an unpleasant tone.

  "Friends? He's worse than my enemy."

  Rumi shot back, not backing down.

  "You're Rumi, right? Raoul's friend."

  "Yes."

  "Raoul already came and left - did you come looking for him?"

  "What? Raoul came here?"

  "Hmm... did I make a mistake? Seems Raoul wanted to keep our private meeting secret."

  Senior Sariya raised her lip corners unpleasantly.

  Rumi asked bluntly, feeling annoyed.

  "Why did Raoul come here?"

  "That's... a secret. It would be rude of me to tell. What about you - if you're not here looking for Raoul, how did you end up here?"

  "Uh..."

  Obviously, Rumi couldn't say she came to investigate where Medina's corpse might have escaped to.

  "I just heard clashing sword sounds and came to see what it was. Were you two fighting that monster?"

  "Hmm... if you heard sword sounds, wouldn't it make more sense that Malcolm and I were fighting?"

  "Well... that's actually true. I guess you were probably practicing sacred sword techniques or something with him. But why does this gymnasium look like this?"

  "Hmm... Rumi, you seem quite curious. Since you're Raoul's friend, I should answer before sending you away...

  This place recreates the primordial world.

  It expresses the primitive land where the God of Life hid in the land ruled by the God of Death.

  It's an appropriate place for learning the most sacred songs and dances."

  "Dance? You mean actual dancing? But why are you holding swords?"

  "Sacred sword techniques also originated from these dances."

  "Keeeeyaaak!"

  Just then the fallen monster screamed and writhed.

  "Ah! It's getting up again."

  When Rumi made a fuss, Senior Sariya expressionlessly thrust her sword into the writhing monster.

  "It’s dead again..."

  Senior Sariya suddenly set the mood and muttered in a lonely tone.

  But that damn monster still seemed alive, continuing to writhe.

  "That thing still doesn't seem dead... no, what is that monster anyway? It's not a gargoyle or thrall - why won't it die?"

  "Ah... this is... a monster created when an human received the Green Witch's curse and had their soul forcibly extracted, twisting their body. Just an ordinary monster... you could say?"

  As soon as the senior finished speaking, the still-not-dead monster suddenly leaped up and bit into the senior's white leg.

  "Ugh!"

  "Ugh...! Are you okay? No, why won't that thing really die?"

  As Rumi approached to check the senior's bite wound, Malcolm stepped in front of her blocking the way.

  "I said stop asking useless questions and leave!"

  And he grabbed Rumi's shoulder clothing as if to drag her out.

  "It's okay, Malcolm. It's over..."

  But Senior Sariya told Malcolm it was fine while repeatedly stabbing the monster's body with her sword.

  "Monsters try to eat humans to fill the void of souls stolen by the Green Witch.

  But souls can't be filled by eating flesh, so they must live feeling eternal hunger and thirst. It's one of the worst curses."

  'Slash slash slash'

  Senior Sariya kept stabbing the monster while explaining about it.

  "Let go. She said it's fine."

  Rumi shook off Malcolm's hand and watched the monster being stabbed.

  But even with all that stabbing, the monster didn't appear dead.

  Just then Senior Sariya spoke again.

  "Rumi, look at the ceiling."

  "What? The ceiling?"

  Rumi looked up at the ceiling thinking 'What's this about?'

  There was painting of a white, long centipede-like monster made up of hundreds of limbs.

  But the monster's face had a green face with massive bulging eyes and a terrifying appearance.

  Strangely, seeing that immediately reminded Rumi of the scary green mask Bertin had used.

  "What is that?"

  "That's the Green Witch's form. She's the root cause that created all monsters."

  "Then why paint a witch's image on a sacred school's ceiling? Isn't that crazy?"

  "It's to never forget... to someday defeat that witch...

  Rumi, that's what this arena is for. It's a place to train in sacred sword techniques to defeat monsters. So you shouldn't be here. Dance and sacred sword techniques are elective subjects for second years. Don't come here again until then."

  Senior Sariya grabbed Rumi's shoulder and guided her to the arena entrance.

  "Ah, wait...!"

  As Rumi was forcibly pushed out, she looked around for any hidden doors, but the place was too wide and overgrown with forest to find doors easily this way.

  Rumi tried to ask something to buy more time.

  "Is your leg okay..."

  But by the time they reached the door, Rumi was practically shoved out of the arena.

  "Well then Rumi, goodbye."

  'Thump'

  The door closed and Rumi looked around in a slightly dazed state.

  Though clearly still inside the same school building, it felt like she had just crossed over from a different world.

  'Ding... dong...'

  Just then the bell rang for exorcism class, and Rumi headed to the classroom without being able to check the remaining spaces in the north corridor.