When Rumi turned to look beside her in disbelief, Medina's ghost was really standing there.

  "Ahhh!"

  "Ugh!"

  "Wh-what? Are you really Medina? How... how long have you been here?"

  "I've been here the whole time. Just watching whatever show you guys were putting on. When I saw Rumi dancing, I thought you were summoning an evil spirit."

  "So were you summoned by my dancing?"

  "What are you talking about? I told you I was here from the start."

  "What do you mean? We checked when we came in and there was no one here."

  "I was hiding then."

  "Wait a minute, are you really Medina? Not an evil spirit?"

  "What, are you crazy? Evil spirit! Can't you tell just by looking? Who else would I be if not Medina, even if I've become a ghost? Have you already forgotten what I look like? How could you! I wasn't even fated to die, I died because I had to..."

  "Looking at how talkative you are, maybe it really is you."

  Rumi said, keeping her eyes wide open.

  "This is the first time I've seen a ghost this close..."

  Niel spoke while trying to touch Medina's intangible arm, fascinated by the ghost she had become.

  That's when Malcolm appeared and grabbed Niel's arm to stop her.

  "Niel, don't carelessly touch an evil spirit."

  "Are you guys insane? I'm not an evil spirit!"

  Medina's ghost shouted, yanking her arm away.

  Then she moved away and looked around.

  "By the way, what are you guys even doing here? Why are you performing a summoning ritual?"

  "We were trying to summon you..."

  Raoul said with an incredulous expression.

  "You were trying to summon me? Then why did you summon this stupid ghost dog?"

  Winnie heard Medina and growled, taking a swipe at her before leaving the room.

  "What's with that damn dog!"

  "Fascinating, I guess ghosts can actually hit each other."

  Medina's expression turned cold again.

  "So why were you trying to summon me? Did you actually miss me? I suppose that would make sense. After all, you even risked your life trying to save me, right Rumi?"

  "No, that's not it. You died from a curse. It was because of that book, right? We summoned you to ask how you got cursed and died so miserably from convulsions."

  Medina's expression hardened further.

  "How rude to ask a ghost such questions... That's inappropriate..."

  But unusually for her, Medina immediately fell silent.

  "...?"

  "Hmm... so that's how you want to py it... Then do you know that since the day you died, some ghost has been possessing your corpse and wandering around the school?"

  Rumi noticed Medina was trying to hide something so she immediately threw out a sensitive question.

  "What? What are you talking about?"

  "Some ghost possessed your corpse and tried to kill me. These bruises on my arm! Your corpse did this!"

  "Whaat?"

  "What have you been doing since becoming a ghost? It's been 4 days already - you didn't even know what happened to your corpse?"

  "Im-impossible. Who possessed my corpse? Huff... huff... huffff!"

  Ghost Medina, who didn't even need to breathe, started taking deep breaths.

  "Medina, just calm down and tell us how you got cursed. Where did you get that strange book?"

  Raoul asked calmly.

  "..."

  "The professor said you had that book from the beginning, is that true?"

  "..."

  But Medina kept holding back her words.

  "Hey, say something."

  "Ugh... I only just regained consciousness as a ghost, and more importantly, I had things to do..."

  "Ugh, this is frustrating. So do you remember or not?"

  "Well... uh... I don't remember. I didn't expect this either, but for some reason I can't remember anything right before I died."

  "Are you really expecting us to believe this?"

  Rumi said, scrunching her eyes.

  But then Medina suddenly looked up at the sky and wailed.

  "Aaaaah, what's happening!"

  A chill emanated from her body and the candle in the ntern went out.

  "Hey, it's getting cold. Calm down."

  Meanwhile, Rumi noticed Medina sneaking gnces at her while deliberately overreacting.

  "Hey! You're hiding something, aren't you? You're deliberately overreacting to change the subject."

  Rumi asked with a suddenly fierce expression.

  "Stop being so frustrating and tell us everything suspicious. And what are these things you have to do?"

  "Ugh... someone's coming."

  Medina spouted nonsense with a face of criminal who just got caught.

  While Rumi was considering how to deal with Medina who was trying to forcefully dismiss the situation, real footsteps were heard from the corridor.

  Thud thud thud...

  "What? Is someone really coming?"

  "Hey Medina, you're a ghost so go check who's coming."

  "Are you stupid? If I go out like this, I'll get caught too!"

  "You're a ghost. Go through the wall and circle around back."

  "Ah!"

  Hearing that, Medina disappeared behind the wall.

  Malcolm had already poked his head out the dormitory door to check the corridor.

  "Holy shit, someone wearing a mask is coming this way."

  "It's not Medina's corpse, is it?"

  "No, they seem tall."

  "Can we get out without being caught?"

  "No, they're already too close."

  "Ack, we're screwed."

  "Wh-what do we do? Are we all going to end up like Medina?"

  Niel panicked.

  Rumi also looked around frantically, unsure what to do.

  "Guys, we need to hide up in the loft. If they're wearing a mask, it's probably not a teacher. We absolutely cannot get caught."

  Raoul calmly assessed the situation.

  "Ah, damn! We need to clean this up before going up."

  Rumi spotted traces of the summoning ritual and started gathering things.

  Niel picked up the ntern, wooden doll, and broom from the floor.

  Then the kids quickly climbed up to the loft and y ft on their stomachs.

  Soon after, the shadow of the masked person Malcolm mentioned fell across the doorway.

  The door slid open. And a tall person like an adult, wearing a really strange mask, entered the room.

  Seeing the mask reminded Rumi of Bertin's horrible green mask from a while back.

  Rumi and the kids all held their breath, hoping not to be discovered.

  But they couldn't stop spying.

  The masked person took a deep breath and pulled out yellow paper and a lighter from inside their clothes.

  The yellow paper had unrecognizable writing on it, possibly reted to sacred relics or something.

  The masked person lit the paper on fire.

  When the paper caught fire, an enormous amount of smoke billowed out.

  And strangely, the smoke didn't dissipate but remained right where it was.

  Then the masked person pulled out a bck book from inside their chest and began chanting a strange scripture song that seemed to emanate an evil aura.

  Rumi looked carefully at that suspicious book.

  She could see the same arrow mark that had been drawn in the book that cursed Medina.

  Rumi wondered if this book might be the same one that cursed Medina, but it didn't seem so. This book looked much cleaner than that one from back then.

  In the end, while she couldn't tell what kind of ritual this was, two things were certain.

  This was some kind of bck magic. And judging by how the ritual was being performed, it definitely wasn't a summoning ritual.

  The smoke spread throughout the room like crawling caterpilrs, as if searching every corner.

  And that ominous smoke finally started climbing up to the loft where Rumi and the kids were hiding.

  At this rate, they would either die from inhaling the smoke or be discovered.

  Rumi looked at Raoul with desperate eyes.

  Raoul could only shake his head with a face that said he had no countermeasure.

  But then Rumi saw Niel's eyes starting to turn red beside her.

  "...!"

  Of all times, Niel's Hyde personality was trying to emerge now.

  Rumi was startled and quickly grabbed Niel's back, closing both her eyes.

  But Niel's body was trembling and getting hot.

  Raoul looked at Niel and Rumi wondering what was happening, but he had no way of knowing what was going on.

  Rumi put her mouth to Niel's ear and very quietly chanted the lulby spell.

  "I understand why you're angry right now. But it will settle soon. Even if you want revenge, now isn't the time. So don't worry. You'll find a way someday..."

  This was the spell Bertin had taught her to subdue Niel when she got agitated.

  But when Malcolm saw this, his eyes said 'What are you doing to Niel right now?'

  Rumi's eyes said 'Mind your own business!' but the tactless Malcolm pushed her shoulder, trying to separate her from Niel.

  ‘Thud’

  But at that moment, as Rumi's body was pushed, she hit Niel, and the broom Niel was holding fell to the first floor.

  ‘Ctter’

  "...!"

  Rumi despaired. Malcolm was shocked, and Raoul was dumbfounded at why the broom had suddenly fallen.

  The masked person picked up the fallen broom and looked up at the loft.

  Now they might really die.

  But meanwhile, Medina briefly appeared behind the masked person.

  She made an enigmatic expression before scampering back behind the wall.

  'How dare that damn Medina abandon us!'

  Rumi screamed internally.

  The masked person started climbing the loft stairs.

  She never dreamed they would die so pathetically, and just because of a fallen broom at that.

  Rumi suddenly thought it was good they hadn't brought Eve along.

  Because at least if Eve stayed alive, there would still be one puppet left to uncover the school's secrets.

  Rumi pnned to haunt Eve and pester her to investigate the secrets even after becoming a ghost.

  But that's when it happened.

  Suddenly, bizarre sounds could be heard very loudly from outside the corridor.

  BANG BANG CRASH

  "Poot poot poot poot! Rattle rattle boing boing hehehehehe..."

  Plus, dog barking and the sound of things breaking could be heard together.

  Woof woof woof woof

  This was definitely the sound of crazy Medina and Winnie.