"...We need to find that doll right now. Without that damn doll, we can't do anything."

  But then an unexpected voice was heard.

  It was a boy's voice that didn't sound like either Medina's or the masked person's.

  "What?"

  Rumi was so curious about who was speaking that she crept out from under the desk and crawled toward the door leading to the morgue.

  "Rumi...!"

  Raoul reached out to stop her, but Rumi had already put one eye to the door crack.

  However, due to the angle of the crack, all Rumi could see was the masked person standing on one side of the morgue.

  Because of this, she couldn't identify who the boy's voice belonged to.

  "Yes, but how was the doll not among her possessions? Surely they haven't caught on..."

  This time it was the masked person speaking.

  Now that she could hear it properly, the voice sounded low through the mask, like speaking into a radio.

  "That's impossible. This time it was an attack they couldn't have predicted.

  Moreover, they're tolerating us because there's internal division on their side.

  In other words, the doll just happened to disappear somewhere by chance.

  That child's soul has been corrupted, so she couldn't have done anything with it.

  So search every pce that child passed through. Before they find it first."

  "But I've already searched the pces where she might have been several times."

  "Then use more extreme bck magic. Without that doll, we can't even find the location of the grave."

  "Yes, understood."

  Doll...? Grave...?

  The conversation between these two unknown figures seemed to contain a lot of information. But most of it was impossible to make sense of.

  The only thing she could figure out was that these two seemed to be targeting the doll Medina had been carrying, and after killing her, they pnned to corrupt her soul.

  And Rumi thought she knew which doll they were talking about.

  "Hmph! What? Corrupt my soul? Don't make me ugh."

  Medina muttered beside Rumi.

  Rumi worried that Medina's muttering might get them discovered, but she could understand why Medina would be angry.

  "Eek!"

  But suddenly Medina panicked and flew through the wall.

  Rumi wondered what was happening and looked to the side to see the masked person approaching the infirmary door.

  At that moment, someone grabbed Rumi back and hugged her tightly from behind.

  She could smell Raoul's scent.

  Fortunately, the masked person didn't notice the hidden kids and left through the infirmary door to the corridor.

  It was strange why this crazy masked person chose to leave through the infirmary door instead of using the morgue door.

  Rumi turned to look at Raoul and thanked him with her eyes without making sounds. Because the mysterious owner of the boy's voice was still in the morgue.

  But after there was no sign of movement for long, Rumi peeked her head out to look inside the morgue.

  And she realized there was no one in the morgue.

  "...There's no one here... we can come out."

  Rumi and Raoul stood up and entered the morgue while still cautiously watching their surroundings.

  There was one morgue refrigerator door open and a corpse transport tray pulled out.

  And on it, instead of Medina's corpse, there was just a pair of gsses sitting alone.

  "Medina, come out. These are your gsses, right?"

  When Rumi called, Medina quietly flew through the wall.

  Medina had a slightly depressed expression.

  "Yeah... they are..."

  "That ghost with the boy's voice seems to have hijacked your body... did you see their face?"

  "What? What are you talking about, a boy ghost’s face? The boy's voice must have been coming from my corpse."

  "No... when I heard your corpse's voice before, it sounded simir to your voice. It was different from that boy-like voice just now. Your corpse's voice was a lot more disgusting..."

  "What's that supposed to mean? Are you making fun of my voices?"

  "No, that's not it, I mean, if the ghost possessing your body is a boy ghost... when it comes out of your body it should have a boy's voice, and when it goes into your body... your voice is going to be disgusting..."

  "What? What are you even saying?!"

  "Rumi, I think what Medina needs right now is some comfort."

  Raoul stopped Rumi and stepped forward himself.

  "Um... Medina, seeing your hijacked corpse with your own eyes must make you feel terrible, but don't be too sad. Your death wasn't that bad, compare to worse death than yours. And most importantly, your soul isn’t corrupted."

  "Ah... thanks for the comfort... Did you think I'd say something like that?"

  "Uh...?"

  "Now if you got all the comport you need, answer what you need to answer. That doll, those criminals are looking for is your doll, right?"

  This time Rumi asked with almost certainty.

  Because Rumi remembered where she had seen Medina's doll.

  First, it was the foot sticking out of Medina's bag when she got on the bus,

  And second, it was that doll in Medina's bag during the principal's css.

  "...!"

  Medina flinched as if struck when she heard Rumi's question.

  "I've actually seen that doll before. You always carried it in that big bag of yours."

  "Rumi, did you know about that doll?"

  Raoul asked.

  "Yeah, she had it in her bag since the first day of school. Quick, tell us what that doll is?"

  "Ugh..."

  "Tell us quickly! You died because of it, didn't you?"

  Rumi gred at the infuriating Medina who still wouldn't talk.

  "Ah, I shouldn't tell you this... Ack! How did it come to this? But now... I have no choice... you guys need to help me find the doll."

  "What... you want us to find it for you? I mean... where is the doll?"

  "Well... uh... I don't know exactly. That's the problem. It disappeared somewhere when I died... Actually, even after I woke up as a ghost, I've been looking everywhere for that doll but couldn't find it."

  "Then... when you said you had something to do, you meant finding that doll?"

  "Yeah..."

  "What does the doll look like?"

  Raoul asked.

  "It just looks like a cursed doll. Something creepy when you look at it..."

  Rumi answered instead, recalling what she'd roughly seen.

  "What are you talking about? Lucy is so pretty, she looks like a beautiful baby. Just a bit smaller than a real baby."

  "But what exactly is that doll? You died because of it, after all."

  "Well... it's a doll my grandmother gave me. She said I'd definitely need it when I enrolled."

  "Just because of that, is it important enough for those crazy people to kill you and search for it?"

  "That's... a secret...!"

  Rumi got a bit heated seeing Medina proudly shout that it was a secret.

  "Then what are we supposed to do now? No one knows where that doll is, not even you."

  "...Actually, there's just one pce I haven't been able to check."

  "Where's that?"

  "The principal's office... I couldn't go in because there's a sacred aura around it."

  "Why the principal's office? Are your things in there?"

  "I accidentally left my bag in there just before I died."

  "...?"

  Raoul and Rumi looked at each other.

  "That means we need to go to the principal's office right now?"

  Raoul said with wide eyes.

  "And right now, both the masked person and your corpse are out looking for the doll, right?"

  "Yeah... So I'm asking you guys this - you absolutely have to find that doll. It's really important and can't fall into the hands of those witch cult people!"

  "Wait, witch cult...?"

  "Oops!"

  "What the hell? I knew you knew a lot more than we do. A witch cult means a group that worships witches. How do you know those two are from a witch cult?"

  "No... I just guessed they might be from a witch cult because they use bck magic, so they must be professional bck magic users... and most bck magic users are from witch cults."

  "Raoul, is that right?"

  Rumi looked at Raoul and asked.

  "It's not wrong. We can't be certain, but if they're doing things like this, there's a very high chance they're actually from the witch cult."

  "See... I told you?"

  "Sigh..."

  "So are you guys going to the principal's office or not?"

  "Ah... we have no choice, do we? We have to go look. What about you, Raoul?"

  "Of course I will go too."

  "Malcolm..."

  Rumi looked around but Malcolm was nowhere to be seen.

  "Where did that Malcolm go?"

  Raoul also noticed Malcolm was gone and checked the infirmary, where Malcolm was standing in front of the door.

  "Malcolm, what are you doing there?"

  "Don't you guys know how to keep watch? If everyone goes in one pce, it's over."

  "Hmm... we didn't think of that. Good judgment."

  "Huh, If you liked keeping watch that much, why didn't you keep watch when we were summoning Medina?"

  Rumi took a shot at Malcolm.

  "Because that’s when I realized I should keep watch."

  "Well... anyway, come with us. We have somewhere to go."

  "Where now?"

  "The principal's office. Those witch cult guys are looking for a doll, and it's originally Medina's and seems to be in the principal's office now... but you didn't hear that since you were keeping watch, so just follow us!"

  Rumi's group left the infirmary and entered the north corridor.

  "Medina, you keep track of where those two witch cult members are. We'll go straight to the principal's office and find the doll as quickly as possible."

  "Okay... but if I get caught this time, I would really become an evil spirit, right?"

  "Obviously!“

  “Eek!”

  Medina flew ahead while Rumi and the kids headed for the third-floor principal's office.

  Malcolm and Raoul took turns keeping watch while Rumi moved carefully between them.

  The path to the principal's office was smooth so far.

  Wherever those two witch cult members had gone, they didn't seem to be at the principal's office right now.

  However, there was one slightly annoying presence in front of the principal's office.

  A possessed statue.

  It was a crazy ghost that usually kept its eyes closed but suddenly opened them to startle kids.

  But coming here in the dead of night, it seemed to be pced there to guard the principal's office.

  "Ugh, what if that statue ghost suddenly starts barking again?"

  "Medina, isn't there any way you can do something about that ghost?"

  "How would I know that?"

  "Since you're both ghosts, isn't there some way? Like distracting it?"

  "You think I'm the same kind of ghost as that thing? How dare you say that? Rather than looking for such methods, just turn its head around."

  Rumi looked at the statue after hearing Medina and realized it was in a position where its head could be turned.

  "That’s actually rally smart."

  "Ha...hehe! Of course. I can't believe you're only realizing this now. Even as a ghost, I'm an elite among elites..."

  "Ah, okay, got it. Now hurry and go see where those two witch cult members are. Medina, go go!"

  Medina's smile turned to a frown as she flew to the end of the corridor.

  "Rumi, Do you think I should turn it around?"

  Raoul spoke to Rumi, but looking at Raoul who was a head taller than her, she answered.

  "No, you're too tall."

  So Rumi pressed herself against the wall and slipped into the narrow space behind the statue as much as possible.

  The statue had its eyes closed as if sleeping, but even in that state its face was twitching slightly.

  Up close, it had a face that really made you want to punch it.

  Rumi touched the twitching statue's head and very slowly turned it to face the wall beside it.

  "Success!"

  Rumi cheered in a voice that only an ant could hear.

  Then Raoul and Malcolm came through the door to the principal's office.

  They joined up with Rumi who had been waiting behind the door and discussed their final pn.

  "Here's our pn. Malcolm, since you love keeping watch, monitor for anyone coming from in front of the door.

  Meanwhile, we two will search the principal's office for the doll, and as soon as we find it, we go straight back to the dormitory. That's it."

  "It's such an obvious pn, I didn't even need to hear it."

  Malcolm said sarcastically.

  But Rumi and Raoul looked at each other and nodded.

  So they left Malcolm near the door and entered the empty principal's office in the middle of the night.

  "Hmm... but don't you feel like there's not much sacred aura here at night? It's just scary like everywhere else."

  "Yeah, if anything it feels more desote..."

  Raoul seemed to feel that the principal's office was scary at night too.

  Rumi first went to the area near where Medina usually sat and looked under the desk.

  "This is where Medina always sat. So she would have usually put her bag around here.

  But looking now, the school would have already collected her bag..."

  Raoul continued Rumi's thought.

  "Then that means the doll wasn't in the bag at that time. That's why they can't find it either."

  "Then let's search around this area first."

  Rumi and Raoul started searching every space under the nearby desks.

  But nothing was visible nearby.

  "The doll was about baby size, right?"

  Raoul asked while searching.

  "Yeah, about that size... it should be noticeably big for a doll... why can't we see it..."

  Rumi and Raoul soon spread out and started searching all the desks in the principal's office.

  But the doll really wasn't visible anywhere.

  "No matter how much we look, it's not here. It just doesn't seem to be here. If we can't see a doll that big, it's not here."

  Rumi sighed.

  "Then let's look a bit more and get out of here. If even one of those witch cult members comes in, we’re doomed."

  "Yeah..."

  Rumi answered with resignation.

  Now she was getting sleepy, her body was tired, and the principal's office was too big to search thoroughly.

  But at that exact moment, she felt someone's gaze very strongly.

  Rumi was slightly startled and looked around, but there didn't seem to be anyone there.

  But strangely, she felt like she knew where the gaze was coming from.

  Rumi's gaze soon fixed on the sacred relic dispy case.

  And there, the doll's eyes were twinkling.