Just then Niel also asked curiously.

  “Well... it’s not so much about something that happened between our families, but more like the Bront? family betrayed every other family, did all sorts of reckless things they shouldn’t have, and ended up ruining their own family in the process...

  And now, the daughter of that ruined family is her... Ugh, gives me the creeps...”

  Rumi seemed to be hearing about Eve's family being ruined for the first time.

  "But from what you're saying, it doesn't seem like you have any real reason to hate Eve?"

  "No, that's not it... when the Bronte family betrayed everyone, our family suffered huge losses. My grandmother almost died because of it!"

  Rumi gnced at Eve sprawled out on the bed.

  "And look, because of Eve, I ended up possessing a tablecloth of all things..."

  Rumi wasn’t in the mood to listen to Medina’s whining.

  So she started looking for scissors in the room.

  "What are you doing, Rumi...?"

  Niel quietly asked watching her.

  Medina also watched Rumi's suddenly suspicious behavior.

  After a moment, Rumi called Medina with scissors in hand.

  "Medina, come here for a second."

  "Why...?"

  Medina felt uneasy and backed away instead.

  "Come here. I've thought of a really good idea."

  "..."

  Rumi called Medina while smiling with the scissors hidden behind her back.

  "You're not... going to do anything weird, right...?"

  Though suspicious, Medina slowly floated toward Rumi.

  And as soon as Medina came within her reach, Rumi grabbed the tablecloth and started cutting.

  "Hey, what are you doing? Aagh!"

  Medina screamed as if in pain, but Rumi was in the middle of making eye holes in the tablecloth.

  After a moment, when real ghost-like eye holes were cut in the tablecloth, Rumi even put the gsses on top of them.

  "There, now you look like a real ghost..."

  Rumi muttered with satisfaction looking at Medina with eye holes and gsses.

  "...?"

  Medina wiggled the tablecloth, bewildered about what had just happened.

  "Oh, you really look like a super common wandering spirit."

  Niel joined in, giving what sounded like a backhanded compliment, but Medina didn’t seem too upset.

  "Hey, go look in the mirror."

  "..."

  Medina, still suspicious, floated over to the mirror in the room.

  She spun around in front of it like she was on a fashion show runway.

  "Well, not bad I guess..."

  “See? It’s not much different from possessing the gsses.”

  “Well, it’s still better than this...”

  "Ah, just shut up and you should be grateful to Eve. And go see your grandmother quickly."

  "What? You've already met my grandmother?"

  "Yeah. Your grandmother said she'd like to see you when you got back. But your grandmother is a bit..."

  "A bit... what?"

  "No... nothing... but have you met your grandmother since you died?"

  “No. Did you already forget? I was trapped at the school, so I couldn’t leave. How could I have seen her?”

  "Ah, right..."

  Rumi felt something strange about that grandmother again.

  "Well, I'll go see her... but she'll be really surprised to see me like this, won't she?"

  "Well, you're both equally bizarre looking now so it should be fine, right?"

  “You really don’t know when to stop, do you?”

  As Medina flew off to see her grandmother, Rumi and Niel were left alone in the room and very naturally snuck into the darkened kitchen.

  Then they filled their hungry stomachs by stealing the food left on the table.

  Rumi thought about saving some food for Eve, but it was so delicious that she ended up eating it all.

  At least she brought back some snacks and homemade cookies to the room.

  When they were back at the room, it was just before sunrise.

  They had ended up staying up all night for the ritual.

  Rumi tried to get some sleep now, roughly tying Niel to the sofa before lying down on the bed.

  Come to think of it, awkwardly, she ended up lying next to Eve on the bed.

  Though she thought it wouldn't matter since Eve was sleeping anyway, But then she felt someone’s gaze on her.

  When Rumi looked over, she saw Eve, who had been curled up, just closing her eyes.

  "Hey, don't pretend to be asleep. You just closed your eyes, didn't you?"

  Rumi prodded quietly.

  "..."

  "What? Are you really asleep?"

  After a slight silence, Eve answered briefly.

  "No."

  "That's what I thought... but why aren't you sleeping? Aren't you tired? You danced for like hours today."

  “I slept a little, so I woke up naturally.”

  “Wow, what stamina. Dancing like that and then colpsing.”

  “That’s...! It wasn’t because I was tired...”

  “Yeah, I get it. It’s a miracle you’re still alive after dancing like that...”

  Rumi recalled Eve’s mesmerizing dance.

  “By the way, what’s your deal? Why are you so good at dancing? Did you take lessons or something?”

  “Well, that’s... that’s...”

  Eve hesitated for a long time. She looked uncomfortable, her eyes tense.

  “What? Did I ask something I shouldn’t have?”

  "No... it's not that, but thinking about it now it's really unbelievable... and honestly I can't even say my memories are accurate..."

  “What are you trying to say? Why are you stalling?”

  “...When I was really young... I think I learned to dance from an evil spirit.”

  "What...? What are you talking about? You learned dance from an evil spirit?"

  “But like I said, I’m not entirely sure. It’s a memory from when I was really young...”

  “How did you even meet an evil spirit? Where?”

  "Actually, I think that evil spirit lived in our house."

  "What? What do you mean by that?"

  "I'm not sure if it really lived there or just stayed briefly, but when my mother was really sick and I was pying outside alone, I saw the evil spirit dancing alone in the flower field..."

  "That’s... a bit scary. Why are you suddenly telling a horror story..."

  “But the strange thing is, when I learned to dance from that spirit, it left me with a strangely warm feeling. Like being in a cozy flower field...?”

  "..."

  Rumi remembered the woman emitting a faint white light in the family photo Eve had dropped.

  Rumi wondered if that woman could have been the evil spirit.

  "Could it be... was that woman in the photo the evil spirit?"

  "So you did see that photo!"

  "O-of course. How could I not see it. Anyway, am I right?"

  "Yeah..."

  "And was that person sitting in the chair your father?"

  "Yeah..."

  That's when Rumi noticed Eve's mother wasn't visible in the photo.

  "But why wasn't your mother in that photo?"

  “Well... she was sick and always confined to her room.”

  Eve's expression looked lonely as she answered.

  “What... what was your family like back then? Your mom was sick, and you took family photos with an evil spirit...”

  When Rumi asked this, Eve’s eyes flickered.

  She shifted uncomfortably.

  “Was that too sensitive of a question...?”

  Rumi watched her carefully.

  "..."

  Eve didn't seem to want to answer, and Rumi finally awkwardly turned her head to look at the ceiling.

  But then Eve's slightly hesitant voice was heard.

  "Our house was like this one too...

  It was several times bigger than this and more castle-like.

  The difference was that, of course, it was incomparably cleaner than here. And the inside was bright, comfortable, quiet, and not this hot in summer."

  Rumi looked back at Eve thinking this was unusual.

  "Our house had a huge backyard, but rather than calling it a backyard, I should say there was just an enormous flower field stretching out. That's where I learned to dance too..."

  "If you had such a nice house, why did you come here instead of going back to your house this time?"

  "That pce is now a Level 1 cursed zone."

  “Huh...? What... what happened?”

  When Rumi asked, Eve’s body trembled slightly.

  "..."

  "Was it reted to that evil spirit?"

  Rumi asked once more.

  “I don’t know... All I know is that my father was researching that evil spirit... That’s all...”

  Eve seemed to have trouble talking anymore.

  What on earth had happened in Eve's family? Between what Medina said and this, the family seemed to have completely fallen.

  Rumi was lost in thought for a moment. How on earth did this world end up like this.

  What made the witch spread curses to this extent...

  That's when Eve asked Rumi.

  "What about you? Where did you and Niel come from?"

  Rumi hadn't expected Eve to ask about her.

  “I can’t tell you that. If I did, you’d go insane, and the world would end. It’s that dangerous.”

  “Stop with the nonsense. I’m not scared of that kind of thing anymore.”

  “I’m not trying to scare you. I just can’t tell you. If you knew, you might really lose your mind.”

  Rumi said very seriously.

  "Okay... but you must have had parents, right?"

  Rumi felt a slight pang.

  Come to think of it, she hadn't thought about her parents once since crossing over to this world.

  "My parents are trash."

  "Why? Did your parents... abuse you?"

  “No, not like that... I just didn’t see them much. They abandoned me, I guess? To the point where I wonder why they even had me. Anyway, they’re terrible.”

  "...Looks like you've had a hard time too."

  Eve looked at Rumi very distantly with half-closed eyes.

  Then she slowly closed her eyes and spoke gently like someone half asleep.

  "So there was a reason you were this crazy."

  Rumi was so stunned that she blurted out,

  “What the hell are you talking about?!”

  Eve smirked slightly at Rumi’s outburst.

  "Hey, why is this recipe like this? Who in the world writes a recipe this chaotically! This makes coming here to get the recipe pointless!"

  "I wrote it that way so only I could read it! You think I would write it so anyone who sees this precious recipe could understand it?"

  “That’s not the point! The point is even you can’t read it!”

  “I can read it! It just takes time, okay? How many times do I have to say it?!”

  From morning, Rumi and Medina were arguing in the front yard outside the house.

  Eve and Niel, already wearing work overalls with suspenders, sat on the stairs watching them with tired faces.

  “And I’ve told you so many times, the recipe isn’t perfect yet. I needed to do more experiments, but then I died.”

  "That's why I'm going to make the potion. You just need to expin it properly. If you try to trick me or expin it wrong even a little bit, I really truly don't know what I’m going to do to you."

  “Alright, alright. Let’s just gather the ingredients first, then we’ll talk.”

  “Ugh, even the ingredients are written in code! Damn it...”

  "You guys really need to stop and just find the ingredients you know."

  Finally Eve intervened to stop them.

  "Alright, then first we need to gather corpse flowers. A lot of them."

  “Corpse flowers? You mean those purple flowers all over the roads here?”

  "Yeah, but if you follow me I can take you somewhere easier to gather them."

  After saying that, Medina started moving behind the house.

  As Rumi and Eve followed Medina out, they noticed Niel still sitting quietly.

  “Niel, grab a shovel and come with us.”

  "Me too...? Did I really come here as unpaid bor?"

  Niel walked out with slumped shoulders.

  Rumi commented seeing Niel like that.

  "Don't state the obvious."

  Soon after, the kids entered the field behind the house with shovels.

  There, an vast field of purple corpse flowers appeared.

  At the end of the field, a huge wooden building that looked like a barn was visible.

  "Wow, the scenery here is killer."

  The scene was reminiscent of a typical American corn farm. Of course, instead of corn, corpse flowers as tall as corn were growing.

  But what was slightly strange was that despite the sunlight pouring down from the blue sky, there was no fragrance from the flowers at all, rather a stuffy smell seemed to be wafting over.

  "This is the famous corpse flower field. These hard-to-find corpse flowers are all over our property.

  In the vilge this is the only palce where these grow. so we’ll need to gather as many as we can, dry them, and take them with us."

  Medina spoke while hiding in the building's shadow as if trying to avoid the strong sunlight.

  "How is this possible? How can there be so many corpse flowers here?"

  Eve asked, looking incredulous.

  "Isn't it good to have lots of flowers? Why are you curious about that?"

  Rumi asked.

  "Rumi, you probably don't know this, but corpse flowers grow using decomposing human flesh as fertilizer.”

  "What? You mean there are corpses buried here?"

  “Of course! There are probably over 10,000 bodies buried here.”

  Medina answered proudly.

  "What?"

  Niel’s jaw dropped in shock.

  Rumi, Eve, and Niel all stared at Medina suspiciously.

  "10,000 corpses? What? Was your family mass murderers? I knew it."

  “What nonsense! Our family ran a special funeral home for a long time. After the funeral rites, we buried the bodies here.”

  "..."

  Despite Medina’s expnation, the kids continued to eye her suspiciously.

  "I'm not lying. That... that barn over there used to be the funeral home."

  "I'm disappointed, Medina. I had hoped you'd at least be honest about your family. I know your family killed ten thousand people making dolls and did human experiments in that barn."

  "What... no, what?"

  "Really? That's why you killed ten thousand people?"

  Niel asked looking at Rumi.

  "N-no, you're wrong! It's nothing like that!"

  Medina shouted, getting worked up again.

  “Alright, alright, I was just joking. Honestly, who cares if it’s a funeral home or not? Let’s just gather the corpse flowers.”

  Rumi said while swinging her sickle like a sword. But her eyes didn't leave that suspicious barn in the distance.

  "..."

  Meanwhile Eve also looked troubled, lost in thought.