"What...? Bck magic used by witch cults?"

  "Is this your first time hearing about witch cults?"

  "Yes... but just hearing the name gives me a rough idea..."

  "Right... witch cults are... just think of them as secret groups that worship witches."

  "I see... but why would anyone worship witches? Are they crazy?"

  "Heh, that's right. They're insane. Well, there's no need for a student like you to know more details, just think of them as people who use that kind of evil bck magic you used."

  Rumi found Professor Myers' words hard to believe.

  If that was true, what she had been doing as spirit summoning rituals were actually a type of bck magic for summoning evil spirits.

  And what made even less sense was that what Bertin taught couldn't possibly be bck magic used by witch cults. Because that would meain...

  But thinking back, that senile old ghost that was summoned was definitely an evil spirit.

  Plus, that nausea she felt every time she performed Bertin's rituals...

  Rumi was fused.

  "Rumi... let me ask you ohing. You haven't... said anything strange or anything you shouldn't have to Medina, right?"

  "Medina...? Why...?"

  This question was clearly Professor Myers suspeg Rumi as the culprit in Medina's i.

  But Rumi wasn't the culprit.

  "No, Nothing like that at all."

  Rumi showed her displeasure.

  "...Then that's good."

  "But, I saw that book. The be with that arrow symbol on it... what kind of book was that?"

  "Do you really not know what that book is?"

  "Of course not. What kind of book was it?"

  "That’s... we're actually still iigating it so I 't tell you."

  "Professor, was the scripture song I recited written in that..."

  "That's enough talk, you go to the cathedral too now."

  Had she asked somethiive? Professor Myers cut off Rumi's question and stood up.

  And Rumi decided not to ask any more questions.

  Rather, asking more questions might make her seem more like the culprit.

  Rumi left the with a very uled feeling.

  No matter how she thought about it, it was hard to imagihose scripture songs beied to bck magic.

  There was no way Bertin would have taught her such things.

  Bertin was truly the most det person Rumi had ever met.

  Even trying to uhe school's secrets now was followiin's st wishes...

  Rumi reaffirmed her belief that the problem wasn't Bertin but this school.

  The fact that the school had secrets meant the school wasn't in its right mind to begin with.

  That Bertin... even if what Bertin taught was really bck magic, there must have been reasons for her doing so.

  That evening when Rumi returo the dorm after her holy water bath, Eve was sitting at the desk reading a book.

  Notig Rumi entering, she immediately stood up tensely and turo face her.

  "You're... not cursed, right?"

  "No, and I just finished bathing. so I’m ."

  "Then show me your hands. The hands that touched the bck book."

  "Here, see how they are? I told you I'm resistant to curses."

  Eve had nothing to say looking at Rumi's pale hands.

  "But I definitely saw you throw the book away because your hands hurt..."

  "You sure watched carefully. For someone so scared who should have run away."

  "That's not all. What happened during exorcism css? Weren't you cursed then?"

  "Haven't you figured it out yourself? That wasn't a scripture song but bck magic."

  "What?"

  Eve shouted in surprise.

  And Niel beside her covered her mouth hearing those words.

  "That was bck magic?"

  "..."

  Rumi slightly regretted mentioning bck magic.

  "How do you know bck magic?"

  Eve asked again.

  "Ah, I don't know. I had no idea it was bck magic either."

  "You... you said you were an outsider, right?"

  "What...? I old you that, yet you know it well."

  "I heard about that too..."

  Eve g Niel for a moment.

  "...?"

  "Then... are you really curse-immune?"

  "Wait, what's this about? Who told you that? Niel, don't tell me you..."

  "Well... since we're roommates now..."

  "Hey Niel, seriously!"

  "Is it really true...? Even so, are you... in yht mind? To think of toug that book, so dangerously..."

  Eve interrogated Rumi again.

  "What about you? Why did someone who faints at the sight of anything curse-like stay close by?"

  "Curses are meant to be fought. Following rules and all that are ways of fighting too.

  But since you're just sly resistant to curses, you probably don't care whether you fight or not."

  "Right, I'm very strongly resistant to curses and you're a bundle of curses, so you o find ways to fight hard, right?"

  "Watch your words... a bundle of curses? Such words bring curses."

  "Oh yes, yes, I uand perfectly. Anyways, I'm especially tired today so I'm going to sleep. And just so you know, I won't be drinking holy water today either."

  "You... really..."

  Rumi was truly tired and threw herself onto the bed.

  And finally Eve, all talk and no a, started praying alohout further provocation.

  She tinued praying while gring at Rumi again today.

  Just then Niel came over and quietly asked Rumi.

  "Sorry, Rumi. I only told her because she became our roommate. Eve swore not to tell anyone else."

  "No... even so. Why did we pretend not to know each other all this time?

  We agreed to iigate without revealing we were both outsiders."

  "By the way, was what Bertin taught us really bck magic?"

  "...Seems so. Raoul seems to have noticed something too.

  But even so, I don't thiin would have just taught bck magic for no reason..."

  "Rumi, do you think this has anything to do with cursed Medina? And is all this reted to the school's secrets that Bertiioned?"

  "That... I'm not sure, but there's a huge possibility.

  Whatever the case, what's certain is that there's a serious problem with this school. And there's something else to check tonight too."

  "Okay... is there something I do?"

  "Hmm... not yet...“

  That night Rumi woke up at 2:22 AM as if on schedule.

  As soon as she opened her eyes, she heard the singing that flowed in from the corridor every night.

  Rumi got up and looked at the others, both Eve and Niel were lost in dreamnd.

  Rumi jumped down from the bed and approached the dorm room door.

  It was to check if Medina would appear at this time today too.

  Actually, since Medina had been taken to the infirmary today, no one should appear in the corridor, but strangely she had a feeling something would happen today.

  And if someone appeared today, it would mean what she saw that night wasn't Medina.

  But today too, no one was in the corridor.

  So what she saw was Medina after all?

  Yet she started thinking that Medina, who hadn't appeared for a week, might have just been sleepwalking outside on that day.

  Rumi was about to go back to sleep while looking at the chilly corridor, but decided to watch a little longer.

  So Rumi pulled a chair to the door, sat down, and watched out the window like standing guard.

  Still, she o sleep so she had to go back to bed at 4 AM, but it was hard to fight the drowsiness hitting her right now...

  A little ter, Rumi had fallen asleep with her face pressed against the window.

  Then a 'thump' sound came from outside.

  Waking again at the sudden sound, Rumi lifted her head and looked out the window again.

  Just then that female student she saw a week ago roag from the end of the corridor toward Rumi's dorm room.

  "Oh...!"

  Suddenly she had a ce to properly see the girl's face.

  Rumi pressed her face against the wind to make out the girl's face even in the dark corridor.

  The girl approached. The shape of her face started being more visible.

  And now she came right up to the dorm room door.

  "...!"

  This was... Medina's face.

  Though she looked soulless with her hair down and no gsses, it was definitely Medina.

  Rumi ractically kissing the wind to see more clearly.

  But at that moment their eyes met.

  "...!"

  Rumi ducked her head like lightning.

  Because Medina's pupils that showed briefly somehow seemed abnormal.

  As Rumi leaned against the door slightly crouched, she heard knog on the door.

  "Eek...!"

  Rumi hugged herself.

  Even if it was actually Medina, Rumi had absolutely no iion of opening the door.

  Especially sihe rules specifically said not to open when someone knocks at night.

  Still, the fact that Medina was wandering around tonight at least meant she hadn't died.

  Plus, if she could wander around at night, it seemed the curse wasn't that severe.

  But no matter how you looked at it, someone under such a curse wandering the school at night, especially between the absolutely forbidden hours of 2 to 4 AM, was truly insane.

  The knog didn't e again that night, and Medina seemed to have disappeared from the corridor.

  Rumi's curiosity exploded.

  She po interrogate Medina whe her tomorrow and make her spill her schemes.

  The day.

  The shog news came from principal during m mass.

  "I have very sad his m. The first-year student Medina, who was taken away after being cursed in the library yesterday, has died."

  "...!"