"Ugh. No matter how I think about it, that’s definitely a malevolent spirit…"

As I walked toward the garden, Charlotte kept tilting her head in confusion.

The spirit that Yulia saw, taking on the form of a girl. It was suspicious, no matter how I looked at it.

It’s already strange for a spirit to take on human form. The way it babbled on was also odd.

"Spirits usually have poor vocabulary. Even Dungy, the huge spirit, has a vocabulary like this!"
[What!?]

It didn’t seem like a great spirit, so how could it speak so well? Yulia may be suspicious, but she’s surprisingly naïve! It’s common for her to believe something that looks suspicious!

"And my super-duper sword is saying that spirit is suspicious!"
[Isn’t that just a feeling…?]

Charlotte concluded that the girl-shaped spirit Yulia mentioned was not a spirit at all but a wandering wraith. Yulia was enchanted by the ghost and couldn’t think straight. To save Yulia, Charlotte was on her way to find a ‘method.’

"The knight sister’s exorcism tool!"

Charlotte proudly raised her hand high.

At the tip of her finger was a silver rosary.

"When the knight sister brings this close, the evil spirit disappears!"

When I asked Silvia if she had a way to chase away evil spirits, she handed this to me. She said that no matter how powerful the malevolent spirit, it would disappear when this was brought close. With this, I could save Yulia, who was being deceived by a ghost.

Charlotte, with a bright smile, quickly headed toward the garden.

"Yulia! I brought the exorcism tool…!"

She stopped.

Charlotte's body stiffened, and her voice faded. In the distance, in the flowerbed, Yulia was hugging Aslan.

No, rather than hugging, she was… hanging onto him?

Anyway! It looked extremely close!

"Wah, Yulia has really become bold…"

Though I had pushed her to it, I never expected the usually passive and shy Yulia to become so daring in an instant.

She was clinging tightly to the uncle without any hesitation! I was so embarrassed when I hugged him last time! How much courage did she muster up…!?

Charlotte almost gasped, covering her mouth with her hands.

"Huff."

It seemed Yulia was about to pull away from Aslan for a moment.

"Huff!"

But soon, she grabbed his sleeve again and clung to him.

Wow! How clingy!

That must be so annoying! But since Yulia is cute, I guess it’s fine?

Charlotte, filled with excitement, secretly watched the two. Meanwhile, Dungy, who had been observing her all along, suddenly had a question.

[Why are you just standing there watching?]
"Huh? I shouldn’t interrupt, right?"
[Shouldn’t you be interrupting? Both of you seem to like that human man. According to human customs, one male should be paired with one female. Don’t you feel a sense of urgency?]
"Hmph. You didn’t notice, did you? My acting is…!"
"…?"

Charlotte struck a pose, hands on her hips, puffing out her chest. Dungy's confusion only grew.

"Do you think I like the uncle?"
[It’s obvious.]
"Hmph! That just means my acting was perfect! I mean, I have a bit of a crush on him, but not to the point where I don’t know what to do like Yulia! But look at Yulia. She really likes the uncle, but she doesn’t even realize it! Doesn’t that frustrate you, Dungy? Right? Right?"
"…"

Dungy stood silently, not moving, while Charlotte's cheeks puffed up. She grabbed Dungy and forced it to nod.

Finally, Charlotte relaxed her frown as if satisfied.

"So, I couldn’t just sit back and watch! I decided to encourage poor Yulia to be honest about her feelings…!"
[…]
"Why aren’t you reacting!?"
[…]

No matter how much Charlotte shook and demanded a response, Dungy simply turned away, ignoring her.

'To me, you both seem quite similar…'

Is it possible that high-ranking spirits cannot see the emotions of living beings?

The eyes of spirits known to be passed down through generations in the empire. Looking into them, there wasn’t much difference in the feelings Charlotte had when looking at Aslan and those Yulia had.

I couldn’t know exactly what those feelings were. But if, as Charlotte claimed, Yulia really liked Aslan so much that she was burning with it, that would mean Charlotte felt the same.

[Neither of you is being honest with yourselves.]
"What does that even mean!?"

No matter how frustrated Charlotte was or how much she demanded an explanation, Dungy remained silent.

In the end, this was something they needed to realize on their own…

"Hands… don’t let go. …"

Yulia had been seeing wraiths and spirits for two months now. It was about time she got used to it.

So I thought she would be a bit startled but calm down quickly.

"Y-you can’t go! Stay right there! …"
"Yes, I’m here. Don’t worry."
"Make sure you’re holding onto my hem tightly! Shake it to confirm! …"
"Sigh…"

This was lasting longer than I expected.

Yulia insisted on holding on to me the entire way back to the mansion, even when she went into the bathroom to wash her face.

"Ahhh! If I close my eyes, that ghost's face comes back…!"

Every time she closed her eyes to wash her face, Yulia would burst into tears again. What did she see to react this way?

At the very least, the fact that Yulia, who outwardly appeared brave, was doing this meant she must have seen something terrifying.

Had the girl-shaped ghost rushed at her, suddenly bleeding?

That would definitely be traumatic.

Even I would have been quite shaken by it.

'In fact, would she even know if I let go?'

Yulia had insisted on holding onto my hem the entire time she was washing her face. But wouldn’t she not know if she held on or not?

Curious, I subtly lifted my finger away at that moment.

[The evil god 'Carly' glares at you meaningfully, as a warning!]

Uh-oh. This won’t do.

I had momentarily forgotten that there was another set of eyes watching.

"Ahhh! I got soap in my eyes!!!"
"Sigh. Keep your eyes tightly closed."

She was so dramatic.

I pressed Yulia's head into the sink while she squinted her eyes, complaining about the soap, and scrubbed her face as if washing laundry.

Is it good now?

Blinking rapidly, her bloodshot eyes finally opened wide, indicating she seemed fine now.

As soon as Yulia opened her eyes, she clung to my sleeve again, desperately.

"Did you cry all your tears out?"
"I-I wasn’t crying because I was scared! I was crying because my eyes hurt from the start! D-Don’t get it wrong! I was worried about bumping into something because my eyes hurt and was holding onto you!"

Maybe she was starting to recover from the fear.

Suddenly, she let go of my sleeve and began to fidget.

I was a bit disappointed.

I had hoped she would cling to me a bit longer.

Really, she’s just a girl with an inflated sense of pride.

"Well then, since your eyes are better now, I guess I’m not needed anymore?"
"Huh? Wh-what!?"
"Then I have a lot to do, so…"
"W-wait a second!"

With a swift movement, I pretended to be busy and turned away, but Yulia hurriedly grabbed my wrist.

She had been waiting for me to grab her.

"What’s wrong? Is there a reason you can’t let go? Are you scared and don’t want to be alone…?"
"I-I’m not scared! I just… felt sleepy… I was thinking of borrowing your hand to take a nap…"
"At two in the afternoon? Really?"
"Uh, yeah. I want to take a nap…"

What a lie.

Yulia wasn’t the type to take naps often, and even if she did, she would usually sleep around four o’clock after snack time.

I knew your daily routine inside and out.

If I left her be, Yulia would pretend to sleep next to me, even though she wasn’t sleepy at all.

That would be a perfect opportunity to touch her cheeks freely without resistance.

But that was a routine I could enjoy every night.

For now, let’s have her do something only a wide-awake Yulia could do.

"Delay your nap a bit. Instead, how about studying black magic with me?"
"I-I want to! …"

Yawn. Pretending to be sleepy, she suddenly opened her eyes wide with interest.

It seemed she was eager to have a good excuse to stick with me rather than sleep.

'Now, this isn’t a matter of being pressured by Irene.'

My initial interest in black magic stemmed solely from Irene's pressure. She had been threatening me with severe consequences if I didn’t show progress.

But now that I had risen to the position of head, Irene could no longer touch me.

Attempting to harm me would be considered treason.

I could legally remove Irene from the registry and raise an army to eliminate her.

That’s why Irene had been quite quiet lately.

But even without Irene’s pressure,

[The evil god 'Carly' can hardly calm down from the news of your black magic research!]

Carly was anticipating my research into black magic.

I couldn’t ignore that.

If I continued to ignore her, I would see warnings like 'I demand very strongly!' or 'I harbor great discontent towards you!' flashing, which would be rather alarming.

However, nothing serious had happened so far despite all those warnings.

But no one knew what might happen if Carly truly became furious.

I didn’t want to find out.

Carly had waited long enough, and now I was genuinely curious about what black magic really was.

I wanted to uncover its true nature together with Yulia.

"Let’s go to the library, Yulia."
"Okay! …"

Thud.

Yulia stepped forward with a serious expression, her face looking resolute.

But why do you look so solemn…?