Thwack!
Miss Yeon barged into the room, throwing the door open.
Inside, Rozennia was sitting with her legs crossed, reading a book.
“Oh! Junior, are you finally taking an interest in club activities?”
“Senior Rose, I’ve brought you a gift.”
“Hmm, and what might that beee~?”
At the mention of a gift, Rozennia ‘s eyes sparkled, curving into crescent moons.
“Come in.”
At my signal, the gift stepped forward.
“You’ve got to be kidding me… That’s your gift?”
“Yep, since we don’t have any members. I thought they’d make a good ghost member, so I brought them along.”
“And this… person is who?”
“My name is Ian,” came the hesitant introduction.
“Junior, come here for a moment.”
Contrary to my expectation that she’d be happy about bringing in a new member,
“What were you thinking bringing them here?”
She flatly refused Ian’s application to join the club.
“Well, at this rate, the club is going to be disbanded. You’re graduating soon, too, so we need to prepare ahead of time.”
“Junior… once I graduate, a pointless club like this won’t be necessary anymore.”
“Why not?”
“There’s a reason. Anyway, I’m against it. If we accept them, I’d have to process all the other applications I’ve been ignoring up till now.”
Wasn’t I accepted because there were no members?
And what are these ignored applications?
Why is she even opposed?
“I can’t back down like this.”
What I need is a legitimate reason to hand something over to Ian.
Even though bringing Ian into Miss Yeon won’t solve everything, I still need to keep him close to accomplish anything.
“Please, Senior. I’ll do anything if you accept him.”
“…Anything?”
“Yes, anything within my power. Just let him join.”
“You mean it? Anything? No backing out later?”
Well, at worst, she’d probably make me clean the club room or handle the activity reports, which wouldn’t be a problem.
I’ve built up some stamina recently, so it’s not even a burden.
“Fine, I’ll allow it.”
Rozennia , who had been so firm, finally agreed to let Ian join the club.
Of course, even if he joined, he’d probably just be a ghost member, so I wouldn’t see much of him.
But that’s fine. At least I’ve established a connection.
***
Some time later, on the weekend.
Miss Yeon gathered for club activities, taking advantage of having a new member.
“I thought I only had to sign my name?”
“It’s regular activities. We only do this a few times a year, so just show up for these.”
Arcane Academy clubs are required to submit periodic activity reports.
Whether the activities align with the club’s goals, their purpose, and what they’ve learned.
Whether the funding was used appropriately, and so on.
The reports must be detailed and pass evaluations to keep the club running.
The academy has no need for clubs that just loaf around.
And so, we gathered today at Rozennia ‘s behest…
“Why is she here?”
Besides Ian and Rozennia , there was another person.
“Hah… She joined with Ian. Now there’s no excuse to turn her down.”
“Nice to meet you, Theo.”
“Uh… sure.”
It was none other than Sylvia, a heroine and fellow student.
“Isn’t she from the fencing club?”
As the eldest daughter of a duke’s family, Sylvia had been courted by many clubs since her first year.
While hobbies or interests may influence one’s choice of club, for nobles, it’s essentially an extension of their social circles.
A club’s prestige depends on the reputation of its members, often leading to a surge in applications.
“Sylvia, weren’t you in the fencing club?”
“I was.”
“Then why are you here?”
“I was just curious. One person per club may be the principle, but there’s no rule against joining multiple clubs.”
Fair enough.
The original purpose of the club was to help students who grew up confined to their families and lacked social skills.
Having a lot of members wasn’t particularly a problem.
“But, did the club president even allow that?”
However, without any restrictions, the number of members could increase endlessly.
Hence, permission from the president of the existing club was required.
“Yeah, they allowed it.”
“Oh my, our new junior speaks so casually. You even threatened to quit the swordsmanship club if they didn’t approve, so the president personally came to me.”
“…Anyway, I got permission.”
Hmm, I see.
Although I don’t know the exact details, judging by Roszenia’s sharp gaze, as if she wanted to tear Sylvia apart, it’s clear that Sylvia didn’t have an easy time joining.
“Senior Rose, where are we going?”
We had left the academy and were riding in a carriage she had prepared in advance.
It was clear we were leaving the city, but she hadn’t mentioned our destination, so I had no idea where we were headed.
“Hehe, telling you now would ruin the fun. We’ll arrive soon, so be patient.”
After about an hour of small talk during the journey, we arrived at a quiet village slightly away from the city where the academy was located.
“It’s quite eerie here.”
Though the village looked fine on the surface, there was hardly anyone outside, even with the sun high in the sky. It felt unnaturally strange.
“…They seem to be wary of us,” Ian observed.
Looking around, I noticed the villagers peeking through their windows, locking their doors. If we made eye contact, they’d flinch and quickly shut their curtains.
“There must be a reason. Let’s move.”
Ian, Sylvia, and I felt an ominous tension due to the villagers’ reactions, but Rozennia’s eyes sparkled with excitement.
‘This wasn’t in the original story.’
In the novel’s early chapters, there was no interaction between Rozennia and Ian, so I had no way of knowing if this event had happened.
Was this something that had simply been omitted, or had things changed, like before?
‘I should investigate further.’
For now, it was unclear.
Rozennia led us to the village chief’s house at the edge of the village.
“Welcome. You must be from Arcane.”
“I’m Antoine Rose, and these are members of my club.”
“I see. Welcome.”
The village chief was a pale, frail-looking old man, his thin body and sickly appearance suggesting something was very wrong.
If it wasn’t due to an illness, his condition was certainly abnormal.
“I received your request. You mentioned children were disappearing?”
“Yes, that’s correct. This village was once lively and full of children, but starting a year ago, they began to vanish one by one.”
“How often?”
“…It was quite irregular. Some disappeared after two months, while others vanished within a week.”
This village was once a peaceful, bustling place with over 200 residents, a large number for a small community.
But then, children started disappearing.
At least 20 children had been abducted so far.
As fear of losing their children grew, some residents left, leaving behind only those who had already lost their children.
That’s why the village had grown so desolate.
‘So that’s why they were so wary of outsiders.’
Even though we were wearing Arcane uniforms, their caution now made sense given the circumstances.
“We’ll stay somewhere suitable and investigate. If we have more questions, we’ll return.”
“Sure, there are plenty of empty houses anyway.”
After leaving the village chief’s house, we entered a relatively intact home and discussed what to do next.
“Rose, how did you even know about this?”
“I pestered the professor to let me take on this request. Just hearing about it was thrilling.”
She likely didn’t just pester him—more like coerced him.
‘The professors probably know something.’
Though briefly mentioned later, she wasn’t sincerely obsessed with paranormal phenomena.
Ghosts and spirits were just a hobby.
Her true objective was investigating the corrupt rats engaging in suspicious activities as a princess of the empire.
‘This must be one of the suspected areas.’
There were so many lunatics involved that pinpointing any specific group was impossible for now.
Still, her personal involvement indicated some serious dirt was at play.
“Alright, let’s regroup here in three hours. We’ll probably be hungry by then.”
Since we couldn’t resolve this with no information, we decided to search the village for suspicious traces, dividing the area into north, south, east, and west.
I took the northern section.
“Nothing, huh.”
After over an hour of searching, all I found was trash left by the departed residents.
Nothing unusual.
“I wonder if anyone else found something.”
We needed even a small clue to piece things together.
With nothing to go on, all I could do was walk aimlessly.
“Huh?”
As I was about to return after some time, an ominous aura from the village enveloped me.
“Could it be…?”
A sticky and unnatural sensation instinctively repelled me.
It was the same terrible energy I had encountered with a mutant before.
“Why is there demonic energy…?”
***
Hurrying back to the village, I found everyone already gathered at the chief’s house.
“What’s going on?”
“We don’t know. It happened so suddenly.”
“All the residents seem to be here.”
“Good, let’s focus on calming them down first.”
The residents were trembling in fear, clutching each other tightly.
“Count everyone and make sure no family members are missing,” the chief ordered, running around to check who wasn’t present.
“Please, let this pass safely…”
“It’s okay, child… Everything will be fine…”
Some knelt in prayer while others huddled in corners, hugging their children tightly.
“Chief, has this ever happened before?”
“No, this is the first time.”
Rozennia spoke with the chief while others kept watch for any approaching threats.
I was doing the same but couldn’t shake a nagging feeling.
‘It makes sense for us, as part of the academy, but what about the residents?’
Could they really sense demonic energy?
Even if they did, wouldn’t they have barricaded themselves in their homes?
Gathering at the chief’s house didn’t make sense.
‘What if something happened to them on the way here?’
Especially families with children—staying indoors would be the normal response.
‘But surely I’m not the only one thinking this way…’
Neither Ian nor Sylvia seemed suspicious of anything.
Even Rozennia, when I subtly probed her, looked at me as if I was overthinking.
“Why is that strange?”
Her gaze said it all—why would I even think that?
‘Am I being too sensitive?’
The sudden demonic energy had driven the residents to seek refuge in the chief’s house,
and nobody seemed to find this odd.
‘Maybe I’m just overcomplicating things.’
As my thoughts spiraled and my mind grew hazy—
‘What’s that?’
A small child huddled in a corner, clinging to their parents.
From that child, faint traces of demonic energy shimmered like threads.
“Oh, so that’s it.”
I realized in an instant.
It wasn’t them that was strange.
“Ha, I was this close to being screwed.”
The oddity was me.
“Found you, rat.”
The demonic energy rose like a mirage, its density dark and suffocating.
“Get rid of this crap now.”
It was no longer human.
Thwack!
A head was cleanly severed.
But there was no fountain of blood.
Of course not.
“Get rid of these damned illusions, bastard.”
This place was no longer reality.