Free Web Novel“That one?”
[Yes...]
The academy’s middle division building.
There was someone standing outside the window of Class 2-C’s hallway, peeking in with only her head visible.
It was Camilla.
“Hm.”
He looks exactly like the model-student type.
As Camilla studied the classroom, she glanced to the side.
There stood a girl who looked about ten years old.
To be more precise, a girl’s ghost.
She still seems terrified.
She was dead, and yet she was still afraid of the living.
The girl seemed so frightened of even looking inside the classroom that she could barely lift her eyes.
Camilla had met the ghost girl not long ago when she went to the guard to register new goods she planned to sell.
A ghost child clutching desperately at the hem of a man who was pleading with a guard.
[Please help us. Please... help my father. Please tell him where I am.]
Damn it, I really can’t mind my own business.
She should never have made eye contact with the girl then.
But faced with those tear-filled eyes, she had caved again.
So Camilla had no choice but to walk over to the man who appeared to be the girl’s father.
And then...
We found the child’s body in the nearby mountain.
She had gotten the information from the girl and, pretending to read the father’s fortune, told him where the body was.
And the child they found there—
Rotten...
Cut apart.
Not whole.
Fucking lunatic.
If he was going to kill her, he could have at least done it cleanly.
Camilla, who had gone along to search for the body, had found herself cursing nonstop for the first time in a long while out of genuine fury.
Seeing the rotting, mutilated corpse did not horrify or disgust her.
Ghosts had tried to torment her since childhood by showing her all kinds of gruesome sights.
By now, scenes like that rarely stirred much of anything in her.
What I felt was pity.
Looking at the body tossed aside like garbage, with not even the smallest shred of respect for the dead, she felt anger and sorrow all over again.
And she could not easily tear her eyes away from the girl’s father, who held his daughter’s body in his arms, smoothing her clothes, unable even to cry properly.
What happened after that was obvious, wasn’t it?
She had to catch the one who had done this to the girl.
Fortunately, the dead child knew exactly who the culprit was.
And so, following the girl, Camilla had ended up here, in the academy’s middle division building.
Watching the child lead her here, Camilla let out a long sigh.
“Is this academy cursed or what?”
Why are there so many murderers here?
Another professor, maybe?
Thinking of Professor Jaybi, who had committed serial murders before, Camilla had assumed this killer must also be one of the middle-division professors.
Since it was the middle division, no one else immediately came to mind.
But then...
“...It’s really him?”
Nod.
“...Wow.”
Staring at the person the girl pointed out, Camilla could only let out a hollow laugh for quite a while.
Because the one the girl was pointing at was another child.
Yes, a child.
To Camilla’s eyes, he looked like nothing but a child.
Was he thirteen?
Even if she tried to be generous, he looked barely into his early teens.
Camilla’s gaze cooled instantly as she looked at the boy joking around brightly with his friends, smiling like the sun was out for him alone.
That little bastard did that to her?
The state of the body came back to her vividly.
He had not simply killed her.
He had left her in that horrific condition.
And the one responsible was that young?
Did that make any sense?
“Hah.”
What a rotten world.
Camilla shook her head over and over as she examined the boy more closely.
Wow... the lunatic’s smiling.
The sight of that child smiling so innocently made it even more absurd.
Right.
The real crazies always look normal on the outside.
After standing pressed against the window for a long while, watching the boy identified as the killer, Camilla let out another long sigh.
What was she supposed to do with that little bastard?
“...”
Camilla turned to the ghost child.
“What do you want me to do to him?”
[What?]
“How should I deal with him?”
If everything you said is true, then he really is exactly what he looks like—a complete madman.
“Should I make him even crazier and have him locked in an asylum?”
[Y-You mean... what?]
“Or maybe I should beat him half to death first, then drag him into court and make sure he pays properly.”
Prison might be better than an asylum.
“I’ll do it however you want.”
[I...]
The girl, Rana, turned her eyes carefully toward the classroom.
Even now, just seeing him made her body tremble on its own.
The memory of that day came back too clearly.
Would you help me for a second? I have too many things to move. As you can see, I hurt my leg.
Someone had spoken to her on the way home.
And it was a familiar face.
An older boy from the middle division.
He was smart, always wore a kind smile, and was so popular that even the elementary-division kids liked him.
She had found no reason to refuse someone like that.
Besides, her father had always told her to help people who were hurt.
So Rana had followed him to a house somewhere, and then—
Shiver.
“Rana?”
Seeing the child suddenly shaking in fresh terror, Camilla took her and left the spot at once.
Maybe it had been a mistake to keep victim and perpetrator in the same place for too long.
Camilla took the girl to the quiet lakeside she often used, far from other people.
Only then did the child’s face ease a little.
[...I’d like that.]
After a long while, the girl finally spoke.
Her eyes were faintly red, and the words came wrapped in a tremble.
[I want him to hurt... as much as I did.]
The girl stopped short the moment the words left her mouth.
Was it really all right to say something so cruel—to wish pain on someone else?
Her father had always told her that if she used kind words and beautiful words, good things would gather around her.
[And... I want him to never be able to do something bad again.]
She did not want anyone else to suffer and grieve the way she had.
The way her father had.
“That’s all?”
[What?]
The child lifted her head carefully and saw Camilla frowning hard.
“I asked if hurting him is all you want.”
[Well...]
“At the very least, I ought to cut his XX clean off, or break his XXX and smash his X so hard that it finally feels—”
[H-Hey.]
Camilla, who had been speaking without restraint, had to stop. ƒreewebɳovel.com
Xeno had appeared at some point and was now covering Rana’s ears with both hands.
Well, fair enough.
Dead or not, there were still things you should not say in front of a child.
“So what you mean is, you want that bastard to suffer a hundred times more than the pain you went through.”
[A hundred times?]
That was not what she had said...
“Don’t worry, don’t worry. I’m an expert at this kind of thing.”
Camilla grinned as she patted the bewildered child on the shoulder.
“A hundred times? Why stop there? A thousand, ten thousand. I’ll make sure he can never show his face in public again. Black-hearted little creeps like that care a lot about their social image.”
Burning with determination, Camilla strode off.
[Um...]
I don’t want that much... I just want him to never do something bad again...
[Leave it. She’s already beyond stopping.]
Xeno shook their head at the sight of Camilla and followed after her.
The girl trailed along too, wearing an awkward little smile.
Thud.
Meanwhile, someone appeared quietly in the space Camilla had just left.
“...What has she gotten herself involved in now?”
It was Arsian.
He had been resting in a tree as usual, and after spotting Camilla, he had meant to go to her.
But then Camilla started talking to someone, and when he realized it was a dead soul, he stayed still and watched them in silence for a while.
“Tch.”
Some bastard had gotten on her nerves again.
Clicking his tongue lightly, Arsian turned and slowly left as well.
*****
“Brother.”
“What.”
Ravi did not spare Camilla so much as a glance, completely absorbed in pouring mana into a mana stone.
“Hypothetically.”
“Mm.”
Camilla coming to his quarters and rambling about nonsense before leaving was such a normal occurrence that there was not a trace of sincerity in his reply.
“What do you think would happen if I got mixed up in another murder case?”
Bang!
“...Fuck...”
Ravi covered his face with both hands and muttered a curse.
His concentration had slipped for just an instant, and the mana stone had shattered.
“Haa.”
...Farewell, the product of my last three days.
It had been exactly three days since he started making this mana stone.
