Even if their abilities were outstanding, that was a story of when they were alive.
As beings /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ who were now drifting through the world in a state of spirit, they had every reason to be wary of Havel.
To the dead, there was no one more frightening or more to be avoided than someone like that.
Zeno aside, I don’t like the idea of Derrin and Ferrol being dragged off.
Camilla, who had just entertained a thought that would have made Zeno rampage about how unfair it was if he’d heard it, looked at Havel with a newly appraising gaze.
“Let’s hear it first.”
“......!”
He still had no grasp at all of how the situation had turned, but at Camilla’s words Havel’s expression brightened for the first time.
****
“Mmm... ngh...”
Pat, pat.
A careful hand was soothing the back of a child who was whimpering in her sleep.
But it wasn’t an ordinary person’s hand. It was a thick hand wrapped in cloth—the hand of a doll.
Srrrk.
After patting the blanket and tucking it up as well, the figure that hopped lightly down from the bed was a light brown teddy bear.
[.......]
Moving about the room with practiced motions, the teddy bear checked on five small children sleeping soundly in their own beds.
It pulled the blanket back up over a child who had kicked it off; for a child whose hair had fallen in a messy curtain over the face, it smoothed the hair to one side.
It set a pillow that was about to slip off back where it belonged and stacked the books scattered on the floor into neat piles.
After one last check to make sure the children were sleeping well, the teddy bear jumped deftly, opened the closed door, and stepped outside.
With small, quick steps, the teddy bear headed straight for another room. Then it repeated the same actions.
It went child by child, checking meticulously—seeing if anything hurt, if anything was uncomfortable—taking its time.
After a while, when the outside of the window turned a deep blue and it was nearly time for dawn, the teddy bear hurried its little feet.
Click! Srrrk.
Climbing back onto the bed it had first jumped down from, the teddy bear slipped snugly into the arms of the child sleeping with soft breaths.
“Mmm...”
Pat, pat.
[.......]
After soothing the last whimpering child, the teddy bear soon went completely still, as if nothing had happened.
****
“That’s the director?”
“Yes.”
At Havel’s words, Camilla recalled a child she had seen at the orphanage that afternoon.
A child who had come toddling along at a DADADADA! with a rather large teddy bear hugged in her arms.
The child had nearly tripped when her feet tangled, but she quickly regained her balance and then ran on as if nothing had happened.
At the time, Camilla had seen it clearly—the teddy bear steadying the child’s center of gravity so she wouldn’t fall.
At first she had been unsure, but the moment she saw that, she was certain—there was something inside that teddy bear.
“And that was the orphanage director?”
Two months ago, the director who ran the orphanage had breathed her last.
At sixty-five, she ended her life, and in her place, her own son was currently running the orphanage.
“So what’s the problem?”
“She refuses to leave.”
“And that’s... what?”
It wasn’t as if such ghosts were rare. Ghosts who couldn’t move on because they were attached to the world were nothing special.
“She has been designated to become a deity.”
“A deity?”
“She is slated to become a guardian who watches over children.”
“Humans can become deities?”
“It’s not common, but among those who have accumulated much virtue, there are occasionally people appointed as lower deities,” Dorman slipped in to resolve Camilla’s doubt.
“And?”
“If someone who should become a deity keeps clinging to this world and refuses to let go, the appointment may be canceled.”
“Then just take her.”
Why had the ghosts around her suddenly fled as if running for their lives? Because they didn’t want to run into that thing called Havel—they were scared and ran.
If you got on the wrong side of those who manage souls, you could be taken away regardless of your own will.
“We cannot forcibly handle someone designated to be a deity as we please.”
Havel let out a long, exasperated sigh.
“I went several times to persuade her, but she wouldn’t listen.”
She said she wanted to stay by the children’s side.
“So what do you want me to do about it.”
“I want you to persuade her in my stead.”
“Me? Why? How?”
Camilla clicked her tongue softly, as if the whole thing were vexing.
“If we’re talking ‘no acquaintance,’ I’m even worse. You keep going and persuade her. If I pop up out of nowhere, you think that’ll work?”
“I’d like to, but the place where she resides is the problem.”
“Where she resides?”
Camilla couldn’t immediately make sense of Havel’s words.
“What about the orphanage?”
How was that a problem?
“Unlike adults, if children are continually exposed to a being like me, they experience various harmful effects.”
Like Camilla, a child’s spiritual sight could suddenly open and they could start seeing the dead; or their spirit could be impacted and their body grow weak.
For a reaper—the being closest to death—to frequently come into contact with children was by no means a good thing.
“The teddy bear she’s inhabiting is always in the children’s arms. It’s not a situation where I can keep going to meet her.”
That was why he had come to ask Camilla for help.
She was not a reaper, yet she could see and converse with the dead.
“Do we really have to?”
After a brief hesitation, she tilted her head.
“What do you mean?”
“She said she doesn’t want to.”
Isn’t the person’s own will the most important?
“She says she doesn’t want to become a deity, doesn’t want to leave, and just wants to be by the children like she is now—so what reason is there to drag her off?”
“She will be extinguished.”
“...What?”
“If one designated to become a deity refuses the office to the end, it’s extinction. They have to do that to appoint the next deity.”
...As expected, those higher-ups are trash.
“They arbitrarily bestow an office, and then if someone refuses it, they extinguish them?”
“That’s not it...”
“I really don’t like this.”
At the sight of Camilla’s face turning murderous in an instant, Havel flinched and edged back.
His eyes kept darting to her foot, perhaps wondering if she’d pick up the shoe again.
“O-of course, if she comes with me, even if she refuses the office, it won’t go as far as extinction. There are various options available there.”
Havel hurried to add.
“But if she keeps staying in the present world while refusing the office, in the end it’s extinction.”
“Either way, you’re saying she has to go with you.”
“That’s right.”
Camilla clicked her tongue softly. The feeling of being saddled with another bothersome task had her letting out sigh after sigh.
****
“Waaah!”
She spent money.
“Those clothes look really high-class.”
She spent quite a lot.
“Aren’t these toys from Shymon Workshop? You know, that super famous workshop!”
...She spent a ridiculous amount. Damn it.
“Thank you so much, Lady Camilla!”
With a carriage full of clothes and toys, Camilla returned alone to the orphanage.
Seeing people treat her with the utmost hospitality in proportion to the amount of material goods, Camilla put on the brightest smile she could manage.
Since she’d spent the money anyway, she might as well collect a good image.
“May I play with the children for a bit?”
“Of course!”
“The children have been talking about you a lot already.”
“Thank you so much for thinking of us like this.”
Having received the enthusiastic permission of the staff, Camilla looked over the children cheering as they swarmed around the gifts.
There you are.
And she found the child she wanted—or rather, the doll.
A little girl still hugging the teddy bear tight, her eyes sparkling as she looked over the new toys.
“What’s your name?”
Camilla sidled up to the child and spoke.
“Oh!”
The child, who looked about six, first opened her eyes wide and then quickly bloomed into a bright smile.
“It’s the witch lady!”
“...Call me Camilla.”
“Okay!”
It seemed the acting she had shown last time had left a particular impression; the child recognized her at once.
“The doll is cute.”
“It’s Vito.”
“Vito? Is that the teddy bear’s name?”
“Yes!”
“It’s just that it’s so cute—could I take a quick look at that doll?”
“No.”
“......”
The child who had been smiling nonstop changed her expression in an instant and hid the doll behind her back.
At the utterly immediate reaction, Camilla was a little taken aback.
“You don’t lend friends.”
...Clever, huh?
“I want to become friends with Vito too.”
“Hmm...”
“Meanwhile, how about you make a new friend?”
Camilla picked up a ball-jointed doll the child had been eyeing for a while. The girl’s face brightened again.
“Okay! If I make a new friend, Vito will like it too.”
“That’s right.”
Camilla placed the ball-jointed doll in the child’s hand as the girl handed over the teddy bear.
“......”
And then she saw it.
As if it didn’t want to be separated from the child, the teddy bear’s arm subtly wrapped around the child’s arm, holding on.
“Dear Teddy who lost to the ball-jointed doll, please come quietly with me.”
[.......]
Camilla whispered as she eased the doll out of the child’s grasp.
For a moment it seemed like the doll’s body trembled—but she ignored it and headed straight outside.
A trick of the eye? Or so what.
“Come out.”
Only after she’d gone to a spot far from the main building and confirmed no one was around did Camilla set the doll down on the ground.
As expected, the teddy bear didn’t collapse limply; it planted itself like a person, keeping its balance and standing firm.
[.......]
“Keeping silent won’t solve anything.”
Looking at the teddy bear still pressing its mouth shut as if to say, I am a doll, Camilla let out a short sigh inside.
“They said it’s not good for the children if a reaper keeps coming and going...”
[.......]
“Should I just call the reaper again?”
Srrrk.
Only then did the one inside the teddy bear reveal herself.
[Haa......]
An elderly woman, hair neatly combed back and her attire tidy, let out a long sigh.
Her eyes were kind, and she had hardly any wrinkles—a truly lovely person.
