“Which house is Dennis’s?”
“Over there, that one... Huh? Look over there!”
“...?”
“That kid is Dennis!”
“What?”
“Dennis!”
Right at the far end of the street on the opposite side, a boy was walking toward them. Rania waved both hands wildly at the fairly tall boy, delighted.
“...”
But Camilla couldn’t bring herself to be happy.
...Fuck.
On the contrary, she kept spewing curses in her head.
[H-how...?]
The water ghost Beth, who had been giddy since yesterday at the thought that she would finally get to see her son, also gaped blankly.
“Rania?”
The boy’s face lit up with joy as he ran toward where they stood. Camilla wanted, from the bottom of her heart, to be happy too that they had found the child.
And what the hell is that?
If only it weren’t for the ghost stuck to the boy’s side.
[De... Dennis.]
And if only Beth weren’t calling out her son’s name over and over to that ghost.
[Why is Dennis...?]
The ghost stuck to the boy’s side was a little boy who looked about five years old.
Beth kept calling out her son’s name to that child-ghost, not to the living, moving boy.
I’m gonna lose my mind.
What made it worse was that the child-ghost didn’t seem to have any mind of his own, either. No matter how Beth called his name or ran up to him and shouted, he didn’t react.
Just like that woman.
Camilla’s gaze shifted to Rania before she knew it. She could see a woman-ghost that looked exactly like her, also with no mind of her own.
You expect me to believe this is a coincidence?
A mindless ghost that looked exactly like the body it was attached to?
“Ha....”
Camilla let out a brief, incredulous laugh as her eyes cooled.
This was absolutely not something she could write off as coincidence.
“Dennis is the one you were looking for, right, Camilla?”
“...Yeah. Looks that way.”
She smiled. More beautifully and brightly than ever.
“That’s great! Dennis, let’s go in and talk first.”
“Okay.”
“Camilla, let’s go inside.”
She watched Rania and Dennis walk ahead in silence for a moment, then slowly followed after them.
First, she needed to figure out exactly what those things were.
[Dennis, baby....]
Even after they went inside the house, the water ghost Beth kept calling the child’s name pitifully.
But the child-ghost still didn’t show any reaction at all. He just stared fixedly at the boy who claimed to be Dennis.
“Camilla, how did you find out about Dennis?”
“I’m pretty sure this is the first time we’ve met....”
The boy came out of the kitchen with drinks and tilted his head over and over.
“Right. This is the first time.”
“Then why were you looking for me?”
“It’s not me. It’s your mother who’s looking for you.”
“...Excuse me?”
“I mean your birth mother—the one who left you at the orphanage.”
The boy’s eyes flew wide, and Rania’s mouth fell open as well.
“W-what are you...!”
“She’s already dea—!”
Rania clamped her mouth shut, flustered by the words that had slipped out before she realized it.
Well, well.
So you already know?
That Beth—his mother—was dead?
“She begged me earnestly. Asked me to please find her child.”
“You really met Dennis’s mom?”
“Yeah.”
“How...?”
“Otherwise, how would I know Dennis, someone I’ve never seen before in my life? I know because I was told.”
“That...!”
Rania almost shouted that it was impossible, then bit down hard on her lip. Her head was in chaos; she had no idea what was going on.
“Where is she now?”
After a long silence, she finally picked the safest question.
“Dennis’s mother?”
“Yes.”
Right next to you, Camilla almost said—but instead, she just smiled sweetly.
“Anyway, you really are Dennis, right?”
“Ah... yes.”
The boy, just as flustered as Rania, hurriedly nodded.
Camilla did not take her eyes off his face, as if she refused to miss even the slightest flicker of expression. As if he found that stare burdensome, the boy quietly turned his head away.
“...Hm?”
A moment later, Camilla’s expression twisted slightly.
What is this?
Her stomach lurched and her head started to swim. She had noticed her head hurting a bit since she stepped into the house.
“Ugh...!”
Her vision blurred.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
She hadn’t taken even a single sip of the drink the boy had brought, suspicious of everything in this situation.
Then why—?
“Camilla, what’s wrong?”
Rania spoke up in a worried voice.
“Are you okay?”
But despite her tone, the corners of her mouth were slowly curling upward.
Damn it....
That was the last thing Camilla saw before her consciousness slipped away.
****
“Is that woman really dead?”
“I told you she is.”
“Then what? Are you saying that thing is lying?”
“That’s...”
“She said the woman asked her to find Dennis. There’s no way anyone but us would know about that! What if she’s actually alive?”
“We confirmed the body in the water with our own eyes. You know we never bring in a kid if we think they’re going to cause trouble later. By the time we tried to find her to take care of her, she was already dead!”
“That’s what makes this weird. Who the hell did she meet, then?”
Through the haze of her fading consciousness, familiar voices drifted in. It was Rania and the boy they had just met, talking.
“Shit....”
Her head felt like it was going to split open; a curse slipped out on its own. She could feel both of their gazes swing toward her at once, as if they’d heard her.
“You’re awake?”
Rania spoke to her calmly in her usual tone, as if nothing had happened.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Camilla let out a short sigh. The feel of her body tied to a chair was intensely annoying.
What was this, some cliché plot out of a ’90s gangster movie?
“Did you light sleeping incense or something.”
“As expected, you catch on quickly.”
Watching Rania clap her hands over and over in admiration, Camilla sighed again. The price of letting her guard down for a moment had turned out to be steeper than she’d thought.
Maybe she should have brought other people along.
No.
If she had, they never would have shown their true colors like this.
“We were originally planning to take care of you cleanly, you know.”
“‘Take care of me’?”
So they had meant to kill her.
“Wow. That’s harsh. I thought I treated you pretty well, all things considered.”
“You did treat me well.”
“Then why?”
“You’re too much in the way. Killing you is the cleanest option.”
She spoke like she was stating something obvious, with not a shred of guilt about the idea of killing someone.
“I was going to kill you because you were getting in the way of me sliding into the ducal house.”
She smiled brightly as she stepped closer.
“But the plan changed.”
“Changed?”
“Because I heard some amazing news not too long ago—that you’re the owner of Ghost Trading House, Camilla.”
Rania’s face bloomed with its usual dazzling smile.
“Instead of killing you right away, it was decided it would be more useful to keep you around and use you for a long time.”
“I’m not that easy a mark.”
“You’ll end up that way whether you want to or not.”
Rania chuckled, as if she found this all terribly amusing.
“So....”
Camilla met Rania’s eyes steadily.
“Why did you kill the real Rania?”
“...What?”
“And why did you kill Dennis? Do you have to kill someone to steal their body?”
The faces of the two, who had managed to keep smiling even after showing their true colors, hardened fast.
“You do know you’re a terrible actor, right?”
All she’d done was poke at them a little, but the way they reacted so clearly made her feel embarrassed.
Clicking her tongue at their obvious discomposure, Camilla wondered if her ridiculous guess had actually been right.
“I kept wondering.”
What exactly was the ghost that looked just like Rania.
“But now I know.”
It had been taken from her. Her body.
“You stole it from them.”
It didn’t feel like they’d killed them, exactly... more like possession.
“What are you talking about?”
“Then why aren’t you taking my body right away? Wouldn’t it be simplest to just claim it, too? Ah... you don’t know how to take over my body, do you?”
“Shut up! Stop spouting nonsense!”
“Or maybe the firm order from above hasn’t come down yet?”
“H-how...!”
How did she know? She’d just said it herself.
“Just now, you said it—that they ‘decided’ it would be more useful to keep me alive.”
Instead of killing you right away, it was decided it would be more useful to keep you around and use you for a long time.
She’d said it was decided, not I decided....
“Doesn’t that mean there’s someone giving you orders?”
Watching Rania’s face grow paler and paler, Camilla clicked her tongue again. See? She really was terrible at controlling her expression.
“Ha.”
Rania let out a long sigh.
“You’re right. About everything you said, Camilla.”
Her complexion smoothed out again, as if she had nothing left to hide.
“But from the start, we never planned on taking your body.”
“Why not?”
Weren’t they saying they wanted to use her? Then taking her body would be the easiest way, just like they had with Rania and Dennis.
Seeing Camilla’s puzzlement, Rania’s tone turned almost regretful.
“Because you have the Guardian’s blessing.”
“What?”
The Guardian’s blessing? On me? More than that, what did that have to do with taking over a body?
“So we’re going to use a different method.”
Ssshhhck.
“...!”
A dagger appeared in Rania’s hand. The keen-edged blade shot toward Camilla in an instant.
Hey! I thought you weren’t killing me!
“Don’t worry. I told you, I’m not going to kill you. There’s still a lot you need to hear.”
The dagger inched closer and sliced ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) straight across Camilla’s palm.
“Urgh!”
Rania smiled and pulled something out from her sleeve—a small vial filled with a liquid as clear as water.
“Want to see something fun?”
Rania caught the trickling blood in the little vial.
Then something strange happened. The transparent liquid inside turned green.
Rania lifted the vial toward her lips.
“What are you...!”
Camilla never finished shouting What the hell are you doing?
Because as Rania put the liquid in her mouth, her appearance began to change.
In place of her silver hair, pink-blond hair settled down. The blue of her eyes shifted to a red glow.
Her slightly round face sharpened into finer lines.
“How do I look?”
Even her voice.
Rania was no longer standing in front of her.
The only one there now was someone who looked exactly like Camilla herself.
