Louis smirked as he looked at Simone standing next to him. Simone was always confident, but today she seemed strangely stiff and nervous.
'It's not that difficult.'
It was quite amusing to see her, but he also felt like he knew what she was feeling.
“That kid is a necromancer?”
“Really? She looks so young.”
“Oh, aren’t she the same age as us? She said she came for a field trip...”
“She has black hair and red eyes. I’m sure of it. She’s the hero.”
“Yes, she is the Necromancer. I saw her at the last party. I thought she was really young, but she is the same age as us.”
The work began when the bell rang to end classes at the academy.
This was because the students coming out into the hallway noticed the principal and Simone and all of them stuck their heads out of the classroom to look at her.
Simone's presence was so strong that the Crown Prince next to her seemed barely visible.
Unlike Louis, who was the Crown Prince and always got attention wherever he went, Simone rarely got any attention, and since the people she was receiving were her peers, it was only natural that she would stiffen up.
“Are you okay?”
Simone ground her teeth as Louis asked quietly.
“These are...”
"Yes?"
“I’m not a monkey...”
Louis flinched at the sudden, irritating voice and looked at Simone.
'Ah.'
It wasn't that she was frozen because she was nervous, she was just angry and stayed still.
Well, Simone isn't the type of person who would be nervous about going anywhere. Louis smiled broadly and opened his mouth to the students.
“I see they are all very interested in a tour visit.”
“...Gasp! Your Highness the Crown Prince!”
Only when someone shouted did the students notice Louis' presence and quickly straighten their postures.
“I greet you, Your Highness!”
“Your Highness, it is a pleasure to meet you!”
“Haha, it’s nice to meet you all. I feel very secure seeing those who will lead the empire with me. Everyone, don’t worry, and rest well.”
“Thank you, Your Highness!”
“Ha, but Your Highness, how can we be at ease...”
Louis smiled brightly, his face looking more friendly than the sun.
“Please make yourself at home. We are just here to take a tour.”
“You too, Your Highness?”
“The rumors are true after all...”
“Yes, as the Crown Prince, I think I should take a look at the students of this academy at least once.”
Louis' words had many meanings.
This statement was no different from saying that even after the change of imperial power, students from the Precia Academy would still be promoted and supported.
"Your Highness!"
Simone couldn't help but laugh out loud as she watched the students shouting for Louis, seemingly overcome with emotion.
So many people are falling for those words that sound like a blue mountain stream.
What would he do if he lived in Korea?
Louis winked at every student present as if he was trying to seduce them, then spoke to one of the students who had been whispering earlier.
“Oh, and don’t get me wrong. That rumor isn’t true.”
"Ah..."
The student who heard Louis' words blushed bright red and nodded awkwardly.
"Sorry."
The rumor refers to the scandal surrounding the relationship between Louis and Simone that spread after Simone's existence was revealed to the world.
The fact that the Imperial Family is particularly protective of Simone, the fact that the Illeston Grand Duke Family, who were protecting Simone, suddenly became the Emperor's confidant, and the fact that Louis continued to meet with Simone from time to time despite being busy, etc.
With the two most notable people in the empire currently acting in this way, it was only natural that such rumors would circulate among the nobles who liked to make a fuss about the issue.
“We’re just friends who have been through a lot and developed a friendship. Right? Simone. Haha.”
"...Yes."
Wow, what's with that tone. Man, he really sounds like a Crown Prince. It's annoying.
In the original, when Abel and his party first saw Louis as the Crown Prince, they were shocked, and she thought she knew why.
Louis, who had read Simone's expression, still smiled brightly and politely greeted the students before walking away.
“Then, if we get a chance later, I’ll talk to you guys a little more. Director, let’s go.”
“Yes, this way.”
The two followed the director, receiving interested looks from the students.
There was nothing special about the academy's main building, except that there was a faint energy in the air.
In fact, she thought that this kind of atmosphere might be present even in an ordinary school in Korea.
Because every school has at least one weird ghost story.
But Simone did not let her guard down.
It doesn't look that dangerous, but Jace's amulet has rotted away, and more than anything, this place keeps claiming victims.
'Never let your guard down.'
The two people who were looking around the school without any particular results sensed something strange when they started looking around the dormitory located in the annex building.
“Ugh!”
Simone turned her head at the painful voice. Louis was holding his chest and frowning.
“Why are you like that?”
“Suddenly it feels hot...”
There was a momentary burning pain in his chest.
Louis looked down at his clothes, reached into his pockets, and took out whatever he could find.
“This is...”
"Amulet?"
It was a charred amulet. Simone looked around with her eyes wide open.
The amulet burned as soon as he entered the dormitory.
What that meant was that there was something in this dormitory that was driving the students to their deaths.
“What’s wrong? Is there something wrong?”
Sennus asked the two people who had suddenly stopped without knowing what was going on.
Simone nodded and pointed to the back where the dorm entrance was.
“I think it would be best for the director to leave the building.”
“Yes? But...”
"It's okay."
Louis, who had stepped aside with a smile, politely extended his hand toward the road leading outside.
“I know you might be worried about outsiders checking out your dorm, but I think it’s safer for us to move around on our own. Do you understand?”
The tone was soft, yet very firm.
"...Your Highness."
Sennus looked at the dormitory quietly. It was just the same scenery as usual, and he felt nothing.
But does this necromancer sense something here? Something so dangerous that she would even send him out?
'Then even more so.'
“I’m sorry, Your Highness and Lady Simone. The rules do not allow outsiders to engage in individual activities, even if it is the royal order.”
Louis' expression hardened slightly.
“I understand that you are worried about the students, but...”
“Do whatever you want.”
At the frosty, cold voice, Louis and Sennus' gaze turned to Simone.
Simone looked at Sennus with a cold face that was completely different from before and said.
“Do you know what the scariest thing about ghosts is?”
“What’s scary?”
A grotesque appearance? Aggressiveness? Being in a realm beyond the reach of ordinary humans? No, that's nothing.
The scariest thing is.
“The point is that there is no mercy or consideration for the living.”
"....”
They are like psychopathic serial killers who attack for no reason and who are not affected by appeals. As a normal person, there is no way to escape from them.
“Especially in the case of spirit-attacking ghosts like this, by the time you notice them, you’ve already been hit. I’ve been hit several times myself. I’ve experienced being killed countless times in my dreams and having my internal organs ripped out. I’ve spent a whole day chasing and being chased by ghosts in a space where I don’t know when I’ll be able to escape.”
The ghosts in the Academy are dangerous beings that even Simone, a necromancer, has a hard time dealing with.
If Sennus still wants to follow after hearing this, she won't necessarily stop him. Simone has no obligation to protect Sennus, and it's hard to break someone's stubbornness once they've made up their mind.
Sennus, who had pretended to back down at Simone's words, soon shook his head and walked away.
“I, as the principal, must personally see what is threatening the students. Let’s go. I will introduce you to a student who is having a dream.”
It was a choice he would never have made if this place wasn't Prescia.
However, the reason why he decided to follow them despite his fear was because he was more afraid of the stigma of having witnessed the deaths of his students than the existence of ghosts that he had not yet experienced.
At his words, Simone nodded without saying anything and continued walking.
"Ha..."
Louis sighed deeply as if he had a headache, watching their appearance.
Is that okay? I hope the ghost doesn't move at an inopportune time.
At that moment.
Thud! Taang! Taak! Boom!
A loud noise was heard from the stairs of the dormitory, and someone fell down.
“Oh, are you okay? Oh my God, what is going on!”
It was a student in pajamas. Sennus approached him in surprise. Then the student jumped up in fright and got away from Sennus.
“Hey, get out of here!!! Don’t come near me!!!! Hey, hey! You devil bastard!!!!”
"...What?"
Sennus stared blankly at the student with a bewildered expression. Simone and Louis were the same.
But the student looked around the hallway with a pale face, wondering what was so distressing him, and then he began to weep profusely and bang his head on the floor.
“Ugh! Aaaah!!!!! Wake!!!!! Wake!!!!!”
“Why, why are you like this! Hey, you have to stop! Student! Why are you doing that!”
He hit his head so hard that the floor began to turn bloody.
“Director, please step aside. I will knock him out first.”
Louis quickly cut the student's neck and knocked him unconscious.
It happened in an instant. All three of them looked at the fallen student, speechless.
After a while, Simone pointed to the student.
“Director, is this student that student?”
“...Yes? Oh, yes. That’s right.”
Sennus said with a deflated face.
“That’s the kid you were dreaming about recently.”
As he said that, Sennus soon remembered something and became serious.
“According to rumors from students, they started running around the hallways like this and then jumped off the roof less than a week later.”
“I have to ask this student a few questions after he wakes up. He seems to need treatment. Where is the infirmary?”
“I will guide you.”
As Sennus tried to wake up the student, Louis lifted him up and put his arm around his shoulders.
“Let’s go.”
Sennus and Louis left the dorm first, and Simone followed them, but suddenly stopped and looked around the dorm again.
The interior of the dormitory, seen from a distance, seemed darker than when she first saw it.
***
The room was dark because all the windows that allowed sunlight to enter were covered with curtains.
The only light that could be called a light was a single candle placed in the center of the circle.
The children, who looked young, held each other's hands and mumbled.
“I pray to the believers of eternal sleep. Bring peace to our unconsciousness. Let us achieve all that we wish to achieve in eternal sleep.”
A lit candle, a red pattern drawn underneath it, and five or six students surrounding it.
One of the female students who had been holding hands with them and reciting the spell slowly opened her eyes.
Then, she quietly watched her classmates reciting the spell with their eyes closed, then raised the corners of her lips and quietly smiled.
It was an obvious mockery.
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