NOVPUB"But how can you do that with such a weak body? No, Melody, I’ll handle this on my own..."
"No, no! I’m fine. I won’t overdo it."
I hurriedly reassured him. It was true that my body was weak, but if I took the medicine, I’d be alright.
Raven shook his head firmly.
"This curse transfers to other people. You could get hurt if you're not careful. I don’t want that to happen. So, I’ll take care of it."
At those words, my heart sank. I tightly grabbed his hand, afraid that he might run away from me again.
"Raven, that’s not important to me. You have no idea what I’ve been through just to get to this point, trying to save you."
The reason I’m alive right now is because of Raven.
Raven didn’t say anything after hearing that. His eyes were bloodshot with emotion.
His lips trembled. Raven tried to turn his head away to swallow his tears, but after a while, in a voice that had finally calmed down, he spoke.
"I promise. I won’t push myself."
"Okay. I promise."
I linked my pinky with his.
We finished our conversation and headed to the student council room.
Today was the day to check on the ghost story incidents before the school festival, which would begin next week.
I was sort of a "preview" member of the Ghost Story Investigation Club, and Raven was a member of the student council, so both of us were perfectly suited to help with the investigation.
As soon as we arrived at the student council room, someone greeted me.
"Melody Hastings? You’re that crazy sister, huh?"
The one who spoke was a third-year student with pink hair. It was our first time meeting, but somehow, he spoke to me in a friendly way.
Looking at his name tag, it said Henry Cader.
I thought his name was familiar... Wasn’t he Noah’s roommate?
At Henry's remark, Raven found an empty seat and bristled.
"Who’s calling me crazy?"
"Oh, I’m your senior. What, you wanna ask?"
Henry chuckled and made a playful fuss.
Raven, seemingly familiar with him, shook his head as though he didn’t want to argue.
I waved my hand at Erica, who was sitting in the seat.
"By the way, why is the disciplinary committee involved in student council activities? I’m genuinely curious. Has the game of tag between the Hastings siblings ended?"
Henry added one more line. Raven, with an awkward face, nodded.
Noah, standing at the lectern, spoke with a neutral expression.
"Melody Hastings will be helpful in investigating the ghost story incidents. As you know, with the festival starting soon, we’re short-handed."
"President, weren’t we investigating ghost stories because of the weird posts on the student board?"
A senior, who looked to be in his fourth year, disagreed with Noah’s statement.
He narrowed his eyes as he looked at me.
"I thought the purpose of the Ghost Story Investigation Club was to prove that ghost stories are fake, but what are we doing bringing a student who sees ghosts?"
"Senior, have you finished speaking? Why are you being so rude, saying that to someone’s face?"
Erica scrunched up her face and glared at the senior.
Eastern, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, also warned him.
"Senior, be careful with your words. Hastings-senpai really does see ghosts."
Honestly, I didn’t mind. Whatever that senior said about me.
But the ghosts wandering around the student council room didn’t seem to care for that senior's words.
"There are no ghosts in this world. Ah, of course, I don’t have anything against Hastings. I just don’t believe in ghosts."
At times like this, it would’ve been better for him to stay quiet, but the senior kept complaining, muttering about it.
His name tag said Liam Taylor Lutzbitch. With a middle name like that, he must have been of noble descent.
I quietly watched the ghosts behind Liam senior’s back.
The ghosts, looking as though they were debating whether or not to overturn his desk, glanced at me briefly, like they were waiting for a command.
"There are ghosts. One’s right next to you, senior."
"What?!"
Liam senior jerked back in shock and turned to look beside him. I could see the ghosts getting excited and bouncing around as they heard him talk.
"It seems like they’re mad because you said there are no ghosts. They’re about to flip your desk."
And perhaps thinking that was the cue, one of the ghosts flipped Liam’s desk.
Crash!
"Ahhhhh!"
Liam senior fell to the floor, his face as pale as a sheet. But he wasn’t the only one who was shocked.
The student council members, including Raven, all stared at me in surprise.
"Melody, what was that?"
"Are you a magician?"
Erica and Henry asked me.
I was hearing the same question I had heard from Leonard and Dante earlier. It seemed like no one had any prejudices against magicians.
"Of course not. My friendly ghosts helped me."
"Senior, you have friendly ghosts? Wow, you’re really sociable."
Eastern, the shaman, asked in surprise, clearly having no prejudice against it.
As I thought that, I turned to Noah.
"Shall we continue?"
But he couldn’t continue the discussion.
Knock knock.
Someone had arrived at the student council room.
"I’m looking for Hastings. I was told she’s here. It’s Rachel, can I come in?"
A female teacher, Rachel Oldie Birken, second-year S class teacher, had arrived.
I looked back at Noah. He nodded.
"Come in."
With my response, she hesitantly entered the room.
"Hello, teacher."
"Are you Melody Hastings?"
"Yes, what brings you here?"
Rachel looked around uncomfortably at the students. I realized she wanted to talk to me alone.
"I’ll step outside and talk with the teacher for a moment."
After asking the student council members for their understanding, I went outside with Rachel.
She had a deathly pale face.
"Do you need to talk to me about something?"
Then, she quietly took my hand. Her hand was trembling sharply.
"H-Hastings, can you help me?"
Rachel Oldie Birken’s strange experiences had started the night of the F class courage test.
That night, she had been tormented by ghost girls in the bathroom, asking for the location of Johannes Castle, and fainted immediately.
When she opened her eyes, it was morning, but she was still lying in the bathroom.
"Ah! What the—Rachel-sensei? What are you doing here?"
When Rachel ran ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) into a student who had arrived early, she was embarrassed and hurriedly left the bathroom.
But that was when the problem began.
After her third class, Rachel went to the bathroom during break and felt something strange.
The second-floor girls' bathroom in the main building was the most frequented by students.
It should have been crowded with students because of the break, but the bathroom was empty.
She could only see dust floating in the sunlight pouring through the window.
Confused, she looked around, but decided to use the empty stall for a moment.
Clop-clop.
Then, she heard someone approaching the stall she was in.
‘But I didn’t hear the bathroom door opening?’
She didn’t know when they had come in, but it felt like the person had been there from the beginning.
Soon, a student’s footsteps appeared through the gap at the bottom of the door. Someone was standing in front of the stall.
‘What...’
She muttered, confused as to why someone was standing there when all the other stalls were empty.
Just as she was about to get up and leave after finishing, she heard a flush from the left stall.
‘...Huh?’
Flush.
This time, the flush came from the right stall.
It felt strangely familiar.
Drip.
Drip.
Something warm dripped onto Rachel’s head from above. A chill ran down her spine.
She barely managed to move her head to look up.
Then, she saw the ghostly girls hanging from the left stall, the right stall, and right in front of the door, looking down at her.
Their eyes were entirely black, and soon, blood tears began to pour down from their eyes.
"Ahhhhh!"
Screaming in panic, she heard someone pounding on the door of her stall.
"Sensei! Are you okay?"
"Rachel-sensei, is that you?"
"Hey, someone go get another teacher!"
Only then did Rachel realize that the voices from outside the door belonged to normal students.
Soon, the door was broken open with a loud sound.
With help from the others, Rachel was able to leave the bathroom, but that was the beginning of her nightmare.
The same phenomena began happening every time she tried to use the bathroom, even in the faculty dorms.
Whenever she entered the bathroom, she felt like someone was watching her.
When brushing her teeth in front of the bathroom mirror and leaning down to spit out the toothpaste, it felt like her reflection was looking down at her.
When showering behind the curtain, she started to see the silhouette of a person getting closer outside the curtain, only to find no one there when she pulled it back.
The toilet would flush on its own.
The faucets would turn on by themselves and leak water.
This creepy series of events kept repeating.
Because of this, Rachel hadn’t been able to sleep at all, and even the bathroom became a nightmare.
Then one morning, she came across an old Saint Gloria Private School Daily that had been out of date.
[F class tradition: Ghost disturbance during courage test! The head of the newspaper club experienced it firsthand! This time, it’s really different...]
[F class students saved by a hero! Who is Melody Hastings?]
It was an article written by Oliver Henswicks, a student from the third-year F class and the head of the newspaper club.
The article described how during the F class courage test, an incident occurred, and some students experienced a ghost story that had only been rumored.
Moreover, they had all seen a ghost and almost lost their lives, but they were saved by a second-year F class transfer student, Melody Hastings.
After reading the article, Rachel decided to find Melody.
