Chapter 380

Although Roan was forced to calm his black mana as both of his arms were grabbed by Yusina and Sion, his anger rose instead.

Wasn’t it rude to call a perfectly living person a ghost or an evil spirit?

No matter what anyone said, Roan was still well alive and had not been executed yet!

“I won’t use holy magic, so you can let go now.”

“R-Right?”

“Are you sure?”

At Roan’s words, the two let go of his arms with highly uneasy expressions.

Just as he had said, Roan did not use holy magic—or black magic.

Instead.

*Slide—*

“Roaaaann!!!!!!!”

He pulled Mosquito out of his lucky pouch.

The two gasped in horror and grabbed Roan’s arms again.

“What are you going to do with that!”

“I have something to test.”

Roan delivered a very meaningful reply.

Fearing they might end up having to clean up a corpse at this rate, Yusina hurriedly spoke to Ryuca.

‘Come to think of it, she’s a ghost, so would there even be a corpse?’

Such a question crossed her mind for a moment, but in any case.

“Ryuca! You apologize quickly too! Roan is just a normal human!”

“A-A human? I see… I’m sorry. I was mistaken.”

“If everything could be settled with an apology, why would heretic inquisitors and paladins exist?”

“””Hieek!”””

At Roan’s chilling words, the two humans and the single ghost gasped in shock.

To utter such threatening words.

And to a ghost, at that!

But since he had received an apology for now, Roan put Mosquito back into his lucky pouch.

Only then did the three of them breathe sighs of relief.

At any rate, most fortunately, the atmosphere calmed down slightly after that.

“I suddenly feel tired… Shall we sit down for now?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s do that.”

Yusina proposed it first, thinking that sitting down would prevent any sudden incidents from occurring.

The Saintess, the Saintess candidate, the ghost, and Roan sat in a circle in the attic.

Sion called out to Yusina first in order to break the ice.

“Um, Saintess?”

“Huh?”

“How can you see the gh… no, Ryuca, even without the monocle?”

At that, Yusina grinned and answered.

“Ah~ I’ve been possessed~”

???

At her casual answer, Sion’s mouth fell wide open.

Of course, since she was a ghost, she could possess people and such.

But did people usually state that so proudly with their own mouths?

No, to begin with, if you were possessed, wouldn’t you not even know you were possessed?

At moment, Roan, still glaring at Ryuca with a face that showed he hadn’t fully cooled down, spoke.

“Saying she’s possessed basically means the ghost decided to show herself. It just means they’re close.”

There was no way Yusina would actually be properly possessed by a ghost of such a minor spirit caliber.

The ghost probably recognized Yusina’s natural goodness and revealed herself first, and Yusina must have also recognized her identity at first glance but humored her after learning about her circumstances.

Originally, in the Book Thief Event, that ghost could be entangled with a random named character, and a ‘Great Good’ alignment was a prerequisite.

And since Yusina went around everywhere in the school like a busybody, the probability of her being entangled like this was high.

“Ah, aha…”

Not knowing such a secret (?), Sion looked at Yusina with eyes full of awe.

From her cowardly perspective, she wondered how one could be close to a ghost, no matter how innocent the ghost looked.

Perhaps sensing Sion’s thoughts, Yusina puffed her chest out and proudly showed her confidence.

“This is the dignity of a Saintess~”

“As expected, you embrace and love everyone!”

“Of course, of course!”

The Saintess and the Saintess candidate were truly in perfect harmony.

Normally, even a ghost wouldn’t be included in the concept of ‘everyone.’

‘Well, since holy spirits roam around in massive numbers in this world anyway…’

Just thinking about the principal of this school, a ghost indeed deserved to be treated with some level of respect.

And this time, Yusina questioned the two.

“But how did you guys climb all the way up here? It should be hard for freshmen to find. Is it really that kind of relationship~?”

Sion jumped at Yusina’s sly tone.

“W-What do you mean, that kind of relationship! I’m also a Saintess candidate!”

“Hey, a strong denial is an affirmation~”

But since Yusina was sincere about teasing her juniors, she drove Sion’s face to the brink of exploding and then looked at Roan.

Roan’s expression looked far colder and more dangerous than usual.

…It was an expression that suggested she wouldn’t even have her bones left to bury if she joked around in a dark attic like this.

Furthermore, Roan was saying with his eyes.

‘Me?’

*Glance—*

‘With her?’

By this point, even the highly mischievous Yusina had no choice but to concede.

“Ah… It’s not. Right, you could have just said so.”

A joke is only fun when there is a response; reacting like that just killed the mood.

And Sion, who was also looking at Roan’s expression, felt quite offended as well.

“I don’t like Roan either, you know?!”

“Did I say anything?”

“T-That’s true.”

He hadn’t said anything.

Roan was the first to speak as he looked at Yusina.

“Anyway, what do you plan to do?”

“U-Uh? Do what about what?”

Yusina asked while slightly avoiding Roan’s gaze, as if she had a very guilty conscience.

Roan shifted his gaze to Ryuca, specifically looking at the single book held in her arms.

Of all the books, it was a children’s storybook that was hard to find in the Grand Library.

“We came here at the librarian’s request to catch the book thief. It is against the rules to take books without permission.”

“W-Without permission?! It’s not like she’s taking it outside. Everyone reads books inside the library anyway!”

Yusina protested as if his words were too harsh.

“If it doesn’t fall under the librarian’s management, it is without permission. You should know the difference well.”

“That…”

At Roan’s calm words, Yusina was left speechless.

Just as Roan pointed out, the reason Morlay had failed to catch Ryuca so far was entirely due to their terrible compatibility.

If Morlay had known the circumstances, there might have been room for extenuation.

Yusina, who had been pondering for a moment, grumbled.

“Just a freshman, yet why does he know the rules so well…”

Hearing that, Sion nodded from the side.

“Well, it’s not a matter of just a day or two.”

“That’s true.”

However, having already grown deeply attached to Ryuca, Yusina even welled up with tears.

“Ryuca is a really good ghost. She has never done anything bad to anyone… and she always returns the books properly. Isn’t there any way? I’ve looked everywhere, but I couldn’t find one.”

To be sure, unlike Doldol-ie of Saint Ciotric Hall, Ryuca was not an evil spirit.

She just stole books once in a while.

However, Roan shook his head firmly.

“Even among evil spirits, those who were evil spirits from the very beginning are surprisingly rare.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Sion asked.

It was a common perception that evil spirits were normally made from souls harboring deep resentment at the time of death.

“Unless they are blessed by a god like holy spirits, souls cannot originally remain on Earth. And the longer they stay on Earth, the higher the probability of them becoming evil spirits. Therefore, that ghost, who has been active for over three years, is already quite dangerous.”

Sion looked back at Yusina as if asking if Roan’s words were true.

If that was truly the case, it seemed some action was indeed required.

Yusina nodded with a dejected expression.

“That’s true… But unless they stay in close contact with a black mage or are directly cursed, there is still some leeway.”

‘I deliberately didn’t mention that!’

Roan flinched inwardly.

As Yusina said, the closer a soul was to a black mage, black magic, or black mana, the faster its transformation into an evil spirit would accelerate.

That was also the reason why an evil spirit was roaming around Saint Ciotric Hall.

Thus, in Acherandir, the holy land of holy lands, that progression speed would be significantly slower or might not be progressing at all…

Unlike usual, wasn’t a black mage currently walking around in plain sight!

*Humm—*

It wasn’t exactly ‘in plain sight,’ was it?

‘In any case…’

If things went wrong and Ryuca became an evil spirit, sparks might fly back to him during the investigation.

Meaning Roan absolutely had to settle the matter.

Roan decided to soften his demeanor slightly and persuade them.

“I don’t plan to treat Ryuca harshly either.”

????

At those words, Yusina, Sion, and Ryuca were simultaneously dumbfounded.

What was a person who had just tried to completely pulverize her with holy magic and stab her with a sword talking about?

‘That was because she did something to deserve it earlier…’

Roan stared pitifully at these three ignorant girls who had absolutely no understanding of a black mage’s sensitivity.

He couldn’t even put it into words; it was a troublesome matter.

“Do I look like someone who would mercilessly annihilate a ghost?”

*Flinch—*

At Roan’s question, the shoulders of the three girls twitched significantly in unison.

‘Aren’t you?’

Going strictly by appearances, he looked like he could easily annihilate not just ghosts, but humans as well…

Of course, Yusina and Sion knew very well that Roan was not that kind of person, though.

Roan let out a sigh and spoke.

“Let’s go down first. I have a way.”

“Is there… some way?”

Yusina asked with a slightly trembling voice.

Actually, she didn’t think leaving Ryuca like this was the right answer either.

But if she told the professors, she didn’t know what kind of fate would befall this good ghost.

While worrying about what to do, she had grown attached to her, and that was how they ended up here.

If Roan indeed had a better way, it was best to follow it.

And if Roan spoke like that, it was highly possible that the most ideal way to return a ghost to the afterlife—’resolving her grudge’—was feasible.

As the conversation seemed to be somewhat finished, Roan nodded and stood up.

Yusina and Sion also tried to follow him down from the attic, but.

“Um…”

Ryuca remained in place, hesitating and shuffling.

“What is it?”

Roan looked down at Ryuca with a cold expression.

Even if Ryuca was hard to find, she was not a soul with a major aversion to going to the afterlife.

But Ryuca, looking slightly frightened, pointed at Roan and spoke.

“There’s a slightly scary… energy… from you. Come to think of it, I think that’s why I mistook you for a ghost…”

At that, Yusina and Sion stared blankly at each other, then soon smiled and spoke.

“It’s fine, Ryuca.”

“Yes.”

“Roan is scary just because of his face. You don’t have to worry.”

“You’re righ… wait, no. Roan, my thoughts are a bit different.”

“Yes, I understand your thoughts well.”

“Ah, I said no!”

At that moment, False Divinity vibrated.

Isn’t it because of that? You know, that guy you caught in the basement.

‘Aha?’

Roan recalled Doldol-ie, whom he had temporarily forgotten.

He didn’t know it would have an effect despite being placed inside the dimensional pouch, but it seemed there was indeed a connection between fellow workers (?).

Roan pulled out and showed the golden bead where Doldol-ie was imprisoned.

“Wow, it’s pretty!”

“What is that?”

Right away, Yusina and Sion, who liked shiny things, leaned their faces close and reacted.

Roan answered casually.

“I caught a wraith named Doldol-ie in Saint Ciotric Hall.”

“D-D-D-Doldol-ie??!?!!?!!”

“W-W-W-Wraith???!?!!!!”

Yusina and Sion instantly fled, hiding close behind Ryuca, who was a ghost herself.

“W-W-Why are you doing this?”

Ryuca looked back at the two, feeling bewildered instead.

‘I’m a ghost too, though?’