A Fortune-telling Princess

[Wow, she looks exactly like me.]

Amy, the student ghost who had trailed after Camilla, kept marveling as she looked at the spirit standing beside Vinter.

“Of course. We summoned the phantoms of those they actually killed.”

Camilla tossed off the simple answer and once more stroked the head of the Sephra house’s Guardian, the Black Wolf, Luna.

At the gentle touch, a rumbling purr spilled from the Black Wolf’s mouth.

What the Vinter couple experienced today was precisely this Guardian’s ability.

It ruled darkness—and possessed the power to reproduce the dead exactly as they were.

The amusing part was that it could not reproduce the living.

Only the dead—only those who no longer existed in this world—could be called up.

‘Fitting for a Guardian of darkness.’

It was the perfect ability for this job.

“You did really well, Luna.”

The Black Wolf wagged its tail like a dog and rubbed its face against Camilla’s hand.

‘A week should do it, right?’

Camilla glanced at Vinter collapsed on the floor and let out a thin laugh. Judging from today’s reaction, a week wouldn’t even be necessary.

‘He’ll probably turn himself in on his own before long, won’t he?’

She hadn’t expected him to wet his pants, though. He was putting on every disgrace there was to put on.

Clicking her tongue, Camilla recalled the résumé she’d reviewed on the Vinter couple before coming here.

‘And with that on your record you went and adopted again.’

Children weren’t consumables.

She could not make sense of it.

The child Vinter had locked in the attic had already been rescued.

The boy looked about nine, and “skin and bones” fit him exactly.

When she appeared out of nowhere, the child showed no wariness at all. No—strictly speaking, he had no strength left with which to be wary.

Thinking of the boy who had wordlessly taken her hand and come along when she said she would get him out of here made her insides boil.

“Filthy wretches.”

Holding back the urge to grind the collapsed Vinter couple under her heel, Camilla opened her mouth.

“Put up with it just a few more days.”

At that, the Guardian Luna rubbed its face against her hand again as if to say it understood.

Camilla stroked Luna’s head gently as well.

****

Clack.

“What are you thinking?”

Thock.

“What?”

In answer to Arsian’s question, the Duke of Sephra replied with another question without so much as giving him a glance.

His eyes were fixed on the chessboard before him.

Thock. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

“Is it really fine to lend that one out so carelessly?”

Arsian moved a piece and continued.

“What makes you just hand it over?”

“You.”

“What?”

“Checkmate.”

“Ah, damn it!”

“Lost again.”

Arsian grumbled and sank deep into his chair.

The reason the two of them were playing chess like this was because of their promise to Camilla.

They had asked what she wanted in return for letting Sier’s soul leave with a smile.

What Camilla, after a brief hesitation, demanded of the two was that they absolutely play chess together one hour a day.

When they’d asked why chess of all things...

‘Then do you want to just sit facing each other for an hour doing nothing? Well, that awkwardness might be fine too. You’re not going to die of awkwardness, are you?’

‘......’

‘......’

They said no more and settled on chess. And now they were keeping the promise dutifully.

‘If Sier saw the two of them like this, she would be very pleased.’

Arsian watched the Duke of Sephra quietly as he reset the pieces on the board.

Not long ago, the Duke of Sephra had lent the house Guardian, the Black Wolf, to Camilla.

Normally the creature wouldn’t even look at anyone but the head of house, but Camilla was an exception.

When told to go with Camilla, it had happily been the first to head for the door.

“Because the bone I got hit in aches.”

“What are you talking about.”

Bone?

“What bone?”

At the Duke’s belated answer, Arsian shot him a puzzled look.

He had asked why he’d lent out the Guardian, and suddenly the man was talking about bones.

Neatly ignoring his son’s question, the Duke of Sephra recalled the conversation he’d had a few days earlier when Camilla came to see him.

‘Please lend me the Guardian.’

‘Was that something one could just lend out?’

‘A Guardian sustained by abuse—put it to use for abused children.’

‘You do say painful things as if they were nothing.’

‘Truth is supposed to strike the bone very painfully.’

So he lent it. Because the bone she hit still ached.

“Is it far from a full hour yet?”

“About ten minutes.”

“Then we can fit one more game.”

At the Duke’s words, Arsian’s eyes flashed sharp as he set his pieces on the board, determined to win this time.

****

“Knew you wouldn’t last a week.”

On the fourth day, word came that the Vinter couple had gone to the Guards looking half out of their minds.

The already dead had been returning in terrifying guise to shout at them to pay for their sins, and in the end the two raised their hands.

They went to the Guards, confessed the things they had done, and begged forgiveness—but it was far, far too late.

‘What good is it to beg forgiveness of those already dead?’

With the confession of their crimes, the Vinter couple were locked up and would soon stand trial.

They called it a trial, but in truth the verdict was all but handed down already. Nine times out of ten they would be executed.

‘I like this world’s law!’

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; murder for murder!

If the slain was a criminal or a target of revenge, that weighed very heavily on the judgment, but unless it was such a case, anyone who willfully committed murder was [N O V E L I G H T] executed, one hundred percent.

‘Which is why Camilla kept dying like that, too.’

Attempted murder counted as murder here.

So of course Camilla’s life had ended with her neck lopped off each time after she was seized on the charge of trying to kill Ludville.

“Was his name Terry?”

The child the Vinter couple had kept confined in the attic.

His situation, too, had been settled reasonably well.

The Count and Countess Shailon—who had had no news for a long time and only recently conceived a precious child—had agreed to become Terry’s patrons.

‘If it’s something like this, we’ll help anytime.’

Having become Camilla’s ardent believer after she foretold they would have a child, the Count of Shailon readily granted her request.

‘Not an adoption.’

Terry didn’t want that either.

Having suffered a hideous wound once already because of the Vinter couple, the boy showed a very strong aversion to the very idea of adoption.

So the Count and Countess Shailon placed the child in the orphanage they sponsored and promised not to spare any support until Terry came of age.

“All that’s left now is...”

Camilla looked at Amy, the student ghost still lingering around her.

“Are you not going?”

[Where?]

Camilla raised a hand and pointed to the sky. She meant: let go of this world and leave.

Her murderer brother was dead, and the Vinter couple who killed her would soon pay for their sins. There was no longer any reason for her to remain here.

“Why don’t you go up now?”

Hersel had, and Sier had. After they saw the result they wanted, they left without regret.

So why was this ghost still here?

[I still have something to do.]

“What now?”

[My dream.]

“Dream?”

At Camilla’s question, Amy smiled brightly.

[My dream was to travel all over the continent someday.]

“Travel?”

[Yeah! Especially ruins!]

Amy nodded vigorously.

When she was at the orphanage, when she was being harried in the Vinter house, she had always dreamed. That she wanted to see the world to her heart’s content.

[The reason my brother bothered to become a history professor was because of this dream of mine.]

When they traveled the world together someday, he had wanted to tell her the historical stories hidden everywhere.

[In the end it really did remain just a dream, though.]

Amy’s smile dipped wry for a moment, then she beamed and declared her aim.

[But now I’m going to roam as much as I please.]

“Good thinking.”

A ghost didn’t need travel expenses. It was perfect for making a dream come true.

[Thank you.]

“I know.”

Amy smirked at Camilla, who accepted the thanks as no big deal.

[Then I’m off.]

“Mm, let’s not see each other again.”

[That’s harsh.]

Even as she kept grumbling, Amy’s face stayed bright.

Giving Camilla one last wave, she quickly vanished from the spot.

“Please don’t come back.”

Camilla waved back as well, sending her off gladly.

Praying in earnest that they would never meet again.