Zoemi thought and his voice resounded through the murky darkness, but this time the original personality didn’t bother to answer.

|Ah, sorry for that. You know as much as I do, don’t you?|

|Exactly.|

The boy realized and this time he got a response – it sure sounded as if the artificial soul was sighing and rolling its eyes at him.

|Still, don’t you find it strange – even if Bellcephora wants us to follow this specific path, isn’t it already too late? That other Zoemi just mentioned Ehmi and Grazio to that other Miriette – and since they both are very clearly in the dormitory in the Aspakeony Academy, then unless Ehmi became a teacher there, it is already too late for this timeline.|

Zoemi pointed out, trying to motion at the screen-like rectangle in front of him, but he could not even see his own movement.

|It looks that way – see? The two we see now are younger than you and your Miriette are now… But this is not the end. Let’s watch it all play out, and maybe then we will see something that Bellcephora wants you to copy.|

The original personality said after a moment of consideration, and his and Zoemi’s attention focused back on the events playing out on the screen…

~~~~~~~~

*********

~~~~~~~~

”EH?!”

”HUH?!”

Somebody knocked – or rather slammed, at the door making the two lovebirds jump out of the bed at once.

”You in there? Open up!”

Zoemi was so shocked hearing the voice of the visitor that he missed the shocked expression that Miriette’s face has twisted into.

It was also the dark-haired girl who came to her senses first and managed to act convincingly enough for the black-haired boy to not get suspicious.

”Wh- who is that?”

She asked and looked at Zoemi for answers.

”I’ll check right away, my lady.”

The boy was unsure how she should act…

He motioned at Miriette to stay put and approached the door – then unlocked and opened them in one swift motion.

”Fina… lly…?”

None other than the real headmaster, the chocolate-skinned necromancer Aspakeony, basically jumped in but as soon as she saw Zoemi she backed away.

She squinted her eyes and quickly glance over his shoulder at Miriette.

”…”

…who was looking away with a stubborn expression, trying to ignore the glare…

”Aspie, what are you doing here in person…?”

Zoemi tried to hide the necromancer from Miriette’s sight with his body which granted him only the scornful look from the necromancer.

And while speaking about looks – at least the gray-haired girl was wearing something decent…!

Zoemi found at least a good point in the whole situation.

Indeed, it seemed that Aspakeony abandoned her usual nightgown and panties combo and was actually wearing the academy’s female uniform.

The necromancer herself started frowning even more but seemed to have given up on something because she just sighed and shook her head.

”Nevermind. Listen, there is a problem, a big one. A huge **ing problem.”

Aspakeony didn’t mince her words for sure, she didn’t care for how loud she was either.

”Calm down! Miriette could hear you!”

Zoemi clicked his tongue and while grabbing Aspakeony by the shoulders he started pushing her out of Miriette’s room.

”Zoemi? Who is this? She can come in if it’s something important.”

”…!”

Zoemi flinched and had to chew down a curse word that wanted to spring out from his mouth.

Now, of all the times, Miriette was feeling considerate enough to invite a complete stranger to her room!

”Oh, you don’t have to mind her, my lady. She is… the… headmaster’s niece…! She just transferred here because of family circumstances and I… I was asked by the headmaster Kross to show her around! That’s why I wanted to leave early.

Zoemi was purposefully fidgeting bashfully making his stuttering voice sound more guilty than unsure.

Aspakeony tilted her head and glanced at him with disbelief, she put one hand on her waist and shook her head.

Honestly, it was clear to anyone other than that particular Zoemi that Aspakeony didn’t come to that room to talk with him at all, but he was adamant about making her leave!

”Well, she looks like she has something to say. Zoemi, don’t be rude, let her in and we all can talk.”

Miriette shrugged her shoulders and casually invited the necromancer in.

”But…!”

Zoemi gritted his teeth.

Now of all times, Miriette was in a hospitable mood! The black-haired boy was at a loss about how unpredictable she could be…

”Zoemi, if she is the headmaster’s niece, it would be very inappropriate to chase her away. High nobles have rules, you remember, right?”

In a few words, Miriette delivered the answer he was searching for.

It was all his fault!

|If only I said that she was just some low-born student! Where have I even pulled that ‘headmaster’s niece’ from?!|

Zoemi wanted to punch himself and thought – which was loud and clear to Zoemi and the original personality watching everything from the outside.

”That’s right, sir Zoemi, if you will continue keeping me waiting at the door I doubt my uncle will take kindly to such offense.”

Aspakeony wasn’t taking kindly to Zoemi’s games and started tapping her fingers on her arms.

”Just come in already!”

Now even Miriette was frowning at the black-haired attendant.

But even so, Zoemi didn’t want to get Miriette pulled into some dangerous business.

Aspakeony was not just in a bad mood, she was seriously worried about something.

She kept on tilting her head and glancing at Miriette behind Zoemi which he misread as her being worried over getting eavesdropped on.

”Oh, but nothing like that is necessary, isn’t that right? We are already running late, we will just go. I’ll introduce you two properly some other time!”

Zoemi lost his head for a moment and left the room dropping only some vague statement.

”What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

Aspakeony was still able to contain her rage somehow and didn’t just punch Zoemi in the face, settling on pushing, or rather, attempting to push him away.

Zoemi glanced at the hand pressing on his chest and raised his brow.

”That’s what you should tell me! What happened to your whole existence being a secret?!”

He asked cautiously lowering his voice and casting the area of effect muffle spell.

”…?”

Aspakeony furrowed her brows and made a confused expression.

”Why did you come in person…? Wait…”

Zoemi was asking but Aspakeony only pointed at her ears and shook her head.

|Crap! Did I make the range too small? This spell became so annoying to use after my attribute changed to shadow…|

Zoemi clicked his tongue, recalled the original spell, and cast the new one with adjustments.

”I’m asking why you came in person?”

Although the mess-up with the spell wasn’t exactly a good thing, the breaking of pace that it caused certainly did help Zoemi partially regain his composure.

”It’s too dangerous for me to just stay alone in my office.”

Aspakeony shrugged her shoulders and pointed with her thumb at three people behind her.

Zoemi didn’t even acknowledge their existence before, after all, they were just Aspakeony’s corpse puppets that had no will of their own anymore.

There was the light magician pale-skinned woman, a burly brown-haired man with copper skin, and a youthful-looking woman with curly blue hair.

”What does this mean? Weren’t you holing up in there because it was safe?”

Zoemi didn’t want to waste time on something that could not have anything in common with Miriette so he didn’t even try to think of a reason for the necromancer’s sudden love for strolling around the campus.

”As of now, it has officially become too dangerous.”

Aspakeony waved her hand decisively.

”First of all, tell me, do you know the spell that allows darkness magicians to gain all the mana from someone they killed?”

She asked with a serious expression.

Zoemi flinched.

”I don’t…”

”Listen, kid, I’m serious. I must know the truth, I’m not the only one who is in danger, that girl of yours is the same.”

Aspakeony interrupted him and pointed at the door to Miriette’s room.

”So? Do you know of such a spell?”

She asked in a stern voice.

”…”

Zoemi’s eyes stopped reflecting light making him look like a person dead for a long time.

”If it’s you, we can work something out, I’m willing to even begrudgingly make a deal with you. But if it’s someone else then we need to do something fast. The thing I need to know before making the decision is – can you use such a spell or not?”

Aspakeony stopped pushing her open palm against Zoemi’s chest and instead bumped against it with her fist.

Zoemi looked away, he stared at Miriette’s door, sighed, and faced Aspakeony again.

”I don’t know why you are asking me this… But, in fact, I do know about a spell-like that…”

He started.

”Ah…!”

Aspakeony gasped and backed away, the blue-haired woman and the brown-haired man stepped in front of her acting like bodyguards.

”…the thing is, I never managed to recreate it because I only know some bits and pieces of its structure from ingesting and converting mana from the member of the Ghosts of Bellcephora. You remember, don’t you? That time when you orchestrated the fake abduction.”

Zoemi didn’t even flinch and continued the explanation.

”O-oh, I see, so that’s how it is…”

The corpse puppets stepped away and Aspakeony showed herself with an ashamed expression.

Then finally something clicked in Zoemi’s mind and he lost all his cool.

”The event! Someone was assassinated! That’s why you are so cautious about me! Somebody was killed, right?! Their heart was pierced by a corrosive spell of questionable origin!”