“W-weh... ugh......”

At the question, the tears Sena had been forcing back finally spilled from her eyes.

The moment she was pulled into Camilla’s arms, she broke down sobbing. Camilla said nothing for a long time. She only kept patting the child gently on the back.

“I... I killed someone.”

Only after a long while did Sena finally manage to speak.

Camilla had already expected as much, so she only held the child tighter.

She had seen it too that day. It had been an emergency, but the black smoke that pierced through the man’s body had been deeply familiar to her.

It was the same power the head of the Eva Church used.

The same power that had bound her hand and foot and inflicted a terrible wound on Arsian. It had definitely been that.

How could Sena use that power?

Camilla had come to see Sena to answer that question, only to hear the child had not left her room for days.

The moment she heard Sena was barely eating and seemed unable to sleep properly, she had come straight to find her.

And now she was here, face to face with the crying child.

“I... I......”

Sena could only repeat the same words over and over.

Camilla gently pulled the child back just enough to look her in the eye.

“Sena.”

“...Yes.”

“Do you remember that man’s face?”

Nod.

“And how his body was rotting all over?”

“Y-yes......”

Camilla gently stroked the child’s hair as she nodded.

“He was already dead.”

“...What?”

“He was someone whose body had already been stolen by a follower of the Eva Church.”

“Ah......”

“In other words, the soul inside that body and the body itself had both been dead for a long time already.”

Sena knew at least a little about the Eva Church.

Its followers stole people’s bodies and used them for evil. That was the place she herself had been sold to.

She had also already been told that she had nearly been used as a sacrifice to take over a body.

“But... but......”

Camilla’s hand, still stroking the child’s head, softened even more. At some point, a faint smile had appeared on her lips.

“Thank you.”

“...What?”

“You were trying to save Rio.”

“......”

“Because of you, our Rio is safe.”

At that, tears welled in Sena’s eyes all over again.

As the child burst into even louder sobs than before, Camilla let out a short sigh to herself.

By then, she could tell the shock and hurt the child had suffered ran deeper than she had thought.

“I......”

A long time later, Sena began speaking again in a tearful voice, slowly recounting everything that had happened.

From the moment she first began hearing Lu’s voice to the reason this whole incident had happened, she laid it all out piece by piece, and Camilla listened quietly to every word.

Chapter. Spring Has Come

“Ghk......!”

Thud.

“Aaah!”

“Ahhh!”

“W-what is that?!”

The figure in the black robe collapsed heavily to the ground, and the people nearby recoiled with screams.

Because the fallen man’s body was rotting away at a terrifying speed.

“H-he’s from the Eva Church!”

At someone’s shout, the crowd recoiled even farther from the corpse.

“Dear God......”

“I heard three people were found in the next village just yesterday too.”

“Don’t even tell me. Can you imagine how horrifying it must’ve been? Someone you’d always gotten along with suddenly rotting to death right in front of you.”

“They say it’s the curse of the head of the Eva Church.”

“What are you talking about? It’s not that. They say the head died, and now the followers of the Eva Church can’t use their power anymore, so they’re all dying off.”

“Oh, that’s awful.”

*****

“Oh? Are those plum blossoms?”

In one corner of the snow-covered garden, red plum blossoms had opened in full bloom. The crimson petals falling over the white snow looked like something out of an ink painting.

Flutter, flutter.

As Camilla stood there enjoying the view for a moment, a small figure came flying toward her. A little yellow dragon, bright as forsythia—the Spring Spirit King.

[Well? Isn’t it beautiful?]

“Yeah.”

[Hehe, I told you. Nature really is amazing.]

Sure, nature was nice, and the blossoms were nice too, but......

“Why do all of you insist on hovering around me?”

The little red one who had come to announce autumn had been the same. Did they all take turns coming by to say hello every season?

[Hovering around you...? You should be thanking me for coming all the way here to tell you first that such a wonderful season has arrived!]

...Are you all siblings or something? How are your personalities this identical?

Flutter, flutter.

Just then, a pure white figure came drifting through the air. It was Aisla, the Winter Spirit King.

[Ah, Aisla!]

[.......]

[I-I should get going!]

At the sight of Aisla, the yellow dragon jolted and vanished in a hurry, no different from any of the other spirits. Was it still that afraid of her?

“It looks like winter’s finally ending.”

[Yes. So I think I’ll be going too.]

“What?”

Camilla had only tried to make light conversation, but her eyes widened.

Aisla, who had stayed by her side ever since helping deal with the head of the Eva Church, had just declared that she was returning to the spirit realm.

[It looks like the Eva Church problem is finally being resolved.]

“That’s true.”

Recently, rotting corpses had been appearing all over the Empire. They were the people who had once followed Eva.

Just as Aisla said, they were no longer able to properly maintain the bodies they had stolen before, and their true state was finally showing through.

There were still a few, like the ones who had tried to abduct Rio, who lashed out desperately in a final struggle, but most of them were destroying themselves on their own.

[What will you do about that child?]

She meant Sena.

“It’s certainly a dangerous power.”

Camilla truly had never imagined that the power the head of the Eva Church had carried to the very end would turn out to be something like that.

She had thought there must be some special holy relic reserved only for the head.

“So that’s why no one was able to find it until now.”

That had been true back in Mars’s case too. She had wondered why the relic was nowhere to be found, but it turned out no such thing had existed in the first place.

[Do you think that child can bear it?]

“I don’t know.”

After hearing the full story from Sena, Camilla had decided to watch the situation for now.

There was nothing she could do at the moment. It was true that the power could not be separated from the child, but she could hardly lock Sena away or kill her simply because that existence was dangerous.

“Still, it seems to listen to her fairly well.”

She had given it a name, after all. It almost seemed to think of Sena as its master. Like a hatchling imprinting on its mother.

Though calling that power a hatchling might be pushing it a little.

In any case, there was only one thing Camilla had to do.

“I’ll keep watch over her, and guide her well.”

She would have to make sure the child never used that power carelessly, and that the child herself never came to harm because of it.

[Yes. If it’s you, you’ll do well.]

Aisla, perched on her shoulder, flew off to one side and blew out a soft breath.

At once, a tiny crystal of snow formed in front of Camilla. She had seen it before.

[You know how to use it, don’t you? Call for me whenever you need my power.]

Camilla took the snow crystal and answered with a small smile instead of words.

“Thank you, Aisla.”

[I enjoyed it too. Thanks to you, I got to have a real conversation again after so long.]

Aisla fluttered closer and added quietly,

[That’s probably why the others do it too.]

“What?”

[Why they keep circling around you. They’re happy to have met another being who can actually see them and speak with them after such a long time. So don’t find them too annoying. They only do it because they like you.]

So she had not imagined it after all. They really had been showing up around her more often than usual.

Camilla let out a brief laugh and nodded.

That was just like Aisla—always cold and prickly toward the other spirits, yet still thinking of them in her own way behind the scenes.

“See you again.”

[Yes.]

After making one last circle around Camilla, Aisla vanished in a rush.

“......”

Left alone, Camilla turned her gaze back to the tree in full bloom.

“It’s spring.”

*****

“Arsian, what are you doing tomorrow?”

“What exactly are you planning to do with that information?”

The answer that came back to Petro’s question was sharp, but the others did not back down.

“Do you already have plans tomorrow?”

“Nothing special, right?”

“Even if you do, cancel them.”

After Petro came Lila, Elisha, and then Juela, all throwing versions of the same question at him.

“......”

Arsian’s brow furrowed at the sight of them hovering around him like this. Had they all lost their minds together today?

“What are you trying to pull?”

“We decided to have a small gathering tomorrow.”

“A gathering?”

“It’s a new year, so we thought we’d all get together and enjoy some pleasant conversation.”

“It’s basically a friendship party!”

...They’ve lost it.

Arsian turned as if he had no intention of hearing another word. What kind of idiotic nonsense were they planning to—

“Are you busy tomorrow?”

He spotted Camilla standing in front of him with a bright smile, and his expression immediately softened.

“No.”