"gumin, why are you in my room?"
"It's… it's so scary!" gumin clung to Shichen, trembling all over.
"What's wrong?" Shichen sat up and pulled her into his arms.
She was so small that holding her felt like cradling a harmless little animal.
"I-I just... saw a doll in my room! It wasn't there before! It kept staring at , so creepy and scary!" gumin shrank into Shichen's embrace, her voice trembling.
"A doll? Where did it co from?" Shichen gently patted her back to comfort her.
"I don't know!"
"Then I'll go with you to check—"
Before Shichen could finish speaking, he suddenly noticed in the corner of his own room, within the shadows, a Western-style doll that had mysteriously appeared out of nowhere. It sat there quietly, staring calmly at him.
Thank goodness gumin was here with him, or that sight alone would have given him quite a scare.
The Western-style doll was extrely elaborate. But in the middle of the night, in near-total darkness, those bright, wide eyes were downright terrifying.
It wasn't like he had a special fascination with dolls anyway.
Figures (collectible figurines) don't really count as dolls, right?
Perhaps for those who love dolls, dolls are like figures to an otaku—sothing precious, like a wife or a lifeline!
But the two groups probably can't understand each other.
"What's so great about dolls?"
"What's so amazing about figurines?"
It's a cultural gap.
"Shichen, what's wrong?" gumin noticed the change in his tone.
"Don't be scared when I tell you this, but… there's also a doll in my room."
"Eek—!" gumin clung to him even tighter.
Maybe it was because she was only wearing pajamas, but Shichen felt a bit of softness pressing against his chest.
Seems like this little girl does have sothing going on—just the faintest budding curves.
"Don't be scared. Don't be scared. It doesn't look like it wants to harm us," Shichen comforted.
"But… but it's still creepy!"
"Then let's go find Aqua. She can get rid of these dolls."
"Y-you'll carry there!"
"Sure~ Aren't you a bit old to be afraid of dolls?" Shichen teased, shaking his head with a smile.
"Who's afraid of normal dolls? The problem is how it just appeared out of nowhere! There must be an evil spirit ssing around!"
"Heh heh~"
"Don't laugh at !" gumin pouted and hit his chest in protest.
"Alright, alright, I won't laugh. Let's go find Aqua… Hmm?"
Just as Shichen was about to get out of bed with gumin in his arms, the door suddenly opened. A soft figure slipped quietly into the room.
"Shi-Shichen…" Yunyun's voice sounded on the verge of tears.
"Yunyun? Why are you here too?" Shichen had thought maybe an evil spirit was bold enough to co looking for him.
"In… in my room… a doll appeared out of nowhere…"
"There's a doll in your room, too?"
"Yeah… Huh? 'Too'?" Yunyun froze, then noticed that soone was in Shichen's arms.
"H-gumin? Why are you here?"
"Ugh…" gumin didn't answer.
"Heh, sa as you. A doll showed up in her room," Shichen explained for her.
"I see. So gumin got here before I did…"
"It's not because I was scared."
At that, gumin pulled away from Shichen's arms, stood confidently on the bed, hands on her hips. "I just anticipated you'd co, so I got here first to prepare. As expected, I was right!"
"gumin, just admit you're scared," Yunyun said, her face expressionless.
"N-no way, I'm not scared!"
"…Shichen, what should we do?" Yunyun ignored gumin and turned to him.
"Hey!"
"Let's go find Aqua. Her exorcism is pretty powerful."
Shichen had learned Aqua's exorcism techniques as well, but without her divine power, his effectiveness was limited.
Even though Aqua's divine power was weakened, she still had so. Her exorcism was possibly the most effective in this entire world.
"Okay."
"You're ignoring too, Shichen?!"
Seeing the two of them walk off without her, gumin shouted angrily, "Hmph, Yunyun, you learned advanced magic and now you think you're so great?!"
She quickly climbed off the bed and chased after them.
"Shichen, I'm not wearing shoes."
Shichen sighed and stopped, waiting for her to catch up before picking her up again.
"Hmph~" gumin, now in his arms, raised her chin smugly at Yunyun, though Yunyun didn't even look her way.
Once they reached the girls' area, Shichen asked, "What about Darkness?"
"I don't know. She's probably fine, right?"
"Never mind, she can handle herself. Let's find Aqua first."
Shichen focused for a mont, sensing Darkness's location. He realized she was in her room, playing with the doll, apparently hoping it would do sothing to her.
She was beyond saving.
At least Kazuma was still sound asleep—like a normal person would be.
"Aqua's room is over here."
Following Yunyun's lead, Shichen—still carrying gumin—walked into the innermost room, which Aqua had chosen. He opened the door without hesitation, but Aqua wasn't inside.
"Huh? Where's Aqua?" Yunyun looked around but saw no one.
"Downstairs," Shichen said, having picked up on her presence.
"Downstairs? Why would she go down there?"
"There must be more dolls on the ground floor. She's probably exorcising them first."
Surprisingly diligent of her.
"Should we go down, then?"
"W-would rather not…" gumin whispered.
"Heh heh~ gumin, you're scared, aren't you?" Yunyun teased.
"I-I am not!"
"Let's just wait here for a while. We wouldn't be much help down there anyway," Shichen said.
"In that case, let's do what Shichen says."
"I-I agree!"
After a long wait, Aqua finally returned.
"Whew… I'm exhausted… Eh? Why are all of you in my room?" Aqua asked as she walked in, noticing the three of them sitting on her bed.
Well, two of them were on the bed—gumin was sitting on Shichen's lap, practically like a plush doll in his arms.
"You're back. All done?" Shichen asked with a smile.
"All done… yeah, I've exorcised them all. It was tough work," Aqua replied, wiping imaginary sweat from her forehead as if she wanted so praise.
"Really? I thought exorcisms were easy for you."
"But they were scattered everywhere, each one possessing a different doll. Getting rid of them one by one was pretty annoying," she complained.
"I see. Well, there's no helping it. It's kind of your fault to begin with."
"Right. My fault…!"
Aqua paused. She blinked at Shichen, looking anxious. "Y-you know about it?"
"Of course. I deliberately didn't put up a barrier because I wanted to see where all these evil spirits were coming from. Turns out they ca from the public cetery."
"Ahaha… so you figured it out." Aqua scratched the back of her head awkwardly.
"Huh? Evil spirits ca from the public cetery?" Yunyun asked in surprise.
"Yeah. Because so of Aqua's exorcism energy remained there, most of the spirits didn't dare stay. They ended up holess and ca to the town instead."
"What?! So this is all your fault, Aqua!" gumin growled in anger.
"W-well, it's not entirely my fault, right? Thanks to , we got this mansion cheaper, didn't we? We saved so much money!"
"…Don't you feel at least a bit guilty? That's basically tricking people. So goddess you are," gumin said, looking at her with scorn.
"Ugh…" Aqua fell silent.
"Alright, alright, Aqua may not have done it perfectly, but she still put in the effort. Don't be too hard on her," Shichen intervened.
"Shichen…" Aqua looked at him with tears of gratitude in her eyes.
"Tch, you always spoil her."
"As if I don't spoil you, too."
"Ugh…"
"Anyway, since Aqua's finished exorcising, let's head back to bed. It's late, and we have to buy more things for the house tomorrow."
"Fine."
"Aqua, get to bed soon. You'd better not oversleep tomorrow."
"I know, I have a ton of stuff I want to buy. No way I'd let you leave behind."
"Alright, let's go." Shichen got up to leave.
"Wait!"
When gumin reached the door, she suddenly turned and asked Aqua, "Aqua, you really got rid of every single spirit, right? Not a single one left?"
"Are you doubting ? Of course I exorcised them all… Well, except for one special spirit."
"E-except… one?" gumin looked nervously at her.
"Don't worry." Aqua smiled reassuringly. "That's the spirit I ntioned before, the noble's illegitimate child. She's not harmful. The ones causing trouble were those wandering spirits, and I've already taken care of them."
"R-really?"
"Relax. Or are you… afraid?"
"? Afraid? Of what? Hmph! I'm going back!"
Without hesitation, gumin left Aqua's room and marched ahead of Shichen and Yunyun, heading back to her own room in an exaggeratedly confident manner.
Shichen and Yunyun exchanged glances and shook their heads in amusent.
~~~
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