Yu Na-gyeong stifled a gasp. A translucent girl's head had poked out of the Violin of Deepest Black, which had been lying quietly in place.

'She's out!'

Like a frog with only its eyes above the water, or a child peering through a barely opened door at a suspicious cake left on the doorstep, the girl's ghost kept her body hidden inside the Violin of Deepest Black, exposing only the part of her face above her nose as she listened to the performance. Yu Na-gyeong nearly cheered before forcing her beak shut. That posture alone made it clear the girl was still on maximum alert.

'Not yet. It's still too soon.'

Yu Na-gyeong resisted the urge to speak to her immediately and watched her movements with the focus of a hawk eyeing its prey. Fortunately, the girl paid no attention whatsoever to her gaze. She was too busy stealing wary glances at Limon.

But that only lasted at first. As Limon played and Ainsha sang, the girl gradually emerged farther from the violin. First, only above the nose. Then above the shoulders. And finally, above the chest.

Where had all that initial wariness gone? Watching the ghost stick her entire upper body out and immerse herself in the performance like a fan who had sneaked into her favorite singer's concert, Yu Na-gyeong clicked her tongue inwardly.

'No wonder Team Leader said he felt someone watching him whenever he performed...'

Should she admire the Sword Master's instincts for detecting even a ghost's gaze? Or the girl's ghost for slipping past those instincts to secretly listen to his music? Still torn between the two, Yu Na-gyeong sensed that the time had come and edged closer to her. After a brief moment's thought, she cautiously opened her beak.

[Um... hello?]

The girl jolted in alarm!

[No, wait! Don't run away! Look, I'm a baby bird, okay? I'm really weak and harmless!]

The ghost's startled attempt to retreat into the violin put Yu Na-gyeong's worries about whether the telepathy item would work on ghosts to rest. She hurriedly spoke again to keep her from fleeing.

Fortunately, her persuasion worked. The girl, who had hastily fled, poked just her head back out to look at Yu Na-gyeong.

[Uh, so, my name is Yu—no, Bluey...]

Yu Na-gyeong broke into a cold sweat. Even though she was so accustomed to chattering that Limon himself acknowledged it, this was her first attempt at talking to a ghost. Perhaps sensing her unease, the girl grew wary again and began slowly sinking into the violin like a submarine. What stopped her was a word Yu Na-gyeong hastily blurted out.

[M-music!]

The girl flinched.

[This performance! It's really amazing, isn't it? Actually, I know the man playing the violin over there...]

Her strategy of approaching the girl through a topic that interested her worked. Once music came up, the ghost gradually lowered her guard and began paying attention to Yu Na-gyeong's words.

Then a strange expression crossed Yu Na-gyeong's face. The more she spoke to the ghost, the more familiar something felt. The girl reminded her of children newly arrived at the orphanage whom she sometimes met while volunteering. The wary ghost overlapped with the image of those children, steeped in distrust as though the whole world had abandoned them.

'... Come to think of it, my kids were like this at first too, weren't they?'

Once that occurred to her, Yu Na-gyeong soon forgot why she had started talking to the ghost in the first place. Just as she did with the orphanage children, she simply focused on telling the girl as much about herself as possible and listening to the girl's own stories.

Perhaps it was because she relaxed and reached out with genuine sincerity. In the end, just as Yu Na-gyeong had hoped, the girl's ghost slowly began to open up.

[Oh, you were scared of our Team Leader? Right, he does have quite a temper. And he looks really terrifying too.]

[So you were startled when I screamed before. I'm sorry. I was surprised then too.]

[Exactly. Muscles are what perfect art.]

[Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm...]

And so, a long time passed.

* * *

Limon spoke as calmly as he could.

"... Bluey."

[Yes, sir.]

Yu Na-gyeong answered solemnly.

"Didn't I tell you to persuade the Saint's ghost to tell us about the Seven Arcs?"

[You did.]

"And you spent all day chattering with her while I played."

[Oh, 'all day' is an exaggeration. It was only a few hours.]

Watching her make light of it, Limon stopped beating around the bush and asked bluntly,

"So what have you learned so far?"

[Lots of things. Her name when she was alive was Shera, she thinks she liked something with honey in it, she likes pretty things...]

"What about the Seven Arcs?"

[She says she doesn't know.]

Limon nearly flicked her on the head out of reflex. Had Ainsha not foreseen the future and caught his wrist, Yu Na-gyeong would have spun spectacularly five times before collapsing like a pigeon hit by a slingshot. The girl's ghost would also have fled back into the violin in terror.

Perhaps seeing his brow furrow instead was enough. When Yu Na-gyeong saw Shera, who was hiding behind her, flinch in fear, she shouted indignantly,

[Hey, why are you scaring my kid! She's been asleep almost the entire time since she got trapped in here. Of course she might not know!]

"... Since when is she your kid?"

[Since now!]

"You're not even a year old, and you want to adopt a ghost who's hundreds of years old?"

[Why not?]

At this point, even her shamelessness deserved admiration. Limon clicked his tongue at his pet, who lost all sense whenever she saw a child, whether in her previous life or this one. Ainsha was the one who calmed him down.

"Let us not get worked up. This is within expectations."

"I know that."

[Then you shouldn't act like that!]

Limon clicked his tongue. He had already braced himself for this outcome. Whether a ghost had gone mad and become an evil spirit or had become a remnant spirit, it was obviously not in a normal state. The chances of receiving a proper answer were slim.

But expecting it hardly made the news that they had gained nothing welcome. Especially after he had spent hours playing to placate a ghost who knew nothing.

[Huh? What did you say?]

It was then that Shera, who had been at a loss as she watched Yu Na-gyeong argue with a scowling Limon, suddenly whispered something to her. Yu Na-gyeong turned toward her in puzzlement. Seeing her eyes gradually widen, Limon narrowed his own.

"What did she tell you?"

[Uh... she doesn't know what the Seven Arcs are. But she says there's something she remembers very vividly.]

"Remembers? A remnant spirit?"

Limon's expression turned peculiar. Of the two components that formed a soul—the spiritual essence and the mental essence—a remnant spirit had lost the latter, leaving only the former. As a result, its capacity for thought was diminished, and most merely repeated meaningless actions according to habits from their lives. In other words, it was a soul that had lost its wits. One with severe amnesia, at that.

For such a spirit to remember something clearly meant it was either a deeply lingering attachment or an event shocking enough to leave that kind of mark.

"What does she remember?"

[I'm not sure I understood her correctly...]

Yu Na-gyeong looked back at Shera for confirmation. When the ghost nodded, she continued with a deeply dubious expression.

[She says she was hit by a star?]

"... She was what?"

[While she was sleeping here with the violin, a meteor shower suddenly rained down from the sky, and one of them fell onto the violin.]

[The shock made her hide deep inside the violin, and she couldn't wake up for a long time afterward...]

Even as she spoke, Yu Na-gyeong watched Limon's reaction. If a meteor really had struck the Violin of Deepest Black head-on, there was no way it would have survived intact, even if it was a magical artifact on par with a divine relic. To her own ears, it sounded like nothing more than the nonsense of a witless ghost.

"She saw meteors pouring down like rain?"

[Yes.]

"In this underground labyrinth?"

[...]

Yu Na-gyeong hunched her wings at a story that sounded more far-fetched the more she heard it. But rather than scoffing, Limon wore a peculiar expression.

"When was this?"

[Huh?]

"How many years ago did she see it?"

[Uh, well... she thinks it was less than a hundred years ago?]

After relaying Shera's absurd answer, every bit what one might expect of a centuries-old remnant spirit, Yu Na-gyeong looked even more cowed. Limon, on the other hand, folded his arms. He pondered something intently for a long while, then nodded.

"... I see. So that's what happened."

While Yu Na-gyeong tilted her head at his unexpected response, Ainsha seemed to realize something a moment later. Nodding along with Limon, she spoke expressionlessly.

"Bad Sword Master and good Sword Master. An excellent division of roles. Just as expected of Lee."

"I didn't exactly plan it that way."

"Regardless, we have the answer. An excellent interrogation."

[Hello? Sorry, but could someone tell me what happened and what answer we got?]

Feeling left out as the two discussed something only they understood, Yu Na-gyeong interrupted with a sulky expression. Limon looked at her incredulously.

"Are you asking because you really don't know? After hearing all the clues?"

[Clues? What do you...?]

Her puzzlement lasted only a moment. As though belatedly realizing something, Yu Na-gyeong shut her beak. Her eyes darted about before going wide.

[Oh!]

"Finally caught on?"

Limon clicked his tongue at her. Then he looked at the Violin of Deepest Black, where Shera's ghost remained half-hidden behind Yu Na-gyeong, and continued quietly.

"Now I finally know when and how the Seven Arcs came into being."

* * *

A passage lay cloaked in deep darkness. Strolling leisurely through that lightless place, Labyrinth, the Liberation Brigade's fourth-ranked ghost, muttered resentfully,

"Always acting so superior."

There was one reason for his displeasure: he had ended up having to take orders from Magician right up until the end of today's discussion. Of course, under the Liberation Brigade's strictly hierarchical rules, obeying someone of higher rank was only natural. But that was one thing, and this was another.

As one of the higher-ranked members of the twelve ghosts, Labyrinth considered Magician a rival and resented it. Especially now that he knew Magician was recruiting new ghosts to fill the vacant higher ranks.

"Hmph. Just you wait. Your seat will be mine in the end."

Labyrinth clutched the blood-red gem. He had remained at fourth rank only because of his unique skill's drawback. His toy was something he had prepared to compensate for that weakness.

If he could complete that toy according to plan, third rank would be his, regardless of who was recruited as a new ghost. With luck, he could even rise higher.

'First rank... is utterly out of reach, though.'

Labyrinth shuddered. He was confident he could take on even a Monarch, but he could muster no such confidence against "him." The reason the twelve ghosts, disparate as they were, adhered so strictly to the hierarchy was that they feared "him" even more than the power of the stars.

'But second rank is another matter!'

"Come, my toys."

His ambition to climb the ranks burning all the more fiercely, Labyrinth summoned his toys. He intended to strengthen them with the gem's power in advance, preparing them to gain even greater strength when his toy was finally complete.

"...?"

But a little while later, Labyrinth could only wonder. His adorable toys should have come running the instant he called, yet no matter how long he waited, they failed to appear.

"... What the hell?"

Bewildered, Labyrinth activated his unique skill, and his face involuntarily froze. The next moment, he was no longer in the passage. Instead, he stood in the middle of a cavern covered in signs of battle, staring down at remnants strewn across the floor.

A dismembered goat head and blades. Half-burned feathers and snake scales. A broken puppet and fragments of chains.

For a moment, he stood frozen before the wreckage of his toys, not one of which remained intact. Then he began to tremble, recalling the years and vast resources he had spent finding, subjugating, and raising those six toys. Clenching his fists so hard that blood seeped out, he shouted with bloodshot eyes.

"Raaaargh! I'll kill them! Whoever did this, I'll find them and fucking kill them!"

* * *

"Hmm. My ears feel strangely itchy."

"Lie down on my lap. I will clean your ears. Then you will have a lap pillow. Affection level up."

"Have you ever actually cleaned someone else's ears?"

"It is fine. Everything is experience. And Tata told me that in relations between men and women, it only hurts the first time."

"... Tell your nanny I'd like a word with her next time about your education."