“Can’t sleep?”

Gale wandered into the living room as Yuuji shrugged lightly. The sun had long since set, and the other two girls in the house were confined in their room - though the faint sound of them chatting could be heard when he strained his ears.

“My body clock still hasn’t adjusted to the time difference, I guess.”
“I would have thought that would be something you’re used to now though?”

He sighed, and scratched his head. The lights in the room were dim, but the curtains to the main window had been left open, and he had been staring into the open space outside as the time passed.

“...What about you? I’m not the only one awake.”
“I assume we’re up for the same reason.”
“Which is?”
“Are you going to make me spell it out?”“...”

She leaned against the nearby countertop as a brief silence fell between them.

“Very well. There’s more going on here than we’ve been told. Your guardians seem to have some inkling, but they haven’t approached me personally, so it’s likely they don’t trust me yet.”
“...”
“Let me be clear on this point. Marlbourne is where I was raised, but that only means that I more than anyone want to resolve whatever is happening here. I’m not too sure what you’re suspecting, but if the ministry or one of its Premiere Knights are untrustworthy, there’s a far bigger issue going on than a haunted little village in the Cotswolds.”

Her words rang true in his mind, and he appreciated her bluntness towards the issue. As far as trusting her went, it would still be hard to say, but he knew that they wouldn’t get anywhere if he refused her attempts at cooperation.

“You’re right. Sorry for being difficult…”

Yuuji’s voice trailed off as he turned around to see her.

She’d changed out of her battle-ready gear and into leisure wear, but it was far more casual than he’d expected. Her white tank top was tight around her bulging chest, and on her bottom half, she wore a pair of light grey lounge shorts that revealed much of her svelte legs.

It was an outfit poorly suited to wintertime, but as her skin was flushed a pretty pink and her hair still damp, she had clearly just finished bathing and was cooling down.

“Not at all. I suppose it just shows that I’m too used to dealing with internal matters. It’s only natural you wouldn’t trust me immediately.”
“R-Right. Yes. Of course.”
“...Hmm, are you alright? You look a little pale.”

Yuuji rubbed his eyes and collected his thoughts while trying to recover from the shock. The girl in front of him seemed blissfully unaware of the psychic damage her current state had caused, but mentioning it at this point would just make things awkward.

“I’m fine, don’t worry about it. Anyway, there were a few things I was curious about.”
“If it’s within my power, I will happily answer.”
“What do you know about the person alleged to be the wraith? For it to be a death as recent as last year, we’ve been told shockingly little about the incident itself, or whoever was involved.”
“Sadly, not much. The Millers moved in only a short time before I left to begin knight training, so I don’t have much information on Henrietta or her father outside of their names.”
“A name is a solid start. Is the father still living in Marlbourne?”
“He is. I saw him amongst the crowd earlier.”

Yuuji’s mind began to whir as he considered various possibilities. There was still far too many unknowns to make any solid judgements, but he was beginning to form a process of what to do next based on his past experiences.

“It’s a good lead for tomorrow then. Next, how was the haunting first discovered? What was the first report?”

Gale’s face twisted into a frown at his question.

“That’s the most concerning thing. The first report came from a knight who was passing through and saw the wraith firsthand.”
“...It came from a knight? Not one of the villagers?”

She shook her head, and Yuuji fell silent.

It would be unusual for the people dealing with a demon to not report it immediately. Even more so when its reach extended beyond just a few individuals - the entire village had been aware of its existence for some time, as far as he could tell.

“Hmm. Finally, why are you here? Why are we here? This is an awful lot of effort just for a single ghost-class demon.”
“I requested to take this mission as I was familiar with the location.”
“That’s not what I’m asking.”

He stared her dead in the eyes with an unflinching tone. No stranger to tense situations, she refused to back down as well, and after a brief silence, he exhaled sharply and rose to his feet.

“So be it. You’ve given me plenty to think about, but for now we should get some rest. Tomorrow we’ll meet up with the others, then track down Mr Miller to learn more about what’s going on.”
“Tomorrow it is then. Sleep well.”
“Yeah. You too.”

He walked out of the room without turning back to look at her and headed up the stairs. The other girls were still murmuring behind their closed door, but he didn’t have time to consider that now, as he headed straight for bed.

Staring at the ceiling, thoughts circled around in his mind as he tried to make sense of it all.

‘Gale seems trustworthy enough, at least as far as this case goes. Her upbringing makes for a valid reason to be the one to take on this mission, but was that really her own decision, or did the ministry take part in that?

For a village being plagued by a greater demon, there certainly doesn’t seem to be much concern for safety. That, alongside not reporting any previous sightings, are the villagers hiding something? What does this wraith mean to them?

A ghost that only comes on rainy nights. It sounds like a bedtime story, but nobody has spoken up about what exactly it does here. What is the demon doing, and why?’

As he battled with questions that still went unanswered, his eyelids gradually became heavy, and he finally drifted off to sleep.

******

“My… Haa~... My kin, could you pass the orange juice?”
“...What’s with that…”

Despite mumbling his distaste for her request, Yuuji did as asked and handed the carton over to Claire.

“Haa~... Yuu~! Grab me a coffee?”
“You seriously brought a 24-pack of this stuff? Fine, here you are.”

Ji-Hye happily cracked open the can and gulped down the contents in a single breath, giving a satisfied ‘Puhaa~!’ once it was empty.

“You all certainly get along well.”
“This isn’t getting along, I’m being treated as an errand boy.”

Gale laughed cheerfully as the four of them sat together at the table in the living room. The two girls on either side of them had large bags beneath their eyes and could barely stifle their yawns, but Gale and Yuuji both seemed quite refreshed despite being up so late.

“Seriously you two, how did you manage to end up in this state?”
“Humu. Without mine choice of favoured entertainment, I suggested we resort to a recreation of old.”
“Mmm~... We couldn’t access the game servers with no connection, so Claire brought out playing cards.”
“Cribbage, what a devilish game of wits and guile. Kukuku, it suits this form of mine well.”
“She had a limited edition magical girl card set, it was a collector’s dream to play with!”
“I-I must have obtained such a deck by chance. The cards are as any other.”

Yuuji immediately regretted asking, as Ji-Hye [coffee mode] engaged Claire in a conversation about rare collector’s items that went far beyond his understanding. Gale also seemed to be lost in the conversation, so the two of them finished their meals and began to make their way over to the meeting point at the pub once more.

“Hmm? Is that…?”
“Good… morning.”

From the path beside him came Valeriya, who suddenly ground to a halt outside the pub door as she greeted them. Her posture was impeccable as ever, but her nose seemed to be flaring wildly as her chest quickly rose and fell, so to see her usual aloof expression made for quite an unusual experience.

“Morning Val… Are you alright?”
“Yes… fine… goodbye.”

She quickly opened the door and disappeared inside before closing the latch behind her, uninterested in leaving it open for the duo who were clearly about to enter. Rather than feeling like she had deliberately treated them rudely, Yuuji thought she was just acting strange, but before he had the chance to open the door another person showed up.

“Damn her! Haa… haa… She sprinted around the last corner!”
“...Something tells me these two things are related.”
“...I have to agree.”

As they chatted quietly between themselves, Leona turned her furious gaze towards them.

“Valeriya! Haa… haa… Did she already get back here!?”
“She just went inside.”
“Shitty frost queen… haa… haa… I’ll win for sure next time!”

Spewing rage-filled curses between her gasps for air, Leona also opened the door, rushed through, and closed it behind her.

“...”
“Don’t look at me like that. They’re nice people for the most part.”

He doubted he had any good answers to any questions Gale might have wanted to ask, and he definitely didn’t want to hear them. Instead, without waiting for any more interruptions, he pushed the door open and the two of them stepped into the warmth of the building.

“Yuuji… and Gale too. Good to see you both, it’s just your other two from the vicarage left then.”
“They should be here soon. Didn’t Valeriya and Leona just come in?”

Conrad stroked the stubble on his chin and sighed softly to himself.

“They both went for a morning jog. They’ll be downstairs again in a few minutes.”
“...”
“...”

Conrad, Yuuji and Gale all together shared a brief moment of understanding before turning their attention elsewhere.

“Ugh…”
“Oh god… my head…”
“Verily…”

Hema, Mitra and Akil were all sat on the carpeted floor, each pale as snow and groaning like zombies. Aoi sat behind them, filling up cups of water with the smile of an angel, but Yuuji felt like he could see some sadistic pleasure within her upturned eyes.

“...The landlady offered them one too many drinks last night.”
“...”
“...”

Gale simply reached for a chair quietly, and sat down without a word. Yuuji and Conrad made eye contact but couldn’t bring themselves to speak, so he joined Gale at the table, desperately fighting the urge to hold his head in his hands.

For Phoenix Academy, it was not their finest hour.