A Fortune-telling Princess - Chapter 275

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 1. The Young Murderer
“That one?”
[Yes….]
Academy Middle School Building.
In the Middle School 2nd Year Class C Hallway, there was someone peering through a window with only their head visible—Camilla.
“Hmm.”
Looks like a model student type.
As I surveyed the classroom, I glanced sideways. There stood a girl who appeared to be around ten years old. More precisely, a ghost child.
‘Still frightened, it seems.’
Dead, yet afraid of living humans—how absurd.
The girl seemed too terrified even to look properly into the classroom.
I had encountered this ghost child not long ago when I went to the Guard Headquarters to report a new acquisition.
A spirit child clinging desperately to the hem of a man’s garment as he pleaded with the guards.
[Please help me. My father… please help. Could you tell me where I am?]
‘Sigh, this meddlesome nature of mine.’
I hadn’t intended to meet her gaze, but those tear-filled eyes broke my resolve once again.
I found myself drawn to approach the man who appeared to be the child’s father.
And….
‘I found the child’s corpse on a nearby mountain.’
Extracting information from the girl, I approached the man and, feigning a divination, revealed where her remains lay.
Thus the child was discovered.
‘Decomposed….’
Severed… an incomplete form.
‘Madman.’
If you’re going to kill, at least do it cleanly. Accompanying the search for the corpse, I found myself genuinely enraged, cursing inwardly without pause.
The sight of the decomposed, severed remains stirred no horror or disgust within me.
Having witnessed countless atrocities since childhood through the ghosts that tormented me, I had grown numb to such scenes.
‘It was simply heartbreaking.’
Seeing the corpse discarded without a shred of respect for the deceased, I felt a surge of anger and sorrow.
And watching the child’s father hold that body, tenderly adjusting the dead girl’s clothes while unable to even properly cry, I could not tear my eyes away.
‘What comes next is obvious, isn’t it?’
I had to capture whoever did this to the child. Fortunately, the dead girl knew the perpetrator’s identity with perfect clarity.
Following the child, I arrived here—the Academy Middle School Building.
Watching the girl lead me forward, I exhaled a long sigh.
“Has the Academy been cursed?”
How many murderers does this place harbor?
‘Is it another professor?’
Recalling Professor JB, who had committed serial murders before, I suspected the culprit was again a Middle School instructor.
Since she mentioned the Middle School, no one else came to mind as a suspect besides the professors.
But….
“…Is that really her?”
A nod.
“…Seriously?”
Camilla stared at the figure the child had pointed to, and couldn’t help but let out a long, incredulous laugh. The child was pointing at another child.
Yes, a child. To Camilla’s eyes, he looked like nothing more than a young boy.
Could he be thirteen? Even being generous with his age, he was barely in his early teens….
As Camilla watched the boy surrounded by friends, laughing brightly and joking around, her gaze turned cold in an instant.
This little bastard killed a child like that?
The condition of the discovered corpse came back to her mind. It wasn’t just murder—could the perpetrator of such a gruesome death really be this young?
“Huh.”
The end times, truly. Camilla shook her head repeatedly as she examined the boy designated as the culprit more carefully.
‘Wow… the psycho is smiling.’
Seeing the boy grinning so innocently made it all the more infuriating.
‘…Right.’
True psychopaths always look perfectly normal on the surface.
After staring at the boy designated as the culprit for a long time from her position by the window, Camilla let out another long sigh.
What should I do with this little monster?
“….”
Camilla’s gaze turned toward the child spirit.
“What would you like me to do with him?”
[Yes?]
“What do you want me to do to that bastard?”
If everything you’ve said is true, then he’s literally insane.
“Should I drive him completely mad and throw him in a psychiatric hospital?”
[Y-yes?]
“Or maybe I could beat him half to death and put him on trial so he pays for his crimes properly.”
Prison might be better than a psychiatric hospital anyway.
“I’ll do whatever you want.”
[I….]
Young Girl Rana’s gaze turned hesitantly toward the classroom. Even now, seeing that person made her body tremble involuntarily. The memories of that time came flooding back vividly.
‘Could you help me out? I have so much stuff to move. As you can see, I’ve injured my leg.’
Someone had called out to her on the way home, and it was a familiar face.
An older student from the middle school division—one who studied well and always wore a kind smile, making him very popular even among the elementary school students.
She couldn’t find a reason to refuse his request. Her father’s words about helping those in pain came to mind as well.
And so Rana, following that older student to some house….
Shiver.
“Rana?”
Seeing Rana trembling with fresh terror, Camilla quickly led the child away from that place.
It seemed keeping the victim and perpetrator together for too long wasn’t a good idea after all.
Camilla took the child to a quiet lakeside she frequented. Only then did the child’s expression finally ease.
[…I wish that for him too.]
After a long moment, the child slowly opened their mouth. Their voice trembled with sobs, their eyes slightly reddened.
[I wish he suffered as much as I did… I wish that for him too.]
The child who spoke those words suddenly froze. Was it really okay to say such a thing—wishing suffering upon another?
Father had always said that speaking only kind and beautiful words would draw happiness to those around us….
[And I wish he could never do bad things again.]
But more than anything, I hoped no one else would have to suffer and grieve the way I did… the way Father did.
“That’s all?”
[Pardon?]
The child looked up cautiously, only to see Camilla’s brow deeply furrowed.
“Making him suffer is all you want?”
[Well….]
“At the very least, I’d want to cut off XX, break XXX, and smash X so hard that—”
[No, no.]
Camilla, who had been pouring out her words without restraint, was forced to stop as Zeno suddenly appeared and covered Rana’s ears with both hands.
Well, even if he was dead, it wasn’t something to say in front of a child, was it?
“So you’re saying you want that bastard to suffer a hundred times more than the pain you went through?”
[A h-hundred times?]
That’s not what I said at all….
“Don’t worry, don’t worry. This kind of thing is my specialty.”
Camilla patted the bewildered child’s shoulder with a wicked grin.
“A hundred times? That’s nothing—a thousand times, ten thousand times! I’ll make sure he can never show his face in public again. Creatures with such blackened hearts care deeply about their social image.”
Camilla left the spot, burning with resolve.
[Wait….]
I don’t really wish for all that… I just hope he never does anything bad again….
[Let it go. It’s too late to stop her now.]
Zeno, who had been shaking his head at the sight of Camilla, followed after her, and the child also hurried along with an awkward smile.
Whoosh.
Meanwhile, in the space where Camilla had vanished, someone quietly appeared.
“…What trouble has she gotten herself into this time?”
It was Arsian.
He had been resting in a tree as usual when he spotted Camilla and tried to approach her.
But when Camilla began conversing with someone and he realized it was a dead spirit, he watched them silently for a moment.
“Tsk.”
Some bastard had gotten under her skin again, it seemed.
Arsian, who clicked his tongue lightly, also slowly left the area.
* * *
“Brother.”
“What?”
Ravi, absorbed in infusing mana into mana stones, didn’t spare Camilla a single glance at her call.
“What if, hypothetically speaking?”
“Yeah?”
Camilla had a habit of dropping by my Quarters to ramble about trivial matters, so I offered little more than a perfunctory response.
“How do you think it would look if I got tangled up in another murder case?”
Crack!
“…Damn it…”
I buried my face in my hands and cursed softly. A momentary lapse in concentration had shattered the mana stone I’d been working on.
“Sigh.”
Farewell, three days of labor. I’d only just begun crafting this mana stone three days ago.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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