Rumi and the kids began cutting down the corpse flowers with sickles, gathering them in rge quantities.

  The flower field wasn’t just filled with corpse flowers; various other pnts grew there as well. There were plenty of bugs to catch, so after gathering a decent amount of corpse flowers, the kids started collecting the other ingredients Medina had mentioned.

  There was no clear boundary between the flower field and the garden, but the garden definitely had a wide variety of pnts growing in neat rows.

  Rumi also collected some strange ingredients from the garden.

  “Mouse tails, dried centipedes, dried moonflowers, weak snake venom, spider eyes, dandelion seeds, willow roots, glowing baby roots... Manuka oil... and red water from Hotel Hylence...”

  “How much of each ingredient do we need?”

  "Um... the more the better. We'll have to repeat experiments until we perfect the curse liquid."

  “This is going to be a nightmare...”

  Niel, already exhausted, muttered under her breath.

  That day, the kids spent the entire day gathering as many ingredients as they could from the garden.

  The garden was overgrown and poorly maintained, so while collecting ingredients, they also had to tidy it up. They worked tirelessly until the long, hot summer sun finally set.

  “I can’t do this anymore.”

  Niel colpsed onto the ground, completely spent.

  “Did we get all the ingredients? Huff... huff...”

  Eve, leaning against the wall and gasping for breath, looked like she was about to colpse.

  “We’ve got everything we can from here... We’ll need to go to the vilge tomorrow for the rest.”

  Rumi answered, her eyes heavy with exhaustion.

  “By the way, where’s our farm owner, who’s been making us do all the work?”

  Niel asked, her eyes slightly bloodshot.

  “I don’t know... Medina looked like she’d seen something strange, her eyes wide, and then she flew off somewhere.”

  Rumi answered, recalling what she’d seen earlier.

  “She totally ditched us...”

  Niel muttered darkly.

  “Let’s head back inside... I’m so hungry I can’t even move...”

  Eve wrapped her arms around her stomach, her face pale.

  "What's wrong with your face suddenly? You look more like a ghost than usual."

  “Wh-what are you talking about?”

  “Are you feeling sick?”

  “I’m just hungry... Sigh...”

  "Really? Then Let’s eat dinner and take a nap... ugh..."

  Rumi, in a daze, shuffled like a zombie.

  The kids sneaked into the kitchen again and ate the leftover food.

  However, Eve, who had been compining about being hungry, barely touched the food and went to bed early, saying she needed to sleep.

  Rumi and Niel, though it wasn’t even night yet, also decided to sleep.

  They hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep the previous night and were too exhausted to stay awake any longer.

  How much time had passed? Rumi suddenly woke up, her eyes snapping open.

  She sat up in bed as if in a trance and looked around... but Eve was gone who was sleeping right beside her.

  “...?”

  “What? Where did Eve go?”

  Rumi muttered quietly, scanning the room.

  Only Niel was still asleep on the sofa, tied up.

  Fortunately, Medina was nowhere to be seen.

  The problem was that Eve had disappeared without a trace.

  It seemed like Rumi would have to take Niel with her.

  Before getting out of bed, Rumi gnced at the moon outside the window, then approached Niel.

  “Niel... Niel.”

  Rumi whispered like a ghost.

  Niel’s eyes fluttered open.

  "Ugh... ugh? You bitch!"

  “Here we go again... the split personality’s back. Hey, snap out of it, Niel. We’ve got somewhere to go.”

  “Ugh... S-sorry! Did I swear again?”

  “Yeah, but keep it down and get up. We’re going outside.”

  “Huh? Why all of a sudden...?”

  Niel looked around, confused.

  “And it’s just the two of us? Where’s Eve...?”

  “Eve’s gone. I’ll expin more outside, but for now, let’s just sneak out without Medina noticing.”

  “Are you... pnning to go to that funeral home building?”

  “So you wanted to go too? Then hurry up.”

  Rumi tried to pull Niel’s arm, but Niel resisted.

  “Wait, hold on... What if we get caught? Won’t Medina be really mad?”

  “What’s a mad dead girl going to do? She’s the one who lied about something so trivial. And there’s something really suspicious about Medina.”

  Rumi grabbed Niel again, and this time, Niel followed without resistance.

  "Ah, but where did Eve really go? It would be really fun if she came along too."

  As they left, Rumi peeked into the bathroom to see if Eve was there, then headed downstairs.

  But just then, she saw a boy ghost peering into the house through the window.

  It looked like the same ghost they’d seen during the summoning ritual the day before.

  What was strange was that the ghost oddly resembled Raoul.

  “What’s that?”

  “Wh-what?”

  Rumi dashed down the stairs, flung open the front door, and looked up to where the ghost had been.

  But the ghost was already gone.

  “That’s weird... I saw it yesterday too...”

  “What? I didn’t see it... And I haven’t seen a single ghost since we got here...”

  “Hey, isn’t Medina a ghost?”

  “Oh!”

  Rumi and Niel left the house, feeling uneasy.

  When they stepped into the backyard, the moonlight was so bright that the night didn’t feel dark at all.

  Moreover, the sky above Medina’s mansion was eerily clear, with not a single ghost in sight.

  As they entered the flower field, the purple flowers shimmered like stars under the moonlight.

  At the end of the field stood the funeral home barn, their destination.

  Rumi and Niel couldn’t help but marvel at the unexpectedly beautiful night scenery.

  "Wow. What an amazing view?"

  “Wow... It’s even prettier at night.”

  “Seriously, Eve’s missing out.”

  Rumi suddenly thought Eve would’ve loved this view, then immediately felt ridiculous for thinking about her.

  “Shit, am I going crazy?

  Niel, let’s go in!”

  But then Niel tapped Rumi’s shoulder with a worried expression.

  “Rumi, you’re not pnning to go into that barn empty-handed, are you?”

  Niel’s words made Rumi realize that navigating the tall corpse flower field without a sickle would be difficult.

  “Oh, right. We should grab some sickles.”

  Rumi immediately headed to the tool shed.

  There, Niel spotted the sickles and picked up two, holding them in a Y-shape.

  “Rumi, look at this. Ta-da!”

  “...!”

  Rumi thought it was a brilliant idea, but at the same time, she felt an inexplicable sense of threat from Niel in that pose.

  “Uh... that’s... killing two birds with one stone.”

  Rumi quickly looked for the remaining sickles, but strangely, they were nowhere to be found.

  “What the...? Where’s mine?”

  “Keep looking.”

  “Wait, there should be four sickles, right? Where are the other two?”

  Rumi searched the shed, but the sickles were gone.

  “What? Sickles don’t just disappear...”

  Just as the atmosphere was starting to feel eerie, Niel spoke up, sounding scared.

  “D-do you think... the mummified grandma woke up and took the sickles to kill us?”

  “What are you...! Don’t say weird things, Niel.”

  “...”

  Niel’s eyes widened, and she looked even more terrified.

  “Hey... save that kind of talk for Eve and just... hand me a sickle.”

  Rumi held out her trembling hand, waiting for Niel to pass her a sickle.

  But Niel just stood there, staring at Rumi.

  “Niel...!”

  Rumi shivered and shouted.

  “Alright...”

  Niel finally handed one of the sickles to Rumi.

  Squelch squelch

  Squelch squelch

  “Ugh, why is the ground so sticky here?”

  Rumi compined as they trudged deeper into the corpse flower field.

  “Oh no, my shoes are getting all dirty...”

  Niel commented too.

  “This isn’t working. Let’s take off our shoes.”

  Rumi had already taken hers off.

  “Wait, didn’t they say these corpse flowers grow using decomposing human flesh as fertilizer? That means...”

  Rumi froze at Niel’s words.

  “...Niel, want me to carry you on my back?”

  “...?”

  “What’s gotten into you? Rumi, since when were you this nice?”

  “Well... I’m immune to curses, but if you get cursed and your eyes turn red, it’s over for both of us... Hop on.”

  “Rumi... you’re the best. But are you sure you can handle it?”

  “Yeah.”

  Rumi handed her shoes and sickle to Niel and got into position to carry her.

  Niel climbed onto Rumi’s back. But strangely, Rumi’s feet sank three times deeper into the mud.

  “Ugh... you’re heavier than I thought...”

  “Oh, that’s because I’m carrying all the stuff.”

  “Right...”

  Just then, a gust of wind blew, carrying a foul stench straight into Rumi’s nose.

  “Ugh, the smell!”

  “Gross, are the bodies still rotting here?”

  “Ugh, I don’t know...”

  Rumi couldn’t cover her nose while carrying Niel.

  In the end, she breathed through her mouth as she trudged through the swamp-like flower field.

  After walking for a while, they heard the sound of grass rustling in the distance.

  Swish swish swish

  It sounded like someone approaching nearby.

  "Hey, there's not actually someone here, right?"

  "Eek, What if that mummy grandmother really chasing us?"

  "Damn... but maybe she really is?!"

  This time, Rumi couldn’t dismiss Niel’s words.

  But as soon as she heard it, Niel panicked even more and started wildly swinging the sickle from Rumi’s back.

  “Ahh, no! If they get close, we’re dead!”

  “Hey, be careful!”

  Rumi was deeply unsettled by Niel’s actions.

  She began to wonder if bringing Niel along had been the right choice.

  To make matters worse, the closer they got to the barn, the stronger the foul smell became.

  And like being stuck in a swamp, no matter how much they walked the barn building didn't seem to get any closer.

  Carrying Niel on her back, Rumi felt like she was about to colpse from exhaustion.

  Amidst all this, Rumi noticed something strange as she walked barefoot through the mud.

  She felt vibrations coming from the ground.

  The corpse flowers swayed and shimmered purple in response to the vibrations.

  The vibrations didn’t follow a regur pattern; they grew stronger and weaker irregurly, continuing endlessly.

  And just like the foul smell, the mysterious vibrations grew more intense the closer they got to the barn.

  As Rumi walked, feeling the vibrations grow so strong that she could hear them, she asked Niel,

  “Hey, Niel? Do you feel that too?”

  “You mean the vibrations?”

  “Yeah, this is really weird... It’s not an earthquake. What is it...?”

  “I know...”

  After walking for a while longer, Rumi finally got closer to the barn.

  Only then did she realize why the barn had seemed so far away.

  It was because the barn was actually much farther than she’d thought.

  The problem was that the barn was so massive it had appeared closer than it really was.

  "Whoa... was the building this big?"

  Niel, comfortably perched on Rumi’s back, looked up at the building and commented.

  “Damn, if I’d known it was this far, I wouldn’t have carried you...”

  Just then, Rumi started climbing onto firmer ground.

  As soon as she did, she dropped Niel onto the ground.

  “Ahh!”

  “Ouch... I thought I was going to die. Niel, you’ve gained weight... no, actually, you haven’t but got heavier...?”

  Rumi held her back and scolded Niel.

  “Rumi! That’s not important right now. Look.”

  Niel pointed toward the barn.

  Rumi looked where Niel was pointing and saw muddy footprints leading from the flower field up to the barn on the low hill.

  “...?”

  Rumi approached the footprints and noticed the mud was still wet.

  “Yikes! These look fresh.”

  “Ugh... what? First the sickles go missing, and now these footprints... Are these the mummified grandma’s?”

  “...”

  Rumi now seriously considered that someone might be here and that they needed to take action.

  "Niel, you're actually pretty fearless too, right?"

  "Yeah, of course."

  “Then give me back the sickle. If anyone shows up, I’ll swing it at them.”

  “...?”

  Rumi took the sickle back and headed straight for the barn on the hill.

  As they got closer, they realized the barn was even bigger than they’d thought.

  It was about three times the size of a normal barn.

  “What... it’s really big.”

  Rumi suddenly felt small, as if she’d entered a giant’s house.

  “There’s definitely something wrong with this barn...”

  The muddy footprints led all the way to the barn’s massive wooden door.

  The door wasn’t exactly open, but the chain lock was loose enough for them to slip through.

  "Niel, look here we can go in through this gap in the door."

  "Yeah... the muddy footprints lead right up to here."

  "Hmm... then no need to hesitate anymore, I'm going in first."

  Without hesitation, Rumi stuck her head through the gap and entered the barn.

  But the moment she stepped inside, she regretted it.

  “Cough, ugh! What is that?”

  Suddenly a stench strong enough to destroy her sense of smell hit her nose.