Chapter 99, The Exorcist at Amy’s House

Time passed, and before the next practitioner gathering arrived, the new school term came first.

The day before classes resumed, Freya headed to Amy’s house.

As promised, she had bought Amy a few souvenirs from the Fanipaca Empire and was finally bringing them over.

Amy lived in a large estate as well, though her family was not noble.

Her father was apparently a major merchant in Auxerre City.

When Freya reached the gates and saw a property that looked even larger than Euphemia’s family estate, she could not help muttering to herself,

“Why does it feel like every friend I have is rich?”

She approached the guard stationed by the entrance.

“Hello. I’m one of Amy’s classmates. I came to see her. Could you let her know I’m here?”

“Please wait a moment.”

The guard headed toward the mansion.

Not long afterward, Amy came jogging out.

She waved enthusiastically as she approached.

“Faye! It’s been forever~!”

Freya smiled back.

“Amy, long time no see. Oh, and this is for you.”

She held out the bag she had been carrying.

“I picked up some little souvenirs in the Fanipaca Empire. They’re all things you can’t really find here in the Kingdom.”

Amy accepted the bag with both hands.

“Thank you so much~! Since you’re already here, want to come inside for a while? I don’t think you’ve ever been to my house before.”

She did not ask exactly when Freya had returned.

Nor did she ask why Freya had waited until the day before school started to bring her the gifts.

Freya had come to see her.

That alone made Amy happy.

When the mood was this good, why ruin it by asking pointless questions?

Freya accepted the invitation and followed Amy inside.

They headed straight toward Amy’s bedroom.

As they passed through the sitting room, Freya noticed two men talking.

One wore a formal suit and glasses.

The other had slightly messy hair and looked a little unkempt.

Amy waved toward the bespectacled man.

“Dad, I brought a classmate over. We’re going to hang out for a while.”

Without waiting for a response, she grabbed Freya by the hand and pulled her away.

Amy’s bedroom looked almost exactly like the sort of room Freya would have imagined for her.

It was overwhelmingly pink, decorated in a cute style, and packed with stuffed animals of every size.

Large ones.

Small ones.

Fluffy ones.

Every single one looked adorable.

Amy pulled Freya onto the bed and asked eagerly, “Faye, tell me what you did in the Empire! I’m curious about everything!”

“There really wasn’t that much to do,” Freya replied. “Mostly sightseeing, wandering around, and trying food we don’t have here.”

“I still want to hear about it! I’ve never even left Auxerre. I have no idea what the outside world is like.”

That surprised Freya.

“With your family’s money, shouldn’t traveling be pretty easy?”

“It would be, but Dad won’t let me go running off anywhere,” Amy complained. “He says going too far from home is dangerous.”

“But what danger could there really be? You went traveling, had a great time, and came home perfectly safe.”

Freya said nothing.

Internally, however, she muttered,

In a way, your dad is actually completely right. The outside world really is dangerous.

Even if Freya had never gotten involved in Luna’s incidents, she had still been traveling through a city where ordinary people could randomly encounter practitioners who had lost control.

For someone without extraordinary powers, that alone was extremely dangerous.

Freya thought for a moment, then began telling Amy about her trip through the Empire.

The places she had visited.

The strange things she had seen.

The food she had tried.

And inevitably, one name kept coming up.

Euphemia.

Amy eventually asked, “Faye, this Euphemia... is she a good friend of yours?”

“A very good friend~”

Amy’s lips immediately puffed out slightly.

Freya noticed and hurriedly added, “Of course, Amy is also a very, very good friend of mine!”

Amy’s expression relaxed.

“That’s better.”

As they continued chatting, Freya casually looked around Amy’s room.

Then something caught her eye.

Among all the cute decorations, there was one object sitting on the desk that looked completely out of place.

It was white and appeared to have been carved from some kind of bone.

Freya raised an eyebrow.

“What’s that?”

Amy glanced at it.

“Oh, that’s supposed to ward off evil spirits.”

Freya blinked.

“Ward off evil spirits?”

“Mm-hm. Faye, are you scared of ghosts and stuff like that?”

Amy leaned closer with obvious excitement.

“I’m telling you, ghosts might actually be real. I saw one with my own eyes once!”

“Recently, something like that seems to have been haunting our house.”

“My dad hired an exorcist, and he put that thing here.”

Amy pointed toward the white carving.

“Apparently it’s made from some really valuable ivory. It’s supposed to repel evil spirits.”

As Amy explained all this, there was not the slightest trace of fear on her face.

If anything, she looked eager and fascinated.

Freya grew thoughtful.

“Ghosts...?”

This was a world where extraordinary powers existed.

Ghosts being real would hardly be surprising.

But an exorcist?

That was a term Freya had never heard before.

If something supernatural was happening, shouldn’t they contact the authorities?

Special Affairs, specifically.

Then she remembered.

Amy’s father was an ordinary person.

There was a good chance he did not even know Special Affairs existed.

Freya asked, “This exorcist... are you sure he’s legitimate?”

“Could he be a scammer?”

Amy tilted her head.

“Why would you think that?”

“Before he came, lots of strange things kept happening around the house. After he performed the exorcism, all of it stopped.”

“So I think he’s pretty reliable?”

Freya thought for a moment.

“Can I ask how much your father paid him?”

“I’m not really sure,” Amy replied. “I don’t think it was that much.”

“He mostly just bought some anti-ghost items.”

“Maybe a little over two hundred thousand Ducats?”

Freya stared at her.

“?”

If she had merely been suspicious before...

Now she was almost certain.

This so-called exorcist was probably a scammer.

Two hundred thousand Ducats?

That money came way too easily.

Amy, however, seemed completely unaware of the problem.

“Oh! Right!”

Her eyes lit up again.

“If ghosts really exist, doesn’t that mean there might be other supernatural powers too?”

“Could there actually be people with superpowers!?”