“This!” I placed the brush on the table for them all to see.

  “A brush? Why is it so small? Wait…” Narumi took a closer, inquisitive look. “Is this one of those used for make-up?”

  Carol sighed. “Isn’t that obvious?”

  “Hmmm… Is this one of ours? I don’t think so… All our stuff was accounted for last time I cleaned. Why are you suddenly showing us a random…” Hecate suddenly realized. “Don’t tell me you got it from a monster…”

  “Yep. That’s it. It happened yesterday. I was hanging out with Miyuki when I suddenly got attacked by what looked like a giant mosquito. It ended up being more of a pain in the ass to defeat than I was expecting, and it turned into this brush when I killed it.”

  “I see… This is becoming a bigger problem than I anticipated…” Katja grabbed the brush with a serious look on her face. “Shinji has been trying to find out more about this new type of monster, and so far, we’re the only ones who have run into them. But this is getting out of hand.”

  Narumi suddenly became lost in thought. “Just us…? Could it be that there is someone behind those monsters, like Iroha said? Someone who happens to be near us?”

  “Wait… Really?” That would explain some things… Endell did say it's possible that someone from our world is responsible…

  “*Sigh…* Speculation is fine, but aren’t you forgetting something important?” Hecate reached across the table and caressed a lock of my hair. “Are you alright, Iroha? If you got hurt, our first priority should be to take care of you.”

  “Huh…? I…” Is she really doing this? In front of everyone? Carol was glaring, and Katja averted her eyes. “Of course!” I leaned back all fidgety to escape her. “I’m perfectly fine! Don’t worry about me!”

  “What about Miyuki? Was Miyuki hurt!?” Narumi leaned forward in a rush, worried.

  “Of course… I would never let her get hurt…” And not just because it’s our duty as members of the House. “But… Is she the only one you worry about? You two sure got along…”

  She shot me a surprised look. “Ehh? Why would I worry about you? You said not to.” Okay, that’s extremely fair. “Ahh! No way! I forgot to get her number! Iroha…” She whined. “What do I do? Help me…!”

  “Not now, Narumi… Though Miyuki being there raises a problem for us… We must keep monsters a secret from civilians. Where is she now, Iroha? I have to ask Shinji to send someone to keep her quiet.”

  “Hmm… It’s still early, so she’s probably heading to school ri-” Wait… I can’t get her involved… Now that I think about it, why didn’t I keep quiet about her?! I’m getting too careless… “Actually, don’t worry, Katja. She passed out as soon as the monster appeared and didn’t remember anything. She couldn’t expose us even if she wanted!”

  “Really?” They seemed a bit suspicious over how I was trying to defend her. Getting civilians to stay quiet wasn’t always pleasant, so they could understand. “Well, I’ll mention that to Shinji… A small investigation should suffice to clear her of any suspicion.”

  Guess that’s not too bad…

  “How many does this make now?” Katja rubbed her brow. “Three? First it was on the cruiser, then I got attacked, and now Iroha?”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “It’s four, actually.” Carol chimed in. Narumi and Katja were surprised, but Hecate and I reacted too. She’s gonna tell them? How’s she going to explain?

  “F- four? Is there something I’m forgetting?”

  “No… It’s not that… I got attacked too. By a ghost. When we went to the beach. Iroha and Hecate helped me out.”

  “…” Katja looked between us in shock. “Is this true?” What’s Carol thinking? I didn’t know what to say, so I just nodded. “No way… It’s been a few days… How come I’m only hearing this now?” Katja seemed a bit disappointed.

  “We weren’t trying to hide it… It was just difficult to talk about.” Hecate started with a gentle tone. “The monster acted so much like a ghost that we weren’t completely sure of what we saw. Even now, we’re still not fully certain. We settled on it being a monster and decided it was time to share it with you.”

  “You weren’t sure…? *Sigh…*” Katja seemed relieved. “It’s fine to be careful about false reports, but you could have still talked to me… The House is not the PSF… We’re not merely coworkers… We could have figured it out together…”

  Katja’s being strangely adorable again… No one’s really sure what to say.

  “Yeah, right… If we told you, you’d just overwork yourself even more. We can handle ourselves too, you know? You don’t need to do everything by yourself.” Carol averted her gaze as a small smile formed on Katja’s lips.

  “I understand. Thank you, and sorry for the trouble.” She seemed genuinely happy for a moment. “A- anyway… What did that ghost turn into? It’s that type of monster, right?”

  “Uhmm… It turned into a keychain, but…” We don’t have it since we gave it to Ririna? What the hell do I say?

  “We lost it.” Carol had no choice but to lie. “It was small, and we were at the beach. We got distracted for a second, and it was gone. Probably got lost in the sand. Sorry.”

  “It’s okay… There’s nothing we can do now. The question now is what are we gonna do about this? Three of us have been attacked by these monsters in relatively quick succession. At this point, even I’m inclined to believe someone may really be creating these monsters to target us.”

  “You mean… the House?” I asked.

  “Probably… The mirror, I’m not sure where it fits, but if you look at the other cases, there’s a clear pattern… Hecate, Narumi, keep your guard up. There’s a good chance you’ll be targeted next… We’re all members of the House of Imaginary Boundaries… That’s what links us together.”

  “You, Iroha, and Carol… What if there’s something else linking you three-” Narumi was about to ask a question when she was interrupted.

  *Knock knock knock*

  The dorm’s door opened, and a cowardly-looking middle-aged man stepped inside. Wait, that’s mean… gentle-looking man. Better.

  “Good morning…” Glasses, scruffy beard, long brown hair, and a completely harmless look on his face. “Ah! Great, you’re all here… Hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

  “Shinji?” Carol turned around in her chair. We all looked toward the man. “What are you doing cowering around the entrance? You’re technically our boss. Act like it.”

  Carol set him straight, and he finally loosened his shoulder while scratching the back of his head. “Ahahaha… You’re right…”

  Hecate slid back her chair, ready to get up. “Have you had breakfast yet? I’ll bring something for you.”

  “No… I couldn’t ask you to do that for me! I’ve already had breakfast, so don’t worry. I just came here to discuss something.” Shinji adjusted his glasses and walked to the side of the table. “We’ve received a new job.”

  “Really? Has a monster appeared? What’s the situation?” Katja immediately took point.

  “It’s strange… Hard to explain… The timing is unfortunate, isn’t it?” He looked at Carol and Katja. “You started going to school recently, and here I am forcing you to skip… *Sigh…* Same for you, isn’t it, Iroha?”

  I nodded, but I couldn’t care less about skipping a day… It’s not a problem in Three Records unless you fail the exams, and I wasn’t alone. “It’s fine… Not like we go all the time regardless. We’re busy with other stuff, you know?”

  “Protecting Three Records from monsters is our duty above all else. Now, what’s this job you’ve got for us? What’s strange about it?”

  “Well… It came from the PSF. It’s a supernatural phenomenon, and there have been two victims already, but they can’t confirm the existence of a monster.”

  “How? If there are victims, isn’t that enough to confirm the existence of a monster?” Katja rubbed her chin. “Were there no visible wounds? Would explain that…”

  “Something like that, Katja… I’ll explain things on the way, so for now, I’d like for you to get ready. I’ll get the van ready.”

  …

  On a highway that cut across Three Records, Shinji drove us eastward, to a denser part of the town. The van had eight seats in total. Katja was in the front, with the rest of us sitting behind.

  “This happened in a courthouse, the one near the airport and the big research center. Have you been there before?” Shinji started his explanation while keeping his eyes on the road. “Yesterday, at around evening, a judge and an attorney were rescued in a very weakened state.”

  “They were in no position to talk and all we’ve managed to get out of them is that they were trapped inside a courtroom for multiple days before being found. Which is impossible. The room had been functioning as normal, and there were witnesses who claimed to have seen them just hours before they were found. They’re in the hospital resting for now.”

  “And nothing was found in that room?” Hecate asked.

  “No… But I hear the PSF didn’t run a very thorough search. They didn’t want to accidentally put their personnel in danger, so they closed it off right away. The whole courthouse has been closed until someone figures out what happened…”

  Carol shook her head. “And that someone is us… *Sigh…* When are those idiots going to grow a spine? Guess it doesn’t even matter anymore. We do the job better than them…”

  “I still don’t get it… What are we doing then?” Narumi grabbed her head. “Is it a puzzle? Are we there to find out what happened or eliminate a monster?”

  “We’re not the ones who half-ass everything, so if we find it, we kill it, right?” Carol checked with Shinji, who nervously nodded.

  “That’s right, but don’t put yourselves in danger. You know how to handle yourselves, so I’ll trust your judgement.” The van slowed down as Shinji parked near the entrance. “I’ll wait here for you. Good luck.” Katja chuckled.

  “Don’t worry. Leave it to us!”