Although Everly chose to stand her ground in the face of authority and refused to give false testimony, the power of capital was beyond imagination.
In the end, Kelly was taken away by the police as a suspect in the murder case.
Except for Everly, every teacher and student who had seen Kelly in the cafeteria gave false testimony during questioning, all claiming they had not seen her there. As a result, Kelly immediately became the prime suspect.
At the school gate, under the watchful eyes of everyone, the short and plump girl looked like a ghost out of place in the world, expressionless, as she was escorted into the police car by several officers.
Not long after returning to the classroom, Everly received notice that her request for a leave of absence had been denied.
It seemed that her act of testifying for Kelly had angered certain people. Someone had specifically spoken with the principal, and Everly’s application for leave was rejected by the school for reasons such as insufficient justification and lack of medical documentation.
She had no choice but to continue attending school.
Unlike Everly, all the other seventh-grade students who had requested leave or a temporary withdrawal due to severe psychological trauma were approved. Incidentally, the only surviving bully, Elrond, also withdrew from school. On the day Eric’s body was discovered, Elrond had left the school at lightning speed immediately afterward.
With so many students leaving, the once lively campus suddenly became very quiet. Such a peaceful environment should have been Everly’s dream, yet for some reason, she could not focus no matter how long she sat with her books.
After some thought, Everly decided to make a trip to the school library.
She would not involve herself in the matter of the cursed witch, but that did not stop her from looking up related information to satisfy her curiosity. After all, the world was full of endless horror stories. If she managed to avoid the witch’s case, there would always be another case waiting for her next. The more she knew, the more experience she could draw from in the future.
Convincing herself of this, Everly ended up staying in the library for a full two days.
Anyone who often watches horror films knows that no matter what kind of case the protagonist faces, a trip to the local library always turns up some clue. Though Everly was not a movie protagonist, diligence could make up for lack of talent. After repeated searches, she successfully unearthed the “manuscript” mentioned by the student who had invited her on the nighttime tour, along with a thick stack of old newspapers from that period.
The legend of the cursed witch began to appear in the 1930s.
At that time, Fino Academy had not yet been established, and the land belonged to a Catholic church. In the United States of that era, basic education was already widespread. One day, a young woman named Olivia Salaman stormed into the school and complained to the teachers, claiming that her daughter had been severely b*llied by classmates.
The students who bllied the girl came from affluent families, while Olivia was merely a factory worker. The teachers failed to handle the bllying fairly, and in anger, Olivia publicly cursed the students, declaring that they would suffer tenfold, a hundredfold, the same pain her daughter endured.
Her curse quickly came true. From that day on, anyone who had b*llied Olivia’s daughter became entangled in bizarre accidents and met untimely deaths—attacked and killed by packs of stray dogs, burned alive in ovens, or shredded into pulp by a boat propeller in a park… Enraged, the students’ parents suspected Olivia was behind it all. They broke into her home and discovered numerous herbs and tools associated with witchcraft.
Fearing the power of the witch, people dared not confront her themselves and turned to the church for help. The church dispatched a team of exorcists who arrested Olivia.
From this point on, the records diverge.
Local newspaper reports stated that Olivia committed scide shortly after her arrest. But according to the anonymous manuscript, Olivia had not actually died; instead, she was secretly confined in the chapel, locked in a pitch-dark dungeon for two years before finally passing away.
If this information were true, what purpose did leaving behind the witch serve?
With this question in mind, Everly sifted through the local news from those two years. Operating under the assumption that the witch had survived, she quickly found several suspicious deaths. These cases were all officially ruled as “accidents” because no culprit could be found, yet a closer look revealed that their occurrences were riddled with uncanny coincidences, as if an invisible hand were orchestrating events from behind the scenes.
For example, the July 3, 1934, edition of the newspaper reported the death of Servy, the deputy mayor of Micano. The deputy mayor had been struck in the neck by a bullet during a public speech and died from excessive blood loss. According to later investigative findings, the bullet had come from the second floor of a nearby private residence. The male owner of the house, heavily in debt during the Great Depression, had been ready to end his own life, only to be discovered by his wife.
She rushed forward and embraced him, crying and begging him not to give up hope. Persuaded, he put down the gun, resolved to start anew—but no one anticipated that the handgun would discharge when it hit the floor, sending a bullet through the balcony railing and striking the deputy mayor below, causing his death.
Such “too bizarre even for a novel” deaths occurred five times within just two years. Every victim held high rank and wielded significant influence in Micano at the time.
It was clear that during those two years, someone had used Olivia’s curse to kill enemies and eliminate rivals.
Looking further, Everly examined the local corporate landscape after the power reshuffling. One company had risen to dominance: East Ridge Electric Company—a familiar name. Among the four b*llies, the ringleader, Elrond Kingsley, came from a family that had held more than 60% of the company’s shares for generations.
At that point, Everly understood: the witch hadn’t just killed for Kelly—she had also been exacting vengeance on the descendants of her enemies.
The manuscript did not say exactly how Olivia died. What annoyed Everly even more was that even after Olivia’s death, the Kingsley family continued to prosper. East Ridge Electric thrived under their control and soon became the leading enterprise in the region.
Later, in the 1940s, the church, under financial pressure, sold the land. The first principal of Fino Academy established the school on the former church property, converting the old chapel into part of the teaching building.
…
After reviewing the materials, Everly had a clear understanding of the cause and effect behind the events.
Now, of the four bllies, only one remained alive. Once Elrond was dead, the matter should finally come to an end… Although it sounded cruel to have killed four people over mere bllying, there is truth in the saying, “Do not advise others to be good unless they have suffered themselves.” Everly was not the victim here, so she could not expect the b*llies to change.
Moreover, no use of power comes without a price. By borrowing the witch Olivia’s power to curse and kill the four, Kelly would inevitably pay a heavy cost. In that sense, the world was both cruel and fair.
Everly believed that once Elrond faced justice, everything would be over.
But she had forgotten an old saying from her previous life in China: “The harm of the wicked lasts a thousand years.”
Elrond was clearly this “thousand-year harm.” After leaving the school, he was immediately placed under the strict protection of experts summoned by his parents from all over the country—exorcists, ghost hunters, mediums, and other specialists.
Everly only found out about this because of Rebecca. A locally well-known fortune teller, Rebecca had also received an invitation from the Kingsley family. Tempted by the promised payment in the letter but lacking the proper equipment, she called Everly, hoping to borrow the dolls, nooses, and other items Everly had previously purchased.
Everly: “…”
“Are you really going to get involved in this? Don’t say I didn’t warn you. The target this time isn’t just anyone—it’s a cursed witch.” Everly shared all the information she knew with Rebecca.
“Oh, relax. Don’t worry. I’m just going to coast along in the team and earn a base fee. And guess who I spotted among them?”
“Who?”
“Wester! You know him, right? That legendary exorcist who never loses a fight. The Kingsleys are really going all out this time. With Wester on the team, taking on a cursed witch is going to be a piece of cake!” Rebecca’s voice brimmed with excitement she could barely contain.
Wester? That guy again? Was he some protagonist from a series of movies?
Everly thought carefully about whether she had seen any films featuring Wester in her previous life. Unfortunately, probably due to her limited viewing, she couldn’t find any references. Still, Rebecca wasn’t wrong—having Wester around made it feel like a cursed witch wasn’t anything to worry about.
After all, he was a terrifying man who could single-handedly crush even myth-level entities.
“…Even with Wester there, you’d better not get too proactive. If the witch fails to kill Wester, she might come after you instead.” Everly finally warned Rebecca, then coldly refused to lend her the equipment.
Hilarious—once the items had been sold to her, there was no way to “take them back,” even on loan. After all, a little girl’s life was still a life!
With Rebecca acting as a live-news informant, Everly effortlessly stayed up-to-date on the Kingsley family’s movements. Apparently, to protect Elrond from the cursed witch, Wester had deployed a rare and hardly ever used item from his personal collection—a safe house modeled on the Winchester Mystery House.
The Winchester Mystery House was a famous paranormal building in the United States, located in Janifly State. It was a mansion converted from a farm by the widow of the heir to the Winchester Rifle Company. Inside, the house was a labyrinth, with hundreds of rooms, countless doors, windows, and staircases—an incredibly complex structure. It was said that the widow firmly believed her husband and daughter had died because too many people had been killed by Winchester firearms, and that restless spirits had come seeking vengeance. She tried to trap these ghosts within the maze-like mansion so they could not find the people they wished to kill.
Her efforts seemed to work. Ever since the house began its transformation, many reported seeing spirits inside the Winchester mansion—but the widow herself lived there safely for thirty-eight years.
“In 1906, an earthquake caused the top three floors of the Winchester House to collapse. Wester’s safe house was built using the bricks and timber collected from that collapsed section. As long as Elrond stays inside, no malevolent spirit or curse can ever find him,” Rebecca explained.
“…”
Damn it—Everly really wanted a house like that!
She immediately looked up information on the Winchester Mystery House, only to sadly discover that, starting in 1974, the Janifly State government had designated the mansion as a protected historical site. Any hope of scavenging bricks and timber to build her own safe house was clearly impossible.
Ah… the jealousy…