"Did you see it, Second Sister?"

"What did I see?"

"Big Sister's expression!"

Behind the cherry blossom tree, the ghost-hunting duo was secretly observing.

Aurora pointed at Noa, who was still sitting under the tree, and said,

"Back when Big Sister trained alone, she also did these kinds of sitting meditation practices. But look at her now—she's smiling one moment, stern the next, and then she looks completely bewildered."

Little Moon blinked her equally confused big eyes. "Emmmmm...So?"

"So, Big Sister must be using meditation as a cover to secretly chat with the ghost in her body!"

Aurora declared confidently, "Look, Second Sister. I recently studied a magic array that can force ghosts to reveal their form. In a moment, we will..."

The two sisters whispered as they hatched their plan.

Then, silently and stealthily, they emerged from behind the tree. Taking advantage of Noa's closed-eyed meditation, they began doodling something right next to her.

Their movements were light, and fortunately, Noa was deeply focused, so even as they finished drawing the array, Noa remained completely unaware.

Once the array was complete, the two stood right in front of Noa.

Muen looked a bit worried. "Aurora, if this doesn't work again, we're going to get our butts smacked."

"Don't worry, Second Sister. The path to success is always littered with small setbacks."

Muen replied with a serious face to her younger sister's cliché wisdom, "Small setbacks? Aurora, over the past few months, we've been getting spanked once a week on average. 'Small setbacks' doesn't exactly fit, does it?"

Hearing this, Aurora was reminded of some less pleasant memories as well, and instinctively patted her buttocks behind.

"Don't worry, Second Sister. I promise this time it will definitely work!"

Aurora assured, "This manifesting array was something I learned from Mom’s collection room. It won't harm Big Sister's body, but it will reveal the ghost inside her."

Despite her little sister’s confident assurances, Muen couldn't help recalling that every time they got their butts smacked before, Aurora had also promised, "This time, it will definitely work."

After hesitating for a moment, Muen nodded.

"Alright, considering how many times we've been spanked, one more won’t make a difference!"

"As expected of the second princess of the Melkevi house, so valiant!"

"So, what should we do now?" Muen asked.

"The book says this manifesting array requires two magic elements to activate."

Aurora explained, "First, use lightning as an initial power source to activate the array. Once it’s sufficiently charged, use fire to manifest the ghost."

Listening to Aurora's explanation, Muen scratched her head.

"Why does it sound like this array was tailored just for me?"

Lightning and fire—elements that were not only their dad's and mom's respective elements, but also Muen's twin-soul awakening attributes.

"Well, it’s a bit of a coincidence, but hey, the world is full of quirky wonders. There’s bound to be an array or two that just happens to require lightning and fire, right?"

Muen suddenly understood and nodded eagerly. "Oh, that makes sense~"

"Yep, now let’s get to it, Second Sister."

"Alright!"

Following Aurora's instructions, Muen first gathered her lightning element to serve as the initial activation source for the array.

As the array’s runes began to glow blue, Muen slowly gathered her fire element.

Aurora's eyes lit up. She didn't expect her usually lazy and laid-back second sister to pull through at critical moments so perfectly!

The array's glow grew stronger and eventually caught Noa’s attention.

She slowly opened her eyes.

"Muen... Aurora? What are you two doing?"

"Uh oh, Big Sister noticed."

"Keep going, Second Sister! We're almost there! For the sake of our butts, press on!"

"Oh, oh, okay!"

The two elements kept pouring into the array.

Seeing this, Noa immediately stood up and tried to step forward but found herself restrained in place by the array’s magic, unable to move.

"What’s going on, Aurora? What new mischief are you up to this time?"

"Big Sister, just hold on a little longer. We’re almost about to reveal the ghost inside your body."

"There’s no ghost inside me. If you don’t stop right now, you can kiss your behinds goodbye."

Despite Big Sister’s "threat," Aurora felt a sense of security with the array in her hands. For the moment, she wasn’t too worried about her behind.

"Don’t listen to Big Sister. Keep going, Second Sister!"

"O-Okay..."

Noa tried swinging a fist.

But when her fist hit the transparent wind wall formed by the array, it had no effect whatsoever.

Seeing this, Noa stopped struggling entirely and asked calmly,

"Aurora, are you absolutely sure this array can reveal a so-called ghost?"

Aurora nodded confidently. "Of course. I learned this from Mom's collection room; it’s guaranteed to work!"

"And if it doesn’t?"

"Impossible! It has to work!"

Aurora stood there with her hands on her hips, brimming with confidence, her small tail swinging proudly.

"If it doesn’t work, then our butts are at your disposal. We won’t resist."

Hearing this, Noa raised an eyebrow, her expression instantly reading, "I’ve been waiting for you to say that."

"Alright then. Since you’ve laid it all out so clearly, how can I not cooperate?" Noa said slowly with a growing smile.

Aurora froze. "W-What do you mean by that..."

"Oh, nothing."

Noa crossed her arms, the smile on her face deepening. "I’ll just stand here quietly, watching your performance."

"Tch. It must be the ghost manipulating Big Sister’s body, making her say things like this. Second Sister, power through! Victory is near!"

"Alright, got it!"

The elemental energy from the array began swirling around Noa. The light wind stirred her hair and softly lifted the edges of her skirt.

But Noa remained calm and unaffected.

As the energy dissipated and the glow of the array began to fade, the so-called ghost still did not appear.

Aurora's face was filled with shock. She instinctively stepped back half a step, her voice trembling as she stared at her Big Sister.

"H-How is this possible... The book clearly said it would work... Did I mess up when drawing the array?"

"You didn’t mess up the array, Aurora."

Noa slowly started walking toward her two younger sisters. "In fact, this is a mid-to-advanced level array. Your ability to flawlessly replicate it without systematic study is already impressive."

Aurora furrowed her brows. "Then why didn’t it work..."

"Because this array was never designed to reveal ghosts in the first place."

Noa shrugged. "It’s just an energy transfer array. Look, see this."

As she spoke, Noa spread her palms open. One hand crackled with pulsating lightning, while the other burned with a fierce flame.

"Oh, so this is what it feels like to control fire magic."

As someone who hadn’t yet learned a second type of elemental magic, this was Noa's first time wielding the power of flames.

"But, but that doesn’t make sense. Big Sister, how did you know? I clearly—"

Aurora’s sentence stopped midway, as if she realizing something.

She said slowly. "The book about manifesting ghosts… was that something you deliberately placed there, Big Sister?"

Noa’s smile deepened as her eyes narrowed slightly. "Correct. Why else would a ghost-revealing array need lightning and fire to activate? It doesn’t make any logical sense, does it?"

"...Big Sister, you’re despicable!"

Noa spread her arms innocently. "I simply placed some random notes I wrote in Mom’s collection room. I never forced you to follow it, so how am I despicable?"

Aurora’s eye twitched slightly, her body tense.

Is this the advantage of age?

The older she gets, the more she resembles Mom and Auntie—completely brimming with cunning schemes!

Wait—

If Big Sister is full of tricks, why doesn’t Second Sister have any?

They’re twins, aren’t they, for crying out loud!

"By the way, Aurora, what was it you just said?"

Noa cracked her knuckles, with a playful smirk on her face.

"If the array didn’t work, your butts would be... at~ my~ disposal~"

"...Second Sister, run! Quickly, run!"

"Big Sister, please go easy on us. Wahhh~"

---

Ten minutes later.

The two little dragon girls lay flat under the cherry blossom tree, the fiery stinging sensation on their behinds leaving them too defeated to even talk.

Noa sat cross-legged in front of them.

After a pause, she reached out and poked Muen’s little tuft of hair.

"You've gotten quite skilled at handling dual elements, Muen."

"Mm..." Still lying facedown in the grass, Muen let out a muffled grunt of acknowledgment.

Their rapid progress truly surprised Noa.

A twin-soul awakening was rare enough, but achieving mastery over two different elements in just two years required relentless effort and dedication.

Perhaps, even in moments when no one was watching, Little Moon had been quietly training herself with determination.

After all, her goal for enrolling in Saint Hiss Academy had been to one day catch up to Noa.

As for Aurora, her ability to casually assemble such a mid-to-advanced level energy transfer array highlighted her tremendous talent for research.

Even their dad had once mentioned that in the future timeline, it was through Aurora’s research into reversal magic that they were able to return to the present.

All in all, Noa’s “sting operation” scheme had yielded some unexpected benefits this time.

"Big Sister..." Aurora muttered weakly from nearby.

"What is it?"

The pink-haired dragon girl turned her head slightly, pressing her cheek against the grass. With teary eyes, she looked up and asked,

"Just be honest with us—has that ghost been hurting you?"

Noa was taken aback.

"So you’ve been trying to catch that ghost all this time because you were worried about it harming me?"

Aurora nodded.

But in the very next second, she suddenly sprang up from the ground in a tiger leap.

"So you’re admitting there *is* a ghost!"

"You’ve got your energy back, huh?!"

"Aurora, calm down. My butt can't take getting smacked twice in one evening..." muttered Muen.

Noa also stood, looking down at Aurora’s sparkling pink eyes. With sincerity, she said,

"She hasn’t hurt me, Aurora. Rest assured. It’s just that, due to certain circumstances, I—"

Noa's words came to an abrupt halt.

Her gaze suddenly became vacant.

Muen and Aurora panicked and quickly shook Noa's arms.

"Sis, sis, what's wrong with you?"

"Big sis... Hey, big sis, don't scare me. I'm warning you, ghost—if you dare to touch my big sis, I'll fight you—"

"Tsk, brats."

Muen & Aurora: ?

When Noa's gaze returned to normal, the expression on her face also changed slightly.

"I had originally planned to just give this little brat a lesson on true history."

As 'Noa' spoke, she raised her arm and pointed her thumb at the top of her head.

"But since you all are so insistent, I'll explain it to all of you instead."