‘What? A little girl? She might be small, but she’s extremely powerful and will come back even stronger in a New Game. She’ll be reborn and start all over again. This is the afterlife for her. She’s a ghost, I’m telling you.’

‘Enough!’

A loud voice halted his tirade. It was Rion. Normally calm and collected, he was now red-faced and clearly angry.

When calm had returned, Rion said quietly, ‘I have a question.’

‘What is it?’

‘You’ve done this before, bringing other Little Red Riding Hoods here and telling them they could have a wish granted, haven’t you? Were those Little Red Riding Hoods also students at Yukishina No. 5 Junior High? Every few years you bring a group of them here, don’t you?’

‘Every few years – I think it’s more consistent than that, but if you want to think of it that way, I won’t mind.’ The Wolf Queen spoke petulantly.

‘So every time, you choose kids from this school district who’ve dropped out? Or maybe …’ Rion took a shallow breath. ‘Maybe you select from all the kids at Yukishina? You make their mirrors glow and you open up the castle here. But most of the kids are at school, so they never catch their mirror when it shines. The only students who do are the ones at home.’

Kokoro’s heart beat faster. It seemed entirely plausible.

‘So, really, every student at the school has had the same opportunity to come here. And we haven’t actually been hand-picked?’

Kokoro’s chest tightened, and she found it hard to breathe.

‘Not true,’ the Wolf Queen said emphatically. ‘I selected the seven of you from the start.’

‘Well then, what about me?’ Rion narrowed his eyes. ‘My school isn’t Yukishina No. 5, and yet here I am. Why did you summon someone like me?’

He was trying to meet the Wolf Queen’s eyes.

Kokoro was sure she’d deflect the question, along the lines of How would I know? or You’ll find out soon enough.

But she didn’t. She turned her wolf-masked face to Rion.

‘But you badly wanted to go, didn’t you? To the public junior high in your area?’

Rion looked like he’d been struck by lightning. His back straightened, as if in that very moment he’d been pierced by an arrow.

The Wolf Queen ignored his reaction. She stepped closer in to the group.

‘Do you have anything else to ask? I’ll answer as best I can.’

‘Yes, I do. Where exactly are we?’ Aki said.

Kokoro still wasn’t used to seeing her in the uniform. The uniform she knew all too well.

‘This is the castle in the mirror,’ the Wolf Queen replied, a little grandly. ‘Your own castle, open for you until March. Use it in whatever way you like.’

‘What do you want us to do?’