“So, do you know who it was that you signed the contract with?” asked Sumire.
“It was someone by the name of Jin Dangca. He was way stronger than I expected, he’s in the same caste as me, so I didn’t think he’d be so much better at combat.”
“How strong was he, exactly?”
“He was using abilities I’d never even seen before, they all seemed overpowered. It didn’t make any sense. We’re both in caste 74.”
It was possible that he had some sort of ability which allowed him to borrow others’ abilities or something else of that type. A poorer student like that wouldn’t be able to purchase many advanced abilities unless they had external help or a special ability.
Regardless, this issue was significantly deeper than it seemed at first.
I didn’t really want to get involved in the hassle of all of it—being dragged into incidents with caste one students would definitely not be fun. I assume that Sumire has a similar mindset at the moment.
Sumire sighed.
“There’s not much I can offer here in terms of aid. At best, I’d give you a loan, but I have my doubts that you’d be able to pay it back. I’d recommend you just drop out now.”
The boyfriend’s face went back to one of shock.
“Wait! What about what you were saying before? With the giving you my points or whatever… um, I might consider that now.”
Sadly, Sumire was no longer considering that.
“You’ve clearly gotten yourself into a situation that’s too problematic for me to handle.”
“No, you don’t get it! I didn’t have a choice!” He raised his voice, “It wasn’t like I wanted to do all this!”
“Then what happened?”
“There were these two boys, they were in my closet and they charged at me in the middle of the night. One of them had a weapon and was threatening me, saying that if I didn’t accept the duel, they’d kill me for real…”
He continued to tell his story but there was plenty of pointless pandering.
I began to make my way into his room and check for the thing I wanted to see.
Pushing passed some of the trash littered on the ground and random bits of clothing and food, I got to his bed and crouched down beside it. In the darkness, I could see the small lint ball that I expected.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
I guess they were coordinated after all. Fern would probably be the next target. They were both boys who hadn’t joined any posse yet and seemed pretty manipulatable.
If Sumire did want to take this case head-on, her best bet would be to camp out with Fern.
Regardless, that was if she decided to help them in the first place—it was a lot of effort for not necessarily a lot in return.
…
Also, it was possible that ‘threatening someone with violence’ did not classify as violence according to the school. But I figured that the more likely reason would be that there wasn’t ‘enough evidence’ relatively speaking. Since there was no actual harm done and none of the ‘threatening’ was caught on camera, it was possible that the school decided to take the side of reasonable doubt.
The hallways did have cameras which would’ve caught the criminals, but they could’ve just hidden their faces. That was about as much evidence as they’d have.
It was definitely a thoroughly planned operation and something that they had done several times.
In the heat of the moment, lots of people would choose to accept the duel as opposed to risking their own life—although it was highly unlikely that they’d actually follow through with the killing.
“…Hey, what are you doing in my room?”
Everyone walked back inside.
“I was just checking for something.”
I picked up the lint ball and threw it to Sumire. Everyone looked at me awkwardly.
I was getting a bit bored of the entire situation.
///
Don’t be like that.
What?
“Sumire, this is allegedly a camera or some sonar device. Take that for what you will.”
“Huh, Akira?”
If she wanted to continue with this, that was her business. My goals were different from hers.
I didn’t really want to play detective.
*
For the first time in a while, I was sitting in my room alone, breathing in the cold, yet seemingly-monitored air of my dorm room. We had no windows which meant that we never really saw proper sunlight, aside from the single pot plant by the side of my desk, everything else was… controlled and artificial.
I poured some water into a cup and splashed it on the little plant.
POINTS
Your current points: 101,937
Current Rank: #54,986
Ever since I found the grocery store on the 300th level, my food costs have been comfortably low. I never had any cravings for good food per se, so it didn’t diminish my quality of life.
Ah, what am I actually doing here?
I never went to the interview to get into this school.
The biggest rule of entering this school was that—no one gets accepted without an interview.
Yet they broke that rule for me.
I never wanted to come here. I would’ve preferred any normal school around the galaxy. I just wanted to live a normal high-schooler’s life.
…
Sigh.
Maybe I could get a book to read from the library. That sounded like a way to pass the time for now. Still, I’d never been a fan of books. They were only a way to pass the time for me.
///
Maybe that’s your fault.
Huh.
What would a normal high-schooler do?
I slowly got up from my bed and made my way to the door. There was one person I wanted to talk to at this school.
But was it too soon?
///
It’s not the time for that yet.
Maybe that was true.
***
[Book 1 - Part 1 END]