Sunday came like normal.

Eva visited Lionel early in the morning with a basket of fruits, saying it’s one of the awards she won from ending the week as a B-Class student. Just as explained, nothing really happened to Lionel.

No reward, no punishment.

“What do you plan to do now?” Eva asks as she peels an apple at his bedside. “Do you want to maintain C-Class?”

“...Yeah.” Lionel nods.

For now, Lionel decides that it was the best decision to not stand out based on the newly acquired information. According to Eva regarding some gossip and chats she overhears, it seems that many are wary and attentive to B-Classes and A-Classes. Most of the higher ranked students liked to challenge and bully low-ranked students.

Considering Lionel’s status as a transfer student, if he rose to B-Class or even A-Class, then so many high rankers will be cautious of him and even try to take him down, which will result in the dungeon again.

Based on the context clues, each class has their corresponding dungeon. F-Class gets sent to the Dungeon of Knowledge, and with what happened to Jane Addawick, A-Class gets sent to the Dungeon of War. He hasn’t studied much about the dungeons nor asked about them, but from what he knew so far, the Dungeon of War seems to have a zero percent survival rate as it is the harshest and most dangerous possible dungeon.

There has been no report of a single student leaving that dungeon ever. In other words, it’s known as a guaranteed death bed.

“Okay, but let’s take tests together again. Like I said, our grades are depleting as we speak. So we’re forced to take tests and stuff. You couldn’t take the weekly exam on Friday, but we really made up for it last night.”

“Alright.” Lionel nods as he accepts an apple slice from Eva.

Eva grins, “We’re gonna do this together!”

“...” Lionel just smiles at her.

“Hey Belmont, don’t stay for too long. Don’t even try to visit later or else...” Mira warns suddenly from her desk.

“What’s with her?” Lionel asks.

“It’s gonna be super busy for her later…Well, that is if any of the punished students actually survive the dungeons.” That’s right…So at this time, all the punished students are in the dungeons.

“Healer Mira, when will Lionel get better enough to leave the infirmary?” Eva inquires.

Mira looks at Lionel, “Probably tomorrow or on Tuesday.”

“That’s great.” Eva turns back to Lionel, “If you’re not discharged tomorrow, I’ll take notes for you.”

“Thank you, Eva. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“Oh stop it, you don’t have to thank me.” Eva humbly continues, “At first, I helped you out because I felt bad for you. You were really pitiful not knowing anything, but I can see you’re a good person. You’re not like the other jerks here. I consider you a friend now.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“I see…”

“Hey!” Mira is up from her desk, tapping on the grandfather clock with a pen.

“Well, I have to get going. Rest well, Lionel. I’ll see you later!” With that, Eva leaves Lionel with a plate of peeled apples.

The day goes by too fast for Lionel’s liking. He assumed that time would go slow since he was barely doing anything in the infirmary. A big part of him hoped it would, because he never wishes to witness what was about to unfold in such a short time.

The infirmary door busted open and at least five students drenched in blood were dragged inside by security.

Lionel doesn’t know how they were even breathing.

One of the students had a shattered arm, so shattered that their bone pushed through the flesh and surface of the skin. Another had lost several fingers and patches of skin torn from their face. The remaining three bore injuries similar to Lionel—deep lacerations and gashes on their backs, bleeding profusely and soaking the floor.

Lionel pursed his lips inward, an unsettling feeling resting in his stomach. He leans to the side, ready to throw up.

“What the hell? Why did you bring this guy here? He’s as good as dead.” He hears Mira say.

Mr. Thorn spoke up, “But he is breathing, therefore, it is required for us to send him here.”

“Are there more?”

“Three students survived the Dungeon of Knowledge, two students survived the Dungeon of Treasure. Only five have survived.”

“How many in total were sent to the dungeons?”

“Ninety-five, including them.”

Ninety-five…? So that meant…Ninety people died today.

This was a massacre.

“GACK!!” Everyone turned to look at Lionel who had thrown up. Mira rolls her eyes and shakes her head.

“Don’t mind him. Get everybody on a bed, now.”

Lionel could hear them being dragged, could hear the squeak of the bed as weight was placed on it. No matter how much Lionel tried to erase it from his head, he couldn’t. The sight of their wounds and sufferings replayed in his mind.

The bone sticking out of the elbow, the face stripped of most of its skin, and the large lacerations.

“AHH!!!!” One of them screamed out hoarsely, almost endlessly. Lionel covers his ears, but it wasn’t enough to drown out the noise.

He didn’t want to hear it, he hated that sound so much that it made his head go insane. He wanted to knock himself out to escape from this, he rolled over and let his body fall to the floor.

“What are you doing!?” He could hear Mira yell.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Lionel raised himself, ready to smash his head against the floor.

“Stop it! Don’t give me more work, kid!” Mira and Mr. Thorn grabbed Lionel, who struggled and shouted. With handcuffs, Mr. Thorn cuffed Lionel’s wrists to the head board. Denial repeated all over his head, it was the only thing he could scream out mentally. Now he was forced to hear everything.

Mr. Thorn and Mira move back to the previous patient, and they scream.

Hours of suffering passed until they grew quiet. Lionel shook erratically, his eyes completely red and his lips bleeding from his tongue he bit down.

Mira says, “Make it ninety-one. The first one was a lost cause.”

“Including the students from before Sunday, the school is left with…” Mr. Thorn calculates, “From four hundred fifty students to three hundred eighty-eight students.”

“...”

Three hundred…eighty-eight?

He then hears footsteps coming towards him. “Hey, look at me.”

Lionel hesitantly looks up.

Mira huffs, “Give me a break, kid. Open your mouth, let me stop the bleeding.”

Lionel does as she says and the healer tends to his new wounds.

Lionel then lies back down properly and stares at the ceiling lifelessly. His head doesn’t know what to focus on. He still hasn’t recovered from what had happened in the Dungeon of Knowledge, physically and mentally especially.

Now witnessing this made him relive those memories, it was like his wounds were reopening again, like the scars on his back bleeding out once more. He could never forget the pain, the burning sensation and his skin tearing.

At the time, he couldn’t focus on what his injuries looked like as he was desperate to escape, so he could only recall the feeling.

Now that he has witnessed the sight of these five students, He had no choice but to accept the fact that he looked like them or maybe even worse.

That night, Lionel tried to sleep, but only awoke from a horrible nightmare of seeing himself fall apart, skin and bones. He doesn’t even feel safe in his sleep anymore…So in the end, he decided not to fall asleep.

The next day came and Lionel was officially discharged from the infirmary. He walked out, already wearing his uniform. Mr. Thorn delivered to him last night as it was already decided he would be discharged.

Lionel still felt sore and exhausted, but the fact that he could walk was already enough for them to kick him out.

“You look dead.” A voice suddenly comments.

Lionel looks to his right to see Erica Walker.

Lionel maintains a neutral expression, neither smiling or frowning.

“I believe you understand what our school is truly like now.” She says blankly, walking up to Lionel to talk properly. “I heard you challenged Jonathan Astor because he was targeting me next.”

Lionel doesn’t reply, so Erica continues. “I don’t need that from you. Nobody here needs that from you. Let me tell you, I do not feel touched or happy with the fact you did that for me. I feel nothing and everybody would feel the same if they were in my shoes.”

“Your point?” Lionel asks immediately, narrowing his eyebrows.

“Kindness won’t get you anywhere here.” Erica answers, “You are alone. That is all.”

With that, she moves on, walking to their classroom.

“Lionel! Good morning! You’re out!” Lionel hears a familiar, chirpy voice. He could see Eva waving at him from a distance, ignoring the looks the other students gave her. Lionel’s tense shoulders relax and he puts a smile on his face.

“Hey, Eva.”

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m good.”

“Excuse me.” Another common voice reaches Lionel’s ears from behind. He turned around to see Kaius Marx. Eva backs away slightly, frowning. “A third-year? What do you want with us?”

“Us? I have business with Lio here.”

“Lio?” Eva questions the nickname, surprised.

“I need to talk to him.”

Right, Kaius did say he wanted to talk to Lionel away from Mira. Lionel looks at Eva and nods, “Don’t worry. We’re just gonna talk. You head to the classroom first.”

“Okay then…Be careful.” Eva reluctantly leaves Lionel’s side.

Before Kaius and Lionel began their discussion, Kaius looked behind his shoulder, seeing Eva take glances at them.

The pair waited until they no longer saw Eva in sight.

“Let's move to a more secluded hallway.” Kaius said.

Nobody lingers long in the hallway since most of them prefer to reach the classroom early and study. So it was easy to find a hallway with no one at all. After Kaius checks the time on the wall clocks of the many halls, he finally speaks out his purpose.

“I was…a bit anxious in our first meeting.”

“A bit?” Lionel questions. Kaius looked like he was about to break down in his room.

“...Okay, not a bit.” Kaius sighs, then clicks his tongue. It goes unsaid, but it was clear he was about to have a panic attack that day.

“I wasn’t calm enough to properly talk to you that day. Now I am.”

“So what is it?”

“I don’t want to involve myself with you because you’re a transfer student.” Kaius states, “But it’s because you’re a transfer student that you’re different from everybody else.”

Lionel speaks out immediately, “What’s with the transfer student thing? Why is it such a big deal?”

Three people had explicitly mentioned it so far. The stranger mentioned it, Erica mentioned it, now Kaius?

“Because you know what’s real.” Kaius whispers his answers, “You know what it’s like out there.”

“What do you mean?”

“...I came here to warn you that people are out to get you.” Kaius advises him, “They think you’ll break the system and take their place. You surviving the Dungeon has become the new topic and I’m sure you know that. Therefore, people see you as a threat. Because you’re from the outside, they don’t know how you’ll think. You’re unpredictable, you’re not like us. Even A-Class students are wary of you, mind you, second-year A-Class students.”

“Huh? Why are second-years wary of me?”

“Because it’s possible for you to challenge them.” Kaius explains.

What? Is it possible? A first year challenging a second year?

Kaius continues, “Anybody can challenge anybody in this school. Beating someone who’s a year above you lets you advance to that year. So if you win against a second-year, not only does your grade increase drastically, but you’ll become a second-year or whatever year.”

“I see, I understand now…So that’s possible as well…” Lionel mumbles.

“...”

Kaius silently scans Lionel’s expression, especially Lionel’s dull eyes.

He also swears Lionel’s dark circles were darker than his.

And he couldn’t blame Lionel for having sleepless nights, not after experiencing one of the dungeons and probably witnessing more terrifying scenes.

“You’ll change.”

Kaius says so suddenly.

Lionel looks at Kaius directly. He doesn’t smile as he says,

“I think…I already have.”

“...” Kaius returns to the subject, “So yeah…That’s why I came to talk to you. To warn you.”

“Let me guess, you’re telling me this because I’m a transfer student.” Lionel crosses his arms, “But I don’t understand why that helps you or anything. What do you get by warning me?”

Kaius is silent for a second before pointing at the wall, then quickly transitions to pointing all over the hall and at different rooms, then pointing to his own eyes and ears.

“Get it?”

The…place has eyes and ears?

Ah wait—the rooms have eyes and ears.

He can’t talk about it here…

“We have five minutes left before classes start. My classroom is on the third floor, so I have to go.” Kaius suddenly says cheerfully before sprinting off. Lionel looks at the retreating figure in disbelief before sighing in frustration.

He doesn't think he’ll ever get used to Kaius’s dead face turning into a goddamn sun everytime.

After that, Lionel goes to his classroom. As he expected, he earned a lot of looks with different intentions from his classmates. He ignores them and walks to his seat. Even his deskmates were giving him weird looks. Then there was Jonathan at the bottom glaring at him.

“...” Lionel makes eye contact with Jonathan, but instead of glaring back, Lionel simply stares at him as if he was spacing out.

“Good morning class!” Mrs. Dewitt finally arrives, cheerfully making her way to her own desk.

With a smile, she starts the new week with-

“Alright, let’s have another fruitful and meaningful week!”

And the way Lionel looked at everything changed.

Instead of seeing students, he saw murderers and victims.

In the end, the whole school looks red to him.

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VOLUME 1 [END]