Chapter 42: Volume II – Chapter 8: Offer to Crush

“The boss is waiting for you.”

A boy with long black hair and brown eyes stepped back, opening the door for us. So we took our first step inside and strangely enough I saw that the room was much bigger than the normal ones.

Ah… These maniacs had removed the walls with the help of an earth elementalist…

That way, even if someone reports damage to academy property, they can say they fixed it and only get a tiny ‘warning’.

“Julian! You haven’t been around much lately and I was beginning to think you were dead!”

A boy with golden eyes and dark blue hair so long he could tie it behind his back smiled mischievously as he sat sprawled on an armchair at the far wall of the room.

He had a handsome face, and even though he was sitting, you could tell he was tall. His carefully developed muscles were also evident.

He looked like a black panther, with golden eyes that gave him a dominant air.

“Yes. It really had been a long time, Justin.”

“To what do I owe this visit?”

At first glance, the two of them seemed to be friends. But from the tone of their voices and so on, it was clear that Justin was a little too relaxed.

If I took Justin as a wolf, we were like lambs in a cave full of his pack. He had the upper hand.

“I found something you can pay me back for.”

Julian stepped aside slightly and brought me forward.

“This is a friend of mine, he wanted to see you. All you have to do to repay your debt is to meet him. It’s up to you to accept or reject his request.”

A smile appeared on Justin’s face.

“So I don’t have to accept? I just have to listen?”

Julian looked at me. I nodded my head up and down in agreement.

“Yes.”

Justin’s smile widened and then he turned to me, completely ignoring Julian. He was practically crushing me with his eyes.

A boy who was only eighteen already had such a heavy presence… It’s actually a bit frightening, but I have no intention of stepping back.

“I would like to meet one-on-one.”

After these words, a silence fell over the room, and the two ‘guards’ waiting inside stepped toward me.

“Stop.”

If Justin hadn’t stopped them, I’m sure they would have grabbed me by the arm and made me kneel.

Haha… I don’t feel like I’m in an academy at all…

After stopping the guards, Justin shifted his eyes to my name badge. He studied it and then burst into laughter.

“Everyone, get out of the room except Aiden.”

He was so sure of himself that he didn’t think I could lay a finger on him. And he was right…

The two guards didn’t question him once and quickly left the room. Julian took one last look at me, then followed them out.

So I was left alone with this boy named Justin.

“So, what do you want, King of Rumors?”

A bitter smile appeared on my face and Justin let out another laugh.

“A silly nickname, yes, but it suits you. There are so many conspiracy theories and rumors about you that I was beginning to think they were true.”

He has such a smile on his face that I’m sure he feels like he’s playing with me in his hands.

“But it doesn’t matter! Tell me, what do you want?”

I smiled slightly, then narrowed my eyes. I took a step forward, approached him, and spoke as calmly as I could.

“Adrian Caleo.”

Justin’s eyebrows raised in curiosity.

“He took first place away from you and deprived you of ‘second place’.”

His face suddenly fell. His golden eyes, which had just shone with a sense of dominance, narrowed in anger and the atmosphere grew heavy.

“You have as much courage as the rumors say.”

“Believe me, I have much more than you think.”

Despite the heavy atmosphere, I continued, smiling as if I had the upper hand.

“He came from nowhere with zero background and suddenly he was in the first place. He disrupted all your plans, and he disrupted mine as well.”

Justin was surprised by this, and for a moment he just stood there staring at me.

“You… weren’t you his friend?”

He looked genuinely surprised. It wasn’t easy to see him like that.

“If you’re close to your enemy, you can get the information you never knew you had. Again, if you’re close to your enemy, you can hit him when he least expects it.”

Justin nodded his head up and down, briefly lost in thought.

“I know what you mean, I’m just surprised I didn’t think you were like that. You disguised yourself well, congratulations.”

He was serious, and he really appreciated me, but that was it. He wasn’t going to suddenly start trusting me.

“Still, even if you’re smart, how can you crush him? All the instructors have been focused on him since he got first place. Even the professors treat him differently, despite the fact that he’s not extremely good at his studies. And then there’s that history professor who teaches him spears… In short, even without a background, you can’t attack him easily. If you could, I would have done it in the first place.”

He’s right. Adrian has been practically adopted by the academy. It’s really hard to get to him, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a way.

“The preliminary is in a week.”

“What about it?”

“The professors said we’ll ‘eliminate’ each other and try to ‘survive’. So it’s not forbidden for students to attack each other, and on top of that no one said grouping was forbidden.”

Justin’s eyes suddenly lit up.

“We will gather the students and hunt him down… We will intercept him and teach him a lesson he will never forget…”

He figured it out, but he missed one point.

“But how are we going to find him in this huge dungeon?”

Ah… He didn’t miss it, sorry.

“Didn’t you say so yourself? I’m his friend.”

I smiled mischievously as I said this, and Justin waited a few seconds. Then he finally realized what I meant, chuckled a little and burst out laughing.

“Okay! I liked your attitude and ideas. I’m in, I’ll crush Adrian Caleo with you.”

Seeing that he had agreed, I offered him my hand and Justin gladly shook it.

The smile on my face involuntarily widened.

This was the first of many things I had planned for the preliminary.

*******

When Julian and I walked out of the building, the first thing he asked me was if I had been successful.

“Yeah, it went really well.”

“So they’re not gonna bully that girl anymore?”

Ah… This idiot still thinks that’s why I talked to Justin.

“I’m telling yo-”

I interrupted my own sentence because I could see his expression.

“You don’t give a shit, do you? Fine… Think whatever you want to think.”

I said that, but then I remembered something.

“Wait a minute… Does Justin have something to do with that girl? Why do you keep talking like those two are connected?”

At my question, Julian paused and looked at me in surprise.

“What? You really don’t know? Did you really talk to Justin because of something else?”

Something I don’t know is going on here… Is this girl more important than I thought?

“I don’t understand anything Julian, what’s going on? What are you talking about?”

Julian was even more surprised to realize that I had no idea what I was talking about, but he didn’t hesitate to answer me.

“That girl, I think her name was Sue, she’s Justin’s ex-girlfriend.”

I stopped walking, I just froze where I was.

Justin’s girlfriend…

That’s right, even if we never saw her in the game, we heard about her a few times from other people. The reason we never saw her was simply because she was dead, but she is alive ‘now’… Is that so?

“Aiden?”

“Wait a minute!”

When do we first hear about her existence in the game?

Midway through the second part, there was a mission where the player had a potential conflict with Justin, and in this mission, we learned that he had a ‘dead’ ex-girlfriend.

Of course, the date of her death was never given, so there were crazy conspiracy theories at the time. Like, is she the reason why Justin is such a ‘bad’ guy, or is Justin directly responsible for her death?

But now she’s alive and the mission that we know about her existence takes place in the first quarter of the following year.

So there’s at most four or five months until the death of the girl named Sue.

I clicked my tongue and looked behind me at dormitory building number two.

There it is… The moment when I could have prevented someone’s death has finally arrived. But if I try this… the only thing I’m going to get out of it is to stand out and be an open target.

Dealing with Justin means that in the long run, there are worse things than death. Can I put myself and Clara in danger just to save a girl?

I clenched my fist involuntarily. I… What should I do? Should I listen to my emotions or my logic?

*******

I squirmed to avoid a blow to the head, trying to ignore the feeling in my arms, which were now numb from the kicks I had taken.

There was no ‘hero’ to save me like last time. I was alone, like always. Everyone who saw me ignored me, like always…

What happened last time… was just an exception. Just as I thought, nothing had changed…

“Stop it now, girls. Or you’ll kill her.”

The three girls causing me to squirm suddenly stopped at the sound of a man’s voice coming from behind them. Then they stepped back.

It’s over… right?

“The boss called, there’s a meeting for something important. All members are asked to come.”

“Tch, what meeting in the middle of the night…”

A girl said to herself, but she did not refuse the boy. She wouldn’t dare refuse him anyway.

“What do we do with this?”

The girl pointed at me, still writhing on the floor, and the boy fell silent for a moment.

“Ignore her.”

And with that, the girls who had just a few seconds before kicked me mercilessly went after the boy as if nothing had happened. They left me alone.

After making sure they were gone, I looked around and slowly stood up. But as soon as I did, I stumbled with a sharp pain in my left foot.

I looked carefully at my foot and my face fell as I saw a big bruise there.

They had sprained my foot…

I took a deep breath and stood up again, but this time I was careful not to step on my left foot. So I started walking to my room slowly as if nothing had happened.

At least my room is in building number six… so I won’t run into one of them.

That way I managed to get into my room really smoothly, and I fell straight into my soft bed.

I closed my eyes, turned over, pulled my knees to my chest, and hugged my duvet.

What… should I do?

Should I let my whole academic life go on like this? Should I continue to live like this even though I have done nothing wrong?

Being bullied every day by people I don’t even know who they are, walking into my room every day with bruises and a sharp pain in my muscles…

I snuggled deeper into the duvet, letting the warmth envelop my body, covering my wounds.

I’m a little better now, but… won’t it be the same tomorrow?

Is there any point… living like this?

My eyes trembled, and the wounds that covered my body ached.

I… I-

What interrupted me was a sound that suddenly echoed in the room, causing me to flinch.

The source of this sound was the watch on my wrist.

I took a deep breath, sat up slightly, and leaned against the headboard.

I looked at the name of the caller, even though I knew who it was. A pained expression appeared on my face, but I answered the call anyway.

“Yes, Paul?”

“Sis? You sound bad, is something wrong?”

“No… I’m just a little sick.”

“Ah… I see, take care of yourself a little more. Look, if you only knew what happened today…”

The conversation that started like this with my brother soon turned into everyday things. It went on for about fifteen minutes.

I didn’t talk much. It was always my brother who was talking and rambling.

“Sis… you’re really okay, right?”

“Hm? Oh, yes. I’m fine… I’m just sleepy, sorry.”

“I don’t like it when you do that. If you have a problem, you should say so. We’re siblings, you know.”

The bitter smile on my face widened. But I tried to keep it out of my voice.

“Yeah, yeah… I know. I- I’m a bit sick, I feel tired, so I’m in a bad mood. I’m sorry Paul.”

Paul was silent for a while.

“I understand, take care of yourself then, sister. Rest, I won’t keep you long.”

“Thanks… see you.”

“Bye.”

The call went off. Immediately after that, a heavy silence fell over the room again and I sighed deeply.

I remembered the words I had heard when all this first started.

You don’t want your brother to be next… do you?

Those were the words.

I clenched my fists involuntarily.

What did I do to deserve this?

I remembered the people in the crowd who just looked at me and passed by, even when I was being bullied.

Why doesn’t anyone help me? Why am I alone just because I am weak?

I thought of my brother who is only two years younger than me. The fact that if I run away from what I am going through, he will go through it…

I buried my face in the pillow to keep my voice quiet and gripped the duvet tightly on the bed again.

“Please…”

Tears started falling from my eyes, and my voice trembled.

I just… I don’t want to hurt anymore… I want it to end…

Why does the same thing happen every day…?

“He- help me… Somebody… P- Please…”

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