Surviving in a School of Ghost Stories-Chapter 14

"This is strange. Why is no one here?"

Erica scratched her cheek, looking flustered.

At that moment, a male student entered the room, saw Erica and me, and hesitated, surprised.

"What’s this? Erica? Who's with you?"

"Oh, you don't need to know. Haven’t you seen the new transfer student? Hastings."

Erica cut off the male student’s words with a cold tone. I felt awkward, but the two of them didn’t seem to care at all.

Is there no hierarchy in the Student Council?

For a moment, I recalled the casual conversation between Leonard and Maddox.

Yeah. Maybe this is just the atmosphere of the school.

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"Ah. I think Hastings said he was going to the library."

"Thanks, senior. I appreciate it."

"Wow. That was a really half-hearted greeting. But I’m more curious about the beauty next to you. I’ve never seen that face before. Can you hear me? Where are you going, Erica...?"

The male student seemed interested in me, but Erica ignored him and left the Student Council room.

I nodded silently, then followed Erica.

We headed straight for the library.

But there, too, we couldn’t find Raven.

"Raven Hastings? I think he borrowed a few books earlier and went back to the dorm," a librarian said.

So, we went directly to the dorm, but Raven wasn’t there either.

Instead, Raven's roommate came out and started complaining.

"That damn guy didn't even clean his room, and now I have no idea where he went. Can you tell him to come back and clean his room?"

Raven’s roommate was being sharp and irritable, but as soon as he saw my face, he looked surprised.

"Huh? Wait a second, you..."

His reaction was like he knew me. Erica asked,

"Do you know her?"

"No. It's the first time I’ve seen her."

I responded, and only then did he awkwardly scratch the back of his head, like he’d just realized something.

What was that reaction? Did Raven talk about me to his roommate? Maybe that’s why he recognized me.

If that’s the case, maybe Raven doesn’t hate me after all!

"Anyway, Raven's not here, so you should look elsewhere."

The roommate gave his last words with no further explanation and slammed the door shut.

We gave up and left the boys' dorm, but as we were leaving, another male student passing by told us he had seen Raven in the gym.

We went straight to the gym again.

But there were no people inside the gym, just a ball bouncing—thud-thud—on the floor.

"What? Didn’t someone just leave?" Erica muttered in disbelief, pointing at the ball.

Is Raven really avoiding me on purpose? But why?

"Erica, what do you think? How’s Raven been doing? Is he adjusting to school life well?"

"I haven’t talked to him much, so I don’t really know. I bet Eastern knows more about him."

"Who’s Eastern?"

"Raven’s roommate from earlier. They’re famous for being rivals."

"Why are they rivals?"

"Sorry. I’m not really interested, so I don’t know all the details... I just know he's kind of a weirdo."

Erica apologized after saying that.

"Ah, sorry, I didn’t mean to say that about your brother."

"It’s fine. I’ve heard people call him a weirdo, too."

Erica patted my shoulder.

The hostility she showed when we first met seemed to have faded significantly.

She really seemed like someone who didn’t care about others, so I couldn’t get any more information about Raven.

"Do you think he’s been running away because he heard I was coming?"

Erica, petting Kkamang and looking around the gym, nodded.

"I think that’s probably it. It wouldn’t be this hard to find him if it weren’t for that."

I sighed and fell into thought.

If someone is avoiding you, there are usually two reasons.

Either they have negative feelings like disgust or hatred, or they’re hiding something they ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) don’t want to be discovered.

Either way, if I can’t meet Raven, then both Plan A and Plan B are useless.

I started thinking slowly, trying to figure out if there was a way to solve this unexpected problem.

Then, I remembered what the postman, who claimed to be the Student Council President, had said before.

"Before, you said you’d tell me the truth about why Raven died. Can you tell me that?"

"You’ll find out naturally if you go back a year."

He said I’d naturally find out if I went back a year.

Could meeting with the Student Council President help me solve this problem?

"Yes, but the Student Council President from a year ago isn’t the same as the one now. You won’t recognize me. I didn’t know anything back then, so please understand if I act weird."

Ah, he had said something like that.

The current Student Council President said he didn’t know anything. So even if I went to meet him, I wouldn’t be able to talk to the ‘Student Council President from 903 years ago’ who sent me back in time.

"But for now, this seems like the most plausible option."

I nodded and made up my mind.

"I’ll go see him, at least."

I’ll find out if that postman was really the Student Council President.

Who knows? Maybe the Student Council President remembers something.

I asked Erica,

"Erica, if you're a Student Council member, do you know which grade the Student Council President is in?"

"The Student Council President is in 3rd grade, class S. Why? Do you want to meet him?"

"Raven is a member of the Student Council. I thought the Student Council President might know why Raven’s been acting this way."

I made a plausible excuse to meet the Student Council President.

Erica seemed to agree with my reasoning and nodded.

"Well, it’s unlikely to find him in the office today since it’s empty. But if you’re curious about his face, you can go to the Student Council after school. He’ll definitely be there then."

I nodded at her words, then stopped and took out my pocket watch to check the time.

It had already been a while since I started wandering around in the morning.

"It looks like it’s going to be hard today. I need to go pick up my textbooks and uniform."

"You're going to the main building’s teacher’s office, right? Let’s go together."

Erica, having nothing else to do, followed me closely, holding Kkamang in her arms.

"Should I hold Kkamang?"

I asked, and Erica shook her head, holding the cat tightly.

"No, Elizabeth likes it here."

"Elizabeth? It’s Kkamang."

"Did you ask Kkamang? Maybe Elizabeth likes it better than Kkamang."

Erica answered boldly.

It wasn’t a wrong statement, but how do you ask a cat its opinion?

Meow.

Kkamang, snuggled in Erica’s arms, meowed cutely as if asking to be looked at.

I decided to ask the cat myself.

"Tell me. Do you like Kkamang or Elizabeth better?"

Meow.

...Right. Of course, the cat can’t speak.

The cat I met in Chesswind Village must’ve been strange.

Kkamang jumped out of Erica’s arms and started walking ahead with quick steps.

Meow.

And when we didn’t follow, the cat stopped and turned around, meowing.

As if asking, "Why aren’t you following me?"

Erica, watching the cat, softly spoke.

"...It’s certain, this is no ordinary cat."

The blue-eyed cat wasn’t normal, but now the yellow-eyed cat in front of us seemed far from ordinary as well.