Chapter 193: RUMOURS HAS IT...

Chapter 193: 193: RUMOURS HAS IT...

June and Ryan looked up as Simon and Kael placed their meals on the table and sat down with them.

"What are you doing here?" June asked, looking between the two of them. Around them, the other students were staring in their direction as though something extraordinary was happening.

Simon and Kael had joined their table. Everyone had been convinced that the two groups weren’t on good terms, so this unexpected development immediately got people talking.

"What’s wrong?" Kael asked, glancing at them. "At this point, I think it’s only right that we share the same space. It’s inevitable, even though I don’t want to."

Ryan rolled his eyes. "So performative," he sighed, taking a sip from his glass.

Kael smirked at him. "So? Have you thought about my offer? What do you say? Because I’m running out of patience..."

"Don’t even get your hopes up," Ryan shut him down.

June smiled at them. "What’s going on now? What happened that I don’t know about?"

Ryan snapped, "Don’t even bother."

Simon smiled as he watched them eat and bicker. He glanced at June, intending to serve him some of his meat, only to find Nyx already doing so.

A strange feeling of jealousy stirred within him.

He figured the two had been growing extremely close recently, and perhaps something was happening between them. He couldn’t confirm it, but he couldn’t shake the feeling either.

But why should he even be bothered?

Simon simply didn’t understand why he was feeling this way. He shouldn’t care about who Nyx was growing closer to. At least, he knew he hadn’t cared about it before. But now, things seemed different.

"Did you guys hear the news...? About the student who mysteriously died?" Kael suddenly asked.

They all looked up at him.

"I read about it on the forum, though..." Ryan said. "Didn’t know it was real."

"It sure is." Kael nodded. "I even confirmed it."

"Oh..." June blinked. "And what’s all that about? Who was he, and how did he die?"

Kael shrugged. "I’m not so sure about that. I only know he was a third-year student. And he was pretty... strange."

June stared at him. "Strange? How strange?"

As he asked, he searched his mind for any details about such a death in the original story. He wasn’t sure if anything like this had happened before.

Or was this one of those events unfolding differently from the original plot?

Kael shrugged again. "How do I put this...? He’s sort of an outcast. I mean, that’s what everyone thinks, at least. They call him a weird freak. I don’t know much about him, but... they found his body dead and all."

Ryan slowly chewed his food before asking, "Did he kill himself, or...?"

Kael sighed and shook his head. "I don’t think so. There are also rumors going around about who might have done it to him..."

"What rumors?" Ryan asked.

"Who did it to him?" June added, equally curious.

Kael glanced around to make sure no one was eavesdropping. By now, June and the others were staring intently at him, eager to hear what he had to say.

"I heard it was that guy... your roommate. Finn or something."

At that, June and Ryan exchanged confused, shocked looks.

"Finn...?" June repeated, needing to confirm what he’d just heard.

"But how...? Why would he...?" Ryan asked, just as confused.

Kael merely shrugged. "I don’t know anything for sure. They’re just rumors going around. Some people seem pretty confident that he’s the one behind it..."

June and Ryan fell silent, lost in thought. Simon was equally quiet as they all tried to process what they’d heard, finding the accusation highly doubtful.

But then again, they couldn’t exactly defend Finn either. They didn’t know him well enough to be certain of anything.

And so, they continued discussing the rumors as they ate, figuring they’d have to wait for more confirmation before drawing any conclusions.

---

Eggs shattered all over Finn’s body in the empty hallway.

Finn slid down the wall, his back pressed against it as a group of students surrounded him, throwing eggs at him one after another. The shells broke against his body, their yolks spilling over him as he sat there, staring blankly around.

This was beginning to become his reality.

As an F-rank who had managed to enter the academy without any powerful backing or protection, being bullied like this was nothing new to him. It was how people like them reminded those at the bottom of their place in the world.

But his bullying wasn’t always an open humiliation. More often, it was the kind that happened quietly, leaving him to endure the pain alone without anyone noticing or caring.

Things had only gotten worse after he failed the task Rayder and the Elite 5 had assigned him.

Now, the Elite 5 had made it their personal mission to make his life miserable. They sent people to bully him whenever they got the chance, turning his stay at the academy into a living hell.

And recently, things had taken another turn with the rumors suddenly circulating that he was the one who had killed the student who died. Now, people were treating him like a murderer.

"Low-rank monster... You’re even a murderer now!" they laughed, continuing to torment him.

"What else are you good for? Your little trick of trying to seduce Simon didn’t work, so now you’re going around killing people just to stay relevant!"

"What a joke!"

They mocked him mercilessly, their laughter filling the hallway as they continued humiliating him. Once they were satisfied with how miserable he looked, they finally stopped.

"Don’t get too comfortable. We’ll be back soon," they laughed as they walked away, leaving him alone in the corner of the hallway, covered in egg yolk.

Finn sat there, feeling utterly disgusted as he hugged himself. It wasn’t because of what he was covered in, but because of how everything had turned out for him.

He was consumed by hatred for who he was and how his life had unfolded. Sitting there, he gripped himself tightly, drowning in his own resentment and contempt, until someone approached him.

Soon, a pair of feet appeared before him.

Finn sat there, staring at them for a while. But when he finally recognized who the person was, his fists clenched even tighter.

"Leave me alone... I... I want to be alone," he muttered in a contemptuous tone.

But the person merely scoffed.

"You can never be alone as long as you’re in this academy. Got it?"