Chapter 754: Mystery of Class 3-C [3]

"Class dismissed."

I stopped writing and placed the pencil along the edge of the book.

The teacher left first, followed by the same familiar pause before the children began moving around me. Chairs scraped across the floor as they stood up, and I waited for Elon to leave before pushing myself up.

For some reason, the seat felt lighter when I stood.

I looked down.

"...?"

Probably my imagination.

My head had been pounding badly enough that I stopped trusting half the things I felt tonight.

I pushed the chair beneath the desk.

Scrr—

Something small immediately grabbed my sleeve.

I sighed.

"What now?"

The pressure tightened around my sleeve. Unlike before, it wasn’t trying to pull me towards the desk.

It was pulling me away from it.

My expression changed slightly.

"...You don’t want me sitting there?"

I didn’t receive an answer.

Not that I was surprised, as I looked towards the seat.

The chair remained where I’d pushed it, the number carved into the desk clearly visible above the backrest.

Twenty-seven.

The grip around my sleeve tightened again.

Then a faint whisper came from somewhere close to my side.

"Don’t answer."

"..."

I slowly turned my head.

There was nothing in the direction from which the voice came. The children continued filing through the doorway as though nothing had happened.

"What does that mean?"

There was no response.

"Don’t answer what?"

Still nothing.

The pressure disappeared from my sleeve. I stood there for a little longer before looking back towards the desk.

My mind immediately went to the note.

Don’t let her answer.

"..."

Interesting.

Very interesting.

’It’s talking about the attendance, right?’

I did let ’her’ speak for me then, afraid of the teacher finding out that I wasn’t the real Mara. But this did make me curious. Why was this little ’ghost’ trying to stop me from letting her answer?

I would’ve liked to stay and think about it, but the last few children were already leaving, and remaining alone in the classroom hadn’t exactly worked out well for me before.

Thus, I moved on to the next class.

But right as I did—

Scrr—

The chair moved on its own.

And not just a little.

***

Kyle carefully folded the diary and placed it inside one of the protective sleeves Zoey had brought with them.

There were several more papers inside the box, but most were too badly damaged to read here. They could go through them properly once they were somewhere with better lighting and equipment.

For now, they had enough.

Mara had gone missing, yet several of the children claimed to have seen her afterward. Her chair had somehow ended up down here, and Mrs. Vale had apparently come to investigate it herself.

That was also very likely the same day her body was found near the stairwell.

Kyle’s gaze drifted towards the corridor.

If the handprints they’d followed really did belong to Mrs. Vale, then at some point she had entered this place and somehow made it back out in a condition bad enough that she needed the wall just to keep herself upright.

’But what exactly started the fire? And why would a figure suddenly break out like that?’

"We should go."

Zoey’s voice brought him out of his thoughts, prompting Kyle to nod.

They had searched most of what they could reach without forcing their way deeper into the damaged sections of the passage, and there wasn’t much reason to remain here longer than necessary. The plan was to send everything they’d found back to the Guild, have the papers examined properly, and see whether anything remained beneath the burned portions that they couldn’t make out themselves.

They packed the surviving documents and started back towards the opening they had made in the brick wall.

Neither of them spoke much. Kyle found himself listening instead.

The faint sound of their shoes travelled through the narrow passage, accompanied by Zoey’s breathing and the occasional drop of water somewhere inside the old pipes. The wind sometimes reached the basement through the stairwell. Old wood creaked above, and pipes clicked whenever the temperature changed.

As they continued back, however, those sounds gradually disappeared until Kyle realized he could no longer hear anything from the floors above.

Only then did his steps start to slow down.

Zoey noticed.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Kyle continued walking.

There wasn’t anything particularly strange about the silence. They were underground, behind a wall that had been sealed for decades. If anything, it would’ve been stranger if the place were loud.

Still, he found himself checking behind them once.

The storage room was already hidden around the bend.

The only thing behind them was the darkness.

They were approaching the brick entrance when a soft whisper suddenly reached Kyle’s ear.

"...Hello?"

"——!?"

Kyle stopped so abruptly that Zoey almost walked into his back.

"What?"

He didn’t answer. His expression had stiffened as he slowly turned towards the corridor behind them.

The voice had been small, almost distant enough to mistake for something coming from upstairs, but Kyle knew he’d heard it from inside the passage.

More importantly...

He knew the voice.

"...Seth?"

"What? Seth?"

Zoey’s attention immediately shifted towards the direction Kyle was looking.

For several seconds, neither of them moved. Zoey flicked her hand, and a pale light shot forward, illuminating the passage ahead as shadows danced around the sphere, only to reveal the brick layered around the passage.

"I don’t see anything."

Kyle’s brows slowly furrowed, and he was just beginning to wonder whether exhaustion had finally started getting to him when the voice came again.

"Hello? Is there anyone here?"

"—!"

His fingers tightened slightly around his phone.

There was no mistaking it this time.

That voice...

It was Seth’s.

Kyle instinctively took half a step towards the voice before Zoey caught his sleeve.

"Don’t."

He looked at her.

"That’s Seth."

"I know what Seth sounds like."

Zoey didn’t let go of his sleeve.

"And Seth is supposed to be inside an anomaly."

Kyle’s mouth closed for a short moment before replying, "That’s why we’re here."

"And if that really was him, he wouldn’t have any problems getting out of this place."

Kyle’s lips pressed together tightly.

Whatever connection this place had to VILE-303, there was no reason for Seth’s actual voice to be coming from further underground.

The two remained where they were.

"...Hello?"

It came again.

A little clearer this time.

Kyle stared towards the bend, waiting for footsteps or some other indication that someone was approaching, but nothing followed the voice.

That was when something about it started bothering him.

Not the sound itself.

The way Seth’s voice sounded.

The first two times had been strangely neutral. There was nothing technically wrong with the words or pronunciation, but Seth rarely called out like that when he knew somebody was nearby. The Seth that Kyle knew would’ve already sounded annoyed.

Then again...

’Right. He’s not the Seth that I know.’

Kyle rubbed his forehead, pushing several strands of hair away from his face.

Zoey seemed to notice it as well, her expression gradually tightening as she kept the light trained on the bend.

Neither of them spoke.

Several seconds passed before the voice returned.

"...Seriously? Are you two just going to stand there all day?"

Kyle’s breathing stalled.

That one sounded natural.

Zoey looked towards him, but Kyle didn’t return the glance. His attention remained fixed on the corridor while a faint sound came from somewhere within the walls.

He nudged Zoey.

She raised the light slightly.

The pale sphere drifted farther ahead, illuminating the burned plaster up to the bend.

Nothing stepped into view.

"Kyle..."

He could hardly hear her voice.

"I know."

He’d dealt with enough strange things to know this wasn’t a simple one. Normally he’d call for backup, but they weren’t in a position to do that.

And if there was even a small chance that the voice really belonged to Seth—

Kyle slowly moved forward.

Zoey caught his sleeve.

"Are you serious?"

"What other choice do we have? We can’t call for backup."

"I know, but..."

"...If that’s him in there, and we walk out now."

He didn’t finish.

Her grip remained for another second before eventually loosening.

"...Alright."

According to the old floor plan, the maintenance passage should’ve continued another fifteen meters before reaching the service exit. Instead, the light faded before reaching the opposite end.

Kyle looked at his phone.

Then at the corridor.

"...As expected, we might have to tear the wall down again."

Zoey moved closer.

"Blocked?"

He showed her the map.

"We should be able to see the end from here."

She stared ahead.

Indeed, all that greeted them was a brick wall.

Kyle’s brows furrowed.

"Hello?"

Seth’s voice came again.

This time, the voice was clearer than before. It came from right behind the walls.

Kyle’s head lifted.

It was close enough now that there was no possibility of mistaking where it had come from.

Zoey’s light shifted towards the wall.

In the end, she sighed.

"Alright."

Her hand extended forward, one of her nodes churning as light burst out from her hand, and the brick wall ahead suddenly collapsed. Kyle stared at the sight for a short moment before looking past the wall.

"Good work."

"...Right, right. This skill isn’t really supposed to be used for something like this, but I guess it works."

The two moved forward slowly, keeping close enough that their shoulders occasionally brushed. Neither spoke anymore. The farther they moved, the less the passage resembled the basement they’d entered.

The burned walls gradually gave way to old painted plaster.

Kyle was the first to notice.

His pace started to slow down. Especially when he realized something.

"...Zoey."

"I see it. It’s the same color as Class 3-C upstairs."

A few meters farther ahead, the corridor widened.

A door greeted them. A narrow rectangular window sat beside it, the glass so dirty that the room beyond appeared hard to see.

Kyle stopped several steps away.

Something about the sight made the muscles along his back tighten.

The window wasn’t modern.

Neither was the door.

It looked exactly like the classrooms they’d seen in the old photographs. Zoey’s light moved across the glass, but the grime scattered most of it back towards them.

"...Is that a classroom?"

Kyle didn’t answer.

He moved closer.

The inside gradually became visible.

Desks.

There were rows of them, and as he looked closer, he noticed something incredibly peculiar. A large number of them had been burned, along with much of the classroom around them.

His expression slowly changed.

The room looked almost identical to Class 3-C.

The arrangement was exactly the same, including the chalkboard at the front. It also had the same narrow aisles running between the desks.

But unlike the classroom upstairs...

This one wasn’t empty.

Zoey stopped beside him, her lips parted, but nothing came out.

She saw what he was seeing.

Every seat was occupied.

They sat perfectly still with their backs towards the window, their small figures barely distinguishable through the dirty glass. None of them appeared to be writing. Their hands simply rested on the desks while every head remained pointed towards the front of the room.

Kyle’s throat tightened.

There were no sounds coming from inside.

Yet the children were there.

Zoey’s light drifted slowly along the rows.

Every head stayed pointed towards the front.

Except one.

The child nearest the window sat at a slightly different angle than the rest. It wasn’t facing them, but just slightly turned

Kyle couldn’t remember whether it had been like that when they arrived.

Zoey slowly moved the light away from the window.

"How many?"

Kyle already knew why she was asking.

His eyes moved along the rows.

Twenty-five.

Twenty-six.

Then—

His gaze stopped.

Desk 27.

It was occupied.

"..."

Unlike the other figures, this one wasn’t sitting. Their height was also greater than that of the other children.

And it wasn’t by a small amount.

Its shoulders sat strangely high above the backrest, and unlike the children around it, its head was lowered slightly, hiding whatever face it had behind the dark outline of its hair.

Kyle moved closer to the glass without realizing it.

Zoey immediately caught his arm.

"Don’t."

He barely heard her.

Something about the figure bothered him.

The posture.

The shape of the shoulders.

Even the way one arm rested beside the desk.

He had seen it before.

"...No."

Zoey’s fingers tightened.

"What?"

Kyle stared through the window.

The figure in Desk 27 moved.

Very slowly.

Its fingers curled against the edge of the desk.

The children around it remained completely still.

Then its head began to turn.

Kyle’s body stiffened as the face came into view through the dirty glass.

Kyle couldn’t make out all of it.

Just the outline.

The eyes.

And the faint curve of a mouth.

For a moment, he couldn’t hear anything at all.

Then the person standing near Desk 27 looked directly at Kyle.

A familiar voice came through the other side of the glass.

It was perfect this time.

"Hello."