The Devil’s Cage

Eiderburgh was located soon enough, or more precisely, he contacted Gutti directly.

After Gutti told Eiderburgh what had happened in the cafeteria, the Head Chef went silent for a second before taking a deep breath.

“Very well! 2567, you’ve passed my test! You are now a part of E Block cafeteria, but… without my permission, you cannot step into the transfer hub from now on!”

Even through the communicator, Gutti could picture Eiderburgh gnashing his teeth while saying those words.

Kieran, who had expected this outcome, placed the last piece of beef into his mouth before asking, “I am a food tester, but I cannot be in the hub, so where should I be?”

Expected but not accepted.

Kieran fought for his last hope, but unfortunately, Eiderburgh didn’t care about Kieran’s argument.

“You can be wherever you’d like to be! Just not in the food transfer hub!”

The communicator was cut off after that.

Eiderburgh’s tone sounded angry but also anxious.

Kieran looked at the communicator and touched his chin with his right hand as he pondered over the question.

“Index of Eat, eh?”

Eiderburgh answered his communicator after Kieran entered the transfer hub. He thought that with the thick walls and door, Kieran couldn’t possibly have heard what he was saying.

Therefore, Eiderburgh didn’t conceal it, just lowering his voice.

But Kieran, who had Advance Rank Intuition, could listen to whispers through multiple doors within a certain range, let alone a single door as thick as a few layers of walls.

Kieran was very curious about what was happening.

Lude had sent his men to spread rumours about Index of Eat before, but Kieran didn’t think those two useless students could achieve such astounding results by turning rumours into fact in a day, even making the teachers of Theorate move out. If the two students could really achieve that, Lude wouldn’t have been able to control them.

In other words, either Lude stumbled upon some blind luck and the Index of Eat had appeared in the public eye or someone was pushing the wave to add to the billows!

The former was too much of a coincidence, Kieran would not believe it.

As for the latter? Kieran squinted his eyes.

Lude was after the Proper Meal class drumstick in Derton Lab, and after Bloody Mary had killed him, the target transferred to Kieran.

So, what was the purpose behind this particular move?

Questions rose in Kieran’s mind.

Kieran realized he had to pay a visit to the library again in order to find out what kind of item the Index of Eat was.

The reading session last night had mostly focused on general knowledge and history, Kieran not remembering any records about the Index of Eat. The intel Bloody Mary got from Lude was also very blurry; all Kieran knew about the Index of Eat was that it was supposed to be a very high class recipe book.

He knew nothing more than that.

Even Lude got this news from overhearing Professor Derton’s conversation about the Index of Eat.

“I’ll leave this place to you,” Kieran told Gutti and went up to the cafeteria.

Gutti could tell Kieran was off to attend some important business but she didn’t bother to ask.

They weren’t that close yet, and as for the upcoming matters, it was enough to trigger intense headaches in Gutti’s mind.

Gutti glanced over at the transfer hub filled with plates, bowls, and chopsticks. She sighed and told her communicator, “Shela, tell everybody the problem is solved. And… get two men down here.”

…

Kieran didn’t know how busy was Gutti. He returned to his dorm, took out the three books he had borrowed, and headed to E Block library; the sky was already dark.

The library was well lit as always, only a few souls lingered inside.

Night at Theorate wasn’t peaceful.

The first page of the student manual had a rule that specifically stated: students below 4th year are forbidden to walk the streets of Theorate at night.

After last night, Kieran partially knew why the rule was in place.

Kieran neither agreed or disagreed with the monsters the school arranged for tests.

Since one had chosen to move alone, one must have a certain level of strength.

People who had no strength yet requested special treatment would only understand the mistakes they had made during the final moments before death.

Kieran showed his badge to the guard and walked towards the empty service counter. He followed instructions and placed the book on the night return basket, scanning his badge at the panel attached to the basket, a ‘returned’ message displayed shortly after. Kieran then walked towards the east section of the first floor.

The reading session last night gave Kieran a general understanding of the arrangements of books on the first floor. The east section was labeled with history, geography, and culture but there were a lot of extra books in between, unlike the other three sections, which housed specific books.

Rack after rack, Kieran searched from top to bottom.

An hour passed as he searched every single rack, but he got nothing.

A slight shake of his head later, Kieran prepared himself and headed towards the second floor.

At the turning point of the staircase to the second floor, a glass door blocked Kieran’s way.

Unlike the first floor, which was opened to all students, special access was required to get to the second floor of the library. Such access included, but was not limited to, the First Seat of each year and members of Student Council.

Kieran waved his badge at the sensor before the glass door.

Silently, the glass door opened up to both sides, revealing a passageway sufficient enough for a person to go through.

Kieran stepped through and continued to the second floor.

Two minutes later, Kieran found out that the arrangement of the second floor was exactly the same as the first floor. Without a pause, Kieran headed towards the east section of the second floor.

Without any reference to go by, Kieran could only go with the old way: searching from book to book for records about the Index of Eat. He pulled out a book, reading the index occasionally during his search.

His search was tedious, even slower than his search on the first floor.

Kieran had gone through almost all the books on the first floor and had some knowledge of the arrangement but the second floor was a complete stranger to him.

Seconds turned into minutes, minutes to hours.

Kieran wasn’t anxious at all, as patient and steady as he had always been.

When he was halfway through the east section of the second floor, he suddenly stopped. Slightly turning his head, he looked at the end of the passageway formed by two rows of book rack.

A cold, white figure appeared at the end. Her long, straight hair blocked her face.

Tss!

A spark of electricity later, the lights flickered.

The lights came back on in a split second, the short time in darkness seeming to have granted the figure the ability to teleport. As the lights came back on, the white figure already stood in the spot where Kieran was, with a twisted neck that produced a bone-cracking noise, but…

Kiera wasn’t there anymore.

There wasn’t any expected shock or screams, all the figure saw was books and racks.

The sudden change stunned the figure for a moment, and a question sounded from behind her.

“Do you know where the records about the Index of Eat are?”

The tone was calm and steady.

The figure turned around and saw the man standing behind her. She laughed in an irritating, eerie way, and it sounded like a sharp object scratching a blackboard.

“Do you think I’m pretty?”

As her eerie question came, her hair, which blocked her face, flew backwards and revealed her face.

Her face was swollen and rotten, and a pustule even broke out of her face. Greenish-yellow slime oozed out of the spot as Kieran looked at her expressionlessly and asked again, “Do you know where the records about the Index of Eat are?”

“Do you think I’m pretty?”

The female ghost repeated her questions again as if she did not hear Kieran the second time.

More pustules broke out of her face, and some rotten spots even had maggots crawling around.

Kieran frowned, as he failed to get answers after asking twice in a row.

He changed his approach.

Bang!

His feet landed on the female ghost’s face.

Her white body was stomped to the floor, and her hideous, ferocious face even lost its shape after the heavy blow.

Kieran didn’t just stop with one stomp though.

Bang Bang Bang Bang!

Stomp after stomp, flesh and slime flew all over, and amid the furious stomps, a faint voice came from underneath Kieran’s feet.

“Wait wait! I know where the records on Index of Eat are!”

…

“Scary! How scary!”

Standler read a secret record that he bought for a high price from a 3rd year senior.

Although Standler had been putting in efforts to collect related information before he arrived in Theorate, the outside world knew very little about the mysterious Theorate. Standler worked very hard in collecting information, yet the amount he gathered wasn’t even enough for him to deal with the potential problems.

Therefore, after he enrolled into the school, he spent even more money and effort in collecting, and the likes of Standler was definitely not the minority—a lot of students in the higher years would seize the chance to earn some extra.

“What’s wrong?”

Maica, who was almost asleep, was woken up by Standler’s cry of shock. Alarmed, he jumped down from his bed.

As aides to the First Seat, it was only natural that both of them would be distributed into the same room.

Unlike the First Seat, who got his own room, the common students had to share a dorm with four to six others, and a public living room and washroom.

Being aides to the First Seat, the two of them were better off since they had their own room, personal parlour and washroom.

“Look! The interrogator in the library!”

Standler passed the note to Maica when he came over.

Maica suddenly understood what was going on and looked at Standler with dissatisfaction, but he still took the note. After spending two days together, Maica knew how sticky the guy that slept beneath his bed was; if he ignored him, Standler would buzz in his ears like a relentless fly for the whole night.

Maica planned to brush Standler off to earn some more sleep time, but when he saw the contents of the note, Maica couldn’t hold back a scoff.

“Every Monday on the second floor of E Block library, there is a high chance that the interrogator will appear. She will ask you whether or not she is pretty (wears a white dress, black hair over her face, and is actually hideous and scary—according to records). If you lie to her and say she is pretty, she will scream that dishonesty shall never speak again and then your tongue will be ripped off. If you say she is hideous, she will scream that you judged her by her looks and shall never speak again. Then your tongue will again be ripped off.

“What kind of joke is this?! You believe in all these myths?”

Maica tossed the note back to Standler and jumped back onto his bed on the upper deck.

“What not? This is Theorate we’re speaking of! Legend has it that this place connects a Mystic State to reality!” Standler crawled up and emphasized his words to Maica.

“Yeah right! I know this is Theorate—the magical, mystical, dangerous Theorate! But the interrogator is an urban myth, nothing but some false rumours. Most of them are used by those lame guys to cheat idiots like you,” Maica said as he pulled the blanket over himself, ready to sleep. However, Standler stopped him.

“The interrogator isn’t an urban myth! The note says the interrogator was originally a kind student but something happened to her at E Block library, hence the transformation. Rumour says that anyone who can ‘save’ her will be rewarded scrumptiously.” Standler pulled Maica’s blanket and further emphasized the note.

“Well, let me guess. Before the interrogator died, she must have liked a certain boy, but before she could confess, another girl who also liked the boy killed her and even destroyed her face before she died. That girl who killed and destroyed the interrogator’s face didn’t do it on purpose, but it was an accident?” Maica said in an upset tone, as his blanket was pulled off.

“How did you know?” Standler flipped the note to its end and looked at Maica in shock.

“This kind of lousy story is all made up. I can give you 10 in just one minute. Now, forget the unrealistic interrogator and go to sleep! Don’t forget that we have our first class tomorrow morning!”

Maica turned a white eye and pulled the blanket over his head.

Standler, seeing how Maica covered himself tightly with the blanket, didn’t disturb him anymore because even he began to question the note’s validity.

Though, Standler didn’t stop; he dimmed the light and continued reading on his bed.

…

Back at E Block library’s second floor, the real interrogator was climbing up from Kieran’s feet.

Her long hair was combed backwards, and her ugly, ferocious face was long gone; what replaced it was an above average face. The girl wore a white dress, making her look timid and quiet.

“Thank you for saving me. I didn’t want to become the interrogator. It’s just that the persistence in my heart pushed me…”

Bang!

Before she could finish, Kieran landed his feet on her face again and pressed her down on the floor.

Right away, she spoke in a rushed and direct way under Kieran’s feet. “I’ll bring you to the books about the Index of Eat right away!”