Midterm Exam (9)
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!!
“Aaaaaagh!!”
“Kyaaaaagh!!”
Rumble-rumble-rumble!!
Our footsteps were followed by an enormous stampede from behind. Even fiercer than when we first started running. Like a final, desperate struggle. And from that momentum, I became certain.
‘It’s definitely inside those clothes!!’
Even though Ellie couldn’t find it earlier because the situation was too urgent, the wish anomaly had to be hidden among the discarded uniforms.
If we found it now and made a wish, this would all be over. But—
━━Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!!!
“There they areeeee!!”
There was no time to leisurely search through the clothes. If we accidentally dropped it, it would be a disaster. Since I no longer had the puppet doll, I needed to escape to a safe place first and search the clothes there. To buy even a few seconds, the rooftop was the best location. There was only one entrance.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!!
“Ellie! Grab my hand!!”
“U-uh, okay!!”
I tightly gripped her hand in case she tripped and fell behind. The eastern staircase appeared right after, and we charged up the steps.
‘Finally…!!’
The rooftop door came into view. The school doors weren’t locked at night by default, so this one should be open too.
Click!
As expected, the door was unlocked. And at that moment—
Thud—!!
“Where do you think you’re running tooooo!!”
Grab!!
“Aaaaaagh!!”
The suicide ghost leaped over the stairs in one bound and hurled herself at my back. The moment I glanced behind, she latched onto me. Her legs wrapped around my neck while her arms coiled around both of my legs.
“Mmmph!!”
Her thighs squeezed my neck, burying my face between her legs. At the same time—
“You’re not getting awayyyyy!!”
Crunch.
The suicide ghost sank her teeth into the flesh of my thigh as she clung to my legs.
“Mmmph!!”
A sharp pain shot through me as her teeth pierced my skin.
“Mmmph!!”
With my face buried against her body, I couldn’t even scream properly. I could only feel the agony in my leg and the choking pressure around my neck at the same time. I’m going to die. That single thought flashed through my mind.
“━━Don’t cling to Ares!!”
Ellie’s shout rang out from behind me. At the same time, a long sword plunged vertically right in front of my eyes.
“Kiyaaaaaaaagh!!”
Physical attacks didn’t work on anomalies. You couldn’t cut them with a sword. But you could still stab into them. The suicide ghost flinched at the sensation and released my legs. I used the opening to kick her in the stomach.
Crash!!
She tumbled down the stairs, knocking over the fake students climbing up behind her like bowling pins. In that moment, Ellie and I slipped onto the rooftop, slammed the door shut, and locked it with the master key.
“Haa, haa, haa…”
“Ares! Are you okay?!”
“Seriously… haa… thanks to you, I’m alive, Ellie…”
“Thank goodness…”
The rooftop door was made of steel. Even they couldn’t break through it instantly.
Bang-bang-bang-bang!!
At that moment, the anomalies began pounding violently on the door from the other side, as if they had already reached the top of the stairs.
“Ellie! Give me the clothes!”
“Here…!”
I took the suicide ghost’s uniform from Ellie and hurriedly searched through it. There was obviously nothing in the skirt pockets. If there had been, Ellie would have found it earlier. Then…
“It’s here!!”
“In the underwear…?”
Something was tucked inside the bra. ‘A flower…?’
It was a black flower. A long stem with two thorns. At the tip bloomed an unsettling blossom.
‘This is it…!’
There was nothing else. This had to be the wish anomaly. It made sense that only two flowers remained if there had originally been three. I grabbed one and shouted.
“Please cancel the wish that was granted just now!!”
With this, the ghost story would end. We could survive…! But—
“……”
“A-Ares…”
Bang-bang-bang-bang!!
Nothing changed. What…? Did I say the wish wrong? Or did canceling a wish require a specific phrase? Maybe I had to specify exactly whose wish it was. I had seen the suicide ghost’s name on the attendance sheet earlier. I desperately tried several variations.
“Please cancel the wish that Abeline made yesterday!!”
Bang-bang-bang-bang!!
“Cancel all the wishes made so far!!”
Bang-bang-bang-bang!!
“Get rid of every single bastard on the other side of this door who’s trying to kill me!!”
Bang-bang-bang-bang!!
“Goddamn it!!”
“Ares…!!”
Ellie looked at me with worry. The hinges creaked ominously. If we wasted any more time, the door would be ripped off.
‘What…! Why isn’t it working?!’
This had to be the wish anomaly. But something was missing.
I quickly posted on the gallery with photos of the two flowers. This was my last hope. I could only pray that one of those gallery bastards actually knew how to use them.
‘What if… there’s no one?’
This was the rooftop. Could we even escape? It was hopeless. A dead end. Without the puppet doll’s protection, I might actually die this time.
‘Damn it…!!’
I gripped the thorny flower tightly. Blood trickled from my palm. And then—
Swish.
“……!!”
Like a miracle, a single comment gave me the answer. I immediately followed the anonymous user’s instructions.
━━Snap.
I broke off one of the blood-soaked stems. At that moment—
[Noooooooo!!]
The suicide ghost’s voice echoed from beyond the door.
“Don’t grant the wish that Abeline made just now!!”
[Stoppppppp!!]
The moment I shouted, the snapped flower turned a vivid crimson. It withered instantly and crumbled into dust, scattering into the air.
“……”
“……”
Ellie and I stared at each other in silence. “Did it… work?” “I don’t hear anything…”
The pounding on the door had stopped. We cautiously unlocked the rooftop door and slowly pushed it open, wary that they might be faking. Beyond the open door, only Ellie’s long sword lay abandoned on the floor.
Solved it…
I’m alive.
That was seriously the worst, longest night of my life.
After the suicide ghost and the fake humans disappeared, I descended from the rooftop with Ellie supporting me.
“Let’s head to the night-duty room for now.”
“The night-duty room?”
“Yeah. It’s safe there at night.”
We moved toward the safe zone first. Even though the suicide ghost anomaly was resolved, the school at night was still dangerous.
At that moment, Ellie’s cheeks flushed slightly as she glanced at me.
“…Not going to the dorm?”
“Huh…?”
“Ah, I-I don’t mean I don’t want to! I-It’s fine…! Yeah, let’s go to the night-duty room!”
Ellie looked away, embarrassed. Ah, right. She didn’t know.
“It’s dangerous outside at night. There could be more things like those guys earlier.”
“Really…?”
“Same goes for inside the school. There are weird ghosts. The night-duty room is the safest place at night.”
“I-I see. So… sorry for misunderstanding…”
Ellie lowered her head with an awkward smile. It made sense—if you didn’t know the situation at night, suddenly suggesting the night-duty room instead of the dorm would sound strange.
…Still, Ellie said it was okay. So… it was fine, huh. ‘Damn it…!!’
Even though she said it was okay, the fact that I still couldn’t touch her pissed me off. While we were heading to the night-duty room—
[Ares? Are you there?]
“Huh…?”
“Oh no…”
Ellie’s voice came from inside a girls’ bathroom down the hallway.
“That was my voice just now…”
“Hurry…! It’s right up ahead…!”
“U-uh, okay!”
[Ares? Where are you going? Come here for a sec!]
It had been a while since I’d encountered this anomaly. The memory of mistaking it for Lana and grabbing its hand sent a chill down my spine.
‘But why did it only show up now after being gone for so long…?’
Why the hell didn’t it appear when I was wandering around as the second-ranked student, and only now?
Thinking about it pisses me off. It might’ve lured those guys by pretending to be me and taken care of them.
It probably hid because something even worse than itself showed up.
“Phew, that’s better.”
I entered the night-duty room with Ellie, locked the door with the master key, and propped a chair against it for extra security. This should be fine.
“So this place exists…”
Ellie looked around the room curiously.
“If you ever end up staying at school after dark, come here. It’s safe. Ah, and if it’s locked, hide in the cabinet in the multipurpose room.”
“Cabinet…?”
“There’s a cabinet lying on its side. If you can’t use the night-duty room, hide there.”
“Ares, you didn’t unlock the door earlier, did you?”
“I have the key.”
“I see.”
You never knew what could happen. If Ellie stayed at school at night, she needed this information to survive—even if she might not be human.
‘Thank god I have the master key.’
Without it, I would’ve had no choice but to use the cabinet…
“……”
“There’s no blanket…”
Cabinet…? “Ah…” “Huh? What’s wrong?” “Nothing…”
…Maybe I had just missed a huge opportunity.
Suddenly feels like shit.
Nothing else happened while we slept in the night-duty room. We were both exhausted, and I was injured. Ellie wrapped a cloth around my wounds, her eyes glistening with tears. Because of that… nothing lewd happened, unlike the last time we slept together in the dorm. …Not that I wouldn’t have been up for it. It was a regrettable night in many ways.
And then morning came.
“Mmm…”
“You’re awake?”
A pair of large breasts greeted me. Ellie gently stroked my hair. It was a lap pillow.
“Hehe… There wasn’t a pillow, so I thought this might be a little more comfortable…”
“……”
How should I put it? It had been a long time since I’d felt this. Ah, right. It was similar to the feeling of lying on Ellie-mom’s lap back then. Overcome by nostalgia, I almost hugged her waist without thinking. Of course, it wasn’t Ellie-mom—it was Ellie. I quietly got up and left the night-duty room.
“It feels… strange. Leaving school on a Saturday.”
Unlike last night, as we walked through the now-bright school hallway, Ellie smiled and said that. It was true. Walking through an empty school in the morning felt oddly surreal. Until now, whenever I woke up at school, there had always been at least a few students heading to class. But—
Click, click, click.
Contrary to our expectations, someone else was in the quiet weekend school besides us.
“Popopo?”
Click, sway, click, sway.
While descending the stairs, we ran into Teacher Rapori coming up.
“Huh? Teacher?”
“Ah, the really tall teacher.”
Even Ellie, who took swordsmanship class, seemed to recognize Teacher Rapori and quickly greeted her. With a height like that, it was no surprise that no one in school didn’t know her.
“Perfect timing, little one.”
“Yes? Me?”
“Yes. I was actually thinking of stopping by the dorm later.”
“Huh…?”
“E…?”
Ellie and I both reacted—me with surprise, her with a stiff expression.
“Why would the teacher go to Ares’s dorm…?”
Ellie quickly asked Teacher Rapori with a dark look. Teacher Rapori simply smiled in her usual adult manner and let out her signature laugh.
“I was busy yesterday and couldn’t fulfill the little one’s request. But he looked so urgent that I came anyway.”
“A request…?”
“Yes. There’s a… secret transaction between me and the little one? He comes to me every time he gets money and makes things difficult for me…”
“……”
“P-Please don’t say it like that, Teacher! Our relationship is wholesome, right?! Isn’t it?!”
“Popo, teasing students really is fun.”
“Ah, i-it was a joke.”
“That’s right!”
Ellie, who had looked like a psychopath for a second, quickly returned to normal after hearing it was a joke. Thankfully, the misunderstanding was cleared up quickly.
“Well then, little one. I’ll be at school this morning, so come find me if you need anything.”
With that, Teacher Rapori greeted us and continued up the stairs.
“Are you buying something from the teacher?”
“…Not buying. I’m asking her to cast magic for me.”
“Magic?”
“Yeah. Remember how you didn’t get hurt even when you bit me yesterday? That was thanks to Teacher Rapori.”
“Ah, I see…! Hehe, I was wondering what it was.”
On the way back, I roughly explained my relationship with Teacher Rapori to Ellie. Her misunderstanding seemed completely resolved now. …I should make sure she doesn’t find out about the actual process of using the magic, though.
‘I wonder if I can use the magic today…’
I hadn’t expected the teacher to be here on the weekend. The diary… Should I try using it today? ‘Since I became the top-ranked student, other anomalies might swarm me.’ It wouldn’t hurt to check next week in advance.
“Rest well, Ares.”
“Yeah, you too. Thanks for yesterday.”
After parting with Ellie, I rushed back to my room, grabbed the diary, and headed out again. Then I went to find Teacher Rapori and asked her to cast the magic.
“Popopo… The little one really likes playing with me, doesn’t he…? Coming again already.”
“W-Well, because you’re here, so…”
“I see. Popo… Well then, shall we get started? Come here, little one.”
“……”
Once again, I sat on Teacher Rapori’s lap and received her magic like always. Squish, squish. Popo, popo. “Uhe, h-heuk…” The soft sensation enveloping my body and Teacher Rapori’s skillful yet stimulating touch made my brain feel like it was melting. After successfully using the magic, I leaned against Teacher Rapori for a moment to savor the afterglow before returning to the dorm.
“I hope… nothing happens…”
I was worried about various things since I had used cheating to become the top-ranked student. Especially after what happened last night. ‘Let’s take a look.’
I opened Ellie’s diary and began reading.
[Month Day]
Something really big happened last night. Ares suddenly got up and left the room, then went to school alone. He solved tests among ghosts, got chased by them, and even used himself as bait. I was so anxious, wondering if something terrible would happen to him. In the end, he even got hurt…
‘That’s yesterday’s story.’
She must have written it under today’s date since it happened at night. The beginning of the diary described the events from last night. ‘Is she writing it right now?’
It seemed like she was writing it right after we returned to the dorm together. The diary continued with the story of last night, and—
“……”
I paused at a certain part in the middle.
……
……
It was a huge incident, but something amazing happened too. Thanks to Ares’s quick thinking, we hid from the ghost. Because of the situation, we had to take off our clothes and hide among the mannequins. The ghost has bad eyesight, so it couldn’t tell us apart. As expected, Ares is smart…
And…
And……
It was amazing. Yeah, really amazing.
What do I do? I saw everything. I showed everything too… I’m embarrassed. Did Ares think my body looked weird? But the fact that it ended up like that… means he liked it, right? I’m happy…
And I saw a lot too. At first I tried not to look, but Ares said it was okay… So even though he was looking at me, I looked a lot. It was my first time seeing something like that… Plus, Ares’s…
I can still remember it clearly in my head… I probably won’t ever forget it…?
Ah, I shouldn’t. It’s still daytime. But…
Ah, what do I do? If I do this too often… But because I saw that…
“Don’t tell me this is…”
Gulp.
It was probably about what happened in the science prep room. But… her handwriting was shaky. Normally she wrote with neat, pretty letters, but only this part was crooked. Like she had written it while moving. ‘She’s definitely… writing it right now, isn’t she…?’
I quietly pictured the girls’ dorm beyond the window. Right now, Ellie was… over there… thinking about that moment… “……”
I suppressed my pounding heart and turned to the next page. Calm down. I had opened the diary to check for future dangers. Yeah… I could reread this part when I was bored at night. I barely managed to calm myself and flipped the page. “……Hm?” Monday. It wasn’t dangerous, but I saw an unfamiliar term. “Intensive crackdown period…?” Starting next week, there would be an intensive crackdown period, according to the diary.