"...you seem to like ice cream huh?" Aelith asked while looking at my plate full of ice cream
"Yeah, although it is cold it is hard to resist" I smiled and said, but inside I had other thoughts
Do you know why I eat ice cream instead of delicious dishes like premium beef or fried chicken?
BECAUSE I DO NOT WANT TO EAT FOOD THAT GETS FROZEN!!
I swear it has happened several times already, no matter how careful I am there will be moments when I am forced to skip meals because I cannot react in time
That is why I chose to eat ice cream
Ice cream is already cold to begin with, even if I accidentally freeze it it is still edible
"But eating too much cold food will make you catch a cold or get a sore throat" oh shut up, do you think I want this?
Besides my whole body is this automatic air conditioner, I always have to live with the cold and do not know the thing called heat and sweat!
"Uwa! Finally I get to eat something delicious!"
Someone sitting at the next table made me and Aelith pay attention
Aelith immediately recognized who it was, while I froze for a bit before realizing
Oh, it is Rooster, the guy in the same class as Aelith and one of her first two people
"ROSTER! MY NAME IS ROSTER, NOT THAT CHICKEN NAME!" He angrily slammed the table and opened his mouth wider than my head to make sure I heard clearly
...I do not remember saying it out loud?
"What are you doing here?" Aelith said
"You already know, over there" Roster pointed to a corner, where a purple-haired girl was sitting alone eating
That is... damn, I cannot remember anymore, too many characters make the presence of some characters almost unknown to anyone
"Violet..." Aelith slightly narrowed her eyes
Ah right, the true rival of Aelith, the one who kicked Kaiser into the chicken coop even though she is still obscure and only appeared once (Kaiser: I will kill you)
Her past I do not know much about, besides the fact that Violet Geus Vampeder is not her real name and she comes from a country exactly like Japan named Sakura (yeah i know, I am lazy at naming)
And again, she is extremely cold and her thirst for power is even higher than a villain, making her potential to become a villain the highest I have ever seen
If I remember correctly she will wear a Miko outfit when she officially becomes a Boss, rambling about her homeland completely separated from the outside world then shooting out a barrage of magic bullets making the player suffer
...yeah, it feels familiar... Very similar to some Bullet Hell game with an MV named apple (ykyk)
"What is it?" I asked both of them, Roster heard that and looked at Aelith as if asking whether to tell me or not
Aelith did not care, as if telling or not did not matter much
"Well, actually nothing big, just that in teacher Rook's monster creation class Aelith and she had a heated argument about how one should treat their own monsters, Aelith sees them as companions while Violet sees them as tools"
Ah yeah, a very typical rival trope, both must have conflicting opinions to make them stand on opposite sides of the battlefield
"From then on these two are like fire and water, whenever they meet they glare at each other as if preparing to fight" Roster answered then scooped a spoonful of beans into his mouth
"..." I looked at the food on Roster's plate with an indescribable expression
It was beans in tomato sauce, mashed butter potatoes, 4 slices of bread, one apple juice
...dude, you call those things delicious? Even the oily spicy Chinese food sometimes looks a bit more appetizing than that
No wonder you got into class Arthur, you eat like a British person!
"Mmm! So good I cannot describe it~ alright I am getting the main course"
"...main course?" I confusedly watched him stand up and go to the cafeteria lady then order something
"It is those high calorie dishes of his" Aelith said with a blank face
...don't tell me?
Exactly as predicted, he brought back a plate piled high with super colorful food, very very big and full of oil equal to Chinese food
HOLY SHII, IT IS AMERICAN FOOD!!!!
A huge burger with lots of meat and cheese without a single piece of vegetable and it has been deep fried until crispy!!
A whole fried chicken, soggy french fries, a meat donut (what the fuck?), chicken & waffle, fried sweets that look like Oreo (excuse me?), brownies with piles of sugar all around and a glass of orange juice
Even worse, there is a separate fried stick named. DEEP FRIED BUTTER (Hell nah),
...a heart attack meal for death row inmates?
Not a single vegetable?
"Umm! So good and juicy~" Roster took out the fried burger and took a big bite, grease from it splattered all over the table
...I absolutely should not make friends with this guy, even if I die I will not
Aelith was crying looking at the meat donut, as if that was the most terrible insult to a sweet lover like her
Other people walking by also twisted their faces when they saw it, fearfully staying away
Dude, when you eat a British meal I still feel sorry for you, now when you eat an American meal I am scared of you
"...hey, if you keep eating ice cream all the time, will you get a stomach ache?" Aelith asked again, her voice still flat like reading a weather report rather than caring about anyone.
"Stomach ache? No way, my stomach and ice cream are best friends already" I replied, scooping another spoon of mint ice cream, "in the past I even ate ice cream when the snow was falling heavily"
Funny enough, I really did eat ice cream in winter, my colleagues at that time looked at me as if I was crazy
"...what kind of person are you?"
Before I could answer the lights in the cafeteria started flickering
Not the gentle flicker of a light about to reach the end of its life, but a decisive flicker, on-off-on-off continuously for exactly 3 seconds, making the entire cafeteria suddenly sink into a strange silent atmosphere
All the laughter, the sound of knives and forks hitting plates, the sound of Roster still chewing on the half-eaten fried burger, everything stopped
"What is going on?"
"Why did the lights suddenly go out?"
"Power outage?"
"...huh?" I raised my head and looked around, feeling something was wrong
And right under my feet, a purple magic circle began to appear, complex lines intertwining like ancient writing I had never seen in academy books, slowly rotating as if waiting for something
"What the..." I was about to stand up, hands pushing against the table, feet pushing the chair back
Too late.
It felt like an invisible hand grabbed my collar and yanked me down, not a physical pull but the kind that... pulls my entire existence out of this place.
I vaguely heard Aelith calling my name, but that sound was stretched out, distorted like a cassette tape being played slowly
Then pitch black.
...
The lights gradually came back on, Roster breathed a sigh of relief thinking a power outage was about to happen, looking over at the two of them and smiling
"Damn it! That made me worry to death!"
However, Igor and Aelith both disappeared without a trace
"Huh?"
Roster scratched his head, looking at the plates of food of both still on the table but both people had strangely disappeared
"...oh hell nah"
Roster was sure something was wrong
***
In another place, a young man was standing in front of the rusty iron gate of the old dormitory building, hands trembling while holding a small magic torch giving off a pale yellow light
His name is Wilson.
"Alright... alright, nothing big" he told himself, his voice trying to stay calm but still trembling in every word, "I just need to step inside, walk around once, then go out and it is done. Simple"
Simple my ass!
Actually, everything started from a normal class day like any other. Class Charlemagne that day had a group of friends gathering and chatting about ghost stories surrounding the old dormitory area, rumors of crying sounds at night, silhouettes sliding past windows even though no one lives there, even someone claimed to have seen a pale white hand waving from the darkness
Wilson, with his nature of always wanting to show himself as a brave, upright and trustworthy person, could not help but interrupt the conversation
"Ha! Those things are just the imagination of cowards. The old dormitory has nothing scary at all, I bet on that" he said, voice full of confidence, chest puffed out as if he had just spoken an unchanging truth
The whole group looked at him with... interesting eyes.
"Oh? So do you dare to go in there alone?" one person in the group asked, eyes flashing with a mischievous light
And that was the moment Wilson realized he had just dug a deep hole for himself
He looked around, saw everyone's eyes focused on him, waiting for an answer. Some even showed open admiration, as if they already firmly believed in the "brave hero" image that Wilson had been trying to build for so long
In his head at that time there was only one thought running through: I AM FINISHED.
But between retreating in humiliation and maintaining the self-image he had worked hard to build, Wilson, with his nature of valuing honor (even if it is fake honor) more than life, gritted his teeth and chose the latter path
"Of course! A small matter like a rabbit!" he declared, voice ringing with spirit, while inside he had already started regretting to the point of wanting to dig a hole and bury himself immediately
And now, he is standing here, in front of the rusty iron gate, asking himself what the hell he did to end up like this
"Alright Wilson, calm down" he reassured himself, hands tightly gripping the magic torch, "you just need to go in, take a few pictures as proof, then come back out. Nothing to be afraid of. Nothing to be afraid of..."
Repeating that mantra a few times in his head, Wilson finally gathered all his courage, pushed the iron gate that creaked hauntingly, stepped across the courtyard full of overgrown weeds, and approached the main door of the old dormitory building
The heavy wooden door, the paint almost completely peeled off, revealing the rotten wood underneath. Wilson stretched out his trembling hand and pushed lightly, the door letting out a sharp creaking sound that echoed through the silent space
"..." He swallowed, looking inside
Thick darkness welcomed him, only a few weak rays of light from the dusty windows coming in, illuminating the thick layers of dust covering the entire floor, the tangled spider webs hanging from the ceiling, and the old furniture lying scattered as if left behind in a hurry long ago
"Is... is anyone here?" Wilson spoke up, his voice trembling completely opposite to the "brave" image he always tried to show
Only the echo of his own voice answered back.
He stepped inside, the magic torch in his hand trembling with every step, the pale yellow light casting onto the walls stained with mold, creating strange shadows dancing with every flicker of the flame
"It is just an old building. It is just an old building" Wilson mumbled continuously like a mantra, trying to convince himself that nothing scary was waiting ahead
He walked down a long corridor, on both sides were closed room doors, some already so rotten they only hung loosely on rusty hinges. Dust rose every time he walked past, forcing him to hold his breath to avoid coughing
After walking a distance, Wilson suddenly stopped.
There was a sound.
A small noise, like something being slowly dragged across the wooden floor, echoing from the end of the dark corridor
"..." Wilson's whole body froze in place, cold sweat pouring down his back
"I-it is just... mice. Yes, definitely mice" he reassured himself, his voice trembling and completely mismatched with the content of the sentence
But that sound rang out again, this time a bit closer, and clearer, not the footsteps of any small rodent, but a heavy, slow sound, as if something large was dragging its body across the floor
Wilson stood rooted to the spot, the torch in his hand shaking violently, the light swaying with every rapid breath of his
In his head right now there was only one thought: I have made the biggest mistake of my life when I opened my mouth to brag in front of my classmates
But it was too late to turn back.
That sound rang out again, this time clearer than ever, and along with it a piercing cold wind blew through the corridor, making the magic torch in Wilson's hand sway violently, almost about to go out completely
At the end of the dark corridor ahead, a shadow slowly appeared, moving toward him at a completely unhurried speed, as if it already knew he would not be able to escape...
"AH YAMETE!!!!" Wilson accidentally dropped the torch, panicked and closed his eyes
"UOH~ KIMOCHI~~"
Appearing in front of him was a large man, wearing a pink cloak with hello kitty stickers, voice deep as if deliberately distorting it like faking a girl's voice
Wilson saw that and became even more panicked
"AHHH!! A PERVERT!!!!"