"What connection do you have to the student Raef?" A deep voice asked, the room too dark to distinguish where it came from.
"A clasmate." A younger voice answered with an absent-minded gaze.
"Why did he appear at your room?"
"To…" A second's hesitation found its way into his voice.
"To brainwash and shut me up."
The voice returned this time, a weak light illuminating the metal desk at which he was sitting.
On the one side, Noctis sat with his hands restrained; on the other, a brown-haired man in a dark blue mantle sat, his expression hidden behind a golden, expressionless mask. Over the mask, two sculpted hands—painted a raw red—covered where his eyes would be, crafted as part of the mask itself. His real hand, meanwhile, rhythmically tapped the table's edge, the only movement betraying any life beneath the stony façade.
With the other, he held a clipboard, scribbling down something.
Somehow, he had a familiar air to him. This was the first officer, or whatever these people were, Noctis felt such a way about.
It was a bit perplexing, to say the least. He had never seen such getups, or at least the masks, they were utterly unfamiliar to him.
"If you were aware of the machinations of the intruder, why did you not inform anyone?"
Noctis felt the desire to loosen his collar as he spoke hesitantly.
"I thought the teachers might be under his influence as well. So I planned on leaving the academy without raising suspicion.
Afterwards, I'd go to someone… unrelated and inform them."
As he felt the man in front's gaze bore into him, Noctis felt nothing but exhaustion, fear, and paranoia, thoroughly exhausted after the confrontation with Raef.
"How do you feel about the student Raef Ekaf?"
"Dislike, and fear," Noctis answered with little hesitation.
At this point, he had grown used to the questionings; after all, this was the fourth person he had to talk to.
Continuing to answer the questions on autopilot, just as he had answered the other three officers.
What was he to do now? If everything here went well, Noctis could theoretically reenter the academy. Raef was gone, so what stood against it?
Thinking about it, Nox instinctively thought back to Trisha's words.
She was someone who recommended simply leeching off the government for as long as humanly possible. But somehow this did not sit right with him.
Well, it could have to do with the ominous words of Reaf at the end there. Even now, those words clawed at Noctis's mind, refusing to let him rest. Whenever he closed his eyes, he was haunted by the twisted image of Raef's gruesomely mutilated body and the chilling echo of that sinister warning. The memory left him cold inside, as if something rotten was festering beneath his skin. The horror refused to release him, looping endlessly, draining the colour from the world and leaving only shadows behind.
It did not help that Laurence, the man who seemed so untouchable, was stunned on the spot for a long minute or so before muttering to himself those incomprehensible words.
What was it again?
This haven seems no longer suitable. As if he was going to leave the city, just because of Raef's words.
What could have brought someone who so effortlessly beat Raef, tuck his tail and run?
The Fear Monger? Who was that?
"What would you have wanted to say to Mr Ekaf before his demise?"
Taken out of his thoughts by the unusual question, yet not really surprised. This was not the first question of the sort. When the first came, Noctis was quite stunned, unsure of what to say, but at this point, he had gotten used to it. He even built up some theories about the use of these tactics.
"Nothing, we did not have a close relationship." He answered honestly.
Whatever the reason was to have him talk to four different people, Noctis had no idea.
But it had become painfully clear that they were trying to find out who was influenced by Raef, and that they placed great importance on this.
What would happen to those influenced was a question Noctis did not want to know the answer to.
Lying the clipboard face down so that Nocts could not even get a glance at the contents written upon it, the man in an expressionless mask, spoke slowly, knitting his fingers together, all the while.
"You are free to leave and return to the academy. If you do not feel it is right to stay, you can also start your service in the government. Any questions?"
Noctis stayed silent for a moments time, before finally succumbing to the accumulated curiosity throughout all of the questioning.
He spoke in a slow, a bit hesitant tone.
"Raef said something about a certain person shortly before his demise. His words were a bit slurred at the end, but the one thing he said that came out fully clear and loud was…
Fear Monger"
The Officer in front stayed silent for a moment, his golden mask not showing the slightest change in expression.
When he suddenly spoke, his voice had a serious tint to it.
"Those were the cries of a dead person. He was merely trying to make you insecure, have a laugh beyond the grave. Do you understand?
Do not speak of this matter to anyone—ever!
This is highly confidential."
That was it, he was sent out, just like that.
Standing beyond the confines of that door should have been a great relief, but somehow, Noctis could not take his mind off the matter.
It felt like he was overlooking something.
He could just not put his finger on the exact thing.
Maybe it was that.
Looking down at his chest, there was a golden thread, its core pale, yet somehow a bit different from the rest of his connections. The pale core had a few golden cracks running through it, as if it were trying to transform or evolve into one of the connections others had.
Was it becoming like any other connection?
The pure golden ones that symbolised connections between people.
Noctis had, from the beginning to the end, not understood what made his connections different to those of others, simply having taken it for what it was supposed to be.
But now…
What could the meaning of this be?
Why now, why this exact sting?
What was most disturbing, however. Was the one it should have been connected to. The one it had been connected to before.
This string was not new, but it should have disappeared by now, not suddenly change direction.
It was Raef's string. A string of fate that should have collapsed by now, and yet it stood there strong and steady, if a bit slimmer than his other connections. Noctis stared at it, conflicted. Raef was supposed to be dead—he had seen the body, after all. But this single thread told another story. Was he truly gone, or was something else at play? For the first time, Noctis began to wonder if Raef might not be dead after all, but changed, or lingering somewhere between worlds. The uncertainty pulled at him, making him question everything he thought he knew.
It did not connect him to the grotesque puddle of Raef's remains. It ran straight, just like all of his other connections, but this one seemed to lead straight outside of the city and beyond to some far-off place in the north.
Did this mean that he was still alive? The prospect filled Noctis with dread, but he felt that this seemed wrong for some reason.
Afterwards, Noctis entered his dorm, which lay in chaos. How Ironic it was that his school life was ending so similarly to how it began.
With his room, broken and battered, just like his old one.
Was he the problem?
In the end, he decided to leave the academy early. The thoughts gnawing at the back of his mind did not have an end. Noctis felt a restless determination building inside him—a need for answers that refused to be silenced, even by exhaustion or fear. Whatever uncertainty gripped him, he resolved that running from the unknown was no longer an option. He needed answers more than he needed rest.
He departed immediately, no time to talk to the rest of his class, or… whatever was left of it, after the inquisition swept the place.
In the end, he did not want to know.
What was the point of knowing about an atrocity if you could not change it?