NOVEL NEXT Chapter 745
<745 – Unbeknownst to Anyone (3)>
Recently, a new urban legend has been added to the seven great tales of the Gift Academy.
“Hey, guys. Did you hear? They say that when night falls at the academy, a [Crying Girl] appears!”
“Another academy ghost story?”
“This time it might be real. They say four members of a harvesting party went to the third-year seniors’ farming field to collect vegetables at night and all saw it!”
Walls-bursting legends where instructors appear from nowhere, ghost tales of secret rooms with no entrances that call for help from outside the window, and legendary upperclassmen stories often heard through 15 or more lectures in a semester that can go up to 20 depending on the variations. A nightmare legend that claims if you sleep, you’ll have a dream where someone whispers from inside the walls that you have the qualification to become a darkness chaser for over 30 nights.
As the 982nd class students showed a nonchalant attitude towards the Crying Girl legend, it felt oddly lackluster compared to the fierce horror stories.
“They probably got caught in an instructor’s trap.”
“You’d be a fool. They warned about old folks, women, and kids at the academy, and it was an oversight to approach carelessly.”
“Besides, if you get caught for wandering around at night, you’ll be fined on the spot. Crying out openly, knowing instructors might hear? That can’t be a ‘first-year’ move.”
The sharp insight from Esgrade, a first-year senior in the upperclassmen of the 982nd class, impressed the students. Meanwhile, Merbonya, another senior first-year, felt annoyed seeing Esgrade, who excelled in practical exercises, had great grades, was popular among the girls, and came from a powerful family.
“So, you’re saying we can’t see the Crying Girl?”
“It’s a blatant risk. The wise avoid danger while foolish people bring it upon themselves.”
“Are you saying I’m stupid?!”
“I didn’t specifically call anyone out, but do you feel pricked? Insecurities aren’t good. Have confidence in yourself. If you train diligently, you’ll gain confidence. Of course, lazy people won’t find self-assurance easily.”
Despite the cat beastfolk’s frustratingly roundabout arguments, Merbonya held back memories of getting thrashed in the practical training. Beastfolk are especially sensitive to hierarchy. They cannot allow insubordination before certainty in overpowering others. However, she couldn’t just let it go.
“Are you scared?”
Shudder.
If words that manipulate people are spells, then “Shudder” was a high-level mental corruption spell that induces cognitive impairment and behavioral control in any man.
“So, when and where does this Crying Girl show up?”
“The sightings are mostly heard somewhere in the Adventure Department at night.”
While the two confidently searched for the sound’s source, the lower-class students, dragged into the scene, timidly voiced their opinions with worried expressions.
“U-um… Can we just go back?”
“Yeah… I doubt we’ll be of any help…”
“I need witnesses to prove whether I’m scared or not. If you go back, that coward will just continue ranting about being scared anytime. So, let’s crush it and stop that wicked spell from being cast again.”
At Esgrade’s brave declaration, the lower-class students reluctantly followed behind them.
“Don’t those seniors from the 981st class get confused about whether they’re kind seniors or evil ones?”
The lowerclassmen whispered as they used the escape methods taught by seniors to break through the dormitory outpost.
“That senior named Jaku said it’s best to stay inside and study like an old man at night.”
“But wandering at night can help scrounge up items left behind by the seniors, hidden like squirrels, which is why I bought a magic shovel for 100 points!”
“Ah… you really…”
“What a sucker…”
“Am I being scammed?”
Seeing the teary-eyed lowerclassman, the other students hurried to comfort him.
“No, I’m just super jealous!”
“Wow, I want a magic shovel that can dig deep like that!”
“Honestly, a shovel is cooler than a magic wand.”
If you cry here, the instructor will find out!
Thanks to that, confidence bloomed in Sweeum, who smiled brightly. As they coaxed and comforted their lacking friend, they gathered in front of the Adventure Department building, spotting Esgrade and Merbonya already at the entrance.
“Guess upperclassmen really are something?”
“They’re fast… How did they dodge the instructors?”
“Tch. Isn’t it boring to be praised over something obvious? Let’s hurry up and get going.”
Despite the sour words, Merbonya, with her tail standing straight up, expressed her joy while the lowerclassmen snickered and followed behind.
The hallway of the department building, heard by few students during late hours not occupied by lowerclassmen lectures, radiated a somehow ominous atmosphere.
“Hey, did you hear about that?”
“What?”
“Some professors are allegedly watching first-year students escape the dorms at night, note their rule violations, and if the point total exceeds a certain score, they present the document to the student council to decide whether they’ll serve a fine or do unpaid teaching assistant service.”
Kyahhhh!
“Shut up!”
“B-but it’s so scary!”
They had called for witnesses for the confrontation but regretted it.
“Here it comes.”
They knew to keep quiet with a warning. But perhaps it wasn’t because the kids were inherently kind-hearted. It was that an ominous sound, like dreadful chaos, approached from the far end of the hallway.
Clatter…
Clatter, clatter…
The first-years working hard for the summer festival instead of a sports day thought they had done well to make the festival sign behind which they hid.
If there hadn’t been a sign, they would have had no place to hide in the corridor and would have encountered the terrifying source of tension.
‘What on earth is that noise?’
‘Shh. We’ll be in trouble if we get caught.’
‘But isn’t it getting darker?’
The upperclassmen, Esgrade and Merbonya, were too scared to speak, but it was a fact that the surroundings were indeed growing darker.
The culprit was getting closer, now visible to their eyes.
<Dark Light>
A dark light, emitting pure black darkness instead of light, engulfed the corridor, creating an unbearable scene where nothing could be seen even a step ahead.
‘Are we screwed here?’
‘Seems like it…’
Even the upperclassmen froze in fear as the darkness’s master abruptly halted.
Sniff, sniff.
A faint, muffled crying sounded.
The moment the cry turned into a wail, the students suddenly felt hard to breathe, and their heads spun dizzily.
The incredibly dense mana density made their bodies instinctively wrap the spirit around themselves to prevent the extraction of bodily mana while their organs and blood vessels got compressed inward.
Hic, hic.
As the mana density rose even more, the range of darkness expanded, swallowing everything including the signs they were holding and the ground beneath them in an impenetrable black void.
In a moment, the terrified students trembled, hardly able to breathe, as it opened its mouth.
“I’m bankrupt, I’m bankrupt… I worked so hard to eat black bread… How could I lose all that money?!”
Snap. Crack!
The sign warped, and the window cracked.
The first-years, unable to hold the sign any longer, desperately stifled their screams of fear and muffled cries into the floor.
The ghost stories were real, and they were facing something far beyond anything they could ever imagine.
‘Is it the spirit of a current student that went insane after losing points?!’
‘It must be a high undead. If we’re discovered, we’ll be killed!!’
Merbonya, with her tail tucked between her legs, and Esgrade, who was now drenched in cold sweat, realized how ridiculous the phenomenon was due to their heightened mana sensitivity and felt genuinely panicked.
‘Oh God, I swear I’ll never act tough again!’
‘Mama, please save me…!’
Their prayers were not heard.
The cries turned into the final stage.
“WAHHHHH!!”
“AAAAH!!”
“AAAAAAAH!!”
The intensely dense mana spread in waves, and the first-years collapsed under the overwhelming shock they could neither endure nor resist.
Students from noble families with strong mana resistance bolted in pure panic.
“What the hell is that?!”
“Run away!!!”
The black darkness surged terrifyingly fast after the fleeing students.
“No, don’t…!”
“Take us with…!”
Students whose feet had frozen or who stumbled reached out their hands, but staring helplessly at the fate of their swallowed comrades, they had no choice but to run with tears in their eyes.
Clunk!
Suddenly, a nearby door creaked open, and a small girl confidently emerged.
“Yikes!”
“Don’t hurt me!!”
“Hmm? What’s the matter? I just finished my lecture, that’s all?”
“AHHH! A GHOST!!!”
“There’s no way a first-year would be taking lectures at this hour!! It’s a legendary upperclassman ghost tale!!”
“If you’re caught, you’ll be forced to take lectures!!!!”
While the first-years fled in a panic as if they were experiencing a seizure, the Oknodie looked on in bewilderment at their retreat before noticing the black mana light chasing after them and sighed.
“They got scared of my Titos!”
After a few successfully made it around the corner and caught their breath, a hand suddenly emerged from the wall.
The student whose shoulder was grabbed fainted on the spot.
“The wall, that’s the instructor ghost tale!!”
“…Who are you calling a ghost? I was just slacking off in the lounge with Passive Wall.”
“So, you came to save us?”
The instructor shook his head at Merbonya with teary eyes.
“You escaped the dorm during prohibited hours, running through the corridors yelling. That’s a fine.”
“Ah.”
“Meow…”
The double hardship of being fined, as terrifying as the ghost tale, overwhelmed the new students.
*
The next day, the news that the missing students had been hospitalized in the emergency room spread among all first-years.
“Esgrade, what did you see that day?”
“Don’t ask to know anything.”
“Is the ghost story real?”
Upon seeing the clear fear in Esgrade’s face, the first-years gulped in unease.
“Merbonya, what about you? Is the ghost story really…?”
“I’m a SUPER COWARD!! I didn’t see anything!!”
As Merbonya dashed away, screaming, the first-years realized the ghost stories were real, and the danger was far more serious than they had thought.
The club seniors who were close to the first-years heard the story and laughed heartily.
“That happens every year.”
“They disappear as seniors graduate and new ones pop up.”
“Upperclassmen can seem ghostly to juniors with their frightening strength.”
But it wasn’t just people; it was genuine monsters, ghosts, and demons.
The first-years vented their frustrations at the unfairness of it all.
The third-year seniors listening also became frightened when they reached the part where the students collapsed in fear after being struck by the mana wave.
“That’s not on a student level…?”
“Aren’t they all fourth years?”
“Do we know any fourth years that would emit dark light and drag something along in the corridors?”
They didn’t.
The ghost story that started among the first-years had now intensified into a high-level tale that even third-years trembled at.
*
Every year, as graduates leave, new ghost stories emerge from the Gift Academy.
Among the culprits was the bankrupt Titos, driven insane by the shock of losing everything!
“Tito-tito, the new students are scared! What if you roam around like that at night?”
Hiying! “But if I cry in the dorm, everyone gets noisy and scared, so I just want to cry outside…!”
“Since the juniors are scared too, you have to go to the mountain to cry from now on!”
One poorly timed joke had the wailing Titos showering Oknodie with mana attacks for an entire hour.
“I’m really sorry…! As an apology, I’ll give you a super special maximum secret surprise gift, so please stop crying!!”
Half sadness, half annoyance made Titos cry harder.
“What will you give me…?”
“I’ll give you a country!”
The sound that stopped Titos from crying was astonishing.