Finally arriving at where Xio came from, Kylen and Lynda found themselves surrounded by simple tents and equipment.
"Let's go search for something useful." She said as she turned towards Kylen. She found Kylen frozen in place with his mouth opened widely.
"What's wrong?" she asked, expecting something terrible.
"This place... This is the camp I'm talking about."
Lynda sighed as she recalled all of the mistakes Kylen had made because of his bad memory. There was once a time when he "accidentally" burned the hair of a count.
— Really, that was just a mistake. I forgot not to put the candle there. He said.
Everybody believed his words and even acted as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. But for Lynda, she could feel that Kylen had planned it out perfectly, down to others' reactions.
This guy truly cannot be trusted with such an easy task. Lynda shrugged it off.
"You can just stand there and do nothing. I'm going to search the tent."
Lynda left Kylen there. He didn't budge or do anything. He just kept standing there, clearly shocked by his own bad memory.
"Whatever."
As Lynda entered the tent she immediately found a few signs of students settling here. The place, the belongings, even the smell—everything checked out.
She tried to find anything useful, but hardly found anything. Then she left the first tent and entered the next one, still nothing. She kept repeating the process until she ended up at the last tent.
"I swear if there's nothing here, I will burn this place."
Thankfully she found someone at this ghost camp. A girl was lying there, fast asleep, detached from everything that had happened outside. She quietly sneaked outside to call Kylen.
She put out her hand and gestured for Kylen to enter the tent. Kylen, catching her signal, immediately approached the tent and peeked his head inside.
"What's wr—" His words were cut out by Lynda putting her index finger over his lips.
"Shhh..." Using her eyes she gestured for Kylen to look towards the sleeping girl.
Kylen nodded. He slowly approached the girl and checked her condition. Weirdly, even after Kylen touched several parts of her body, she appeared unresponsive.
"Nothing's wrong with her health. Lynda, it's your turn."
Lynda's face turned bright as Kylen gave the approval. Using her staff she started to chant the correct spell. Words of runes circled her staff as she chanted the spell.
"Awaken." She said softly.
The moment the spell touched the sleeping student, her body glowed slightly before the light died down slowly, and as the light finally went out her eyelids finally opened.
"Ugh..." She grumbled as she tried to sit down.
"Uhh... What's wr—" Before she could finish asking, Lynda had already pointed her staff towards the girl.
"Lynda stop!" Kylen yelled.
"But Kylen, we finally found the perfect student to eliminate. Don't tell me you will let her go again!"
"No... I need to ask her a few questions."
Lynda sighed her lungs out as she slowly put down her staff, grumbling silently before clicking her tongue.
This turned out like my encounter with Byul-A all over again.
"What's your name?"
"Tris Rian! My name is Tris, please don't hurt me."
"Where are your teammates? I recall that there were at least 4 students in your group."
She shook her head, backing off a little.
"I don't know, please don't eliminate me."
"How can you sleep so soundly in the middle of the exam?"
"I- I was just out scouting before I met this girl, and then everything went dark."
"A girl?"
Kylen tried to understand the girl's side, but it just didn't make sense to him. Before his memory worked with him.
"Wait... Does the girl have pink hair?" Kylen asked, closing the distance.
"Y- yes! How'd you know?" She said, trying her best to avoid Kylen.
"Did she steal anything from you?" Kylen asked calmly, trying to keep his composure.
"I haven't checked yet."
"Then do it!"
She turned around and started to check her bag. She kept rummaging through whatever was inside and kept nodding every time she pulled out an item.
"So, did you lose anything?"
"Nothing in particular, it's mostly the same as when I arrived. But..."
"But what?" Kylen asked, looking around.
"I never bought this doll before, and no one is stupid enough to bring a doll into this exam." Tris said as she pulled out a doll in the shape of a leviathan.
"You take too much time!" Lynda stepped in and grabbed her by the collar.
"Lynda! What do you think you're doing!" Kylen pulled her sleeve, but it didn't stop anything.
"You worry too much, look she lost her necklace."
Kylen stepped closer and saw that the necklace given to each student wasn't attached to Tris's neck.
"Did you put it somewhere else?" Lynda asked, letting her go.
"N- No, I always put it around my neck."
The necklace is by no means an important item for the exam. Without it the student cannot enter nor leave this world.
So for what reason did Xio steal the necklace from her?
"So this is where she got the necklace." Kylen muttered.
"What did you say?"
"Nothing, we couldn't attack this girl without the necklace. I hate to say this but, Lynda, we have to let her go."
She frowned as she let out a loud curse.
"GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!!!"
◆◆◆
Xio had finally reached the center of the jungle. She's one step closer to her goal, and finally she can rest from the everyday terror of living among all these monsters.
"Phew." She let out her breath, stopping just right before entering the center of the forest.
There at the center, teachers were patrolling, making sure that the flow of the exam would go smoothly. Xio hid behind one of the trees, observing the teachers.
"Just a step closer."
Just a step closer to escaping this jail called home.
Her life had been dangerous, yet boring. She lived in a town where all the townsfolk just kept having the same problems that only Xio could somehow fix.
The only thing that supported her was her family, a small family that lived fine by themselves. Every weekend her father would invite Xio to go observe the daily life of the monsters.
Their sleep schedule, their way of eating, even how they made offspring—all of this would be recorded in this small book that she had.
All of this kept going on for another day, then 1 year passed, then 2, then 5. Without even noticing it, it had been 57 years since everything had started.
Her age of 16 years old never changed. The moment she blew out her 17th birthday candles, the cycle returned to when she first turned 16.
She's stuck in this weekly loop where she has to solve and observe monsters every day, without any change to her life.
Until one day, while she was foraging around the waterfall, she spotted a new face scouting around the place.
It was a group of teenagers, all of them wearing the same design of white outfits. She had never seen them with her own eyes, but this must be what the book called students.
She ran excitedly to talk with the students, but as she approached them she found herself back in her town 1 day after her encounter with the group of students.
As if it never happened, everyone stayed silent, acting as if she had completed her previous task.
"Didn't you guys remember what happened yesterday! Old McDonald's barn was engulfed in fire!"
"But dear, didn't you already bring a monster to put down the fire?" Her mother said, worried about her daughter's behavior.
Xio stumbled back, speechless.
She ran from her house and headed towards the waterfall, but the students weren't there. Everything returned to how it was supposed to, erasing every bit of the marks the students had left.
"It can't be." She was devastated.
They were complete strangers, but those strangers were something new in her life, something she could get excited about.
Enraged, she climbed up the trees and started to run all over the forest. It took her half a day to explore every bit and part of the forest.
And she ended up at the center of the forest. There, the land was clear, too clear.
As if someone had purposefully cut down the trees and trimmed the grass. She looked around and found something lying near a tree.
"What's that?"
She walked up towards the thing and found out that it was a piece of paper. There, the image of a boy and a girl striking an encouraging pose was put at the center of the paper.
{Come to Leviathan Academy}
"This is..."
It's just a normal flyer, one that is used to advertise an academy. But to her it is proof of something that exists outside of the forest.
"Hahaha, praise God." She laughed wholeheartedly as she spun around in excitement.
She sat down, finally relaxing her body after all that running. She lay down as she imagined all kinds of things about the world outside.
What kind of monsters are there, what kind of food do they eat, how do they greet each other? She kept on imagining, and without noticing it she had fallen asleep.
◆◆◆
The moment she returned home everything stayed the same. As she entered her home her mother immediately greeted her with a warm hug.
"There's my little girl. You're doing very great saving Uncle Barney's store from getting robbed by those spider monkeys."
Her mother said, her words sincere as if Xio had really done that. Xio immediately realized something. Both Old McDonald's barn and Uncle Barney's store had faced the same problems 57 times throughout all those years.
And even if Xio didn't do anything, all the problems would be fixed as if she had done them herself.
"I know, Mom. Thanks for the hug." Xio just went along with the lies, knowing that she didn't have to do all that problem-solving again.
To be continued.