Ian's furious voice was loud.
His outburst at Madison immediately drew the attention of the entire class. The whispers around the room stopped on the spot. More than thirty pairs of eyes turned toward Ian in unison, all full of surprise.
"Huh?"
Madison's hand was still hanging in midair, frozen in the position she had used to shove Ian. She slowly pulled it back, looking utterly confused, clearly unable to understand why Ian was reacting so strongly.
"Oho~"
A whistle came from the back of the classroom, courtesy of the most mischievous student in class. A few others quickly joined in, apparently deciding that there had to be some love-hate drama going on between Ian and Madison.
Everyone started crowding over, eager for gossip.
"No, no, no. There is absolutely no story between me and this lunatic for you people to enjoy. His brain just short-circuited on its own, and I do not even know why he is reacting this strongly!"
Madison rolled her eyes at everyone.
She was an expert at that.
"The blush of youth defeats every argument."
Someone in the crowd pinched their voice and said it dramatically. It was one of those classmates who loved clowning around, and the expressions of the onlookers instantly grew even more suggestive.
"Eddie, what kind of garbage is coming out of your mouth?"
Madison curled her lip in confusion, then turned to Ian, who was still shaking an empty pill bottle in his hand, and immediately frowned in surprise.
"Damn it, why are you blushing at a time like this?!"
The blonde girl was getting irritated too.
"I am angry! Angry! Do you have any idea how much you just made me lose?"
Ian fired back instantly, his voice full of grievance.
He was calculating his losses.
The more he calculated,
the more his heart bled.
Ian felt that if he ever met some powerful enemy in the future and ended up dying because he was just a few points short on experience, then even as a ghost he would never let his deskmate off the hook.
"??????"
Madison had no idea what he was talking about.
And just then,
"I knew it!"
A girl with brown wavy hair, Emily, came charging in from outside the classroom after asking a few classmates what had happened. She stormed toward Madison in a fit of anger.
"Ian does not like me, and you have been targeting me, you bitch! So there really was a reason!"
As she said it, she snuck a glance at Ian, but Ian did not even look at her.
There was no helping it.
The boy whose heart was bleeding still had his lost leveling buff on his mind. Unfortunately, Emily interpreted that scene as proof that Madison was somehow "emotionally controlling" Ian.
She ground her teeth at Madison.
Madison gave her an enormous eye roll, perfectly composed.
"Give it a rest, Emily. I target you because you are missing just that little bit of talent required to even be a bitch."
She held up her fingers to show an exaggeratedly tiny gap, then added, "Maybe you should find a few more guys to practice on. Oh, wait."
Madison's acting was a little over the top, but intentionally so. She suddenly covered her mouth as if struck by a shocking revelation, then mocked Emily without mercy.
"Have you not already been doing that? Then how come there is still no improvement? Did you only learn how to flirt with people?"
Madison broke into laughter first, leading the charge.
"Fight! Fight! Fight!"
The classmates, delighted to have a show, started chanting. Emily was trembling with rage, just about to roll up her sleeves and start a hair-pulling war when the classroom door was suddenly shoved open.
A man wearing glasses, with the kind of presence that did not require anger to command silence, walked in.
"Quiet!"
Walter, the chemistry teacher, might have only started teaching at Metropolis Public High this year, but he carried enormous authority. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he supposedly knew a lot of gang members outside of school.
There were rumors
that he was the boss of some criminal organization,
and that being a teacher was only a disguise to cover up his true status as an underworld kingpin. Plenty of students at school actually believed that wildly embellished soap-opera plot.
Because of that,
the crowd that had just been making noise instantly scattered.
Emily hurried back to her seat as well.
"Class is starting."
Walter began another dull and lifeless chemistry lesson.
At lunchtime,
the cafeteria was noisy and lively.
"Where is he... that guy."
Ian walked around with a tray piled high with food, scanning the room. Then he spotted his target and walked straight over, sitting down across from a thin, tall boy from another class.
In the noisy cafeteria,
someone had sat down opposite him.
"Hm?"
Sam looked up, saw Ian, and immediately started to rise with his tray, instinctively planning to move somewhere else so he would not have to listen to Ian showing off again.
"Sam."
Ian called out to him.
"Sam, right?"
He began confirming the other boy's identity.
"If my investigation is correct, then you also have an older brother named Dean, right?"
"Can I talk to you for a bit?"
Ian maintained a polite tone. Sam originally had no interest in talking to him, but after hearing Ian mention his brother, he sat back down.
His tray returned to the table.
And so two boys who both cared too much about family sat across from one another, though the atmosphere was clearly not friendly.
"What exactly are you trying to say?"
Sam stared hard at the boy from the other class. He looked worried, though after remembering there were no women in his family, he relaxed just a little.
"Why were you investigating me?"
His tone was unfriendly.
Ian did not answer immediately.
"Some people at school think you are aloof, so they like picking on you. I already dealt with them." Sensing Sam's resistance, Ian decided to first show a little goodwill.
"Oh?"
Sam frowned at that.
"You dealt with those annoying people for me? Does that mean you chopped them into five pieces, hid the pieces in five different places, then burned the remains with salt and kerosene?"
"I hope you remembered to stab through their hearts with a demon-hunting knife soaked in holy water. That tears the soul apart."
The boy who looked like a harmless puppy said something completely shocking.
And he said it in the calmest voice possible.
"??????"
Even Ian nearly broke character right there. Seeing Ian's dumbfounded expression, Sam gave a small smile, his face saying I knew it.
"So the reason you came to me really does have something to do with my family's line of work." Sam lowered his head and took a bite of his lunch. That outrageous statement just now had clearly been a test.
"You are smart."
Ian sighed in admiration.
"My grades are not that much worse than yours, thanks." Sam replied while pulling out a notebook. "You can tell me what kind of situation you have run into."
"Are strange supernatural events happening around you? Or are you waking up from nightmares every night?"
He wanted to both take notes and make an initial analysis of Ian's situation.
This was a process Sam had gone through many times since childhood.
However,
"I'll be direct with you."
Ian tactfully chose not to mention that the only reason Sam's grades could stay close to his was because Ian deliberately controlled his own score. This, naturally, was proof of Ian's high emotional intelligence.
"I do not actually need your family's ghost-hunting services. What I want is for you to go home and ask around, look something up for me..."
Ian first glanced around to make sure no one was too close, then leaned forward.
"How can I kill a reaper?"
He had not seen any reapers nearby, but he still lowered his voice. That was what truly deserved to be called shocking beyond belief.
"Hiss!"
Sam sucked in a sharp breath.
"Are you insane? You actually want to kill a reaper?!"
Clearly, his knowledge base was impressive enough that he knew exactly what Ian meant. That part, at least, caught Ian a little off guard.
"Well, not exactly."
Ian paused in thought.
"Haa..."
Sam had only just started to relax.
"What I want to kill is a whole nest of reapers."
Ian immediately corrected his wording.
"?!!?!"
Sam's eyes nearly bulged out of his head. He looked horrified, stunned, completely shaken. Seeing that Ian did not appear to be joking at all, he could only think that he had truly run into an actual madman.
He wanted to kill reapers.
A whole group of them.
What kind of mental state did someone need to even dare think like that?
(End of Chapter)
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