Chapter 773: I Seek Peace [1]

Chapter 773: I Seek Peace [1]

"If being peaceful is a sin, I am a sinner."

I pressed my hand against my chest as I said those words, making sure he understood I was a peaceful person. I didn’t want him to think that I wasn’t.

No, I am peaceful.

The man remained beside the door, his gaze moving past me towards the empty rows.

He was still not saying anything, and I could just make out his features behind the hood he was wearing.

I sighed.

"Can you say something? It’s getting rather awkward. I’ve had a difficult week, and I need someone to help me with my mental health. I feel like I’ll go crazy at this rate."

No, I was probably already crazy.

But I was also a different crazy than before.

"A peaceful crazy."

That’s me.

"....."

The silence continued, prompting me to purse my lips.

I was just about to open my lips again when⎯

"...I was going to look for you."

The figure finally spoke, their deep voice echoing across the classroom.

"You’re saving me some time to look for you."

"You speak?"

"Where are the copies?"

My fingers stopped against the wood before I smiled.

"Right, you must be looking for them."

Naturally, I took them with me and hid them away from the Guild. They were inside of my ’Gate’. From the start, my Gate had never been cleared. I just... closed it myself. Well, it was a little bit more complicated than that.

But that was besides the point.

"It took quite a long time to produce those."

His voice drifted in the air.

"Right, sure."

I mean, VILE - 303 had been contained for quite some time, and the school had been shut down for quite some time too. It certainly took at least a decade.

"I thought you had abandoned it. I’m surprised you even showed up. Well..."

Pausing, I looked at him meaningfully.

"...Maybe you did forget, but you’re just here to clear up the place so that there’s no trace of you in any way."

"....."

His silence was enough to confirm my guess.

"You could’ve started with that. Would’ve saved us the introductions."

"Then stop wasting my time."

"Your time?"

I looked around the classroom before returning my attention to him.

"...You crazy lunatic!"

BANG!

I smacked my hand against the table, looking at him resentfully.

"I’m the one who had to waste his time to come here and meet you. If anything, you’re wasting my time."

He didn’t flinch.

If anything, he showed not much of a reaction.

I shook my head.

"Time wasting lunatic."

"...You’re out of your mind."

"No, my mind is inside my body."

"....."

I shook my head again.

This guy...

Stupid.

Well, anyways. Stupidity aside.

"Was this some sort of testing ground for you?"

I looked at my seat.

Desk 27.

"What were you trying to achieve with this? Were you experimenting with this place to create an anomaly or were you prepping to create a Gate?"

I had thought it deeply over the time I had been in the Gate, and something became clear to me during that time.

’Someone was behind the entire tragedy.’

From how specific areas had been locked away and sealed, to how all of it had been swept under the rug and forgotten about it. Someone powerful had been behind it.

...Or powerful backing.

The Hand?

’No, I’m not sure.’

Either way, the entire scenario had been created with a goal in mind.

One that I knew was related to the system.

He was using these people as testing subjects for the system and the Developer System. Although I wasn’t certain, I could more or less guess that he was also a system user.

I turned to look at my desk again.

In the silence, I spoke once more.

"She said... she saw someone in her seat. It answered her name, and everyone couldn’t see her. At first, I thought she had been hunted by some sort of ghost, but then, I experienced the entire scenario myself."

I raised my head to look at him.

"The withdrawal call was yours too?"

"Her mother’s voice was enough."

"Right. Right. But how did the mother only realise until later?"

It always felt weird how the mother never looked for her daughter quickly. Someone had to have purposely delayed the situation.

"I wasn’t the same back then. I was still new to this."

Ah, that explains it.

I turned to look at the classroom. Or more specifically, I looked at the burned areas.

"...When the teacher eventually found this place, she burned everything. You were still new to all of this back then, so you couldn’t stop her in time and ended up losing most of what you had here. Then, in a fit of anger, you sealed her inside and left her to burn to death."

I paused, gauging his reaction.

Still nothing.

"Oh, and... the voice upstairs was obviously you trying to cover everything up afterward. You just weren’t very good at it yet."

Thinking thus far, I suddenly felt like laughing.

"Hahaha."

Oh, well...

I did end up laughing.

I wasn’t even sure why I was laughing, but since I was laughing, I decided to stay committed to the role as I continued to laugh for the next several seconds before abruptly stopping as I recalled something.

"That doesn’t explain Elon."

"....."

"He seemed to be aware of the situation to some extent, and even copied the handwriting. He seemed to have left them everywhere in 303"

"....."

The man still didn’t answer.

This bothered me a bit since it felt as though I was close to finding out the whole truth, but was blocked in the last moments.

"Say it. Tell me. Say it."

He still wouldn’t budge.

"I mean, I already figured out most of the situation. It wouldn’t be so bad for you to just tell me the rest. Just... think of it as helping out a peaceful guy. What do you say?"

"....."

Still nothing.

Terrible voices started to enter my mind, telling me to kill him, or torture him.

But I curbed such voices down.

I wasn’t a violent man.

I was a peaceful man.

I was⎯

"Right, I am a peaceful man."

I stood up to look at the man. My nodes started to churn. Instantly, the surroundings started to change as I pressed my finger against the table, bringing the two of us back inside of my Gate.

This time, I didn’t cause the same commotion as last time. If anything, this was a more curbed version of the Gate I had created.

Finally, his expression started to change.

"Didn’t you say you were a peaceful man?"

"...Ah."

I paused before looking at him.

Eventually, I smiled.

"My mind is in complete disorder because you insist on hiding things from me. Naturally, this means I cannot be at peace."

I nodded to myself, the matter already settled inside of my mind.

"And if I cannot be at peace, then I must find peace. That is simply the nature of a peaceful man."

I matched his gaze.

"A peaceful man seeks peace even in the middle of chaos. So tell me everything."

After a brief pause, my tone lowered.

"Otherwise, I may have to create some peace myself."

"....."

A short silence hung after my statement as he continued to stare at me. Eventually, his lips pulled into a smile as he shook his head.

"...You’re as crazy as they have said."

"I’m not. I’m a⎯"

"Crazy bastard."

He moved.