Murmur~ Murmur~
The classroom bustled with noise as the students chatted excitedly—they talked about games, what to do after school, and about Whitesky.
Whitesky had become a recurring topic among the youth—they liked dreaming about becoming the hero of that world and vanquishing the evil once and for all.
"Have you seen the picture about Elegant Destruction? A photo of her was finally released on the internet.
"Apparently, the raid fight was witnessed by some random guy with a camera. He snapped a quick picture of her, and after seeing the fight go south, he dipped and came back to Earth to post the picture of her.
"It has already garnered over ten million views on the internet!"
An excited-sounding student said with a phone in his hand.
"Really?! Show me!"
A group of his friends gathered around the table, and Kael entered the classroom with a backpack slung over his shoulder—he wondered what the commotion was about and peered over their shoulders.
The student brought out the picture, and the faces of the young men flushed pink—they weren't new to seeing the naked bare bodies of women, as it was easy to see such things on the internet, but this was an exotic one.
In the picture, a woman stood in the middle of a burned wasteland—dual-wielding swords—was wearing an iron helmet and black leather pants.
However, she was shirtless—therefore, her chest was exposed for all to see, and the perky breasts were on full display.
"Why is she shirtless?"
A young man asked.
"She is Rav'akari, so who knows, but since she is part of that disgusting race, the face behind that iron helmet must be hideous.
"Don't be fooled."
The student said.
"…"
Kael walked past the crowd, got seated at the window seat, and put his backpack hanging from the back of the chair.
"Yo, Kael."
"How's the morning been?"
A few classmates of his greeted him as they walked past, and Kael responded casually with "hi", but it was just a very brief conversation.
While he wasn't an outcast of the class, he wasn't that close with anyone, but he could have normal conversations with basically everyone.
Sometimes, he played football with them in the yard and hung out in school clubs, but he never spent time with any of them outside school hours.
At that moment, the teacher arrived in the class, put his books on the desk, and sat down on the chair.
"Hiyaaaaah!"
He let out a sudden scream, stood up in a hurry with a grimace, and touched his buttocks—there was a small metal pin sticking out from his buttocks.
"Kael Mizuchi…"
The teacher growled angrily, slammed his hands on the desk, and looked directly at him.
"It wasn't me, teacher. I just arrived at the school, probably one minute before you did, so it couldn't have been me."
Kael said with an innocent look.
The students chuckled and looked at him with a knowing look—they expected it to be him, as he was the class prankster.
He had done weekly pranks on the teacher, but surprisingly, this time around it really wasn't him.
'Is someone trying to frame me? Tch, tch.'
Kael clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"I am growing tired of your pranks and your lies. Detention, after school!"
The teacher shouted with an angry glare, made sure that there weren't any more pins in the chair, and sat back in his seat.
"Detention? Are you serious? It really wasn't me. Where is your proof?"
Kael asked.
"Proof? You're the known culprit and have a long history of doing these pranks. Not just to me, but to other teachers as well. It could only be you!"
The teacher shouted.
'Shit… Who did it?'
Kael clicked his tongue and looked around the classroom—no one looked suspicious at first glance—and it wasn't a surprise.
He expected the real culprit to hide their actions by acting as innocent as they were clearly letting him take the fall for their actions.
'Wait…'
Kael looked over to the teacher—he had his back turned and was scribbling with a piece of chalk on the blackboard.
'It is you. A payback for all those pranks I did? Well played, teacher, well fucking played… But you better get ready for what'll happen next.'
Kael smirked, shook his head, and scratched the back of his head.
…
The orange glow stretched across the sky as the hour of the evening started, and Kael walked back home after the long-hour detention.
It was a boring hour, and he didn't want anything more than just to walk out of the door and go home to play some games.
At that moment, as he trotted down the sidewalk and came close to his home, he saw that there were unknown black cars parked outside.
'Government cars. I remember seeing those cars last time when the government people came to recruit Soul.'
Kael thought, walked to the door, and entered the house—once he took off his shoes, he walked to the living room, and his eyes widened in shock.
It had been a long time since he saw his father crying, but now he was sitting on the sofa with tears streaming down his face—so were his mother and little sister.
Sob~ Sob~
"What's going on…"
He asked.
At that moment, Alice ran upstairs to her room, slammed the door shut, and disappeared from view.
"Y-your brother… Soul… has died."
Zach said through a painful sob, his eyes red and puffy from crying.
When those words fell into Kael's ears, he dropped the backpack on the ground and stood still like a statue.
The world was collapsing around him.
"S-Soul is dead…"
Kael's eyes shook, and his gaze then landed on the two people that brought that horrible news—they wore black suits of the government and looked unfazed.
It was clear that this wasn't their first time bringing such news to the families of the deceased.
"Who are you…?"
Kael asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
Thomas stood up, took out a card from his breast pocket, and handed the card to Kael, who was holding back his tears.
"Name's Thomas Rheiner. I am a recruiter for the government, and you might not remember me, but I was the one that recruited your twin brother."
Thomas said with a cold look.
"Huh… You're to blame that my brother is dead?"
Kael asked.
"It is the recruiter's responsibility to bring the news about deaths to the family of the deceased.
"Since Soul was my recruit, the responsibility is on my shoulders, and if you want to find someone to blame, you can blame me."
Thomas said.
"…Where is his corpse? I want to see it."
Kael asked.
"…The corpse is not in our possession. Because of certain circumstances, we haven't been able to retrieve it."
Thomas said.
"Then how do you know he is dead?"
Kael asked.
"A member of your brother's party survived. A man named Kang Huang. He brought the news of your brother's death to us.
"Also, members of your brother's party—Arina, Jasper, Leonie, and Beau—are also confirmed to be dead."
Thomas said.
"Kang Huang…"
Kael frowned.