How To Survive A Calamity-Chapter 234 - 233: Aftermath [2]

Oh yeah, I was definitely going to feel the burn later.

I let out a quiet laugh and hiss to myself as I made my way toward the male locker room. The laugh grew stronger when I glanced at the other guys along the way.

If even I was feeling this way, then they had to be having it far worse, huh?

Still, with my Eta Rank vitality, I was certain I'd hold up better than most. It probably wouldn't even hurt as much as I thought.

With the dreaded Gym Class finally over, all the Cadets split off to prepare for the next lesson. Some headed back to their dorms to wash up and change, while others—like us—made for the crowded locker rooms. Normally, I'd be among those heading to my room, but statistics have proven that almost 80% of the time, half of those who do never make it to class on time. Around 45% of them end up napping instead. Definitely not me, though…

The dormitory wasn't exactly far, but the locker room—right next to the gym and field, just behind the First Year Lecture buildings—was far more convenient.

This time around, I decided to use the locker room — the one I'd avoided until now for various reasons.

I wasn't exactly a fan of a whole sweltering room full of naked guys that screamed don't drop the soap.

But here I was, now standing bare-chested—one of those very 'sweltering' guys I'd been complaining about.

As I silently suffered the irony of my decision, out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a familiar figure.

Raven-black hair plastered with sweat, a black eye patch covering one eye.

Don Clyde was there, visibly struggling to catch his breath as he leaned against a steel locker, panting and wheezing.

The moment I saw that snobby brat, my mind immediately jumped back a few days. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ Nov3lFɪre.ɴet

Of course, I hadn't forgotten.

The culprit behind the strange letter was still at large. And while I had an entire list of suspects—which basically included every name I knew—I couldn't be certain about anything.

For the meantime, there was nothing I could do...

Nothing, was all I could do.

For all I knew, the sender could be watching, would be watching, and had always been watching.

If they'd gone to the trouble of sending me a cliché, generic letter like that instead of confronting me boldly, then—aside from some vague claim about knowing my secret, which I still doubted and found uncertain—

—they didn't have proof.

No evidence to back up their claim.

The letter was sent just to rattle me. To put me on edge and make me slip.

If I let myself get paranoid, jumping any guy who so much as glanced at me, I'd be falling right into place—right where my 'secret admirer' wanted me.

Although it might seem like I'm the one at a loss here, my next moves could still tip the scales—at least slightly.

Of course, I couldn't completely rule out that all my reasoning so far was dead wrong, or worse, totally backwards.

Maybe I was miles off from the sender's real intention. Maybe they did have proof after all.

Maybe they just sent the letter for kicks—to watch me shuffle around like a nervous fool.

Maybe it was all a slow burn psychological game, meant to squeeze me dry, little by little.

Or hell, maybe it was something far worse... or something so out there I couldn't even wrap my head around it yet.

At the end of the day, there was a pretty good chance the culprit would show themselves eventually. It was only a matter of how—and when.

I was still bracing myself for a follow-up. Another letter, maybe a cryptic string of instructions. Who knew?

And oh my… is it weird that just thinking about it kind of made me excited?

Imagining another note slipping under my door, saying:

"Look outside the window..."

And thus begins the wild goose chase.

I laughed sarcastically at myself, hollowly— shifting my glance away from Don before i stared too long.

Did it seem like I'm being carefree and irresponsible right now?

Quite the opposite.

In fact, i was in some serious trouble and i knew that.

Everything i said about doing nothing until my aggressor revealed their next move was only partially true.

I wasn't dumb or stupid enough to sit still and twiddle my fingers while someone else decided my fate—

—I'd already began moving from my side...

Wrapping a towel around my lower body after using the showers, i reached for my private locker and pulled it open.

The moment i did, a familiar silver blob of slime jiggled from inside of it. It sat there in the enclosed place, dead centre, as if it were waiting for me.

"Hamlet..."

My Monster Slime Familiar, Hamlet.

While the rest of the locker room buzzed in the background behind me, i stared into my locker at Hamlet, communicating silently in an unassuming fashion with my familiar.

"Do you have it?"

Hamlet jiggled in response.

The next moment, a part of it's body seemingly expanded — then spat out a few couple of things into the locker for me.

After that Hamlet receded further backwards, its gelatinous like body jiggling, as i reached my hand out for the things.

Since Hamlet and i could communicate vaguely through thoughts and intent, hidden away inside my locker even now, no one around me would suspect i was speaking to a monster.

To the outside, it just looked like I'd opened my locker, and now i eas reaching out to grab my stuff.

I didn't just brood over the last few days. I had already begun my investigations— starting with the names on the list of my suspects.

What Hamlet spat out right now, was, in fact— books, pieces of papers, and ripped pages.

They were materials belonging to my suspects.

Turning the books and pages around, i nodded subtly in satisfaction as i confirmed what i needed.

The one who sent me that letter had been careless. You could see their inexperience from the fact they stupidly sent me a hand written letter.

You'd think in a world like this, a time of magic and an era of innovation, they'd have more foolproof ways of sending mysterious or threat letters to their targets.

But, no. Fortunately for me, my culprit had been stupid enough to hand write me one.

In cursive, in fact.

Maybe i was giving this guy a bit too much credit for a mastermind...

Suppressing a shake of my head, i sent a quick glance through the notes and pages full of handwriting.

Now wasn't exactly a prime time to meticulously analyze and compare each of them one by one, so instead i glanced through them as i had Meta scan and imprint them to memory at once for later.

After that, with a silent command, i had Hamlet swallow it all up once again and secretly slip away.

There was still a lot more materials my ninja slime had to retrieve.

All i could say is...

There's gonna be a lot of missing notebooks in the days to come...

Thinking so, i slammed my locker shut after taking what i needed.

But the moment i did someone suddenly appeared next to me out of nowhere.

"Victor!"

"Fuc—" i yelled, reflexively balling my fist as i snapped for a punch at my attacker, but I managed to stop halfway, my arm freezing, before i could complete the strike

"Huh?"

What the actual fuck?

I blinked, my eyes widening slightly as i recognised who it was.

With pale yellow hair neatly styled to the side, narrow eyes and a lazy grin, Xavier Locke held his arms up in mock surrender and chuckled.

"Please," he said, "not the face."

"Xavier, what are you...?"

I withdrew my arm and sighed a deep breath as I stared at the top 7th ranked Cadet of my year.

Meanwhile, Xavier still held his hand up, his grin arching teasingly.

"I come in peace."

"What do you want?" I rolled my eyes in mild irritation.

"Woah. What's up with your attitude?" Xavier chuckled again.

Hah...

Despite my nonchalant facade, with everything that was happening all around me at once, i was on edge and quite honestly, stressed out. I hadn't even meant to, but my tone came out sharper and biting at Xavier.

I took a step back and sighed again, lowering my head. My shoulders slumped.

At the same time, i heard Xavier chortle again.

"You look like you've been through a lot."

I ran my fingers through my hair and lazily met his gaze with a shrug.

"Haven't we all?"

Somehow, i found myself in this situation, speaking to Xavier Locke casually in this manner.

I wasn't sure when it was exactly that i began to exchange words and pleasantries with the likes of him like this.

But here i was.