Surviving in a School of Ghost Stories-Chapter 81

"Did you hear the rumors that the Student Council President often carries Hastings-senpai around? Those two have always been like that," Eastern explained, and I felt a bit unfair about it.

What could I do? She's weak, so who can I blame?

I took the handkerchief from Noah-senpai and quickly changed the subject as I distanced myself from him.

"R-Raven, what’s he doing? I’m supposed to meet him in the lounge later."

"You’re asking about Raven all of a sudden?" Eastern asked, sounding surprised. But soon, he kindly explained where Raven was.

"That guy is the class president of Class S, so he's probably swamped. He’s likely grading a pop quiz with the math teacher."

Raven was the class president. The class president of Class S, no less.

To think that he was the class president of the best-performing class. That's my brother, I'm so proud of him.

With that thought in mind, I pressed the handkerchief against my bleeding nose and followed Eastern up the path.

"Heh... Heh... Do we have to go further? This path feels kind of strange," Eastern panted, asking.

As he said, we weren’t walking on a proper trail, but instead hacking through the thick underbrush up the mountain.

It was really suspicious that the cricket players used this path after their match for the afterparty. Doesn't that seem too strange?

Fortunately, from the looks of the ghosts wandering around, there didn't seem to be any evil spirits here.

‘Has Noah-senpai gotten used to it by now?’

At first, he was too scared to go near, trembling in fear, but now he was slowly creeping out and circling around me.

Of course, when Noah-senpai was around, the ghosts kept their distance.

‘Do they like me that much?’

It was fascinating how, even while being terrified, the ghosts still wanted to stay close to me.

"We're almost there."

"I’m surprised you can remember this path well enough to come back to it."

"The other players probably won’t even remember it. But I have a good memory."

He has a good memory? Most of the subjects he studied were memorization-heavy. But from what I know, Dante wasn’t particularly good at academics.

That means he could have gotten good grades but simply didn’t bother to study.

‘So this is why he rejected my offer to tutor him.’

Following Dante as he pushed through the underbrush, we finally reached flat ground.

After walking for about 40 minutes, we arrived at the mountain cabin Dante had mentioned.

The place had a rather eerie vibe, probably because of the sunset casting shadows over it.

"...You had a party here?" Eastern asked, staring at Dante in disbelief.

Dante scratched his cheek, looking embarrassed.

"Yeah. It’s different from my memory, so I’m a bit surprised too."

At the edge of the flat ground stood a two-story cabin, which was quite large.

However, it seemed like it had been abandoned for a long time. Cobwebs filled the place, part of the ceiling seemed to have collapsed, and some of the windows on the second floor were broken.

Hiuuuu-

The ghosts were making a sound like the wind escaping, their curious faces looking around with me.

In front of the cabin's front door, strange sculptures were set up. Some looked like human figures, and others resembled animals.

Noah-senpai pulled at the door to the cabin and said, "The door’s locked."

Hiiiii-

The ghosts flitted around, touching my uniform pocket with their soft hands as they passed.

‘Huh?’

What did they just do?

I touched my pocket in confusion.

‘Wait a minute.’

Then I realized something heavy inside my pocket.

‘A key.’

It was the key that the head of the academic department had dropped earlier. I pulled it out with a puzzled look.

The key had a triangular symbol etched onto it.

As I fiddled with the key, Eastern approached, and when he saw it, his eyes widened in surprise.

"Hey, where did you get this key? It’s the same shape as the one here," he pointed at the lock of the cabin door.

As he said, the lock above the keyhole also had the same triangular shape.

Noah-senpai quietly observed the keyhole before speaking to me.

"Where did you get that key?"

"It was dropped by the head of the academic department."

"The head of the academic department?"

Eastern and Noah-senpai both looked at each other seriously, not saying a word.

Dante and I were left confused, but after organizing his thoughts, Noah-senpai explained.

"The head of the academic department holds the real power in this school."

So there was a hidden force behind the scenes, beyond just the headmaster.

I had assumed the headmaster was the one in charge, but it seemed there was a darker shadow looming behind it all.

"You said the headmaster picked this place for the afterparty, right?" the student council president asked, and Dante nodded.

"In my memory, the cabin was bigger and more magnificent, but I never expected it to be this abandoned shack. I think I may have mistaken the place."

"You said you had a good memory, right? So, I don’t think you could be wrong. There can’t be another cabin in this mountain except this one."

"That’s true," °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° Dante agreed, nodding.

While they were talking, I fitted the key into the lock. The ghosts all gathered around me, staring intently at the key.

When I turned the key, the locked door opened.

Click.

Creeeeak-

The old wooden door creaked as it opened with great effort, though the outside was still bright because the sun hadn’t fully set, the inside of the cabin looked quite dark.

A chill seemed to emanate from inside.

I looked back at the group, confused.

"Why did the head of the academic department have the key to this abandoned shack?"

"If this really was the place where the cricket players had their afterparty, then it wouldn’t be that strange. You said the headmaster hosted it, right?" Eastern replied, and Dante nodded, confirming.

At this point, everything was a mystery.

Dante had been suffering from sleepwalking since attending the party, but it was not sleepwalking—he had been possessed by an evil spirit.

"Are the other teammates okay?" I asked. freёnovelkiss.com

Dante nodded in reply.

"They all seem fine."

"Then we should go inside and check."

Noah-senpai grabbed the doorknob and spoke. We all decided to enter the cabin to see what was inside.

Creeeak.

We opened the half-ajar door and stepped inside.