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Chapter 145

“I... I thought I saw something suddenly pass in front of my eyes...”

“Eek!”

Of course, it hadn’t been a ghost, but my words made Charlotte grow even paler. I didn’t know she was afraid of ghosts.

No—in such a spooky place, even someone immune to the fear of ghosts would surely be scared. It truly was a spine-chilling space.

I was thankful for the achievement points, but the timing was just terrible... Did they really intentionally allow the event to be completed at this time just to scare me with the system message? Anybody would be scared by something suddenly popping out like that!

Anyway, while trying to uncover the true nature of the Demon God Cult, I’d ended up completing a ghost-related event in a completely unexpected place.

“Ghosts are everywhere. It’s just that we can’t feel them.”

The fact that the event was completed thanks to a single statement by Dettomorian meant that it had to be true.

‘Oh. Ahaha... So you’re saying that... ghosts are swarming around me all the time, right?’

I wished that I could forget that. Now, if I slept with my back towards the window, I was surely going to feel uneasy.

Shiver, shiver. Shiver, shiver.

“Re-Reinhart... calm down.”

My legs quivered violently, and Charlotte placed her hand on my thigh.

Instead of protecting her, here I was, growing more and more frightened.

‘I’m able to know the truth more objectively because of the system message!’

“Ghosts... don’t usually harm people...” Dettomorian said.

‘Usually? So they harm people in unusual situations, then? You jerk!’

Dettomorian...

After talking to him, I realized he was even more terrifying than I thought. I could see why people avoided him... Although it wasn’t his fault, I know.

But there was no need to shove truths I didn’t want to know into my ears like that!

“But... you said you wanted to talk about something?” Dettomorian asked.

“Ah, ah... right.”

Our original purpose was to ask him about the club called Exodium.

However, it felt as though we’d entered a rat’s nest to catch a rat, only to find a cobra living there. We had stumbled upon a place far more dangerous and sinister than Exodium.

Nevertheless, intent on addressing our original task, Charlotte bravely asked, “That place above us... Do you know about the club called Exodium?”

At the mention of Exodium, Dettomorian nodded his head.

“It’s the club that’s upstairs, right...?”

It seemed that, like him, Exodium also operated at night, so he knew about them. Charlotte’s eyes lit up, believing that this could lead to a clue.

“Yeah. So you know about it? Then do you know what they do in there?”

This guy looked like he had zero interest in his surroundings. Surely, he wouldn’t know anything.

But his response went completely against my expectations.

“... I was a member.”

“... What?”

***

Dettomorian had originally intended to find out if there were others who were conducting studies into fields similar to his own, rather than starting a club from scratch. Given the numerous clubs and the wide range of interests they represented, that made sense.

However, psychic and ancient magical practices were quite niche interests, and as he skimmed through the list of clubs, Exodium caught his eye.

The official purpose of Exodium was “research on peculiar phenomena”, and it was no wonder why Dettomorian would be interested. Ancient magic and psychic occurrences could certainly be considered peculiar phenomena.

“The membership requirements were strict.... It was difficult, but I managed to join them.”

Dettomorian seemed rather perplexed that he had somehow managed to gain membership with the club.

“So? What do they do there?”

“...”

Dettomorian seemed to deliberate for a moment, his head tilting slightly.

“It wasn’t peculiar phenomena that was the issue,” he finally said. “The club members were just peculiar kids.”

How peculiar did someone have to be for this guy to call them peculiar? Dettomorian began to describe the members one by one.

“Like... There’s one who believes that a dark force sleeps within him. Another one claims to be a dragon who has emerged from a game but lost its memory... Yet another says that they’re the successor of a great demon that was ousted after a rebellion, but that one is always fighting with someone who believes they are the reincarnation of an angel...”

‘What? What did he just say?’

Charlotte had a vacant expression on her face, and seemed utterly lost.

“Anyway... They were peculiar kids...”

It somehow made sense why everyone there seemed so short...

Wasn’t it just a club filled with middle-schoolers going through a phase, acting out their fantasies?! Was this that self-characterization thing that they all got into?

So, casting a noise-canceling spell was just to prevent others from mocking them if they ever overheard what was being discussed?

Charlotte, who seemed incredulous, began to lay out her thoughts with a bewildered expression.

“So, the club called Exodium is essentially... a gathering of kids who believe they’re incredible entities of some sort, yakking about this and that... But, in reality, they’re just a bunch of ordinary kids gathering to... What’s the word...? How should I put this...”

“Role-play.”

“Role-play S-So it’s... a role-playing club?”

“... Yeah.”

“Why would they... do such a thing?” Charlotte asked, her eyes oscillating wildly, seemingly astonished by her own conclusion.

‘As if doing that would produce rice or something!’

Charlotte seemed unable to understand why anyone would engage in such activities.

“... I don’t know.”

Ultimately, even Dettomorian couldn’t comprehend why they indulged in those antics. After all, he wasn’t suffering from a case of second-year middle school syndrome.

‘But wait... Doesn’t everyone wonder about their identity and if they might be someone special in the second year of middle school...? Isn’t that a natural question at that time?’

My mind began to swim.

‘Was it just me? Don’t you guys understand that feeling? You guys never had such thoughts? Am I, when compared to these two, closer to the Exodium folks...?’

“So it’s because of those kids walking around mumbling about dark forces and beings of darkness that the ridiculous rumors about the Demon God Cult started...”

Charlotte finally nodded, a blank look on her face, as if she now understood why Exodium had been wrongly accused of being a Demon God Cult.

Leaks don’t stay contained when they spread to the outside world.

Since all the Exodium members were suffering from a bout of second-year middle school syndrome, they occasionally babbled about dark forces and beings of darkness, and that was how the rumors about the presence of the Demon God Cult spread.

That was probably why the head student council president and the Royal Class student council president hadn’t just clarified things outright, and chose not to go into the details.

They wanted to protect the Exodium members from the negative things that would surely be said about them if it was known that they were actually just kids with second-year middle school syndrome who were in a role-playing club. They did not offer a proper explanation because they were afraid that the students would be ridiculed if the rumors spread.

The head student council president... Even though I didn’t know what they looked like, they had to be a good person.

Charlotte sighed, drained from the realization that, although she had hoped Exodium was nothing serious, it had turned out to be something so considerably trivial.

“It’s so... anticlimactic...”

The Occult Research Club, with this guy as its sole member, was far more dangerous than Exodium.

Anyway...

Without even needing to actually pay the club a visit, it was confirmed that Exodium was an unremarkable club. This completed the event of uncovering the truth about the rumor, and granted me 300 achievement points.

A Demon God Cult...

As if there would be one inside the Temple.

“But why did you leave the club, Detto?”

“... The first time I went, they asked me what hidden power I had... so I showed them.”

‘Ah.’

I could picture the scene without even seeing it.

“The members then started crying and made a scene...”

A darker shadow of worry appeared under Dettomorian’s already dark-circled eyes.

“What exactly did you show them?” Charlotte asked with a stunned expression.

“... Possession.”

‘What an insane guy.’

Charlotte’s face turned pale.

“... Oh. Just, just so you know, you don’t have to show me.”

This guy had brought real madness into a place filled with fake madness.

Going up to a bunch of kids who were immersed in role-playing as some dark beings and then actually showing them a horrific ability would have surely made them wet themselves.

Everyone must have panicked when the real deal showed up, causing chaos, and thereafter, Dettomorian never returned to Exodium.

Anyway, the truth was revealed. The rumors about the Demon God Cult turned out to be nothing serious.

“W-Well, okay Detto... see you back at the dorm then.”

“Yeah... Take care...”

After all this, however, Charlotte realized that the existence of this Occult Research Club might require further action.

***

After leaving the club building, Charlotte and I headed toward the tram station.

Charlotte heaved a deep sigh. “It’s a relief, but... What is this feeling?”

It would have been a big deal if there had really been a Demon God Cult within the temple. But, as Ceres said, those guys were just indulging in their role-playing tendencies.

They were just suffering from a disease that they would eventually grow out of.

Charlotte seemed to feel both relieved and absurdly let down that all the worry had been over such a trivial matter.

“Why would they want to do such things?”

“Well, who knows?”

Charlotte seemed like she would never understand such things in her lifetime.

Indeed, even as someone who had suffered from the same “disease”, I was unsure of the reasons why people would fall into second-year middle school syndrome.

I’d thought about it, but could never figure it out.

Then a completely different thought struck me.

“Hmm... Now that I think about it, I feel like I’ve actually heard about Exodium before.” I said.

“You’ve heard about it?”

Talking to Dettomorian made me remember that I had heard about these sorts of people before, even if I didn’t know about Exodium specifically.

“Yeah. When I first underwent the supernatural powers test, I went through various experiments.”

“Ah, right. I know what you mean.”

Charlotte nodded. She understood what I was talking about since she would have undergone the same tests, although I didn’t know the specifics of her supernatural abilities.

“At that time, though, the teacher in charge was a little worried.”

“Ms. Rolendria?”

“Yeah.”

Charlotte and I were in Ms. Rolendria’s class on supernatural powers. She probably knew what Charlotte’s abilities were.

“Because my ability is Self-Deception... She was worried that I might somehow become a type of person, someone dangerous.”

“Hm? What ‘type’ are you talking abou—Ah, I see.”

Charlotte’s face turned ashen as if she had come to a realization.

“So, are you saying that, if you make yourself believe that you’re some great being of darkness, you could really become that...? I-Is that what you’re saying?”

Even as she spoke, her mouth twitched, as if she found the notion bizarre.

‘Well, I’m not sure about being a great being of darkness, but I’m definitely something significant. You just don’t know about it.’

“To be precise, she was worried if I could actually become a god if I believed it enough. That was what worried her, but since my ability isn’t actually like that, the worry was unnecessary.”

“Okay, so why do you bring that up?”

“Well, she was the one who said that there are some kids among the students at the Temple who seriously believe that they’re significant beings of darkness... or believe that their memories have been purged on purpose because they’re dragons destined for a game.”

Ms. Rolendria had indeed said those words. She’d asked me if I was that sort of individual who indulged in role-playing, and was afraid that I might be dangerous if I was.

—You see, sometimes, second-year middle school students really believe they’re gods... They seriously believe that, or that they’re incredibly evil beings... or they think they’ve lost their memories on purpose and are destined to live as dragons, for amusement... It’s surprisingly common.

Ms. Rolendria had definitely said something along those lines.

Upon hearing my words, Charlotte’s mouth fell slightly open. “Ah... so what the teacher meant back then was...”

“Yeah, it seems like she was talking about them.”

Ms. Rolendria had probably been referring to the members of Exodium.

Upon hearing this, Charlotte muttered blankly, “Could it be... that Ms. Rolendria is the teacher in charge of Exodium?”

“It seems likely.”

Even if it wasn’t always, there was a possibility Ms. Rolendria was occasionally monitoring them and knew them well.

“Wow, she must really have a hard time...”

“Indeed...”

‘Dear teacher... what kind of battles and inner struggles have you been fighting until now?’

Praying for Ms. Rolendria’s mental well-being, we headed towards the tram station. The night had deepened, and there were barely any people around, as almost all the evening club activities had ended.

“...”

“...”

“...”

The tram station was filled with silence that belonged to three people.

One was mine.

One was Charlotte’s.

“...”

And the last belonged to the bratty senior, Rudina.

Rudina... the second-year student with talent in magic.

She didn’t ask us anything.

She didn’t pretend to know anything either.

However, I could see from her expression that she was pleading silently for us not to start a conversation, and her cheeks were flushed red...

I figured out the situation pretty easily.

Her lips were tightly sealed, and beads of sweat had formed on her forehead.

She was fifteen, wasn’t she?

At fifteen, she would normally be in the second year of middle school, right?

There was only one reason she’d be so nervous without me even asking anything.

It had to be the guilty conscience of a thief showing itself, right?

Correct.

She would wear her robe to the meetings, but she would take it off on the way back to appear less suspicious; she had to have just taken it off.

Above all else, there was a piece of fabric that looked suspiciously like a robe peeking out of her bag.

‘It’s a hundred percent.’

She eventually could no longer avoid my gaze, and awkwardly turned her neck to face me, like a rusty robot.

“Ah, hahahah... Reinhart? Um! Ahem! Erm, ahem. So! What brings you here...? In the middle of the night? To... this place...?”

At that moment, Rudina was caught in the embarrassing moment just after the cessation of club activities, encountering a junior she shouldn’t have run into.

It was just like the moment when, by chance, a closeted nerd pretending to be cool gets caught shopping in Akihabara by a school friend.

She was just feeling guilty for no real reason.

“Oh, senior Rudina? Hello!”

Before I could respond, Charlotte was the first to react.

“Oh, H-Hey, princess! Ni-ni-nic—Um. Nice to m-me-meet you too...!”

“... Why are you so nervous?”

“No, no... It’s, it’s... Heh. It’s nothing...”

What was I to do?

‘Should I tease her or not? To tease her, or not?’

My mind was still not made up.

‘To tease her, or not? To tease her, or not?’

Finally: ‘Tease it is, then!’

“So, senior, what’s your concept? Dragon? Demon?”

“...”

It was as if Rudina had died standing up.

“Don’t tell me you believe you might actually be a dragon because you possess No-Casting abilities...?”

Rudina was shocked by my statement.

It seemed I’d hit the bullseye.