5. Be Quiet in the Cetery
I couldn’t allow Erika and Sally to skip class, so I sent them ahead.
After they left, I underwent a few tests at the hospital.
Naturally, there was nothing wrong.
"Student, this is the second ti right after school started. There’s nothing wrong, so you shouldn’t keep skipping class and coming to the hospital. You need to attend your classes."
The doctor gave advice, looking genuinely concerned about my grades.
It seed that I looked like a student who had no interest in studying and was faking illnesses to co to the hospital.
I was pretty well-known at school, but despite hearing my na, the doctor still didn’t seem to recognize as a transfer student.
‘Well, just because I’m famous doesn’t an everyone rembers my na.’
After the tests were over, I headed down to the lobby of the hospital.
It was then that Kkamang, who had been quietly following , spoke up.
[If I had said anything in that basent, the guy would’ve run away. It would have been hard to escape.]
"Are you talking about Anna Belui?"
Kkamang nodded at my question.
[Finding the dium and destroying them is sothing only you can do. I wonder why.]
"I wanted to ask earlier, but I couldn’t because Erika and Sally were there."
I rolled up the sleeve of my patient gown and extended my right arm toward Kkamang.
"Kkamang, you definitely said that when the cross on my arm appeared, the evil spirit was destroyed. Is that the sign of an evil spirit’s destruction?"
[That’s what it says in the Bible. But destroying an evil spirit is sothing Sister Gloria couldn’t do 100 years ago. She could only seal them on this island.]
"...What? Sothing Sister Gloria couldn’t do, how can I do it?"
[That’s what I’m saying. What exactly are you?]
It seed like Kkamang didn’t fully understand what was going on with either, as he was asking questions in return.
Instead of answering, I fell into deep thought.
There was no point in panicking now. It would be better to change the subject and focus on getting what I originally intended.
‘For now, I should extract information from Kkamang first.’
With that in mind, I spoke to him.
"Well, I don’t know either. Anyway, I helped you, so will you tell the things I’ve been curious about?"
[You were curious about the relationship between the dean and Raven. And about my identity.]
I nodded vigorously.
[Then follow . I’ll let you et the Student Council President. You’ll get a better explanation from them than from a cat.]
If I followed Kkamang, I would et the Student Council President. This ant that the Student Council President knew sothing about this talking cat.
Kkamang gave a sharp look as I hesitated for a while.
[What are you doing? If you don’t follow , you won’t learn anything. If you don’t do anything, nothing will happen, lody.]
That snapped out of it.
The reason and purpose for my return to the past suddenly resurfaced in my mind.
That’s right. I had to et the Student Council President.
In the end, I followed the determined cat once again.
Kkamang, walking with his proud stride, stopped in front of the main entrance of the hospital lobby.
He sat down, tail flicking, and looked up at .
"You want to go out?"
If I opened this door, would I end up in another strange place? Just like how I instantly crossed over from Chesswind Village to the school?
As I thought about this, my hand hesitated to reach for the door.
I tried to clear my mind and act rationally.
‘Are you hesitating because you don’t know what could be there, lody? This cat is saying that there’s sothing strange at the school where Raven is, isn’t that right?’
Above all, opening this door might be the key to solving the strange events I’ve been experiencing.
Just as much as I wanted to save Raven, I also wanted to find out why these strange phenona were happening to .
I took a deep breath and turned the hospital door handle.
Click.
Kkamang followed as I stepped outside.
Creeeak-
The place I stepped out into wasn’t the outside of the hospital or the school.
"This is... where is this?"
I found myself in a dim, forested area where tall trees blocked most of the sunlight. The ground was uneven and covered in dense foliage.
There were gravestones everywhere.
The door I had just opened with Kkamang led to a small cabin standing in front of the gravestones.
The humble one-story cabin, about 5 pyeong in size, was empty.
I stepped back outside of the cabin.
ow.
Kkamang owed as he walked toward the gravestones, almost as if calling to follow.
"Where are you going?"
I looked around with a nervous expression.
There was no sign of life. The cetery looked like it hadn’t been maintained for a very long ti.
Caw- Caw-
I saw crows flying across the overcast sky.
Ding.
I heard the sound of a bell ringing.
I turned my head toward the direction of the sound and saw a bell hanging from a gravestone, swaying.
There was no wind.
This ant that the bell wasn’t ringing because of the wind.
The bell on the gravestone was attached to a string, which led down to the dirt mound below the gravestone.
The space beneath the gravestone was where a dead person had been buried.
ow.
Kkamang, who had stopped in front of a gravestone, looked ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ at and owed.
Then, Kkamang said,
[Dig it up.]
At that mont, I began to dig up the grave Kkamang was pointing to, almost like I was in a trance.
I didn’t even know what possessed to do such a strange thing. Digging up a grave.
But for so reason, I had a strong premonition that I had to dig up this ground.
Ding-ding-ding.
The bell hanging from the gravestone kept ringing.
It was probably the bell that had been put up during the great plague of 100 years ago.
At the ti, a deadly plague had spread, and many people had died.
Because of that, there were cases where people who had accidentally fallen into a death-like state were mistakenly buried alive.
This bell was a device that allowed those mistakenly buried to alert others to their survival.
When soone woke up in their coffin, they would pull the string to ring the bell outside.
In other words, this bell would only ring if soone alive inside the coffin pulled the string.
Since I had no shovel, I was digging with my hands, and it was taking longer than I expected.
Sweat ran down my temples. I wiped it off with the back of my hand as I continued to dig.
Thud. Thud.
I suddenly noticed raindrops falling on my hands, so I looked up.
It was bad. The sky, which had been overcast, had now started to rain.
The rain was causing the dirt mound to collapse, making it even harder to dig.
Rumble boom-!
The thunder shook the ground.
The noise was so loud and terrifying that I stopped what I was doing and looked up at the sky.
The surroundings were still eerily quiet. No signs of life. It had gotten completely dark, like nightfall.
I could feel the rain intensifying as I hurried to dig faster.
Finally, I reached the bottom.
Thud.
A dull sound. It was the wooden coffin.
When I cleared away the wet dirt, I saw the hard wooden planks.
I dug a little more to expose the lid and then hesitated as I placed my hand on it.
Suddenly, I had the realization: 'Am I about to open this, knowing full well what might be inside?'
But by the ti I realized it, it was already too late. The lid of the coffin opened on its own before I even touched it.
I froze in surprise. A person erged from inside.
He had dark hair like the night sky, eyes as blue as the clear sky, and the stark contrast of those features captured my attention.
It was a face I knew.
A student with an unbelievably beautiful appearance.
The delicate-looking young man was bound with ropes inside the coffin, and a gag was stuffed in his mouth.
With furrowed brows, he looked up at , helplessly.
Noah Eugene Eglinton.
I looked down at the Student Council President with a bewildered expression.
How did he end up like this? I had no idea.
"...President, are you okay?"
What happened for him to be buried alive like this?
I thought as I carefully removed the gag from the Student Council President's mouth.
"Can you undo this too?"
He raised his hands. He was asking to untie him.
I stared at him with suspicion, then asked in a cautious voice.
"What if you hurt ? Why were you buried here?"
"Did you forget that I’m the one who took you to the hospital? You’re being harsh on a benefactor. I still haven’t received a proper thank you."
The Student Council President spoke with a sowhat sarcastic tone. He seed rather frustrated.
Hearing that made feel a little guilty.
"Thank you for taking to the hospital."
I bowed slightly in appreciation.
"But why are you here?"
"I knew the ghost story of Chesswind Village wasn’t over yet."
"...What? What do you an?"
However, the Student Council President didn’t answer again.
Before I could ask again, Kkamang, who had been watching us from next to the gravestone, suddenly owed loudly.
ow!
At the sa ti, the bell rang again.
Ding-ding.
I quickly untied the Student Council President and climbed back onto the ground.
The bells on nearby gravestones were ringing.
Ding-ding-ding-ding-
This ti, the bells from the side and front lines were ringing as well.
"What is this...?"
I was about to check the gravestones, but then,
Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-
All the bells on the gravestones started ringing wildly at once.
Then, sothing started to pop out from the dirt mounds in front of the gravestones.
White bones beca visible. What was erging from the dirt mounds were definitely human bones.
"What... what is that... Agh!"
Suddenly, a skeletal hand grabbed my arm, and I fell backward.
The hand that erged from the nearby gravestone was gripping my arm with such force that I feared it might rip my arm off.
Skeletons began to erge from all over the cetery, digging their way out of the dirt mounds.
They were slowly approaching us.
Thud.
The Student Council President slamd the skeletal hand holding my arm with the coffin lid.
Then he grabbed my hand and pulled up.
"Don’t let go of ."
He pulled back with one arm around my shoulder.
The skeletons erging from the graves were gathering toward us.
"lody, step back slowly."
I gripped the Student Council President’s sleeve tightly.
We were slowly stepping back when sothing touched my back.
I turned in surprise, and there, standing behind , was another skeleton.
Before we could react, the skeleton pushed the Student Council President and backward.
Ah? We were falling.
We definitely fell onto the dirt ground, but suddenly, the ground beneath us collapsed, and we fell further down.
As we fell, the Student Council President embraced to protect .
Boom-
After a long fall, we crashed into sothing hard.
When I regained consciousness, I found myself trapped inside a narrow coffin, alone with the Student Council President.
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