Chapter 353 - 352: Thank You
"Eek!"
"Q… quiet down, he's coming!"
"F… fuck, I want to transfer classes."
"What do I do? I… didn't know something like that happened. I need to warn my cousin!"
The next day, everyone in class 155 has received the news of what happened yesterday; of how their new combat instructor, Mr. Evans, killed like 6 students in cold blood. There were also rumours going around that he ate some of their body parts, as the one that recovered the bodies said that some parts were missing.
They were supposed to go to the field since Van had told them not to stay in the classroom and just go straight there to have their exercise. However, their current supervisor had told them to stay, saying that their combat instructor had an announcement to make to them.
What kind of announcement? They totally have no clue. The only thing they know is that they want to be assigned to a new class..
Sadly for Magnus, to get revenge on Van, he called for his bigger cousin who was in another class in the senior's building. His only hope was that the news had also reached them, and that it was his combat instructor that did it… if not, he might have just possibly signed his older cousin's death sentence.
"What are you doing, Magnus!?" Thyri stood up from her seat as Magnus suddenly stood up from his seat.
"I… I need to warn my cousin!"
"You stupid shit!" Sven quickly blocked Magnus's path as soon as he saw him hurriedly leaving the room, "Mr. Evans will be here any minute now! What do you think will happen if he sees you cutting classes!? He might place his anger on us!"
"Who cares about you guys!?" Magnus slapped Sven's hands away, "My cousin's life is more important than any of you fuckers!"
"You--"
"!!!"
And before Sven could retaliate, the sound of the door opening echoed throughout the entire classroom. It was as if their whole world had stopped as even their hurried breaths, which were just whispering in the air just moments ago, halted.
The sound of their classroom's door opening, which they have instinctively learned to ignore since their first day, now seemed to produce a sort of music in their ears-- a song of horror and death, that is.
The students all slowly turned their heads towards the door, with Magnus and Sven being the worst of them all as their teeth started to chatter. Most of them were in denial and wished that whoever was entering the door, wasn't the one they were expecting.
"Who!?"
And to their surprise, it wasn't Van. Instead, it was a female student, whose hair was shorter than even most of the boys in the class. Their breaths, which felt like it had been trapped inside them for years, was finally released at the sight of the young female student-- Sigrid.
They all thought that their death was coming, but to think it was only a student they have not seen before. And while the other students were letting out breaths of relief, Magnus and Sven took this chance to take their seats-- they weren't about to be caught standing around the classroom when Van entered.
Afterward, they all looked towards Sigrid, who was nervously fidgeting in front of the class, seemingly not knowing whether to sit or go out of the classroom.
"What are you doing, you gamine!?" Magnus slammed his desk several times to try and get Sigrid's attention, "Take a seat or you'll get us all in trouble!"
"W… where!?" Sigrid quickly panicked as she heard Magnus's loud voice, even to the point of flinching and hugging the wall, "I… I… I… I'm new to this class!"
"Sit here! Sit--" And before Thyri could finish offering the place beside her, the whole classroom once again turned silent as the door once again let out a small creaking sound. And sadly for all of them, this time, it truly was their new combat instructor.
They all held their breaths, thinking of what would happen to the poor student that unfortunately found herself in Van's direct path. Some of them closed their eyes, not wanting to see the carnage that was about to unfold.
"Mr. Evans!"
'W… what are you doing!?'-- were the thoughts of some of the students as they saw Sigrid cheerfully running to her death.
However, contrary to their expectations, instead of being eaten, Van only looked at Sigrid before letting out a sigh.
"Should you be coming to class?" Van said as he continued to walk towards the front of the class, not seeming to mind that Sigrid was following him like a car, "I thought the Headmistress said that you should take a rest after… what happened to you?"
"N… no," Sigrid quickly shook her head, "I would prefer to be by your side as soon as possible, Mr. Evans."
"...I see," Van squinted his eyes suspiciously as he tried to see if Sigrid was really alright, physically. The effects of what happened to Sigrid were something he knew very intimately, and experienced firsthand; the very reason he couldn't control himself yesterday was because of that in the first place.
He knew she wasn't alright, and was probably just hanging by a small thread that could break at any moment, and at the smallest of mistakes. And if she was using Van as some sort of safety net, then Van will not deny her of that.
"..." Van could not help but blink a couple of times from his thoughts. It would seem that spending his time with people hundreds of times older than him was starting to turn him into an old man.
"A… alright," Van then let out a somewhat awkward smile as he looked at Sigrid, "Then introduce yourself to the class and find somewhere to sit."
"O… okay," Sigrid also let out a smile as she faced the class, "My name is Sigrid from class 126. I… I will be attending this class from now on."
"Alright, go find--"
"The reason for my transfer is because I was raped."
"!!!"
Before Van could gesture to Sigrid to find a seat, the whole class let out gasps of utter shock and surprise from hearing Sigrid's words.
"Sigrid, what are you doing?" Van hurriedly said. Sigrid, however, seemed to not be paying attention to him as she continued talking to the class.
"I… I heard all of you talking about Mr. Evans earlier, and I also saw how scared you are of him." Although Sigrid's tone seemed to be filled with resolution, the trembling of her hands was something that did not escape Van's eyes.
"Yes, he killed some students from my class… but he only did that because of me," Sigrid's eyes traveled across the entire class, trying to look all of her new classmates straight in their eyes, "Once Mr. Evans found out what they did to me, he lost control and was not able to stop himself. So… so, please…
...don't be scared of Mr. Evans, he protected me."
"..."
Van did not know what to do as Sigrid suddenly bowed her head towards the class, and then once again to him.
"Thank you again, Mr. Evans."
"You can sit next to me!"
"A… alright!"
"..." Once again, Van could only stare at Sigrid as she proceeded to run to the back of the class, taking a seat beside Thyri.
And now, even with Van's presence, the entire room was suddenly filled with whispers. Some of the students still held fear in their eyes, but most were whispering with each other, clamoring as they looked back and forth between Van and Sigrid.
"!!!"
All the students then took in a long and deep breath as they saw a smile slowly building on their combat instructor's face. He… was capable of smiling like that!? Granted, they have only known him for like an hour; but with all of the actions he had shown so far, they only knew him as some kind of monster.
But seeing as he protected a female student and even killed the people that harmed her… then he isn't probably that bad, could he?-- was now the thoughts of most of the students in the class. In fact, some of them thought that it probably wouldn't be too bad if Van became their class' supervisor. It's sort of cool, they thought.
Van then cleared his throat as soon as he realized he was being stared at by his students, "Alright, settle down," he then said as he waved his hands, gesturing to the students to calm down.
"Before we go to the field, I have an announcement to make," and all of a sudden, he once again returned to his normal mood, letting out a sigh as he looked at the students, "I'm your class' new supervisor, which means we will be spending 3 hours together now… which also means you'll be trying to chase me for 3 hours."
"..." And as soon as most of them thought of it, it came true.
"...Chase?" Sigrid could not help but blink a couple of times as she heard Van's words, "What does he mean by that?"
"It means just that," Thyri let out a sigh as she answered Sigrid, "Mr. Evans said he won't be teaching us anything for the rest of the term; and that in order to pass the class, we need to be able to hit him once."
"That's… so cool," Sigrid's eyes started to shine.
"...You're only saying that because you haven't experienced it yet," Thyri groaned in frustration, "And now it's going to be 3 hours--"
"So it's you!? You're the instructor my cousin is telling me about!?"
"No, bro! Get out of here!"
And before Thyri could finish her words, another individual entered their classroom. And seeing Magnus's worried expression, it was probably none other than his cousin who he was talking about just earlier before Van arrived.
"...I see I am getting popular," Van said before letting out a long and deep sigh before looking at the unusually old-looking student,
"...You here to join the activity?"