The Truth of What Happened

Fidel waltzed up in front of his classmates sitting on the floor; they were grabbing their heads and appeared to be disoriented. Fidel observed them intently as he waited for them to regain their bearings.

Meanwhile, Cyke's group caught up to him and stopped right beside him.

"Miss Escutin, are you okay?" Cyke asked out of the blue.

'Miss Escutin?' Fidel followed Cyke's line of sight and saw their teacher looking up at them in a daze. 'Oh, yeah. Her. I forgot that our teacher got transported with us for a sec there.'

When he didn't receive a response from her, Cyke ran towards her, crouched down, and grabbed her shoulders.

"Miss Escutin, are you okay? Can you hear me?"

Maybe because of the physical touch from Cyke, Miss Sarah Jane Escutin snapped out of her trancelike state and rapidly blinked her eyes.

"H-Huhhh…? C-Cyke, is that you?"

"Yes! It's me, Miss Escutin. Are you okay now?"

"Y-Yeah. I'm fine, I think…"

"Can you get up?"

Cyke held her hand and embraced her waist, trying to help her off the floor. She swayed a couple of times and nearly fell, but in the end, she managed to stand up by holding on to Cyke for support.

Observing her fragile condition, Fidel evaluated in his mind: 'Apparently, she possesses a weak mentality to be frozen in place like that. Even though she tried very hard to keep calm before the summoning happened, she's still fickle-minded deep down.'

He immediately lost interest and checked out the other students. This was a test of their mentality by seeing how they would react to the strange circumstances that they are in. None of this was normal, after all. Anyone sane would know that.

The multitude of blue circles that appeared out of nowhere in their classroom, the darkness of space that draped over outside the windows, then they were transported here in this Victorian-themed room. Their expressions or lack of will reveal to him a bit of their nature when faced with an unknown danger lingering at the back of their heads. Those with extremely weak minds would instantly collapse and have their minds broken—that would be an unsightly scene to witness.

'And would you look at that, a few of them are breaking down already.' Fidel faintly shook his head.

First, everybody looked around the room with panic and fear embedded into each of their eyes; their heads darting around the room like chickens as they searched for an exit, either by way of door or window. However, when they couldn't find a way out, some of them began to tear up.

"Where are we?"

"Does anyone have an idea of what the hell is going on here?!"

"W-Why is this happening to us…?"

And now, they were seeking answers to no one in particular.

The weight and pressure of not knowing what sort of fate awaits them must have put a massive strain on their minds, causing them to crumble out of stress.

'Well, it isn't rare for some people to cry their eyes out, begging for their lives in a hostage situation. That just means they value their lives above everything else. They must think that they're currently in that kind of situation right now.'

Though it couldn't be farther from the truth, it was the only thing their logical little minds could conjure up to rationalize this unreal situation. Just like how some people would never believe in ghosts and spirits even if they were presented with the facts or even encountered them themselves. They'd just cling to science to explain supernatural things and make them sound more natural for them to easily digest.

"We must've been drugged and brought over here." At last, someone started.

Instantly, everybody quieted down and looked toward the person that made that comment.

Calixtro Nascera, the glasses-wearing smartest student in their class, got up from the floor and eyed everyone.

In response, they all waited for his explanation with bated breaths.

"Yes, being drugged should explain everything that we were seeing before coming to this room right now. The blue circles, the dark space outside our classroom, and the bright light that covered our visions. All of it could be explained as hallucinations from the side effects of an unknown drug being administered to us. Then, after we all passed out, we were brought over here by our abductors."

Then, as if everything finally clicked inside their heads, all of them widened their eyes in realization and yelled out emphatically,

"Yes! That must be it!"

"Of course! How could we have not thought of something so obvious!"

"We were drugged… it all makes sense now!"

Everyone nodded their heads together, apparently convinced by the smartest student's well-grounded judgment.

Cyke went in front of Calixtro and patted his shoulder, saying, "Thank you for your logical explanation, Calix. You really are the smartest student in our class."

But Calixtro shook his head. "It's nothing. One of us would've arrived at the same conclusion eventually."

"Maybe, but definitely not as fast and as calm as you have." Cyke flashed a handsome smile.

"Okay, enough with your praises." Calixtro fixed his glasses and said in all seriousness. "Now that we know what happened to us, we need to know what our abductors want from us."

"True, that matter is a little bit concerning now that you point it out…"

"Mhm. The most likely scenario is they're holding us for ransom, but… if worse comes to worst, we're probably going to die here…" Calixtro frowned deeply and announced in a grave voice for everyone to hear.

And upon hearing that, all of his classmates' expressions quickly paled or turned aghast.

"What do you mean by that?" Cyke frowned along with him.

"Well, looking at our accommodation right now, our abductors don't seem to be lacking money. Otherwise, I would think that we'd be placed in a crummy storage room or something, and not a fancy room filled with valuables."

Suddenly, a solid foot stomp resounded in the room.

Calixtro raised an eyebrow. "What is it, Gio?"

To everyone's bewilderment, Gio was glaring at Calixtro like a cornered animal baring its fangs.

"Sh*t. What you said makes too much sense, you smart bastard!" Gio said with clenched fists. "Why'd you have to bring that up?! You're scarin' the bunch of us!"

Hearing that, Calixtro's face scrunched up as he shot back coldly, "I just didn't want us to be ignorant of our chances of survival. Therefore, I wanted to inform everyone to not expect the expected outcomes. Life never goes the way you intend for it to be."

"No, I think what Gio said is correct." Cyke interposed. "There is no reason to scare everyone like that. Some words don't need to be said out loud, Calix. What you did was cruel."

"Really now? Personally, I think everyone here has the right to know their current circumstances. Hiding this from them would, in fact, be crueler in my opinion."

Calixtro took a step backward from Cyke, then stared at him with narrowed eyes.

CLAP. CLAP. CLAP.

From out of nowhere, a crisp clapping sound reverberated in everyone's eardrums like the noise of a gong.

"Hai. Hai. That's enough nonsensical chatter for today, hmm~?"

A cheerful, high-pitched voice of a child. It sharply contrasted with the existing tense atmosphere. But, as if the owner of the childish voice didn't care at all or was just oblivious to their sense of distraught, it continued in its sweet and jolly tone.

"What do you guys say? Are you done now? Can we finally introduce ourselves?"