Free Web NovelChapter 28: Principal II
Miles turned to face the speakers as the principal’s voice continued playing.
"You’ve all been rather troublesome students, you know? Loitering and playing in the hallways, causing a ruckus in the classes, and even fighting among yourselves."
He paused, letting his words settle. Then continued.
"To imagine there were teachers among you, yet you still showed little regard for our sacred rules. Truly, truly uncivilized. Wouldn’t you say so, Morgan?"
Mr. Morgan didn’t answer. He stared at the speakers guardedly.
As though seeing that, the principal picked up, not missing a beat.
"A shame. I must say I am disappointed in all your performances so far. But that’s fine; like I said, I’m here to civilize you lot. No point in expecting results immediately, right?"
Miles’s heart sank at that. Something was coming.
The principal’s voice grew solemn.
"In light of the recent infractions, I shall be enforcing two more laws. From now on, it is forbidden to run in the hallway. Failure to adhere to these rules as set will result in immediate disciplinary action."
"Next, I hereby enforce a law of orderliness. Any spoken word above the sound of a whisper will result in immediate punishment."
"As for the issue of infighting..."
The voice trailed off, as though considering something.
"...I suppose it is normal among youngsters your age. So I’ll let it slide. Let it not be said that I am a tyrant."
It continued, smugly adding,
"All rules are to be enforced with immediate effect. It would do you well to follow them."
With that, the speakers died down. The room remained deathly silent. Not a single soul dared to speak.
The sagging boy remained a very fresh reminder in their eyes.
Slowly, Mr. Morgan walked to the center of the room, careful in his steps. Reaching it, he hesitated before raising a hand and snapping his fingers.
The room held its breath, only releasing it when nothing happened to the man.
He moved his lips, tentatively whispering. The storm and heater drowned it out before its contents could reach any of them.
Yet the man smiled. He showed them all a thumbs-up before pulling out his phone and pointing towards it. His finger hovered above a messenger app.
His message was clear enough.
The man beckoned Ryan, who only hesitated a few moments before standing to meet him. He whispered something to the boy before sending him off.
It wasn’t long before the boy was moving around with a pen and paper, collecting numbers. Once it reached Miles’s turn, Ryan whispered the same request to him.
He whispered a reply back, deliberately not just writing it on paper like most did, to see just how loud he could get with whispering.
It was enough to have a conversation with someone close by; anything more would cross the limit into actually talking.
Soon, a notification popped up on his phone, informing him of his addition to a group chat.
’Gym Survivors.’
A rather drab but functional name. There were only twenty members in it. Twenty out of the original twenty-two.
In less than a few hours at that.
Mr. Morgan, along with Ryan, were both set as the admins, with the chatroom currently allowing only them to post.
[Morgan: We can use this to communicate for now. If you need to talk to someone far away, you’re free to do so through direct messages. You can whisper if you’re close enough too; it’s safe but best to be mindful about it.]
He sent a message soon after.
[Morgan: Just rest for now. I doubt we’ll be getting out of here today. It’s already getting late now; we’ll have to make arrangements for sleeping, as well as dinner later. For now, it’d be best to settle in.]
The room grew somber at the message. It was a truth they’d known at the back of their minds, but most still hadn’t come to terms with it.
With the fact that they were going to have to spend the night in the school, with all the dangers still lurking, with the possibility of anything happening at any time.
There was little they could do but sulk.
Miles checked the time on his phone.
’3:50 pm.’
Without realizing it, time had flown by. If things were still normal, the school day would be almost over by now.
Some buried their faces in their legs; some covered their eyes.
Yet they didn’t dare sob. It might’ve been in violation of the rules for all they knew.
Miles could only sink deeper into his thoughts, ignoring the pain in his palms at the sight of it all.
***
Three hours passed by with nothing much occurring. The principal hadn’t appeared again to announce any new laws, and no ghouls came to disturb their abode.
The room itself had stayed mostly the same as well, with the only change being the increasingly frequent growls from the students’ stomachs.
Miles could only thank their lucky stars that the principal required spoken words to activate his punishment. Else, at least half of them would be dead, Miles included.
He hadn’t eaten anything besides the soggy fast food this morning.
Yet he suppressed it, not using [Delusion] in the process, still careful not to worsen the migraine that had begun weakening already.
Besides, he’d long suffered far worse than this.
During the period of relative peace, he’d taken the chance to finally go over things properly. First had been his status.
[Status]
[Full name: Miles]
[EGO: None formed]
[Traits (1/2)]
[Dissociative: NONE OF THIS IS REAL. NONE OF THIS IS REAL. NONE OF THIS IS REAL. NONE OF THIS IS REAL. NONE OF THIS IS REAL....]
[Skills (2/5)]
[Delusion (Unique) Lv1 (0/100): Truly, what is the world, but a mirror of our minds.]
[Cold resistance (Common) Lv1 (0/100): May your heart keep you warm.]
[Points: 10]
Seeing it had only confirmed his suspicions. Both Grimm and Brandon had gotten this skill, so it made sense they were much less affected by the cold.
That line of thought had naturally led him to question if the skill had a cost. After all, [Delusion] had a cost. From what he could see of Brandon and Grimm, their skills also had costs.
Then he thought of the feeling of weakness he’d gotten after first getting the skill. Then about the fact that most of the growling in the room came from only three students.
Grimm, Brandon, and Miles.
He was fairly certain the cost was food, or some sort of energy in the end.
