23: Secret behind Osamu's Death

"Where were you last night?" Mr. Rayven asked, causing fear and nervousness in Raia's heart.

"Ah... I was in my room, Mr. Rayven. Why?" Raia's voice trembled with fear. He was aware of his shaking voice, but he couldn't stop the fear. It seemed like he was completely overwhelmed by fear as he stared into Mr. Rayven's eyes.

Mr. Rayven smiled at him. "Oh, really?" It could be seen that there's a suspicion about Mr. Rayven's smile. He slowly approached Raia.

"Don't lie to me, Raia. You got your memories back, don't you?" he asked, while his hands were only a few meters away from him. Raia swallowed nervously as he noticed his hands behind him.

Raia immediately became alert because of this. It was undeniable that Mr. Rayven noticed that Raia's memories had returned. The fear enveloped Raia even more, especially when he remembered the night he lost his memories due to a strange smell. It was not impossible for the teacher to use it again to erase his memory.

"Hey Raia!" they suddenly heard from behind them. Mr. Rayven was immediately startled. Raia noticed the anger on the teacher's face when June called from behind.

But it only lasted for a moment, and Mr. Rayven quickly regained his composure and smiled as he turned to face the guy behind them.

"Oh, I see, it's just you, June," Mr. Rayven said, smiling. June pretended and went along with the teacher's actions.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Rayven. I thought it was just some of our classmates. I'm sorry, but may I talk to Raia? I just want to ask him something," June pretended to ask Raia.

"Oh, sure. I was about to leave anyway," Mr. Rayven said. "Okay, Mr. Raia, just remember what I said. See you around, boys," he implicitly threatened Raia before looking at June as he finally left.

June and Raia watched Mr. Rayven until he disappeared from their sight. Raia immediately knelt down once he was sure Mr. Rayven was gone, while June leaned against the wall, seeming to have less anxiety.

"Thanks, man. I thought I was doomed," Raia thanked June.

"No worries; that's what I expected anyway. After what happened yesterday, I already assumed that he noticed something. I almost forgot, but we can't run away from our scent," June said. Raia was slightly confused by his words, so he faced June.

"What do you mean by that?" Raia asked, puzzled.

"I bet you're not the only one he's been looking out for now; I bet he smelled my scent inside the room last night. Knowing that he caught Aki and me in front of his office yesterday. We should have been even more careful," June said, scratching his head.

Meanwhile, Mr. Rayven was biting his lip in frustration as he returned to his office.

"Tsk! I was too close!" he muttered, slumping down at his desk.

"June Smith...huh?" He immediately pulled out his folder and looked through the students' files, including Aki's. He laid out the papers of Aki, June, and Raia on his desk. "These three, I should have known...you three know my secrets, don't you?" he thought to himself as he bit his nails.

Soon, he heard a faint chuckle behind him. "Whi whi whi...is there any problem, Rayven?" Glutton asked, still laughing.

"Tsk!"  Rayven ignored his annoying companion.

"Did you learn who owned that scent from last night?" Glutton asked. He had also smelled someone in the basement when he returned. Glutton had a stronger sense of smell than Rayven, so even if it was a faint scent, it could never escape his strong sense of smell.

Rayven clenched his fist. Glutton looked at the papers on the desk and smiled slightly. He understood what it meant.

"I should have known. If only I hadn't become so confident, this wouldn't have happened," Rayven said in frustration.

Glutton smiled when he understood what Rayven meant. Rayven should have dispatched Raia first, but he became complacent because he thought Raia's memories wouldn't return any sooner.

"That's a big problem, Rayven. You should have chosen those two guys to dispatch first," Glutton said, biting his lip. Rayven was frustrated with this comment. He failed to dispatch Raia before because of Osamu, and now he needs to choose other students to dispatch before he can schedule Raia's shipment again.

Meanwhile, the exam started after their lunch break. Exactly at three o'clock in the afternoon, their class was divided into three groups.

Aki, Amelia, and Raia were together, while June was separated from Kanaye and others. Wrenn and his group were together, and only Rio was alone. Ryota was in the other group as well.

June looked at Aki because he was the only one separated from their group. He couldn't help but be alert about what might happen during the exam.

After a few moments, Mr. Gojo joined them, one of the instructors who had entered their respective rooms. Mr. Gojo facilitated Aki's group, while Mr. Rayven was with June's group.

The entire room was silent while tension filled the air. Almost everyone, except June, was looking at Mr. Rayven with serious and excited expressions, especially Ryota, who was confident he would pass up this opportunity.

Mr. Rayven and June made eye contact, and June immediately felt a strange look from the teacher. June pretended to be innocent by smiling. Mr. Rayven smiled back before distributing the test questionnaires. Unlike their previous exam, each question would be answered individually.

The whole class was quiet as they answered the questions. On the other hand, Raia seemed to freeze upon seeing the numbers on the paper. Each line of the first sentence had a number on it. He quickly wrote the numbers on a separate sheet and furrowed his brow as he analyzed them.

Aki noticed Raia's strange behavior and looked at him. She watched Raia for a while, avoiding eye contact with Mr. Gojo, who was also looking at Raia. Aki furrowed her brow upon seeing fear and anxiety in Raia's eyes. She knew something was bothering Raia; perhaps he noticed something strange on the test paper. She couldn't wait any longer and wanted to ask Raia.

Aki finished answering the papers and intentionally put the wrong answers on her answer sheet so that she wouldn't pass the exam. After she finished, Aki raised her head to look at Raia again but was interrupted by Mr. Gojo's appearance. Mr. Gojo's face was too close to Aki's face, and he was grinning in a creepy way.

"Is there a problem, Miss Aki?" Mr. Gojo asked her. Aki was immediately creeped out. This strange feeling is the same as what she felt in the basement that night. Mr. Gojo's eyes were barely visible because of his exaggerated smile, but Aki could see through his forced smile.

Aki turned her head and looked at her own paper. She secretly looked at Raia, who was also looking at her, especially at Mr. Gojo. But when their eyes met, Raia quickly looked away.

"He must've noticed something," Aki thought to herself and looked back at her paper. After the exam, Aki immediately pulled Raia to the women's CR.

She leaned Raia against the wall and looked at him intently. After a while, June also entered the CR.

"What's going on, Aki?" June asked in surprise and immediately closed the door.

"Shit, why did you call me here? What if someone comes and sees us?" June asked anxiously, looking at the girl. It was only then that he noticed Raia, who was standing next to Aki and leaning against the wall while looking down.

"Raia? What's going on, Aki?" June asked her, confused.

"Why don't we ask Raia? I know he knows something," Aki suggested.

"I told you... I can't. If I told you about it, you'll... you'll die," Raia replied, his voice trembling. The fear and nervousness in his voice make the two worried.

"We'll die anyway, right? That's why we're trying to escape," Aki said to the boy.

"What is happening here?" June seems lost. 

But no one dares to answer him until he gets the gist of what is happening. 

"But still-"

Raia didn't finish what he was saying, as June cut him off. "But still, you don't want us to know more than what we already know. Is that right?" June asked him.

Raia looked at him and slowly nodded his head.

"Well, sad to say, Mr. Rayven already noticed that I know something," June said. "... and it's not just my hunch this time, because he boldly gave me a warning," June added, explaining how Mr. Rayven looked at him earlier during the exam.

Raia couldn't help but sigh. Everything was becoming more complicated, and June was right. They were all in this together. Knowing about the school's secret meant there was no going back to being innocent. Closing their eyes to reality was already a sin.

Raia had no choice but to show the paper he had with him from the exam earlier. He had written down the random numbers he saw on the test paper.

"What is this?" June asked him, confused.

"I know I should've said it earlier, but, after Osamu's death, I went inside his room. It was already vacant, but everything is still clean. And I accidentally saw his letter. It was not literally addressed to me, and it seems like he wasn't able to finish writing the letter. There's no salutation, not even a signature. Even the body of the letter was still not completed," Raia explained.

Raia then showed them the letter he was referring to. In the letter, Osamu confessed everything about himself. June and Aki were shocked to learn that Osamu was a spy for Mr. Rayven. Unlike them, Osamu had been at the university for several years, and it seemed he had been a spy for Mr. Rayven for quite some time.

In the letter, Osamu admitted to betraying Raia because he had long dreamed of leaving their level. However, the letter also mentioned Osamu's 2-year plan. It was undeniable that Osamu was a prodigy because he was able to expose Mr. Rayven to Raia.

Osamu set up Raia to follow him to Mr. Rayven's office. Osamu also calculated Raia's entry into the basement. In this way, Osamu was confident that Raia would discover the truth and be able to escape from the university. Aki couldn't help but cry when she learned of Osamu's sacrifice just to uncover the school's secret.

He also admitted in the letter that he intentionally betrayed Mr. Rayven because he was the one who killed his colleagues before. The teacher had killed several students, and even though Osamu knew about it secretly, he couldn't do a thing. He's just a puppet to Mr. Rayven, as he thought; he could easily graduate with the teacher at his back.

But Osamu was wrong when he learned the truth. Mr. Rayven was confident that Osamu didn't know what was happening in the school and continued to trust him, unaware that Osamu had already found a way to escape from it.

Unfortunately, Osamu couldn't think of any other way to reveal the school's secret without letting someone else know the secret. He wants to tell Raia, as someone who is a nerd, about that secret, but he also knows that Raia wouldn't believe it that easily. That's why he had no other choice but to sacrifice himself for this plan.

He used Raia, so he would go to Mr. Rayven's office and discover the truth.

In addition, Osamu also mentioned something about numbers. During the exams Osamu took over the years, he noticed patterns in the numbers on each exam.

According to Osamu, this could be a sign that someone outside is trying to help them. Those were the student numbers of those who would pass.

It seemed that the instructors hadn't noticed this pattern yet, but Osamu was sure that whoever was behind it was their ally. This person wanted to let them know who was going to pass the exam.

June and Aki's eyes widened.

"Wait...you mean, the passers are already determined even before the exam?" Aki asked Raia in disbelief.

Raia slowly nodded. "And you have those numbers from the exam earlier, right? Did you learn who will pass the exam?" June asked her.

Raia nodded again and gave them a list of student numbers and names for the students in their class. On that list, Raia circled two names that matched the student numbers on the test paper.

Aki's eyes widened, and she covered her mouth when she saw the names that were circled.

"Oh shit..." Aki exclaimed, unable to believe what she was seeing. "You've got to be kidding me," June muttered as he shook his head.