Surviving in a School of Ghost Stories-Chapter 57

"Johannes Castle has four floors. As you know, unlike the main building, there’s no basement. But sometimes, there are strange occurrences, like discovering stairs that lead down to a basement or elevators that go all the way up to the tenth floor."

"Are you sure you’re not imagining things?"

"There have been quite a few students who’ve visited there. For the tenth floor, I even went there myself last year."

"What’s there?"

Dante shrugged his shoulders and answered.

"Nothing. Though some students claim to have seen strange things, it's all mentioned in the guideline, so make sure you read it thoroughly. Even if you see something strange here, the school won’t believe you."

The phrase "the school won’t believe you" felt oddly unsettling.

I resumed reading the guidelines. As I was reading, I arrived at the banquet hall on the first floor.

The banquet hall was stunning, to the point of admiration. The entire hall was made of mirrors and golden hues.

And there, a group of students gathered.

At Saint Gloria Private School, we distinguish students by the color of the name tag on their uniforms.

This chapt𝙚r is updated by freeωebnovēl.c૦m.

Currently, 1st years have green tags, 2nd years have red, 3rd years have blue, and 4th years have yellow.

When a 4th-year student graduates, the next year’s new students wear yellow tags, continuing the tradition.

"Ramsport doesn’t believe in ghosts. He just sees these courage tests as events that help students overcome their fears, since they’re so scared."

At that moment, Dante continued to explain next to me.

"Of course, I don’t believe in ghosts, but there were quite a few things I experienced last year that are hard to explain."

I had thought Dante was a man of few words, but surprisingly, he spoke freely about things I hadn’t asked.

Listening to his explanation, I surveyed the F class students, all gathered by their year groups.

I hadn’t noticed until now, but it seemed that the students in the performance arts track had their own unique characteristics.

Upon closer inspection, their uniforms were all altered according to their individual styles.

On the central podium in the middle of the large banquet hall, the class representatives of each year stood.

Among them was, of course, Leonard.

"Looks like everyone’s here, so let’s proceed with the drawing."

The female 4th-year representative who took the stage caught the students’ attention.

Her name was Diana Lovett, and she was a member of the disciplinary committee.

Tall and slender, she had pink hair that looked like soft flower petals.

"From 1st to 4th year, including transfer students, we have a total of 124 students. This year’s courage test will have four students per team."

When the word "transfer students" was mentioned, students began whispering among themselves. One by one, their eyes turned toward me.

At that moment, Leonard, standing on the podium, skillfully drew everyone’s attention back to himself.

"Alright, let’s focus everyone. Now, we’ll start with the team selection."

I hoped I’d be on the same team as Dante. As an athlete, I figured his skills might help.

"Leonard Norton Ramsport, Dante Abe Wellington, Fanny Mori Portsmouth, Melody Hastings."

And, by good luck, I was placed on the same team as Leonard, Dante, and all of them.

Our goal is to find and close the Gate. If you fail to close it, it will reveal your location to them. Think about what happened to the students at Johannes Castle 50 years ago when they failed to close the Gate.

Our turn came up.

When it was our time, Leonard tightly tied the four of our wrists together with a rope.

"If anyone gets scared and runs off, it’ll be difficult to find them."

I looked at him with a confused expression, and Leonard added an explanation.

I realized that a similar warning was written in the safety manual.

Do not take your eyes off your teammates. If you let your guard down, you will either be alone or your teammate might not be the person you know. Think of a way to never lose sight of your teammate.

Anyway, we were the 6th team to go.

There were a total of 30 teams, and being the 6th meant we were practically the advance team.

The teams that had gone before us, numbers 1 through 5, hadn’t come back yet.

"This year is taking quite a while."

Dante muttered with his arms crossed, his face expressionless.

Both Leonard and Dante showed no signs of fear.

Fanny was quiet, looking like a shy student.

Her face was pale, and she was trembling, so it seemed ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) she was scared.

The 4th-year F class representative, Diana, announced when it was our turn.

I stood at the entrance of the banquet hall, still tied by the left wrist with Leonard, Dante, and Fanny, looking slightly nervous.

"The test is simple. You just need to close the door."

Diana said.

"The door might be a real door, or it might not be. But there will be a mark. You all know what the F class symbol is, right? When you find a door with the mark, the test is over. Then, just come back and explain what kind of door it was."

The F class symbol must have been the traditional Johannes Castle motif with a harp and lily design.

That’s probably what’s now referred to as the F class symbol.

"And have you all read the safety guidelines? Did the transfer students read them?"

"Yes, I’ve read them."

"Good job."

She patted my head and signaled the start of our team’s departure.

"Good luck. Team 6, start."

As we walked toward our destination, Leonard started arguing against Dante’s experience-based theory.

"It’s all a trick. It’s an old tradition of Johannes Castle. There must be a trap. Maybe they used hallucinogens. There’s no such thing as ghosts."

"You think the school would use hallucinogens on students? They’re not insane enough to do that."

Dante’s words left Leonard speechless.

Fanny, who had been shrinking and scared, supported Dante’s words.

"If the school was pulling some kind of trick, shouldn’t the other class students be participating as well?"

"That’s true."

Leonard, surprisingly, nodded easily, admitting his mistake.

"How did you find the door last year?"

My question was met with a brief silence, as everyone seemed to be thinking. Breaking the silence, Fanny replied.

"I don’t really remember, but it must have been an older student. They were a 4th-year last year."

Hearing Fanny’s answer, Dante added as if recalling something.

"Ah, I remember now. That senior never found the door by themselves all four years at the school, right?"

What an odd coincidence.

Or could it be that they were the ‘shaman’ or some sort of lineage I heard about from the student council president and Eastern?

In the meantime, we arrived at the elevator on the first floor.

The four-story castle had been retrofitted with an elevator, making it stand out strangely compared to the rest of the structure.

I stared at the elevator and asked my team.

"We don’t really have to use the elevator, right?"

"It seems like we have to. The stairs are gone."

"What?"

I quickly turned my head in shock at Leonard’s words. The stairs that should have been behind the elevator were gone.

"I never experienced anything like this last year. Are we really not on some kind of hallucinogen?"

Leonard asked, his face full of disbelief. I responded to him.

"Instead of talking about hallucinogens, shouldn’t we try to figure out how to get out of this situation?"

"Right, right. Our transfer student’s right."

Leonard said with a playful expression, shrugging his shoulders.

"You can deal with it."

When I read his expression, Dante whispered in my ear.

"Do you know what his nickname is? Dog-nard. His personality’s like a dog. Everyone knows that he’s a little jerk, so it’s better if you just put up with him."

But Dante was missing something important. I wasn’t really angry.

"Calling someone Dog-nard to their face? That’s terrible manners."

"What should I call him then, if not Dog-nard?"

Dante asked with a completely innocent look on his face, tilting his head.

It seemed like Leonard was more irritated by this.

"What’s this? You little..."

"Both of you, shut up."

In the end, I had to step in and say something.

This was going to be one dysfunctional team from the start.