Chapter 164: Murder! I Saw Murder!
The classes ended, and the thousand-strong student body poured out into the dining hall for an after-class dinner.
Four long tables were set up with a variety of delicious dishes, and each table was quickly surrounded by hungry students eager to eat.
Each table fit over a few hundred students easily.
At the end of the dining hall, there was a table for the teachers that was facing the rest of the hall, where the eagle-eyed teachers could keep a close watch on the students.
Three chandeliers hung from the ceiling, each being as big as a small car. The chandeliers were adorned with white crystals that cast the light across the hall.
It had been a long day of classes, and some students looked like they were roughed up quite a bit.
Their hair was disheveled, and their clothes were wrinkled and dirtied. It looked like they had spent a whole day in some swamp or forest.
At the table with the students of dirtied clothes, they were absentmindedly taking food from their plates and stuffing them inside their mouths.
"Yo, did you guys hear?" A young man suddenly came to them and sat across them.
"What?" A tired voice asked.
"I don't get how you can still be this energetic after spending the whole day in that wretched place."
"First of all, how did you manage to change the clothes this quick?"
They looked at the student, who was just smiling and filling his plate with delicious food.
Unlike others, he didn't have a single dirt on him.
The clothes were clean and looked brand new. It didn't even look like there was a single wrinkle on them.
"I wonder~" Ryan answered with a wink. "Anyway, did you guys hear?"
"Hear what?"
"Young Ones had a new student in the class E." Ryan said. "From what I heard, he is rather special."
The students were ranked based on how long they've been in the institute-Young, Middle, and Elder-the Young Ones were students that had been in the institute for less than three years.
The Middle Ones were students that had been in the institute for three to six years. And lastly, Elder Ones were students that had been in the institute for six to nine years.
After nine years, the Elder Ones would just graduate.
However, no one had been in the institute for that long of a time yet.
"Special student?" one of them asked.
"Yeah, I heard rumors." Ryan chuckled, turned his head around to look at the Young Ones
table, and said. "You've heard about the guy Adam Palestar, right?"
"That new S-ranker?" One of them nodded. "Yeah, he was big news about a couple of months ago when those news traveled here. Do you mean...?"
"Yeah, apparently that guy joined the institute," Ryan said.
BANG!
Like a gunshot, the doors slammed open, and a figure dressed in all black burst into the room.
He seemed panicky, his eyes darting around the room wildly and his arms failing around as if he were swimming through the air.
"Stop right there!" Renard's voice boomed through the air as he stood up in anger. "The start of the dinner had already passed. If you haven't arrived by the hall before then, you'll be left without food. Get out!"
The young man looked scared and shouted. "M-murder! I saw murder!"
A surprising silence fell over the hall.
It was usually only silent when the headmaster arrived in the hall, but this time, it was
different.
"Another one...?" the students whispered.
Terry gulped and said to Adam. "There's been a series of killings lately. It started about a
month ago, and they still haven't caught the killer."
"Can't they ask from people who got killed?" Adam asked.
"They tried, but none of them saw the killer's face or even a voice." Terry said with a sigh.
"They just drop dead suddenly."
"What's this fool spouting..." Renard left the teacher's table, grabbed the scared student by
the arm, and tugged him away from the hall.
As soon as they left, the voices of the students turned loud once again, filling the hall with
chatter.
The teacher also looked concerned.
"Another murder..." a dirty-clothed student said with a sigh.
Ryan took a sip of his drink and then said, "During the dinner? That's bold. It should be easier
to narrow the culprit down."
"Right, if the killer is a student, it should be easy to narrow it down!" One of them exclaimed.
"Wait..." one of them turned to one of the empty seats near them. "Where is Dylan? He didn't
come to the dinner."
"Dylan..." Ryan looked at the empty seat. "He always disappears randomly, doesn't he? We
should bring this to the attention of the teachers."
"Yeah, let's do that!"