Chapter 15: Survivors

~DIN...G~

The loud sound of a bell rang out in the entire auditorium and everyone halted their actions and immediately stopped fighting.

"One hour is already passed, let the survivors stop fighting and leave the auditorium immediately!" The mechanical voice announced.

One by one, the students began to walk out of the hall through the entrance door which opened immediately after the announcement was made. Outside the auditorium, the Dean, Derek, Kelvin, and some other teachers were waiting for them.

Seeing Alex and Raphael unscathed, Kelvin sighed in relief while Derek smirked.

"One, two, three, four, and five. Are these the only surviving first years?" The Dean asked but no one answered him. The first-year students weren't in the mood to answer him, not when most of them barely made it out alive. "I see..." The Dean mumbled. "One, two, three, four, five, six and seven. These are the only surviving second years? Out of twenty? How is this possible?" He asked, seeming surprised that only a few of the second-year students survived. "Klein, can you explain!" He bellowed to one of the second-year students. The boy was the first student to kill one of the first-year students, and among his mates, he seemed to be the strongest.

"The rest weren't strong enough to survive," the boy replied.

"Is that so?" The Dean asked him.

"Yes," The boy replied.

"Go and wait for your punishment!" The Dean ordered him and he bowed and walked away after glancing at Alex. "The rest of you, leave!" He yelled to the other second years and they all bowed and hurriedly left. Turning to the first-year students, he continued. "Congratulations to you all for passing the life test and surviving till this moment. It is a great pleasure to have capable students like you in Nightfall Academy and we will do anything in our power to keep training you all until you are fit to leave the school. Classes take place three times a week, do well to attend all the courses or be prepared to serve some punishment, and also, during your classless days, you are required to practice. The only time you are allowed to rest is on weekends, apart from that, do not be seen playing around during your class days. That will be all for now, Derek will show you to your dorms."

"This way," Derek said and led the first-year students away. He led them to another side of the school with dorms and took them to one of the buildings. "This is where you students will be staying. Your school items will be brought to you later in the day, so if you want to pass the time, you can decide to rest or talk a walk around the school," he said while showing them where they would be staying.

"Sir, do we have one room to ourselves?" A girl asked him.

"Yes. All the students have a room to themselves," Derek replied and she seemed to be excited to hear that.

"Okay, thank you, sir," she replied, smiling as if nothing had happened to her.

"Any more questions?" Derek asked them but no one replied. "Well, since there are no more questions, I'll be leaving," he said and walked away.

The students began to hurry to their rooms while Alex and Raphael didn't leave immediately. Just when they were about to, Kelvin walked up to them. Seeing how they were covered in blood, he rushed and began to check them one after the other.

"Kelvin, what are you doing?" Alex asked as he tried to stop him from checking him.

"To make sure that you are alright," Kelvin replied and continued with what he was doing. After making sure that they were both fine, he stopped. "Thank God you are both fine," he said with relief.

"Of course, we will be. You don't have to worry about us, we are in a new environment," Alex stated.

"I must worry about you and you," he said while pointing at them one after the other. "If I don't, who else would? Huh?" He asked them.

"No one, no one," Alex replied to make things less troublesome for him.

"Good! So... let me do my job," Kelvin said. After some time, a frown soon settled on his face and it didn't go unnoticed by the two boys.

"What is it?" Alex asked him.

"I find a lot of things strange here but I am not certain yet. Maybe it's because I'm worrying too much," Kelvin replied and sighed.

"Be rest assured that nothing is going to happen to us, I'll take care of Raphael and me, so you just worry about yourself," Alex said to him.

"Perhaps I'm thinking too much," Kelvin said and smiled afterward. "Very well then, I need to go and sort myself. If there is anything you need, don't forget to come to me, okay?"

"Okay!" Alex replied and Kelvin smiled and then left. Watching him leave, Alex smiled a bit, he could not help but be grateful to him for everything he had done for them. To them, he was like a big brother; someone that they could really trust and rely on. "Let's go," he turned and said to Raphael who nodded and followed him as they headed for the building.

Inside the building are nine rooms, five for the students, and the other four are bathrooms meant for them. By the time they got there, the other students had picked theirs, leaving them no choice but to take the remaining two rooms. They each picked one and further went inside to check the rooms out.

Meanwhile, inside the Dean's office, the Dean was seated with Derek by his side and Klein standing before them.

"Before your punishment, can you tell us exactly what happened back then? I want to know everything that happened," the Dean requested while staring at Klein.

"Sir, I can not tell you," Klein replied.

"Huh? What for?" The Dean asked him with a surprised look. Even Derek was quite taken aback.

"There is no specific reason. I can not simply tell you anything that happened behind the doors of the auditorium, it's against the rules of the school," Klein replied and the Dean fell back to his seat.

"Leave!" He said to Klein who bowed and left the office immediately. "Idiot!" The Dean cursed with a frown.

"Why are you so worked up?" Derek asked him, amused by the sudden change in his mood. The Dean has always been calm but seeing how upset he was, he couldn't help but laugh.

"Why is he proving stubborn? He wouldn't even tell me anything," the Dean complained.

"Don't forget you made the rule yourself," Derek reminded him.

"Ah," the Dean groaned and turned his seat around so that his back would face Derek.

"Have fun, I'll be leaving," Derek said to him and then stood up and left the office. As he left, the Dean groaned again and stood up.

"I'll just go directly," he mumbled.