章 293: The Truth Behind Ben's Circumstances

"Wait, we still have one unfinished business." Yuel grabbed the fleeing criminal.

"I have no idea what you could possibly be talking about." Vincent tried to pull his shirt away to no avail. "Time is of the essence! I must get home at once!"

"To do what, exactly?"

"The Great Archmage of Videocrafting never rests! There are countless edits to finish, numerous videos to polish to their maximum potential. For example, I must add narration to Gunz's mind-blowing plays. It'd be a crime against videocrafting to leave that precious footage without proper narration and effects!"

"Okay, I understand." Yuel nodded. "So, basically, nothing urgent."

"Wha-!?" Vincent thought he almost fooled the enemy, but he got fooled instead!

"Stick around for a few minutes. As I said earlier, I have to ask you about-"

"You'll never catch me alive!" Vincent broke out of Yuel's grip and made a run for it!

No, that wasn't quite right. Yuel was still holding onto the shirt he grabbed earlier. Instead of overpowering Yuel's grip, Vincent masterfully slipped out of his shirt and dashed across the room half-naked!

[This guy...] Yuel sighed. It was a slick maneuver, but such basic trickery wasn't enough. Yuel already read this line of play from a few turns ago. "Lars, catch!"

"On it!" Lars lunged forward like a bullet. He transformed from a stationary object into a speeding car in an instant.

"W-Whoa!?" Vincent cried out. Two strong arms wrapped around him and locked him in place.

"Gotcha!" Lars seized the half-naked criminal.

"Impossible!" Vincent cried out. "I made such a perfect escape, yet Larsman tracked me down!?"

"Yep, Larsman is here to serve some justice, yo!"

"Drat. And I would have gotten away with it too, if not for that meddling Larsman! Somebody, send help! I'll pay you!"

"What's going on?" Kai made a face as she approached the bizarre scene. She was the last club member who hasn't left yet.

"Help me, captain!" Vincent cried out. "I'm being assaulted!"

His half-naked form made his words rather convincing. One could easily misunderstand the situation as Lars trying to undress Vincent.

"Sounds interesting," Kai said. "Maybe I should stay to watch."

"Ah, what a terrible mistake on my part!" Vincent cried in despair. "I should've known that I won't receive any help here from a potential fujoshi!"

"A what?"

"But, I shall not yield!" Vincent continued wrestling against Lars's tight grip. "I'll take the truth to my grave!"

"C'mon, dude." Lars smiled. "Just stop being silly and tell us what's up. Why are you resisting so much?"

"Because it's a national secret! Believe me, I'm doing this for your own sake. I don't want to involve you in this evil conspiracy."

"Haha, sounds dangerous." Lars grinned. "Is Ben agent 007 or something? Oh! Now it all makes sense! He must be getting secret missions all the time, that's why he's skipping club, right?"

"Well..." Vincent averted his eyes. "The truth is a tad more complex than that..."

"So, it's about Ben?" Kai asked.

"Yes," Yuel answered. "I'm done feigning ignorance. I could tolerate Ben skipping club activity every now and then, but missing an entire scrimmage is too much. We're not here to play around. He's either a part of the club or he isn't. We have to make it clear whether we can rely on him for competitive games."

"That's fair."

"I assume you know about his circumstances as well?" Yuel confirmed. "So, one of you, please tell us what's going on. I don't care who does it. Just tell us."

"Yeah, you deserve to know," Kai agreed. "Vince, I'm leaving this one to you."

"Wha-!?" Vincent jumped. "Captain, are you abandoning a hostage!? Just like that!?"

"I really don't want to talk about this, especially not right now." Kai wore a difficult expression. "Besides, you know more about it than I do. So, just tell them."

"Very well." Vincent sighed in defeat. He stopped struggling, so Lars finally released him.

"Good luck." Kai waved behind her back as she passed through the exit. [Sorry, Vince. I know it's unfair of me to dump this responsibility on you, but I really don't want to talk about it right now. It'll only remind me how powerless I am...]

Before long, Kai vanished from view and Vincent remained on the battlefield alone, with no allies to back him up.

"Very well," Vincent started. "It appears the burden of explanation has fallen on me- agh!?" A piece of cloth landed on his face.

"Get dressed up first." Yuel tossed the shirt he was holding onto.

"Very well." Vincent slid into his shirt and continued. "So, you wish to know the circumstances of one Ben Miners. I must warn you that the information you seek is sealed away in the depths of the Akashic Records, in areas which none should access carelessly. Once you peer into the truth within, you will not be able to live in ignorance any longer. You shall lose your innocent selves and-"

"Get to the point already," Yuel urged. "I understand it's probably a heavier topic than I expected. Move on."

"Yeah, c'mon, dude!" Lars gave Vincent an encouraging smack on the back.

"Gah!?" Vincent almost tripped from the impact. As usual, the smacking technique Lars inherited from Trever showed no mercy to anybody. "I see, so you'd even resort to torture. Very well. In that case, I have no choice but to unleash the forbidden knowledge upon this land!"

Vincent took a deep breath. It seemed he had to steel his heart before delivering the details, for some reason.

[Just how touchy is this subject?] Yuel had no idea what to expect at this point. Judging by Kai's reaction earlier, it was definitely going to be an unpleasant topic.

Did Ben have some sort of illness that prevented him from regularly attending club activities? Or, maybe he had many siblings to take care of in a poor household? Various such possibilities crossed Yuel's mind but the truth was quite different from what he imagined.

"I'll start from the end," Vincent said. "Ben is being bullied."

"Bullied...?" Yuel blinked. It suddenly became very clear why nobody felt comfortable talking about it. This topic was one huge can of worms.

"Yo, that sounds bad!" Lars exclaimed. "Ben is such a nice dude. Who the heck would wanna bully him!? "

"His friends," Vincent said. "Or, at least, they [used] to be his friends."

"His own friends are bullying him?" Yuel asked. "Do you know any details?"

"Indeed, I know a few things." Vincent was about to hype up his ever-impressive pool of knowledge, but he stopped himself at the last moment. This wasn't the time to clown around.

"I don't know much about their relationship before Ben joined the club," Vincent reported. "But, I do know they've been treating him worse and worse ever since he joined the club. At first, they only verbally abused him. But, over time, they started dragging him away under the pretense of 'hanging out'. That's the truth behind the club activities he has been missing."

"He can't refuse them?" Yuel asked.

"You know how Ben is." Vincent smiled wryly. "He easily cracks under peer pressure. He has no chance against three people, especially not when they pretend they're his 'friends'."

"Man, these dudes sound like a piece of work," Lars said. "Tell me their names. I'mma talk to them."

"Wait, let's not rush things," Yuel advised.

"But, we gotta rescue our dude!"

"I know, but you can't just resolve violence with violence."

"Who said anything about violence? I just wanna talk to them."

"And, you think they just gonna peacefully agree to leave Ben alone?"

"You never know till you try."

"Ever the optimist, huh." Yuel smiled wryly. "Let's hear out the entire story first, then we'll decide what to do."

"Okay, gotcha."

"So," Yuel continued. "Do you know why his former friends are bullying him?"

"I haven't received an official statement," Vincent admitted. "But, I pieced some evidence together. You're aware that our club only had two juniors before you and Lars joined, right?"

"Yes, Ben and Luke."

"Correct. What do you think that is?"

"The school's restrictions, right? They only allowed you to recruit two new members last year."

"Indeed. But, as you might expect, more than two people applied for the club that year. And, Ben's 'friends' were among them."

"Uh-oh." Lars exclaimed. "I think I see where ya going with this. You gonna say they're mad because Ben made it while the rest of them flopped, right?"

"Yes, that's my deduction," Vincent concluded. "I only got a partial confirmation about this from Ben, but I'm fairly certain that's the truth of the matter. Their relationship might've been shaky even before that, but I don't have enough data to claim either way. Regardless, I believe it's their failure to enter the club that triggered the bullying."

"Man, some dudes just don't know how to move on." Lars smiled wryly. "We always had some dudes in the basketball club who went ballistic when they didn't make it into the first-string. Tai was often the boss of that gang, haha."

"Why can I imagine it so vividly..." Yuel made a face.

"Incidentally," Vincent said. "The three bullies in question are part of the basketball club at present."

"Oh, so that's why Ben always says he gotta help out at the basketball club!" Lars figured. "I always thought maybe Ben plays basketball on the side or something, but looks like I had it totally wrong."

"It seems he [does] in fact attend the basketball club, albeit against his will," Vincent explained. "Part of the bullying involves dumping various menial tasks on him at the club, such as fetching the ball or cleaning up. Most likely, they force him to do the chores they were assigned to do."

"Man, these dudes are playing dirty! I had enough. I'mma talk to them right now!"

"Calm down for a second." Yuel grabbed Lars's arm, stopping the fool from embarking on an adventure to seek trouble.

"Lemme go, yo! I'mma settle this in a jiffy, just you watch."

"You don't even know their names or how they look."

"Oh, right. You got me there, haha." Lars piped down. "I figured I might find them at the basketball club right now, but I gotta at least know their names first. So yeah, how do these dudes call themselves?"

"Wait for a second with that," Yuel interrupted. "There are a few other things I'd like to ask first. Vincent, don't tell him the names until I say it's okay."

"Very well."

"Oh, c'mon." Lars pouted. "What else you wanna know? We've heard enough. These dudes are being assholes. We gotta put them in their place!"

"I agree," Yuel said. "But, this is a complicated topic. The fact this situation has been going on for so long tells me it's not as simple as you think. So first, I'd like to clarify a few more things."

"I shall answer all your queries," Vincent had no intention of keeping anything secret anymore. In fact, the more he talked on the topic, the looser his tongue became. Deep down, he must have wanted to share this story with everybody all along. It wasn't easy to bottle to a problem like this.

"Both you and Kai knew about the bullying for a while now, right?"

"Indeed, we've become aware of this issue for a long time."

"And, I assume you tried to do something about it? Did you talk to Ben about it?"

"Yes, of course we did," Vincent said. "But, it was to no avail. He insists that these bullies are his 'friends' and that everything is okay."

"Say what!?" Lars jumped. "What the heck!? Why???"

"I can't say for sure," Vincent admitted. "I suppose he still wants to hold onto the friendship they once had. Or, perhaps, he feels too threatened to speak up. Either way, he denies the existence of any bullying."

"That makes things difficult." Yuel frowned.

"Indeed," Vincent agreed. "I've researched the topic of 'school bullying' to combat such issues before, and apparently it's common for the problem to start with the victim. More often than not, the victim would pretend that everything is 'alright' instead of reaching out for help."

"What about the teachers?" Yuel asked. "Did you try talking to Ms. Stone?"

"Yes, Kai and I reached out to her. She took the matter quite seriously and summoned Ben for a talk. But, it was no use."

"Ben denied everything?"

"Yes, that he did." Vincent sighed in defeat. "Ms. Stone chewed us out after that, saying we worried her for no reason. She never truly got to the bottom of the matter."

"Did you try any other teachers?" Yuel asked. "We have to explain the entire picture. Not only that there's bullying, but also that Ben is denying it. Maybe one of them will believe us."

"Personally, I'm against relying on the teachers too much," Vincent admitted. "In fact, I was even reluctant about asking for Ms. Stone's help. It was Kai who pushed for that solution."

"What's wrong with relying on the teachers? They're here for the students. If somebody is being bullied, the staff has to deal with it accordingly."

"Indeed, that's what common sense would suggest." Vincent smiled wryly. "But, reality is often disappointing. Sometimes, relying on the teachers might only make the situation worse."

"How so? There's no harm in trying."

"There is, in fact, potential harm. Do you mind if I humor you with a little story? A story about a naive boy who thought the system is absolute and that justice always prevails. It's a sad, sad story."

Vincent lifted the lid on one of the darkest memories from his past. It was a memory that affected him like no other and has been haunting him to this day. It was one of the biggest failures of his life, one that he'll not be able to apologize enough for no matter how much time passes...