Chapter 13: Uncle Brandon (3)
by fnovelpia
The first place I headed after leaving Elaine in charge of the snack bar was the security office.
However, perhaps because it was lunchtime, there was no one in the security office.
Eventually, I changed direction and headed to the faculty office.
The faculty office didn’t have many teachers left either.
It seemed most of them had left to eat.
But fortunately, there were still a few teachers remaining.
Whether it was because teaching at Everlight Academy was a grueling job or because they were just that passionate about their students, some teachers were even skipping lunch in the cafeteria, opting instead to eat packed lunches or light snacks while working.
“……”
It was good that I made it to the faculty office, but how was I supposed to explain this?
I had figured out that borrowing someone else’s strength would make solving this easier, but the problem was that I hadn’t thought about how to convince them.
“Mr. Allen? Do you have some business here?”
Just then, Lydia, who had spotted me hesitating at the entrance of the faculty office, spoke to me.
“Well, actually…”
If I said, “Right now, at the academy snack bar, there’s a knockoff urban legend combining the Red Mask, Red Tissue, and Blue Tissue Ghosts selling bread, so let’s all go and beat the crap out of that urban legend together!”
The moment I said that, they’d probably think the new teacher who just joined the academy was actually a lunatic.
Ah. Right.
“Actually, Brandon’s Uncle is at the snack bar.”
“…What? Are you joking?”
At my words, Lydia couldn’t hide her bewilderment, and the other teachers, who had been focused on their work, turned their heads to look at me in confusion at the sudden statement.
“Ah. My explanation was a bit lacking. Right now, a mentally ill person who believes he is Brandon’s Uncle has appeared at the academy snack bar. I’ve already had a student block off the area to keep other students from approaching, but it’s not easy to handle alone, so I came to ask for help from the other teachers.”
I didn’t need to be the mentally ill one.
The urban legend could take care of that.
Fortunately, as Elaine’s reaction had shown, “Uncle Brandon” was a familiar urban legend that everyone in this world knew.
I didn’t need to waste time explaining the characteristics of the mentally ill person in detail.
“Is that true?”
“Yes. When I first saw him, I thought I might have been mistaken, so I checked several times… But with his face painted purple, makeup to make his mouth look torn, and even dressed in a baker’s uniform, it was clearly not just some ordinary madness. If he were just imitating Brandon’s Uncle’s appearance, it might be one thing, but if he starts mimicking his behavior too…”
I said this while grimacing, as if the mere thought of what could happen next was terrifying.
At my words, Lydia quickly adopted a grave expression, and the other teachers, though half-doubting, also grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Once it had gotten that far, the rest wasn’t difficult.
I quickly persuaded the teachers in the faculty office, then led them back to the snack bar.
.
.
.
The school store was crowded with quite a few students who had just finished lunch.
And at the entrance of the store, Elaine was struggling, blocking the way while enduring the students’ anger.
“You’ve already had lunch, isn’t that enough? Why are you crowding the store just to get some snacks…?”
“Seriously, why can’t we go into the store?”
“Well, you see… Ah! Actually, right now, there’s a really fierce beast inside this store, so no one can enter until the teachers come and deal with it!”
“What kind of beast?”
“It looks like a raccoon, but instead of teeth, it has a beak, its claws are poisonous, it hunts prey using a sixth sense that normal animals don’t have, and its fur has fluorescent properties— it’s a terrifying monster!”
“There’s no way something like that exists in real life! Stop making up nonsense and move aside already!!”
“Ugh… But you really can’t go in…”
“Wait a moment! Elaine is telling the truth. I asked her to keep everyone out of the store.”
Fortunately, it seemed I arrived just in time to defuse the situation.
The student who had been pressuring Elaine flinched and stepped back upon seeing the teachers I had brought.
Seizing the moment, I pushed through the crowd and approached her.
“You’re late!”
“Good job. But seriously, what kind of excuse was that? That’s the best you could come up with…?”
“Then why didn’t you block the entrance?!”
“Anyway, leave the rest to us adults.”
Before opening the store door, Lydia spoke up with concern.
“Mr. Allen. Are you really saying that lunatic is behind this door?”
“Yes. Since Elaine was guarding the entrance the whole time, he couldn’t have escaped.”
“Ha! How dare he recklessly invade our sacred academy! I’ll teach him a lesson he won’t forget! Ms. Lydia!”
Before anyone could say another word, the P.E. teacher, brimming with enthusiasm, flung open the store door.
“Kyaaah!!”
“Ugh, ahhh!! What the—what is this?!”
Well, the scene inside the store was one of blood pooling on the floor and the groans of students who hadn’t yet died— so it was only natural for anyone to be shocked.
No— actually, it wasn’t natural.
The teachers hadn’t fallen under Brandon’s mental corruption.
That was a relief.
At least I wouldn’t have to waste time snapping them out of it.
Though I had distorted the truth by calling him a lunatic, it seemed my earlier explanations about Brandon had helped.
After experiencing the infinite loop horror story and Brandon, I vaguely realized something: the mental corruption ability of these horrors isn’t absolute.
If someone already knows about the horror beforehand or has strong willpower, the effect of the mental corruption weakens.
So, if someone faces a horror with prior knowledge of its existence, is it possible they might not fall under its influence at all?
My deduction had hit the mark.
From the beginning, the teachers who clearly recognized Uncle Brandon were horrified by the gruesome scene inside the snack bar.
Especially the confident P.E. teacher, who had taken the lead, now paled and stumbled backward as he asked me,
“A-Allen! What in the world is this!?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t tell you the truth because I thought no one would believe me. The thing in this snack bar isn’t a mentally ill person pretending to be Uncle Brandon—it’s the real Uncle Brandon.”
“What? The real Uncle Brandon? That’s just an urban legend students believe in—it can’t be real!”
“What difference does it make if the Uncle Brandon before our eyes is a real mentally ill person? Even if he’s not the real Uncle Brandon, if he acts like him and attacks people, he might as well be the real thing!”
“Mr. Allen is right. The important thing isn’t whether this Uncle Brandon is real or fake— we have to stop him first!”
At first, the teachers were panicked and disoriented, but Lydia’s words quickly snapped them out of it.
With furious expressions, they advanced toward Uncle Brandon.
“Welcomeee… to Brandon’s delicious bakeryyy…”
“You like Brandon, huh?! You crazy bastard!! Put your hands on your head and come forward now!”
“At Brandon’s bakery, we have red cookies and white candies…”
“This lunatic just won’t quit!!”
Thud!
Finally, the P.E. teacher couldn’t hold back anymore and threw a punch.
Struck by the P.E. teacher’s fist, Uncle Brandon tumbled grotesquely to the floor.
Even the bizarre entity that had been rewinding time to the academy’s first day and replacing people with urban legends ultimately met its end with nothing more than an ordinary beating.
The power wielded by urban legends may indeed be incomprehensible and grotesque, but their physical forms are not beyond the laws of physics!
“Which will you choose…?”
“This bastard still hasn’t come to his senses…!! How dare he lay a hand on our precious students!!”
That’s right. Go, P.E. teacher.
After being punched by the P.E. teacher, Uncle Brandon, just as the legend described, flew into a rage and lunged at him—but the teacher wasn’t alone.
While the P.E. teacher had been the only one acting without hesitation, the other teachers, who had initially hesitated, quickly joined the fight when they saw Uncle Brandon charging wildly.
Just as I expected, Uncle Brandon’s physical abilities were above those of an average adult man, but not enough to take on multiple people at once.
“So the answer really was to gather everyone and solve this together.”
Maybe defeating urban legends in the academy isn’t as hard as I thought?
Uncle Brandon was being beaten into a bloody mess in real-time, and there was nothing left for me to do there.
Murmur murmur.
“Eek! What is that? Is that real blood?”
“No way. It’s obviously fake.”
“But the P.E. teacher looks really mad, though?”
Before I knew it, students had begun gathering, drawn by the commotion in the snack bar.
“I’m sorry, but this area is off-limits to students due to sensitive content. Could you all please step back until everything is resolved? Ah— no, miss! You can’t come this way!”
While pretending to half-heartedly control the students, I subtly made sure they caught a glimpse of the spectacle inside the snack bar.
Since we’ll have to keep exterminating rumors until the foreign gods revive three years from now anyway, it would be better to start informing outsiders about the existence of rumors now.
With this many witnesses, it should also be easier to persuade nobles and upper-class figures from various countries.
Alright.
At this point, the rumor should be almost dealt with, right?
Still loosely pretending to control the students, I turned around and looked inside the snack bar.
There, the gym teacher— still seething with anger— was being restrained by other teachers, and Brandon, now a bloody mess, was twitching on the floor.
This is pretty much over.
Since the other teachers don’t know about the existence of rumors, it looks like I’ll have to finish this myself.
I approached Brandon to cut off his breath.
Twitch.
Twitch, twitch.
…Wait.
Twitch twitch twitch twitch—
Isn’t he twitching way too much?
A sudden sense of unease made me instinctively stop and step back.
And that decision—
Ultimately saved my life.
The moment I halted, Brandon’s body began to swell explosively.
“Aaaah!! A monster!!”
“Helloooooo!! Welcome to Brandon’s Delicious Bakery!!”
A grotesque, bloated figure— unimaginable from the bloody mess he was just moments ago.
Wham!!
In an instant, he swung the massive rolling pin in his right hand, and with a speed and force incomparable to before, the gym teacher’s head burst like a cream puff.
—Splat!
A status window appeared before my eyes, displaying updated information about Brandon.
Right. ‘Updated’ information.
[Name: Brandon]
[Classification: Rumor]
[Gift: ── ]
[Description: A notorious rumor residing in Everlight Academy’s snack bar. Indiscriminately slaughters and devours visitors. Even several ordinary adults working together would stand no chance against it. Absolutely none.]
The description changed?
No—more importantly, why the transformation…?
“Kyaaah!!”
“Everyone! Run away—!”
In the midst of my panic, the situation rapidly changed.
The gym teacher was crushed like a bug, splattering bright red blood as he was flattened to death.
He was only the beginning.
Next were the other teachers screaming beside him.
Lydia, trying to evacuate the students even in the midst of the crisis.
They were all just steps in a sequence— ultimately, they were brutally crushed to death by the mutated Uncle Brandon.
The students inside the snack bar were all in a frenzy, trying to flee, but the entrance was too narrow.
“What? What the hell is going on?”
“I don’t know. I think the teachers were fighting in there?”
“Hold on, move aside. Let me see too.”
The crowd of students outside, unaware of what was happening inside, pushed forward instead, trying to squeeze through the packed entrance— only making the situation worse.
I, too, snapped out of my shock too late.
Desperately shoving through the students clogging the entrance, I tried to force my way forward, but the sheer density of the crowd made it impossible to break through.
“Sooonnnnyyyy! You came back to me, just as you promised! Brandon is sooo happy!!”
Every massacre follows an order.
Soon, it was my turn.
Crunch!
The one consolation was that I didn’t even have time to feel the pain.
And just like that, I met my first death.
[Relic: “Memories” has been activated. Returning to the saved point in time.]
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