Chapter 14: Uncle Brandon (4)

Beebibik

Beebibik

Thud!

Startled by the alarm clock’s ringing, I jolted awake in bed.

The moment I looked around, I realized I was in the faculty dormitory— my own room.

“Hah… Hah… What? A dream?”

But the scene of teachers being slaughtered by Mr. Brandon was too vivid to be just a dream.

At the same time, the peaceful atmosphere of the room made the memories feel too unreal.

The perfectly warm sunlight and the chirping of birds outside the window almost seemed to insist that the bloody events I had just experienced had never existed in the first place.

“What… What the fuck?”

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From the morning, everything was in an inexplicably chaotic state, but I still had to do what needed to be done.

Such is the sorrow of office work.

As I headed to the academy, I once again mulled over the events that had been in my memory.

Nightmares usually fade like mist after waking, but the memory of people being horrifically murdered didn’t blur— instead, it clung stubbornly to my mind, refusing to fade.

On the contrary, the unease didn’t disappear; it only grew worse.

The morning scene I saw upon opening my eyes, the sight of students passing by as I entered the academy—

“Mr. Allen. Good morning.”

And the sight of Ms. Lydia, who spotted me and hesitantly greeted me.

Every single thing was sending me an overwhelming sense of foreboding and dissonance.

Don’t tell me… the loop still isn’t over?

“Mr. Allen? Are you alright? You don’t look well.”

“Ah, I’m…”

“Mr. Allen! Oh— Ms. Lydia, I’m so sorry. I need to speak with Mr. Allen for a moment— would that be alright?”

Just as Lydia was about to say something, concerned for me, Elaine suddenly stepped between us.

Her awkward smile as she asked Lydia for permission seemed subtly urgent in some way.

Instinctively, I knew.

She must know something about this phenomenon.

“Ms. Lydia, my apologies. Now that I think about it, I had a consultation scheduled with Elaine today— I completely forgot. Excuse me for now.”

“Huh? But it’s only the second day at the academy—what kind of consultation…? Wait, shouldn’t that be with me, as the homeroom teacher—”

“I’m sorry! It’s an urgent matter! Ms. Lydia!”

Elaine apologized to Lydia like that and led me to a secluded area.

“…What on earth is going on?”

“I turned back time. Using that thing in the sealed room on the 5th floor.”

“The 5th floor?”

The 5th floor— that was definitely where the entity had hidden during the infinite loop urban legend incident.

At the same time, after exorcising the urban legend, it became the place where the relic capable of reversing time remained.

“You used that thing on the 5th floor to turn back time?”

“Yes. Since you had reversed time before, I thought maybe I could use it too…”

“I see.”

Thank goodness.

Sincerely.

For a moment, I thought the damn infinite loop urban legend hadn’t been fully exorcised yet.

“By the way, so it wasn’t a one-time-use thing.”

“Given that I felt something draining when I reversed time, it probably can’t be used indefinitely.”

“…So first, I need an explanation of the situation. Can you explain it to me?”

At my words, her expression turned slightly pale, as if memories from before the time reversal had resurfaced, and she opened her lips.

“There was a really big incident. Not long after the teachers entered the store in a group, Mr. Brandon went berserk and killed all the teachers who went inside… and then even Mr. Allen died—”

“Wait, I died?”

“…Yes. Definitely.”

I hadn’t consciously thought about it, but it seems that’s what happened.

I never imagined I’d die so meaninglessly.

Though my current body didn’t retain any of the shock from death, making it hard to fully grasp, death wasn’t something easy to accept— especially my own.

Still, since this wasn’t my first time dying, I quickly regained my composure and immediately asked her to continue.

“Sigh. So that means the relic on the 5th floor can even reverse death. That’s valuable information. Keep going.”

“…Mr. Allen, you’re so calm even after hearing you died. I’m the one who’s more shaken up. Anyway, to continue—after going berserk, Mr. Brandon slaughtered all the teachers inside the store, and then soon after, he killed all the students crowding at the entrance too. Luckily, I had already been pushed out by the students who’d gathered to watch, so I managed to avoid getting caught up in it.”

“That’s a relief. If you had died too, no one would’ve been able to use the relic on the 5th floor.”

“After that, Mr. Brandon came out of the store and killed every student nearby. I immediately ran to the sealed room on the 5th floor and reversed time, so I don’t know what happened after that.”

“Wait, Mr. Brandon came out of the store?”

From what I’d observed, Mr. Brandon’s description was written as a horror story that lures customers inside the store.

And though I couldn’t remember clearly in the chaos, even when Mr. Brandon mutated and his status changed, there was no mention of him being able to leave the store— only that he’d kill indiscriminately inside it…

“And by the end, he kept growing bigger. The last time I saw him, he was almost 4 to 5 meters tall.”

“He keeps getting stronger? Is that part of Mr. Brandon’s horror story?”

“No. I’ve never even heard of a version of Mr. Brandon that grows to 5 meters!”

But in reality, Mr. Brandon had grown stronger and stronger.

Even at the moment he killed me, and even after.

“Then maybe Mr. Brandon’s strengthening isn’t unique to his horror story, but a shared trait among horrors? Maybe horrors grow stronger over time.”

Through Elaine’s story, I learned what happened after my death, but instead of clarity, the additional information only made things more confusing.

“…So, what are you going to do now?”

“What do you mean?”

“About Mr. Brandon. We managed to reverse time, but since he wasn’t defeated, the same thing will just happen again.”

I checked the clock—it was almost 9.

If Mr. Brandon really does grow stronger over time, then we don’t have much left.

“First, you go to the store and make sure no students enter. I’ll gather people and head there right away—this time, not with a half-hearted number of teachers, but with properly armed security.”

“…Will that be enough?”

“I don’t know. But if I fail again this time, I’ll ask for your help once more.”

At my words, Elaine’s eyebrows trembled slightly.

“Understood. But please do your best to succeed. I’d rather not turn back time again while everyone else is dying.”

“I’ll try.”

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This time, even before the first period had properly ended.

I managed to persuade not only the teachers in the faculty office but even the soldiers in charge of the academy’s security— everyone within the reach of my influence—to head toward the snack bar.

I had been too conservative in my initial approach.

The opponent was just a ghost story, after all.

Worrying about the aftermath, making excuses about how it would be hard to control— I had hesitated, not giving my all, and that passive attitude had ultimately led everything to ruin.

So this time, I would throw everything I had at it from the start and crush that ghost story.

“Mr. Allen. Are you certain about this? A deranged serial killer who snuck in from the mainland is hiding in a mere snack bar?”

“Yes. To be honest, I was skeptical at first… but I used my personal connections through the Allen Trading Company to confirm it. I never imagined that on just my second day at the academy, I’d come face-to-face with such a criminal.”

I took advantage of my position as a new teacher from the Hyphnia continent to deceive everyone, framing Mr. Brandon as a notorious serial killer from the mainland.

Of course, no such killer existed on the continent— but who would know?

I was the one from the mainland, not the other teachers.

Plus, by invoking the name of the Allen Trading Company to lend credibility, people couldn’t easily dismiss my words, even if I was just a new teacher.

Of course, if the lie were exposed later, it would cause major trouble— but considering Mr. Brandon’s presence, my little fabrication would soon become nothing more than a trivial incident.

And so, with nearly twice as many people as my first attempt— close to thirty— I entered the snack bar.

Ding-a-ling

The chime rang as the door opened, and inside, Mr. Brandon, with his torn mouth, greeted us warmly from behind the counter.

“Hellooooo… Welcome to Brandon’s Delicious Bakeryyyy….”

And so, the second attempt to take down Mr. Brandon began.

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I failed.

[Artifact: Memory has been activated. Returning to the saved time.]