'What is this…?!'

Rey felt like he was in a lion's den, a prey to the predators that all stared at him with suspicious eyes.

He could feel the back of his throat itch as he mulled over Adonis' question, and more importantly… how to answer it.

"Well, there was training. Obviously…"

"After that." Adonis' voice was curt, straight to the point.

He didn't even give Rey a chance to buy time and think up an excuse.

'I thought we could spend our time however we wished. No one ever bothers to ask, so I never thought of an excuse!'

Besides, wasn't it private how he decided to spend his time? Surely, Adonis knew about this

So why? There had to be a reason why he was being pressured!

'I should just come up with a believable excuse and—!' Before Rey could finalize his decision about lying, he found something on the hand of the Grand Mage, Lucielle herself.

The Truthseeker!

'They'd go this far? I can't even lie about it?!'

Rey could feel beads of sweat forming on his face as his eyes sauntered back and forth.

He couldn't properly look at Adonis, considering how his gaze made him feel very uncomfortable.

The pressure on Rey's shoulder intensified as he nervously took a step back.

'H-huh?!' He noticed strange movements behind him.

Once he realized what was happening, his eyes nearly bulged. He tried his best to hide the fact that he knew, but it was very difficult to do so.

'Guards are waiting outside the door? They're a lot…'

His mind struggled to comprehend why they would be doing all of this, and why it seemed like he was the object of suspicion.

At this point, Rey felt absolutely surrounded.

"Just tell the truth, Rey. That's all we're asking…"

Rey could tell from the look on Brutus' face, as well as the rest of the guards, that if it were up to them this conversation would be going in another direction.

Even Lucielle was frowning deeply.

Rey had never seen her like that before.

"I… I… well, actually I…"

His gaze shifted to Noah, who was currently looking away with a nervous expression.

His gaze rested on Trisha, who was intently looking at him—as if searching for the truth herself.

At the very least, it didn't seem like she harbored a deep suspicion towards him. It just appeared like she was genuinely confused.

Finally… Rey shifted his gaze to Alicia.

He initially feared doing so, as he feared what he would meet. He didn't want her to look at him the way everyone else was, but he had to know.

How was she looking at him?

'Ahh…'

Her gaze was filled with worry, almost as if she would cry at any moment.

Rey could see her eyes glisten as she stared at him. He had never had anyone look at him that way before.

Unfortunately for him, he wasn't afforded the luxury of dwelling on those thoughts.

"He's not responding! He's clearly guilty!" Billy suddenly yelled, his face contorted in anger.

Rey couldn't have known this, but Billy had noticed the shared gaze of the two, and right now he was boiling in rage.

His dear Alicia looking at scum like Rey in such a way… it was unacceptable to him!

"That's enough, Billy! Don't be so hasty to judge one of our classmates!" Adonis yelled with a deep frown.

The moment Adonis said this, Billy backed down, instantly apologizing with a somber expression.

No one said anything, but they were really with Billy on this one.

Still, because of Adonis, no one murmured.

They simply waited for the suspect to confess.

Thankfully… they didn't have to wait for much longer.

"What exactly am I guilty of? Can I know that at least?"

Rey's voice was calm and low. It was almost as if he was completely numb to the tense atmosphere.

That wasn't the case at all, but right now… he was just tired.

He cast his gaze to the floor as he asked.

"Do you really not want to say where you've been?" As Adonis asked this, Rey didn't budge an inch.

"Just tell me… what happened."

For a while, there was silence, but Adonis finally delivered.

"Something was found in your room, Rey. In your closet…"

The moment Adonis said this, Rey felt his heart jump.

'T-they found the rest of my Monster Core stash?!'

Sweat began to gather on his face, and his body trembled slightly.

'What? How? How did they… why did they enter my room in the first place?!'

"I received a tip from someone that you've been acting suspicious lately, so I personally conducted the search." Brutus' voice pierced the air at this point.

"Of course, I involved the Hero Adonis in the matter."

It felt like his last words were to make it seem like he followed due process, but Rey didn't care at all for any of that.

Only one thing stuck out the most out of what Brutus stated.

'Someone tipped him?!' Rey's eyes instantly darted towards Noah.

'Noah, you SNAKE!'

Rey had always known that his relationship with Noah was a temporary one. He expected it to end at a particular point, but this was too soon.

Noah betraying him like this wasn't within his calculations.

Rey's eyes faltered the moment he glared at Noah and found him slowly shaking his head in distress.

'What is he trying to say? That he isn't the one who did the tipping?!'

Now that he thought about it, it was too impractical for Noah to betray him now.

That was precisely why Rey never considered it to be a possibility.

'He has a lot to gain by being with me. Plus, I also know his secrets.'

Even if Noah was greedy, it would take him some time to craft a plan that would end up with him going scot free.

'We just started business! There's no way he'd want to mess that up this early.'

Once he thought things through, Rey could tell that Noah wasn't the ripper.

He couldn't have been!

'T-then who could it be…?!' Rey's eyes darted across all his twenty-eight classmates besides Adonis.

It was pretty clear it wasn't the Hero.

'Trisha? No… I don't think so. Billy? He had a motive, so it's most likely him!'

Once glance at Alicia told Rey that it couldn't be her.

Who else, then?!

'I'm a nobody! An Extra! No one cares about me enough to do this!'

It made no sense to Rey.

Fortunately for him, as he was racking his brain trying to figure out who could have orchestrated his downfall, someone rose from among his classmates.

"It was me, Rey. I did it."

"H-huh…?" Were the first words that came out of Rey's lips, albeit in a whisper.

The one speaking was none other than Adam Sanchez.

'What the hell? We don't even know each other…'

Adam was the furthest thing from a suspect that Rey would think of. They both didn't have anything that tied them together apart from Training.

Even throughout their training as Beta Class students, they hadn't said as much as a word to each other.

So what was this all about?

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Thanks for reading!

I'm guessing you didn't see that coming.