One Thing After Another

Well even I thought that school must be involved and now this confirms it.

"What exactly do you mean by this school? Does it necessarily mean the teachers or are we including everyone?" I had to clear my doubts first.

"Through our sources, we believe it's one of the teachers, but personally I believe it can be anyone. I can't think only of teachers. I even suspect students, who are like you."

"What do you mean by 'like me? ' That's good since she is not focusing on a single piece of information. It can be wrong at times and can disrupt our mindset. If we think only of one thing we narrow our thinking not letting any other useful information let in.

"I meant like in the sense, there are quite a few who are comparable to adults. I mean in IQ and strength both." I didn't know there were students like that.

"So, did you find any lead?"

"After I became the Principal, few teachers' behaviors have changed a bit towards me so I suspect one of them."

"By change in behavior, what do you mean? You haven't been working or even talked to them so how can you make out?" did she just assume that? Their behavior change might be because the Principal was changed and they didn't like her and were feeling a bit frustrated. So, they went with a cold attitude with her.

"Before coming here I did a thorough check-up. The previous Principal is a friend of mine so he also told me everything he knew about the teachers' way of speaking, attitude, and many more things. And I myself have also checked their behavior secretly so I know it."

"Isn't that because you are only 25 years old and became a Principal of this school. From what I have heard, the Principal is always elected from the majority vote of the whole teacher committee. But you just came from nowhere."

"Firstly, I want to ask you something."

"What?" did I say something wrong? The voting system might not be true but the reason was most likely jealousy so I don't believe I was wrong in that sense.

"Do I really look 25?" huh?

"… Yeah? But what does it have to do with this?" I said vaguely.

"N-nothing. Anyway, it's not important how I became the Principal. I am certain that one of them is related to the kidnapping."

"If you are certain then it's fine. But I do think you should reconsider this and re-evaluate it." Nothing is wrong with being more cautious.

"… What I want from you is that you need to find and confirm if some student is involved in this or not?" She ignored my last comment.

"I'll do what I can do."

…

Our meeting concluded with a task of our own but I still can't believe that my first meeting with the new Principal took a quiet turn. Who would have guessed that something this huge is happening?

First the HYDRAs and then someone from school, police, and some kind of secret organization.

But first I need to remember what happened on that island with me and all the others.

Every time I try to recollect the memories of the incidents, I get a slight headache and my mind goes blank. What really happened to me? Why was I the only one who can recall about the island?

As I was pondering about all this I noticed the same black Mercedes on the school gate, the one from the morning.

I still went ahead and ignored it. I am already having a headache because of these problems accumulating all of a sudden.

But even after 15 minutes the car is still following me. At first, I thought it was just a coincidence but I believe that's not the case.

I changed my pace and even ran but it was still following. To clear the confusion about going in the same direction I even took a roundabout but it was still behind me. I stopped and waited for it to go ahead but it didn't budge.

I walked towards the car.

"Excuse me, do you want something with me?" I asked while tapping on the mirror. It was a one-way mirror so I couldn't see who was sitting inside.

The person pulled down the driver's side mirror and I saw a person sitting in a white dress just like the ones worn by a driver.

"Do you need something from me?" I asked again.

"They want to talk to you." He arrowed it towards the back seat. So, I went to the passenger's seat at the back.

"Hello." I saw a boy and a girl who looked almost my age sitting at the back looking at me.

"Again. Did you need something from me?" I have repeated the same thing for the third time in a minute.

"You are Allen, right?" the girl asked me.

"No, you got the wrong person." if they don't know for certain then I can get away with this quite easily.

"B-but our brother said that you are Allen…!" the boy said but he still looked skeptical.

"Fine, my name is Allen. Do you need something with me?"

"You lied!" the girl said but she looked so shocked as if she just knew that earth is round and not flat.

"Shut up for a second, I am talking to him." the boy shunned her up.

"…"

"Okay, so Allen I would like to come and meet our brother right now." He said that while he looked so anxious which I doubt whether he is saying the truth or lying.

"Why?" I asked.

"We don't know."

"What if I say no?"

"… then we might have to use force." As soon as he said that I rolled my eyes around to check if someone was coming behind me or not.

"…." I noticed one person on the right, one person on left, and two more on the other side of the road. How did I distinguish them from ordinary people? The common thing between all of them was that they were wearing the same set of glasses and I could make out that all of them were staring directly at me or this car. Facing my direction I could at least make out that they were looking at me because there was no one around me except the car. If he hadn't said anything I would have missed this.

"At least give me a little information. How can I trust you this easily?" I tried talking my way out. In public, I don't think I can win against them. Also based on their body build they look, professionals.

"See, I told you to at least tell him something. Why would he trust us?!" the girl exclaimed.

"That scared me," he flinched, "Don't shout all of a sudden Lily!" Her name is Lily, huh.

"S-sorry…" she apologized.

"Anyway, Allen, we are from the Longdust family," he said, "Our brother was next in line for the succession in taking over the business but when 50 students were kidnapped, someone from the sub-family declared that our brother was involved in this. Due to all these rumors, his chances of taking over the succession decreased. He tried to clear his name and found something while searching to clear his name." He paused.

"What did he find?" he stopped at the most important part.

"That's the reason he asked us to make you come with us. He wants to talk to you directly." Both of them looked troubled.

"Fine. I'll come." The reason I agreed was not that they looked upset, the real reason is that I want to know what he found.

TO BE CONTINUED…