5: Raia's Suspicion

Fletcher felt a cold and sharp thing that someone thrust on him. It is not a knife or any blade either. He can’t explain what he feels anymore, all he knows is that all of his energy and even his life is slowly being absorbed  by that thing that was on his neck. 

He can still see someone’s feet walking towards him when he was about to look at it’s face but it’s already too late. He can feel someone touch his face until he loses complete consciousness. 

“Mom… Kara, Mara…” he called until he completely gave in. Those three words are his last words before he died as if he was trying to call his family. 

After a minute, the guy who is in front of Fletcher’s dead body, slowly stands on the ground and puts his hands on his pocket. 

“Clean this mess. And also, prepare the records for his shipment,” he ordered his men. 

“Yes sir!” his men answered in chorus. He smiled a bit then took his cellphone from his pocket. 

‘One down…’ he said to himself then dialled someone’s number. 

On the other hand, the class has already started. Some of the students are not interested in the topic which is about simple philosophy. Well, almost everyone doesn't want to listen since the teacher is kinda boring. 

While the girls are talking about dating and fashion things, boys at the back are also busy talking about random stuff.

“Eh? Ahh, so that explains why I didn’t see him when I woke up,” Dae Ming commented. His brother just nodded. 

“But.. it's just strange. Don’t you think, it’s so… early?” Phill asked. He sits beside Dae and is part of the conversation. He’s kinda serious when he said it, which makes Rio and the other guys near him look in his direction. 

“Early?” Chan asked him, raising his one brow. 

Phill then notices that they are looking at him. That is when he realised he said something nonsense using his serious face. 

“Ah! N-nothing… I- I just thought we will have another time with Fletcher today before he goes to the other building,” he said while looking at his desk. 

“That’s what I thought of too,” Chan replied while pouting his lips. 

Phill’s room is across from Fletcher's on the second floor. Together with Chan and Dae Ming whose rooms are beside his room. Even Kanaye and June are on the same dormitory floor together with the other guy named Wrenn and Rio. 

The whole class was quiet the whole time until the professor dismissed the class. Almost everyone immediately gets out of the room to mind their own businesses. But June and others stayed for a while. 

They are in-charge of cleaning the room for now so they can’t escape their schedule or else they won’t have their dinner and breakfast in the morning. June was busy cleaning the window when Amelia suddenly went beside him doing the same thing, cleaning the windows. 

“What do you think?” she asked, which made him look at her. 

“Huh? He asked, confused. 

She then looked at him using his bored face just like him. 

“About Fletcher, I was wondering what it feels like to be on the next level,” she said then looked away. 

June just looked at her then to the window he’s cleaning. 

“I don’t know, why don’t you try to top the test to know what it feels like?” he said sarcastically. 

“Psh, only dumbasses will ace that kind of exam,” she said then walked away. Well, it is expected from someone like her. She is not dumb to get a low score in exam, she hsas high standard and she can even ace an type of exam. But the last time was different. 

It is so random that even elementary students can answer it. But she doesn’t want to lower her standard knowing that it will make her dumb graduating this level by that kind of questions. 

June just shrugged his shoulders and went back to his cleaning work. On the other hand, while the others are busy cleaning, Raia, who is also in-charge of today’s cleaners, went to the storage room to get a pail for water. 

He is casually walking towards the storage to get it and also went down the building to fetch the water. While walking on the corridor, at the lowest ground of the building, he heard someone whispering. He frowned and stopped for a while. After a minute, he still continues eavesdropping on the conversation. He can’t see the guy’s face but little by little, he can recognize who owns that voice. 

“Mr. Rayven?” he asked himself. 

On the other hand, there’s a guy sitting in his office while drinking his usual  drink. He then took his cellphone to call someone. 

“Mr. Raven,” he called for its name. 

“Yes, Mr. A,” it answered. 

“Marvin told me about the shipment today, is everything alright?” he asked the person on the other line. 

Mr. Raven gasped after hearing it. 

“Nothing’s wrong in here, Mr. A,” he answered. “The next shipment will definitely be okay,” he added as assurance. The guy smiled from happiness. 

“I see. I’m counting on you Mr. Rayven. I hope everything will go as I planned,” the guy said. 

Mr. Rayven smiled then turned away for a while. 

“I know sir, I won’t let you down sir. Murray Building will bring you high quality goods for our customers. This farm will be at its peak this year,” he assured at the second time. 

After that call, Mr. Rayven smiled  for a bit then after a second, he  put his cellphone in his pocket. He was about to get out of the room when he suddenly heard a noise near the door. 

“Mr. Rayven?” the guy asked. He turned his body to see who it was. 

“Raia, wh-what is it?” he asked, nervous. He’s concerned if he was there all this time. He forgot to close the door and he didn’t mind it at all. He thought that all of the students were already in their dormitory. But he was careless.

“We're about to finish cleaning the room, can I have the key?” Raia asked innocently, pretending that he didn’t hear it at all. 

Mr. Rayven doesn’t know if Raia heard his conversation with Mr. A,  But he concluded that his student didn’t hear anything based on his reaction.  Maybe Raia is a great pretender. 

“Ah ye-yes, here,” he said, then took the key from his desk to give it to Raia. Both of them are good at pretending as if nothing had happened but deep inside, Mr. Rayven is still nervous thinking if Raia heard anything from it. It would be a problem if he had heard it!

“Thanks sir!” Raia said then smiled at him before going out of his office. 

After Raia went out of his office, he immediately grabbed a folder in his desk and looked for Raia’s profile on the list. 

“Code 100351, Raia Yuan…” he mentions as he reads his profile. 

He is not as competitive as Ryota but he is smart. Running for valedictorian during his highschool days but because of some reason, he failed his final exam. He has this innocent face with his curly hair that makes it even more plain for a guy. 

“Raia Yuan… did you hear something?” he asked himself while looking at his student’s profile. 

“If yes… then I need to ship you out as early as possible,” he said with a serious face. But he also knows that he can’t ship him out that easily because every student has their own schedule for their shipment. But if he really does, he will do anything to ship him out. 

Meanwhile, Raia almost lost his balance when he already reached the second floor. 

‘Wha-what the hell did I hear?!’ He can’t stop himself from thinking about it. 

“ Shipment?High-quality goods?Customer?F-farm?”

He was shocked and couldn't even think of anything. He tried to process everything on his mind but he just can’t think of it. 

“What are they talking about?” he asked himself while trying to calm down. He sit for a while on the floor when someone from behind tapped his shoulder. 

“Hey,” 

He felt his own heart leap a beat for a while because of nervousness. 

Meanwhile, the group was about to finish cleaning the room but the pail and water was still not there. 

“Hey June! Where is the pail?” Kanaye asked him. 

“Ah? I thought Raia got it from the storage room?” June wondered while looking everywhere. 

“Ehh? But he’s still not here? He went downstairs about fifteen minutes ago,” Eva said, one of their classmates. 

 “I see, then I’ll pick him u-”

“No, I’ll go after him,” June stopped Kanaye from talking and went after Raia instead. Kanaye  just nodded to him and let him do it. While walking to the corridor, near the faculty room, he saw someone walking opposite to his direction. 

He immediately recognized him because of its clothes but it doesn’t seem like Raia can hear him. He just followed him but he frowned when he noticed something was wrong from Raia. 

“Hey!” He called for him then tapped his shoulder when he  finally caught him in the intersection. Raia immediately turned his back to June. 

“Is something wrong?” June asked, confused. 

Then that is the moment when Raia realised that he’s acting weird, which he should not. He immediately stood up and faced June. 

“Nope, nothing…I just feel so tired,” he excused himself then smiled a bit. June is still not believing him but he just shrugged his shoulders. 

Both of them walked again towards the room. After they clean the room, June still feels something is wrong with Raia. But instead of asking what’s wrong or telling others, he just keeps it on himself. 

‘Maybe he’s just tired, just like what he said,’ June said to himself while looking at Raia. 

Meanwhile, from the other part of the island…many people gathered in front of the building. They were asked to gather here at exactly 12 in the afternoon. People all over the island looked for their own seat and some of them even bring their own chairs. 

“Avi!  Jut! Did you call your father already?” a woman asked her children. 

“He said he will be here soon, I don’t know where he is now,” Avi, her youngest child answered while pouting. 

The lady looked around the hall to find her husband until someone finally took up on the stage. 

“Good afternoon everyone,” the guy with red hair shouted to get everyone’s attention. Everyone is now looking at him waiting for his next word. 

“I called you here to make an announcement,” he said, then took a little pause. Everyone can hear the silence between them. 

“The nobles decided to share this little treasure to everyone…” he said, then two guys appeared from the back of the stage while carrying a bag. It took for a moment until they opened the three bags and everyone was shocked from what they saw. 

“What is this?”

“Wait…is this for real?”

‘They’re not joking right?” 

Everyone gasped as they saw three dead bodies in front of them. 

“Two of them are from last year’s goods, while the other one is a fresh student from Murray Building and was killed just this morning,” he said, which makes everyone speechless. 

Ordinary citizens on the island only consume cheap human flesh because every farm prioritises the nobles and royals. That’s why they can’t control their hunger now as they are seeing three fresh and free human flesh in front of them. 

The red-haired guy smiled when he saw the smile of everyone. 

“Mr.A, I think they really want our gifts for them,” someone from his side said. 

“Of course yes, I already talked about this to royalties and nobles. Not a single ghoul can control his hunger when he sees his food in front of him,” he said while smiling.