Chapter 179: Look Upon This Gift and Remember Me
Jacob and Maria walked with their group towards the education center. Everyone appeared to be in a good mood, including Zoey who normally hated school.
"Ugh. Why are we still getting sent to school after everything that happened yesterday?!"
Jacob walked up to her.
"It’s because we could use all the information we could get. If you ask me, I think yesterday would have gone a lot smoother if we knew a lot more than we do now."
Zoey sighed and slouched.
"Can you just let me complain in peace?"
Jacob smiled and walked back towards Maria. Lucy and Abby had woken up earlier to either fix their armor or make them a new set, but their work seemed to be improving each and every day. Not only that, but Lucy had appeared to finally decide on a brand of her choice, similar to how a blacksmith labels their work.
Anywhere on the body or weapon, there was always a triangle with strange swirls in each corner, fitted with a sun in the middle. Jacob had asked her why she went with the design, but she said there was nothing more to it than a strange intuition she had.
After three moments, they had all filed back into the classroom. Professor Jenna welcomed them all with a warm smile and confidant stance.
"Hello, my lovely students! Today we are going to stray a bit from our normal curriculum and learn about something special! Is everyone ready?"
Steel raised his hand.
"Yes?"
"Does it have to do with cutting anything?"
Jenna immediately lost all her energy and slouched over.
"You people need to be in a mental institution... No, we are not learning about cutting anything. We are learning how to do something that is fundamental to everything around us. Without this stuff, our order would collapse as we know it! This fundamental law of the universe, this organizer for the disorganized!"
Everyone around the room started getting excited hearing the declarations. Jacob leaned in closer.
"Universal law?! What kind of powerful stuff like that are we learning today?!"
Jenna smirked wryly.
"Why, of course I could only mean one thing. We are learning MATH!!"
Immediately, a loud sigh escaped from everyone’s mouths around the room. Jenna found their reactions hilarious and let out an evil chuckle.
"That’s right! Don’t get upset at me! You must know at least the basics!"
"Can we cut this math stuff?"
"I can’t do this! I’m going to catch this place on fire!!"
"Zoey! Calm down!!"
"...I’m a grown woman... why am I here..."
"I think I’m going to be sick."
"Ew! Don’t barf on me Gabriel!"
As chaos spread throughout the room, William passed Sydney a note. She looked at him slightly confused before reading it. It read:
Meet me by the men’s bathroom. I need to talk to you about something important. Also, we already learned about math in Iron Kingdom. I don’t want to sit through this all again...
Sydney smiled as she finished the small note. She looked over to William and gave him a confirmative nod. After this, William stood up and left for the restroom. He made sure to inform Jenna before he left. After waiting three moments, Sydney did the same thing.
Navigating the long hallways of the school was little to no issue for Sydney since there was good signage as to where she was supposed to meet William. After a short while, she finally found William pacing around the front of the men’s bathroom. He appeared to be really nervous about something. He gestured towards the bathroom.
"Sorry. This was the only private place I could think of."
Syndey stared at the bathroom and thought to herself.
’How romantic... a disgusting bathroom...’
William noticed her hesitant reaction and grabbed her hand.
"It’s okay. If there’s any creeps in there, I’ll take care of it."
Sydney blushed at the gesture and nodded her head as she followed him in. Luckily, the small bathroom was empty. William turned around after pacing a bit more. He looked into Sydney’s blue eyes and protruded a small, wooden heart carved using a small knife. Syndey’s heart started to race seeing the wooden figure.
"I’m just going to be as honest as possible here. Sydney, since we’ve known each other, you have been my favorite person in this world. The way you carry yourself, the way you dress, the way you speak, I’m infatuated with all of it. A day without you is a day wasted in my life. I made this figure for you because I wanted to tell you... I love you, Sydney. I’ve always loved you for as long as I can remember. I just never had the courage to say anything until I saw Jacob and Slimo’s confidence. I know our friendship is extremely valuable, so if you do not feel the same, I understand. You are still the greatest friend anyone could ask for. So, will you be my girlfriend?"
Sydney’s eyes flustered with happiness. She grabbed the wooden figure tightly and smiled at William.
"Of course I’ll be your girlfriend! If you weren’t going to ask soon, I was going to have to!!"
William stared blankly at her.
’It was that easy?! I could’ve done this years ago!!’
He ran up to her and embraced her lightly.
"I love you so much, Sydney."
"I love you too, William."
Suddenly, the walls around them started to churn and move. William broke away from Sydney and stared at the walls, confused.
"Do you... see that too?"
"I do. What the hell is-"
Before she could finish her sentence. The walls and floor moved faster. However, before they could be separated, William held on to Syndey tightly. She had dropped the wooden figure and watched it be moved away helplessly.
"Stay by me! I’ll protect you!"
On the wall of the bathroom, a large black hole appeared. The teeth around it looked rotted, but deadly sharp. William tried conjuring a beam of light, but with so little light around him, it was hopeless. The wall behind them started pushing them towards the large mouth slowly. They both pushed against it with all their might, to no avail. Whatever this thing was, was far too powerful for either of them to handle. Staring at the unavoidable death in front of him, William stopped fighting.
He had no thoughts in his mind, except for one: Syndey. He grabbed hold of her and held her in his arms. Sydney had small tears running down her face as she stared into his eyes.
"Sydney."
"William, we have to esca-"
"SYDNEY!"
She went silent.
"It’s no use. This is it."
"But... it can’t be. This is too... sudden. We can’t just die like this."
"And the deaths of the others weren’t sudden? Sydney... this is it."
"But it can’t be... you just confessed. We were supposed to spend our long lives happily together. This can’t be fair."
William held her tighter. They were almost completely swallowed by the creature at this point. There was no returning from the point they crossed.
"If we can’t spend this lifetime together, let’s spend eternity together."
William pulled Sydney in and kissed her lightly on the lips. Tears ran down both of their faces as the jaws of the creature closed shut with avarice. Sydney and William were no more.
Outside the education center, Lidia fell to the ground and clutched her head. Slimo caught her as she fell.
"Lidia? Are you okay?"
"I’m... fine. I think it’s just a headache. Let’s keep going."
Lidia and Slimo breached into their classroom. Jenna was in the middle of teaching simple addition, but she was hounding over Steel as she taught.
"Now Steel, if I take two apples and I add two more together, how many apples would I have in total?"
"Uh... cut three apples?"
"NO!! How about this... If I cut two apples, then I cut two more, how many apples would I have cut?"
"Oh, that’s simple. You would have cut five apples."
Jenna held herself back from trying to strangle Steel and decided to slap herself in the face instead. After the small interaction, she noticed that Lidia and Slimo were standing in the doorway.
"Oh? It appears we have some visitors. Are you both the guardians of these imbeciles- I mean students?"
Lidia panted as she looked over everyone. Thankfully, everyone was here... in her mind.
"Yes, we are. We are taking the kids home. Family emergency."
Jenna walked up to her and got on her knees.
"Thank you..."
"What?"
"I mean... very well. You are all dismissed!"
Lidia allowed everyone to pass her. Both her and Slimo were doing a headcount as each person passed. Slimo was the first to notice something was off.
"Wait a second, where is William and Sydney?"
Lidia looked at him dubiously.
"Who?"
Slimo thought that she was playing some weird joke on him, so he continued.
"William and Sydney? William was a part of your clan, and he had a crush on that Sydney girl?"
Lidia again stared at him confused.
"Are you okay? There has never been a William in the Rose Clan."
Slimo’s heart dropped. Lidia was not joking. She seriously didn’t remember about one of her own kids, and if Lidia forgets about her kid, you know it is serious.
"Lidia, stop joking around. We have to find them both before something happens to them."
He tried grabbing her hand and moving away but Lidia didn’t budge.
"What are you doing? What has gotten into you, Slimo?"
"How do you not remember your own kid, Lidia?! I’ll prove it to you!"
Slimo walked up to Jenna.
"Hey, you. Weren’t there more students in your class than this?"
Jenna rubbed her chin.
"It’s strange. It does feel like there’s supposed to be more, but were there really? I don’t think so..."
Panic rose in Slimo’s chest. He looked over at Luna with wide eyes.
"Your daughter, Luna! Where is your daughter?!"
Luna seemed to strain herself before answering.
"My... daughter. Did I really have one of those? I vaguely remember having a dream about one I think."
Slimo looked at Jacob, his last and only hope.
"Come on Jacob. Surely you have to remember."
Jacob strained his eyebrow.
"Slimo isn’t lying. I can tell. I also do remember those names, but their relation to us is a massive blur. We all got this weird headache in class, and it feels like part of my mind is missing."
Everyone looked at Jacob weirdly. Maria was the first to answer.
"We got a headache? I don’t remember that."
"I think so..."
Slimo walked up to the teacher again.
"There’s no way you would let two students waltz out of your class without them telling you where they were going. Do you remember anything about two people leaving?"
Jenna strained her eyes before answering.
"I truly don’t, except for one word. Bathroom."
Slim heard enough. He dashed away from the group towards the men’s bathroom.
"What the hell? Is Slimo running off again?!"
Harold stepped forward.
"I’ll keep track of him."
Jacob put a hand on Harolds chest.
"No need. I can go after him. I trust him."
Jacob ran after Slimo.
"What’s happening, Slimo? Why are you acting so crazy all of a sudden?"
"You are all the ones acting crazy! How do you not remember your own siblings?!"
After reaching the bathroom, both Slimo and Jacob ran in. Sitting on the floor of the bathroom, there were three things. Two sets of armor embracing each other and a small, carved wooden heart resting in the corner of the room. Slimo picked up the heart and showed it to Jacob. Jacob held it in his hands, his eyes brow straining harder.
"I know what this is, but... I can’t remember who made it. Why?"
Slimo took it back and read the small text that was engraved on the bottom of the heart.
When you miss me, look upon this gift and remember me.
Slimo collapsed to his knees. The meaning of the message was clear. This was supposed to be a sweet message for Sydney so if they were ever apart, she would know William was always thinking about her. However, the cruelty of Slimo being the only one capable of remembering who they are shattered his heart to pieces. This was the second time in his life that he was capable of remembering something when no one else could.
