Symptoms

 “Hey!” Caius calls out. The student in question turns to him. “There was something I wanted to ask about, but it didn’t seem right to ask in front of others.

“What’s that?” He asks with confusion in his tone.

“I’m a surgician and I noticed you’ve been showing symptoms of something strange. Would it be okay for me to study your symptoms more? It seems like you’ve been having migraines. In class, it sometimes seems like you’re in a lot of pain.” He explains.

“Oh, if it’s just that, then I’m fine.” He says. “This is normal for me.”

“Please. My brother was experiencing similar symptoms and said the same thing. A few days later… He… Died. I’m just trying to figure out why this is happening and try to find a way to stop this.” Caius admitted.

“I appreciate the sentiment, but I don’t have time to be playing doctor right now. I’ve got things I need to do.” He states.

“Your life is at stake! I’m trying to save your life!” He exclaims.

The student turns around, lets out a deep sigh, and places his hands on his hips. He whispers something under his breath that Caius can’t hear. He turns back and punches Caius in the face with a heavy right hook. Caius falls to the floor and looks up at the student.

“I don’t care. If you still won’t listen, there’s more where that came from.” He states.

The student walks off, leaving Caius lying on the ground. Caius gets up, dusts his clothes off, and starts punching the air.

“Damn it!” He shouts.

After taking a long walk around the campus, Caius finally heads back to the dorm. When the door opens, he finds Leo lying in bed.

“Hey,” Leo says.

“...Hey,” Caius spoke.

“Whoa, what happened to you?” He shoots up from lying down. He stares at the black eye Caius got.

“I lost a fight.” He admits.

“Wanna talk about it?”

“Nope.”

Caius just takes off his blazer and crawls into his bed.

“Quick question… Did Caius ever get a black eye?” Leo asks.

“A black eye…? I don’t remember that ever happening,” She replied. “Did he tell you what happened?”

“Only that he got into a fight. Nothing more.” He says.

“That’s strange… During his time at the school, he was well-known for helping others and became quite popular. While he wasn’t the best fighter, he would help people with any injuries they had.”

“Well, someone gave him a black eye. Time for me to work my magic.” Leo says.

“Don’t end up having him give you a black eye now.” She says with a deadpan tone.

“I can’t stand for this. I’m gonna find the clown and knock his block off!” Leo says, riling himself up.

Leo stomps his way over to the door, waits for a reaction, then fiddles with the doorknob, causing metal sounds to ring out in the room for over several moments before Caius rocketed from bed.

“Alright! I get it!” Caius exclaimed. “Anyone ever tell you you’re annoying?!”

“Maybe a few times.” Leo trailed off.

“I came to this school because my brother finished his time here. He wasn’t the same. He had some strange new habits, constant migraines. His fingernails looked like they had splotches of black under them, and he had these constant bags under his eyes. I tried to examine him a few times, but he kept brushing me off, and then one day… He just died. No idea how. So I came here to figure out what happened here for him to end up that way. So far, I’ve seen more than a few people with the same symptoms. I tried to approach one earlier, and he struck me for trying to help him. Are you happy now?” Caius slammed his fist into his thigh.

“Did you get all that?” Leo asks.

“Yeah. None of this happened in the original game. His brother was supposed to become a respected knight. But now he’s… Leo, we’re gonna have to shift gears; whatever is happening here can’t be a result of our actions thus far.” She says.

“What makes you say that?” He asks.

“His brother was supposed to have returned from school before the hero’s town got destroyed, effectively making it before the story even began. Which means something else is happening. It’s not an illness he contracted by chance, seeing as multiple people have it, and they even went out of their way to deny it. Something else has to be happening here. Assuming everyone was going to follow their predetermined path from the game, there would have to be an external factor to mess that up.” She explains.

“Which means… What exactly?” Leo questions.

“We might not be the only ones from outside of the story,” Arte states.

“If that’s the case, we can just make them an ally or something,” Leo says.

“I’m not sure I agree. They’ve gone around spreading some sort of illness, and from what it seems like, they don’t care about the result. It’s even killed Caius’ brother, and who knows how many others?” She says.

“I take it back. That was thoughtless of me.” He says.

“We have no idea what their intentions are for this world. They already had a head start and used it to cause problems.” She says.

“Let’s pause for a minute. How would someone else even get into the game? We only got in because of your grandfather’s replica necklace.” Leo states.

“I’ve been holding onto a theory for a bit now, but I wanted to get some more evidence first before just stating it was fact…” She sighs.

“Evidence schmevidence. Give me the deets.” He says.

“My grandfather always had a lot of strange sayings, some of which I never got until I played this game. Some of the things he told me felt like it was straight out of a fantasy novel, like how he always knew I was home from school, by asking the birds to watch over me. Or how if I got injured as a child, his pain-go-away spells always worked. I think my grandfather was from this world originally.” She says.