Forbidden Link

19. Small Clue

“There is no difference at all in the other classes. Ten bags are placed in the same place.”

“Did you check the contents of the bag too?”

"No need. There's already too much similarity from every class I've come across.”

The conversation between her and Alex made Bianca confused. Bianca still didn’t understand the boundaries used by Alex to assume that all classes were equal. And Bianca still didn’t really understand what Alex was doing. But the confusion quickly faded when Alex gave him another order.

“Try to check all the windows whether they can be opened or not. Take a look in all the desk drawers to see if there's anything in it or not."

Like a subordinate following the orders of his superior, Marvin and Bianca immediately moved from their seats and looked at everything that Alex was told. From a distance Marvin waved his palm towards Alex to tell him that there was nothing in the desk drawer. Bianca tried to open the windows in the room one by one but none of them would open. It's as if the window handle was just a display and can't function properly.

Alex saw the condition of the whole class from in front of the blackboard including the results given by Marvin and Bianca. While being a little nostalgic for his past, Alex remembers what happened to Kaira while in class.

“Kaira is in this class. Then if I was Kaira and there is no clue inside the classroom, I need to walk into another room which was told by Bianca before. If the incident that Bianca told about was one from Kaira's past…. Wait a minute…"

Alex immediately snapped his fingers when he could remember something from Kaira's past. Alex's eyes widened and his mouth opened. Then Alex excitedly approached Bianca who was still beside the classroom window and still looked for a way to open the window.

"Bian."

Bianca turned around when she heard her name being called. From ten meters away, Alex walked towards Bianca until they were only one meter away.

“Did you enter a class like this too?”

Alex's question made Bianca think hard. After a minute had passed, Bianca crossed her arms over her chest and closed her eyes. She seemed to have trouble remembering because an uncomfortable event happened to her, so several times she frowned with her eyes closed.

"Ah. Yes. It looks like it's the exact same room as this one,” said Bianca, opening her eyes excitedly. "What's wrong?"

This time it was not only Bianca who looked excited, Alex also looked excited with his mouth open and nodding at his own thoughts. One clue after another had brought Alex's mind back to the past. Kaira's past was in high school and Alex also happened to be in that place.

Unlike Bianca who immediately told him everything that was on his mind, Alex chose to keep the results of the series of clues he had gathered. Alex still didn’t want to reveal his true identity as Kaira’s brother to people in front of him. Instead of telling about Kaira's past specifically, Alex tried to find another explanation for Marvin and Bianca.

“When we are in a game, it means we have to know what role we are playing. While we don't have any clues at this time, we'll try to guess the most likely possibilities about the role. Since we're in tenth grade E, it's likely that we should explore the role of Kaira Donati herself. As if we were Kaira Donati.”

"Oh? How do you know? What is the relationship between grade E and Kaira?"

Alex fell silent when he heard Bianca's question. While observing the two people in front of him, Alex tried to guess what Marvin and Bianca were thinking. If Marvin and Bianca knew some simple information, they should both have responded to Alex's words with either a nod or a rebuttal. But Marvin just kept quiet and Bianca asked a trivial question.

“Don’t you know that this place is Kaira’s senior high school? Or… at least don't you guys question what Kaira has to do with this school?" asked Alex after trying to ask a very basic question before he continued his conversation.

Alex already knew the answer from Marvin and Bianca just by looking at the two questionable faces. Alex's caution against strangers was slowly fading away. Seeing the ignorance of the two people in front of him made Alex half annoyed and half sorry.

Unable to stand the innocent faces of the two people in front of him, Alex turned his face to the side and closed his eyes in thought. In his heart came the voice "You have chosen the wrong group, Al." To get rid of the sound, Alex tried to take a deep breath and exhaled the air from his mouth by pursing his lips.

"So you didn't look for information about Kaira Donati before pressing the link, did you?"

"I only know that Kaira is the daughter of Charles Donati, one of the richest men in Quintice town."

“I only know that Kaira Donati is a beautiful girl.”

"Are you guys really not aware of the risks when you decide to press a forbidden link?"

“Yeah… I don't care about the risks I'll take. Even if I'm in the real world, I can't pay my huge debt. Actually my wife and I will be divorced soon. She couldn't stand being with me anymore. So I went back to my family's house and found information about Kaira Donati. If I can't go back, at least I've tried to help someone."

Not only Marvin, Bianca also began to tell about herself because Marvin was triggered. Alex, who seemed chagrined because of the replies, could now only be patient to listen to the stories of the two people -he had just met about an hour ago but had already talked about personal matters-.

“My life is very boring. My parents are too busy working. When I heard the information about forbidden links, I became excited to try it. Then I got information about Kaira Donati. It seems fun looking around for someone like this.”

"Are you willing to leave your parents and friends behind?"

“My parents are seldom at home and are abroad every time. They ordered homeschooling for me  so I only have friends via the internet and lately a lot of my friends have disappeared. We've been discussing this forbidden link from a few weeks ago before the news from television was broadcast. And as soon as my parents called from abroad and advised me about the forbidden link, I directly pressed it right away.”

Although the goals of Marvin and Bianca are different from those of Alex, Alex felt that broadly speaking, the problems of people in the forbidden link world were the same. Avoid problems and escape boredom. All of them couldn’t solve problems in the real world so looking for a way that suddenly came and was very easy to do. Just by pressing the website link, they could get what they want.

Little by little Alex imagined what Kaira had experienced before the girl pressed the forbidden link. Of course Kaira was not a person who lacked money. And Kaira didn't carelessly leave her responsibilities just because she was bored. Before pressing the forbidden link, Kaira only had two choices: pressing the forbidden link or committing suicide. Although neither option was truly better than the other, Alex was still grateful that Kaira didn't choose to commit suicide.

The words that Lakelynn said about Kaira flashed back in Alex's mind. The reason why Alex finally had dared to leave his mother to find his sister. One of the reasons was that Lakelynn promised to take care of Mrs. Gabrielle in the real world. Lakelynn guaranteed that she would send someone to watch over Alex's mother and someone else to inform Alex's mother on Alex's behalf. It was as if Alex was still in the real world and just in a different city from his mother.

Every time he remembered Lakelynn's words, Alex felt that something was bugging him inside. But Alex was sure that if he did the opposite, which was to stay by his mother's side, he would regret it much more. Eliminating discomfort was not an easy thing for Alex. One thing you can do to distract himself from the discomfort was to think of a way to find Kaira. And the second way that Alex actually didn’t want to do right now was talking to other people.

“Hey… so why did you enter the forbidden link? And I don't know your name yet."

Bianca's sopranos voice had snapped Alex out of his thoughts, then he replied, "My name is Alexander. You can call me Alex."

"I'll call you Al. One syllable is more practical than two, right?”

"Up to you."

“So why did you enter the forbidden link? Uncle and I have already told our stories, now it's your turn to tell them."

"I didn't ask you all to tell me."

"But it's better if we share stories to get to know each other."

“Will knowing each other solve the problem here? Apparently not."

Bianca showed an annoyed face to Alex but she couldn't reply to Alex's words. After learning Marvin's story, Bianca still didn't know what to do. So it was proven that Alex's words were not wrong

While Bianca's face was already sullen, Alex's face was so flat but the sound of Alex's breathing became louder than usual. Alex seemed quite annoyed with Bianca’s swinging mood. Arguing with feelings like Bianca's wasn’t exactly what Alex likes. Alex didn't even want to blame Bianca in the slightest but the girl looked unhappy because she felt blamed.

"Surely you don't have a partner in real life. It's because you always feel right," said Bianca, sticking out her tongue.

"I don't really have a partner. But I don't always feel right. It's just that you feel yourself wrong so you can't reply to what I said."

"Not really, Bianca. You're not wrong," said Marvin when he saw Bianca's face was getting more and more sullen.

While Marvin was trying to persuade Bianca, Alex suddenly got some information from Bianca's childish behavior. Alex's sudden snap made Marvin and Bianca turn quickly to Alex.

"Hey, Bian. Do you always feel guilty when arguing like this?”

“I don't feel guilty! You're the one blaming me!"

"Forget the debate earlier. Do you remember how you felt when you were shouted at by those NPCs?”

Although still annoyed and showing a sullen face, Bianca lowered her irises to the border of her lower eyelids and moved them left and right to think. A response that was unconsciously made by someone who processes information with movement or belongs to the type of kinesthetic learner.

“I feel like they are intimidating me…”

“Then you feel that they are blaming you?”

Bianca slowly moved her head up and down. A nod had made Alex smile with satisfaction. It seemed that Alex got a small clue at that time.

"It could be that they responded to your behavior."