“Look who is awake while my son has closed his eyes forever!”
His voice was filled with hatred as he spoke.
Just looking at the man, you could tell that he was not there to congratulate Zero on his recovery. Contrary to that, the man seemed to be very hostile to Zero.
It was not just him but other people who had the same expression. The looks on their faces indicate they were ready to attack Zero at any moment, but may have refrained due to Zero’s parents being present. In terms of power, those people fell quite short compared to Zero’s parents. Even if they attacked together, they would have been defeated by Zero’s parents.
But that didn’t stop them from shouting at Zero.
“Give my child back!”
“The Devil’s friend!”
“You killed our child!”
…
Just listening to their words, one could guess who they were. They were the parents of Zero friends who died in the dungeon.
They were devastated by the fact that their child died in the dungeon. The reason for their death was unclear but they heard The Authority agent say that the Devil’s target was a girl named Lilith.
While they don’t know where that girl is, they know that the girl is a friend of Zero. Obviously, they shifted their blame from Lilith to Zero. As for the Devil that killed their child, they didn’t know his whereabouts and could only vent their anger onto Zero, the only person who came out of that dungeon.
While unreasonable, they wanted someone to blame and Zero was the only person available. Not only was he Lilith’s closest friend but he was the only one who survived that incident. Even if they wanted to blame other kids, they were dead and only Zero was alive.
They could not accept that their children were dead and they could do nothing to get revenge. Therefore, they shifted their hatred toward Zero and wanted to vent their anger on him.
Zero’s expression only got worse with those parents blaming him. It was like adding salt to his wound when the parents of the deceased blamed him. He already blamed himself for the situation that happened in the dungeon, now they were also blaming him, making him more miserable.
‘This is all your fault!’ That he heard from Sixtus and in the nightmare seemed to become more and more real for him. The only thing that kept him calm was the word of Lilith, otherwise, he would have truly broken down.
While Zero’s parents could understand their emotions, they were not going to just let them torment their child.
“Stop! You are blaming a child for no reason. You all know that Zero is not the one responsible for the incident.”
However, when the parents of those dead kids heard their protests, they were not inclined to listen to anything and just kept blaming Zero. Zero’s parents’ words fell on dead ears.
“Give our child back!”
“Give our child back!”
“Give our child back!” …
The commotion just grew bigger. The parents started to get louder and louder, and it was not like Zero’s parents could stop their voices as they outnumbered them. The parents of the dead were also not in their rational minds and continued making a mess until the guards came to stop them.
Not only were they creating trouble for Zero’s family, but they were also disturbing other patients in the hospital. The guard came there to warn them.
Even then, they didn’t stop and the guards had to forcefully drag them out of the hospital. There was a moment of peace for Zero but his mind was not in a great condition. But he didn’t cry or show any emotion.
“Are you okay? Don’t listen to them. They are just spouting nonsense because they are sad.”
Zero’s parents told Zero.
“I understand!”
Zero said while smiling. However, despite the smile, Zero could not hide his real feelings from his parents.
Zero parents looked at each other, extremely worried. They would have felt better if Zero cried like any other child instead of putting on a brave face.
Crying and whining were one thing that Zero has always refrained from. So, it was a normal thing for Zero not to cry, but to be normal in this situation was absolutely abnormal.
Any kid of age 8 would have cried if they were met with the same situation. Which kid would be able to be calm when faced with hostility from 20 adults?
They then headed toward home. Zero parents felt that with time everything would be back to normal.
*****
Soon after, many news covering the incident came up and many journalists were trying to get in contact with Zero.
While journalists didn’t get to interview Zero or his parents, they managed to contact the parents of other victims.
The parents of the victims sobbed as they told the story and blamed Zero for their misfortune.
******
Zero stayed home for a week due to the incident, despite school starting. His parents were worried about him, both about his physical well-being and his mental state as well.
“You should rest!”
“Mom, I am really fine!”
Zero’s mother wanted Zero to rest for more days but Zero refused.
Eventually, he joined the school, but the atmosphere was different from before. In just a week, the news about the death of 11 students spread among the students.
It is said that only Zero escaped after abandoning his other friends. There was also another rumor that Zero purposefully took those students to the dungeon to get them killed.
Therefore, many people who resent Zero appeared. Even if one does not hate Zero, one wants to avoid being the next victim.
Zero was fairly popular in the school mainly due to his background and talent. His parents were the guildmasters of the silver-graded guild, which is one of the highest in that school.
And Zero’s talent was also considered the best in the school. He was also friendly and never arrogant. So, he had many friends aside from those who were dead.
But at the moment, even those friends were looking at Zero in a weird way. They were judging him based on the rumor that they heard.
“Hey…”
Zero wanted to ask what was wrong but immediately the student that he asked ran away.
“…”
Zero didn’t know what to say. He had no idea what caused them to treat him like this.
The same was the case for his other friends who purposefully avoided him.
Not only did this happen, but after a few days, some students grouped together and started to bully him.
“Friend killer!”
“Mr. Misfortune!” …
All kinds of nicknames were given to him as they pushed him around while calling this name. Zero didn’t do anything to them and just endured those things.
Because he believes that this is because of himself. He knows that they are doing this because he is the reason his friends died. This is his retribution.
If he wanted to, he could easily beat those students in a minute but he refrained from it.
The bullying started increasing as time passed. Before, due to their fear of Zero’s strength, many refrained from bullying him and just avoided him.
But when they saw how docile Zero was, even those students started to join others in bullying him for fun.
His previous friend just avoided those things altogether, not wanting to bully Zero or help someone who abandoned Wendy and the other kids.
While they don’t want to hurt their once friend Zero, they also secretly blame Zero for what happened to other students who died.
Misha was also in the same school. She has heard the whole story about the incident from her father’s mouth but with her personality, she was not able to help much.
She was too shy to go out and say that it was not Zero’s fault in front of everyone.
Though she tried to clarify the rumor as much as possible, the students already believed that Zero was the reason for the death of other kids.
She was at least able to convince her friend to not bully Zero and also not believe those strange rumors.
However, those things didn’t impact much as the bullying continued, and each day,
Zero himself tried to at least say the truth but no one wanted to listen to him. He could only endure the grazes of other students. Zero became more and more emotionless.
Zero tried his best to show that he was doing fine but deep inside his emotions were already dead.
He neither felt anger nor sadness with whatever happened around him. Even when someone attacks him, he doesn’t have the urge to fight back.
He would act normal in front of his parents like nothing was wrong. He tried to act as before and refrain from worrying about his parents.
However, he had never escaped from the nightmares. Every night, he would dream about those scenes again and again.
He would see his friends and Lilith die, again and again, never letting him forget about that incident.