[Ghost Story: Uncle Brandon has been exorcised.]
[Elaine exorcised the ghost story, purifying the grotesquery and absorbing its lingering wish.]
[The ghost story of Uncle Brandon vanished, leaving behind a remnant.]
Almost at the same moment Uncle Brandon vanished, a message window appeared before my eyes.
Now, even if I chant a revival spell like “Did we get it?”, there’s no bringing him back.
My Gift guarantees that.
“Student, what have you done?!”
“Hurry, we need treatment—! Wait, where did the baker go?! He just disappeared right before our eyes!”
“No, no! More than that, how did we not notice until now? That baker was weird, wasn’t he?! The way he looked— exactly like Uncle Brandon from the horror stories!!”
“How could we not have noticed?!”
“Kyaaah!! This can’t be real!!”
In an instant, the teachers’ minds were flooded.
The distorted memories.
As the urban legend vanished, the force that had been warping the teachers’ perception also disappeared.
Suddenly regaining their ability to recognize reality, the teachers fell into chaos, unable to regain their composure.
Amid the mass panic, the only ones keeping their cool were Elaine and me.
I silently met her gaze, and the moment our eyes locked, she abandoned the teachers and rushed out of the snack bar.
Once outside, we quickly made our way to the academy’s sealed-off room before anyone could find us.
“Wow, Teach. When did you grab the key to this room?”
“I swiped it from the faculty office before we went to the snack bar.”
“You’re amazing. Oh, but did we really solve the urban legend just now?”
“Yeah. I’m sure of it. My observation confirmed it.”
“Finally!”
After slipping into the sealed room and locking the door securely, we finally shared the joy of victory.
Just like with the infinite loop urban legend, this girl sure knows how to land the finishing blow.
I should never turn my back on Elaine from now on.
“Wait. There’s still one thing left to wrap up.”
“There’s more we have to do?”
“Of course—we need to regress.”
“Duh. If we don’t regress now, my school life is over!”
“It’s not just about that, though.”
Defeating Uncle Brandon was good, but in the process, we exposed too much to the teachers.
Now that Uncle Brandon is gone, remembering what happened won’t strengthen him, but letting the existence of urban legends become widely known would only cause trouble.
Regression wasn’t a choice— it was a necessity.
“Alright. See you this morning again, then.”
“Yeah. Later—no, I mean, see you earlier.”
With a lighthearted smile, I raised my hand.
Then, recalling the sensation from the first time I used this sealed room…
Recalling it…
Huh?
“Wait. Something’s off.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Regression isn’t working.”
“Huh? No way. You’re joking, right? If you won’t do it, I will.”
At my words, Elaine laughed and raised her hand, but soon panic spread across her face.
“Wh-what? Why isn’t it working?”
I’d only activated regression once before, but compared to that memory, the atmosphere in the sealed room now felt like a dried-up well.
Like a furnace with no more firewood left to burn.
I immediately observed the room.
[Memory]
This clubroom holds the wishes of someone who longed for their happy, joyful times to never fade.
Once, this room traveled back in time countless times, fueled by its user’s will— but now, its fuel has been completely exhausted.
And I realized my instincts were right.
The message before my eyes confirmed that the finite chances to regress had run out.
“T-teach… why isn’t this working…?”
“…We’ve used up all the charges.”
“So… we can’t regress anymore?”
Elaine’s voice trembled as she asked, on the verge of tears.
Just like her, I couldn’t keep my composure either.
Losing the ability to regress wasn’t just about how to handle this situation— it meant we’d have to fight urban legends for the next three years without a single death, clearing everything in one go.
I knew regression wasn’t infinite, but I never thought we’d hit the limit this soon.
I felt like the world was going dark before my eyes.
Wait.
It didn’t break— it ran out of fuel?
That simple implication was clear: if we refueled it, it could be used again.
If this were an ordinary machine, we’d just pour in some kerosene and it’d work.
But something tied to urban legends wouldn’t accept such ordinary fuel.
It needed special fuel— something fitting for an urban legend.
….
“Elaine. Let’s try one more time.”
“…I’ve been trying this whole time, but it’s not budging at all.”
“No. This time, instead of trying to use the room, imagine injecting the energy you absorbed from Mr. Brandon— the one you just defeated— into this room.”
“Huh? I-Inject it?”
Following my instructions, Elaine raised her hand again and focused.
Before long, a white mist-like substance seeped out of her body and dissolved into the air of the room.
[Memory]
This clubroom holds the wishes of someone who longed for the happy, joyful times to never fade.
Though not abundant, it seems there’s enough energy left for a few more uses.
As expected.
“Just like you said, Teacher. Something was pulled out of me. What was that?”
“According to the status window, what just came out of you was the ‘wish’ you absorbed after defeating Mr. Brandon. This room uses that wish as fuel to turn back time. The energy was running low, but now it’s been replenished with the wish you gained from defeating him.”
A wish.
I had overwritten the wish of the Infinite Loop Urban Legend to awaken the Gift of Observation, and now the wish obtained from defeating Mr. Brandon had recharged this time-reversing room.
Just what is a wish?
Another question to ponder.
“Anyway, it seems we’ve refueled enough for now. We should be able to regress.”
“Huh? R-Really?”
At my words, Elaine— who had been on the verge of tears just moments ago— let out a sigh of relief.
“Phew. I almost ended up becoming the Academy’s kitchen knife murderer.”
“Same here. I was about to be labeled as the worst, most unreasonable teacher on my second day.”
After swinging between joy, panic, and relief in such a short time— terrible for our mental health— we were finally ready to regress.
“But, Teacher… If we go back now, won’t Mr. Brandon come back too?”
Just before regression, Elaine suddenly remembered and asked me.
“No. That shouldn’t happen. Even when we reversed time after the Infinite Loop Urban Legend, the vanished legend didn’t return. And this room, along with my Gift, didn’t disappear even after regression. My theory is that once an urban legend is defeated, its existence is either absorbed into me as a Gift or converted into fuel for regression, changing its form and thus escaping the effects of the time reversal.”
If wishes were affected by regression, this room would consume its fuel upon regression, but the fuel would also return to its pre-consumed state— creating an infinite regression loop.
Elaine nodded in understanding at my explanation.
“Yeah, that makes sense.”
“Then let’s really go back now. We can talk about the rest later.”
“Time-wise, later would actually be earlier. Hehe.”
After wrapping up the essential discussion, I raised my hand, and in response, my vision flooded with white.
.
.
.
And as I expected, Uncle Brandon did not come back to life.
Having regressed, I immediately rushed to the snack bar with Elaine without hesitation— but instead of Uncle Brandon, only the snack bar owner I had seen on the first day of the academy was standing behind the counter, staring blankly at us.
To be honest, I had confidently told Elaine that he wouldn’t come back even if we regressed, but deep down, I was nervous— what if he did revive?— so I secretly let out a sigh of relief.
Still, I didn’t let my nerves show and casually spoke to Elaine.
“See? We’ve confirmed Uncle Brandon isn’t here. Let’s head back now.”
“Ah, Mr. Allen. Take a look at this.”
As she said that, she pulled something small out of her bag.
“A bread bag?”
“When I woke up this morning, this was in my bed. Since it followed us even after regression, it must be something that appeared after defeating Uncle Brandon…”
What she took out was a small paper bag, the kind used to hold bread or cookies.
A plain, ordinary-looking paper bag— the kind you’d see at the academy’s snack bar.
“What, is this like a ‘good job dealing with the urban legend, here’s a snack to cheer you up’ kind of thing?”
[Uncle Brandon’s Bread Wrapper]
A bag containing cookies and candies made with Uncle Brandon’s ‘special’ recipe.
Each snack produces a unique effect when consumed.
“…Damn it.”
Of course.
Inside the bag were one cookie and one piece of candy.
The cookie was a sinister crimson, as if it had been kneaded with blood— no, scratch that. It was kneaded with blood.
The candy was even more horrifying.
Could that even be called candy?
The red veins spreading like spiderwebs, the unfocused pupils— no, let’s stop there.
[Red Cookie]
When eaten, your complexion improves for a certain duration. Disappears after consumption.
[White Candy]
When eaten, your eyesight improves for a certain duration. Disappears after consumption.
Grotesque appearances and vague, meaningless descriptions.
Of course. There was no way this world would give us normal snacks.
I knew that.
I just let myself hope for a second.
Elaine also made a disgusted face after seeing the contents of the bag.
“Eek! What is this?!”
“…Keep it safe for now. It’s definitely not an ordinary item. Don’t eat it carelessly.”
“I won’t!”
Elaine tightly resealed the wrapper and carefully placed it back in her bag.
“Even at the very end, we get something with a bad aftertaste.”
“…But seeing this makes it feel real—that it’s really over.”
I had to agree with that.
Ding— dong— dang— dong—
While we were loitering in front of the snack bar, the academy’s preliminary bell rang, signaling the start of the day.
“Ah! We’re going to be late!”
“Yeah, I’d rather not deal with that either.”
Elaine and I hurriedly sprinted back to the academy.
And just like that, the urban legend of Uncle Brandon completely vanished, and we returned to our brief, ordinary lives.
Ah.
So much happened, and yet the day has only just begun.
…I already want to give up on today.
.
.
.
Running, I thought to myself.
Urban legends grow stronger the more they spread among people.
And once they reach a certain level of recognition, they break free from the framework of mere legends and materialize.
Once they materialize, it’s essentially game over.
So, before that happens, the urban legend must be eradicated.
We must destroy the legend and prevent the resurrection of the Outer God.
Quietly, I added one word in front of it all.
‘We’ must destroy the legend and prevent the resurrection of the Outer God.