The surroundings became clear again after Kai reach the foot of the mountain and got into the car. Other than the driver, he was the only one inside.
The others arrived a little later. Stephan, Jester, and Meghan came together.
Seeing Charlie, Meghan showed concern, asking, "I heard you and Stephan broke up. What happened?"
Charlie was looking out the window, cheeks on her hand. She didn't respond to Meghan's question, even her eyelashes didn't flutter.
Meghan was ignored and felt aggrieved. She looked at Stephan.
Stephan saw Meghan's pitiful expression and spoke with dissatisfaction. "Charlie, what's with your attitude? Meghan is showing her concern for you. Is that how you respond to a friend's concern?"
Charlie continued looking out the window, still not moving. Meghan immediately pacified Stephan. "Don't say that, Stephan. Charlie was just feeling down and didn't want to talk."
Stephan looked at Charlie's unmoving figure and at Meghan who had a sad face but still wanted to be considerate. He sighed. "Meghan, don't always be soft-hearted. This is why Charlie's bad character is getting worse."
The two's voices were quite loud. Everyone in the car heard their conversation.
Mrs. Simpson was the first to speak. "Oh my. Are you guys fighting?"
Jester immediately answered for the two, explaining everything. Of course, he didn't say anything about Stephan and Meghan's relationship.
"Charlie, you should learn to let go if your relationship is not doing well and be thankful you have a friend like Meghan." Mr. Simpson spoke with obvious discontent after hearing Jester's story.
Charlie still remained silent.
Kai could really not comprehend these people's logic. Charlie just suffered from a break-up so it's only normal she wouldn't be in a good mood and wouldn't want to talk. Why is she getting a scolding?
Taking note of the obvious malice in everyone's words and the lack of negative energy around their body, he recalled the gloomy atmosphere in town and their going to the shrine with a high concentration of dark energy.
When someone is exposed to too much dark energy even for a short time, the malice and dark thoughts in their subconscious would be amplified, making their real feelings for someone show.
Due to the assessment, the candidates themselves would be unaffected but the character, as part of the script would be.
Kai glanced at Stephan and Meghan. It seems both of them dislike Charlie. But why?
According to his character information, it was Stephan who asked Charlie out and Meghan was Charlie's best friend since they entered high school.
Since they both dislike her, why be with her?
There was a feast in Mayor Turner's house that afternoon and everyone was invited so the car went there directly.
The locals were with them this time so the feast was quite lively. After the meal, they were even allowed to tour the mayor's house.
The mayor's house is in country architectural style. It has two floors and an attic.
While the others went on a tour, Charlie was called by Mayor Turner to catch up with her in the garden.
The moment they sat on the chairs around the small table, Mayor Turner immediately opened the topic.
"I heard you broke up with your boyfriend?"
Charlie paused, pursing her lips and not talking. Mayor Turner shook her head seeing this, changing the subject with a sigh.
"The festival in three days is a very important event. You should prepare yourself."
Charlie nodded, still not speaking. Mayor Turner couldn't do anything about this so in the end, they spend the time in silence.
It was only after Andrew came to join them did the conversation started again.
"Andrew, you should quit the travel agency after the festival. In any case, you had done your mission. It doesn't make sense for you to keep staying there."
Andrew replied with a nod. "I already told them this will be the last job I'd take and they agreed. After this, I hope the mayor will keep her promise."
Mayor Turner beckoned a maid to bring them refreshments. "Of course. I will ask the deity to let your family go. After the festival, you can leave the town. I appreciate your help this time."
Andrew looked at Charlie who was sitting quietly and slowly respond, "Sister had treated me and our family well before she left. If it was something for her, I would be willing to do anything."
Mayor Turner looked at Charlie as well, speaking with a profound meaning, "I will leave her to you after this until the next festival."
Andrew promised and Mayor Turner showed a satisfied smile.
During this time, Charlie remained silent while Kai listened carefully to the two's conversation.
It seems everyone who wanted to leave the town need the evil deity's permission and Stephan and the others winning the raffle ticket was Andrew's masterpiece in cahoots with Mayor Turner in exchange for a promise to leave the town.
But who is Andrew referring to as sister? The daughter of the mayor, Micaela?
The mayor said she was in the city. Is that why she's leaving her to Andrew who was going there too? Then why are they looking at Charlie with profound meaning?
The group left after having dinner. On the way back to the hotel, Andrew gave everyone free time to walk around the town until nine, arousing the group's excitement.
Charlie didn't go anywhere and stayed in her room, absentmindedly playing with her phone.
Kai was glad of her decision. He'd been wanting to receive an OOC warning to get the free pass after he was reminded of the incident earlier.
If he wanted to get more information fast, he couldn't always let himself be restricted by his character. The penalty would be painful but it should be worth it.
Kai unlocked Charlie's phone to originally open the gallery but due to carelessness, his finger accidentally tapped the browser and the search bar instead. He instinctively wanted to press back only for the search history to catch his attention.
At this time, the red prompt already appeared on his screen.
[ OOC Warning!!! The candidate is acting out of character. ]
[ OOC Warning!!! The candidate is acting out of character. ]
[ OOC Warning!!! The candidate is acting out of character. ]
[ Initiating penalty.. ]
The search history made Kai distracted. When a burst of agonizing pain hit his senses, he was caught unprepared. Feeling as if a rough hand is slowly pulling out all his insides, soaking his scarred body in acid, and finally squishing all his bones into smithereens, he let out a short shout— barely holding it in by bloody biting his lip.
His body curled up tightly, almost making him fall off the bed.
No wonder he didn't see anyone commit OOC deliberately even when it gives the candidates a free pass. The pain was too traumatizing. Moreover, if they passed out during the penalty, their suffering would be for naught!
The short thirty seconds felt like long thirty years for Kai. He swore this is the first and the last time he was going to ever do this.
Weakly laying on the bed, he spent ten minutes panting while trying to recover.
When his breathing finally smoothed out, he slowly got up, picking up the phone that fell to the bedside due to his movement.
Thankfully there was a screen protector so the screen didn't crack.
Going back to the browser, Kai once again looked at the search history that contains searches about teenage pregnancy, what to avoid while pregnant, how to give birth safely, and even baby name suggestions.
Kai slowly digested this information. Charlie was pregnant? Then why did she agree to break up with Stephan? Is he not the father of the child?
Going back to the home screen, he proceeded to look at his original destination— the gallery.
There were only seven albums in the gallery.
The first two were academic references and important documents while the rest were cameras, screenshots, videos, social media saves, and one titled boyfriend.
Kai looked at them in order. The academic references don't have anything but school-related images and some video recordings but the important documents had pregnancy report among them.
Looking at the report, Kai confirmed Charlie was indeed pregnant.
The screenshot and social media saves only have memes stored in them while the camera had pictures of Charlie, Meghan, and Stephan along with some scenery.
The video album had only one video which recorded Stephan's confession to Charlie. Kai watched it briefly and found that the video was from three years ago.
In the video, Stephan had a very loving look as if he wouldn't be able to live if Charlie rejected him. He even made the whole school know to let them support him.
Looking at the Stephan in the video and the Stephan now, Kai felt like he was comparing two different people with the same face.
He then opened the boyfriend album, expecting to see Stephan once more. Unexpectedly, what came to his vision was not only Stephan alone but also Stephan being intimate with different girls! And Meghan was among them!
Kai checked the date of the photos with a bad premonition. As he thought, the dates were all within the almost three years he was with Charlie!
Stephan had been cheating with so many women while in a relationship with Charlie! And her best friend, Meghan, was among them!
Thinking back on Stephan's words when he broke up with Charlie as well as Meghan's concern, Kai felt the two of them were too shameless.
No wonder he felt the interaction between the three of them was weird.