After about an hour when Ezekiel left, soon after, the rescuers arrived and took me to the hospital. I had only injured my ankle, but it still needed treatment.
Later, while I was lying in a hospital bed, one of my professor came by and returned my school bag. Apparently, it had been left under my desk during the chaos.
I pulled out my phone and immediately started searching online. I needed to know more about the man who saved me.
Who was he really?
And there it was his name, plastered all over the news and gossip blogs.
Article after article was filled with hate and accusations.
They blamed him for the gate breach at our university. According to the reports, Ezekiel was supposed to be part of the raid party that would stop the dungeon boss before monsters spilled out, but he never showed. The party went in anyway, failed to defeat the boss monster , and every one of them died. The internet exploded with hate.
Some posts claimed he skipped the raid because he was bullying lower-ranked adventurers. Others claimed he was off burying a dead body. It was so chaotic that no one could even tell what was real anymore.
"What the hell are you people talking about?"
Wasn't he the one fighting the monsters that attacked our school? I was there. I saw him with my own eyes. He saved me.
Despite being the youngest to reach S-rank at age twenty, people despised him. There were even more blog posts painting him as some kind of monster. They called him violent, accused him of abusing animals, claimed he was a cannibal, said he tortured people, and labeled him a serial killer. Overall painting him as the "Ranker Villain".
The media tore him apart every chance they got.
"Why? How could they say those things?"
"That wasn't the Ezekiel I met."
I dug deeper, looking into his so-called criminal past, the same story everyone referenced to justify their hatred. Turns out, when he was just twelve, a burglar broke into his house and attacked his mother. In the struggle, Ezekiel killed the intruder in self-defense.
That was it? That was the "dark past" people used to label him a villain?
It didn't sit right with me. My gut told me there was more going on.
Even after I was discharged from the hospital, I kept digging. While resting at home to recover both physically and mentally, I searched every bit of information I could find about him.
Eventually, I found something, when Ezekiel awakened as a ranker at seventeen, he had a serious dispute with the son of a powerful conglomerate family. Not long after, the rumors about him began to spread.
That boy, now an A-Rank adventurer, was in the same guild as Ezekiel. His name was Clyde Zoric.
It was all starting to seem suspicious.
To try and help, I began replying to the articles attacking Ezekiel.
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Article:
Violabola_27: What the hell are you guys talking about? Ezekiel isn't like that!
meatgrinder33-3 (replied): Girl, do you even know him personally? Stop defending that trash.
applepie_082 (replied): Are you blind? No way you're simping for Black Flag. Go get help.
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Article:
Violabola_27: I saw him! He was fighting off the monsters near our school. He even saved me!
cutiemuchi915 (replied): Nope, it was Clyde. There's a video. Here link: [https%CL%Y%D3%Z%OR%IC]
Stanlee-0_77 (replied): Liar, liar, pants on fire.
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Article:
Violabola_27: It was self-defense! Would you rather the burglar hurt Ezekiel and his mom?
dingdong6682 (replied): Still murder.
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"ARRRGH! No one believes me!"
I shouted in frustration.
I knew what I saw. Ezekiel saved my life. If he was the monster they claimed he was, he would've let me die under those minotaurs.
Are people really this stupid? Just because something's written on the internet, they believe it without thinking.
And so I changed my plans. I shifted my attention to this rich boy Clyde Zoric, and what I found about him was...