Mob monsters, boss monsters, manually activated safe zones; no wonder he called this a game. Everything worked exactly like one. She didn’t want to think of how worse things could get in this so-called war if the quadrupedal beasts that she had fought before were mere ‘mobs’.

Would she fight them if they came knocking? Of course.

But with the realization that the mobs were refreshed despite whether the boss was around or not, meant that there was a possibility that they could become a time-managed issue to fight against. The safe zone was more important to capture sooner rather than later, as Dias had put it; the more zones they controlled, the wider their area of mobility would be.

This was a game, so she had to think like a game designer would. The enemies; unforgivingly environmental as they were obviously there to inflict pressure on players—to keep them on the move and have them capture areas rather than encourage them to settle and remain on the defensive.

To borrow Dias's own words, the god father in heaven might be merciless, but unfortunately, he wasn't stupid either.

"Senior…?"

Kayla’s voice whispered with worry, which dragged her back into the moment again. "Are you okay?"

"I’m good. Just overthinking." She reassured the girl as best she could, and found her answer coming out more monotone than she had ever heard it before.

"Want an ice compress? I think your ears are smoking." Dias offered with a teasing smile.

Tira glared up at him. His chuckling was not the greatest mood booster. Shakily, she took another moment, a deeper inhale, to calm down.

She was clearly a bit more mentally exhausted than she thought if his small provocation was enough to tick her off.

Soon enough, the issue of touchstones and safe areas had been wrapped up as they moved on to other topics as Dias returned to his seat.

From what she was able to pick up, the gang and the red cross were going to be ‘dissolved’ in name only so that the entire student body could move on as a whole.

Donny looked at the blond once he said that suggestion, evidently worried even as the teachers had agreed on their behalf instead of the gang members themselves. "Would that be okay, Arl?"

Armand did not look okay about it, but he did not speak against it either, despite his right-hand man looking confused and waiting for him to speak up against it. "Tch. Not like I can say no to a good suggestion."

"Thank you for your cooperation." Donny smiled and threw a glance at Rina, "And you? Will the medic team agree to this?"

"We don’t have any objections." Rina agreed calmly. Raphael, sitting by her side, seemed to also agree after he heard his captain's decision.

Looking at all of them, she wondered how much of their decisions were based on their trust in each other and how much had been concluded or rehearsed beforehand. Each of the supervising teachers for the student’s council and the red cross appeared to be out of the loop, though it did not take long for Miss Erisa, their club’s supervisor, to nod in agreement by herself.

"So for now, the decision makers for the student body will consist of Rina, Armand and myself being in charge of the high school section. And for the junior years—"

Unrelenting and having heard something he did not like once again, Peter grumbled immediately, "And why are you deciding by yourselves? What of the adults?"

"I’m going to apologize beforehand, since I’m going to have to ask you, our teachers, to take that responsibility."

She really should have nabbed a snack before coming. His performance was almost Oscar-worthy.

"The School War Protocol certainly has helped us weather through the first day of the apocalypse but it wasn't designed for this level of aftermath we're currently in. And I was hoping that, as our elders, you wouldn't mind watching over the young and vulnerable children. Please?" Donny asked, adding a well-timed pause, ending it sweetly enough to sugarcoat the sarcasm and win the adults' approval.

The social studies teacher clicked his tongue but did not hide the smile that told everyone he’d been appeased with the sight of Donny pleading. It was as if he had gained the second wind of being in power again. "And what if I don’t want to?"

"Then I can kick you out of the barrier." Dias added quietly.

All eyes in the room immediately locked onto the demigod.

"Oh right, I almost forgot to inform you of this while I was explaining the touchstone." His hands grasped the back of the chairs he was close to, leisurely leaning back despite the amount of attention on him. "Since initial touchstones can only be controlled by those who activate them, as long as I can implement the rules on it, I can technically kick you out alongside those rule-breakers with just the snap of a finger."

Cheekily, Dias snapped his finger right after, though there was no sound coming as he was wearing gloves and nothing else had happened besides Peter squealing in fear.

Dias' smile turned cold as he brought his left hand to his lap again and said, "The only reason I haven’t is that I'm giving your institution, including its people, a say on whether they wish to stay in my domain or not once you yourselves have decided its law."

Then, in a blink, the coldness in his eyes thawed into a warm smile.

"I do have other interests," he directed his attention, now with utmost leniency, towards Peter who was biting into his cheek, "but being a tyrant isn’t one of them."

The Vice Principal, whose name Tira didn’t remember, leaned forward in his chair, intrigued, "Mind if we ask about those interests?"

"Oh, I don't know," Dias said, raising his right brow and smirking at the man. "They’re mostly harmless, like listening to music, watching movies, gardening... something along those lines."

She studied his face carefully as he recounted his list. He had told her yesterday that he had no interest other than to just win, and it appeared that it held true even now, just with different words.

"Perhaps once everything settles, I can wait for another fifty to a hundred years before things go to a new normal, so to speak, before I go around sampling games again." He ended with a shrug.

That response got a laugh from Miss Erisa and Bimo, who had their lips turned up in a smirk. Tira, however, had so many questions that her mind was running at speeds too extreme for her to handle.

She glanced at Kayla and the small book on her lap that she had been eyeing since the girl had spoken to her. "Mind if I borrow that?"

"Oh, s-sure." She handed over the notebook and pen gingerly.

Tira gave a muffled thanks before she turned to an empty page and started to scribble.

A touchstone in the middle, circled, then branching into (Operation Cost), (System), (Effectivity) paired with other things she found were important. From those sub-branches, she connected little dots, some with check marks or crosses, and some with just a few letters that to any person eyeing her wouldn't make a lick of sense.

Once she had filled a page, she turned to another fresh one, carrying the arrow back so the lines stayed connected, and continued scribbling one word, accompanied by question marks beside it. The chatter around her became a simple background noise around her, not a distraction in the slightest. At least until someone called her out.

"Tira?"

She looked up from her book to see Donny give her a warm smile that made her arms shiver with an unpleasant feeling. "We’re about to end the meeting. Anything else you want to say?"

She shook her head. "Not at the moment, no."

"Then let's wrap up this meeting for now. I hope you all rest well tonight. We have a bright day ahead of us."

Swiftly, everyone excused themselves, rose from their seats and filed out. Tira stood and ripped up the pages that she had filled. As she reached out to hand the book back to Kayla, who had bolted out too quickly, Peter passed by her.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Whore." He whispered low enough to be masked by his footsteps.

She blinked.

In a short second, three things had happened all at once. The rattle of metal rang throughout the room, a gust of wind blew on her face, and Peter found himself surrounded by weapons in three directions.

On his neck was a short knife, a karambit, she recalled; pressed against the man’s jugular.

A whip of sinew and brass floated around his figure, its pointy-tipped thorns just inches away from piercing his skin and looping to the back of his balding head.

Then, facing the man, right in front of his eyes, a silver scalpel dangled in front of his nose from a white-gloved hand. It metallic material glinted, unlike all the other weapons, shining dangerously under the dim fluorescent lights of the room.

"Be careful of your language, sir," Donny smiled as he pressed the knife tip against the man's skin, nicking it inch by inch. "There are children around."

It drew merely a drop of blood before Donny stopped and pulled back.

As quickly as the weapons had been drawn, so too was the speed of their disappearance. The three seniors walked by Peter, who was trembling and sweating where he stood and nearly tumbled to the floor when Armand shoulder-checked him on his way out.

Rina gestured for her to follow, and she did, walking away from Peter's trembling form and out of the room where Dias had waited by the corridor, leaning by the railing and talking to the younger kids.

Once she handed the book and pen back, walking away to follow the seniors, she asked Dias in a whisper lower than the wind, "When you said that the man from last night had been dealt with..."

"I did not lift a finger." A small proud smile curved on his lips as he gave her back a bit of a push towards the trio walking ahead. "You have good people around you, darling."

Tira couldn’t agree more. The seniors backs, as they walked ahead of her, looked much more cooler and capable than they had before.

----------------------------------------

The place that they ended up in turned out to be the music room. She paused next to the entrance, surprised to find that not only had the room been turned upside down but the interior walls had been replaced with what seemed to be high-quality soundproofing.

She could have sworn that the foam on the walls hadn't looked this good before and neither had the room held a sofa and coffee table previously.

There were other people already sitting around inside, some of whom she could identify as the left and right hands of each senior. Raphael was downing a bag of chips when their eyes met and he smiled at her.

Tira replied to his greeting with a nod. "So, why am I here?"

"I wanted to introduce you to the others who have decided to join... Well, under the banner is how Dias explained it." Rina tucked a stubborn strand behind the ears as she spoke, "Obviously, you know Raphael."

Raphael gave a little hand wave at the mention of his name.

"There’s also-"

"Me!" Felicia raised both of her hands overhead, excitement oozing all over her as she waved with all of her might. "We've already met!"

Tira gave her a nod of acknowledgment.

"Then this skinny twig is Rizal," Rina continued the introduction from right to left, "Dharma and Kevin, Arl’s boys." The rascal Kevin gave her an upward nod, chin out and all while Dharma gave her a thorough scan from top to bottom as his spiked hair bobbed along with his head as much as it was able to; being held back by a red bandana.

"And that’s Devy, Donny’s vice president and also his sister."

"Hello." Devy greeted her cooly, her eyes darting around her and away rapidly despite her calm expression. So they were siblings? That was a surprise.

"Tira." She gave another formal bow, her eyes scanned the room to find a beanbag to sit on a good distance away from the crowded sofa. Where had they even gotten everything from?

"I already know you’re all contracted to Dias though, but thank you for telling me."

Someone nearly choked on his chips and coughed painfully. She heard some chest-thumping before turning around to confirm that Raphael was the one choking. "You know? How??"

"I can sort of feel it…" She lifted a finger and tried channeling her energy to the tip of it, being careful so it was more noticeable than usual. But not so much that it would become visible. "Can’t you?"

"Hm?" The boy tilts his head, the confused humming turning enlightened, his eyes wide. "Hmm?! Wait, what?!"

"Oh, so it wasn’t just me. Good." Tira curled her fingers and sank into her seat, the single pillow placed on the corner of it prodded into her side. She ran her fingers over the fabric, "Who made this?"

"I did!" Felicia happily chirped. Her bouncing was nearly enough to send her tumbling down from the sofa she was sitting on. "Isn’t the fabric amazing? I can make stuff from scratch while Rizal can fix broken stuff, so the workload was shared between us. I also made the towels but uhh, I'm still getting the hang of making longer fabrics... Do you want to switch to a wider one because the last one I gave you was kinda small and—"

"Felis, breathe." Rizal chuckled as he took a bowl into his lap and said, "One question at a time, guys, don’t suffocate the kid."

Tira briefly opened her mouth to say that she was not a child but decided not to on and instead hit the nail on the head as she asked: "So am I correct to assume that you have some questions to ask me that you wish not to ask Dias? Or is this going to be about stuff that he doesn't know?"

"The latter." Armand pointed, perched on the arm seat, his fingers sliding onto the buttons of his uniform to reveal a shirt, spotless vanilla white. "Tried asking the guy, but I don't think he knows how humans work."

Interesting. Dias, the lazy ass that he was, had decided to act like an alien and dumped the any further explaning tasks onto her. He should have given her a heads-up on this kind of thing, the bastard.

"Alright, I’ll answer if I know the answer. So, go ahead. Shoot."

Rina glanced around to see who wanted to ask first, then, after seeing no volunteers went ahead herself, bashful and unsure. "How did you… you know, fight so well?"

Tira ran the question once over in her mind, just once, since it seemed the group needed some warm-up for topics to settle in. "When I made a contract with Dias, he sort of embedded my brain with basic knowledge of my weapons. What they're capable of, how durable are they, etcetera... The rest is just me figuring out how much force is needed to accomplish anything after that with practice."

"So mostly instinct?" Dharma added in and unfolded his arms. It was a fairly simple answer, but since it was close enough, Tira nodded.

"Oh, oh! How about your clothes?" Felicia asked, jumping to and fro in her seat. "Do we get our own battle dresses?"

"God I hope not." Kevin lamented under his breath, seemingly mortified by the thought of having to wear a dress.

Tira let out a chuckle at the image, her mouth twisting into a grin as she teased him. "Wouldn’t Evelyn love to see you in a dress?"

"Fuck you!"

"I don't think you can."

The boy turned his reddened face away in shame. Tira couldn’t help shaking her head at the guy, amused at how easy it was to tease him. That story would never get old, and she would never fail to remind him whenever the opportunity presented itself.

Armand gave a back-and-forth glance between them before he nodded to himself. "Almost forgot you two are in the same class."

"Wait, wait, hold on a second," Raphael said as he leaned forward in shock, dropping the empty snack bag he was holding on the table."Do you two know each other?? From before?" He motioned at her and Kevin with his fingers like antennas. "You don’t look all that surprised that she's talking, Kevin."

Tira, unsure, tossed the ball into Kevin's court, "I don’t know, were we acquainted, boy?"

"No. We’re not." Kevin denied, threw off her implications without missing a beat.

She glanced back at Raphael with a nod.

"We’re just classmates."

"Oho?"

Weirdly, Armand sounded more... intrigued, as he observed his henchman's reaction, “Well, if you say so, kiddo, there will be no problem if I, say..."

He paused, his fangs flashing from the lopsided curve of his lips, leaning against his knee to ensure she knew he was asking her this question.

"Ask the girlie for a spar?"

"NO!"

Kevin nearly screamed from the top of his lungs, but ended up yelling instead, as he caught himself in embarrased once he realized what had just happened and began to stammer.

"N-No boss, I mean, that’s not necessary! I mean, you said you weren't in the habit of hitting girls?!"

"Fuck off, kiddo, who are you to tell me who I can and can't hit?" Armand laughed and smacked Kevin on the back of the head.

"‘Sides, the girl said it herself," He pointed his thumb at her "—the best way to get the hang of the power is to practice it. I think I need some help, that's all."

"I think what this room needs is order, you muscle-head." Donny interrupted chewing around his chocolate chip cookies to scold the gang boss.

"HUH?!" The blond growled at the boy on his left as Rina stood up from her seat in silence. "You picking a fight, Don? Finally growin’ some bal-"

A twin thwack to the back of both their heads, hard enough that the dullness of it was like a nut cracking, cut off whatever insults were about to be dished. "Stop being kids and calm down, you two!"

Despite his earlier eagerness to fight another woman just a second ago, Armand merely rubbed his head with a frown.

Donny did the same with a more confused and hurt look, groaning in pain. "Why did you hit me too?!"

"You needed it. Anyway," Rina leaned onto the back of the sofa that the two sat on, looking like she had had enough of her fellow seniors being irresponsible instead of setting an example. "About that transformation, is there anything else we need to do aside from practice?"

"Ah, well..." She gave his question further thought, her eyes wandered over to Dharma. "Sorry, mind if I borrow your headband?"

Dharma gave it to her easily, balling it up and tossing it over to land on her lap perfectly. Tira picked it up with a thankful nod and tied the fabric’s position higher to push most of the hair out of her face.

Then, she tested if she could equip just the veil.

The veil appeared in the same place the headband did. When she thought of unequipping it, the headband returned.

With a relieved sigh, she took the crusty red cloth off and tossed it back. "Sorry, I just wanted to test something. I don’t know for sure if you have battle gear. You can try and do some of your own experiments on the power you have, but practice is the only way I know how to—why are you looking at me like that."

Red blushes had sprung onto everyone’s faces in varying degrees, except for Kevin, who was becoming paler instead. Even Devy, who had been avoiding eye contact with her since earlier, looked like she was about to combust into flames when their gazes met.

"Oh, n-nothing! I’ve just never seen your face so clearly before!" Rina stammered, embarrassed as her hands hovered over her mouth as if she was holding back from talking even more.

"Awwh, Tira~ You’re so cute!" Felicia cooed, her hands cupping her cheeks as her eyes glittered. "I bet you've got lots of boys on your tail, huh?"

… Why were they all suddenly acting like this? "No comment."

Kevin muttered something under his breath, soft enough that she only caught bits of it, though she could guess he'd said.

Tira tried to salvage the situation as she cleared her throat and turned the topic of discussion back on track. "Anyway, I don't mind being asked for a spar, as long as you give me a bit to prepare."

"A-Alright." Armand also groaned as he inhaled slowly, then let it all out with a drag. "Let’s do it once we finish the university meeting."

"Okay."

Two days, no, one day should be plenty of time for her to adequately prepare. Tira nodded, her hair fell back into her eyes.

"Any other questions?"

The door opened before anyone could ask anything else. Sir Saputra stepped in alongside Kayla, Bimo, and the other five younger kids she was unfamiliar with. “Sorry, we’re late. Did we miss anything?”

“Oh, not much, sir!” Raphael stepped out of his weird stupor and got up, only to be waved off by the old man who dragged the two kids to sit on the floor mat. “Alright, fill us in. What have you discussed so far?”

As Raphael and Devy, and to some extent, Donny, gave a recount of the questions they'd asked and discussed, she found a heavy sort of exhaustion slowly creeping up on her.

Entirely expected, since she hadn't gotten a wink of sleep yesterday. And she hadn't gotten any energy boost today either.

Unfortunately, drifting to sleep here would be bad, Tira reminded herself as she battled against her slowly drooping eyelids. There were still things they wanted to ask of her.

She wasn't sure if her bed and sleepwear were still intact or if she was still welcome to spend the night in the class again. Those were worries for later.

Tira fought back her fatigue with sheer willpower for quite some time, only to see the door fling open and jolted her out of her sleepiness.

Dias entered the room as if he owned the place, as usual, and settled his gaze on her at once. “Oh, you’re here already.”

“I am.”

She stated the obvious. The AC was so cool and the beanbag so soft... Tira hugged her pillow tighter as her sleepiness returned. 'Do not fall asleep now.'

“Why are you here?”

“I’m going to my room, of course!”

He strolled to the other end of the room, where there was nothing but a foam-padded wall, and lifted one of the foam bricks to reveal a latch. “It’s night time, nearly eleven pm and you all sleep at around this time, don't you?”

Tira wondered how many more absurd things she was going to have to face in the span of a night. “I don’t think there’s supposed to be a door there.” There wasn’t supposed to be a room beyond the wall. They were literally sitting in the corner-most room of the school.

Peering from her spot, she saw an actual room decked with the barest of the essentials. A head of the bed, a bedside table, a floor lamp.

There seemed to be more on the right, but those were hidden in a blind spot behind the wall which she barely had enough energy to inspect since it meant sacrificing the comfort of her seat.

Their eyes met once more despite her best avoidance techniques and Dias gave a little wave towards her from inside 'the room'. “You’re welcome to come in and spend the night if you want?”

“I do not want, thank you.” She drawled sleepily. Her words probably didn't make a lick of sense, but she still tried to wish him goodnight for politeness sake.

“Sleep well.”

“You too. See you tomorrow!”

With another soft metallic gliding noise, the wall closed up again and the foam cover dropped down once the door thudded against the edge of the wall; erasing any evidence of it ever happening.

Once she was sure that Dias was completely out of view, with no chance of him returning in a short time, Tira turned her gaze to the rest of the room’s inhabitants to signal the defeat of her wakefulness.

“Do you mind if I sleep here?”

“No?” Donny answered, still shocked and now, sounded uncertain. She was glad to know that she wasn't the only one questioning the truth of world order and laws after that insane display of space distortion.

“Thank you, alright, you guys can keep talking.”

She leaned to stretch the bag against the wall and found the perfect angle to sleep on her first try. She hugged the throw pillow to her chest and sighed.

“Good night.”

Promptly, she greeted the dark as she closed her eyes and with it, she welcomed sleep.