”I can’t believe it! Sean actually asked you to the gala?” Christine laughed as she put on the finishing touches to our project.
I looked around the room, catching sight of many people looking over in interest. What would Meno do here? “N-not so loud! And is it that rare?”
“He rarely talks to anyone not in his tower.” Jayne shrugged. “Much less ask someone to an event. It seems you’re quite the hot topic, Lady Meno.”
I rubbed at my arm and leaned back in my chair. “P-please, just Meno… I’m here for school, so I’d rather it be kept simple.” That, and hearing ‘Lady’ this and ‘Lady’ that was really starting to get under my skin. It wasn’t so bad the first day, but it was incredibly irritating. It’s like people worshiped the ground I walked on just for being born the right way. And Pyrus isn’t even that big of a country!
Trisha patted me on the shoulder. ”Don’t mind Jayne, girly. She’s just jealous-“
”No I’m not!”
Christine dropped the other parts of the project and leaned forward towards me. “Jayne’s always fantasized about a Prince Charming coming to sweep her off her feet-“
Jayne slapped her hands onto Christine’s mouth and her face turned as red as a neon advertisement. “You promised not to say!”
Christine shoved off the hand and glared at the girl. ”And you promised not to tell anyone I volunteered at Saint’s Cathedral, yet here we are!”
Right before Jayne could try and defend herself, the bell rang to announce the end of class. This time, I actually got to help pick up everything before I headed off.
Torren wasn’t whisked away from my last hour, so it passed in relative peace. I didn’t miss, however, the dozen students making eyes at me. And it was downright impossible to miss the way Sean looked toward me like a love-sick puppy even without the assistance of Insight.
Just as class neared its end, my phone buzzed with text messages. One came from Feras to a group message with Torren and me in it. I could see it thanks to my HUD, but the bruiser had to fish out his phone to look, drawing the ire of Mr. Jarvis. ‘Don’t forget our meetup! Meet me at Golden Apartments after school.’
The other came from the love-sick puppy himself. ‘Meet me at Crystal Aesthetics tonight? For the clothing, ’course. Sooner we get them taken care of, the better!‘
’I’ll be there.‘ Then, because I was too lazy to type it out again, I copied it and pasted it into the other chat.
——
“So, what do you think?” Feras asked, his face hidden below his hoodie’s hood. He sat on the only sofa in the room. He took a long drag from his bottle, the faint scent of something fruity hitting my nose.
I glanced around the rundown apartment our ‘brave leader’ called us to from my vantage point atop the unwashed bed. I pulled my legs up and crossed them. “School sucks?”
”No, about the people? Have you noticed anything yet?” Feras asked, his voice sounding oddly croaky from the sofa. He shifted, his Cues a confliction of comfort and discomfort. The cheap synth leather of the sofa squealed as he squirmed, splitting my eardrums sharply.
”They’re a bunch of classic corpos; assholes to everyone not in their clique.” Torren shrugged, his shoulder clipped the moldy wall he leaned up against. “You couldn’t have picked somewhere better, choom?”
”This place was cheap!” Feras cried out, once again having a weird tick to his voice. Was he high? Or drunk, knowing my luck.
I tried to look under his hood somewhat, but he kept blocking my vision with his positioning and hands. “What’s with the hood?”
”N-nothing.”
Our bruiser snorted sharply. “Sure… c‘mon, m’lady asked you a question.”
“Ow screw off with that nonsense, Torren!” Feras squirmed even harder, seemingly clutching his chest out of habit. Probably to the fox amulet he kept, if I had to guess.
Torren closed his eyes for a moment, causing Insight to pulse helpfully. It wasn’t a danger ping, but more of a subtle warning. One with an ethereal tinge to it. Without hesitation, I flicked on Aetherial Perception to find a small amount of Aetherial energy gathering around the guy. Was he a Magus too?
Several moments passed, and then the gathered energy burst out, turning into a dim glow. So an Adept then… I hadn‘t been around very many of them since getting Aetherial Perception, but it definitely wasn’t the same as what happened when a Magus summoned a sprite.
A ‘rogue’ wind blew from out of nowhere, bringing some level of airflow to the lacking room. It gathered, condensed, and then blasted towards Feras. It whooshed loudly, but barely caused an effect outside knocking his hood off.
Taking the opportunity, I swiveled my attention to Feras’s face. Feras’s fucked up face. Bruises covered the entirety of it, mostly centered around his nose. One even prominently looked like a footprint. “What happened to you?”
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Torren chuckled, seemingly uncaring about the other guy as he crossed his arms over his chest and returned to his neutral position against the wall. “Classic Feras. Finally got into a situation you couldn’t talk your way out of, eh?”
A flush rose to Feras’s cheeks. “Har har. Laugh it up Torrential. At least I don’t look like an overgrown toad.”
”Hey! It’s just the effects of Min-Maxing, you know that!” Torren immediately defended himself. “And at least I don’t look like I got stepped on a dozen times!”
”A dozen and one, I’ll have you know-“
”Boys!” I called, interrupting their hissy fit. “Can we get back on topic?”
“R-right.” Feras sheepishly rubbed his neck, his arm half obscuring his face as he flicked his hood back on. Now that he wasn’t actively blocking my view, I could clearly see into the shadows of his hood for the full extent of the damage. It wasn’t pretty.
”Chek chek.” Torren sighed.
”Nova.” I leaned back against the bed’s headboard, the wood breaking under my weight as I crumpled back into it. “Gah!”
I pulled my way out of the wall, shooting a glare at Feras. “You really should’ve picked somewhere better.”
”It was cheap!”
”So are hourly motels.” I looked around the dilapidated room. There was probably even asbestos everywhere based on the condition of the place. In the bathroom, I heard a rat or something skitter around the pipework. “And they aren’t near as, uh, unfriendly.”
“Well, you guys pitch in next time! It won’t have to be so cheap then.” Feras sighed and looked around the room, his nose curling in disgust.
Has he never done this before? “You’re the leader. It’s your expense, not ours. That’s why the masterminds usually get double the cut.”
Feras tossed his hands up. “Fine! Next time we’ll go somewhere better… anyway, you guys notice anything related to the investigation?”
”There seems to be a ton of malice and hatred everywhere.” I said.
”Welcome to school?” Torren shrugged. “That’s how most of them are. Add in a fair dose of horndogs too though.”
I guess? Still, it seemed a bit… over the top? Surely it wasn’t this bad everywhere else. Hell, I thought someone might even shank me after Tristen talked to me. “Maybe.”
”Okay, what do you think of the targets?”
Torren shook his girthy head. “I’ve been playing other games. Haven’t interacted with anyone except Claire. She seems overly nice.”
Yeah, because she’s hard into you dipwad. How did he not notice something so obvious? “Uh, Claire seemed to move on pretty quick from her best friend… Not exactly a nail in the coffin, but still weird.”
”Thank you! See Torren? Take some tips and stop playing around.” Feras sighed. “Yeah, I noticed the same thing. From what I’ve seen of her, she also seems to hate most people.”
I shared a look with our bruiser. She seemed quite chummy with him. ”Sean seemed weird. I’ve got some things set up to better take a look, but for now, he just seems like a cocky elitist? Could be our guy if Quora rubbed him the wrong way. He definitely has the means.”
Feras nodded and wrote something down on his phone. “Yeah, I thought mostly the same too.”
”Really? Just looks like classic daddy issues to me. Daddy doesn’t love him, so he acts out.” Torren suggested.
He could be right, but then that might show he did it even more. Maybe this time the guy escalated to killing almost a dozen people and making them vanish all for Daddy Sentinel’s attention? “Might be more motive.”
”What about that Tristen guy though?” Feras suggested. “Seemed like a total chrome dome.”
I guess it could've been him. Still, he seemed kinda... dim? “He definitely seemed to have a small cult of fangirls following him. Maybe one of them did it? Make the competition vanish and all of that?”
Torren leaned back against the door. The wood creaked, but didn’t snap apart like it did under my much lower weight. “Are we sure it's even a student? Principal Bously seems very suspicious.”
”That guy’s just a brown noser. Maybe one of the teachers though? The gym teacher in particular seems to hate low-class students.” Feras suggested.
”Haven’t met him yet. The principal does seem likely… I have plans to get some info out of him, but it’ll have to wait a few more days.” Hopefully, Inquisitor Lighstrum could get me something good to use on the principal. He did promise something from the Blue Crusade’s techies.
Our fearlessly bruised leader rubbed a hand across his face, groaning slightly. “Why’d it have to be the face… anyway, I’ve got an in with a group that might know something too.”
“The gym coach wants me to join a sports team, particularly baseball or some kind of fighting one…” Torren shrugged. “I’ll ask around the jocks.”
“Preem…”
”Is that it then?” I asked as I checked the time on my HUD.
“Why? Got somewhere else to be?” Feras shot me a look as he took a large drink from his bottle.
I smiled at him, pulling my best innocent look. “Who? Me? As a matter of fact, I do! A date, even-“
“Ugh!” Feras grasped at his throat, his face turning red as he choked on his drink. He entered a coughing fit, only helped by Torren as the big guy hurriedly slammed his massive paw into the grifter’s back over and over.
Feras’s face cleared up, turning bright red once more as Torren absolutely pounded the hell out of his back. “S-stop! I’m- gah! I’m good!”
Torren looked at me, smirked, and then whacked the guy one last time. “Just had to make sure.”
“S-so, a date?” Feras asked, his face crumpled as he tried to breathe and calm himself down from his rough beating.
I looked down at my phone, the message from Sean popping up on it. “Kind of. I’m heading to get clothes with Sean. He invited me to an art gala this weekend. Figured it would be a good time to get to know him better and maybe find some clues. All part of my master plan. You should try it sometime?”
Feras frowned, confusion evident as his eyebrows creased. “Dating guys?”
”What? No? I mean having a master plan?”
”Pff!” Torren burst into laughter, slapping our ‘great’ leader on the back.
“Hey! Watch it, you oaf! Can’t you see us civilized folk trying to have a conversation?”
Torren stared him dead in the eye. “Low blow, man. Low blow.”
“Yeah, I realized as I said it… anyway, your master plan.” Feras quickly jumped to a different subject. “‘Finding’ some expensive art would be nice too?”
“You coming with?” I asked Torren, not so subtly shifting the topic, as I popped off the bed and headed for the door.
He shrugged and opened the door for me. “I am your guard…”
”Stay safe, you two. Don’t trust him too-“
Torren shut the door behind him, cutting Feras off with a slight smirk on my face. That smirk faded as I stepped out into the filthy halls of Golden Apartments. If anything was golden about the place, it was the piss stains all over the walls. The entire place reeked to the heavens, making me wish I’d packed my mask. Maybe I should carry it around?
I could think about it later. We left the building. I gave Torren the address and then headed for my bike, cleaning myself up slightly as I got on and headed for the place Sean sent in his text: Crystal Aesthetics.