The bell rang for lunch. Rin jerked awake as though hit in the head by an unpleasant alarm clock. The sounds of excited chatter filled her ears. She leaned back in her chair as her classmates filed past her out of the class.

Rin hardly ever fell asleep in class. She attributed the excessive drowsiness to the lack of sleep accumulated over the past week. As she began her solitary journey to the cafeteria, she heard someone call her name.

“Elziel!”

Rin sighed, increasing her pace. She had given him the slip in the morning, but he was clearly waiting to ambush her during lunch hour.

“Stop right there, Elziel!”

A scrawny boy wedged his way through a group of students hanging around in the corridor. His hair stood out in all directions, and he carried a hefty sling bag almost twice his width.

“You people owe me.” He caught up with her, pushing his glasses that were falling off his nose. “Three times! I provided you with information three times! Nobody works for free!”

Ryan Joo tailed her as closely as he could all the way to the lunch queue, his large glasses slipping off his nose while giving her a lecture about the importance of timely payments and the possibility of charging interests for future transactions.

A second year from the IT division by day, his unassuming, studious facade successfully concealed the fact that he was an information broker by night. None of his classmates knew he ran a stall in the infamous black market during the weekends, trading currencies for pieces of information.

He had two principles. First: information was a priceless tool. Second: no bargaining.

Ryan was very confident in his abilities – and Rin had to admit, he was good at what he did. The problem was, he was a very persistent debt collector.

The lunch queue moved like an exhausted tortoise.

Unable to stand with Ryan hissing down her neck, she snapped around and growled, “Two out of three times, I am not the one asking for information. Ask the people who hired you.”

Ryan made an irritated noise. “I barely see them more than twice a month. Aren’t you three a team?”

“That doesn’t mean the remaining member is liable,” Rin said, equally annoyed. “Look, they’ll be back soon. Just wait a little longer.”

To Rin’s absolute distaste, Ryan resolutely stuck to her as she made her way toward an empty table with her lunch. It wasn’t that she disliked him. It was just that she simply disliked being forced to stay in the company of someone she shared almost nothing in common with.

Ryan retrieved his laptop from his bag and began working on his assignment over lunch while mumbling jargon that were foreign to her ears. Once in a while, he would direct a question at her, and she didn’t understand half the things he said. She sat in her chair, picking at her cold chicken while contemplating how to get rid of this uninvited company when -

“Rin!”

A clear voice rose above the noise of the crowd, loud enough to turn heads.

There was a flash of strawberry blonde while everyone else made way. Rin ducked her head as eyes trained on her. A familiar scent of rosemary and a pair of arms flung themselves around her neck as thick, wavy pink hair tumbled over her shoulders. Maybelle nuzzled her with affection.

Rin debated if being dragged into unwanted attention by this flashy greeting was any better than enduring lunch with Ryan.

Maybelle Catherine Ilsa Lent was part-royalty, a second year in the administrative division, and Edwin’s girlfriend. Glowing skin, blue eyes, and wavy hair that reached her slender waist, she was the center of attention wherever she went. Her mother was the king’s cousin, and her father was the Duke of Creave. Her elegant self was reserved for formal occasions, prim and proper as the refined lady she was brought up as. Her true self loved feeding Rin and had zero mercy toward her boyfriend.

As confident as she was, there was one thing she was insecure about: her height, which was slightly over five feet.

“Hello, Mr. Joo,” she said cheerily. “Rare to see you in Rin’s company.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Hello, Lady Lent,” Ryan said stiffly.

Maybelle ignored the colorless greeting as she slid into the seat beside Rin and placed a lunch box in front of them. Rows of beautifully-made egg rolls and sandwiches filled the box. “I cannot decide which you like more. The eggs? The sandwiches? Both? Just take them all!” She beamed at Rin.

Rin ate a piece of Maybelle’s egg rolls. Pleasantly soft with just the right tinge of salt and pepper, clearly putting their school’s lunch to shame.

“You must’ve been busy. I overheard my mother saying that there’s an exponential increase in the number of people affected by Seeds. The Council office is up to the neck with reports,” Maybelle said, observing Rin fondly as she plucked a sandwich from the collection.

“It seems. They’re putting up more jobs too.” She took a bite of the sandwich – tuna and mayonnaise with a refreshing burst of cucumbers and tomatoes. Good.

“That also means I’ll see less of the three of you.” Maybelle sighed.

Every year, the Council held special exams to recruit high school students into their accelerated courses. These students were split into divisions depending on abilities and personal interests. The divisions included Hunting, IT, administration, research, and health studies. Upon completion of their studies, they would be assimilated into appropriate Council services.

Rin was a second-year student in the Hunting division, while Kazu and Edwin were in their third year. Being childhood friends, the trio were also teammates, working under the same mentor. Every completed assignment earned them points, and for the second year in a row, they were at the top of the leaderboard. Rin personally had no interest in ranks, but Edwin, with competitive fire in his veins, had no intention of giving up their spot to anyone else.

“Are you not eating?” Rin asked.

Maybelle shook her head, fiddling with the charms on Rin’s bracelet. “I have. My morning classes ended earlier today.”

She sat up straight and grabbed Rin’s arm. “I just recalled something –”

Unease assaulted Rin. Whatever it was, if it had Maybelle’s eyes glowing in excitement, it couldn’t be good.

“Have you heard of a shop that grants your wishes for hearts?”

Ryan stopped tapping on his keyboard to stare at her.

“The requester pays an equivalent price in hearts. If he is unable to pay up, a guardian of the underworld will appear and drag him into the unknown, and no one hears of him again.”

Maybelle had an undying interest in the supernatural and a knack for finding strange stories that defied laws of logic and magic from the net – which she kept a collection of. The problem was, more than half the stories were made up. The last time she led them on one of her excursions to uncover the truth, she made them hide in an alley the entire winter night to catch a “midnight bus to nowhere.” Rin remembered dozing off on her feet and waking up at sunrise, the tips of her fingers blue and not a single vehicle in sight.

If Edwin had been there, he would’ve put his foot down, and they would both start fighting, while Kazu would try to be the peacemaker.

The problem was, they weren’t there, and Rin had no idea how to react.

If such a shop did exist, Rin was ready to bet her entire week of lunch boxes that it was the doing of a Seed.

It was Ryan who spoke up.

“I’ve heard of it. Rumors have been circulating about a shop that grants wishes in return for hearts.”

That was unexpected.

“Oh?” Maybelle sat up straight. “Do enlighten us, Mr. Joo.”

“There are speculations of its possible locations. One of which is Osmanthus Street, which made it to the top ten of the Monthly Hottest Attractions of Ilias. A year ago, nobody had heard of it. The street was falling apart, barely able to sustain its business. All of a sudden, it gained traction and exploded in popularity.”

Maybelle nodded in acknowledgment. “I see. What about the other locations?”

“There’s also the -” Ryan clamped up, narrowing his eyes at Maybelle. His glasses slid off his nose again. “You’re tricking me into spilling information, aren’t you, Lady Lent? I was planning to sell it after getting enough to put things together. I would not impart my hard work free of charge!”

He stood up, insulted. Slamming his laptop shut, he gathered his belongings and left his half-eaten lunch in a huff.

“Wait, Mr. Joo,” Maybelle held out a hand. “If you’re talking about payment, I could always -”

“He’s not talking about money,” Rin said. “For people like him, they want something else.”

“Oh, that,” Maybelle said. “Well, it’s all right. I’ll glean the information myself.”

Rin was amazed at how she perked up almost immediately. But what Maybelle said stirred up a piece of memory. She was strangely reminded of what Ross said in between the periods of lucidity and insanity.

“Do you know there’s a shop that sells you everything you want as long as you pay?”

“And what did you pay them?”

“Everything.”

If that was the shop that Maybelle meant, there was indeed a possibility that Ross traded his heart away.

A shadow loomed over Rin’s plate, and she raised her head.

Rayve stood next to the table, looking like he had swallowed a mouthful of lemon gummies. Hayle lurked behind him, waving over his shoulder.

Being nice as she was, Maybelle responded in kind.

Rayve ignored both of them. “I just thought you might want to know. The Council vehicle carrying the two Masters last night met an accident – or that’s what they were planning to tell the public.”

Rin’s fork slid from her fingers and hit her plate with a twang.

Maybelle glanced back and forth between Rayve and Rin, curious.

“From what we heard, the vehicle was hijacked. When reinforcements arrived at the scene, all they found was smoking wreckage.”

“What about those two?”

Hayle shook his head. “We don’t have conclusive information, but there was no news of survivors…”

“Who did it?” It was a rhetorical question – not one that Rin expected answers.

Rayve shrugged, turning to leave. “Beats us. This piece of news is classified, mind you. We aren’t supposed to tell anyone about it, but Hayle insisted you would want to know.”

The news robbed Rin of her appetite.