Chapter 12: Trouble

[Note: warning, explicit language in future chapters as well]

As Teo was looking at who caused  this incident to happen he was suddenly grabbed and lifted up in the air

"Bastard! what the hell do you think you are doing!?"

Teo was grabbed by the collar of his shirt and was lifted 2 feet above the ground. His gaze quickly turned to the person grabbing him.

He recognized this tall burly man, it was Nathan Ashbringer

Other people that sat in the same table all stood up, some of them had food all over their clothes.

They were all clearly pissed.

Looking at all of them, Teo discovered that they were all from the Silver Sword Association

When Nathan looked towards Teo's face, he instantly recognize him.

"Its you!" Nathan was even more pissed. He recalled what happened yesterday. He gave this little punk a lot of face in public by acting very polite and friendly and he was rejected in front of everyone, belittling him. Although he was glad he did not succeed in inviting Teo, he still felt like his face was slapped by being rejected by this trash and even now he dared to mess with him and his faction members in front of all these people. He felt humiliated which turned into rage!

"MOTHER FUCKER!!"

His fist clenched hard and was about to punch this punk ass bastard

At the corner of his eye, he saw a silver flash coming towards him

-Swish-

A kitchen knife flew by, barely missing his face, a red line appeared along his cheeks. If the cut was any deeper and blood would've flowed. The knife ended up being embedded into the wall.

His fist frozen mid punch and he turned his head

"LET GO OF HIM NATHAN!" a loud powerful voice descended towards the kitchen entrance

"Gina? What the fuck? Stay out of this!" Nathan replied

Gina quickly dashed forward towards Nathan and threw her own punch

Nathan quickly moved his hand that was holding Teo and used him as a shield

The expected punch did not appear, Nathan looked around and Gina's figure vanished

Nathan quickly let go of Teo and blocked above his head.

A leg that suddenly appeared above his head was quickly blocked.

Gina retracted her leg and moved to the side of Teo.

"Nathan! Gina! no fighting in here" The old man behind the bar counter said. It was not loud but it was loud enough for the two to hear.

Both Gina and Nathan then dropped their stances

"Gina why are you protecting him? This bastard dares to disrespect our Silver Sword Association. He needs to pay"

"Your Silver Shit Association? Fuck that! You mess with him, you mess with Me and Rowen!"

Nathan's face twitched 'Whats his connection with Gina and Rowen?' then he suddenly remembered when that friend of Teo said that Teo had a connection with the Martial faction

Teo who was shocked by everything that happened was trying to understand the situation. Everything happened so fast, he saw Gina was dashing in then he just blinked and she suddenly vanished and next thing he knew Gina was attacked from above then quickly pulled him behind her.

'My sister and Gina? they know each other?' he thought to himself

"You think we are scared of your Martial faction!?" Nathan roared

"Just try! don't tell me you forgot who kicked your ass a few weeks ago in the rankings"

Gina was domineering, she looked gentle normally but this was the first time Teo saw her like that.

The old man behind the counter looked stern and said "You, get out of here! You are causing a disturbance" as he pointed at Nathan and his members

"And you too! back to work, clean that mess up. I'm deducting this from your pay" pointing towards Teo and Gina

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

"We'll meet again. This is not over." Nathan said solemnly and they quickly left

The crowd that were watching started whispering again. At the start of the conflict they all became silent and once the Silver Sword members left, the noise and chatter grew even louder than before. Most of them talking about the incident that just happened

Gina walked towards the wall and pulled out the kitchen knife and returned it in the sheath that was placed near her lower back.

They both cleaned up the mess, and returned to the kitchen.

....

Back at the kitchen

"Senior Sister Gina, thank you for what you did back then"

"No sweat, don't mention it"

Teo had a look as if he was deliberating of asking her a question. Gina guessed what Teo was going to ask

"Your sister and I are friends. We are also both from the Martial faction"

"Oh..so that's why I got this job so easily"

Gina smiled. It was as if the domineering version of Gina never had existed before.

"That's right, your sister asked me to do you a favor. We have been best friends since first year. This is why you should call me 'Big Sister' instead of 'Senior Sister' "  she laughed

Teo awkwardly smiled. It wasn't that he didn't like to call Gina that, it was just weird for him. They weren't that close yet

"....Big Sister Gina.." Teo meekly said

Hearing Teo say those words Gina gave him a big hug "Ha Ha you finally said it"

Teo was uncomfortable, he has never been hugged by anyone besides his family before

.....

Their shift ended and were just going out of the restaurant from the back

"You should really consider joining the Martial faction. I know Rowen didn't ask you to join because she respects your decision, but with the trouble you have right now, it will be hard to get by"

She looked at him intently, trying to convince him to join. Her face was so serious, but it was not a fierce look. It was like when a little girl was expecting something from her parents, it was quite cute.

"Even though the academy tries to protect first and second year students from being bullied, there is an exception and that is when they are provoked, you should really come join us"

"I'll think about it Big Sister Gina"

Gina wanted to walk Teo home but Teo insisted that he was alright by himself

He went straight to the library and after an hour he exited the library

On his way home, he was smiling with glee. It was as if the incident from today didn't happen. On the outside he seemed fearless, walking alone without a care in the world. He even had a stupid smile on his face.

Suddenly a 5 figures stepped forward blocking his path, as he was still looking into his book he did not notice them and eventually bumped into them, his butt falling flat on the ground.

He looked up and saw Nathan and 4 other Silver Sword members. He quickly got up and turned around, but behind him was 4 other Silver Sword members.

"Hey there kid, I hope you didn't forget about me. Lets go somewhere and talk about our differences what do you say?" Nathan disdainfully smiled

It was not a situation where he could reject

....

The dragged into a very remote location, with no people.

Teo recognized two of the members as the bulky and tall 3rd and 2nd year students that invited Windle a little over a month ago

The rest were 3 first years, all of them were familiar faces within his elementalist class, and the remaining 3 members were from different years ranging 2 to 4

A first year elementalist shoved Teo so hard that he fell on the ground

A voice rang out in Teo's mind

"Kid, just stay on the ground and cover your head"