I saw a couple of two people as I looked for soone from Jas' group. But when I saw that they were a couple who were hugging, I sighed and turned to another group. Then I whispered to Adrian.
"Look through the groups, look for soone who looks like they're following soone. Look for one of your friends if you can find one. Basically, we're trying to find soone from Jas' group."
"All right, Alice!"
Adrian quickly got into the mood and started looking everywhere, even faster than .
For a while we looked at every group we passed and every group we saw, finding nothing. After a few minutes, we ca to a dormitory building and Adrian suddenly paused.
"This is the building. She must have gone upstairs already."
"Then we're going upstairs too. Let et your friend."
Adrian nodded obediently and we quickly entered the building.
We didn't take the elevator. We went up the stairs and I looked in every corridor.
There was no one on the first floor. Neither was the second floor, nor the third.
I rolled my eyes and sighed deeply.
Amateurs...
"It was on this floor, that room."
Adrian walked quickly in front of the room, but he didn't knock. He waited until I arrived.
After a few seconds, the door opened.
"Hah, Ris-"
Adrian had spoken excitedly, yet he choked on his words.
There was not the purple-haired girl he had described to . Instead, there was a huge student standing in front of us, almost two ters tall.
The only thing that identified him as a student was the card on his badge. Anyone who saw him without recognizing him could swear he was not a student.
"You weren't here before, are you one of the people who couldn't co?"
The giant of a student said nothing and simply stepped aside to let us pass.
"Thanks?"
Adrian said with a little doubt in his voice and went inside.
One side is amateur, the other side is stupid.
With a sigh, I went inside too. After we went in, the giant behind us closed the door but didn't move forward with us. He continued to stand in front of the door and when he realized I was looking at him, he gestured toward the living room.
Adrian made a face as if he realized sothing was wrong. Nevertheless, he walked confidently into the living room and I followed behind him and finally went in.
There were six people standing in the room and only one person sitting on the sofa. This person had light brown hair and gray eyes. The cup in his hand was steaming, probably tea. His outfit had an order and harmony that was not easily seen. There was not a single wrinkle on him, he looked like he was wearing a suit without a jacket.
The boy took a sip from the cup in his hand, then turned to Adrian with a slight, well-adjusted smile on his face.
"You're here at last. You kept waiting so long, Adrian."
With those words, his eyes turned back to . His expression didn't change a bit, but he seed to be thinking.
"You brought a friend with you, how nice. Alice, if I'm not mistaken, right?"
Does he know my na...? The whole award ceremony thing after the preliminaries apparently made more stand out than I thought... I drew a lot of attention to myself because of that stupid thing.
"Yeah, you must be Jas."
Jas made a friendly face and gestured to the seat opposite him.
"You seem a lot friendlier than your friend next to you. Why don't you tell him to stay put?"
I only had to look at my side once to realize what he was saying. I didn't even need to look. It was impossible not to feel the waves of mana emanating from Adrian's body.
"Do as he says, Adrian. Calm down and sit down."
Adrian didn't say anything but sat with , clenching his fist. Jas took another sip from his cup without breaking his posture in the slightest.
"Would you like sothing to drink?"
"No."
"Co on, it's not like I'm going to poison you."
"We had a drink before we ca, so there's no need."
Jas handed his cup to a student standing next to him.
"It's a sha, I've already had it made."
The student took the cup without a word and left the room. Jas leaned back with his hands clasped in front of him. Adrian spoke at this mont.
"Where are the owners of the room?"
"It's right in front of you, this room belongs to now."
Adrian started to move, but I put my hand in front of him and stopped him, so he backed off again.
"The forr owners, where are they?"
"Ah? You an them... The girl Risa is sleeping in the other room, don't worry."
"Sleeping?"
"Yes, she has a bump on her head, unfortunately. She seed to have a headache, so we moved her to the other room. She's resting now."
Before Adrian could do anything, I interjected myself.
"Are you giving us one last chance?"
Jas opened his clasped hands and spoke excitedly.
"Yes! You really are easy to communicate with, unlike so people."
It's not so bad, even though he's an amateur. He's putting us in a place we can't escape from and asking us to reconsider his offer.
"And what makes you think we won't betray you?"
"A contract, of course. After all, I have a lot of 'friends'. They wouldn't refuse if I asked one of them to exercise their right to a monthly contract, would they, friends?"
Each of the students around us nodded at the sa ti. This gave Jas a satisfied look on his face.
"So, what do you think, are you going to reject my offer here and beco my target right now... or are you going to throw away the last chance I've given you?"
Adrian responded to Jas' offer with a huff, not giving a chance to speak.
"We decline."
"Hmm? I must have misheard."
Adrian continued without waiting for again.
"Unfortunately, you heard right."
Jas sighed slightly, disappointnt on his face.
"It's a pity, I could have made good use of you, but now... you will suffer the sa fate as the others."
Adrian took up a position ready to pounce at any mont, and the others, realizing this, prepared themselves.
"The others?"
Jas smiled.
"Are you sure you want to know? That pure heart of yours that wants to help everyone might not stand for it."
As soon as Jas finished, Adrian stopped holding back. He leaped out of his seat and jumped at Jas. He moved so suddenly and quickly that several objects in the room were thrown out of their places. But Jas didn't move a muscle, just stood where he was and smiled. Just then a moan sounded from next to us, it was full of pain and Adrian paused as he heard it.
There were only a few inches between Jas' neck and his hand.
"Our friend Risa's head seems to be throbbing even more, look at her voice coming all the way here."
Adrian's eyes widened. And not because of surprise, the veins in his eyes were almost visible. It was easy to see that he was angry. His face was uncharacteristically ugly.
He turned slightly toward . He narrowed his eyes as if pleading, silently shouting 'do sothing'.
"I have a hostage, Adrian Caleo, it's a real weakness to think about people who have nothing to do with you. And now you are losing to because of that weakness. I don't need to lift a finger to take you down, even a few random students passing by will do. Even if you beat , soone else will take over my group and they will attack those who are closer to you. Besides, your dear 'friend' that you want to save is in the next room, can you beat before she gets hurt? We don't want that to happen, do we?"
Jas gave a small gesture from his seat. Adrian turned around, there was soone behind him, but he paused at Jas' words.
"Don't move, you'll be responsible for the consequences."
Adrian didn't dare move and continued to stare at . He made silent cries for help, he felt so helpless that I could feel his desperation from where I was.
I still didn't help him, I just watched him. I didn't reach out my hand or change my expression. For a mont, a very powerful wave of mana emanated from Adrian's body. It was really strong, so strong that a few students lost their balance just because of it, but that was it.
The mana wave soon disappeared. Adrian looked at his hands in confusion, as if he could not control his own body. Then his eyes slowly closed and he collapsed to the ground.
The student who had just stood behind him had a syringe in his hand.
"Now that we've settled this... What do you think, Alice Liate?"
I remained silent and slowly looked at Adrian's body.
He's really stupid... if it wasn't for one hostage, he could probably take down everyone in the room, including , but he hesitates for a reason like this.
He has one of the highest potentials anyone can have in this day and age, but one of the greatest weaknesses anyone can have.
I almost feel sorry for him.
"Alice, your expression hasn't changed at all during all this. You must be soone like , you must know the benefits of working together."
"Sorry, I don't like working with others."
"You may not like it. The important question is... do you have a choice?"
"Of course, I do."
Jas paused. Then his eyebrows raised in surprise, he looked curious.
"Interesting... very interesting. What is this choice? How do you plan to get out of this situation you're in? What miraculous power can save you?"
"Save ? Why would I need to be saved? You're a bunch of amateurs, you think you've got surrounded."
I kept a straight face, not even a smile. The smug look on Jas's face changed instantly.
"Let guess, you've been trying to curry favor with your noble parents since you were little, haven't you? You've probably practiced every day. I guess you've even threatened your stepsiblings. And you've done your best to keep them down. But have you ever thought about what real nobles do?"
Jas said nothing, just looked at coldly, his eyes narrowed.
"You think you understand so things. You think you've seen all the dirty things in your lifeti. But what intrigues, what assassinations, what spies, what slander, what lies beneath the surface of that iceberg that you think you understand all about... Do you know what's going on underneath the water?"
Jas's face turned even uglier.
"You're trying to buy ti. Who did you call? The authorities?"
He finally started to get on my nerves. I frowned, narrowed my eyes, and grimaced as I looked directly into his eyes.
"Why would I try to buy ti in front of a bunch of amateurs?"
I raised my hands, brought them to my neck and spoke coldly.
"Let show you what I'm talking about."
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