The man, who is standing in the only exit of the room (without counting the windows) has a weird aura, in some way. Maybe it is the creepy smile on his face, the way he moves like a ghost while the long tunic covers his legs.
My hand is on Bloodless and I put myself between Leiva and him.
"Who are you?" I ask him.
"We have a little hero here? Oh, believe me, darling. You might want to stay out of this."
Yeah, I am not enjoying being called darling. Sounds so… condescending.
"You and your friends are still in the way." I comment.
My ears twitch towards the side. I hear something, like a commotion, or something being hit. Yet I seem to be the only one that is noticing it.
"Well… we cannot let you leave, you might alert the guards of what is happening here."
"Really, you entered a school and are chasing a teacher. If anything, you are asking to get caught."
"You misunderstand this, little lady. You really don't know who you are dealing with."
This is where he starts with a long monologue about his group, doesn't he?
"I made a nice group of people enter the school already, they are dealing with the other teachers and staff to make sure no one speaks before we leave. No one will do anything stupid. They must be rounding everyone up in the central patio of this school." Then he moves his gaze towards Leiva. "So, are you coming with us or we need to get more convincing?"
"Please, don't hurt anyone! I… I am going!" Laive says and starts walking.
She starts walking towards them.
"Now, hold on." I say. "So, are you telling me, you can just walk into this building, put everyone in a hostage situation, and nothing will come out of it."
I know what situation I am in, but Karina has not given me any warning so far about their spirit. I look at her and she just… shrugs with a smug smile? I guess she means this is easy for me.
"Seems our little guest doesn't understand the situation. Guys, take care of her."
The two guys behind him move forward, getting closer to me.
"You two should be careful, those two desks look dangerous." I point to the two desks that were closer to the front.
Karina launches them towards both of them, with the force of a boulder that reaches terminal velocity, squarely hitting their heads. They are knocked out cold immediately.
The man looks behind him when his henchmen offer no resistance from the hit, and their bodies get splattered against the blackboard for a few seconds before they fall to the ground, completely unconscious.
Leiva gasps, but the man stares back with the same hard to read expression and weird smile.
"I said they looked dangerous." I answer.
"I should not let you take credit for my work." Karina comments.
"Who are you?" He asks.
"Heh, you don't want to identify yourself and now you are asking for my name?" I ask him. "I don't feel like giving it to you."
"Tche… you clearly are blind if you don't know who I am. I am the youngest son of the Alberta clan, Vermis!"
Ah, the Alberta clan. I know them, I remember them from my game. Known for being ruthless, dangerous, and willing to do anything to achieve any goal the family sets for itself. It is basically a criminal family mafia with deep ties and control on different cities and towns in both the Federation and the Kingdom.
What the hell are they doing here? I look back at Leiva, who is still holding the wand and seems ready to zap it at the slightest scare.
They are dangerous. But I just fought against a lich, defeated it, and I am done with fightinfg dfor the day.
"Okay… the name is Amber."
"Doesn't ring a bell…" Vermis tries to remember my name, placing his hand on his chin.
Many of my exploits went unnoticed by the general public. The vast majority occurred in distant lands or I took my reward and left without taking advantage of the social status Amber was winning each day.
I am not surprised he doesn't know my name. Only some groups knew about it.
I did a good job also in the past to pass innavertedly by their territory. I do remember screwing a bit with this group to get some money and defeating some of their important members. All in game, obviously, but I often had to deal with their stuff. I never tried to take them out, though.
"Well, nice to meet you, but now Miss Leiva and I are leaving." I smile at him like this is not a dangerous situation. "Leiva?"
I look at her. She is confused, looking at me and then back at Vermis.
"Okay I will leave this clear." He extends one of his hands towards us. "Leiva come with me, or I will order my men to start killing the other teachers. If you have any doubt, just look through the window."
My expression changes to one of actual concern now. If that is true, then we are getting other people in danger.
I look at Karina.
"He is not lying… There are a bunch of people on the patio. And probably they are the the teachers and whoever this guy called for."
Leiva moves to the window and looks outside. I follow her.
She gasps with both hands on her mouth.
In one corner I can see a group of people, most likely the teachers, of different species sitting and being guarded by a small group of people with weapons.
There were two people beaten. A man and a woman.
"There is another soul, by the way, on that wall by that door." She points to the wall closest to the group of teachers.
"Oh, no! That is the weapon teacher and the mage!" Leiva gasps.
"They should have complied. I guess my boys needed to rough them up to make sure they don't try to play hero." Vermis continued. "So, now you two…"
"You know, I got tired of this game." I interrupt him and turn around, noticing how close he got to us. "If anyone else gets injured you are not leaving this place alive. I already had to deal with too much shit today to have to deal with an impromptu villain like you."
There is a moment of silence. He is stunned, staring at me like I just revealed something he could not believe and stole his voice.
Then he stretches his arm towards me.
Figures.