"How costly is this jacket?" Ana asked Toti who had agreed to offer his spare clothes and cover the living expenses, in exchange for Ana to keep his secret.
"Ah, do not worry about it. My family is rich." Toti smiled like a rich boy.
Ana didn't ask further since he didn't really care as long as he got what he needed.
"But who's this girl that's calling you?"
Ana and Toti were on their way to meet up with the candidate matriarch, who had earlier offered a contract to Toti which Toti had apparently rejected, since she had called Toti to meet up without delay. The night was still young and Ana wanted to look around the campus a little so he offered to accompany Toti and Toti happily accepted saying that he'd feel more comfortable if Ana came with him.
"Her name is Klara Orlov, and she is a first year candidate matriarch." Toti sighed as he recalled Klara. "She is a little unruly but I think she's a good girl."
"Hm.." Ana listened carefully. "How many guys does she have contracted under her?"
"If I recall correctly, I think for now she only has one pawn." Toti looked at the location Klara had sent him in his smartwatch while he answered.
"Just one?" Ana wondered if the Matriarchs were careful in choosing their hunters.
"Yeah, but he's a D-rank like you, so we should be careful and not piss her off."
Ana felt a little shiver run down his spine when Toti mentioned the pawn's rank, but if somebody asked Ana about it, he would never admit it.
"If she already has a D-rank then why did she choose-" Ana was about to ask Toti another question but inadvertently looked at the new costly jacket he was wearing while doing so and figured out the answer.
"Hm?" Toti, in turn, looked at Ana who had abruptly stopped speaking.
"Oh no, it's nothing." Ana decided not to judge a person so superfluously without atleast seeing them once.
Ding Ding
Toti's smart watch rang informing him that they had reached the location.
"Looks like she's here." Toti turned off his smartwatch alert, before saying, "Let's go in, Ana."
The place they had arrived at was actually the gymnasium which the hunters used for their physical training, so it was like an athlete's playground in the morning and a haven for delinquents at night but Ana had no way of knowing that.
As soon as they entered the enormous gymnasium, they were greeted with darkness and at the opposite end of the entrance, they saw one of the lights turned on and under it a couple students relaxing by smoking, but the thing that struck Ana was that among those students, there were only three females and only they were the ones who were smoking.
"Aren't they afraid the teachers will catch them?" Ana being a former delinquent himself knew that anarchists never care about the rules but he still, seemingly trying to put on a pretentious innocence, commented, "Plus smoking is bad for their health."
Ana honestly disliked smoking alot but Toti's next answer was not something that he could have expected.
"Some teachers do discourage smoking inside the gymnasium but most really don't care." Toti started to walk towards them nonchalantly. "And it's a herbal cigarette that boosts a Matriarch's mana so you'll often find the girls around here smoking."
Ana thought the developers of this game, a person who was most likely a rebellious woman, just had a few screws loose in their heads.
"Oh, Toti boy. You've come." Among the three girls present, the girl in the middle who was squatting down on the ground and holding her long 'herbal cigarette' called out Toti's name.
She had shoulder length black hair, a medium build, and fair skin, and Ana judged her looks to be a little better than average, nowhere close to Eva ofcourse.
"Toti, long time no see." The girl on the right of the black haired girl spoke as she kept smoking. "Where do you stay all the time? I rarely see you."
This second girl, who had short blonde hair, was slim and decent in height, and she was wearing ear piercings that solidified her delinquent aura.
"Who's this cutie, Toti? Is he your new friend?" The third girl, who was quite busty but short, swayed her long brown hair on seeing Ana.
Except for the three girls, Ana saw that there were six other guys, one behind the first, two behind the blonde, and three behind the bust.
"Ah, good evening, My Ladies." Toti quickly bowed before getting up and introduced Ana to them. "Let me introduce my new roommate to you."
With both his hands, Toti gestured towards Ana, as if Ana was an auction item for sale. "This young hunter is a new transfer student who has just joined toda-"
But before Toti could finish describing the value of the auction item, the guy behind the black haired girl spoke up.
"What kind of rude behaviour is this?!" He shouted while glaring at Ana.
Ana's face twitched a little at the sudden aggressiveness but he kept his calm.
"You!" The guy who was wearing spectacles like a punchable nerd spoke and continued to piss off Ana further. "You indecent illiterate freshman! How dare you not bow in the presence of My Madam?"
"Ah!" Toti tried to immediately extinguish the fires that this contracted hunter, who was a freshman himself by the way, was spewing on Ana's impatient composure. "Forgive him, he's still new-"
"I'll behead you right now!" But he didn't listen to Toti, and instead took out his sharp sword from its sheath and pointed it at Ana.
"Shut up, Klein." The girl in the middle puffed on her smoking apparatus, increasing the fire a little, before standing up and straight up putting the burning end of her cigarette on her insolent subordinate's skin. "Didn't I warn you before not to speak without my permission?"
The nerd subordinate immediately dropped his sword before falling to the ground on his knees and begged for mercy.
"I'm sorry Madam! Please forgive-"
The black haired girl kicked him in the face while he was grovelling.
"So annoying. You really can't expect an animal to understand language." She put her shoe on his head and pushed his head down to the floor.
"Klara, I feel pity for him…" The busty girl looked at the fallen hunter. "You should forgive him and let him become my ashtray instead."
"You already have three, Vera." The blonde girl laughed. "So you should be the one to give her an ashtray."
"Ehhh~~, but I need more~~, Olga…"
The side duo giggled in comedy but the middle girl put an end to it, as she turned her long black eye lashes towards Ana.
"Now, where were we?" She smiled sinisterly as she appraised Ana.
"Yes, let me continue where I left off -" Toti bowed his head again but before he could raise his head back up, a guy, who was standing behind the blonde girl named Olga, came and held the back of Toti's neck, preventing him from standing up straight.
"Stay like this, my Madam hasn't given you permission to raise your head yet."
Ana, being a former thug himself, was quite accustomed to these things, except the fact that the genders were swapped this time around, so he really didn't try to interfere with what was happening to Toti; quite frankly because he didn't care about his roommate but also because he wanted to see Toti get humiliated a little since Ana couldn't hurt him for cursing his eyes earlier.
"So, who are you, smart boy?" Klara asked Ana for an introduction.
Two other guys from behind Vera came to hold down Ana but before they could touch him, Ana raised his hand and pointed at Klara, taunting her with his long index finger.
"Who are you?" He asked instead, as he let his refusal to bow down to her be known to everyone standing there.