"Leonard! Become my husband!"
Baffled by her statement, Karl takes a step back. "Hmm? Why do you look so confused? I did the same thing as that human did in the movie."
'The main character gets proposed by the evil yandere girl and rejects her. Which eventually leads to the death of the yandere girl. A popular yet generic troupe. I personally hate it.'
"What is your answer?" The vampyer interrupts Karl's thoughts. Her eyes staring at him with anticipation.
"What answer? Of course, it's a no." Karl replies blatantly which shatters the woman's hopes.
TING! The elevator stops on a floor and the doors slowly opens. A man in wheelchair slowly comes inside the elevator, his entire body from head to toe covered in bandages. The air suddenly starts to feel heavy as Karl clearly notices the hostility. "I forgot to tell you. You cannot answer with a no."
The female vampyer's eyes visibly starts to turn dark red. The man in extends his straw like thin hand and presses the button for ground floor. The elevator door closes which leaves Karl alone with two strangers.
"Yelm."
The man stands up as the female vampyer calls his name. Even with his extremely bad back posture, he easily stands at 6ft. 'What the hell happened to him?' Karl thinks as he sees the thin mummified creature staring at him.
Yelm quickly grabs Karl with his long and thin straw-like arm. Despite being so thin, the arms are strong enough to smash Karl into the steel wall.
BAM!
"You sure got a unique of way of confessing." Karl says it in a sarcastic way. He glances above the elevator which displays [35th floor.] "Unfortunately, deadly yandere is not my type."
He phases through Yelm's grip and swings his talwar.
"ARGHHH!" Yelm screams in a horrifying alien-like voice. In frenzy, Yelm swings his arms. In a congested space like elevator, it is already hard to move.
"ARGHHH!" Karl crouches down to avoid incoming attack. Yelm's claw easily shreds steel like it was butter. Karl jumps around to avoid Yelm's attack. The entire elevator is covered in big claw marks. The female vampyer watches the struggle from a corner.
An old memory flashes in her mind, where she is sitting in an old wrinkled man's lap. 'My daughter. Always remember. This household has served our race for decades, through wars, rebels and tyranny. In near future if something similar happens, you will take the mantle of Duke and lead the new generation to the right path. Kins above all.'
"I will bring glory to my race." She says calmly.
Karl who is trying his best to stay alive heard her words, he has few claw marks on his chest and back. The armour that Ian gifted is strong enough to take direct hits from Yelm but the impact of the attack is too strong for Karl's body. When he took the first hit on chest, it cracked few ribs.
Suddenly he heard few words from the corner before a black fog took over his vision. 'Illusion?' Karl quickly steps back and hits the steel barrier. He can clearly see the steel barrier behind him.
'She restricted my vision!'
CLANG!
Yelm's hand appeared out of nowhere and hit Karl's shoulder. In panic Karl covers himself in mana and phases through Yelm's every attack. 'Fuck. I need to focus and dodge.'
Just using phasing for few seconds, exhausted Karl's mana capacity. The mana covering wears off, leaving Karl exposed. 'Here, it comes.'
A number slashes launches at Karl. He jumps over the first one, barely dodges the next one and gets hit by the third one.
"KHUWH!"
Yelm's fingers pierced a hole in Karl's stomach. He doesn't stop and picks up Karl by only two fingers and pulls him closer to his face. Behind, a pair of dark red eyes are watching the scene with a vicious smile. "Now, my family can-"
TING! The sound of elevator door opening leaves a deafening wave in everyone's ears, everything becomes silent all of a sudden.
"Ha. Ha. Finally." Karl quickly stabs his blade into Yelm's head and cuts a large portion of his brain.
"ARUGHHH!" This time the pain could be felt in Yelm's scream. He falls on his knees, trying to cover his bloody face. Karl quickly turns towards the elevator door which already began closing. He dashes to the doors.
"NO!" The female vampyer quickly twists her hands and casts another illusion while standing in the way of Karl. The illusion quickly takes effect as Karl starts to feel nauseous. "You shall not pass by me!"
The female vampyer flexes her hands which suddenly becomes muscular and large. Without caring, Karl keeps moving ahead, his eyes fixed on the door. Just as she is about punch Karl, he disappears.
"Huh?" She quickly turns around and sees Karl standing outside the elevator, the door closes on her face.
COUGH! COUGH!
Karl drops to one knee as he his right leg has been sprinkled due to rough landing. He glances back and sees the elevator going up. 'I should take the stairs.'
"Sir Leonard!" Karl turns back only to see Alessa, the maid from Phirsecot castle, running towards him.
"What happened? Are you okay?" She asks in a worry.
On the 37th floor. The party just ended and everyone is going back to their rooms to prepare for tomorrow's match.
"Serena! You aren't coming?" A pretty girl in blue dress asks Serena.
"No. No. You guys go ahead, I have plans with someone else." She looks around searching for Karl.
"Are those plans with Gea?" The girl in the blue dress giggles as she teases Serena.
Clearly annoyed by that statement, Serena opens her mouth to argue but gets interrupted. "Hello there, my fiancée." Gea calls her out.
"That's ex-fiancée for you." Serena corrects him.
"Same thing. Today, I am here to declare that I will eliminate your team in the third phase and restore my glory!" Gea says it in an exaggerated expression.
"Suit yourself."
"Yes, yes. I will show mercy- What? Y-You are scared, right? Of course, you are scared of me. Hahaha!"
Serena expression fills with disgust. "Is that what I have to say to make your filthy face disappear?" The girl in blue chuckles loudly from behind.
"Wh-" Gea tries to argue but Serena ignores him and walks away. Seeing her walking away, Gea stomps the floor in anger.
Back in Karl's room, the bed is making loud creaking noises. "Ahh!"
"Um. May I ask why are making such noises?" Karl asks Alessa who is applying some kind of oil on his back.
"Oh! I am sorry, this cream leaves a tingling sensation on the skin." Alessa explains with her tongue out. Karl is not convinced by her reasoning but decides to ignore it.
"There! Now you just need to rest tonight and you will be back in shape." Karl stretches his legs to check for any fractures. "But what were you doing on the floor while covered in such wounds?"
Karl hesitates to answer.
"Friendly spars?" Alessa asks herself.
"Youuu could say that?" Karl answers while avoiding eye contact. Alessa sighs loudly.
"Master Ian has personally instructed you to not participate in any spars, right? Do you have any idea how much he treasures you?" Just when Alessa was lecturing Karl, someone knocks on the door.
"Hello, sir Leonard. I have been bit busy-" The knight bearing the family insignia of Phirsecot enters the room, only to see Alessa sitting on shirtless Karl.
"Um. Can I join?"
"You!" Karl snaps at the knight. "Where were you when I was getting ganged up on? And don't give me excuses!"
"Haha! Sir, as I have said I have been busy."
Karl glares at the knight.
"Alessa!" The knight swiftly changes the topic. "I was told you were coming."
"Oh, yes. Apparently, Sir Leonard's constellation went bit wild in the second phase." "Anything serious?"
"Bah! The beast just got annoyed when a lowly lizard tried to eat it's host. Nothing much." Alessa explains.
'This kid's constellation is ranked higher than Twin headed lizard? It must be something rare.' The knight wonders in his mind. "Still, I can't believe that you accepted the deal."
"Even the greatest of all falls in front of money."
"Wait, money? You mean this knight doesn't belong to Ian?" Karl questions.
"Yes, I do." The knight answers in cute way.
"Temporally. This is an unnamed assassin, who was specifically hired by young master Ian, for your supervision."
"Unnamed? He doesn't even have a code name?" At Karl's question the knight only smiles and Alessa remains silent.
"There is no one alive in this world who knows my name. Hmm. Do you want to know?"
Karl feels a chill down his spine. "N-No. Thank you for asking."
The knight smiles widely. "Now, Sir Leonard. You should sleep, it is already quite late and you will have a lot of surprises tomorrow." The knight gently pushes Karl onto the bed and covers him with a comfy blanket, before leaving with Alessa. They both are now in the elevator. There is a loud silence between them, the smile from the knight and Alessa's cheesy personality is nowhere to be seen.
"How many did you kill tonight?" Alessa asks with an uninteresting look.
"6 total. 2 kids and 4 other relatives of them. That kid is popular than you think." The knight licks his own lips in passion as the screams of his victims echoes in his mind.
"Do whatever you want, but make sure not to leave any evidence behind that would lead them to my master."
The knight chuckles. "How many years do you think I have been doing this? Oh!"
"What happened?" Alessa asks in concern while secretly casting her own spell.
"I forgot to give him his goodnight kiss."
Just a floor above Karl's own room. Gea opens the door to his own room. "Welcome, master."
A maid wearing Victorian maid outfit greets him. The maid had short black hair, dark brown eyes and an average face with neutral canthal tilt. Nothing about her seems special, she has a cold and lifeless air around her.
Gea ignores her and jumps straight on the bed. "Ughhh!" Gea screams and throws a tantrum like a child. The maid silently watches from the back with dead eyes. From her expression alone, it was quite hard to tell her thoughts.
"Linela!" Gea suddenly stands up and calls the maid's name.
"Yes, master."
"Do you think I am dumb too?" Gea asks with tears and snot overflowing from his face.
"Of course not. In my eyes, you are the smartest and mightiest being in the entire world." Linela answers without a second thought and slowly hugs her crying master.
Gea smirks in an exaggerated manner. "No need for flattery. State the truth."
RING! Gea's watch vibrates loudly which startles him.
"Master! Are you okay-"
Gea raises his hand in an elegant way. "Ahem! I am alright." He picks up the phone with confidence.
An image of an elderly person appears on the watch. He has a French beard with grey hair. Dark circles under his eyes are very prominent.
"GEA!!" The man immediately starts to yell. "You stupid son! What took you so long to answer me?"
"Father, I was just-"
"Silence! How dare you answer back to your own father!" The man doesn't give a chance to Gea to explain himself. "You already made big mess by getting rejected by that girl from Tata family. She was our only way to raise in ranks within the Dandelion family but you ruined it."
Gea looks down and tries say something but he couldn't muster up the words. "F-Father. I-I don't-" The man cuts in without much care of his son's words.
"Listen, my son. I have found myself an opportunity which would guarantee us a place in the main family. Just do as I say." A screen pops up which shows Leonard's photo in academy uniform. "In the next phase, you have to kill this kid."
Countless emotions surged in Gea's mind. 'Has goddess of fate graced me with her blessing? If I somehow killed both Serena and Leonard my family will gain a spot in the main family and my revenge would be over. Isn't it like killing two birds with one stone?'
With such thoughts brewing in his mind, Gea starts to smile. "Worry not, Father! I will definitely fulfil your task."
"That's what you said the last time."
"But it wasn't-"
"No excuses. This time I want perfection. Linela!"
The maid step forwards. "Yes sir!"
"Use your skills to assist my incompetent son. I am counting on you." Linela bows deeply as the image disappears.
After few seconds, Gea starts to giggle loudly. "Hihi! I am the greatest! Even the fate works for me. Hahaha!"
THUD! THUD! Someone loudly knocks on the door. "Wait here, master. I go have a look." The maid suggests.
"No need! This young master is generous enough to answer the door all by himself." Gea shoves the Linela aside and walks to the door while humming to himself. He opens the door to see a lady in pretty dress which has blood on it. But Gea's mind doesn't register any of it. Instead, he gets lost in the red eyes.
"Um. Are you Leonard's friend?"