We landed a few meters farther, on the ground.
"Look! That's what happens when you distract someone while they are fighting!"
"And I will do it again. There's no way I am letting you risk your life for anybody."
"Aaah! Stop acting like that. Stop it!" I said as I pulled my hair, despairing.
I didn't get him at all.
What was he searching for? Why?
If nothing is like I thought, then what's the use of knowing that I am in a fucking book!?
It's not like I tried to change anything or even interacted with the main characters of my own volition.
I did everything right. I took a path, a choice, and stuck to it.
I didn't act two different ways, acting like I wanted something but doing the opposite.
I played the game, didn't I!?
And now here they come, appearing like little flowers, all happy, all cute, and trying to do who knows what.
Except they weren't flowers, and I was afraid it was yet another act. Another lie. Another bad ending.
"Aahgh! Damn it. Listen, Mainu, open your ears," I said as I looked at him, us still being in the same position, "I don't get you. I do not want to. Understand?"
Mainu, looking back at me, stayed silent for a few minutes before sighing,
"You don't need to. As long as I know you, everything's alright. "
"No, you don't understand. I do not need you to know me."
"But I do. And I will continue to know you. I can't forget, it's as simple as that."
"You! Agh!"
"Hey, you two, what are you still doing here? Go to the shelter!" Yelled a man dressed in a red uniform, running towards us.
Behind him, where the dragon was, were multiple other men dressed just like him, taking formations.
"The red star Circle?"
"I told you they would come soon. All the other students had already gone inside. Let's go now."
"Okay…"
"Children, quickly go. It will become more chaotic here, it's not something you can withstand." Yelled the man under the numerous other sounds covering his voice, trying to convey his message.
I nodded, having no other choice.
Anyway, it's not like I absolutely wanted to sacrifice myself, playing the hero.
If there was no need for me anymore, I would also go. Moreover, I was on the verge of collapsing from the mental damage.
Even though I didn't attack the dragon in the end, from the moment I concentrated my energy, it counted as using my power—causing me to exhaust my mental energy.
Seeing my tiredness, Mainu took my arm and passed it around his neck—allowing me to lean on him.
"Thank you," I uttered as we walked.
"Don't worry. But don't ever do that again."
"Why? You're afraid?"
"There is no asking."
"Why? You don't even know me…"
"… I don't need to know you to care about you, right?"
"So you are like that with everyone?"
"Yes."
"Liar," I said, chuckling.
Since he didn't want to talk, I wouldn't push it. And right now, it wasn't the time for that.
We continued to walk in silence, guided by moonlight and artificial light.
My hair drifted towards him, settling on his shoulders and touching his seemingly cold cheeks.
Mainu looked insanely handsome under the moonlight, his delicate features even more accentuated by its soft silver light.
I could only imagine what kind of divine beauty he would become in four years when he would truly hit adulthood.
'Four years from now, things will surely have changed…'
'I will be eighteen and will be finally free from my shackles, maybe already somewhere on the Beroma continent, while he would have succeeded the dukedom.'
The still innocent teenager would probably, by the twist of fate, become the original man he should have been.
After all, nobody was born a villain, but everyone had their destiny.
Before entering the building, I looked one more time toward the location where I previously stood, before the dragon.
I wondered what would become of him…?
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I am fine, thank you."
Then we went in without turning back, directly going before the emergency door.
A lot of things happened in the span of three days. It was even more intense than my usual missions since everything happened one after another.
We opened the door and went down the stairs. The other students must have already evacuated the gallery, as nobody could be found.
"Be careful when you go down!" Warned Mainu, his tone a bit worried, "Maybe you want me to go first?"
"It's okay," I replied with a sigh.
He was acting like a mother. A really pestering one.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Once outside, as I thought, we saw all the other students under a small temporary makeshift shelter, where they were curled up—some with a cup between their hands.
In the crowd, I saw my previous teammates standing together at the side.
There were Mitia, Killian (alias Kiki), Vincent, Danny and Meo.
Ela, not being a part of their friend group, wasn't there.
Since I was too tired to talk, I decided to go see them another time.
I continued to look around, my gaze landing on a black-haired boy. Sylvester was distributing blankets, as his status as student president required him to.
Again, I turned my gaze away, trying to find familiar heads. But I didn't find one particular head.
"Hey! You were with Daniel, right? Where is he?"
"I don't know. When you left, I directly went looking for you when I was stopped by running hordes of students."
"And you did not try to find him!?"
"No. I had to find you first!"
I facepalmed myself at Mainu's words, incredulous.
He would regret that in a few years when his lover would reject him because he wasn't attentive enough.
"What? Was I supposed to protect him or something? He is a mage, you know? A genius at that!"
"Forget it, you won't understand," I said as took a seat on a chair put at the front.
He would regret soon enough the consequences of his actions.
"Don't you have your bracelet? Can you try to reach him?"
The bracelet I was talking about was the same gadget we used during our exercise in the Alupisis forest. It enabled us to transmit information between us and also emitted a geographic location.
It wasn't created by magic but by the scholar's faction, from the scientific department. They also got the help of the alchemist to develop certain properties of the gadget.
It was truly a game-changer invention when it came out about fifty years ago. Not too long ago.
"Yes. I will do that." He said as he pressed a button, activating a hologram screen.
Then he clicked on some devices, trying to reach Daniel.
Just like a regular phone, a waiting song came up while he tried to connect to the other bracelet.
Normally, if Daniel did like every other student—unlike myself— he would have his own too. Which be helpful in our case.
If we don't have any answers, I would go signal it to a higher reference.
That way, we wouldn't waste time while Daniel was in possible danger.
"He's not answering?"
"No. Nothing."
"Okay, I will go tell a teacher. You stay there and try again."
"Alright."
Doing as I said, I notified a teacher about the absence of one student.
I gave a brief description of Daniel to find them find him with his class faction.
I also described what happened to us and when we last saw each other. I only omitted my practical act of suicidal bravery.
"Okay, try to stay calm and stay safe. We will send people to search for him."
"Thank you," I replied before returning to my original place, on my new designated chair.
"Did you get something?"
"Still nothing. They will send help?"
"Yes."
'And if they don't find him, I would have to do another stupid act.' I thought internally, as I gazed into the darkness.
I couldn't let someone I knew, who barely even lived, die like that.
In a way, knowing his background made me more tolerant of him, as we both went through similar suffering.
Different font, same thing.
While we waited for news, the whole academy stayed outside.
We didn't know how it was going inside since there were huge walls hiding everything.
I observed the people around me, seeing how badly injured some were.
I even saw a girl who, unfortunately, had lost an arm. That probably happened when the scraps fell from the sky as the dragon tried to fly off.
I also saw some people with huge scary scars over their faces, semi-blinding them. And even some minor injuries, not too bad.
I closed my eyes, trying to not think too much. My headache was coming up.
'Aaah, damn powers…'
........
Running through the maze, I went farther and farther, soon ending up at a dead end.
Breathing slowly, I took out my map to see where else I could go.
If I went the other way but taking a more sinuous route, normally I could find another way out.
I was currently trapped in some unknown underground tunnel after I had decided two hours ago to go search for Daniel myself, when I still hadn't no news of him.
I couldn't rest on my feet, so I went on yet another journey.
Today, I had decided to act stupid and reckless until the end.
I looked at the ground and crouched down. We could see traces of magic particles, clumsily hidden with the help of dirt.
Probably the doing of a magical beast. A young one at that.
'So they didn't only invoke one fantastical creature?'
Wondering what else they summoned, from who knew where this time, I turned around and ran towards another level of the tunnel.
'If I am not wrong, if turn around here—"Turning on the flashlight, I looked ahead.
"Bingo!"
In front of me, I found an old stair that should lead to the forest at the back of the Megatop, directly in the academy.
Once out in the open, I would be able to locate Daniel and take him back, using the same tricky way I used previously.
I couldn't use the other entrance because firstly it had been closed, and secondly, I was avoiding Mainu, who made his job to stop me.
Which is why I stole a map from Sylvester, who had a bunch of the underground tunnels' maps.
'Now it's time to work.' I said in a whisper as I took out a makeshift weapon, another object I stole from Sylvester.
That "makeshift weapon" was in fact a huge sword, two times my height, which was supposed to bear the wrath of all kinds of creatures.
So there was no doubt that it must be able to withstand the attack of a dragon…probably!?