After realizing that I couldn't learn any more movements of the Art until I mastered the dark elemental slash, I got up and headed back to my comrades.
Upon arrival, the horned figure immediately confronted me with a large smile, which I reciprocated.
"How was it?"
"Perfect, thanks for the props."
I had noticed all the other kidnappers speaking to him in a non-formal way, so I copied them to maintain my image.
Of course, I didn't know if maintaining my image as Zen even mattered anymore as Ruby somehow found out I was Ren.
Probably shouldn't have expected a simple mask to fool an end-game boss. But was my face so recognizable that she could recognize me as Ren by simply seeing my face?
Ruby's backstory was never mentioned, maybe she had a close connection with my family before?
Patting me on the back, the horned figure continued.
"No problem, you saved us back then. Our mission was only to cause fear and chaos in the academy, not actually bring the princess back. The superiors thought telling us that we needed to bring back the princess would make us try harder."
"They were a bit mad, though, as the Academy discovered our tunnel, so we lost some contribution points."
Ah, Lily's doing; she must have also wondered how our group infiltrated the academy without being noticed and found it.
Interrupting our conversation, another comrade yelled from behind us.
"DECLAN AND ZEN, LOOK AT THESE."
In his hands, the kidnapper held two devices that closely resembled a flip phone from Earth.
Don't they have smartphones and smartwatches in this world? Why would they need these?
After passing a flip phone to both Declan and I, he continued.
"The girl with a tiger mask told us that we will be using these to communicate now; we're officially a group under the Ruby gemstone's leader now!"
Ah, is this what Ruby meant earlier? If so, why didn't she just say that earlier? I would have found out anyway.
After saying that, he also pulled a bunch of Ruby pins from his pocket and handed them to us.
"These pins will teleport us to here and out from now on!"
Then it dawned on me that this underground tunnel area was the Ruby gemstone's headquarters...
Ruby was the same age as me, yet she had this whole area as a headquarters???
After mentally reminding myself to confront Raven later, I replaced the Iron pin with the Ruby.
Declan, even more ecstatic than ever, started clapping his hands, gathering the entire group's attention.
"Who's up for some drinks to celebrate the news!?"
"DAMN RIGHT, I AM!"
"WHEN ARE WE NOT UP FOR DRINKS?"
Seeing the reactions of my group members, I could hardly recognize them.
Weren't they completely emotionless and robotic during the mission... who the hell are these happy and excited guys?
Checking the time, I realized I would have to return to school, so I waved a quick goodbye to Declan and the others before tapping the Ruby pin attached to my shirt.
Instantly, the space around me distorted, and I was brought into the middle of a forest.
"Really, only an end-game villain organization can have access to this overpowered technology..."
After tinkering with the pin for a second, I realized that you could actually set a place to teleport to when you leave the headquarters, and apparently, the place I was at was the default one.
Of course, I couldn't use the pin inside the Academy as the protection spells would block it, but setting a teleport place in the capital would be nice for the future.
[Ren: Hey, I have a task for you.]
[Raven: Oh really, another one? That's perfectly fine with me! Making an entire business in less than a month wasn't hard enough for me! Do you want me to buy out the entire black market next?]
[Ren: Glad to hear that; you'll need to buy a building for our headquarters. About buying out the black market, that's your task for next month!]
[Raven: Do you know what sarcasm is? Ah, surely you do; nice joke.]
[Raven: You were joking, right?]
[Raven: Hello?]
After checking my location, I put down my smartphone and realized I wasn't too far from the capital.
After an uneventable walk, I returned to the bridge leading to the Academy's island.
The gate itself was in shambles due to Irene's fireballs, so while the guards were worried about repairing it, I snuck inside unnoticed.
As I walked back to my dorm building, I noticed an abundance of posters plastered everywhere, but that was to be expected. After all, it was student council election season.
Although plenty of different candidates were running, everyone already knew that Astrid would win.
Ranked first out of the 3rd years, Astrid would probably win the election even if she didn't do any campaigning.
Of course, her student council group would consist of the main cast, with Liam, Lily, and Alya being on it.
I don't think Lily could even ruin this plot point if she tried, so there was no point in paying attention.
The rest of this school week progressed regularly, and I could see Alya becoming closer to both Lily and Liam.
The entire staff team surprisingly overlooked my absence due to Alya's kidnapping, so I had nothing to worry about.
After class ended on Friday, Jin grabbed Han and me and escorted us to a random nightclub in the capital. At first, the bouncers rejected us due to our age, but after displaying our student IDs, the bouncer had no qualms about letting us in.
Jin immediately ditched Han and me after spotting an attractive girl. Han went off to who-knows-where, leaving me completely alone.
Since I had never reached the age of 21 on Earth, I could never go into a nightclub, but after observing the scenery for a minute, I realized that the movies portrayed them perfectly.
Huge dance floor, plenty of Alcohol, tons of girls and guys, and booths scattered throughout.
Amid my observation, I suddenly heard the entire club clapping, so I adjusted my gaze to the stage, where three girls stood with a microphone and two guitars.
Somewhat curious about this world's music, I headed to the bar area for a better view of the stage.
After ordering a drink, I glanced at the stage, and upon glancing at one of the girls, I almost fell out of my chair.
The girl in the center of the stage had blonde hair, twin ponytails, and contacts that made it appear as if there was a star inside of the pupil in her eye.
That was the student council president, Astrid...
Although most people couldn't tell, with my enhanced eyesight, I could easily recognize her from the countless posters around the school.
Although Astrid didn't descend from a Hero family or an imperial, her father was a Duke of a kingdom on the outskirts of the kingdom, so there was no way she needed money.
Did she just really enjoy singing...?
Realizing that I had been staring at Astrid far longer than any other person in the club, I tried to redirect my gaze, but before I could, my eyes met hers.
Instantly, I turned my head, not caring if I looked suspicious or not.
There would not be another Ruby incident, so help me god. By just existing, an end-game villain had taken an interest in me.
The music sung by Astrid and the guitarists was surprisingly familiar as it closely resembled K-pop music from Earth.
As the music continued to play, I sat on the barstool while enjoying my drink and occasionally glancing around.
I should have been enjoying this outing, a completely new experience, and a break, but something felt off.
Through my hours of training every day, I learned never to doubt my intuition as a fighter, but most importantly, never to doubt my sight.
There were times when my eyes moved faster than my brain, like when I saw the trajectory of an incoming attack but could not react to it.
That was the exact feeling I felt right now.
I had seen a danger, but my brain couldn't figure it out.
Slowing, turning my head to look around, I scanned every inch until that feeling peaked.
However, there was a problem: that feeling peaked at 5 different locations...
The locations didn't include any people, but they were 5 empty booths.
After concluding that, I wasted no time and walked over to the first of the five booths. To my surprise, there was nothing amiss or wrong.
Ignoring the singing of Astrid, I made my way to the 2nd and 3rd booths, where nothing was wrong.
At this point, doubt seemed to creep into my mind, not doubt about my eyesight but doubt about whether this world was real or an apparition.
I was more inclined to believe that this world was imaginary than that my eyes were off.
After checking out the 5th booth, I decided just to leave the nightclub. There was no point in wasting more time figuring out the issue.
Whatever was wrong with this nightclub wouldn't affect me if I was already back at the academy.
And there was no one important here in the nightclub that could die... right?
Astrid.
The death of the student council president would undoubtedly negatively affect the plot.
Returning to the first of the five booths, I looked forward right into the wall behind it instead of at the booth itself.
After glancing around to ensure no eyes were on me, I threw my first forward, and with my awakened power, a fist-shaped hole was formed in the wall.
Maybe I was just looking in the wrong place earlier.
Looking inside the hole, I immediately realized what was causing the feeling.
Inside the small wall, there was a bottle. A bottle I knew very well because I had used it myself this week.
A sleeping potion.
5 sleeping potions... that's enough to knock out the entire nightclub. And with the atmosphere, no one would bat an eye if they thought they felt sleepy.
Rushing to the bathroom, I immediately splashed my eyes with water and instantly felt myself becoming reenergized.
The potion was already in effect.
The president was in danger.
I pulled out my phone before making any rash decisions involving the president.
[Ren: Let's get something to eat; Han find Jin and tell him all of us are leaving.]
[Han: I don't know if he'll listen...]
[Ren: Remind him that this whole outing was originally for me.]
They've hung out with me constantly and kept me company whenever I felt homesick for Earth, so the least I could do was this.
Pushing aside the people in front of me, I made my way to the front of the stage and looked upwards, trying to find Astrid.
...
...
...
Singing was one of the few things that Astrid enjoyed, and a break from the constant studying and training was needed to prevent her from collapsing from stress.
Singing was not an activity that could be done at the Academy, so Astrid searched for other outlets, and nightclub gigs were the easiest and most exciting due to their environment.
Of course, as future student council president, Astrid couldn't tell anyone that she sang at nightclubs, so she chose poorer nightclubs that were far from the capital.
That was why she was so shocked to see a familiar face at the club.
As she came from a somewhat influential family, Astrid often attended events hosted by important families, so when she saw Ren's face, she immediately recognized it.
Wasn't he disowned?
Ah, what a story, a fallen noble coming to a poor nightclub to find pleasure.
As the rest of the night went on, Astrid slowly forgot the existence of Ren and instead became focused solely on singing.
That was until she looked right down at the front of the crowd and saw Ren seemingly cheering her on like a fan.
A bout of laughter almost escaped Astrid's mouth.
She remembered seeing Ren being so prideful and arrogant at whatever event he attended, looking down on everyone.
Now, that same Ren looked serious and panicked while listening to her sing.
Money must be running low for him.
Enjoying the sight of Ren's sullen and serious face, Astrid contemplated how to increase her delight.
Whenever she attempted to speak with Ren in the past, she would be brushed off and ridiculed, so seeing Ren like this was almost a dream.
Calling him out to everyone? ... Perfect.
She, who had been laughed at by Ren, would now make Ren suffer the greatest humiliation by having everyone at the club laugh at him.
Reaching her free hand over, Astrid placed her hand right in front of Ren.
Seeing his surprised and happy face, a big grin spread over Astrid's face.
The same person who ridiculed and ignored her was now ecstatic that she was paying attention to him.
Ren grabbed Astrid's hand, so she pulled him up to the stage.
Thinking this would be the perfect time to get her revenge on Ren by calling him out, Astrid grabbed Ren and pulled his head to her mouth.
But Ren's calm and indifferent voice came out before Astrid could say anything.
"Astrid or student council president, you should leave now."
[A/N: 75 Powerstones = 1 chapter / 1 gift = 1 chapter]