As June slowly sat herself down on the floor, Steven continued to stay tall, staring at their dead classmate. He had seen many dead bodies before, but this was one of the most gruesome kills he had to witness.
Slowly turning his gaze away, he focused on the unconscious guard. Letting go of June’s arms, he stepped closer.
As he stood just in front of it, he swung his leg towards the guard, but only hitting his barrier. As soon as the golden light shimmered around the man, his eyes opened.
With lightning speed did the guard pull up a dagger from his suit, moving it towards Steven, who simply redeflected it with his bare hands.
Grabbing his wrist, Steven spoke. ’’We aren’t your enemies; the intruder is already gone.’’ As he pulled the man forcefully to his legs.
Watching the confused guard gaze slowly turn serious, he could watch some of the lights in his eyes disappearing after taking a look inside the bedroom.
As he started to shake, even a veteran seemed to not be able to handle something like this so easily. ’’I have failed...’’ He spoke as the dagger dropped from his hand, clattering on the ground.
Steven could hear the rest of the guards in the building slowly approching. Taking a step inside the bedroom, his barrier activated in an instant, burning something in the air. ’’Sleep poison?’’ He asked out loud.
As it all finally made sense, poisons were extremely difficult to filter with just a simple barrier, especially non-lethal ones. To avoid this, people started to implement a shock system for their barriers some years ago.
That meant if your barrier got activated due to somebody attacking you while you sleep, it would force you awake. That’s most likely how this room got even destroyed or why the guards are unhurt. Simply avoiding them was enough.
With every step he continued taking through the room, the air ignited again in a dark green flame as the poison was trying to pierce his basic barrier, but to no use.
The only thing confusing him was the dark green flame; he had never seen it before, which meant the poison was new too, which was why none of the guards wore an artefact against it.
This killer knew what they were doing, but why? It just didn’t make sense; at first he thought maybe it was the fingers’ fault, but they had never attacked so openly before.
Which only led to the fact that one of the new arrivals was an assassin, and Steven wasn’t sure if this was his only target.
Finally leaving the room as support arrived, he walked past Edward, who barely seemed fazed at all, as if he had seen those kinds of terrors before.
Petting June on the shoulder, Steven left the corridor, letting security take care of the rest for now. As he could see, Lucy was waiting for him on the stairs already.
’’You can probably already guess what happened.’’ Steven’s voice was dark.
Watching her nod, Steven wanted to walk past, but Lucy spoke before he could. ’’I just don’t understand why, if this was an assassination, they dismembered him.’’
’’I don’t think it was the work of an assassin, but rather a killer – maybe some crazy student or new facility member?’’ Steven asked, revealing his theories to her.
Normally he would’ve kept hidden about any of that, but he just felt like any help could be necessary. And even if he didn’t want to, he trusted Lucy a bit at least.
’’I will see what I can find out... Poor Frostes’ girl having to see something like that.’’ Her voice sounded for the first time like genuine sorrow and not her staged act.
’’What are we going to do now?’’ Steven asked, ’’’If it is really a killer, we need to find out his new target before he can get it.’’
But Lucy only shook her head. ’’My duty is to protect the princess; she is our highest priority.’’ Her voice was cold, as if she meant what she said.
Steven stared at her, not even sure how to answer, but he knew one thing: he wasn’t going to do that.
’’Try to keep an eye on the rest of them at least.’’ He finally answered, tightening his fists as he simply passed by her, nodding, even giving her a last look.
Jumping down to his floor with a single jump, he was welcomed by Irose, already waiting, his gaze worried but seemingly not for him.
’’Irose, you will sleep in my room today; it is for your safety.’’ He answered, watching the old man’s worry slightly lessen. Steven had a few tricks up his sleeve to protect himself even when he was asleep.
And he was sure the rest of them were doing similar things, as with the swing of his hand he watched Irose go.
The principal also will mostly likely put some measurements up to protect all of them except for him. ’’It seems like I have to work on my weekends as well.’’ And he was sure he wouldn’t get paid overtime for it.
As the house finally quieted down a bit, Steven didn’t feel like sleeping anymore; instead, he walked towards the group living room, which was entirely empty. Nobody seemed to dare to go anywhere alone on this night.
Not like he was alone either; he could feel two royal guards watching him from the staircase, most likely sent by Merency to protect him.
Staring at the eternally burning fire pit, Steven felt like something was wrong with room number nine, as if he had overlooked something important.
He had seen those cards before; they were sold on the main street, and that business didn’t seem to be booming.
As the cold tiredness slowly crept into his body, he knew resting was important if he wanted to catch this guy.
Finally closing his eyes on a couch, he already knew what to do first in the morning.