Chapter 34 – Nightly Festivities Part 2

Raynard and I spent the next couple of minutes in front of the bar – if you want to call a table with random bottles and cups that – engaged in meaningless small talk, without paying much attention to what was going on around us. Mostly it was just him telling me all the dirt on our schoolmates. I was amazed with how much information he could store below those curls.

Suck that, Grimoire!

After spending most of my time studying before school started, it was incredibly refreshing not having to think about any of that for some time. I could leave thoughts about school for when I had classes and not fretting about anything outside of school hours.

Memories from my old school life briefly flashed before my eyes, but I decided to push them to the furthest corner of my mind.

That’s when I noticed the atmosphere in the room change rapidly. It got awfully quiet all of a sudden and everyone’s eyes were on two students in the middle of the room: One blonde beauty and a scrawny black-haired girl.

„For you to even show face ... how bold of you,“ the blonde spat. She seemed to be a lovely ray of sunshine. Sarcasm. I barely need to describe her to you. All you need to know is that she’s literally one of those blonde bitches from any piece of media, set at any high school and you’d get the gist. A real himedere. Bet she laughs like „fufufufu“ or what.

„What are you even talking about? That’s all just some baseless rumors!“ the black-haired girl replied. Though her posture seemed timid to me, her voice was anything but. Still the way that blonde bitch carried herself made it seem like a one-sided fight.

The students seemed to agree with the black-haired girl, though not as loudly. What did she talk about?

„Oh, you haven’t heard? The faculty convened for a security conference, because they found the corpse of a student today,“ the blonde explained to the room. Some students gasped, with one even leaving the room abruptly. Seems like I really was one of the first to hear. But ... dead, really?

„And do you want to know, what’s so interesting about that? The body they found was drained of all their blood.“

Murmurs scattered throughout the room, as everyone processed this information. A body drained of blood?

„What do you make of this, Raynard?“ Surely he’d be able to tell me what conclusion everyone else was drawing.

„I know exactly what she’s going for ... that Alpheena,“ he whispered to me.

„Alpheena ... that her?“ I asked and he confirmed her to be an upperclassman. Upperclasswoman. Gender.

„Do you have any proof?“ the black-haired girl asked, cool and composed. Even though it seemed Alpheena was about to pin this death on her.

„I’m still student council president, dumbass. Of course I’d know what happens around the school, if it concerns my people. And who else could be responsible for a death like this, if not you, Spawn of Oblivion!“

Despite being attacked with, what to me sounded like a racial slur, the black-haired girl remained calm. Though I could sense her gritting her teeth in a fashion all-too familiar to me.

As she was about to speak up again, the door to the balcony suddenly slammed open. No-one other than Aurelia Beatrice van Carelis entered the room.

„Does she always have to do this ‚grand entrance‘ type of thing?“ I asked Raynard.

„No idea, what you‘re talking about.“

„Alpheena that’s enough,“ she scolded the older girl.

„P- princess.“ Even though she was a handful years her senior Alpheena seemed intimidated by Aurelia. Though I can’t blame her. Girl’s got guns.

The other girl, however, seemed even less pleased to see Aurelia.

„I can’t tolerate you treating your fellow students like this,“ the princess continued.

But between the both parties, that black-haired girl suddenly spoke up: „Oh, shut it, princess savior-complex.“

I clenched my jaw hard at that expression. I could only hope beheadings were out of fashion.

„Excuse me?“ Aurelia responded, flabbergasted. The rest of the crowd were just as bewildered.

But the black-haired girl didn’t pay her any mind and turned back to face Alpheena.

„I know exactly what this is about, Alpheena. You’re trying to exercise power in any way possible, even if it’s as minuscule as imaginable. You have that same superiority complex as the elves do. But you’re only a half-elf, so the elves don’t want you, which is why you’re desperately looking for any way to have your life resemble that of an elf. However, you will never make it any further in life, than student council president. But considering how quick you were to blame some random death on me and my people, I’m not sure that your next election will be going too well.“

With that rant finished, the girl took a deep breath, and left a tomato-red Alpheena standing in the middle of the room. As it became clear that this conflict had been unilaterally ended, everyone went back to minding their own business.

Raynard and I decided to approach Aurelia, who now found herself in conversation with that black-haired girl.

„You know anything about her?“ I slowed down to whisper a quick question to Raynard.

„That’s Vladi Bladislava, fourth year, a vampire,“ he explained.

„Wow, you really work like the Grimoire,“ I remarked.

We carefully inched closer towards Aurelia and Vladi, not wanting to disrupt their conversation.

„I know, what I said was very rude, but I could handle that situation by myself,“ Vladi said. This was meant to be an apology, but it wasn’t a very good one. Still, Aurelia responded with all the grace she could muster.

„I could see that. But still, there’s nothing wrong with accepting help, you know?“

„You in your position can help in different ways, than fighting these small pointless fights. I get stuff like this multiple times a week, I, again, know how to handle it. In any way, I’ll be returning to my room now, I guess ...“ she responded meekly, and was about to depart without another word, when she almost bumped into me.

I caught her by the shoulders, stopping her mere inches from my face.

„Sorry-“ She began apologizing but faltered. Her silver eyes locked onto mine, and there was something about her gaze.

„You-“ She began another sentence, but didn’t get too far again. Instead she huffed weirdly through her nose a couple times.

She apologized and quickly stepped away, looking towards me once again, before leaving the room.

„You just keep bumping into people,“ Raynard remarked.

„Did she just ... sniff me?“ I asked the other two.

„What’s with her?“ Aurelia wondered.

I decided not to get too preoccupied with this weird encounter, and instead opted to greet Aurelia.

„Good to see you here, despite whatever was going on today.“

„Right, do you know anything about the incident today?“ Raynard asked her. The Princess made a more reliable source than that phony student council president for sure.

„No, I was in my room most of the time. Even though I am a princess, that doesn’t matter all too much at this school. So I’m afraid to say, whatever Alpheena said, might be the closest to the truth.“

I quickly recapped for her what happened to me this afternoon. About meeting Featherhead.

„That’s odd,“ she remarked. „But since the police were called, maybe we could get some information out of Shelly.“

„Great idea. If we want to get involved with all that, that is,“ Raynard added.

„Considering Nathan’s Grimoire might have been in danger, that means your lives might be as well,“ Aurelia said in a hushed voice, as for the others not to overhear anything about a Grimoire. „But that thing about a corpse drained of blood ...“

„Reminds me of my encounter with Ebony ...“ I commented.

„Could it be someone close to the Dementia-Way family who are after the Grimoire?“ Raynard asked.

„We can’t exclude that possibility,“ Aurelia acknowledged, „but then why would they go after some random student? I think it’s best to wait for the school to make an official announcement, and then see if we can get any information out of Shelly. But until then ...“

Aurelia moved over to the bar and fetched each of us a drink.

„We should celebrate Nathan’s first day at Ataraxia!“

We cheered and stayed at the party a bit longer. But the entire night was tinged in the sensation of something sinister brewing.