I stood in the bedroom behind the conference room holding my greatsword. The standoff with the man in red went on for several seconds, neither of us moving an inch.

A wave of concern washed over me and Kalli’s voice screamed in my ears. Melvin. Get out of there. That man is dangerous.

The only exit from the room was right behind him, so escape wasn’t exactly an option. If I didn’t think he would defeat me instantly, I might have attempted to run him through with my blade.

After what felt like an eternity, he spoke. “I do not mean you any harm. Please believe me when I say that I did not expect to find you in this room.”

Still pointing my sword at the man’s chest, I croaked, “You kidnapped Kalli. I can never forgive you for that.”

He held up his hands placatingly and said, “Look, that was only business. I took that quest to assure that you kids wouldn’t be harmed. A lesser bounty hunter might not have been so considerate.”

I spluttered at the man in response. “What? Do you want me to thank you? You chose to get involved with scumbags who paid you to abduct children.”

Part of me wanted to scream for Mr. Ramsey while the other part wanted to hear what he had to say. I ran through my bag of tricks, trying to think of a way to subdue the man.

He took a deep breath and answered my question. “While I may have had certain loyalties to the Shaw family, your girlfriend’s abduction was sanctioned by the guild. As a matter of fact, it was an S-ranked quest. I assume you are familiar with the questing system being a member yourself.”

I dropped to my knees at the revelation. The organization that was supposed to be protecting us had allowed a bounty hunter to kidnap innocent children. I barked, “I don’t believe you.”

The man sighed and sat on the bed, apparently not concerned about me holding my weapon. “Look, kid. I get it. The named families can get away with murder if they want to. They control the guild and the administration. Lady Shaw assured me that neither of you would be harmed.”

Lowering my weapon slightly, I asked, “What about Kevin? You guys held him for a week. Did you intend not to harm him too?”

He gaped at me and took off his hat to hide his confusion. “Who? Wait, you don’t mean those commoners do you? We just questioned them. They would have been released eventually. Most awakened don’t care about the riffraff.”

I stomped my foot in outrage, leveling my weapon at the man once again. “That’s my friend that you’re talking about.”

He kept eye contact with me, asking, “Are you sure? Did you even check up on him once since you rescued him? I know you used to live in that world, but the awakened usually leave childish things behind once they realize this world exists.”

A wave of guilt washed over me. Was Kevin my friend? Why didn’t I go see if he was okay? We didn’t even check on the cab driver. For all I knew, the guild could have taken them all out to leave no witnesses.

The man saw that I was struggling and said, “I didn’t come here to dredge up the past. It came to my knowledge that a rare mana specialist became available and I paid a lot of money to obtain your services. I completely understand if you refuse me due to our shared history. For what it’s worth, I am sorry that you were targeted by the Shaws.”

I noticed that he wasn’t mentioning the death of Lady Shaw. Perhaps she wasn’t dead after all. Sighing, I said, “I have two questions for you. How much did you make to kidnap Kalli, and how much did you pay for me to help you with your mana?”

A smile appeared on the man’s face and he placed the hat back on his head. “I made nothing for the quest involving your lady friend. I was beholden to the Shaw House. You have to understand that the named houses collect skilled seekers such as myself. Should you meet one, beware. Once they get their hooks in you, it can be hard to get away.”

The first thing that came to mind was Kalli’s relationship with the Hellquists. Did they have their hooks in my girlfriend? The man noticed my apprehension and asked, “What is the nature of your relationship with Mortimer?”

I thought about the contract and replied, “We signed an employment agreement. I just have to work for him for the semester.”

He raised an eyebrow at me, “Did you include a clause where you can refuse candidates?”

Panic flooded through me as I realized Kiki forgot to add a clause for that. The man in red waved his hands placatingly at me. “Don’t worry. I didn’t tell you that to exploit you. To answer your second question, I paid 10,000 gold for an early slot in your program. If you say the word, I’ll walk out the door and kiss that money goodbye. I don’t want to do that, so I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me for the past.”

I took a deep breath and offered, “I still don’t forgive you for what you did to her but I desperately need money right now. If you pay me, I’ll do it.”

He eyed me suspiciously. “How much do you want?”

He paid 10,000 gold to Mr. Ramsey and I only got to collect 400 for the entire semester. Either that or the man in red was lying to me. My brain was overwhelmed by the information it just received.

Kalli insisted in my ear. Don’t do this Mel. It’s not worth it.

All I could see was the money. We were so close to the finish line and I had the potential to get the rest in one deal. Before I could tempt myself to ask for more, I said, “500 gold. That’s what I want. 500 gold and I’ll do it for you.”

“Done”, the man in red exclaimed, “I don’t keep gold on me, so I’ll have to visit the bank. When will you be available? I doubt Mr. Ramsey will give me any more class time.”

I nodded and said, “I’ll make time. However, I need to find my sister. I’m sorry but I don’t trust you so I’ll have to insist on you signing a contract.”

He sighed and offered me a business card, saying, “Fair enough. When you are ready for me, tear this card in half. I’ll know where you are and come to you instantly.”

Nestor Bellview

Bounty Hunter - Blood Class

Contact: XXX

Before I had a chance to reply, he vanished in a puff of red smoke.

Normal classes were growing boring with the new restrictions placed on me.In wind class, I was only able to practice the basic spells.Wendy explained, “They are afraid that you’ll do something dangerous like turning into the wind and disappearing.

I decided that I was better off experimenting on my own or asking Quetzy for a lesson.

Mana Fencing was exciting because Mrs. Hawkins finally approved my blade. She announced, “Okay class, who wants to break in Melvin here?”

Holding my great sword, I looked around at the other kids. Most of them were older than me and held weapons of every kind. Some of the other students were impractical like me and wielded spears, morning stars, and one kid even had a massive ninja star.

Looking around at the sea of raised hands, Mrs. Hawkins pointed to a girl in the back, “Lexie, would you like to give it a go?”

I noticed that she picked one of the few students who hadn’t put up her hand. A pink-haired girl groaned audibly and climbed to her feet. When she stepped forward, I noticed for the first time that the girl was covered in tattoos.

Purple and pink art of teddy bears and unicorns adorned her arms and torso. Pink hearts stretched up her inner legs where they disappeared into the girl’s shorts. Size-wise, she was tiny at perhaps five feet tall. I was surprised when a mallet that was easily several feet taller than the girl materialized in her right hand.

She yawned and picked her nose, saying, “Are you sure you want me to injure him on only his second day?”

Not sure what to expect from such a small opponent, I decided to inspect the girl to see what I was up against.

Name

Lexie O’Hara

Class

Paper Tank

Level

15

Affection Level

Annoyed

Mrs. Hawkins led me to one of the circles where I had seen the students practicing with their weapons the previous day and said, “Just keep in mind that it’s his first time. Melvin, do your best. It’s not about winning the fight, just get the hang of using your weapon.”

Worried about the tiny girl, I asked, “Won’t I hurt her if I hit her? These are real weapons, right?”

Several of the other students who had gathered to watch laughed at my comment as they found seats or got comfortable in the space around us.

Lexie swung the hammer around effortlessly and asked, “Do you have any last words?”

I turned to the teacher. “Um, Mrs. Hawkins?”

She laughed nervously at me and said, “Don’t worry Melvin. She’s not going to kill you. You did hear that, right Lexie? No killing.”

Lexie stuck out her tongue at the teacher, “Whatever. Are we going to do this or not?”

I materialized my greatsword in my left hand and looked up to see the girl flying at me with the mallet held back over her head. All I could do was hold my blade up in defense as she brought the full weight of the mallet down on me.

The first thing I noticed was that she could add mass to her weapon when she struck. The mallet felt like it weighed a ton when it crashed into my sword. My knees started to buckle as I hastily reinforced them with mana.

Lexie quickly pulled the weapon off of me and jumped back, waiting to see how I’d react. I quickly began the process of pushing mana through my core muscles and into my arms.

She eyes me suspiciously when I took a step forward and raised my sword. Not knowing how she did the trick to make her mallet heavy, I pushed mana on top of my blade coating it in refined mana, and took a swing at the girl.

I was too slow and she jumped on top of my blade, pinning it to the ground. She raised the mallet again and yelled, “Gotcha.”

In a flash, she brought the weapon down on my head. Raising my arms to cover myself, I squeezed my eyes closed and braced for the impact. It never came. I felt a light thud and then heard a crash somewhere across the room.

When I opened my eyes, I saw Lexie sprawled out on her back with the Mallet nowhere to be found. She sat up glaring and me and said, “No fair. You use magical armor.”

I looked at my hands and noticed that the mysterious artifact that I had accidentally stolen from the museum had transformed into a shield and latched itself onto my arm. As I looked at it, the armor receded up my sleeves and shifted back into the vest that it had been previously.

Mrs. Hawkins walked into the circle and said, “That is some nice armor you have there Melvin. Try to use your weapon for defense though. You won’t learn if your armor does all the work.”

I sighed and muttered to myself, “She would have just clobbered me.”

Looking back at the girl who had just summoned another mallet, I realized that she meant to do just that. Having been attacked by her twice, I realized that Lexie made up for her small stature by being very fast and agile. If I was going to have a shot at landing a blow, I was going to need to anticipate her attacks.

Fortunately for me, she used a very large weapon. When she charged, she telegraphed another overhead swing. I waited until the last moment to sidestep her attack. The mallet crashed into the floor where I had just been moments earlier making the room around us shake.

I immediately began another attack of my own. Only this time I was too close and couldn’t bring the large blade of my greatsword around to do any damage. She took a step forward and scooped her mallet up for another attack.

Just when I was readying my blade to defend, Mrs. Hodgins stepped in and said, “Okay, good job you two. Put them away. It’s time to switch partners.”

Lexie scowled at me and muttered, “Next time.”

I ended up sparring with several other students before spending the last half of class bettering my weapon at the workbench. Mrs. Hawkins told me I was a fast learner as I was leaving class.

After school let out, I attempted to contact Kiki. Kiki, I know you’re still in the group. I need you to make a contract for me.

I began doubting she was there when she didn’t reply. The only thing I could think of was to ask Fina. She was the last one that I had seen Kiki with when she followed her into the back room. While Kalli enjoyed a day at the hotel spa with the girls, I made my way over to the guild.

It turned out that Fina was also missing. The receptionist behind the counter gave me a stern look and said, “We cannot confirm the whereabouts of adventurers other than to tell you that she is not currently available.”

I was beginning to worry that something may have happened to my adopted sister.