Having calmed down a little bit, I retired to the dormitory room in the University.

It was strange. I came to the University to sever ties with it. And yet here I was, laying in my dorm room.

Having slept over it, I wasn't feeling such despair anymore. In fact, I was surprised how important the ordeal with Lana turned out to be. Having a crush on her for so long, getting her confession interrupted, and then working tirelessly to restore the memories of her confession... I guess it was quite an important part of my life so far.

I tried to stay awake, but the room was strangely calming, so I quickly fell asleep.

Next morning, I did not wake up to Natasha sleeping in my room. She usually dozed off on the chair to wake me up with a good mood, but the one time I really needed her to cheer me up, she wasn't here. Well, she probably had a thing for Alexei anyway, so there was no point chasing that tail.

I walked over to the Mages room in hopes of finding someone there. The result: empty. Not a single soul. I looked around the room, and found a note on Natasha's table saying, "To Roma," along with one of the pins we bought yesterday.

The note further said, "We are on an emergency extermination mission. Please don't leave the University. In case you have no choice, use the pin."

They did say on the previous day that there was no point in trying to take down the monster camps anymore, but Apophis didn't exactly recruit every single camp in the city, so maybe another bunch were acting up.

I looked around to search for any food they may have had laying around. I couldn't find any. I was forbidden from going outside, so I just dug around the room for some snacks. As I found out, a can of Springles isn't the most luxurious breakfast.

After thoroughly pillaging the Mages room, I set out to... absolutely nowhere. They locked me in this building, and I had absolutely nowhere to go. I'd only ever seen the training hall and bath, after all.

It happened while I was loitering around aimlessly. I got a call from an unknown number. I didn't give out my number to random people, so usually even if it was from an unsaved caller, it usually was someone I knew.

That happened to be the case this time too. Except... "Been a while, Roma. Or maybe not! How could I forget yesterday's heartfelt conversation~" It was the bane of my sanity, Lena. Yeah, of course she had to call me while the people to whom this was most relevant were away somewhere.

"The fuck you want from me?" I yelled at Lena. I thought I heard someone struggling from her side of the call, but it may have been some sort of noise.

"Ah, what's with that harsh treatment? Well, it doesn't matter. Roma, we have that girl who confessed to you a month back. You have half an hour to get here. If you aren't here by then... I'll leave it to your imagination. I sent you our location. Oh, and make sure you come alone, alright~?"

What the fuck? They had Lana?! "Let her fucking go!" I yelled, at a loss of words. Lena seemed to ignore me and just continued talking. "Hmm... maybe you want to hear a few words from the girl herself?" I heard the phone exchange hands and a lot of noise.

I heard Lana's voice yelling, "Roma! Run! Don't come here! This is a tr-mmph!" It seemed that someone stuffed something in her mouth to silence her. Judging by yesterday's events, probably a sock.

"Aww, there she goes, spoiling all the fun. Oh well, I suppose you wouldn't just leave your dear to a pack of ferocious wolves now, would you? Hmm... I wonder if she will still remember you after becoming a vampire. Oh, or maybe I could stab one of her eyes and make her an impromptu cyclops! Hehehe~! See ya!"

Not giving me even a second to say anything in return, Lena hung up. Judging by the loud noises of something breaking at the end of the call, it seemed she hung up pretty violently.

I felt like throwing my phone against the floor with all my strength as well, but I quickly realized that I needed their location first. The message arrived seconds later, and I quickly checked how far it would take to get there.

16 days?! What the fuck? Oh right, the University is in Siberia. I entered the correct start address, and I saw... 26 minutes. I had to leave. Now.

I was about to take off dashing when I remembered about the pin. I took off dashing (in the direction of the Mages room), grabbed that pin, and made my way out the University.

For the next 26 minutes, I was so invested in catching the bus or train on time that I had no time for thinking about anything other than running or what time it was. While I was running, I tripped over a stone. Luckily, that bus was the last to be ridden, and I reached the place four minutes early.

I barged straight through the front door, yelling, "Lana! Where are you?" I ran down corridors as extensive as labyrinths, and finally, after what felt like hours, I reached a room where I saw Lana.

She was tied to a hospital bed which was standing up. There were three more next to her, standing in the same fashion. It reminded me of a certain religion, but I didn't want Lana to share the same fate and end up dead. Lana had cloth tied around her mouth, and there seemed to be a sock inside it. She tried to scream, probably to get my attention, but hey, I was here already! Relax! Also, stop looking behind me so much!

I ran to her and tried to untie her hands. I got to the bed and raised my hands to the knot tying her left hand... except my arms wouldn't listen. Instead, I crashed down onto the ground. Lana's screams intensified.

"Ah... Paralysis... What a beautiful spell. This is going to be so much fun, Roma!" I'm sure you can guess whose voice that was.

I began to regret leaving the University without a wand. I could only hope that the pins would trigger and the Mages would be able to rescue me.