Astrid froze. Her smile disappeared, and her delight turned into fright. Ren could even feel the trembling of her body right next to him.
What the... where... how did he get my name? How did he know it was me?
Astrid was so shellshocked by Ren knowing her name that she completely ignored or forgot about the second part of his words.
The guitarists on stage glanced at Astrid, who had frozen up and stopped singing, causing Astrid to regain her composure.
Looking at the calm and indifferent expression on Ren's face, memories of how Ren looked down on her with a cocky face resurfaced.
Surrounded by countless noble children and guards, Astrid finally gathered the courage to approach Ren and start a conversation.
"Hello Ren, I'm Astrid, how are you d-"
" *pfft* I know are who you are. My family's personal hunting dogs."
"Wait... no, it's not like that, we're bot-"
"Now you're trying to deny it? A dog should know its place. Maybe I'll have to report to my father that our dogs aren't obedient anymore."
The group of children surrounding Ren instantly broke into laughter while glaring at Astrid's flushed face.
"No... please, I just wanted to ta-"
"Talk? A peasant like you wanted to talk to me? Are you delusional?"
Astrid's face crumpled as those words came out of Ren's mouth. Her father had explicitly told her to get Ren's good side as her family was currently under the Montclair, so she just had to sit there and take the verbal beating.
As Ren continued to ridicule her in public, she could also hear the other children laughing at her and trash-talking her. They didn't even try to hide it; they simply hid behind Ren's back while loudly insulting her.
"You know, she may look good, but I don't know about the brain's department."
"How did she even get invited to this party?"
"She just looks so out of place. Like a penguin in a desert."
Shrinking back from the constant verbal backlash, Astrid bowed her head to Ren and walked away.
"Yeah, walk away, peasant!"
"A country bumpkin like her shouldn't even be here."
For what? What did she even do to Ren? Was it a crime for her to try to make conversation..? She had done nothing wrong...
No, she didn't deserve this; it was all Ren's fault. But what could she do about..?
Astrid sat in the corner for the rest of the party, barely holding back tears, while the other children gathered around Ren, laughing at his every word.
It was like she was back in that very same place right now.
Was this bastard going to expose her hobby to the entire school..? Was Ren going to make the entire school ridicule her again...?
It was ironic and quite humorous; only a few moments ago, Astrid planned to expose Ren's identity to the entire nightclub, but now the tables were flipped.
No... not yet; he doesn't have the upper hand. If he dares to say anything, I'll ruin him with rumors; no one will defend him if he tries to deny it.
People don't flock to him anymore; he's just a stray dog with no master.
Quelling her chaotic thoughts, Astrid tried to start singing again, but anyone with a brain could tell she was off-beat for the rest of the song.
Fortunately, people in nightclubs aren't using their brains.
As Astrid continued to sing, she anxiously glanced at the audience to ensure that no one had noticed her mishap, and she was ecstatic to see that almost nobody was paying attention.
It was weird, really. Only five minutes ago, she was the center of attention, but now everyone was almost completely ignoring her. The people weren't even dancing; in fact, they were struggling to stand up straight.
The nightclub floor was littered with tons of shattered glass from the dropped drinks and cocktails.
Don't they know they have to pay extra if they break the glasses?
Dismissing the various odds things as people just being drunk, Astrid realized that she had more important things to pay attention to.
Turning her head to the right mid-song, she expected to see Ren still standing there, but to her surprise, Ren was nowhere to be seen.
As the song ended, Astrid ignored her guitarists' surprised expressions and rushed off the stage to try and find Ren.
That bastard! He must already be sprinting back to the school to expose me.
As Astra sprinted off the stage and into the crowd, the anomalies within the nightclub grew clearer to her. The people sitting by the bar seemed to be asleep; the people previously dancing were collapsing to the floor one by one, and finally, she couldn't even sprint anymore.
In fact, she couldn't even walk.
"w-what is h-happening."
Leaning on a table for support, Astrid paused for a minute before she felt her thoughts slow and her legs slowly giving out.
Snapping her back awake, the doors of the nightclub busted open, and 3 men with black masks strolled into the club.
Astrid's eyes widened as she noticed that all 3 of them had horns.
"djinns..."
Pushing her hands down, Astrid attempted to stand back up and cast a spell; however, it was completely useless as Astra didn't have the strength even to lift her hand.
One of the figures had a light fire lit above their hands while the other two held broadswords. They glanced around before pausing at her barely-standing figure.
"Looks like we got a fighter over here."
"Hmmm, she'll go for quite a bit underground."
"Get going; only take the valuable things; we only have 5 minutes."
Astrid's legs finally gave out as she collapsed onto the booth couch while watching the masked figures steal everything valuable.
Eventually, one of the masked figures, only a few feet from Astrid, turned around and said.
"I'll take the girl as my compensation."
"Why the hell do you get to decide? Who died and made you boss?"
"He's right; the boss told us only to take jewelry and money."
" *tsk* the boss won't care if we take a single girl with us. Leave it to me."
"Do what you want, but the blames on you if the boss gets pissed."
"Alright, alright."
Sitting down on the booth couch, Astrid mustered up all her remaining strength to move her head just to see a horned figure with a broad sword walking up to her.
Barely opening her mouth, Astrid managed to say something.
"Don't you know I'm from Celestial Academy? You'll surely be caught if you even touch me."
"Even better, I love a fierce one."
As the horned figure placed his hand on Astrid's legs, Astrid struggled to remain conscious as she felt her eyelids becoming heavier and heavier.
Mustering up the last of her awakened strength, Astrid remained conscious while the horned figure grabbed her leg and prepared to lift her up.
Not having the strength even to open her mouth, Astrid could only internally scream in horror, wishing it was all a dream.
Temporarily succumbing to the potion, Astrid closed her eyes for a moment, but when she reopened her eyes, she was somehow even more terrified.
A body without a head stood in front of her.
During the less than 1 second period, she had her eyes closed; the djinn had lost its head.
The completely motionless body freefell forward towards Astrid's unmoving body, but as the djinn's chest was about to touch Astrid's face, it suddenly stopped.
The body of the djinn flew back and away from Astrid's body, and she heard a familiar voice. A voice that she had heard over and over in nightmares when she was young.
"Goddamn it, why doesn't anyone ever listen to me?"
Ren?
Wasn't he supposed to be off-exposing her at the academy? Why was he here? Did he save her, or was it someone else?
Snapping Astrid out of her thoughts, she felt a cold sensation spread throughout her back as Ren carefully lifted her up with both his hands and placed her on the table.
With her back propped up against the wall, Astrid could see the entire nightclub; hundreds of people lay motionless on the floor, and in the distance, there were two more djinns watching Ren and her starstruck.
" *tsk* What the hell...? Didn't you say everyone was going to be asleep, Rez...?"
"Looks like he might have immunity; it's just one person. Take him out; there can't be any witnesses."
A fireball manifested above one of the djinns while the other charged toward Ren and Astrid with his longsword already swinging.
Although faintly, Astrid heard Ren mutter something.
"Ah, shit."
Grabbing a drink from the bar, Ren wasted no time and splashed the liquid in the cup on Astrid's stationary body.
Astrid watched in confusion as the dark purple liquid from the cup flew at her. As the liquid drenched her face, Astrid instinctively raised her hand to wipe her face, and after feeling the sticky surface of her face, she realized.
"I..i can move again."
Instead of attacking or defending the charging djinn, Ren sidestepped out of the way, and the djinn, having no time to reposition, charged right into the table Astrid was currently sitting on.
Astrid screamed out, barely managing to avoid the charge by casting a magic shield.
"YOU DAMN IDIOT! WHAT THE HELL?"
Ren's expression remained indifferent as he calmly responded.
"We have bigger things to deal with right now."
Being still cornered against the wall by charging djinn, Astrid had no choice but to agree. A wind current immediately appeared in Astrid's palm, pushing the djinn back a couple of feet.
Astrid immediately started casting as tree roots began to break out of the nightclub floor and hurl toward the charging djinn's figure.
The charging djinn, surrounded by the tree roots, raised his sword, which was now covered by an ominous dark red energy.
"Devilish Mana.."
The sword easily cut through the tree roots, and the djinn resumed his attack, causing Astrid to cast another wind current spell to avoid being cornered.
Looking around, Astrid spotted Ren in an intense battle with the magician djinn as 3 fireballs were barrelling right at Ren's body.
Instead of dodging, Ren took out two twisted daggers from his pocket and cut each of his hands, leaving a trail of blood.
Astrid became even more bewildered as Ren's daggers became covered by an impenetrable black. The physical dagger couldn't even be seen anymore; only the rough shape of the dagger formed by the black aura was visible.
Ren swung his daggers at the air before him, and two impenetrable black slashes, one from each dagger, flew straight at the fireballs.
"Only second-semester firsts year should be able to perform elemental slashes..."
The ground shook as the two dark slashes intersected the fireballs, and smoke appeared at the junction point, completely dividing the nightclub into two.
The magician's sight of Ren, Astra, and the charging djinn was completely blocked.
Taking advantage of this, Ren sprung forward toward the charging djinn with his daggers still covered entirely by the night-black color.
Seeing the opportunity as well, Astrid immediately recast her Earth spell as more tree roots broke through the already broken floor and slowly encircled the charging djinn.
Ignoring the plant roots, the charging djinn instinctively parried Ren's daggers, pushing Ren back. However, that did not stop Ren, as he swung his daggers at the air once again, causing two more night-black slashes to appear.
[A/N: 75 Powerstones = 1 chapter / 1 gift = 1 chapter]