A Vampire Odyssey: Crimson Encounters

Chapter Three

"REN, aren’t mom and dad home yet?" I asked as he passed by the kitchen while I was having breakfast. He was still adjusting the collar of his uniform, so when I called out to him, his hands froze in mid-air. "Hey?" I called again, trying to get his attention. It worked because, finally, he turned toward me.

He straightened his collar, smoothing out the wrinkles on his white polo shirt with his palm. He scratched the back of his head, as though unsure of what to say. "Ah, not yet. They're both tied up with stuff at the company," he said hesitantly, before walking toward me and grabbing a piece of bread off my plate. "I'm leaving, man!" he added, hurriedly biting into the bread before rushing out in front of me.

I could only shake my head at his behavior. Why did it feel like he didn’t want to talk about my parents? I was asking him because he was the one who had spent the most time with mom. Was he really keeping me from their attention? I quickly finished my breakfast, then immediately tried calling mom. To my disappointment, she didn’t answer. She never did. I wasn't surprised, though.

They only picked up when business people or my school principal were calling, usually about some trouble I’d gotten into at school.

I glanced at the clock and realized it was still too early to head to school. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to drop by the company for a quick visit?

Without wasting time, I approached my driver. He looked flustered and unsure when I told him where I wanted to go, but in the end, he didn’t argue and just followed my request.

The ride took two hours, and when we finally arrived in front of a tall building, I took a deep breath.

Acostin Paper Corporation. It had been a while since I last came here. They stopped letting me visit after I started getting into trouble. Apparently, the company didn’t want a repeat of my behavior at school. But seriously, what did they think I would do? I wasn’t about to wreck anything in the factory. I didn’t even want to go near the machines. I had enough trauma from that place.

I opened the door myself and stepped out of the car. The guard stationed in front of the building immediately widened his eyes when he saw me. He raised his walkie-talkie and spoke into it, which raised my eyebrows, but I didn’t let it bother me.

I walked confidently toward the building, but just as I was about to reach the glass door, the guard stepped in front of me.

"Ma’am, you can’t go in."

I took a deep breath and gave him a frustrated look. "I need to talk to my mom," I said seriously. If this guard wasn’t intimidated, I was seriously going to give him an earful! I could even have him fired if I wanted to—though of course, that wasn’t allowed by law.

And besides, I would just get in trouble for doing that.

"You don’t have an appointment, ma’am," he said politely, which made me sigh. Seriously?

"Sir," I began, my fist clenched, holding back the urge to grab him by the collar. "I don’t need an appointment. Are you new here? I’m Yllaishja Agustin—de Acosta. Got it? Agustin-de Acosta. Acostin, sir."

He scratched his head, looking like he’d just realized something. Good, at least he got it. "You really can’t come in, ma’am."

The smile on my face disappeared at his words, but then I quickly put it back. "Not even if I’m the daughter of the company’s owner?" I asked innocently, and my shoulders slumped when he just nodded. "My G! Don’t tell me this company is going to be passed down to dad’s mistress?"

"Did mom order this?" I asked, and when he nodded again, I furrowed my brow. I would have understood if dad had given the orders, but seriously, mom? "Are you kidding me? I don’t have time for this. I need to talk to her."

"Sorry, ma’am, but it’s really not possible."

My G! This is our company, and they’re not letting me in? "Fine, sir, please call Butler Ren," I said, certain that with his help, I’d be allowed inside.

"Mr. Pascual isn’t here, ma’am."

I raised an eyebrow. What do you mean he’s not here? "Sir, my G, he was already—"

"Laisha?"

I stopped mid-sentence when I heard Ren’s voice. I turned toward him, my brow furrowing even more when I saw that he was telling the truth. He beat us here?

"What time is it, why are you here? You’re going to be late," he said, looking worried. I couldn't help but be suspicious. I glanced at the time before giving him a skeptical look.

"I’m already late," I said simply. I’d probably miss my third subject when I got to school.

He laughed nervously and gave me a half-smile. "Go ahead, you can go in—"

"Okay," I said with a grin, about to rush past him to enter the building when he suddenly grabbed me and pulled me toward the car, where our driver was waiting. I was about to protest when he practically shoved me into the car and slammed the door shut. He started the engine, and I watched him wave at me as he hurriedly ran into the building.

What the hell?

"GUYS, where’s Kristobal?"

My eyes landed on our class president, whose face was filled with horror. After spending a week here, I wasn’t stressed about schoolwork. If there was anything I should be stressed about, it was the disappearance of my classmates, one by one. We didn’t know where they were going, and what was more troubling was the fact that the teachers weren’t doing anything about it. Missing freshmen had become a normal occurrence.

I wasn’t stressed because we were losing classmates—I was stressed because aside from that, nothing interesting ever happened at the Academy. No fights. All we had were strange students, especially those from the red building. In the whole week I had been here, not a single student had come out of that building! Weird! And on some days, students from the brown building would walk around wearing black cloaks. As for those from the green building, they often wore armor suits. Weird! We were probably the only normal ones here. Normal, but boring!

I’d often thought about taking action, but I could never find the right moment. That was, until today. Friday was the perfect day to investigate. Our classes only lasted four hours on Fridays, and after that, we were free to stay on campus for the rest of the day. I didn’t know why they had that rule, but whatever. The important thing was that I could finally start looking into the missing students. I wasn’t too concerned about my classmates, but if finding them would end the boredom of my days, then why not?

I couldn’t help but smile to myself. I wonder what—

“You’re up to no good, aren’t you?”

I turned to see my seatmate looking at me suspiciously. We’d been talking again ever since he asked me for help on a short quiz we had. Of course, we were sitting together—who else would help, right? I gave him a wide grin to show off my white teeth.

“You wanna come with me?” I asked, knowing full well he wouldn’t agree. He was so careful about his image! He was terrified of failing, which was why he had no choice but to copy my answers when he didn’t review. What he didn’t know was that I hadn’t reviewed either.

“Sure.”

My smile dropped when he agreed. “My G! Are you serious, Meerious?!” I asked in shock, and he just returned my surprise with a grin. Wow, this was a side of him I’d never seen before! He was so soft! Sometimes, I even wondered if he was secretly gay.

“I’m sure there’s a reason we have too much free time every Friday. Why would they even bother implementing that rule?”

I nodded thoughtfully. “True. Our course is tough, and we’re required to study long hours, which can fry your brain. Then, on Fridays, we only have four hours of class? Weird, right?”

“Indeed. I did some research about this school, and the only thing I found were the basic introductions.”

I squinted at him. “I thought you said there was nothing weird about this place?” I teased, recalling how I had vented to him about the strangeness of the Academy on my first day. He shrugged, so I nodded in understanding. So, it wasn’t just me who was wondering about the secrets this school was hiding? I’d also looked up the meaning of "Pecunia," and it meant money. That pretty much explained why the Academy only offered business courses. And the coin carvings on the walls, plus the yellow color—gold, wealth.

“So, you know about the name of our building?” I asked.

He chuckled lightly. “That’s not just the name of our building. That’s us. We’re Pecunia, the wealthy ones. And it’s not just that. Homerium. I spoke to a senior last Wednesday. He told me it’s from two words. Imperium, which means power, and Homini, which means human being. Homerium Academy: The School of Powerful Human Beings.”

Wow. Just the other day, he was dismissing my thoughts about how strange this place was, and now, he was the one telling me all this. I furrowed my brow but didn’t interrupt. I let him continue, though none of it was making sense to me yet. I couldn’t quite connect the dots.

“I don’t know what the students from the other three buildings are called. He wouldn’t tell me, said I have to find out for myself. But aside from money, what makes a human powerful?”

That question from Yu echoed in my mind throughout the class. I couldn’t say for sure that he knew the answer to his own question—he’d been deep in thought when he asked it. When the bell rang, we exchanged looks. I felt an overwhelming surge of excitement. I had a strong feeling something interesting was about to happen. We waited for the rest of our classmates to leave before following them out.

It seemed like the other students only had four hours of class too. There were students scattered around the school grounds. My gaze fell on a group not far from us. Two students from the green building, based on their vibrant hair colors, and two from the brown building. They were just sitting on a bench, watching the passing students. I wasn’t sure if I was seeing it right, but it looked like they were grinning.

I lost focus on them when I was nearly bumped by a student rushing from our building. I almost stumbled, but luckily, Yu caught me! I turned to follow the running student, planning to yell at him, but then he suddenly tripped.

Laughter erupted around us. Even I almost laughed, but then I heard Yu curse beside me. I shot him a confused look, but his attention was elsewhere. I followed his gaze, and to my surprise, the four students I had been watching earlier were staring right at us. I gripped the edge of Yu’s uniform. I returned my focus to him, but he was still staring blankly at the group, so I smacked him on the back of the head.

“Aw,” he groaned, rubbing his neck. I must’ve hit him harder than I meant to, but honestly, he was staring at them like he was in a trance! He seemed to like one of them—well, they were good-looking! It didn’t bother me, but we had things to do, and there he was, spaced out in front of our building! His face was full of confusion when he looked at me, but I raised an eyebrow.

“Do you have a crush on them?” I asked bluntly, pointing at the four students. I saw them laughing, probably because I’d smacked Yu. He looked stunned, but I didn’t give him a chance to respond and dragged him by the ear toward the cafeteria. I ignored his complaints until we were inside, where we ordered and sat at our usual spot.

“That hurts,” he grumbled, still holding his ear.

I stuck my tongue out at him. “So, what’s the plan?”

He looked at me in disbelief. “What the hell? You don’t have a plan?”

“Do I need one?”

He rubbed his face in exasperation, about to speak, but then we heard shouting from outside. My eyes practically lit up. Something was about to happen. I didn’t wait for Yu and ran straight out of the cafe, feeling him follow close behind.

My eyes widened when I saw a man with red hair choking a guy I didn’t recognize. I looked at the lining of his polo. Yellow. He was from Pecunia, just like Yu and me, but his major or course seemed different. Or maybe a senior? I looked up at the seniors on the upper floor, watching passively. Some shook their heads before leaving.

Seriously, they’re just watching?! I’d never been involved in anything like this! I returned my attention to the two men. A brave guy who seemed to be a friend of the Pecunia student tried to intervene, but we were all shocked when the red-haired guy pushed him away with ease. My G! Is this for real?! Before I could recover from my shock, the area suddenly went silent. I furrowed my brows. Was an angel passing by?

I was about to ask Yu when I noticed the group of students in black from the red building. They had pale skin and bright red lips. Woah. Could it be that they don’t come out because they’re bleaching themselves? But why were they in black? Was it a wake? Or were they members of a cult?

My gaze shifted to the man at the center of the group. My eyes narrowed. Why did I feel like I’d seen him before? I couldn’t remember where.

They stopped walking, except for the one in the center. He approached the red-haired man, who sighed deeply and casually released the Pecunia student from his chokehold. He patted the red-haired guy on the shoulder and said something I couldn’t hear because we were too far away. After the red-haired man left, the rest of the group went back to whatever they were doing, as if nothing had happened.

I couldn’t take my eyes off the man in the center. When our gazes met, that’s when I remembered.

Pale skin, midnight eyes, red lips.

It was him! Boy Gluta! The one I helped when he was beaten up, and who didn’t even say thank you!