☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Part Thirteen

Nick followed the directions Darius told him. He arrived in front of a small white brick building. There were two small windows each on the side of the pure white door. A small pigeon statue was on the edge of the window sill, and outside there were two students standing guard.

Nick walked over to them.

The two were males, with a blue colored badge on their color signifying they were seniors. The expressions on their faces made them seem lifeless.

Countless students passed by them but they did not even look at them, their eyes stayed focused on one point. It was not until Nick came up to them did they both turn their head.

“Name?”

They asked him in unison.

“Nick Wilson.”

They both nodded their head, and the student on the left opened the door for Nick.

Both males were briefed earlier and they already had a list of names. One of the males remembered the names of all the students on the list, while the other remembered faces. It would be difficult for someone to lie to them about who they really were.

Nick entered the building, but there was nothing inside but a flight of stairs leading downward. He started to descend the stairs at his own pace. The further down he went to darker it became.

When he finally made it down, his feet touched the rocky floor. The place looked like a cave. There were dark rocks scattered across the floor, and above his head, he saw various helicities of dark brown color. A greenish colored glow emitted from them, causing one to be attracted to them.

In front of Nick was a straight path, which led deeper into the cave.

He heard the splashing of water and various voices.

Nick arrived at the end of the path, where there was a more spacious area. It was still a rocky ground under his feet, but there was a large pool of green colored watered.

Some students were inside the water splashing around for fun, while others were seated in a meditative position absorbing the essence.

The essence in this area was more concentrated than outside. It allowed a person to absorb the essence at a faster rate. While a person could go inside the pool to meditate, there would not be much of a difference if you were in it or not. As long as you were near the pool, you would be able to tell the difference in the rate you absorbed essence.

Nick did not bring with him a change of clothes, so he was not going planning on going into the pool. He found himself a ways away from the others and sat down close to the edge of the pool.

He closed his eyes and was about to meditate.

“Yo, I see you finally made it.”

Yes, he was about to meditate but then he heard a familiar voice. He opened his eyes and greeted Matthew, who was in the pool.

“I just arrived.”

Matthew hopped out of the pool and stood next to Nick. Matthew was wearing some black swim trunks, and his black hair stuck to his head.

“You should have brought something to get wet in, you’re missing all the action.”

Matthew told Nick as he pointed to the females in their swimwear. They were giggling and splashing water on each other as well as the other males that were around them.

With teenage hormones raging about Nick was sure something more was bound to happen besides splashing water all over. With the students showing off their well-developed bodies and the atmosphere they were creating it was likely a few would hook up after.

Nick thought it was a waste to just have fun when they should use this time to increase their essence pool. He was not interested in picking up females that he would not hold dear.

“Nah, some other time.”

“C’mon man, girls are not scary.”

Seeing how Nick declined, Matthew thought Nick was afraid of talking to girls. Freya was a different story as Matthew did not picture her as much of a girl. From his perspective, Nick has only talked to a handful of female students, so it would not be a bad thing for him to increase it. The more connections he had with them the more likely something was bound to happen.

A harem is a man’s dream and the law did not exactly forbid a person from having one. Be it a male with a bunch of wives, or a female with a lot of husbands.

Matthew had his own opinion on the topic. He personally would not mind having more than one wife, but he knew things would not go that way.

Having one wife was already hard to deal with, he already knew of a number of troubles that would come if he had more than one.

“Matthew, I'm not scared of girls, and I don’t think you have the right to say that when you are avoiding a certain someone.”

Nick motioned with his eyes, towards a petite girl, wearing a red two-piece swimsuit. Her red hair was no longer in a ponytail, she let it flow.

For her size she had the right sizes in the right places, and wearing her swimsuit brought them to light. Although she was on the shorter side she still managed to attract the gazes from various males.

Matthew looked in the direction Nick motioned and saw Scarlet. He rolled his eyes and let out a small sigh.

“What’s up with you two anyway? She glanced in this direction at least four times since you came over here.”

Nick said while Matthew took a seat next to him.

“Like I said, she is my ex-fiance.”

Matthews' voice was low, almost like he did not want anyone to hear him.

His engagement with Scarlet was not something widely known in this academy and he would very much like to keep it that way.

“There’s a reason you’re saying ex.”

From the look in Nick’s eye, Matthew gave in. Nick would find out one way or another, and it was not a big secret. He could at least tell him this much to deepen their friendship.

“Well yeah, our two families had a grudge against each other in the past. That feud went on for generations, but now they wanted to put an end to it. What is the best way to put an end to it? A marriage that would tie together the two families. So me and Scarlet got engaged to each other, at first we were both against it. Our parents forced us to hang out, but over time we came to like each other.”

Matthew paused, his eyes were showing a deep emotion.

“Scarlet was the popular girl in school despite her size, but it seemed like she changed. She started to bully the less popular, isolate them and make them feel like they were not wanted. Not going to lie and say I was the perfect schoolboy, since I did nothing to stop her. However, towards the end of our middle school or junior high whatever you want to call it, graduation. A female Scarlet was bullying ended up taking her own life. It really affected everyone in the school but no one got in trouble for it. It was like it was swept cleanly under the rug as if it never happened.

After that event, she did not change. I confronted her about why it was covered up, but she ignored me. I already know her family used their power to take care of the problem. As they did not want to stain their family name. With the previous event happening and talking to Scarlet, I realized I could do so much better and my family could do better. If I actually stopped it or intervened then the girl might not have died. I do not want anything to do with her or her family, I won’t be that same person that stands by and watch. Things will be different this time.”

Nick placed his hand on Matthew’s shoulder.

“I understand.”

Matthew looked at Nick and laughed a little.

“You understand being engaged?”

When Matthew asked that question he realized that might be the reason Nick does not interact with a lot of females. He might already be engaged to someone and they are both waiting for marriage.

“No, I had a similar experience with my own family. To make a long story short, my sister killed someone close to me. While it was not on purpose, it was the words that came after that hit me hard. I felt helpless, and I could do nothing but watch as they died. My sister laughed as I wept over her death. She is a demon and I am the one who’ll put her down.”

Nick still could not forget that blonde haired young girl and her beautiful smile. As soon as he saw her emerge in his mind, it was replaced by a dreadful scene of her bloody corpse. Nick saw those azure blue eyes of hers seem to lose their color.

He had the power to stop what happened, but he was afraid he would be the one who would die. It was his greatest regret.

That version of him no longer existed, he was far stronger and had more courage than before. It has almost been ten years since that time, but he would never forget.

“Seems we both have trouble with girls.”

Matthew said in a light tone.