Principal's Office

After five minutes of silence, Loki, the Elf, and I reached the Principal's office. Loki knocked on the door with his knuckle. We waited for a few seconds but there was no answer. The Elf seemed slightly pissed. He then turned to me and smiled.

'Sorry, the Principal is always like this.'

Like what? If he is, then how can he manage the school?

Loki pulled out a scroll and opened it. The contents were in runic language. He pointed the scroll at the door. The letters floated in the air and then lit up. The door opened itself.

That was a Scripture Rune he just used. I guess they can even be used in miscellaneous ways. We both walked in, Loki and then me. That's when someone stuck out like a sore thumb. It was the Principal, I think...

Looks more like a thing to me.

'Oi, what are you doing?'

Loki said. I'm not trying to question him, but should he really be talking to his employer like that? Plus, is that even his employer?!

The... man? Thing?

The man took his face off the table and lazily looked at Loki. He kind of reminded me of myself if I ever had the idea of going outside. The man looked young. His hair was ash-blonde and his eyes were grey. He wore a black suit, and shirt, with a white tie. The workload on the table showed me how unreliable this guy seemed.

'Ah, Loki, you're back!'

The man said happily while waving his hand at Loki. Drool progressively escaped his mouth. Loki marched toward him and chopped him on the head.

'What are you doing?! You're the one who told me to get Kimihiko and now you're sleeping?! Maybe I should fry that brain with a Blaze Scripture...'

Loki pulled out another scroll though this one was red. Seeing as how he said "Blaze," I'm guessing that the red is for fire. I think we learned about these guys in Ancient Runes class. Umm...

'You... Loki-san, you're a Runic Mage?'

The Elf looked over at me.

'Ah, yeah. Anyways, Tatsuya Kimihiko, I think we'd like to get down to business. Isn't that right, Weissmann?'

He said, shoving the scroll in his face as a threat. He nodded.

'So, Principal Mori, I'm guessing the reason you called me is because of the disappearances, right?'

Principal Mori signalled Loki to move out of the way. The Elf did so after a sharp glare at the Principal. He fixed his hair and shuffled through some sheets in his workload.

'That's right. I asked Dracula to come here himself but it seems like he sent someone to handle it. If Dracula sent you, I'm guessing you're a Vampire, right?'

The Principal gave me a calculating gaze. Loki hit him on the head once more.

'Why're you trying to act cool now?!'

'Ouch! I have to, otherwise, he won't be intimidated!'

'I'm sorry if I'm disappointing you, but I'm not a Vampire. Though, to increase your hopes, I'm the Lord of Paragon Village hired by Dracula.'

Nobody knows that Avera is Dracula. Not even the other Vampire Progenitors. Apparently, the outside world doesn't know about the Scarlet Family leads Paragon Village, so I guess her identity is safe. I wonder what everyone would say if they learn that Dracula is in the form of a little girl and the leader of Paragon Village no less.

'A Lord...'

Loki muttered. Something seemed to come to mind. He's figured me out.

'You wouldn't happen to be Eternal Darkness, Altair Nox?! The Lord of Paragon Village?!'

Gah, that's such a corny nickname I got. Eternal Darkness? Fuck that. I'd rather just be called the lord of Paragon. Wait, how did I even get the nickname, Eternal Darkness? Actually, now that I look at myself, I guess I can see why... Still! It's corny as fuck!

I scratched my head.

'Yeah, but please don't call me by that nickname. It's slightly embarrassing...'

The Elf marched toward me and took up my hands. His eyes were glowing.

'You're the genius that rebuilt and made Paragon Village a better place in a year?! Solving the problems all around the village and even fending off a swarm of Demons!'

Ah, he even knows about that. Okay, I may have lied when I said that nothing interesting happened during that year. At some point, mid-ranked Demons attacked the village. I lured them away and single-handedly defeated them. It was on the spur of the moment. I think I was pissed at the time, so I ended up wiping out some of the forest outside of the village.

I turned away.

'Y-yeah... That's me... Could you please let go?'

Loki noticed how touchy he was being. He let go of me and retreated back. Clearing his throat, he regained his usual composure.

'I'm sorry. I was just surprised to find that the Lord of Paragon Village was an Otherworlder.'

Is it really that surprising?

'Now, if we're finished with that, I'd like to address the problem. Here, Loki, hand these to Tatsuya over there.'

Principal Mori handed sheets of paper to Loki, which were then given to me. There were three sheets. One showed the faces of girls and boys. The second showed a map with seven places marked with an X and the third was an info sheet.

'As you can see, seven people were abducted. There doesn't seem to be a consistency in gender or age.'

'Any connections?'

I asked. Loki answered.

'They all disappeared on a 7th.'

'Excuse me? "A 7th?" What's that supposed to mean?'

Loki continued his explanation.

'The victims were either abducted on the 7th, 17th, or the 27th. The latest disappearance was on October 7th, four days ago.'

So, if they only disappeared on the 7th, 17th and 27th, then the disappearances must've started in July or June since August is during the summer vacation. I looked at the map and checked the seven marked places. They didn't seem to have any consistency. I then took a gander at the information sheet. Something stood out to me.

'Hey, what does it mean by "dosed?"'

'We investigated each of the students' rooms after they were abducted. They all had a special drug in their room.'

'Which was?'

'Which was called "Labyrinth."'

Labyrinth?! I remember Avera mentioning something about that. Apparently, it's a magic drug that increases one's mana capacity and potency at the cost of their lifespan. I never thought kids in school would be using it.

'Let me guess, the students who disappeared were either bullied or failing at a certain class.'

Mori gave a wry smile.

'Correct. All of these kids used Labyrinth for some purpose at school.'