Hannah Stonewall

****Hannah Stonewall's POV****

It had been four months since the first day at the Academy, and since then I had been training my butt off. I was fortunate to have met Professor Gram, nicknamed the Demon Butcher, and become his mentee. However that only helped me become the top student in combat studies. 

There was a guy, one who I just couldn't see anything good about, who was always the top student in academic studies.

Darius Crow.

He was made an immediate outcast after the attack at the welcoming ceremony, but he didn't seem bothered by it all. He even made a friend, some orphan named Titus Freeman. I looked into him too, and found that he had actually gotten four boys expelled on the first day.

The two of them were... Troublemakers. Rule breakers.

Quite often Titus was getting into physical altercations with other students, and it was rumored that the forest was where Darius and Titus would bring you to fight. Titus had gone through some sort of growth spurt, because I remembered at the beginning of the year he was a short little twig. However now, he even presented problems for me in spars. 

He was just so fast, and strong, so he utilized his skill to trade attacks while healing the damage you dealt to him to slowly whittle away at one's stamina. He was so aggressive that unless you truly planned to kill him, he would not back down an inch.

Then there was Darius... He was a sneaky, slimy son of a bitch in a fight.

He had been studying poisons at some point during the year, and he even began to use them in fights. Now, while he always administered the antidote, he refused to do so until the fight was complete. Many students were not composed enough to realize in the moment that there was no way a teacher would let them die during a spar, their emotions clouded their judgment. Causing many to panic and surrender.

This caused Darius to rise into the top five of the students. With his combined academic test scores... He was the top student.

However, I just couldn't stand him! He was a bad guy, but there was nothing anyone could do because he didn't break any rules! I even heard about how he has gotten into so many fights with people that everyone now avoids the forest completely. He somehow got a cabin there, and it's well guarded.

Today was the day of the semester finals, which would take place on a massive island the Academy owned, which had monsters inhabiting it. I resolved myself to finally outperform Darius this time, since there weren't any rules he could take advantage of.

"This time Darius... I'm going to beat you this time. I won't let you win!"

**** Darius's POV****

"UEGH!"

I shivered and itched my ear. Titus looked at me weirdly, while he was doing sit ups in the living room. 

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know... My ear just suddenly itched. I feel like someone was talking about me just now... Whatever. Did you finish packing your clothes?"

I as sitting on the couch reading a book in another language. I was currently studying different languages, to improve my chances of blending into different crowds. Alice had been away on some business for almost two months, so I hadn't been able to see her for a long time, but I continued to follow her advice. 

I dedicated a lot of effort to studying, and it really did pay off. I felt I had become smarter than I ever thought possible, but I realized that was just the inflated feeling of knowing most things. With that confidence, my progress had been incredible. 

Most freshmen boasted stats around F-Rank to E-Rank. Even Hannah Stonewall was only around peak E-Rank. Her incredible skill with the swords made her seem even more skilled than her stats would make you believe. However I had managed to improve my Stamina, Agility, and Dexterity all to low E-Rank.

I had almost no chance to improve my mana, so I hadn't made any progress on that. I did, however, raise my Lucky Shot and Double Tap skills reach low E-Rank. Improving their effectiveness. I hadn't received any other quests, but I knew that was because I had no chance to interact with the hero at all. 

I had watched her progress, taking mental notes, but her growth was incredibly... Slow?

She was the hero but I felt she was simply enjoying school life. She didn't have any sense of urgency, or peril, which I think made her comfortable where she was at.

I had decided that in this coming final, that I would do something to make her feel the need to become stronger. For this... I had it all planned out.

I stood up while reading my book, and Titus stood up before grabbing our bags. My alarm had gone off, so it was time for us to head to the buses to go to the pier. Titus had become a sort of helper to me, and left most of the planning to me. It was clear that his focus was purely on getting stronger, so we had fell into clearly defined roles. 

We were obviously still good friends, and we had nothing but respect for each other. However understanding your strengths and playing towards them was important. So I made the plans, and he was the brawn. By the way, Titus was the strongest kid in the grade. His Strength and Stamina had both reached Peak E-Rank, and his Agility had even stepped into Low D-Rank if he took a berserk potion.

Speaking of potions, I had improved my Concoct Flask skill had reached an impressive D-Rank. I was able to concoct potions much faster, and when the skill reached D-Rank, it unlocked another affect.

[Concoct Flask][D-Rank]

[Using materials you have, you can concoct mixtures with your mana.]

[Upgraded: When creating a concoction, there is a 10% chance for you to receive a random buff to a stat. Upgrading a stat an entire rank, for 1 minute.]

It didn't seem too crazy, but when you considered that I could go from E-Rank Agility to D-Rank instantaneously, it was very big. I could be as fast as Titus, for a minute. I could be as strong as Titus, for a minute. 

The effects were profound. I hadn't yet tried it out, since I had only raised the rank a week ago, but I was confident in my combat abilities. 

My pistol still had not changed at all, but I had the feeling this final would allow some growth. I had deep knowledge of different poisons, and with my accuracy with throwing knives I was confident in a fight. 

I had been trying really hard for the past few months to not kill any of my peers. They were all completely vulnerable to poison, and paired with a few poison to disrupt mana, they were helpless.

Titus and I soon arrived at the bus stop, where I rented a private bus. Other students were looking at me judgingly, for flaunting my money, but I didn't care. Many of the voices of criticism were silenced when my student ranking improved. I showed I was deadly in a fight, and I was also the smartest kid in our grade.

The only thing they really judged me for now was baseless rumors and saying I abused my status as a noble. 

Both of which were not true, so I didn't let it bother me at all. However I did have to stop Titus a few times. He had gotten into a lot of arguments, and fights, trying to stand up for me. I appreciated it, but I had to remind him that we were a SECRET society, and him bringing attention to us was counter intuitive.

Speaking of The Doll House, we still haven't found a trust worthy ally, but I was planning to use the finals as a chance to find some outcasts like us. Many of the outcasts of society were simply misunderstood, or underestimated.

So I was planning to collect them all in one fell swoop. After this final, I was planning to expand my influence to the other grades. I was already offered advanced courses for academics, but I turned them down to experience a 'normal' school life. 

However in truth I was looking for allies in my own grade, but that was proving fruitless. So I would go to the Sophomore class, and look for allies there. Titus was sleeping soundly on the bus, when I received a text from an unknown number.

[XXXXXXXX980] : Demon attack on Island. Find traitors.

I looked at the text, but I wasn't confused.

'This must be Teacher Alice's text. I'm sure it's a burner phone, so I don't need to save it.'

[XXXXXXXX980] : No torture. KOS.

I read the text, and promptly deleted it before taking out my sim card and destroying it. Teacher Alice instructed me that if I ever got two texts of secret information, to immediately destroy my sim card and put in a new one. I did so immediately, and didn't wait for another text.

The last text was the one that bothered me slightly.

KOS.

Kill on sight. This was a kill order, meaning that if I found traitors, I was to kill them.

I knew, from all the practice and self meditation I had done, that I wouldn't hesitate if put in that situation again. 

However that was exactly what bothered me. I was afraid of the feelings of guilt I might feel after. I had been meeting with an online therapist, and it had been helping a lot. I was even waiting for our winter break to visit a healer in person, who specialized in helping heal trauma. 

I took a deep breath before putting on a set of headphones, before turning on some music. I had become a fan of a female popstar named "Minnie", and her music helped me relax. I then concocted a sleeping concoction directly into my bloodstream, which took effect quickly.

****

"Darius... Wake up."

I opened my eyes slowly, and saw that Titus was the one waking me up. I took off my headphones, and wiped a stream of drool from my lips. 

I stood up and got off the bus. We would have another chance to sleep on the boat. Titus carried my bags again, and we made our way to the pier where the Academy boat would be waiting. Along the way, many people were going about their business, and I was looking around at the different people. 

I noticed most of them were very normal, but I then saw a small girl in an alley. I looked at her, and knew she was a homeless orphan. I stopped walking, and walked over to the girl. I crouched down, and inspected her body.

'She looks like she's only a few years younger than me...'

"Hey, I won't hurt you. Here."

I then handed her some money. I knew that it was enough money to live luxuriously for a week. The girl showed a similar face of shock, but her wariness had gone down significantly.

Once she got close enough, I let her take the money, and asked her a question. At this point, Titus had come over as well, and he was looking at the girl with a soft expression.

"Can I ask how old you are, and where are your parents?"

Hesitantly, she thought for a moment before answering quietly.

"I... Don't have any parents... They died years ago.. I-I'm 12 this year... My birthday is in a few days."

At this I became quiet for a moment. Before I stood up and took out my phone, looking something up. Once I found what I needed to know, I squatted down again, while handing my phone to Titus.

"My friend here is a lot like you. He lost his parents as well, but look at him now. He eats good food, and wears nice clothes... He's my friend, and I make sure to take good care of my friends. I want to have you wait in a nice hotel for us okay? We are going to take a test for school, so we will be gone for a few days, but after I want to help you get off the streets. Is that okay?"

She thought for a while, then nodded in agreement. Titus took her hand, and led her to the hotel I made a reservation at. I told them she was a guest of mine, and I wanted her to have her meals handled for her while I was gone.

After they left, I made my way to the boat, and waited for Titus to return. I sat in my room, and read while I waited.

**** Titus's POV ****

I was walking with the little girl we had just met, who told me her name was Mandy, and brought her to the hotel Darius had booked. After which I left and began to head back to the pier, when I was stopped by a familiar face,

"Hey there Hannah, what you think you're doing?"

I asked. I knew she couldn't be here for a friendly conversation. I sneered at her, because I knew she also couldn't really do anything to me.

"I saw you bring a little girl into that hotel... Tell me, was that your doing or was that Darius's order? If it was Darius's order I can let you off easy... But if you are keeping her in a hotel by your own volition, I will not hesitate to stop you."

I saw her hand on her sword, but I simply looked at her amused. After being with Darius for a few months now, I knew he didn't care what others thought, so he wouldn't even bother to explain. However that was his issue. He was so smart, but he didn't even realize that not explaining things caused so many misunderstandings.

"You all just want to paint him to be some monster... She's a homeless kid. I don't know why he helped her, but I know he isn't doing it for any malicious reason. Other than that, I'm not telling you shit."

I then grabbed some gloves from my bag, and got ready to put them on if Hannah wanted to fight. Surprisingly, she let go of her sword, and had a confused look on her face.

"She's... He's helping her? I... Don't fully believe that, but if you're saying he isn't going to hurt her... I'll believe you.."

She then moved to the side and let me pass. I put the gloves away and began to walk past her when she suddenly said something.

"Why do you follow him? You have so much talent and potential... You're a person with good morals, even though you're a trouble maker, so why di you follow someone like him?"

I stopped and looked at her angrily.

"'Someone like him'? What do you all even know about him? Everything I am today... I wouldn't be if I didn't meet him.. You all just won't leave him alone."

With that, I walked past her, refusing to say anymore. I only left because I was worried that someone would cause trouble for Darius on the boat, so I left quickly.

**** Darius's POV ****

[You have influenced the Hero, teaching her to not hold prejudices against people, allowing her to learn forgiveness.]

[Pillow of Tranquil Mind (SSS-Rank) has been rewarded.]

I immediately grabbed the pillow that appeared, and squished it around. After testing it, I found it was really the perfect pillow, and decided I would try it out. 

"I don't know what the fuck I did to Hannah, but I don't care. Thanks for the free pillow Hannah."

I then felt the miracle of the pillow, as I was able to fall asleep in seconds of relaxing.

It was the first time, since I arrived at the academy, that I was able to sleep without nightmares. It seemed that I would be able to go into this final in the best condition possible. 

**** Titus's POV ****

I didn't know what happened while I was gone, but I saw Darius was tightly holding a new pillow, and for the first time ever I saw him relaxing while he was sleeping. I smiled as I looked at him getting a good night's sleep for once. I stayed up for a while, to prevent anyone from coming to disturb him.

While he slept, I looked over the things I had now, that were thanks to Darius.

My clothes, my phone, even the gloves I used to fight with were bought by him. I looked back at some pictures I took of when we first met, and I was so incredibly small that I was almost unrecognizable compared to now. I almost got angry thinking about how Hannah was insinuating that Darius would even touch that young girl inappropriately... 

I meant what I said earlier, that no one eve tries to understand him. No one even tried to see him for the good he did. He took me, a scrawny orphan, and turned me into the fourth best student in our year. I could be second if my grades were better, but I just couldn't be bothered. I saw how much time Darius spent to maintain his position as the top student, and I wasn't going to do that.

I liked fighting. I liked protecting even more, and that's what I felt I was doing for Darius. I was his protection against the world.

Speaking of girls though... I don't think I have ever seen Darius look at a single girl for more than a couple seconds, except Ms. Alice...

'Sigh... For him... I will concede Ms. Alice... However I don't think that there is anything romantic there either.'

I looked at the sleeping enigma. I think that Mandy really was the first girl that he has ever shown an interest in, but I knew from his look that he wasn't interested like that... 

Maybe he likes loli's, and knows the difference between someone underaged and an actual loli.

I simply shook my head at this realization.

'No taste... The more mature, the better.'

The greatest gift Darius gave me has to be this amazing phone... It takes pictures in the highest quality...

Titus was sitting on the bed looking lovingly at a picture of Ms. Alice he had managed to snap a few months ago.

**** Hannah's POV **** 

"I... I don't understand... What the FUCK is going on?!"

I don't know exactly when things started going terribly wrong, but at some point people started dying.

And the cause was standing right before me.

Once again, my eyes met with Darius Crow's, as he put a bullet through my friend's head.