Chapter 19 – Monsters

The next day, Yuki woke up early and was walking quickly to the elevator to go to the administration floor. He needed to tell them what he had seen last night.

After he had dropped Erica off, he had gone off in the direction that she had pointed. He needed to see who it was that attacked Erica.

Erica was right about him not being accepted. But now Aether was him home now, a place that he had to protect. And if he could do anything to prevent an attack then he would do it without any hesitation.

Running at a quick pace, Yuki soon saw the red glow of a campfire up ahead and slowed his speed. He creeped up behind a bush and was treated to a scene right out of a horror fantasy movie.

There were dozens of monsters, maybe a hundred or so, gathered around a gigantic bonfire. Goblins, ogres, trolls, hellhounds, and other creatures that Yuki couldn’t recognize. Besides those, there were at least ten humans that stood besides the monsters. They were wearing black jackets that had the symbol of Aether, a shield of divided into seven sections with different colors that represented an element. It seemed that these people were cooperating with the monsters.

‘Why would people from Aether be working with monsters?’ Yuki wondered as he watched.

“When. Attack,” an ogre grumbled suddenly. The other monsters growled in response.

“Soon,” one of the humans said. “Aether is only a couple of minutes away. Tomorrow night we will attack”

The ogre grunted in response, satisfied, and settle back down.

Yuki slowly backed away and ran back to return to his room.

“Someone’s here,” a man said, his eyes flickering around the area.

“Eh? Where?” another man said standing up with a dagger in his hand.

“Sit down, I can’t feel whoever it was any more,” he said. “Might have been nothing.”

Yuki sighed in relief, he had gotten out of the man’s range. When he returned home, he fell right to sleep, tired from the events of the night.

And now he was walking quickly to Robert’s office. Along the way Yuki, accidentally bumped into a student that was returning to the elevator.

“Hey! What did you do that for?” the person yelled at Yuki.

Yuki looked at him. The person was a third year and was with two other third years, friends.

“Sorry,” Yuki muttered looking down as he tried to go pass them.

“Whoa whoa whoa. I said why did you run into me,” the third year said, grabbing and turning Yuki around. “

“Oh, you’re that gay kid,” he said when he recognized Yuki. “I saw you walking around yesterday morning.”

“Oh yeah, he was wearing a skirt,” one of his friends laughed. “This gay-ass freak finally decided to go full blown tranny, huh.”

The others laughed at Yuki. Yuki just stared at them with no reaction.

“Oooo, the tranny is glaring at us,” the first one taunted. “We better be careful, I heard that its a regular little sociopath.”

At this Yuki was confused. He was never called a sociopath before.

‘I don’t have time for this,’ Yuki thought and tried to push past them.

They tightened their barricade and grabbed his shoulders.

“Hey now, where are you going to? We’re still chatting, right?” the third person said.

“I need to do something important,” Yuki replied quietly.

“Ooo, the tranny can talk. You talking back to us?” the first person asked. “You don’t think our conversation is important?”

Yuki didn’t reply.

“Hey, answer me,” the first person said, grabbing Yuki’s shirt.

Yuki didn’t reply.

“Look at this little bitch,” the second person snarled. “We tryin to have a talk here.”

“Let’s get him to talk then,” the third person said, raising his fist.

Sigh

Then the three third years began to punch and beat Yuki who didn’t resist. He just stayed there, limp, as the thirds years stomped and hit him while laughing.

“Alright, I hope you understand now,” the first third year said when they had stopped. “We don’t want you here, you fag.”

They walked away, one of them giving Yuki a kick in the head before they left.

Haaaaa

Yuki sighed to himself as he sat there on the floor, his face black and his chest tight with pain. He was tired of this. Tired of people. Tired of their judgement.

'And they're walking in the wrong direction.'

He stood up slowly. And walked toward Robert’s office.

The door was open and Robert was inside, talking to people. Yuki knocked on the door and waited outside the door sill.

Robert looked up and saw Yuki standing at the door. He motioned to him to come in.

“Yuki, what can I do for you and why do you look like you were just in a fight?” Robert asked Yuki with concern in his voice.

“Just some minor disagreements with some third years,” Yuki replied.

Robert’s eyes narrowed.

“Those three that passed by? They bullied you?” he asked.

“Nothing I couldn’t deal with,” Yuki said. “I have something important to talk about with you.”

Robert motioned to him to sit, waving at the chair in front of his desk.

“Then sit. I’m having a meeting right now,” Robert said while pointing at a screen that was being projected on his desk. “The demon escaped last night. We don’t know how, the camera’s aren’t showing anything.”

Yuki nodded. He did mess with the circuitry with his earth magic to hide himself.

“Anyway, what is it you wanted to talk about?” Robert asked Yuki.

“So last night I went outside,” Yuki started. “And I saw some smoke coming from the forest.”

“You went outside? You’re lucky you didn’t run into the demon,” Robert said, bringing a glass of water to his lips. “But you do know that you’re not supposed to go out at night?”

“Yes,” Yuki replied. “Anyway, I went to see where the smoke was coming from and found a monster camp.”

Robert choked and spat out his water.

“You saw a what?!” he exclaimed.

“A monster camp of about a hundred or so,” Yuki said calmly. “Oh, and some humans as well. They had the Aether logo on their jackets. They said that they’ll attack tonight.”

Robert began to rub his forehead while groaning softly to himself.

“Those crazy fucking Europeans,” he muttered to himself. He looked at Yuki. “Thank you for the information. We’ll have to look into this.”

“No problems,” Yuki said while standing up, going to leave.

“Wait,” Robert said. “We still have to give you your punishment for sneaking out at night.”

“Ah. Right.”

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