Alkalians (42 page)

“
Right. Well, what he says
is true,” concurs Buster. After eating a bite of his roast, he goes
on, “Here are some examples. As Dante said, he’s from the ruling
Goros clan in Saratu. James Iroshen, who’s from Tirez, is also from
a ruling clan, although they were put there by democratic means.
And then there’s Rose and I. She’s from the famous Alamence clan of
Riaquen, as I am from the honored Harmada clan. Ain’t that right,
Rose?”

“
Ah, yes, that’s right.”
Rose holds her amulet softly as she continues. “My clan rules over
a northern, more remote province, and we are famous in Riaquen, as
well as across the country, for our legacy as especially talented
Elemental Artists.”

“
Oh. Okay, I guess I
understand, then.” He looks to Lyn beside him. “What about you,
Lyn? Do you have a clan, in Tirez?”

“
Ah, no, I do not,” Lyn
says, going on after a sip of her punch. “I think my family was
once part of a clan, but it broke up a long time ago. My mother
passed away when I was still very young, so the only family I’ve
known is my father, Fenrir Arcterus.” She smiles at the thought of
him, her pale eyes twinkling. “Despite his job as a ranger, hunting
down and capturing criminals, which he is very good at, he’s always
been there for me. He’s my greatest role model in life. I want to
be just like him, putting fear into my enemies by my mere presence
and serving other citizens faithfully, protecting and aiding them
however I can.” She looks around at the others and ventures to ask,
“How much do you all know about my father?”

“
As you say, his
reputation as a formidable ranger precedes him across the country,”
Dante says. After eating the rest of his bread, he adds, “They call
him ‘The Black Wolf of the North,’ and mothers tell their children
if they don’t behave, he will come and eat them.”

“
Yeah, no kidding,” Sean
agrees. “I grew up having nightmares about the guy. I’ve even heard
rumors that, during a full moon, he becomes like a ghost. Nothing
can touch him, and he can vanish and reappear at will to maim his
foes from nowhere!”

“
Hah, oh yeah, we’ve heard
stuff like that about him, back in Riaquen,” sneers Buster through
a mouth full of meat. He swallows and says, “Of course, we don’t
believe half those rumors, but we’ve had a few training simulations
to be prepared for such things. Personally, I would love the
opportunity to fight him in a duel. Imagine, me tangling with the
Black Wolf! So, Lyn, do tell, just how much of those rumors about
him are true?”

She laughs, and then replies with a
smirk, “Sorry, you’ll have to find out for yourself. But what I can
tell you is that he’s not all mean and scary like they say. Did you
know, on his tours across the state, he’ll stop at the village or
town checkpoints, helping out the locals with random tasks or
playing with the children? Believe it or not, if you’re not his
quarry, he’s actually very kind and admirable. He’s gained the love
of many of the citizens of Tirez through his deeds, and I’m proud
of him for it. If you don’t believe me, just ask Matt here. His
father is a ranger, too, and the two of them are good friends.” She
turns back to him at her side, placing an affectionate hand over
his. “Isn’t that right, Matt?”

Glancing to Lyn’s hand on his, Matt
blushes before replying, “Heh, uh, yeah, that’s right. Whenever
they’ve happened to be patrolling the border between our states,
they’ve come across each other a few times, and have even worked
together on assignments. I haven’t heard much of those rumors about
Fenrir, but all my father’s told me about him have been good
things. He’s said he’s a man you can trust with your life, and a
hardy ally you can afford to have on your side. He also made sure
to remind me how formidable he truly is in his morph. One time, he
witnessed him wrestling with a rabid horned bear, where he nearly
tore the thing apart without using any of his spells! So overall,
yeah, he’s a pretty impressive guy.”

“
Oh yes, he certainly is
that, and more. I think it’s the greatest coincidence that our
fathers happened to be become such boon companions. It would only
make sense that their children should become the same, don’t you
agree?” Lyn leans in closer to Matt, her silver eyes twinkling
before she softly kisses him on the cheek.

Then blushing a beat red, Matt gulps
to recompose himself, quick to change the subject under the stares
of the others. “So, anyway, on to the business at hand. Anyone have
any ideas about how we can finish off Cain’s tyranny?”

They all think over it for a moment,
each one coming up with a different idea, except Sean. He was
trying to come up with something when his gaze falls over the cake.
He interrupts the brainstorming by pointing to it, saying, “You
know, that cake’s starting to look really tasty. Anybody mind if I
have a piece, or two? Or three?”

Lyn, after shooting him a sharp look,
then chuckles. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot about it! Diane, Jasmine,
why don’t you two split it up for us, now?” Two of her maids step
up at her request and go about cutting and serving
slices.

“
Hehe, ah, thank you
much,” Sean says as he receives a piece. “So, the words on it,
‘Alkalian College Liberators’, whose idea was that? Is that who
we’re supposed to be? Because I like it!”

“
That was me, and yes,
that’s who we are,” Cynthia replies, smirking at him through a
scoop of cake she eats. “I’m glad you like it, Sean.”

Sean flashes back a more wary smirk
before eating his own cake, as the others are, when Dante throws
out a suggestion after some bites of his own. “The Royale Project
is coming up. That could be the best time to make the most impact
upon Cain.”

“
Royale Project? What’s
the Royale Project?” asks Rose.

“
Why, it’s the best time
of the year for us battle lovers!” Buster, with jolly, answers. He
explains, “Every school year, in the late fall, all students have
to participate in a school project that’s more like a battle
tournament. Everybody gets a red, blue, or green badge, and is then
encouraged to fight anyone of a different color to earn points. The
amount of points determines the percentage score for your project,
which means one hundred points gives you a perfect grade. But, if
you are one of the four highest scorers for your badge color, you
move on to the battle tournament finals and try to become the
Alkalian College Battle Champion, a high honor to achieve that
looks good on any application!”

“
Ah. So,” Rose says while
putting the pieces together, “what if we stopped Cain at the
tournament finals, and one of us became the champion?”

The seniors nod in agreement while
Matt, Sean, and Dante’s eyes light up at the idea. “That would be
the final stone upon Cain’s tomb,” Lyn says with confidence. “It
would be proven to the whole school that the days of Cain, and
others like him, are gone and replaced by a new generation of
student society, founded by Matt Calamos and his
allies.”

“
It could work, I guess,”
Matt says, agreeing with the facts. “Anyone with a better
idea?”

No one replies. They all believe the
Royale Project would end this war over the college. Seeing this in
their proud stares at him, Matt raises his glass for a toast. “Then
it’s settled. Our first, and final, operation as the Alkalian
College Liberators. To become the Alkalian College
Champions!”

His friends and the seniors copy the
motion and solidify their fellowship with a unified call.
“Champions!!”

***

“
HOW DARE THEY!? How dare
they, those traitorous curs!” Cain punches the wall of a dark-lit
room in a senior cabin, the room with the long table he used for
meetings between him and his colleagues. He snorts like a bull for
a moment, venting his rage, before turning back to the man cowering
by the corner of the table near him. He asks, “Anything else you
want to tell me, Johnny?”

“
Gah, uh, no, no sir,
that’s all,” Johnny replies, shaking like a leaf.

“
Good. Then get out of
here. Now.” When Johnny hesitates, his temper flares again. “Did
you hear me, dog? Get out of here, before I beat you until you’re
lame and crawling out that door!” The threat gets Johnny moving,
bolting across the room and through the door like a scared
rodent.

Once he was gone, Cain sighs and turns
his attention to the other people in the room. Irene stands across
the room on his left, leaning against the wall, and on the other
end of the table sit Tony and James. He goes back to his seat, sits
down with a palm to his forehead, and begins. “Do we want to keep
our position over these lower-class vermin or not? While that
freshman freak is brainwashing more people to his will, we are
being forced into the little shelter we have left to avoid his cult
worshippers. Lyn’s bitches and Dante’s grunts hound and brutalize
our men, they’ve taken over the flow of money in the pit arena, and
now, even Cynthia and Buster, two of my best tools, seniors like
us, boss students like I, have betrayed us and joined him!” He
whirls upon Tony, demanding, “You, Tony. What are you and your
officers doing around the casino, while Matt and his minions run
wild? Certainly not your jobs!”

In his own defense, Tony tries to
explain to his boss, “You know, they all do gang-up on us and fight
at the same time. They outnumber and outmatch us when they see the
opportunity. And, half the time, Dante or Lyn are with
them…”

“
And you think that’s an
excuse for your miserable failures?” Cain sharply interrupts him.
“Don’t you think after they’ve jumped you so many times that you
might actually be somewhat
prepared
for the next time they attack you!?”

“
Gah, well, that’s hard to
do, sir. They either stay low-profile until we become distracted
reprimanding someone else, then surprise us, or they get us when
we’re out drinking, or…”

Cain hammers the table in
rage, spitting, “You and your pitiful excuses of officers are
still
drinking
!?
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, we are at WAR here, Tony!!
And I will not have my troops drunk on the battlefield so that any
simple-minded fool, besides our foes, can come over and bonk you on
your brainless skulls! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!?”

Tony recoils in his chair at Cain’s
roaring, mewling out, “Ye-yes, sir…”

“
And as for you, James!”
Cain whips upon his cousin next. “I will hear no more of your
complaining about you disliking to get your hands dirty. You
will
assist us in
silencing Matt and his misguided friends, whether you like it or
not!”

James doesn’t reply for a moment
before he says, “And what makes you think I won’t switch over, like
Cynthia or Buster did, the way you’re addressing your own
cousin?”

“
BECAUSE YOU KNOW BETTER,
YOU IGNORANT LITTLE PIECE OF…!!” Cain catches himself before going
too far, fights it down, and tries again. “Because, you have as
much reason to as I already do, now. In case it slipped your mind,
if Matt and his allies have their way, we boss students will lose
our dominion over others at this school. If you don’t help out, I
imagine it’s going to become very difficult keeping your place over
other students, especially the women you fancy to indulge in. Is
that clear enough to you,
cousin
?”

James glares back at him a moment
more, but then sighs and relents. “Alright, fine. I’ll see what I
can do in order to sabotage Matt’s efforts.”

“
Good, thank you. That’s
all I wanted to hear from you. So now, if all of you will do your
jobs, perhaps we will put those freshmen and our double-crossing
classmates in their places!”

From the side, Irene huffs
in disapproval, bringing the men’s attention to her, before she
remarks, “All this ranting and yelling you do is nothing but
wasting breath, Cain, when the biggest problem here is the fact
you’re not doing anything
yourself
.”

“
You dare question my own
efforts here!?” Cain snaps at her.

“
Certainly. I thought you
were supposed to be the Invincible Warrior. What are you doing
here, pushing all of us around, when you should be out there,
beating down the inferior students?”

“
Because that would be the
best way to guarantee my defeat, you simple-minded whore!” A hint
of madness crosses Cain’s eyes as he goes on, “If I went out there,
rampaging across campus as I ought to do, he would come. Yes, he
would come, out from the shadows, from behind the corner, from out
of the trees, he could even spring out of the ground! He would come
and cut me down, shoot me in the head, or obliterate me with magic,
and I could do nothing,
nothing
to him! What good are my powers when they cannot
serve me against a Dark Warrior!?”

He stands and madly paces,
continuing, “And to make matters worse, now Cynthia and Buster are
with him. Cynthia is a fiery aggressor when roused, and Buster is
always bloodthirsty for combat. What could I do if
all three
of them came
at me, at the same time? It would be the ultimate symbol of
a
coup de tat
,
the
coup de grace
to finish me off! No, no, I myself cannot go out there
fighting, no, it must be done another way. We will not defeat Matt
and his horde in open combat, we must bring them down through
deception, corruption, and manipulation!”